255: The judge appears

After Ling Qi finished speaking, she turned and walked toward the imperial carriage.

As her ball-head hairstyle passed the gilded frame, the ghostly fire in the lanterns flickered with fragmented light and shadows, looking remarkably like the stack of eighty trade reports on her desk waiting to be stamped.

“I'm off, back to the Netherworld to be a corporate slave.” She shook her communication jade bracelet.

Amidst the screen full of red notification dots, Niu Mengmeng's insect feast advertisement, Ma Sanqiang's perfunctory condolences, and Hei Jing's live-vomiting emoji popped up, interspersed with Yin Shu's fangirl ravings about You Yu.

Niu Mengmeng: @Secretary-General Ling Qi, check in at the Yin Street Insect Feast to receive one '500 off 80' discount coupon.

Ma Sanqiang: Hard work. The Secretary-General is working overtime again.

Bai Xuan: ٩(￥A￥)۶ The Secretary-General's spirit of dedication is worth learning from.

Hei Jing: Vomit... This ghost really stinks!!!

Yin Shu: Lord You Yu looks so handsome when he's working. Love it, love it.

Seeing this made her temples throb.

【Her Majesty is in seclusion, Lady Meng Jiang is in seclusion, and the Goddess of Desire has gone missing three times in a row—the entire Netherworld is left with only me and You Yu as coolies holding things up. I must have owed a debt in my past life to end up with this crappy job!】

Ling Qi, who had been working overtime for a long time, was finally full of resentment.

She gritted her teeth, swallowing her inner complaints, as her high heels tapped out a hurried “da-da” sound on the stone slabs.

The ghostly fire stretched her silhouette into a long, thin shadow, and the Yin Command Token at her waist swayed gently with her steps.

It actually exuded a certain desolation of a “secretary working until dawn.”

Tudor watched her back disappear around the bend of the mountain path, his gaze slowly shifting to Jiao Xiao on the ground.

Her poison-curse patterns had faded to a greenish-gray, like a dried-up shadow puppet.

He gripped the hilt of his blade and, with a “clack,” removed his golden mask.

Under the lantern light, his sharp-featured face revealed a striking dark red cinnabar 'Judge' character on his forehead.

The brushstrokes rose and fell sharply like a judges brush, running straight from between his brows to his hairline, identical to the impartial statues in the Judge's Hall.

Even the scar at the corner of his left eye happened to fall exactly where the cinnabar mole was on the statue's brow.

“An interesting Six-Tailed Demon Fox.” He rubbed the Netherworld ox horns on the mask with his thumb.

The blade tip lifted Jiao Xiao's stray hairs, his amber pupils reflecting the setting moon.

“Her Majesty certainly has a keen eye.”

“Boss Tudor, are we still doing this?” A guard poked his head closer, his face mask nearly brushing the gilded patterns on Tudor's shoulder armor.

Tudor irritably rapped the guard's helmet with his sword hilt.

“What's the rush? We strike at the third quarter of the Hour of the Dog, when the spiritual energy of Zhangwei Mountain is at its peak.”

The blade pressed lightly against Jiao Xiao's throat, reflecting the cold light in his eyes.

“At this time, a demon's body locks in spiritual energy, making the spiritual plants juicy when they gnaw on it. Those things are pickier eaters than Michelin Judges in the mortal world.”

The guard shuddered, then suddenly stared intently at his face: “Commander, this Judge character tattoo... it couldn't be natural, could it? It lines up perfectly with the mole on the Judge statue's brow. Incredible!”

“Nonsense.”

Tudor wiped the blade, his mask swaying slightly in the wind.

“Back then, Her Majesty picked me out of the honor guard at a glance because she took a liking to this 'impartial' face.”

“Otherwise, why do you think the Judge statue in the Yin Hall suddenly changed its model?”

He fabricated the story without blinking, while actually remembering the days he spent hidden in the honor guard, secretly observing the Empress.

The system contract required loyalty, but it didn't say he couldn't slack off.

As for when to confess his identity to the Empress, that would have to wait until his strength recovered and he obtained the judges brush.

Currently, he was just bored and wanted to find something to do, which is why he brought the honor guard in front of Ling Qi.

He had no intention of becoming like You Yu and Ling Qi.

