The villagers of Matoupo Village had finally quieted down, standing obediently in place without daring to budge. Even the River Earl deity who had taken dozens of wives was shivering, too terrified to draw a loud breath.
After questioning them, Yuan Qi was overjoyed and said with a grin, "Ah Ying really is here!"
Both the bronze bell and Zhu Chanchan looked worried. The bronze bell said, "These people actually claimed Ah Ying has lived here for seven years. It is plain that Beichenzi and his cohort tampered with their memories. Since their memories were altered, Ah Ying's must have been altered as well."
Yuan Qi replied, "Then we'll just change them back!"
Zhu Chanchan shook her head. "It won't be that simple. Even if we change them back, they would still be fabricated memories—unless the seal is broken. But Xu Ying's seal..."
She frowned slightly.
Over these days, accompanying the bronze bell and Yuan Qi as they rushed from place to place, she had gradually gained a general understanding of Xu Ying's background. She guessed that his memories had likely been sealed by someone, yet the duration of the seal was unimaginably long, and the number of times he had been sealed was equally staggering.
After every seal, it was a brand-new life for Xu Ying—living another lifetime anew.
To undo such a seal, they would first have to capture Beichenzi and his two companions, a feat of unimaginable difficulty!
Moreover, even if they caught the three, what of it? Beichenzi and his two peers were merely watchdogs; far more terrifying existences lurked behind them.
Who were those existences?
Zhu Chanchan did not even dare to imagine!
"Chanchan, you stay here and wait to see if Ah Ying returns. Lord Bell and I will search around," Yuan Qi proposed.
Zhu Chanchan agreed, and the bronze bell and Yuan Qi split up to search.
Xu Ying and Xu Jin looked around and discovered an entirely different world within the mountain: crisscrossing paths connecting neat rows of dwellings, people bustling to and fro, though their attire carried an ancient air.
Father and son marveled in wonder. When the mountain dwellers caught sight of them, they were likewise astonished and stepped forward to ask where they had come from. Xu Ying explained how they had been chasing the giant fish.
Xu Jin was beside himself with excitement. "Is this the Peach Blossom Spring? I heard my ancestors tell of a fisherman long ago who lost his way in the deep mountains of Wuling and entered the Peach Blossom Spring, where the inhabitants had fled from the turmoil of the Ancestral Dragon's reign. Could this be that very place?"
The residents exchanged glances and shook their heads. "This is the Netherworld. We are all ghosts."
Father and son jumped in fright, but these ghosts were not malicious at heart. An elder said, "The realms of Yin and Yang are connected, and the boundary between life and death is blurred. You most likely wandered into this place through a rift between the Netherworld and the world of the living. Just return the way you came."
Xu Jin offered his thanks and was about to head back when a voice laughed, "You are... Xu Ying!"
Xu Ying turned around and saw a ghost god walking toward them. The deity was towering, with the face of a horse and the body of a man, draped in incense smoke qi and snorting jets of flame from his nostrils. He looked Xu Ying up and down before suddenly bursting into hearty laughter. "It truly is you! Xu Ying, the snake catcher of Lingling!"
Seeing this, the ghosts from before were scared out of their wits, dropping to their knees one after another and crying out, "My lord!"
Xu Ying raised his head and said, "I am Xu Ying, but I am no snake catcher from Lingling—I am a fisherman from Wuling. You know me?"
The horse-faced ghost god snatched up a ghost, popped it into his mouth to savor the taste, and laughed. "You violated the laws of heaven and slaughtered commissioned officials of the Nether Court. The Nether Court has ordered your arrest with a handsome reward! Portraits of you have long been circulated among the ghost gods throughout Shenzhou. How could I fail to recognize you?"
Xu Jin hurried forward and forced an ingratiating smile. "Lord Deity, you've mistaken him for someone else! I found Ah Ying while fishing seven years ago. He has never even stepped outside Wuling—how could he have gone to Lingling?"
