The starving ghost continued to plead for mercy, writhing in agony under the punishing sun.

"I can spare your life," I shouted, "but if you dare to cause trouble again, I'll scatter your soul!"

"Master, please spare me," the ghost begged, struggling to kowtow to me. "I'm just hungry..." With each kowtow, she let out a puff of smoke, nearly melting under the sun's rays.

Seeing her in such a pitiable state, and with Wang Dong wearing the protective talisman, I knew the starving ghost couldn't re-enter his body.

"Put the shelter back up!" I yelled to the workers.

The workers had seen the dark figure kowtowing in the light and were too terrified to move.

I shouted again, and they quickly replaced the shelter, blocking out the sun.

The starving ghost collapsed onto the ground, her entire body shrinking into a ball. Slowly, her appearance became visible.

She was a long-haired, emaciated woman, skin and bones, with legs thinner than Zhao Man's arms. There was no beauty in her looks, only thinness.

The workers stared in shock, and Zhao Man hid behind me, covering her eyes. I felt a little nervous too. This was my first time seeing a ghost, and she was skeletally thin.

"What's your name?" I demanded.

"Li Li," she pleaded. "Master, please spare me. I just want to eat a full meal..." Li Li looked up at me with a fearful expression, revealing a mummy-like face, shockingly thin.

I felt puzzled. Starving ghosts usually appeared during famine or wartime, dying of hunger and filled with resentment, only wanting to eat.

But this Li Li was wearing modern clothing and seemed to be from modern times. How could she have starved to death?

Just as I was wondering, Wang Dong suddenly let out an ear-splitting fart and woke up.

He was still dazed when he saw Li Li and let out a startled yelp. "What the hell is that?!"

Li Li gave a timid glance at the protective talisman on Wang Dong's head and moved back a little.

"This is the starving ghost," Zhao Man explained, still hiding behind me.

Wang Dong came to his senses and quickly ran to hide behind me too. "Li Shiyi, get her! Damn, there's really a ghost! Buddha bless, Great Power of the Dragon, mama mia..."

"Calm down, she's under my control," I assured Wang Dong.

Feeling a little more at ease, Wang Dong mustered his courage and shouted, "Damn it, I'm a slim and handsome young man, and you turned me into a fat slob! You think I won't teach you a lesson?!"

"Brother, I'm really hungry," Li Li said meekly. "I just wanted to follow you and eat a full meal, but in six months, I haven't had a single one."

"Bullshit!" Wang Dong retorted. "I eat like a pig every day. How can you not be full? You're just jealous of my slim figure and want to harm me!"

I intervened, "Li Li longs for the taste of the human world, but she doesn't realize that she should burn incense instead of eating food, that's why she's never full."

Wang Dong realized this and exclaimed, "So all you needed was for me to burn incense for you?! Why did you have to possess me?!"

Li Li, feeling guilty and afraid of me, could only look up at me with pleading eyes.

My main concern wasn't about the food but about Qiansihu Lake.

I asked, "Li Li, how did you end up at Qiansihu Lake?"

Li Li, afraid not to answer, said, "A year ago, my boyfriend cheated on me because I was fat. I got so angry that I decided to lose weight by starving myself. I often ate very little for three days, only having some vegetarian meal replacements. In less than four months, I lost weight down to 90 jin, but my gums bled every day, my head was always dizzy, and I had no energy to do anything. I also started hating food more and more."

"Later, I was diagnosed with anorexia and bedridden for two months. I couldn't eat anything and lost weight down to 60 jin. When I went home, I cried every day, regretting everything. I decided to give up on life and have one last meal."

Li Li paused before continuing, "So I ordered a hotpot delivery, intending to eat myself to death. I ate and threw up at the same time. Even though I felt nauseous, I forced myself to eat. And that's how I died."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She licked her lips and added, "That hotpot was delicious, but no matter how much I ate, I threw it all up. That's why I'm always hungry."

Wang Dong slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "You're such a weirdo! If your boyfriend cheated on you, you should have come to me. I'm gentle, rich, and handsome when I'm slim."

Li Li remained silent, only giving Wang Dong a speechless look.

I raised my hand. "Alright, alright. Li Li, get to the point about Qiansihu Lake. That's what I want to hear!"

"After I died, I went to the Ghost Gate, thinking that I would be reincarnated into a good life and eat to my heart's content every day. But then I ended up at Qiansi Lake, where there was also a Ghost Gate," Li Li recalled. "But I was so hungry at the time that I wanted to eat a good meal before being reincarnated, so I attached myself to that ugly bastard..."

"Who the hell are you calling ugly?" Wang Dong fumed.

I told him to be quiet and just listen to Li Li.

"I'm glad I didn't get reincarnated right away. After attaching myself to the ugly bastard, I saw groups of ghosts being swallowed by Qiansi Lake. A pavilion turned into a black hole, and everyone was sucked in. That wasn't the Ghost Gate at all," Li Li said with lingering fear.

I understood. The pavilion Li Li mentioned was the Death Gate, disguised as the Ghost Gate by the art of Qimendunjia.

"Do you know what's in the lake?" I asked, a bit eagerly.

