Chapter 54

A few hours earlier.

Lin Yu pressed her palm into Fu Ming's warm hand, and the feeling slowly returned to her frozen fingers. The instant she touched his warmth, she instinctively tried to pull back, but Fu Ming tightened his grip around her hand.

Neither of them spoke. The summit of the Divine Mountain was not far, and before long they crossed the boundary formation at the peak and headed toward the back of the mountain.

The sun had never once illuminated the reverse side of the Divine Mountain. Over a hundred years, that had made it a place of extreme yin—monsters and vengeful spirits roamed there at night, subject to no one's rule. Over time, the ghostly energy had grown so thick that it connected to the Buzhou River of the underworld.

The waters of the Buzhou River poured down from the clouds, plummeting to the Divine Mountain from afar. The cascading water pooled upon the mountain and formed a river that lay across the mountainside on its shadowed face.

Mortals who looked up at the clouds could not see the source of the Buzhou River, and those who looked down into the earth could not see where it went. All they could see was the middle stretch of the river.

At midnight, a low hum of bells drifted up from the foot of the mountain. The bell rang twelve times in succession, its lingering notes echoing endlessly across the ridge.

"May I ask where you two honored ones come from, and where you are headed?"

An old woman with loose hair and a pole in her hand appeared before Lin Yu and Fu Ming. There was no boat beneath her feet, yet she held an oar.

The old woman's silver hair was unkempt, strands falling down her back in layers, the whole of it trailing all the way to her feet. The ends of her hair piled carelessly into the waters of the Buzhou River. Her eyes were clouded, her teeth completely gone, and the gums of her upper and lower jaws were bright red, flapping open and shut as she spoke.

Fu Ming studied the old woman's face, confirming she was the ferryman. He replied, "The dead, seeking a place to rest."

Lin Yu glanced up at Fu Ming, a flicker of surprise passing through her eyes. Even High Priestess Yun Chi did not know what one would encounter upon reaching the Buzhou River. Fu Ming had never been well versed in tales of ghosts and gods—how could he have known the answer?

Upon hearing Fu Ming's words, a smile spread across the old woman's withered face. She hugged the oar and squinted. "I am Meng Chuan Nü, your guide. Come with me, both of you."

With that, she stepped into the deeper current, following the flow of the river.

Lin Yu only saw what was beneath her after she had walked a few steps away. She had no feet. Her empty robes drifted in the water, her long white hair trailing behind her, and that was how she glided forward through the stream.

As Lin Yu stared, spellbound, Fu Ming stepped forward and gently tugged at her. She snapped back to her senses and followed him into the river.

It was nothing like the icy water she had imagined. The touch of the Buzhou River felt more like drifting through weightless clouds. They walked through the soft, insubstantial mist, their robes not soaked through but fluttering in the wind as they moved.

Lin Yu understood now—the waters of the Buzhou River were nothing but an illusion.

The two followed Meng Chuan Nü downward, heading toward the river's end. The flowing water trickled on ceaselessly, growing narrower as they descended. After passing through the fourth layer of white mist, the end of the Buzhou River finally came into view.

At its end stood a pitch-black gate, its door knockers shaped like the beast Di Ting. Meng Chuan Nü did not pull the knocker rings. Instead, she tapped lightly on the fangs Di Ting had bared.

Suddenly, Di Ting opened its blood-red maw, revealing a full row of gleaming white fangs. It let out a roar at the three figures before the gate, and then the black iron door swung open.

"Walk eight hundred li of the Yellow Spring Road, then cross the Bridge of No Return and you'll reach the path of rebirth. There, you can be reborn. Go now."

"Bang!"

Lin Yu and Fu Ming were shoved through the door, which slammed shut with a heavy groan. Before them stretched only one wide road of yellow earth.

The Yellow Spring Road was bustling with people. There were old men hunched over as they walked forward, and infants babbling as they crawled along the ground. There were princes in resplendent robes and beggars in rags, learned scholars and mindless livestock.

