Chapter 741: Speaking Ill of Others Behind Their Backs Brings Reckoning

The director's level of bastardry is as consistent as ever.

After a somewhat speechless smack of his lips, Li Ang forcibly shook the unfriendly thought from his mind and began searching along the path for the dog god the director had knocked out, following the method Emma had taught him.

A unconscious, three-headed dog, bound by red hair…

A unconscious, three-headed dog, bound by red hair…

As Li Ang silently recited the phrase over a dozen times in his heart, a dog matching the description appeared ahead—not quite perfect, but close enough…

"Senior Emma…"

Staring at the three dog heads floating in the black-and-yellow swamp beside the Path of No Return, each two full circles larger than a round dining table, Li Ang could only mutter:

"This dog's head alone is this big—pulling it all out would be at least five or six meters long. This can't possibly be called a puppy, can it?"

"To us, it's enormous. But among the gods of the Death Realm, it's the smallest in size."

Emma, resting on Li Ang's back, explained softly:

"In our world, souls depend on physical bodies, so the body holds the highest priority. If a form grows too massive, its own flesh cannot sustain it."

"Thus, unless a fallen god or some entity wielding alien rules briefly corrupts our world's laws, you rarely see anything of colossal size on land."

"But the Death Realm's rules differ—it does not recognize physical form. So as long as the soul can bear it, a Death Realm creature's size can grow nearly limitless, even reaching the scale of a mountain range."

"As for the dog god who guards the Death Realm's gate, it spends most of its time outside the Death Realm and is one of the few Death Realm gods with a true physical body—making it the smallest in actual size among all true gods of the Death Realm."

So that's how it is.

Thinking of the Death Realm's master who ground his own bones into bricks, laying them from the entrance all the way to the deepest depths, Li Ang nodded in sudden understanding.

Indeed, if the "First Dead One" didn't have a massive enough form, he wouldn't have had nearly enough bones to grind—but…

"How do we wake it up?"

After glancing at the dog god's fangs, each longer than his own foot, Li Ang hesitated and asked:

"Shout at it loudly? Or just slap it? And… it's already been knocked out by the director. Will it still help us open the gate?"

"It will help."

Looking at the three-headed dog god floating in the swamp beside the path, Emma's expression grew complex:

"Olivia's reputation in the Death Realm is… quite notorious. And for my sake, she came here many times, spoke with the dog god many times—so when it sees me, it will let us out."

"As for waking it, it's simple: the dog god identifies the living and the dead by scent. It's extremely sensitive to the breath of the living—just blow gently toward its nose."

"Oh…"

Instantly grasping Emma's tactful answer, Li Ang marveled at the director's infamous reputation, then carefully stepped off the Path of No Return, reached the swamp's edge, and blew a sharp breath directly at the dog god's nose.

…

"Woof?!"

Even though Li Ang stood seventeen or eighteen meters away from where the three-headed dog was sunk, the moment his living breath reached it, all six eyes and twelve eyelids of the three heads stirred at once.

"Alive!"

Amid still-muddled mumbling, the nearest dog nose—pink, the size of a basketball—twitched violently. The ears hanging limply on its forehead snapped upright, twitching slightly left and right as it scanned for sound. Its already protruding teeth bared in unmistakable hostility.

"Who dares intrude into the Death Realm? I'll…"

"Angxi!"

Noticing this, Emma on Li Ang's back lifted herself slightly, meeting the six enormous dog eyes head-on, and called out loudly:

"Who am I?"

After staring intently at Emma for a moment, the six lantern-sized eyes glowing with eerie green phosphorescence, the awakened dog god's facial muscles twitched slightly, then it growled with ill will:

"So it's you… You've come again to visit your family in the City of Regret? Didn't they already say they refuse to see you? How can you still not give up?"

City of Regret?

Hearing the dog god's opening line, Li Ang's eyes narrowed slightly.

If he remembered correctly, that was where souls burdened by overwhelming regret or remorse refused to move on—home to countless resentful dead.

Only when all the living forgot them, when no one remembered them anymore, or when the things they regretted, hated, or longed for vanished with time or death, would these souls finally leave the City of Regret and continue their path toward the Endless Cliffs.

So… Emma's clan, at least some of them, hadn't truly left—they still lived in the City of Regret, and still held hatred toward her?

"That's none of your business…"

Clearly stung by the dog god's words, Emma's face paled slightly. She bit her lip and said:

"Open the gate. We need to leave the Death Realm now."

"Fine. I'll open it. You damn Clearance Officers always abuse your anomalous items to break the rules, meddling with the boundary between life and death!"

On the massive dog head, a distinctly human expression of disgust appeared. The three-headed god glared at Li Ang and Emma, sneering:

"I've memorized your stench! When you return as the dead, I'll bite each of you—big, deep bites! Especially you!"

"…"

???

Staring at the three-headed dog god glaring at him with murderous intent, Li Ang blinked in confusion:

"Me? I've never been to the Death Realm before!"

"Hah. Before you lie, why don't you ask this woman who I am?"

Snorting loudly, the dog god wiped black-yellow swamp sludge from its nostrils and sneered:

"In strength, I'm the weakest true god of the Death Realm. But when it comes to scent? No one compares.

I smell it instantly—you were here three years ago, and in the recent past, you've nearly entered the Death Realm over a hundred times, only escaping back each time using your anomalous items. Am I right?"

"…"

Recently? Yes—he'd used the ram's horn and heart to evade death countless times, easily over a hundred.

But three years ago… wasn't that when I first "arrived"?

"Hah. Speechless now?"

As Li Ang frowned, trying to piece together the truth, the dog god—convinced it had silenced him—smugly grinned, then opened its mouth wide and roared with deafening force:

"Woof!"

With a deep, powerful bark, the massive gate ahead cracked open slightly. Li Ang and Emma vanished instantly, as if swallowed by a black hole.

"Get out now!"

Spitting three times toward where they'd disappeared, the three-headed dog god grumbled angrily:

"Damn Clearance Bureau! Damn Clearance Officers! And that damn red-haired woman! When she dies, I'll… Huh? Anpu?"

Catching a familiar scent, the dog god turned its head in surprise toward the crocodile god emerging from the swamp behind it:

"Why are you here? You never… uh…"

(End of Chapter)