Chapter 721: Death-Reporting Crow

"Caw! Caw!"

Hearing the shrill cawing from above, Li Ang instinctively looked up, but instead of the familiar blue sky and white clouds, he was met with a vast, hollow, deep gray void filled with a sense of deathly stillness.

A pale, warmthless sun, like the pupil of a dying old man, hung in the sky amidst pitch-black clouds, silently watching the turbid, surging river below.

Above this murky, noisy river, a road paved with countless weathered bones—pale white with a faint tinge of yellow—carried grieving, wailing souls toward the deep, silent reaches of the Underworld.

"This is the Underworld, the place where everyone comes after death."

After watching Li Ang emerge from the crocodile's maw with Auntie Auntie Ai Ma on his back and observe the Underworld in shock, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief began to observe the trio's condition while instructing him:

"Since you've entered the Underworld with your physical bodies from that crocodile's mouth, some crows should fly over soon. Remember, do not attack them; just stand still where you are."

"Ah, alright!"

Nodding slightly in a daze, Li Ang remembered Auntie Auntie Ai Ma, who was still unconscious on his back, and hurriedly asked for help:

"Chief, Auntie Auntie Ai Ma is severely injured..."

"Rest assured, she is fine."

After checking the faint emerald glow in Auntie Auntie Ai Ma's soul, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief breathed a slight sigh of relief:

"The Wealth Goddess's strike was heavy, but Auntie Auntie Ai Ma's soul is incredibly resilient. She will be fine after a period of rest. It's just that the parts of her body that turned to emerald are a bit troublesome... What about you? How do you feel?"

"I'm fine."

Hearing the Chief's words, Li Ang shook his head slightly and instinctively reached up to touch the two small bald patches on his head.

Although he had suffered many injuries during the operation, he had already healed them with the 【Plague-Stained Blood Bandage】. Only these two small patches of hair, which had been pushed out after the horns grew, could not be restored by the bandage. So, if he had to say, these were his only remaining injuries.

"Chief, he might be fine, but I have a problem, and it's a big one!"

Just as Li Ang was touching his hair, a head suddenly lifted from deep within the crocodile's maw. The lazy young man lying on the crocodile's tongue said with a face full of misery:

"Most of the bones in my body are gone. Now, only my neck and my butt can move. Can you..."

"You call this an injury?"

Glancing at Tang Mu, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief waved her hand dismissively:

"You must have already set up a Resurrection Ritual, right? Can't you just resurrect once to fix this kind of injury?"

"It's possible... but it hurts a bit..."

"Oh, it's just a slit to the throat. Don't be such a sissy, you're a grown man!"

After dismissing Tang Mu in three sentences, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief took the hair-rope that had been tethering the crocodile, walked over to Li Ang, took Auntie Auntie Ai Ma from his back, held her in her arms, and urged:

"Come, come, let's get out of this crocodile's mouth and walk around outside!"

"Oh..."

Following the Chief's instructions, Li Ang stepped out of the crocodile's mouth. Before he could open his mouth to ask why she had brought them to the Underworld, the noisy, shrill cawing of crows sounded again.

Unlike the few cries from before, this cawing was dense and chaotic. When Li Ang looked up, he saw nearly seven hundred red-eyed crows flying from the distance. Instead of flying toward the depths of the Underworld like the others, they circled directly above the three of them.

"These birds are called Death-Reporting Crows, pets kept by one of the Underworld's Sovereigns. Whenever a new soul appears, they fly from their perches, open their eyes, and fly straight to the deepest part of the Underworld to announce the birth of the deceased." After briefly explaining the meaning of these crows, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief continued with deep meaning:

"If a living person enters the Underworld with their physical body intact, their Death-Reporting Crow will not fly into the depths of the Underworld. Instead, it will find the person it is watching and circle continuously above them, or even land directly on their shoulder."

"That's not right, is it?"

Looking up at the circling red-eyed crows, Li Ang asked in surprise:

"There are only three of us, or four if you count Tang Mu, but there are nearly seven hundred crows up there, aren't there?"

"To be precise, there are six hundred and sixty-six."

Glancing at Auntie Auntie Ai Ma in her arms to ensure she wouldn't wake up and hear her, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief explained softly:

"You should have heard about Emma's background. Her clan launched a coup to overthrow the current royal family, but because someone tipped them off, her entire clan was executed in front of the Precious Flower Manor, staining the red cedar tree red."

"Her immortality was born from that execution."

"She inherited the lives of over six hundred clansmen who were executed, and she must be killed six hundred and sixty-six times in a single day to be truly destroyed."

"While inheriting the lives of those clansmen, she also inherited their Death-Reporting Crows. All these crows above us are actually here for her."

"..."

So that's it...

After hearing about Auntie Auntie Ai Ma's past, Li Ang fell into a brief silence. Although he had long suspected something similar regarding Auntie Auntie Ai Ma's immortality, hearing such a bloody truth still left him filled with shock.

During Li Ang's silence, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief scrutinized him, looking him up and down again and again. Li Ang felt uncomfortable and couldn't help but ask:

"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on me?"

"No, the reason I'm looking at you like this is precisely because there is nothing on you."

Looking at Li Ang meaningfully, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief asked:

"Li Ang, where is your Death-Reporting Crow?"

"???"

Startled by the question, Li Ang asked in confusion:

"There are so many crows flying above us; isn't mine among them?"

"I just said that all the crows above us are here for Auntie Auntie Ai Ma. Neither yours nor mine are among them."

Staring into Li Ang's eyes, the Red-Haired Bureau Chief slowed her speech and said seriously:

"When my Li Ang value reached 60 points and my status equaled that of a True God, my Death-Reporting Crow lost the ability to sense my death and flew straight into the depths of the Underworld with its eyes closed."

"But your Li Ang value is only about 6 points; you haven't escaped the death-sensing ability of the Death-Reporting Crow. Therefore, your Death-Reporting Crow should still be perched at the entrance of the Underworld."

"..."

"Li Ang, can you tell me why you have entered the Underworld with your physical body, yet your Death-Reporting Crow has never come to find you?"

(End of Chapter)