Isn't That the Netherworld?

Li Banfeng crouched behind the broken earthen wall, silently watching the battle unfold. He had barely had any contact with Lu Dongjun. The closest they had ever come was at Haichiling, when both of them were dealing with the insect plague. Lu Dongjun had seen results first, virtually wiping out the mosquitoes on Toudaoling, but he failed to contain the infestation on Erdaoling, allowing the plague to flare back to life. After that, Lu Dongjun disappeared. Li Banfeng had no idea where he had gone, only hearing rumors that he was dead. Never had he expected to encounter Lu Dongjun's departed soul here in the Outer States. Lu Dongjun turned his tattered clothes into threads and drove them into Chu Zikai's body. Chu Zikai was truly caught off guard this time. In life, Lu Dongjun had been an eighth-tier Martial Cultivator. Now that he was dead, his combat power had surged, allowing him to grapple head-to-head with someone above the clouds. Jin Shunying said this was a manifestation of soul specialization, but Li Banfeng still had not grasped the underlying logic. Believing victory was within his grasp, Lu Dongjun loosened the threads from his clothes, preparing to shred Chu Zikai to pieces. *Bzz, bzz!~* Chu Zikai let out a sharp, piercing shriek. Sound waves traveled along the threads into Lu Dongjun's body, warping his soul severely. A Sound Cultivator above the clouds might suffer a temporary setback, but he could mount a counterattack in an instant. Lu Dongjun snapped the threads and scrambled away on all fours, resembling a cat with its fur standing on end from a distance. The tide had turned in a flash. Chu Zikai did not rush to pursue; instead, he glanced around, searching for Lu Dongjun's helper. Normally, this would be the moment for Li Banfeng to strike. Though he had no friendship with Lu Dongjun, teaming up to finish off Chu Zikai was an excellent choice. Yet Li Banfeng did not act rashly tonight, for he sensed a palpable, terrifying danger. This danger did not come from Chu Zikai. After two clashes, Li Banfeng knew Chu Zikai's strength well; he was not enough to make Li Banfeng feel such severe peril. Where was it coming from, then? There were two possibilities. One was a helper of Chu Zikai's. During their first clash, a man in black had accompanied Chu Zikai—a high-tier Food Cultivator who had plunged Li Banfeng into intense hunger, nearly stripping him of his fighting capacity. If those two joined forces, they would pose a serious threat to Li Banfeng. There was another possibility: the person in the sky might be watching. If the danger came from him, Li Banfeng should be even more cautious about entering the fray. Yet what tier was that person in the sky? How vast was the gap between them? If that person concealed his malice, Li Banfeng should not have been able to sense any danger at all. Regardless of the situation, Li Banfeng could not fight Chu Zikai openly right now, though he could still make a few moves from the shadows. While Chu Zikai and Li Banfeng each had their own considerations, Lu Dongjun was not thinking that far ahead. He grabbed a hemp rope from the construction site and lashed it toward Chu Zikai like a soft whip. Chu Zikai was agile enough to dodge sideways. The hemp rope whipped around, coiling around Chu Zikai's body and binding him tight. Chu Zikai struggled to break free, but in Lu Dongjun's hands, the rope grew extraordinarily tough, and he could not shake it off. *Hiss!~* A sound hissed from between Chu Zikai's teeth, sharp as a blade tearing through the air. The hemp rope looked as though it had been hacked with a blade, on the verge of snapping. *Whew—* Li Banfeng whistled, disrupting Chu Zikai's pitch. The fraying hemp rope tightened once more, and Lu Dongjun yanked with violent force, pulling Chu Zikai right in front of him. *"Aaaagh!"* Chu Zikai hit a high note, sending sound waves rippling outward in every direction with himself at the center. Caught in the blast, Lu Dongjun spasmed in waves of pain. Wounded, he immediately let go of the rope. To evade the sound waves, Li Banfeng rose and slipped away from the earthen wall. In that split second, Chu Zikai spotted his trail. *"Trrr-la-la-la!