The moment Tang Ze thought of this question, the watch - even though it was just a piece of paper and a strap of leather, began to glow.

The ghost had a horrified expression on its face - even more than its usual one, as it was sucked into the watch.

After that, Tang Ze could feel it in the watch.

He was aware of its consciousness inside. It was quite the eerie feeling.

“Right, I caught it,” Tang Ze said. “What do I do now?”

Yin Tiang shrugged. He hadn’t thought of what they would do once they had it, only that they needed to catch it.

The two of them returned back to the room, to tell them that they were successful.

“But what do we do about the ghost?” Tang Ze asked. “I can’t leave it like this on my wrist forever!”

“Hmm…” Zhang Long said. “I have an idea…”

He brought out another vase, nearly identical to the one they had broken, and opened its lid. “Earth jars like this can be used to capture spirits if you know the right technique even from a distance - but if you put a spirit inside it, that also means that it shouldn’t be able to walk out. Drop your watch into this, and then I’ll seal the lid.”

“Will that work?” Tang Ze asked.

Zhang Long shrugged. “I don’t have a better idea.”

Not feeling particularly confident, Tang Ze put his hand into the jar, and then removed the watch. He saw a green light fill it just as he withdrew his arm and Zhang Long slammed the lid on the jar.

Now, his cosplay was only judged at forty percent, but it was still good enough to see that the ghost was sealed for good, it seemed.

Only then did Tang Ze relax.

“Alright,” Chen Yu said.

They put this new vase in place of the old one, and hid the old one’s shards away.

Very few people came into this room, so what happened would likely never be discovered.

And if it was, more likely than not it would happen in a few years’s time, after which the group would have a lot of plausible deniability.

All of them let out a great sigh of relief now, though Zhang Long warned them that they were not out of the fire yet.

“Tang Ze, you should change out now,” Zhang Long said.

“Right,” Tang Ze said, leaving to change back into his sect uniform.

His pace was slowed down because of how out of breath he’d gotten after chasing the ghost. He wiped the sweat that coated his brow.

He first washed his face in a water basin. He had requested a spot to set up a little workstation to work on outfits and the like. There were a few spots in the shared space that could be used for this, and his squad members understood why he wanted a space like this, so he had been granted the request.

He wanted to change into a washed set of sect robes instead of his old ones, and there was a washed set in his room, but when he opened the door he yelled out and drew back.

Tang Ze was still wearing the Supernatural Sam costume, and so he still had its abilities.

But he had not been expecting to see a second ghost that day!

This ghost was not deformed, but had the pale, bluish form of a man about Tang Ze’s age, and who was wearing a translucent Rising Phoenix sect uniform.

“Can you see me?” the specter asked.

Tang Ze found his words soon enough.

Right, he had seen a ghost - but in this world, that wasn’t too shocking.

Most people could not, not unless they had some inborn talent to see spirits, were at Qi Refinement stage and had specialized in such, or were at Golden Core stage.

It was said though, that if you were able to see a ghost in the periphery of your vision, you should ignore it.

Apparently, ghosts had the ability to tell when people could see them, and if it were a sinister spirit with evil intentions, they would then attack you if they could tell that you had spotted them.

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Evidently, this was true, as the pale aura around this boy flared as Tang Ze took note of him.

It had been different back with the vase - with the ghost of the general having been stored there for so many years, the small amount of Qi they saw was a defense mechanism designed into the vase to let them know the ghost had escaped, which is how the others had noticed it.

With a ghost like this though, it appeared that no one in Tang Ze’s group had noticed its presence till now.

“W-Who are you?” Tang Ze asked.

Even though he knew that most ghosts in this world were weak and therefore couldn’t hurt him, and that this outfit likely gave him some protection against it, his voice couldn’t help but tremble before this ghost.

“My name is Xu Feng,” the ghost said. “And you’re in my room!”

“Xu Feng… why is that name familiar… oh!” Tang Ze exclaimed as he realized where it was that he had heard that name.

That was the name of the person who had earlier been a member of Zhang Long’s squad - the one who had died after drinking an Elixir of Tribulation since he couldn’t handle the pain.

“Right, I know who you are,” Tang Ze said. “But why are you still here? We all would’ve thought that your soul would’ve passed into the next life already by this time.”

Xu Feng shook his ghostly head. “It is not so. Unfortunately, I still have a deep regret within my heart, Brother Tang Ze. I cannot leave this mortal plane until I resolve it. I have been watching you and the rest of my friends for some time, hearing your voices, but unable to say anything.”