The horse-faced ghost god's gaze turned chilling. "He rebelled, made trouble, and slaughtered how many deities! Does he think hiding in Wuling after fleeing Lingling means he can act as if nothing ever happened?"
Merely a sliver of his leaking aura struck terror into Xu Jin, setting his heart pounding wildly and his mouth dry. Shielding Xu Ying as he backed away, Xu Jin pleaded with an ingratiating smile, "Lord Deity, you really have the wrong person..."
The horse-faced ghost god reached out and hoisted him up, sneering, "Noisy! You are not the one I want to capture, yet you repeatedly obstruct me. Do you take me for someone who dares not eat mortals?"
Xu Jin struggled ceaselessly but could not break free. Squeezed until his face flushed crimson and the breath was crushed from his chest, he rasped, "Ah Ying, run..."
His eyes bulged, unable to utter another sound.
The horse-faced deity opened his maw and brought Xu Jin toward it. "I only occasionally venture out of the Netherworld to enjoy a meal or two of living flesh and blood, but you've whetted my appetite. A soul brimming with parental love is the sweetest of all..."
Suddenly, a resonant elephant trumpet rang out. The horse-faced deity felt a tremendous force crash into his waist, sending his massive body stumbling backward!
Both startled and enraged, he saw Xu Ying's small figure leap into the air and whip out a kick against the arm holding Xu Jin.
The youth's blood qi surged, virtually boiling as it spilled from his body and took the form of a twenty-foot-tall Elephant King God behind him, bound to his blood qi!
The Elephant King God whipped its trunk, moving in unison with Xu Ying's kick. With a sharp crack, the impact numbed the horse-faced ghost god's arm, forcing him to let go of Xu Jin.
At that instant, the horse-faced ghost god caught sight of something between Xu Ying's brows—a gleam of light, like lightning across the sky.
This streak of lightning was branded into the youth's brow, surfacing beneath the skin and gradually growing distinct.
Xu Ying landed, grabbed the bewildered Xu Jin's hand, and sprinted for all he was worth, shouting, "Dad, run!"
Father and son fled in panic toward the rift in the mountain. Behind them, the horse-faced deity sprang to his feet with a cold sneer. His incense smoke qi coalesced into flying swords that whistled through the air, slashing toward Xu Ying and Xu Jin!
"By order of the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court, capturing Xu Ying does not require taking him alive!" he laughed loudly. "Then I will devour your physical body and bring back only your soul to claim the bounty!"
Those streaks of sword qi were blindingly fast, arriving behind Xu Ying in the blink of an eye. The blood qi within Xu Ying moved along an instinctive path; without a second thought, he unleashed the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist, his fists and feet colliding with the flying streaks of sword qi!
The sword qi surged violently, blasting the youth backward several yards, but he withstood every strike of the barrage.
Xu Jin was stunned. "Ah Ying, how do you know how to do this?"
Having performed those moves, Xu Ying was equally stunned. "Yeah... how do I know how to do this?"
The incense flying swords struck once more, faster and more potent, aimed not only at him but also cutting toward Xu Jin!
The horse-faced ghost god had realized that Xu Ying's desire to protect Xu Jin was his weakness, and deliberately chose to strike at Xu Jin!
A flash of inspiration sparked in Xu Ying's mind. Without thinking, sword qi shot forth from his fingertips and sliced through the air; a few flashes of sword light severed the incense flying swords!
"How do I know flying sword techniques?"
Xu Ying froze in disbelief, watching his sword qi dart crisply to and fro with the swiftness of lightning. He reached out to touch the sword qi, and it suddenly resolved back into blood qi, slipping into his body like vapor before vanishing.
Furious, the horse-faced ghost god charged forward, shouting, "You want to run? Not that easy!"
Channeling his cultivation, dense incense smoke qi surged behind him to form two more arms. With four arms in total, each gripped a broadsword formed of incense smoke qi, each blade sixteen or seventeen feet long!
The horse-faced deity shifted his footing, his four arms wheeling as the blade light unrolled like ribbons of silk and whipped like gale winds, swirling and howling forward.