~"* Chu Zikai trilled his tongue, sending sound waves to fend off Lu Dongjun while simultaneously pursuing Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng accelerated sharply. Just as he shook off the sound waves, he was on the verge of slipping out of Chu Zikai's line of sight. Chu Zikai kept hemming him in with sound waves. His gaze had to remain locked on Li Banfeng, or else he would suffer a devastating blow from Viewing Flowers from Horseback. Lu Dongjun picked up a piece of timber and hurled it at Chu Zikai. Chu Zikai blasted the wood apart with his tongue-trill, but the splintering fragments swirled before his eyes, refusing to disperse. Chu Zikai was astonished. Lu Dongjun had actually calculated the tactical advantage of the wood shattering! He had used the timber to draw Chu Zikai's attack and the flying debris to block his vision. Unable to keep his gaze locked on Li Banfeng, Chu Zikai gave Li Banfeng the opening to unleash Viewing Flowers from Horseback. Suddenly, a violent wind arose. A surge of brute force shoved Li Banfeng, making him stumble. He nearly fell, and the technique failed to trigger. Lu Dongjun tumbled through the air with the gale, swept away until he vanished from sight. Standing in the eye of the wind and preparing to strike back, Chu Zikai heard an elderly voice in his ear: "Go." *Go?* "Why should we go?" Without another word, the old man swept Chu Zikai up in the howling wind, carrying him away from the construction site. The gale carried Chu Zikai all the way out of Yanlou Village. Chu Zikai pressed repeatedly, "We were already winning the fight! Why retreat?" The old man's voice poured into Chu Zikai's ears over the rush of the wind: "We might not have won. The origins of Lu Dongjun's helper are unclear. I suspect it was Lu Dongliang." "How could it be Lu Dongliang? I've fought that man before!" "Do not assume that just because he is a journey cultivator, he must be an enemy you know. Besides, you do not know that enemy very well either. It is entirely possible he is Lu Dongliang." Chu Zikai did not know his opponent's true identity, only that he was a journey cultivator above the clouds. Lu Dongliang had already reached the ninth tier of the Journey before his disappearance, so the old man's reasoning held some water. Yet even if it were Lu Dongliang, they shouldn't have retreated just now. "So what if it's him? With you stepping in personally, are you afraid you couldn't take down both brothers?" "The reason I do not act lightly is that there is another powerful Sound Cultivator among them." "Those sound techniques were nothing impressive, just tricky little maneuvers! From what I know, Lu Dongliang never dual-cultivated the Sound path. If that was truly him just now, his sound techniques must have come from a magical treasure." "Child, you are being naive. If it were truly just a few tricks, why was every single one of your arts disrupted by him?" "Because he knows my songs very well! Every time, he just happened to ruin the melody." "Child, there are no such coincidences. When coincidences happen one after another, it proves that his cultivation in the Sound path is far above yours. "You have me standing behind you, and Lu Dongliang may well have someone standing behind him. Until that person reveals themselves, I cannot commit all my power to the battle. Doing so would leave us no way out." "A way out?" Chu Zikai gave a bitter laugh. "Given my financial state, do you really think I have any way out left?" "Child, do not be so impatient. Your situation is not as dire as you think. I will find ways to secure more help for you. Risking everything over money is not worth the gamble." His pronunciation was very standard, and one could hardly tell he was a foreigner. Yet addressing Chu Zikai as "child" over and over grated on his nerves, though he dared not show it. The gale subsided. Li Banfeng hid inside a construction shed, quietly watching the situation outside. Danger crept in once more. It was nowhere near as intense as before, but it carried a thick, unmistakable malice. "Big Brother, is that you?" The malice came from Lu Dongjun. Having survived the gale, he crawled out from beneath a pile of rubble. Looking through Golden Eyes Discerning the Minutest Detail, Li Banfeng saw the green flames flickering around Lu Dongjun. He was indeed a departed soul. Yet his soul was remarkably solid, looking so substantial that it gave the illusion of possessing flesh and blood. "Big Brother, did you just save me?" Lu Dongjun asked again. Li Banfeng stood silently in the shed, offering no answer. Lu Dongjun had mistaken Li Banfeng for Lu Dongliang. It was a perfectly reasonable deduction; aside from Lu Dongliang, Lu Dongjun could not imagine any other high-tier journey cultivator who would save his life. "Big Brother, where have you been all this time?" Lu Dongjun asked once more. Li Banfeng still did not reply. Lu Dongjun let out a long sigh. "I know... you must