As Xu Feng said this, Tang Ze couldn’t help but feel like he had heard of something like this.

Right!

This was like literally every single episode of Supernatural Sam that involved a ghost!

Sam would find a ghost, find out that they were in the mortal realm because of some regret they had from their human lives, and then he would either try to resolve it and the ghost would pass on into the next life - or if the ghost was really dangerous, capture it in his watch.

Tang Ze chuckled lightly, but then his smile dropped as he thought of Xu Feng’s condition.

The guy had overstepped by drinking that Elixir of Tribulation, yes, but maybe he had just been overly optimistic? He should’ve listened to other peoples’ cautionary tales, but Tang Ze didn’t feel like he should’ve died for that kind of folly.

And now, his heart was filled with regrets - so Xu Feng was stuck here, in the mortal realm, unable to cross over to the other side. Worse still, he had seen Tang Ze take his place within the squad, and his former friends gradually forget about him over time.

Realizing this, Tang Ze’s heart was filled with sympathy for Xu Feng, even though the two of them had never met before.

His heart filled with resolve, Tang Ze slammed a fist to his chest, in a form of gesture often done in this world when making vows. “Alright, Brother Xu Feng, I’m sorry to hear that - but worry not, for I, Tang Ze, promise to help you with whatever lingering issues you have in this world!”

He felt it was the least he owed to this spirit of a former squad member, even if they hadn’t been in the squad back when Tang Ze had first joined.

“Is that so?” Xu Feng asked, surprised.

“Yes, what is that troubles you?”

“Brother Tang Ze, there is a girl by the name of Tang Ru. During life, I had been too scared to tell her of my feelings towards her, but I need to let them out,” Xu Feng said. “But for some reason, I cannot wander far from this room, else I feel like I’ll disappear completely.”

Tang Ze nodded. “No worries - I can take you to her with the help of my watch - wait, it’s back there in that vase. No problem, I can make another one soon enough.”

“If you really want to help me,” Xu Feng said, “I know where and when we can find her. Every morning, before sunrise, she tends to a garden of Yellow Apricot Flowers.”

“So you know where she’ll be huh?” Tang Ze said, but then he paused. “Oh, in that case, I change my mind. You’re on your own if you want to confess to her.”

There was a simple reason for Tang Ze to say this.

Well, it was against the rules to go to the women's side, but he wasn't too miffed about that.

No, what he was against was waking up so early in the morning.

He had never liked doing so back on Earth, and here in this world it was only slightly better.

Slightly better in the sense that a lack of things like smartphones, tablets, television, or a computer made it easier to go to bed on time.

It still annoyed him greatly to have to wake up early though!

And tomorrow was one of the very few days in which he didn't have to wake up before the crack of dawn as there were no early-morning chores planned for his squad - he wasn't about to give up a day of sleeping in for this!

"If the only way to claim immortality is to get up early in the morning," Tang Ze said, "I'm happy just being mortal and content to keep on dreaming."

After all, he barely even knew this Xu Feng guy. And while he was willing to do a lot for his friends, he just wasn't willing to do that.

It was a good thing that he hadn't spawned into this world with some sort of system that rewarded him the more he woke up early in the morning - had that been the case he would have basically gotten zero benefits from that kind of system in the first place.

Xu Feng's ghost got rather agitated at Tang Ze’s sudden one-eighty on his stance. "Brother Tang Ze? What are you saying - right now you just gave a heartfelt declaration that you would do whatever it took to help me? How can you turn back on your word so fast and shamelessly? Do you have no regard for your Senior Brother’s plight?"

"Eh, that was before I knew that I'd have to wake up early," Tang Ze said. He was already yawning just thinking about having to get up that early. "You'll have to find some other way."

However, Xu Feng's ghost was not going to relent so easily. "If you don't help me, you'll have to live with the consequences of always seeing me and knowing that you let me down!"

"I'll just take this costume off and then I won't be able to see or hear you any more," Tang Ze said smugly, proud that he had found a workaround for all of this.

"But then you'll have to live with the knowledge that I'll always be watching you, and you let me down!" Xu Feng said. "I'll put a curse on you!"

"Yeah, if you could actually do something, you'd have done so in the week I was already here," Tang Ze said to him. The fact that neither Tang Ze nor the other squad members even got a hint that something was amiss until now spoke volumes about how little this ghost could do.

Eventually, after some pleading, and crying, and more pleading, and even more crying, Tang Ze finally agreed to do it. But he told Xu Feng that he would complain all the while while doing so.