Chapter 58 The Water Receives the Underworld Lord: How Dare You Use Underhanded Tactics Against My Master! ...
The battle is deadlocked.
The square-shaped ferry drifted aimlessly in the waters of the underworld, the splashing water soaking the clothes of the dead on board.
Some of them had already lost their minds, and even as the killing was about to begin, they did not know how to avoid it.
The baby's cries were incessant.
The underworld officials had probably not expected that the undead being so agile despite being bound by iron chains. After a few moves, they were also filled with fear and could not get close to the man. They could only turn their attention to the woman who had been kneeling and crying earlier.
The baby girl in her arms was sobbing softly, and the crying was particularly irritating.
A ghost messenger moved behind the woman and raised his demon weapon to strike her directly.
"Aww!"
A wolf's howl sent a shiver down one's spine.
The woman hurriedly took half a step back with her child, barely dodging the deadly attack. When she turned around, she saw even more ghostly messengers rushing towards her and her child, and she was immediately terrified.
She retreated repeatedly, her back pressed against the edge of the boat. She wanted to take her child and blend into the crowd to leave, but her benefactor was fighting in front of her, so she had no choice but to stand there and uphold her principles of righteousness, propriety, and trustworthiness.
As she waited, she watched helplessly as her benefactor pushed aside the obstructing group of spirits and came around from the other side.
His white hair was ruffled by the wind, and his handsome face was framed by a pair of icy eyes that made one think of a god from the heavens when he looked over.
"My benefactor!" the woman cried out urgently.
The underworld official raised his knife and stabbed the baby in the woman's arms.
Before Heng Qichun could respond, he raised his arm to block, but the end of the chain was immediately slashed by the ghostly messenger behind him with a ghostly blade, leaving a red stain on his arm.
Lou Yan was lying on Heng Qichun's body and had seen the scene just now very clearly.
That underworld messenger clearly took advantage of his master's inattention to use a dirty trick from behind. It was a despicable act, utterly insidious!
Heng Qichun had previously concealed all his spiritual energy to avoid revealing his identity.
The cut on his arm was deep, and in the blink of an eye, blood had already stained a large part of his sleeve.
Lou Yan's nostrils were filled with the overwhelming stench of blood, and he turned his head fiercely to look at the underworld official holding the ghost blade.
Damn it, who do you think you are to dare use underhanded tricks against my master!
The ghost blade, stained with ghostly energy, collided with the divine essence within Heng Qichun's body, causing black energy to surge forth. The flesh and blood of the torn wound rippled, making his entire arm tremble involuntarily.
Heng Qichun frowned slightly, closed his eyes and tried his best to endure the pain. However, in the blink of an eye, he heard the ghost messenger who had just attacked him let out a cry of pain.
When Lou Yan opened his eyes again, he saw that Lou Yan had already bitten off a piece of flesh from the Yin official's arm. Blood and flesh were dripping from his sharp canine teeth. The Yin official was already clutching his arm and had fallen backward, letting out a shrill and miserable scream, "Ah!!"
One of the underworld messengers, his face filled with terror, raised his ghost weapon, intending to strike Lou Yan's head. However, upon meeting Lou Yan's sinister wolf-like eyes, he couldn't help but take a step back and threatened Heng Qichun, "Keep an eye on your spirit pet!"
Heng Qichun frowned, his gaze returning to the wolf cub's blood-stained teeth. The crimson color was incredibly glaring on the gloomy, ghostly road to the underworld, like a sharp arrow piercing his heart.
A sudden tremor ran through me.
Lou Yan always adhered to the principle that "only I can kill Heng Qichun," and he bared his teeth viciously at every Yin messenger who rushed up without knowing what was good for him, as if he wanted to bite them all to death.
Of course, the underworld messengers all belong to the underworld and are already dead beyond any possibility.
The Yin Messenger, torn apart by Lou Yan, lay on the deck wailing, his cries mingling with the nearby wails of an infant, making the road to the underworld seem endless.