still hate me. Ever since that incident, I've been searching for you everywhere. I never meant to harm you. I just wanted a chance to atone for my sins. "Big Brother, I know I was wrong. I was deceived by Zhuo Yuling! From the very day it happened, I truly knew I was wrong." As he spoke, Lu Dongjun choked up slightly, his words sounding entirely heartfelt. Li Banfeng was speechless. Lu Dongjun's intellect was truly impossible to describe. If you called him stupid, his tactical thinking on the battlefield was genuinely impressive. If you called him smart, he was standing before Li Banfeng trying to spin such obvious lies. He thought Li Banfeng was Lu Dongliang. Lu Dongliang was a high-tier journey cultivator, and Lu Dongjun could not conceal his malice at all. Under such circumstances, no matter how convincing his lies sounded, they were completely worthless, because they could never bypass a journey cultivator's art of Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity. Li Banfeng shifted his toes, deliberately making a faint noise. Hearing the sound, Lu Dongjun walked slowly toward the shed. "Big Brother, I grew up following behind you. Without you looking out for me, I couldn't do anything right. I'm just a useless waste. "I went mad, believed Zhuo Yuling's words, and turned against you. But once I actually had to carry the Lu family on my shoulders, I finally understood how hard it was to run this household. "I went to Haichiling, hoping to build some prestige for myself, but Wan Jinxian duped me, and the He brothers plotted against me. I died a pathetic death. "All I wanted was to reincarnate into a new life so we could be brothers again. I swore I'd follow you wholeheartedly next time, going through fire and water, facing death ten thousand times without hesitation. "But I never imagined... cultivators like us don't get a next life at all! I thought I had set foot on the Yellow Springs Road, but who would have guessed I ended up in the Inner States?" *The Inner States?* *What is going on?* Lu Dongjun's words completely shattered Li Banfeng's understanding. He had always believed that only tenth-tier cultivators, having abandoned their physical bodies, could go to the Inner States to cultivate. Why had Lu Dongjun gone to the Inner States too? He even said cultivators got no next life. Did the departed souls of all cultivators go to the Inner States after death? Lu Dongjun continued in a mournful tone, "Big Brother, I suffered a lot in the Inner States, but I deserved it for my sins. Now that I've managed to escape, who would have thought we two brothers would meet again in a place like this? "To fight a tiger, you need brothers by your side. In that fight just now, when you stepped in to save me, I knew the bond between us hadn't broken. "I admit my wrongs to you, Brother. If you forgive me just this once, my life is yours from now on!" *Rumble!—* Lu Dongjun crashed straight through the shed. Broken bricks turned into flying daggers, slicing back and forth through the shed more than a dozen times. Had Li Banfeng not been on guard, he would have been injured. Now that he had dodged the sneak attack, there was still one thing Li Banfeng could not wrap his head around: what was Lu Dongjun trying to achieve? He couldn't hide his malice, yet he still tried to lie to "Lu Dongliang"—that could be written off as poor intellect. Yet "Lu Dongliang" had just saved him, and given his current plight, he genuinely needed "Lu Dongliang's" help. Why was he so eager to turn against "Lu Dongliang"? That was because there was context Li Banfeng truly did not know. After Lu Dongjun became a departed soul, he had specialized; his combat strength had soared, but his mindset had become far more paranoid. He could not read the current situation clearly. When Li Banfeng deliberately lured him over, he couldn't spot the trap. When he lied, he couldn't conceal his malice, and he couldn't even reason out whether his lie would work. But there was one thing he understood with crystal clarity: Lu Dongliang's nature. The two of them had grown up together. In Lu Dongliang's dictionary, the word "forgiveness" simply did not exist. Regardless of why "Lu Dongliang" had saved him, Lu Dongjun firmly believed that Lu Dongliang would never spare his life. Lu Dongjun had considered fleeing, but he knew that before Lu Dongliang, he had no chance of escaping. Having just clashed with Chu Zikai, Lu Dongjun was heavily depleted and seriously wounded. His current situation was dire. Closing the distance rapidly, forcing a melee, and killing Lu Dongliang was the