Chapter 103
Chapter 103
What floated up from the bottom of the pool was the body of Crown Prince Zhao Li.
The Vengeful Ghost that had possessed his body had already dispersed. Now, he had become nothing more than an empty shell.
Countless ghostly hands covered the surface of the pool, all coveting that body, all wanting to slip inside while it was vulnerable.
Seeing this, Yan Zhengchu bent down and hauled Zhao Li out of the pool.
And just then, the entire secret chamber began to tremble faintly.
This time, however, the movement did not come from above, but from beneath their feet.
Xia Ximo had only just recovered a little strength. At the sound, she could not help opening her eyes, wanting to see what was happening.
But Ren Fengjue tightened the arms he had wrapped around her.
He looked back and saw Yan Zhengchu not far away, seemingly speaking with “someone.” Yet in the darkness, apart from a thin layer of drifting mist, nothing could be made out clearly.
Xia Ximo was different. She saw an envoy from the Underworld Administration arriving with a group of Underworld Runners.
They had probably come to deal with the souls in the pool.
“At least you know how to pick your timing.”
She gave a cold snort, making Ren Fengjue beside her think she was talking about him. He froze slightly.
He was just about to explain when Xia Ximo turned to look at him. “I wasn’t talking about you.”
“…”
On the other side, Yan Zhengchu was speaking courteously with the Soul-Reaping Envoy. From the looks of it, this was not their first meeting.
“This humble Daoist was just worrying over where to settle this pool full of souls. Fortunately, the envoy has arrived.”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy was immensely tall, draped in a black robe and holding a Soul Token. At a glance, it was impossible to see its true face.
It raised a hand lightly, and the group of Underworld Runners behind it stepped forward with soul chains in hand.
“I shall take the Yin Souls. As for the Living Souls, their lifespans have not yet ended. I must trouble the young Daoist Master to point them toward a ‘bright’ path.”
Yan Zhengchu remained perfectly respectful. “Of course, of course.”
He took the opportunity to ask, “May I ask, Envoy, aside from Yin Spirits, Yang Spirits, and essence blood, is there another key component inside this Blood Array?”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy “looked” at him, its authority imposing without a trace of anger.
“Why is the young Daoist Master asking this?”
Yan Zhengchu was neither servile nor overbearing. “Only because my grandmaster’s notes did not record the details. I wish to ask clearly on his behalf.”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy laughed. “There is no harm in telling you. The three things you mentioned are all indispensable. The blood water is formed from corpses and bones.”
“As for why they transformed, it is because of a mouthful of Ghost-God Spittle.”
Yan Zhengchu was startled. “Ghost-God?”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy’s smile faded. “That is all I can reveal.”
Yan Zhengchu hurriedly asked, “There is one more matter…”
“Hm?”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy was faintly displeased, and the chill radiating from its body was enough to make a person shiver.
Yan Zhengchu was frightened too, but opportunities like this were rare. He had to ask.
“About my Little Martial Uncle Ren Yao… Since his soul has neither entered reincarnation nor remained in the mortal world, is it still in the Underworld Administration?”
He asked it all in one breath.
The Soul-Reaping Envoy, however, “glared” at him.
With just that one look, Yan Zhengchu immediately fell back onto the ground in shock, his whole body trembling.
“Impudent!”
In the Soul-Reaping Envoy’s fury, a sinister wind howled. “I remember telling you this ten years ago!”
Ten years ago, Yan Zhengchu had been only fourteen, yet he had done something astonishing that no one in all of Mount Yunhe had dared to do.
He used the Soul-Guiding Art to lead his own soul out of his body, trespassing into the Underworld Administration in an attempt to ask about the whereabouts of Ren Yao’s soul.
At the time, patrolling ghost envoys discovered that a Living Soul had intruded, and for a while, the entire Underworld Administration was alarmed.
When the Earth Lord learned of it, however, he smiled knowingly and ordered the Soul-Reaping Envoy to see the guest out.
Back then, the half-grown boy had truly been a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, far more unyielding than he was now. The moment he opened his mouth, he said, “Give my martial uncle back!”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy said nothing. It carried him out of the Underworld Administration, threw him back to Mount Yunhe, and left him with one sentence: “You are not allowed to come again. You are not allowed to ask again.”