Turning into the Netherworld's housekeepers, burying their heads in hard work.

Forget it, forget it, better to let himself enjoy some leisure for a while.

After all, even Lady Meng found an assistant; can't a Judge take a break too?

The third quarter of the Hour of the Dog arrived.

Tudor's fingertips formed a seal, and the Judge character on his forehead emitted a faint glow.

Jiao Xiao's corpse suddenly split into a thousand equal pieces of meat, floating toward the core area of Zhangwei Mountain under the lift of the spell.

The guards watched the meat fall into the thicket of spiritual plants, hearing the rising and falling sounds of “sizzle-sizzle” chewing.

They couldn't help but imagine those serrated petals devouring the demon flesh.

“You should leave now.” Tudor put his mask back on, the Netherworld ox horns glinting coldly in the ghost fire.

“I'll keep watch here. Don't you dare slack off. If the Secretary-General catches you loafing, you can go fish for your own souls in the River of Forgetfulness tomorrow!”

“Commander, we finally have some work to do, we won't slack off,” the guards responded, shrinking their necks.

Everyone stole glances at Tudor's profile, all complaining in their hearts: “Who would believe this face isn't the reincarnation of the Judge?”

“He's been using a fake face in the honor guard. It's one thing to deceive Her Majesty, but how can he even deceive himself?”

“Whatever, as long as he slacks off, we get to rest too.”

...Netherworld, Secretary-General's Office.

“Yo, Ling Qi, working overtime again?”

The White-Haired Loli poked her head out from a pile of documents, the Yin Cuisine box in her hand clinking loudly.

The scent of roast duck leaking from the gaps of the lid made the ghost messengers on duty outside the door swallow their saliva.

“Want a duck leg? I 'happened' to pick it up on Yin Street; the spiritual energy is at max capacity.”

Ling Qi's hand holding the pen paused, a drop of ink spreading into a small shadow on the attendance sheet.

She didn't even lift her eyelids, her voice sounding like chilled water from the River of Forgetfulness: “If Lord Prefectural City God uses 'happening to be on the way' as an excuse to skip work again, the next 'Roaring Talisman' from Lin Ran will be stuck right on your forehead.”

“How could that be!”

Chen Yu stuck out her tongue and tapped her phone with her fingertip.

“I just got back from the Yin Street bar.”

Before she could finish, the phone suddenly let out a piercing shriek.

Lin Ran's roar erupted from it: “Lord Prefectural City God!!! If you use the soup I brewed to settle your bar tab again...”

“I'll stuff you into the Meng Po's soup vat and brew you into Osmanthus Wine!”

The little loli hurriedly turned off the speaker, her earrings shaking so much they almost fell off.

“Cough, this, this must be a system error.”

She scratched her head with a dry laugh, but seeing Ling Qi's half-smiling gaze, she instantly wilted.

“Fine... I only had thirteen bottles of 'Succubus Special'...”

“A divine ghost body, never drunk after a thousand cups.”

Ling Qi finally looked up, the tip of her pen pointing at Chen Yu's alcohol-scented energy center.

“If Your Lordship wants to experience a 'blackout,' you might as well go challenge the Iron-Haired Dog patriarch at Fierce Dog Ridge.”

“He's been learning 'Drunken Fist' from the mortal world lately.”

Chen Yu shuddered, remembering the miserable state of being chased through ten streets by the Iron-Haired Dog patriarch last month.

She jumped to her feet and pushed the Yin Cuisine box onto Ling Qi's desk: “The roast duck is yours. I, I just remembered I need to go to the mortal world to catch some runaway souls.”

With that, she slipped out of the office as if her feet were greased.

Ling Qi looked at the empty Yin Cuisine box and shook her head helplessly.

Just as she was about to continue reviewing documents, she found a note pressed at the bottom of the box: “Please, Secretary-General, give this loli a break!”

“˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ Next time I'll treat you to 'Sobering Mint Tea'~”

“Wuwu X﹏X, the White-Haired Loli says she doesn't want her butt spanked by Her Majesty in a few years when she comes out of seclusion.”

“Tsk, truly a headache.” Ling Qi flicked her finger, and the note instantly dissipated into points of light.

The corners of her lips curled into a very faint arc in the shadows.