best strategy Lu Dongjun could devise. After searching the shed for a long time without finding "Lu Dongliang," Lu Dongjun grew frantic. Losing sight of Lu Dongliang under any circumstances was equivalent to putting his neck on the chopping block. "Big Brother, come out and let's have a proper chat!" Lu Dongjun threw a punch, collapsing an entire row of sheds. Amidst the swirling dust, Li Banfeng slowly appeared behind Lu Dongjun. Lu Dongjun whipped around, staring at Li Banfeng for a moment before barking, "You're not my brother?!" Li Banfeng gave a slight nod and immediately burst into a verse from *Mount Dingjun*: "Lu Dongjun, my son! If you do not come, so be it; but if you do, come feast at your father's house!" *Who on earth is this?* Without overthinking, Lu Dongjun grabbed two broken roof tiles and hurled them at Li Banfeng. The tiles ripped through the air with a loud whistle, attesting to their speed, yet they failed to hit Li Banfeng. Lu Dongjun's aim was off. His hands were unresponsive, impaired by the Sound Cultivator art. As Li Banfeng continued singing opera, Lu Dongjun realized what was happening. This man was a Sound Cultivator, just like the one earlier. He wasn't Lu Dongliang, nor was he here to save him; he was here to compete for business alongside that other Sound Cultivator! Seeing that the odds were against him, Lu Dongjun turned to flee, but his feet felt like they were treading on cotton, every step requiring immense effort. Closing the distance for a melee against a journey cultivator was indeed an excellent strategy. However, closing the distance for a melee against a homestead cultivator right next to a dwelling was not a wise choice at all. Suppressed by the Sound Cultivator art, Lu Dongjun's movements became sluggish. Li Banfeng drew Prince Chun's horse whip and bound Lu Dongjun from behind. Lu Dongjun grabbed the tip of the whip, trying to sever it with his fingernails. Li Banfeng yanked the whip back and switched the lyrics, moving from *Mount Dingjun* to *Dragon and Tiger Fight*: "The black steed whinnies without cease; once raised, the general-slaying whip strikes terror in ghosts and gods!" *Crack!* With another lash of the whip, Li Banfeng knocked Lu Dongjun flat to the ground. Lu Dongjun grabbed a handful of dirt and hurled it at Li Banfeng, who evaded it with Carefree and Unfettered. Seeing Li Banfeng still standing before him, Lu Dongjun prepared for a desperate, life-or-death struggle, only to suddenly realize the whip was no longer in Li Banfeng's hands. *Where did the whip go?* The whip was in his shadow's hands. The shadow struck Lu Dongjun's head from behind with more than a dozen lashes in rapid succession. Lu Dongjun wobbled and collapsed to the ground, unable to get back up. He was truly tough. Any ordinary departed soul would have dissipated after taking a dozen strikes. Yet Lu Dongjun not only endured it, but he had also refused to concede defeat in his heart. He was trying to figure out how to stall for time until he could catch his breath and fight back. Li Banfeng was a reasonable man. Seeing Lu Dongjun so resilient, he simply opened the companion dwelling, hauled Lu Dongjun up, and said, "Come, take a rest at my place. When you've caught your breath, we'll keep fighting." Lu Dongjun looked up and found himself inside a pitch-black room. Hong Ying glanced back, saw Li Banfeng dragging in a departed soul, and put down her eyebrow pencil. "Qi-lang, are we missing out on this meal again?" Li Banfeng scolded lightly, "Don't talk nonsense in front of a guest. We are a respectable household." Looking at Hong Ying's slender figure, her beautiful long hair, the inexplicable spearhead, and the overwhelming aura she exuded... Lu Dongjun recalled memories from his life and asked, "Are you the renowned General Zhao Xiaowan?" The Lu family had indeed researched General Zhao Xiaowan and even investigated her whereabouts. Hong Ying couldn't help but chuckle, then puffed out her chest. "That's right, I'm Zhao Xiaowan. You recognize me?" "I do. Who in Puluo Province doesn't know a hero like you?" Lu Dongjun knew how to speak politely. He turned to Li Banfeng and asked, "And who might you be, friend?" Li Banfeng said, "I am Zhao Xiaowan's man." Lu Dongjun looked back and forth between Li Banfeng and Hong Ying. "You two are husband and wife?" Hong Ying nodded. "You have good eyes!" The gramophone gave Hong Ying a sharp slap with a board and said to Li Banfeng, "Darling husband, where did this bone-shed soul come from? I feel as though I've seen him somewhere before." Li Banfeng looked back. "What