Xu Ying covered Xu Jin as they retreated to the mouth of the great fissure. Seeing that they were about to be overwhelmed, he dropped low without hesitation, slithering like a dragon or snake. In his mind, a wondrous, profoundly esoteric sound echoed, stirring his blood qi!
Whoosh!
Xu Ying thrust both palms forward. Dragons and serpents soared, their power multiplying manifold in an instant. The massive dragons and serpents swept the horse-faced deity into the air, hurling him over a hundred yards away to slam into the cliff face, reducing him to a paste of mangled flesh!
Xu Ying stood frozen, staring at his hands in disbelief.
Standing behind him, Xu Jin was equally dazed, murmuring, "Ah Ying, what on earth are you?"
The lightning pattern on Xu Ying's forehead gradually faded. He said hurriedly, "Dad, let's get out of here quick..."
Rumble!
A violent shudder shook the mountain behind them. Xu Ying spun around in haste, only to see the mountain closing together. The fissure vanished, and a surging blast of air knocked both of them off their feet!
"Our boat!"
Midair, Xu Ying caught Xu Jin. Realizing the fishing boat and the giant fish were still trapped inside the fissure, his heart sank. "It's over... what are we going to eat from now on?"
Landing while supporting Xu Jin, he suddenly sensed something amiss behind him. Turning in a flash, he saw over a hundred towering deities had arrived behind them at some unknown moment.
Some resembled City Gods from City God Temples; others resembled ferocious deities from temples, varied in size and bearing.
The leading deity stood thirty feet tall, possessing the most powerful aura. Brilliant gold gleamed across his frame, thick incense smoke qi coiled around him, and the chanting of tens of thousands of worshippers resonated without pause.
"Nether Court fugitive Xu Ying, to think you were hiding here," the golden-bodied deity roared with laughter. "Truly, you search far and wide until your iron shoes are worn through, only to find what you seek without lifting a finger! Heaven has gifted this merit to me, the Wuling vice prefect!"
This golden-bodied deity was the vice prefect of Wuling Commandery, a high regional official of the Nether Court. Possessing dense incense smoke qi and a thousand years of cultivation, he had immediately rushed over leading his followers after receiving word of Xu Ying's appearance in Lingling, finally managing to intercept him before he could leave the Netherworld.
Xu Jin dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly to the Wuling vice prefect and the other ghost gods until his forehead bled. "Deity lords, please spare our lives, father and son! I kowtow to you!"
"If kowtowing were of any use, what would we need the laws of heaven for?" Without so much as a glance at him, the Wuling vice prefect waved his hand and ordered, "Seize Xu Ying and escort him to the Nether Court for our reward!"
From behind him, ghost gods surged forward, pouncing toward Xu Ying and Xu Jin!
Xu Ying clenched his fists. Looking at the boundlessly powerful ghost gods charging at them, he couldn't help shouting in fury, "What did I do wrong?!"
"Ahhh—!"
The strength throughout his body erupted. Howling toward the heavens, his five viscera trembled, the Realm of Xiyi flung wide open, the black iron mystic pass burst apart with a roar, and the waters of the Heavenly River poured backward into him!
Xu Ying faced a charging City God and punched out. Accompanied by this punch, Dao resonant tones boomed like great bells and chimes, causing the might of his technique to skyrocket!
That was the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing detonating, churning through every corner of his flesh and soul, marshaling unmatched might!
The City God's arm bone was snapped by his fist, the arm torn away and flying off; his golden body shattered, and nearly half of his incense smoke qi was obliterated!
The other ghost gods lunged in, attacking from all directions. Behind Xu Ying, the azure sky spun and the Nine Wildernesses spread wide, drawing the power of all the ghost gods into his Nuo techniques and divine abilities. Then his stance shifted, taking the form of a luminous mirror and a body like empty space, completely neutralizing their attacks!
