Fang Ruotang looked at Lu Jiangting's particularly intense facial features, as if he was hinting at something to her. She narrowed her eyes slightly, thought for a moment, and suddenly realized.

Lu Jiangting and several elders from the Tiangang Sect breathed a sigh of relief.

Fang Ruotang said casually, "Hey, I forgot to say goodbye, didn't I? No need! Anyway, I don't have anything to say to you."

Lu Jiangting, a powerful figure in the Tribulation Transcending stage, suddenly felt his legs go weak and his body swayed, bumping into Qin Hongyan. He looked at Fang Ruotang with a surprised expression.

"Sect Master, are you joking with me?"

"...How about I tell you every time I go out from now on?"

She doesn't have the habit of reporting her whereabouts to the sect either!

But if the younger members of the sect insist, she is not unwilling, after all, she is a good leader.

"Sect Master, is there any news regarding my disciple Zhou Qing and the others in the sect?"

"Oh no, I forgot about them."

Fang Ruotang is also straightforward and doesn't hide her true feelings at all.

Lu Jiangting straightened up, baring his teeth as he questioned, "Sect Leader, how could you forget them?"

Fang Ruotang chuckled twice to fool him, then walked to the side and immediately used the Netherworld Jade to summon the Ghost King.

Practice makes perfect.

He started shouting when he was completely out of it.

"My lord! You have caused me great suffering. Do you even know what I am? I am the King of Ghosts! I am not subject to reincarnation after death, do you understand?"

"Do you know what I've been through these past few days? I've been hiding and running, and I almost got caught by the ghost messengers. My life would have been over!"

Fang Ruotang felt a little guilty.

She couldn't say she had completely forgotten about it; she could only say she couldn't remember it at all. So, even though she was in the wrong, she was exceptionally generous.

Without saying a word, he set up the Xuanwu Divine Shield and then set up a protective shield to block the view of others before transferring ghost energy to the Ghost King.

The Ghost King's complaining voice abruptly disappeared.

"...On another note, fortunately, the adults have many ghost kings at their beck and call, so I'm not the only wanted target; the others are in a worse situation than me."

Fang Ruotang: ...

This is not good news.

Thinking about how many ghost kings she had assigned tasks to, her face turned green. If she had to pay them all back, her frail body would be completely drained.

These ghost kings upgrade in increasingly bizarre ways, either by devouring living souls or their own kind, or by using yin energy.

Since she couldn't find living souls or other beings of the same kind to reward her, she could only give yin energy, which could also provide the coordinates of some extremely yin places.

However, remembering what Xinghe had said about the environment there, and that these ghost kings might be useful in the future, Fang Ruotang thought for a moment and came up with a solution.

"Alright, you've done this for me, so I'll definitely treat you well. Where's Zhou Qing?"

Fang Ruotang put away the Xuanwu Divine Shield and the protective shield, stopped sending ghost energy to the Ghost King, and no longer needed to guard against them. Everyone could listen to what she was saying.

"I ate it."

"What?"

Fang Ruotang exclaimed in surprise.

Several elders immediately surrounded them, each wielding a magical artifact, looking more like vengeful ghosts than the Ghost King, and shouted: "You ate him?"

The Ghost King glanced at them with a cold gaze and became wary.

At the same time, they don't want to start a fight.

After all, he couldn't beat him, and with lightning speed, he spat Zhou Qing out of his mouth.

"If I don't devour him, how can I bring him back?"

Zhou Qing sat on the ground, soaking wet and smelling terrible. When he suddenly saw the light, he not only felt uncomfortable, but the sunlight shining on him also made him feel afraid.

Fang Ruotang reached into her pocket, wanting to use a magic weapon to block the attack, since the elders in front of her were all quite poor. She tossed an umbrella that Xinghe had once used into Qin Hongyan's arms.

Qin Hongyan immediately propped himself up, and Zhou Qing breathed a sigh of relief, looking up and calling out joyfully, "Master..."

Then he turned his head and called out to Lu Jiangting and the others one by one.

Watching them exchange pleasantries, Fang Ruotang pinched her nose, turned her head to the side, and complained, "Why does he smell so bad? Is it all your saliva? My goodness! How long has it been since you brushed your teeth?"

The Ghost King was speechless. "Brushing teeth? Me?"

After asking the question, it opened its mouth wide in a ferocious manner towards Fang Ruotang, instantly transforming into a blue-faced, fanged monster, with an unidentified liquid oozing from its mouth.

"My goodness! How disgusting!"

Fang Ruotang couldn't stand it and took several steps back. In all her life, this was the first time she had encountered something so smelly. The breath that the Ghost King had just exhaled at her had almost killed her.

"Ugh! Ugh!"

Fang Ruotang felt extremely uncomfortable. Ye Wuxia immediately stepped forward, took out a purse, and pressed it to her nose. The familiar fragrance made Fang Ruotang take a deep breath. After suppressing the nausea in her heart, she took it in her hand and looked at it.

"After all this time, the aroma inside is still so strong?"

This is the sachet that Ye Wuxia gave to him when he was assigned to do the errand.

"I change the spices inside frequently."

"Yes, but the material of this sachet is a bit worn. I'll buy you another one next time."

"No need, this is fine."

Ye Wuxia was a bit stingy. Seeing that Fang Ruotang no longer felt nauseous, she immediately took the sachet back and hid it on her person.

Even if Fang Ruotang wanted to smell it a little longer, she didn't have the chance.

"What are you doing? I'm not going to steal it."

Fang Ruotang couldn't help but roll her eyes, then threw a punch the size of a sandbag at the Ghost King's face.

"If you dare to point your stinky mouth, which hasn't been brushed for centuries, at me again, I'll snap your neck. Perfect, I should thank you. If you hadn't just told me, I wouldn't have known that you don't enter the cycle of reincarnation."

If that's the case, it's likely that not many of the original disciples of the Tiangang Sect would be willing to return, which explains why so few people would want to walk the path of the ghosts.

This road is indeed difficult to travel.

Just as Fang Ruotang had guessed, the Tiangang Sect lost a large number of disciples, numbering as many as a thousand, but less than ten returned.

None of the elders who sacrificed their lives returned.

However, she still had to pay the same amount to the Ghost King, and with a wave of her hand, she threw it all into the banner behind her.

Upon reincarnation, there will always be a lifetime where one can cultivate again.

However, if one escapes the Netherworld in spirit form and is caught, one will disappear from the world. Even if one manages to cultivate by deceiving the heavens, it will be extremely difficult to achieve anything.

Elder Wen had the most disciples; three of her disciples alone returned.

"Master, I... I thought I would never see you again." The woman's eyes reddened and her voice choked as she spoke.

But given his current appearance, those red-rimmed eyes look somewhat eerie.

Wen Yi's eyes suddenly reddened, and she hesitated to speak.

"Warmth, you, you're back."

"Yes, Master, I couldn't bear to leave you, so when I received the news, I took the initiative to come with them."

The reason why so few people managed to escape was that they dared not gamble, as none of these ghost kings were kind.

Eating living souls is commonplace, and cannibalism happens every day. How strong must their obsession be to dare to endure the fear of being swallowed by them?

"Master, I'm back too."

"Me too!"

Wen Li and Wen Xi, the two disciples, also came closer to Wen Yi.