"How could I know? I just wanted to eat all the time. But I felt like I knew you. Your scent was familiar to me," Li Li sniffed, looking at me with confusion.

Wang Dong immediately scolded, "You stinking bitch, don't even try to claim kinship with us! Go claim it with your ancestors underground!"

I frowned and thought for a moment, then decided to mobilize my Taiqing Qi, from the lower dantian to the upper dantian - this thread of Taiqing Qi was what I had just cultivated.

As soon as the Taiqing Qi moved, Li Li suddenly covered her head and screamed, her form distorting as she stared straight at me. "It's you! You swallowed everyone! No wonder I felt familiar!"

Zhao Man and Wang Dong looked at each other in confusion, while my heart sank. I knew I was in trouble.

I had been afflicted by the evil spirit in Qiansi Lake, the biggest ghost there was.

By practicing Yinbiangui and refining the evil spirit's malevolence, I had absorbed its aura. Coupled with the fact that Taiqing arts naturally cultivate Yin, the more I practiced, the more ghostly I became. That's why Li Li mistook me for the evil spirit of Qiansi Lake.

Now I was in big trouble, haunted by something terrifying.

"Li Li, calm down!" I shouted, assuming the appearance of an angry Buddha.

Li Li trembled and finally stopped screaming, but she cowered in fear, crawling backward. "Don't eat me, don't eat me..."

"Is this bitch crazy?" Wang Dong scratched his stomach, completely unafraid of Li Li now.

I shook my head. Li Li didn't know much and was afraid of me. I couldn't ask her anything else. I pointed to the extinguished joss sticks on the ground. "Wang Dong, light the joss sticks and feed them to Li Li. She'll have the strength to be reincarnated after eating."

"Why should I feed her? She caused me so much trouble!"

"If you don't feed her, she won't leave and will possess you again." I narrowed my eyes.

Wang Dong relented, muttering curses as he lit the joss sticks and reluctantly held them in front of Li Li. "Here, eat up and get the hell out of here!"

Li Li smelled the aroma and began eating eagerly. The three joss sticks were burned in an instant. Afterward, she let out an exaggerated belch and finally felt full.

Since she mistook me for the evil spirit of Qiansi Lake, she didn't dare to thank me or linger, and quickly ran away.

"What a rude bitch, doesn't even have the decency to say thank you." Wang Dong grumbled, suddenly feeling a heavy weight on his stomach and unable to get up.

He was shocked and exclaimed, "What's going on? My stomach feels so heavy!"

"The hungry ghost is gone, and your sensory functions are starting to recover. This stomach of yours has exceeded your tolerance level, and you need to empty it completely," I explained, pinching my nose.

Zhao Man looked at me in confusion. "What's wrong?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Wang Dong's face turned green, and with a loud fart, he released a stream of feces.

I had anticipated this and pinched my nose, running away without taking a breath.

Zhao Man wasn't so lucky. She ran out frantically, vomiting nonstop. The workers in the shed were almost knocked out by the stench.

Wang Dong screamed inside, "Help me! Take me out for a shower, and I'll give each of you 1,000 yuan!"

After much persuasion, some of the workers bravely went in to rescue him, covering their noses and mouths. He finally felt relieved and his bowel movements returned to normal.

I stayed far away, planning my next move.

Now that I knew the evil spirit in the lake was the culprit, my thoughts became clearer. Plus, I practiced Taiqing arts, which could refine malevolence. Being possessed by an evil spirit was basically like adding chicken legs to my meal. But it was still a hidden danger because I suspected that the purpose of the Ghost Opening Eight Gates ritual was to nurture that evil spirit.

The evil spirit was trapped at the bottom of the lake by the formation and couldn't cause trouble, but it could still possess me. What if it was released? I was afraid it would swallow me whole.

I had to prepare for the worst, and the simplest and most accurate way to do that was to ask the person who set up the Ghost Opening Eight Gates ritual.

It was unlikely that the ritual master was Mr. Lv, but he was definitely the middleman. As the boss, he couldn't have been unaware of such a major action as burying three pavilions twenty feet deep into the lake.

"Li Shiyi, you're so mean. Why didn't you tell me Wang Dong would..." At this moment, Zhao Man ran over, glaring at me with her cheeks flushed.

Her plump, collagen-filled face was irresistible, making me want to take a bite.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the heart for it now.

I asked her, "I asked you to investigate the boss of Qiansi Lake..."

"I found out. Mr. Lv is not from here; he's from Xiangxi. After coming to Dongjiang, his business flourished, and he eventually became a leading real estate developer, even owning a hotel called Dongjiang Hotel," Zhao Man reported.

I was taken aback. Xiangxi? That was over a thousand kilometers away from here.

"Also, he did something big early in his career. He moved his ancestral grave from Xiangxi to Dongjiang, which is quite bizarre."

Moving the ancestral grave?

The ancestral grave is crucial to the prosperity of a family and should not be moved lightly, especially to a place thousands of miles away like Dongjiang.

"Where is his ancestral grave now?" I had a plan in mind. To deal with the evil spirit in the lake, I had to start with Mr. Lv, and there was definitely something strange about him moving his ancestral grave.

"Xiao Dongjiang, Fengtou Mountain."