Su Yan and Veyon exchanged glances. Hope flickered between them.
Serving Zhou Qiyun was like serving a tiger—unpredictable, deadly. If the Underworld Emperor and ghost-Nuo immortals pinned him down, even if he survived, he'd be too wounded to recapture them.
This was their chance to escape.
Another shockwave struck the bell. *Clang!* It tumbled through the air, spinning end over end, falling who knew where.
"It's fine," Su Yan said calmly, as if he'd seen this before. "The bell always pulls through. Bell? Bell! Wake up... Don't worry, it just faints sometimes."
The bell soared over mountains, bouncing, rolling, finally skidding to a halt.
Yuan Qi tumbled out first, bones scattered. Su Yan's legs shook as he emerged. Veyon sat down hard, too sore to stand.
Elder Xiao leaned against the bell, vomiting.
The bell had enlarged to ten zhang wide to protect them, taking more damage. It slept, unable to shrink.
Su Yan fed it qi and blood. No response.
"A spatial-art cultivator wounded it severely," Su Yan told Veyon. "The external wounds healed, but internal injuries persist."
Yuan Qi corrected, "The bell says it 'borrows' your qi."
Su Yan reassembled Yuan Qi's bones. "It keeps borrowing my qi to heal. This sleep shouldn't be serious."
Veyon helped move the serpent. "How do we carry it if it won't wake?"
"The bell prepared for this." Su Yan walked thirty steps. Nothing happened. He took another step. The bell clanged and followed.
He ran. The bell chased, raising dust clouds. Yuan Qi, Veyon, and Elder Xiao coughed, rushing ahead.
Underworld spirits watched in confusion. "A bell ghost? What kind of ghost is that?"
"The world's gone mad."
They'd never been here before. They walked toward the Hall of Gods, but the underworld's mountains twisted them around. They were lost.
Su Yan looked up. Darkness. Mist covered the ground, thick as milk, reaching their thighs. A crescent moon hung above willow branches.
He channeled sword-qi and shot upward. The bell followed.
Yuan Qi and Elder Xiao looked up as Su Yan became a streak of light, the bell trailing behind. Another light followed—Veyon.
They hovered, sword-light dimming. Mountains stretched in every direction, swallowed by fog. The Underworld Court had vanished.
Veyon landed. "Two pieces of news. Good: Zhou Qiyun can't find us. Bad: Neither can we find him. We're lost."
Su Yan landed. The bell crashed down, deafening.
Something scattered in the mist—small, numerous, frightened by the sound.
Elder Xiao shouted, channeling qi and divine consciousness. Fog emptied from a hundred-mu area.
Pale little ghosts appeared—like three-year-old children, white-skinned, wearing only white shorts. They ran on all fours, fast as monkeys.
"Just minor ghosts." Elder Xiao relaxed.
Giggling echoed from the mist.
Willows surrounded them, branches swaying. The ghosts climbed like monkeys, crouching on branches, giggling down at them.
"Where are we?" Yuan Qi yawned. "I'm exhausted."
Su Yan stopped. "Maybe we should wait for Zhou Qiyun—Yuan Qi?"
Veyon turned. The massive serpent had withered to skin and bones. White ghost-children covered his back, sucking his yang energy. Others blew at his three yang flames—two already extinguished.
The last flame burned on his head, flickering, nearly out.
Elder Xiao had one on his neck, tiny hands covering his eyes. He spoke to a willow tree, thinking it was himself.
"Ghost-blinded!" Veyon gasped.
Su Yan reached for the ghost on Elder Xiao. His hand passed through—spectral, no physical form. He hadn't studied soul-targeting Nuo arts.
Two ghosts climbed Veyon's back. One covered her eyes. Another plugged her ears. More blew at her shoulder flames.
"Brother Yuan, do you know soul techniques?"
Veyon couldn't hear or see.
The ghosts avoided Su Yan entirely. He remembered—he'd consumed countless Myriad Spirit Pills. His soul had condensed into an indestructible true spirit. He'd wielded the Soul-Lashing Whip against gods.
*My soul is too strong. They fear me. But how do I use it?*
He channeled the Grand Unity Daoyin Art, sensing his soul, recalling how the bell's ringing had shaken his soul free before.
Yuan Qi collapsed, mouth gaping, sleeping. The ghosts kept blowing his final flame.
Elder Xiao attacked a willow, brutally, thinking it was an enemy.
Veyon stood still, knowing anything she did would be wrong.
Su Yan's soul-sense intensified. He pressed a finger to his brow.
His body fell. His soul stood apart, looking back at himself.
He roared. Indestructible true spirit light blazed outward.
*Whoosh—*
The ghost-children screamed, twisting, falling from Yuan Qi, Veyon, and Elder Xiao.
Su Yan channeled the Grand Unity Art through his soul, brightening the light. The ghosts shrank, wailing.
He checked Yuan Qi—the final flame still burned. Veyon and Elder Xiao were conscious.
He relaxed. The light dimmed. The ghosts crept up, faces fearful, whispering appeasements in ghost-language, retreating slowly.
Those who'd stolen yang jumped back onto Yuan Qi, vomiting the energy back into him. His extinguished flames reignited.
They stared at Su Yan, smiling nervously, chattering, fading into the mist.
"Bullies fear strength." Su Yan shook his head and woke Yuan Qi.
"What happened? Why did I fall asleep?"
A Gate-Breaking stage cultivator and a great Nuo master, nearly killed by weak-looking ghosts. Su Yan grew alert.
"This place is wrong. Stay close. We're leaving these willows."
In the Underworld Court, Zhou Qiyun advanced through ghost-Nuo immortal attacks, step by step, reaching the final stairs of the Great Hall. His qi surged, shaking the paradises.
The ghost-Nuo immortals stopped, afraid of damaging their own realms.
The Underworld Emperor ceased attacking.
Zhou Qiyun entered. Inside, a refined celestial being sat—his brow marked by a sword wound through his skull.
A corpse. His Primordial Spirit hovered behind him.
"Zhou master, your strength surpasses the Supreme Emperor's peak. You blend cultivation and Nuo arts with true grandmaster bearing."
The Emperor continued, "Your lifespan dwindles. If you seek to usurp power, I'll abdicate."
Zhou Qiyun sat facing him. "I seek no power."
"Then like the Supreme Emperor, you want a treaty? Living world yours, underworld mine?"
"I also come not for the living world."
The Emperor's face grew serious. "Then why?"
Zhou Qiyun spoke each word deliberately: "I want to transcend tribulation. I want to ascend."