The Yan Zhengchu of now no longer had the same “tiger’s courage” he had back then.
Frightened by the Soul-Reaping Envoy, he immediately backed down.
“Fine, fine. If the Envoy refuses to say, then it must be orders from above.”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy gave a cold snort, but said, “Your master is called Master Tianji. Surely you know that heavenly secrets must not be revealed?”
“Some matters will naturally come to a conclusion when the time is right.”
Yan Zhengchu hurriedly nodded and agreed, though privately he still wanted to ask more. Before he could, he was “glared” into silence again.
“No questions.”
“…”
The souls in the blood pool, each a Yin Soul, had already been shackled one after another by the Underworld Runner officials.
The Soul-Reaping Envoy waved its Soul Token and was just about to leave when a cool, faint voice drifted through the air.
“Wait.”
This was Soul Speech, transmitted through soul power, inaudible to ordinary mortals.
Even Yan Zhengchu had to rely on spells to perceive a little of it.
At this moment, he sensed nothing at all.
Hearing that voice, the Soul-Reaping Envoy stopped in its tracks.
It knew perfectly well that this one was not to be provoked.
Xia Ximo had gradually recovered her soul power. She appeared not to move at all, yet in truth, she was speaking. “If you take all these wrongfully dead souls away, what am I supposed to deliver?”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy replied, “This is the Earth Lord’s will.”
Xia Ximo was having none of it. “Don’t use the Earth Lord to pressure me. Leave me at least one.”
“…”
The Soul-Reaping Envoy hesitated for a moment.
It knew that if it refused, the other party would undoubtedly turn hostile.
And if they truly came to blows, whether it could win was one thing; explaining itself after returning would be another.
So it immediately said, “In that case, the wisp of Vengeful Spirit above shall be left to Miss Mogu.”
Xia Ximo gave a calm sound of assent.
The Soul-Reaping Envoy actually stood there for a while. Only after hearing no further movement did it leave with the Underworld Runner officials.
With that chilling presence gone from the secret chamber, Yan Zhengchu could not help blowing warm air onto his hands.
It was freezing.
He truly could not understand how, back when he was still wet behind the ears, he had ever had the nerve to run off to a place like the Underworld Administration.
Just then, there was movement at the entrance of the secret chamber. Yu Lang had come in carrying a lantern.
Thanks to his arrival, the dim chamber finally brightened somewhat.
Xia Ximo left Ren Fengjue’s arms and rose to her feet, while the latter gave her a hand to steady her.
Yu Lang entered the chamber full of curiosity, only to see a pool of blood. He immediately began retching.
Heavens above, why did he keep stumbling into such sinister, evil things?
He helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead and muttered to himself, “Don’t tell me there are more bones to fish out from down there.”
Ren Fengjue walked to the side of Crown Prince Zhao Li and asked Yan Zhengchu, “The Crown Prince… can he still be saved?”
Yan Zhengchu glanced at the dense cluster of souls in the pool, each a Living Soul, and murmured, “That depends on whether his soul is still here.”
As he spoke, he took out the Vermilion Magic Brush he carried with him and began drawing talismans along the edge of the pool.
Once a Living Soul left the body, it would fall into a muddled state. If no one guided it, it would drift in all directions and become a wandering soul.
At present, these souls, each a Living Soul, were trapped inside the sinister formation. Though they would not drift away, they had no awareness whatsoever.
Under the influence of the talisman, they were drawn over and slowly gathered by the edge of the pool, taking on human forms.
Yan Zhengchu looked at the wisps of soul before him, each with a blank, bewildered face, and sighed softly. Only then did he ask, most reluctantly, “What is your name? Where is your home?”
Although Yu Lang, standing to one side, could not see the ghosts, he still watched with great interest.
After a short while, he could not help asking Ren Fengjue beside him, “My lord, before I came in, I heard them saying the corpses outside can move. Is that true?”
Ren Fengjue, meanwhile, did his best to keep his distance from the blood pool, lest he “frighten” them.
He gave Yu Lang a sideways look, but instructed, “As for the identities of the bones down here, I’ll have to trouble Vice Minister Yu to report them together with those from Fu Tower.”
The corner of Yu Lang’s mouth twitched. He wished he could turn and bolt out the door that very instant.