Song Miaozhu genuinely sympathized with the lingering ghosts of her homeland stuck abroad and was willing to help within reason, but she wouldn't allow herself to be morally blackmailed into revealing everything about herself.
She had even briefly considered whether to disclose her ability to exchange earthly goods for spirit stones and collaborate with the government. Such a partnership would certainly increase her trading volume and profits significantly.
However, after a moment's reflection, she dismissed the idea entirely.
With her level of cunning, she could handle the scheming of ordinary people well enough, but competing against the government was beyond her league. Even the newly established SEIU wasn't a monolithic entity. Where there were people, there would always be good and bad. And where there was power, there was strife. She had no interest in getting caught up in that—she'd be eaten alive. The larger the profit, the more people would come to fight over it.
Right now, the spirit stones she earned were more than enough for her personal cultivation. Earning more than that would be overkill—she couldn't even absorb it all herself. If she partnered with the SEIU, they would have no way to audit her accounts, which could easily lead to accusations of embezzlement—much like how they now suspected she was withholding the method to enter the underworld.
They were using the excuse of national security and stranded ghosts abroad to ask her to "share." If the matter of spirit stones ever got out, they might come knocking again—this time under the pretense of representing the cultivation resources of the entire nation, and demanding she hand over some of her gains for the "greater good."
For example—if she died, her ghost shop's ability to traverse the realms would be lost. Would someone then confine her "for her own safety"? Would they demand she transfer ownership of the shop before death to "ensure the spirit stone supply"?
Song Miaozhu had no patience for such complications. All she wanted was to focus on her papercraft and grow stronger through cultivation.
If it didn't help her toward that goal, she wanted no part in it.
Her ability to enter the underworld was already exposed—so now, no matter what, the secret of her access to spirit stones could not come to light. Unless one day she was strong enough to reveal everything and still crush any schemes that followed, she wouldn't consider deeper cooperation with the state.
A win-win partnership could only happen between two powers of equal standing. When a weakling clutching treasure went to "cooperate" with the strong… that wasn't cooperation. That was gambling with their life. And Song Miaozhu wasn't a gambler.
Since they'd already discovered her underworld access, lying was pointless. So she told the truth: she couldn't take living people or ghosts there, and no one else could replicate her method. But as for the issue of spirit stones—her true lifeline—that was something she would absolutely keep secret.
Facing the probing gazes of the two people on the video call, she stared back with no fear whatsoever.
"If you're both as good at reading people as you seem," she said evenly, "you should be able to tell I'm telling the truth, right?"
One of them played good cop, the other bad cop. It was obvious they were trying to dig for secrets, and she wasn't blind to it. While she understood their position as leaders of the SEIU requiring them to investigate her anomalous abilities thoroughly, she still harbored resentment.
Feng Ru smoothed things over. "Master Song, you jest. We're simply desperate and trying every possible solution."
Feng Jinwen's brow furrowed slightly as he persisted with his questioning. "Protected by your ancestors, able to enter the underworld? Does your family have someone working as a ghost official? Those disappearing goods from your convenience store—did you also send them to the underworld?
You can't bring people or ghosts to the underworld, but you can transport earthly goods there, correct?
According to ghost witnesses, there's recently been a shop in Fengdu City's Yinshui Alley with the same name as your paper shop, continuously selling earthly goods and accepting large bulk orders. The items being purchased happen to match exactly what you've been buying online.
The owner of that ghost shop is also surnamed Song. Is that your ancestor?"
Song Miaozu felt a slight relief in her heart. "So they had already investigated me thoroughly!"
She had suspected as much. If the SEIU was truly digging, they would eventually discover her procurement activities. She just hadn't expected them to trace it all the way to the ghost shop in the underworld. Fortunately, as the registered owner of a Heaven-Rank ghost shop, her identity was protected. Even if someone saw her in the underworld, they wouldn't be able to connect her with her living-world self. They'd found out that the shopkeeper of Anshou Hall was also surnamed Song and assumed it was her ancestor. That was impressively thorough.
She admitted openly, "That's right."
She even volunteered: "I assist my great-great-grandmother. In return, she sends me an allowance through the underworld."
Letting them know about converting spirit money to mortal currency didn't matter. Those in power weren't short on cash. There was no harm in revealing that underworld currency could be exchanged for RMB. After all, politicians with power never lacked money. Besides, she'd recently converted most of her money into underworld currency. Her current bank account only had around 1.15 million RMB.
Not enough for anyone to seriously target her.
If she had to pretend to have a powerful backer, she might as well use her own ancestor. After all, who could really keep track of how many generations back a "great-great-grandmother" was? Even if someone asked Anshou Hall's ghost neighbors, they wouldn't be able to sniff out the truth. The one who reincarnated was her great-grandmother, not great-great-grandmother.
And the only person who did know she was the great-granddaughter was Old Deng, who didn't even try to keep the shop. He sold it to the Underworld Merchant Division for cheap before going off to reincarnate.
That nicely explained where all her funds for inventory came from.
The Tiandi Bank had conveniently legitimized the money in her account as "inheritance" left behind by her parents. But inheritances had limits—they couldn't increase out of nowhere. If someone were to monitor her accounts long-term, the discrepancy would eventually be exposed. Thankfully, only the Heaven-Rank ghost shop owner could access the Tiandi's premium Treasure Bowl exchange service.
She had already confirmed it: unless someone was a Heaven-Rank ghost shop owner, they couldn't even see the purchase orb for the Treasure Bowl. And that "Heaven-Rank Ghost Shop" designation was long discontinued. Anshou Hall was the only one left in the entire underworld. As long as she didn't spill the beans herself, no one would be able to figure it out.
Feng Jinwen said, "Tiandi Bank?"
"..." Song Miaozu was genuinely surprised. "How did you trace that back to Tiandi Bank?"
"Initially, we only found records showing it was inheritance from your parents from years ago. When the inheritance amount increased, we traced the money's source further and discovered it came from the only external account linked to a state bank, called Tiandi Bank."
Speaking of this matter, Feng Jinwen also found it miraculous. They had suspected something then, and now it was confirmed—it truly was an account from the underworld. Although they couldn't investigate further, the Tiandi Bank account couldn't be canceled either. No one dared claim they would never visit the underworld, so they could only leave it be.
However: "Your inheritance peaked at over six million. You need to pay inheritance tax—remember to settle the amount."
Song Miaozu: "..."
She quickly looked up inheritance tax rates. Good heavens—amounts exceeding five million were taxed at 40%. She owed over 1.8 million in inheritance tax, but only had 1.15 million total in her wealth-building account.
"Wait, if my inheritance keeps increasing, how is the tax calculated?"
If it continued accumulating and exceeded ten million, it would be taxed at 50%. Wouldn't that mean for every ten yuan she transferred, she'd have to pay five in taxes?
"Hmm... let's treat it as income tax then!" Feng Jinwen said.
Song Miaozu's heart still ached, but it was much better than inheritance tax.
At least they were discussing taxes with her now—they should believe what she had told them, right?