The ship was rocking, and it would be in danger in a moment.
Suddenly a bell rang.
Lou Yan turned his head and looked towards the source of the sound, focusing on the ghost weapon held by the Yin Messenger in the farthest distance.
A pair of small bronze bells were gently shaken in his hands. The clappers collided with the bronze bells, accompanied by a piercing sound, and waves of ghostly energy spread out.
Lou Yan's pupils constricted slightly.
That's... the bell for the dead!
In his previous life, when he left the underworld, he personally witnessed Emperor Yi using the Rebirth Bell to help a group of lost souls find peace.
He forced the Yi Emperor to use the bell on the wolf clan he had tortured and killed. Those spirits who had not yet been reincarnated twisted and fell to the ground under the influence of the bell's sound, turning into monstrous creatures that were worse than dead in front of the Ghost Cry River.
As the bell tolled, Lou Yan felt a sharp pain in his ear bones. The scene before his eyes gradually overlapped with that of his previous life, as if the one struggling under the bell tolled was not the ghost of the wolf clan, but himself.
He let out a low howl, his claws gripping Heng Qichun's shoulder tightening, and he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him, unable to see anything clearly for a moment. Even though he was not a ghost at this moment, the jarring ringing of the bell was making his lungs churn, and a lump of blood was stuck in his chest, unable to rise or fall, and he looked like he was about to vomit blood.
Just as I was struggling, a familiar lotus fragrance suddenly wafted to my nose.
Thick, intense, like a sudden surge of water into the nasal cavity.
When Lou Yan realized what it was, she turned her head in disbelief and saw Heng Qichun's robe fluttering, his wide sleeves swaying in the wind.
The fragrance of lotus blossoms, accompanied by spiritual energy, wafted from his sleeves. A faint spiritual power surged, and for a moment, the iron chains wrapped around him emitted a piercing, sharp sound.
"Zheng—"
The iron chain snapped instantly.
Lou Yan watched this scene with his mouth slightly open, his chest heaving, his heart filled with turmoil that he could not calm down for a long time.
Heng Qichun is...
Did you use spiritual power...?
What shocked him even more were the countless ghostly messengers surrounding the ferry.
"Who exactly are you? How do you possess spiritual power?!"
The nearby underworld officials retreated, crowding together with the spirits behind them to the edge of the ferry. Amidst the raging waves, someone pointed tremblingly at Heng Qichun and said, "He...he's not a spirit!"
Heng Qichun glanced at him coldly, making no attempt to conceal his intentions whatsoever.
"He has a spirit pet, so he must be from the cultivation world," said the leading underworld official. "Our underworld and the immortal world have been at odds for many years, yet a cultivator dares to trespass into the underworld!"
"Kill them!" someone echoed.
The ghost messengers, who had been trembling and hesitant to move forward, were suddenly emboldened by these words and rushed forward, each carrying their own ghost weapons.
Heng Qichun lightly tapped his fingertips, and with a clear note, the stringless zither was summoned into his hand.
"Zheng—"
The music exploded, and every ghost messenger reached out to resist the abundant spiritual energy. The ship immediately descended into chaos, with screams echoing one after another.
Lou Yan stood on Heng Qichun's shoulder, slowly licking the blood from the corner of his mouth, his sharp wolf eyes looking down at Chong Gui with disdain.
If he were in human form right now, he probably would have spat out a mouthful of saliva long ago.
The Yellow Springs surged, the water sprayed rapidly, and most of the underworld officials retreated to one side, causing the ferry to tilt.
Heng Qichun gently plucked the strings of his zither, setting up a protective barrier in front of him.
He, Lou Yan, and the woman holding the baby were all separated on the other side.
A muffled clap of thunder suddenly erupted in the dark sky, where swirling clouds stretched across the heavens.
"Boom—"
Lou Yan trembled, and just as he was about to look up, he heard the woman behind them trembling with fear, "Um, benefactor..."