does 'bone shedding' mean?" "It means shedding bones and transforming the marrow. Ordinary cultivators lose combat strength after death, but there is a special class of cultivators whose departed souls experience a massive surge in power. Seeing how solid his soul is, looking almost like flesh and blood, he must be a bone-shed soul." This matched Jin Shunying's description. Lu Dongjun truly was a rare talent. Li Banfeng said, "This is Lu Dongjun, a powerhouse of the Lu family. For reasons unknown, I ran into him in the Outer States, so I invited him home for a seat." The gramophone chuckled. "Ah, so it's the second son of the Lu family. I've seen you in the newspapers." Lu Dongjun slowly sat up from the floor. "It seems you are all extraordinary figures. Falling into your hands, I am thoroughly convinced. Ask whatever you wish. As long as you spare my life, I will hold nothing back." He knew how to adapt to circumstances. Li Banfeng asked, "How did you die?" "I failed while handling the insect plague at Haichiling. I wanted to flee far away, but on the road, I was ambushed by He Haiqin and He Haisheng. I died by their hands." "After you died, why did your soul go to the Inner States? Were you trying to advance your cultivation and seek revenge on the He brothers?" Lu Dongjun shook his head. "I never thought about revenge. Dead is dead; I've come to terms with it. "Nor did I want to go to the Inner States. I just wanted to find a place to reincarnate. After I died, my soul involuntarily walked down a wide road, with many others traveling alongside me. "I asked them where the road led, and they told me it was the Yellow Springs Road. They also told me to hurry, or I'd miss the hour for reincarnation. "I walked quite fast. When I reached the end, I ran into He Haiqin's father, He Caiyuan. "He Caiyuan had been dead for many years. I asked him why he hadn't reincarnated yet, and he told me he held an official post in the Netherworld and no longer had to endure the suffering of samsara. "I tried to curry favor, begging him to get me an official post too. He said my cultivation wasn't high enough and told me to temper myself here for a few years, saying there might be a chance later. "A few other souls traveling with me heard this and began declaring their cultivation tiers—some were tier three, some tier five, and one had even reached tier seven. "He Caiyuan said none of their cultivation was high enough and that all of them had to undergo tempering. I found it strange back then: why did everyone traveling with me possess cultivation? "Later, He Caiyuan told us the time for tempering had arrived. He led us toward a kiln. I sensed that kiln was no good place, so I tried to run. When I ran, the others fled with me. "He Caiyuan was too capable. With a single move, he subdued all of us and shoved us into the kiln. "Inside the kiln, those with lower cultivation were melted into water in the blink of an eye. I held on for quite a while, but I was on the verge of breaking too. "Just as parts of my body were melting away, an expert arrived and saved me." Li Banfeng asked, "What kind of expert?" Lu Dongjun shook his head. "I never saw what he looked like, only heard his voice. He told me that if I wanted to live, I had to smash through the kiln. "I truly fought with my life on the line back then, using the souls around me as weapons to breach a hole in the kiln. "Perhaps that expert saw I had some ability. I don't know what methods he used, but he trapped He Caiyuan and his group, allowing me to escape from the kiln. "Afterward, that expert guided me from the shadows, telling me to flee into a barren mountain. I stayed there for quite some time. He spoke to me occasionally, but never once showed his face. "I asked him if we had escaped the Netherworld. He told me I had never been to the Netherworld in the first place—this was the Inner States, and I hadn't truly escaped. He said he had been trapped in the Inner States for many years and hadn't been able to escape either. "I couldn't understand it. I asked that expert: aren't cultivators only supposed to go to the Inner States once they reach the tenth tier to cultivate? "The expert said reaching the tenth tier doesn't mean going to the Inner States to cultivate; it means going there to do hard labor—at most, carrying bricks." Li Banfeng already knew about tenth-tier cultivators being used for hard labor in the Inner States. "Then what are those who haven't reached the tenth tier sent there for?" "To become bricks," Lu Dongjun said. "According to that expert, the kiln is for firing bricks. Anyone with cultivation goes to the Inner States after death. Those below the tenth tier all go into the furnace to be baked into bricks." *Such a thing existed?!