Chapter 9: The Ghost Gate on the Road to the Yellow Springs

Moments later, inside Li Li Boyang's home.

Watching Big Daughter sweep up the last of his remaining gruel, then sit beside him with a look of satisfaction.

Li Li Boyang's inner emotions grew even more complex.

As a soul from a civilized society, he could not take such things for granted.

Driven by these complex emotions, Li Li Boyang even withdrew from the joy of gaining supernatural power, realizing for the first time that this was a real world.

Perhaps this world indeed has gods, spirits, demons, and monsters.

But this world also has common people and the masses.

Thinking thus, physical exhaustion made Li Li Boyang close his eyes again.

The mental energy consumed by drawing the Sword Pill to slay enemies was far, far greater than Li Li Boyang had imagined.

Then, unnoticed by anyone, faint wisps of malevolent qi surged from beneath the ground, silently flowing into Li Li Boyang's body.

Li Li Boyang, asleep, rolled over; the crimson fur atop his head ignited once more.

"..."

Big Daughter, noticing this situation, reached out again to touch Li Li Boyang's hair with curiosity.

Feeling the warmth transmitted from her palm, Big Daughter unknowingly drifted into sleep as well.

This not-so-large room thus fell back into silence.

Only when Li Li Boyang occasionally gnashed his teeth, revealing the four fangs quietly growing, proved that the malevolent qi had not been without effect.

At the same time, at the Mountain God Temple on Flying Peak.

By the time Xi Luo had finally dragged all of Ru Fu's remains into the rear temple, thick earth-malevolent qi had already shrouded half the back mountain.

Nearby vegetation withered and turned yellow; the once-fertile soil became a swamp.

Only species with tenacious vitality could continue to grow in such a harsh environment.

Fortunately, a statue here offered protection, preventing the earth-malevolent qi from spreading further.

Otherwise, the area within a hundred li would likely have become a desolate wasteland where livestock could not reproduce and human traces were scarce.

"So, these ferocious gods formed from malevolent qi are truly detestable..."

"It's one thing to have a perverse personality in life, but to be so troublesome even after death."

Lying weakly before the main hall, Xi Luo couldn't help but complain to her sister's statue.

"However, that child exceeded my expectations; after reincarnation, he managed to perfectly retain the power of the Sword Pill."

"With the protection of the Sword Pill, plus his naturally auspicious fate, Ru Fu's posthumous malevolent qi should not cause him too much harm, right?"

As she spoke these words, Xi Luo clearly hesitated for a moment.

Setting aside whether Li Li Boyang was truly naturally auspicious or a demon fetus descended from the heavens.

Simply the inherent aggression and corrosiveness of the earth-malevolent qi was something ordinary flesh and blood could not withstand.

Let alone the fact that Ru Fu's earth-malevolent qi was a genuine curse.

In this era, any supernatural ability involving curses was basically unsolvable.

"I fed him so much flesh and blood of mountain monsters recently; enduring the erosion of the malevolent qi should not be a problem."

"It's that curse that is somewhat difficult to handle..."

"But at most it will only cause him to manifest some strange phenomena; it's no big deal!"

"Anyway, that child already has natural strange phenomena; what does it matter if there are a few more?"

Muttering this quietly, Xi Luo thought of the boy's head full of crimson fur.

If Xi Luo was not mistaken, those not-yet-fully-grown hairs seemed to possess effects similar to the fur of the Fire-Pelt Rat.

Resisting fire and cold, impervious to blades and swords...

One could say that the brat was already a "spirit" among humans.

"Pity he is ultimately not like my sister; I wonder what kind of supernatural ability will be nurtured in the vertical eye on his brow."

After complaining to the statue for a long time, exhausted, Xi Luo soon fell into deep sleep as well.

Hoo!

Silently and imperceptibly, the Valkyrie statue in the main hall emitted a faint glow.

The civil and military sleeves draped over the statue flew up with the momentum and landed perfectly upon Xi Luo.

The mountain temple door, which had been wide open, was also blown shut by an invisible breeze at that very moment.

Creak...

Accompanied by a door-closing sound almost inaudible, the entire main hall once again sank into lingering dimness.

Xi Luo, who had quickly fallen asleep, even began to snore.

This stood in stark contrast to the boiling, deteriorating malevolent qi environment still raging on the back mountain.

However, no one noticed that.

With Ru Fu's death and the chaos of the earth-pulse malevolent qi...

A desolate wasteland shrouded in thick black smoke, not far from Flying Peak, was also undergoing some kind of strange transformation in sync.

Whoosh!

Yin energy, more piercing than polar winds, gathered and converged; a nearly solidified black shadow was exposed to the sunlight.

When the yin energy solidified, a yin god several zhang tall, with an ox head and a human body, appeared out of thin air.

"Evil deeds in the Yang Realm will surely be repaid; I come to summon souls for the Netherworld."

A chilling yin wind behind the Ox-Head formed a small path leading to the Netherworld.

And at the end of this path stood a massive horizontal gate archway.

From a distance, one could clearly see three large characters inscribed on the archway: "Gate of Ghosts."

—The Road of Yellow Springs, the Gate of Ghosts, the Underworld judges good and evil.

—The Spider Lily, the River of Forgetfulness, the Three Lives Divine Stone discerns cause and effect.

—Meng Po's Soup, the Bridge of Helplessness, the Six Realms of Reincarnation determine the next life.

It was obvious that this towering Ox-Headed Yin Spirit came from the Underworld of this world.

"All worldly wealth becomes void in life; after death, follow me into the throng of ghosts."

Shouldering the massive fork, the Ox-Head murmured in a low voice.

This voice seemed to possess magic, dispelling the thick black fog that constantly shrouded this area.

Beneath the rolling thick smoke, a three-legged cauldron fully ten zhang tall lay slanted on the ground, with more than half of its body sunk into the earth.

Yet even so, the fire within this three-legged cauldron did not extinguish.

The black thick fog that previously shrouded this area was the residual smoke produced by the burning of the three-legged cauldron.

This black thick smoke not only blocked vision but also continuously emitted terrifying toxicity; wherever it passed, almost nothing grew.

Especially after the earth vein's evil qi became chaotic, the fire within the three-legged cauldron burned even more vigorously because of it.

"It is this Method of Refining Evil Qi again?"

"Who dares to offend the majesty of the Underworld Administration, repeating the tragedy of the Earth-Method Ghost Deities?"

Having spoken, the Ox-Head suddenly waved his sharp fork and stepped without hesitation into this area shrouded by black mist.

"Howl!"

In an instant, the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves emerged from the mist.

And after this wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves, an old man with a weathered face, whose whole body radiated chilling Yin coldness, appeared like a phantom, blocking the path before the Ox-Head.

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(End of Chapter)