In an instant, the waves rose high, the boats rocked, and countless spirits and underworld messengers were overturned to the ground.
Heng Qichun put his two fingers together and barely managed to stabilize the boat with his spiritual power. Before he could catch his breath, he heard a "crack" sound from under his feet.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared.
The entire underworld trembled, and the ferry broke open with a huge gash amidst the violent impact.
Lou Yan felt a sudden darkness before her eyes, and her body was suddenly pulled into the void by a force. In her panic, she could only tightly grab Heng Qichun's sleeve.
The sound of water rippled, and large amounts of Yellow Spring water poured into his mouth and nose.
The baby's cries and the woman's urgent shouts caused the master and apprentice to fall into the Ghost Cry River together.
——
The current was rapid, and the river water was churning.
Sound always enters before sight.
Lou Yan was the first to hear a lazy, deep voice, "I didn't know it was the Divine Lord who graced us with his presence. I have failed to greet you properly."
His nostrils were filled with the backflow of Yellow Spring water. Enduring the pain of suffocation, he searched around for something to cover his mouth and nose. After groping in the water for a long time with his two front paws, he finally found a piece of cloth as thin as a cicada's wing.
He was floating upwards, hooked on the cloth, when he felt someone grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him up.
Lou Yan suddenly stiffened—oh, that piece of cloth might be Heng Qichun's battered sleeve.
With a "splash," the wolf cub was finally pulled out of the water by Heng Qichun, who grabbed it by the back of the neck.
Before your eyes is a stone palace glowing with dark blue ghostly flames, with occasional eerie blue will-o'-the-wisps drifting back and forth.
At the end of the main hall, a stone plaque was engraved with several seal characters. Lou Yan racked his brains and barely managed to make out that this place was called "Netherworld Hall".
A man in a white shirt sat lazily on a stone seat under the plaque, his forehead resting on his hand. From their angle, all they could see was the man's long black hair that cascaded down to his waist.
And a slender, handsome profile peeking out from between his hair.
Before he could make out anything else, Lou Yan heard the second sentence the person in front of him said to his master: "But what is the reason for the deity injuring my underworld messengers?"
Heng Qichun did not answer. He stood still, straightened his clothes, and gently rolled up the sleeve that had been torn to shreds by the wolf cub, revealing a section of his fair arm with terrifying bloodstains.
He ignored the gruesome wound, simply raised his head and said, "I never knew the Underworld Lord cared so much about his subordinates."
Lou Yan was startled and looked up abruptly, only to meet the man's gloomy eyes.
He finally saw the man's face clearly.
His pale face revealed faint blue veins, and his eyes were gloomy and sickly. He looked as if he had been frozen to death in a cold pool for many years and had just been pulled out.
He looked over with a sinister smile, meeting Lou Yan's gaze through Heng Qichun's robe sleeve.
Lou Yan trembled.
That was the Yi Emperor.
He was the Yi Emperor, whom he had fought against in his previous life and who had become his defeated opponent.
But it's different.
The Yi Emperor he had seen was clearly a skinny and frail man, so how could he have become this fierce and indifferent person?
Even though they looked the same, Lou Yan still found it extremely strange.
Human thinking is always stuck in its ways. Even though the Yi Emperor now looks more like a ruler of the underworld, he still feels that the extremely weak man in his memory should be the Yi Emperor's true form.
Why is this happening?
As he pondered, Emperor Yi leaned forward and chuckled softly, saying to Heng Qichun, "What, has the Divine Lord come here to meddle in the affairs of my Underworld?"
Heng Qichun stared at him intently, his clear eyes slightly narrowed.
Lou Yan heard him say, "If you think I can still manage it, then I will."
Wait, that tone is off.
They seem to be...
Lou Yan tilted his head and, based on his experience in understanding relationships and social interactions, made a simple guess—Heng Qichun and Emperor Yi might know each other.
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