* Why had he never heard of this before? Shui Yongquan, Qiu Luoye, and Meng Yuchun had all been to the Inner States. Why had none of them ever mentioned this? Li Banfeng turned back to look at the gramophone. The gramophone replied, "Darling husband, your humble servant once heard similar rumors, but was unable to verify their truth. This must be a closely guarded secret of the Inner States, beyond the reach of ordinary people." Was He Caiyuan not an ordinary person? Why was he able to access such secrets? Thinking carefully, Chu Shaoqiang had already achieved a certain status in the Inner States, and He Caiyuan's status was even above Chu Shaoqiang's. His standing in the Inner States was truly extraordinary. Li Banfeng asked again, "How did you arrive in the Outer States?" Lu Dongjun said, "I stayed in that barren mountain. The expert occasionally gave me some pills, and after consuming them, my cultivation rose significantly. "Day and night blurred together in the mountains; I had no idea how many days passed. Suddenly, the expert told me to prepare to leave the Inner States. "I was overjoyed. Even if I had to spend eternity as a wandering ghost, I never wanted to return to that place. Two days later, he brought me to the edge of a cliff. After waiting a long while, a rift cracked open along the rock face. "He told me to slip through the rift. I followed his instructions, and the moment I came out, I ran into several foreigners leading a crowd chanting scriptures. "I had crawled out from inside a pane of glass. Not knowing who they were, I attacked them. I remember killing a few with glass shards, injuring several more with my bare hands, and then fleeing that place. "Later, I learned this was the Outer States. I followed other departed souls here; they said this was Yanlou Village, a place beneficial to souls. "It truly is a good place, rich in yin energy. I intended to cultivate here for a while before finding a way back to Puluo Province. "Who could have known that so many cultivators would come here to recruit ghost servants? Those bastards set their sights on me. "I really didn't want to stir up trouble. I didn't kill many, and I let plenty go. Yet in the end, I still ran into ruthless folks like you. "Now that I've told you everything, will you spare my life?" Hong Ying let out a chuckle. Having entered this place, how could there be any way out alive? Li Banfeng asked, "Do you know the background of that great god?" "Great god?" Lu Dongjun looked puzzled. Li Banfeng said, "The great god who descends upon Yanlou Village on the sixth of every month. Many people come specifically to worship him." This was the question Li Banfeng cared about most; he wanted to confirm whether this great god was truly the person in the sky. Lu Dongjun grasped what Li Banfeng meant. "The one you're talking about isn't any great god. He's a healing cultivator. "A healing cultivator who died many years ago. "Like me, he's a bone-shed soul whose cultivation after death is higher than when he was alive. "He belongs to a master—he's the ghost servant of a Demonic Cultivator. That Demonic Cultivator sent him to Yanlou Village to feed on yin energy, and the soul occasionally treats illnesses for people as a form of cultivation. "Worshiping him in Yanlou Village for promotions or wealth is completely useless. But if you come seeking medical help, and this soul happens to be willing to act, it truly works miracles." *Just a healing cultivator?* Li Banfeng stared blankly for a long moment, then looked back at the gramophone. *Whoosh—* The gramophone let out a long sigh. "Darling husband, it seems we were overthinking things." Li Banfeng shook his head. "Not necessarily. It could also be that Second Young Master Lu isn't telling the truth." Lu Dongjun said, "Every word I spoke is the truth! I haven't deceived you in the slightest." Li Banfeng said, "My lady, whether he is telling the truth or not can be investigated slowly later. It is getting late; eat your meal first, then take your rest." Just as the gramophone raised her needle, the companion dwelling spoke: "Ah Qi, discuss it with your wife. Would you mind skipping a meal?" Li Banfeng was startled. The companion dwelling wanted to keep Lu Dongjun? The gramophone replied, "He isn't any top-grade ingredient anyway. Let the Old Master decide." The companion dwelling chuckled. "Very well. Leave this fellow to me for now. I have some use for him."