The Empress Won't Repay Her Debt? I'll Chase Her to the Capital and Slay the Gods

(Folk horror and mystery, entirely fictional. Please don't take it as fact!) Lin Chen transmigrates to the eerie Great Yu, where humans and ghosts live side by side, and inherits a general store that grants people's wishes. He plans to keep his family's old fire poker close, bluff the locals with his science-believing talk, and save enough for retirement.

But fate has other plans. The destitute woman in red he casually rescues turns out to be the current emperor's eldest princess, who ran away from home!

“Lin Chen, help me mend the dragon veins, and I'll give you half the empire.”

“Not interested. Pay me back!”

Outside Qingshi Town, a pair of red and white fiends collide, and a hundred ghosts roam the night. Just as everyone gives in to despair,

Lin Chen sighs helplessly. “I told you it was just spontaneous phosphorescence and light refraction. Why won't you believe me?”

Before the words are out, he swings his stick down.

Boom!

Divine thunder from the nine heavens sweeps the ground, instantly delivering the countless vengeful ghosts from their torment.

In the firelight, Lin Chen watches the princess flee under cover of night, leaving only a jade pendant behind. Gritting his teeth, he packs his bags.

“Trying to skip out on the bill? I don't care if you're a princess. Even if you hide in the imperial palace in the capital, I'll track you down and get my money back!”

From then on, the capital gains an irritable censor who spouts scientific explanations, while the Netherworld loses a crowd of unlucky gods and ghosts who dared show their faces among the living.