Chapter 835: Entering the World of Hell

Seeing Yang Jian agree, Li Yi immediately sighed in relief.

He was the key to his mother's resurrection; if Yang Jian had refused, he would have had no choice but to accept this cruel reality—but thankfully, Yang Jian had agreed.

"I will give you your mother's soul. Then I will send you back to this present moment. Once everything is done, you will cross over and leave Changchang City forever."

Yang Jian walked forward as he spoke, and a path appeared before his eyes.

The path was crimson as blood, with no end in sight, as if connecting past and future, and ahead of it lay coldness and terror, as if dragging Li Yi into the abyss of hell.

"You're afraid that the cross-borderer—a variable—will disrupt your future, right?" Li Yi said at once. "That's why you reversed time, came from the future to meet me now—in other words, you're protecting your own past."

"You're right. So I crush unstable threats early—not out of selfishness or cruelty, but for the sake of the world's future." Yang Jian walked calmly along the crimson path.

Li Yi followed behind, feeling a chilling force twisting time and space, pulling him away from this world—but he remained calm and asked: "If that's the case, why didn't you appear when I first crossed over and kill our entire cross-border team? Wouldn't that have been better?"

"You're a participant," Yang Jian replied simply.

"So that's it—because I met you in the Ghost Post Office, you didn't reverse time to eliminate me. You're incredibly cautious," Li Yi said.

"You understand the butterfly effect," Yang Jian said.

"I didn't study much. My education is low. I don't know much about scientific principles," Li Yi said.

"Then I won't explain further," Yang Jian continued walking.

At this moment, everything around had changed drastically. Li Yi was no longer by the river—he had entered a shattered city, and the city was burning, ignited by strange flames.

The air reeked of charred flesh, and from time to time, piercing screams and chilling wails echoed in his ears.

Li Yi saw people of all kinds on the streets around him.

Their bodies were pitch-black, as if burned to ash, twisted into grotesque shapes—some screamed with open mouths, some reached toward the sky as if seeking salvation, some lay on the ground in crawling postures, as if trying to escape the burning city.

Li Yi stared at one of the charred human shapes.

Suddenly.

The black figure's head creaked as it twisted fully around, revealing a single cold, venomous eye that locked onto Li Yi.

But soon after,

a flame burst from the eyeball, rapidly burning it to ash.

"Still alive after being burned like this," Li Yi's face darkened. "They're not human—they're ghosts."

He looked around.

The burning city stretched endlessly, countless vengeful spirits trapped and scorched by flames, as if fallen into hell, forever unable to escape.

Yang Jian continued walking forward.

The burning city vanished before his eyes, replaced by a chilling lake, the crimson path stretching like a floating bridge across its endless waters.

Though everything seemed calm, Li Yi saw countless bodies submerged beneath the lake, motionless, like frozen corpses.

No matter how many years passed, the corpses in the water remained unchanged—neither rotting nor floating, forever frozen in place.

"Are these also vengeful spirits submerged in the water?" Li Yi thought with growing dread.

How many vengeful spirits are there in this world? If these ghosts weren't trapped here but appeared in the real world, just imagining it sent chills down his spine.

But as he walked further, the scenery changed again. This time, Li Yi arrived in a wasteland.

The wasteland had no boundaries, no end, yet countless great swords stood upright across it—dense as weeds, filling every corner.

Among them wandered strange figures; whenever one touched a sword, its body was torn in half. If the mangled corpse moved further, it was sliced again—until its remains were utterly shattered and motionless.

Yet Li Yi noticed that over time, the motionless, broken corpses began to writhe again, drawn by an incomprehensible force, reassembling themselves, rising once more—only for the restored figures to wander again and once more strike the swords, being cut in half anew.

This cycle repeated endlessly, never ending.

"It's not countless swords—it's only one sword. The spirit's power has warped space, making this single sword appear in every corner," Li Yi observed and discovered a shocking truth.

Thus, everything here was not natural—it was deliberately crafted, designed to imprison unkillable vengeful spirits forever.

And each location was a separate layer of space: even if a ghost escaped the burning city, it would fall into the bottomless lake; if one emerged from the lake, it would face the sword-strewn wasteland. Interlocked like this, even after centuries, no ghost could break free from these prisons.

"What is this place? Why are so many vengeful spirits imprisoned here?" Li Yi asked.

"This is hell," Yang Jian, walking ahead, replied coldly.

Hell?

Li Yi's heart tightened—this place truly resembled hell.

As he walked further, he passed layer after layer of hell. He didn't count, but there were at least a dozen—and the deeper he went, the fewer vengeful spirits there were, yet the more terrifying each one became.

Fortunately, Li Yi was a cultivator and wasn't easily frightened by such horrors. A normal person would have fainted long ago—how could they walk through a place like this?

The crimson path beneath his feet seemed to guarantee safety—he had passed through over a dozen layers of hell without being attacked by any ghost, leaving his cracked short staff useless.

Soon,

Yang Jian ahead stopped walking, and the crimson path ended.

Here was a dark, silent world. Though there was sky, earth, roads, and buildings, everything was lifeless, empty—as if forgotten by all.

"We've arrived. Wait here. I'll go fetch your mother's soul," Yang Jian said, then vanished before Li Yi could respond.

Now, this silent world seemed to hold only Li Yi alone.

He gripped his short staff, alert, and flicked his finger—magic power spread into layers of nets, covering dozens of kilometers. Anything moving within that range would be precisely sensed by him.

In a world saturated with the supernatural, Li Yi would never let his guard down.

Yet soon, he sensed movement in a dilapidated village over ten kilometers away—confirming that even here, ghosts existed.

But everything here was sealed off by hell, so the real world remained untouched.

"Is this the truth of World No. 36?" Li Yi thought.

If so, it was terrifying—what was the difference between living on top of a bomb? Any moment, hell could collapse, and the imprisoned ghosts would emerge.

Fortunately, he didn't wait long in this despairing world.

Soon, something suddenly appeared beside him.

It was a black kitten—but to Li Yi, it was no ordinary cat. A soul clung to it, and his eyes could see the soul's radiant light emanating from its form.

"Is this my mother?" Li Yi felt an inexplicable certainty.

The black kitten stared at Li Yi, its eyes filled with disbelief.

(End of Chapter)