Thunder and lightning had gathered over the Netherworld sky at some point. As Xu Ying brought down a seal strike, tribulation fell from the heavens, blasting a City God to pieces!
Amid the flashing lightning and crashing thunder, sword light gleamed, piercing the brow of a horse-faced deity. The sword then cleaved downward, its light surging violently to split another ghost god in two from head to foot!
Xu Ying's small figure darted amid the lightning, dragons and serpents coiling and dancing around him as he battered back one golden-bodied deity after another with resounding thuds.
Whoosh!
The lightning mark at his brow shone ever brighter. Behind his head, a Sea of Chaos suddenly manifested, cave-heavens spinning into view one after another!
The wounds on his body healed at lightning speed. Raising a hand in a seal to meet the divine ability of another ghost god, the phenomenon of Ten Thousand Mountains Honoring Jiuyi materialized within his palm print, annihilating both the ghost god and its divine ability into ash and smoke!
The blood of ghost gods poured down like a torrential deluge, raining everywhere as severed limbs flew in all directions!
Boom!
Xu Ying's palm met the palm of the Wuling vice prefect, and he was jolted backward. The Wuling vice prefect shouted fiercely again and again, driving a thousand years' worth of incense smoke qi with palms heavy as mountains, forcing Xu Ying back step after step!
The lightning mark on Xu Ying's brow shone all the more brilliantly. With another tremendous boom, a sea of fire surged behind him. The Crimson Palace secret depository opened, and two Crescent Moon cave-heavens blazed like crescent furnaces, igniting the heart fire!
Xu Ying's aura surged violently, forcibly holding off the Wuling vice prefect's offensive!
Crack!
Lightning crashed from the sky, illuminating a sea of blood and mountains of corpses all around, strewn with the massive carcasses of fallen deities.
Xu Ying and the Wuling vice prefect locked palms in a stalemate, each pushing their cultivation to the utmost limit!
Suddenly, the lightning mark on Xu Ying's brow began to fade, yet along with its dimming, a swathe of dark yellow qi billowed from behind him as another cave-heaven of the Yellow Court burst open!
A divine glow welled in Xu Ying's eyes—his divine sense was awakening!
The Wuling vice prefect knew things had taken a terrible turn. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Suddenly, two more arms burst from beneath his armpits, formed of incense smoke qi, and hammered Xu Ying away with two booming punches!
Instead of pressing his advantage, he wheeled around and rushed before Xu Jin, reaching out to seize him. *I'll take him hostage first...*
At that exact moment, a blinding axe light flared. The Wuling vice prefect turned his head and saw Xu Ying gripping a massive stone axe with both hands, leaping into the air as the axe light cleaved downward from above!
The Wuling vice prefect was split clean in two by the single stroke of the axe!
Axe in hand, Xu Ying landed and slowly straightened his back as the sky gradually grew light.
Only then did Xu Jin realize he was kneeling in a pool of blood. Severed limbs and broken bones littered the ground everywhere, the scattered hands and feet each roughly the size of his entire body.
"Ah Ying, are you really Ah Ying?" Xu Jin murmured.
"I don't know." In a daze, Xu Ying tucked the stone axe into his waist.
He helped Xu Jin up and walked toward the cliff wall. Arriving before it, he drew the stone axe and swung it down, splitting the rock face open.
Two blood-drenched figures walked outward.
The fishing boat was already smashed to pieces, and the giant fish had been crushed to paste. Father and son waded through the water toward the outside. Gradually, the water rose to their chests, but they finally made their way out of the fissure.
Sunlight shone down from outside. With a stir in his heart, Xu Ying supported Xu Jin as yuan qi circulated beneath his feet; their figures gradually rose above the surface, standing atop the water.
Supporting Xu Jin, Xu Ying walked outward and entered the peach grove.
"Ah Ying, do you still recognize me?"
A familiar voice called from behind him. Xu Ying turned around and saw a giant snake raising its head from among the peach trees, looking very familiar.
A name flashed across Xu Ying's mind. Hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Are you... Lord Seventh?"
Chapter 114