Every living being, once they entered the Yellow Spring Road, was equal.

Lin Yu looked at the road ahead with some worry. "Eight hundred li of the Yellow Spring Road—it's only been a day. There's no way Zhou Yuan could have walked all the way to the Bridge of No Return by now, right?"

But eight hundred li—where in that vast stretch were they supposed to find anyone?

Fu Ming said, "Her lifespan hasn't ended. She can't reach the Bridge of No Return."

A sudden thought struck Lin Yu, and she asked, "What about Prince Dai? Has his lifespan ended?"

Fu Ming glanced at the thronging masses ahead and replied, "No."

Before Lin Yu could ask anything else, their conversation was cut short. A commotion erupted behind them, outside the black ghost gate.

"Don't just stand there blocking the way! Move! Move!"

Suddenly, a large group of ghost messengers appeared out of thin air behind Lin Yu and Fu Ming. In twos and threes, they shoved newly arrived souls onto the Yellow Spring Road.

Another great wave of the dead flooded onto the road. Looking out across it, there were at least a hundred thousand souls.

Lin Yu was about to step forward and blend into the crowd when a ghost messenger suddenly called out to her. "Wait!"

"You—turn around."

Lin Yu stopped mid-step. Wariness flashed through Fu Ming's eyes. They both turned back, and the ghost messenger walked toward them.

Just as the ghost messenger came within a single step of Lin Yu and tried to move closer, he was suddenly flung backward by an invisible barrier and sent flying!

The ghost messenger crashed to the ground, utterly shocked. He scrambled to right the hat on his head and climbed up from the dirt. "Who goes there?!"

"Everyone, be on guard! She bears the divine seal! She's of the gods!" He was referring to the faint red mark of the Divine Maiden between Lin Yu's brows. When the ghost messenger had gotten too close, the barrier of the divine seal had thrown him back.

Lin Yu's breath caught. She exchanged a quick glance with Fu Ming—both of them were stunned.

Gods and ghosts had been at odds for a thousand years. The Yellow Spring belonged to the Ghost Tribe, ruled by the Ghost King Zhu You. When gods died, they did not become ghosts—they simply fell. Gods never entered the Yellow Spring, and they were forbidden from doing so.

As a Divine Maiden, Lin Yu had received the blessing of the Heavenly Dao and been marked with the divine seal. Even though she was still a mortal, she was classified among the gods.

The Divine Maiden belonged to the gods, and gods could not enter the Yellow Spring. Neither Lin Yu nor Fu Ming had known this—no one had ever mentioned it. In other words, if Lin Yu had never entered the underworld, she would never have discovered that she already belonged to the divine race.

In that instant, every living soul and ghost around turned to look. The world seemed to freeze. Countless ghost messengers emerged from the mist, shouting and charging toward Lin Yu with the intent to capture her!

"Grab her! She's an immortal!"

A ghost messenger sneered. "Catch her and hand her to the Ghost King, and we'll be richly rewarded!"

All of Lin Yu's cultivation had been pieced together from what others had left behind. She had only joined Heaven's Mandate Tower two months ago, so her own practice was shallow. She hadn't prepared for this trip. A dozen or two dozen ghost messengers would have been no trouble for her, but as far as the eye could see, there was no way she could fight them all!

And the ghost messengers seemed endless, stepping out of the mist ahead one after another, chains meant to drag away souls in their hands, hatred burning in their eyes as they came for Lin Yu!

"Hold on!" Lin Yu suddenly pressed a hand against Fu Ming, sweeping her gaze across the ghost messengers. "This man is the emperor of the mortal realm! You ghosts have seized the wrong person—his lifespan hasn't ended, and you dragged him here against all right! And you still have the nerve to scream for my head?!"

Since the ghost messengers were certain Lin Yu was a deity, she might as well use that to bluff them.

Lin Yu's tone turned dark. "Do you think I'd deign to come to this cursed underworld?"

Fu Ming: ?...

Fu Ming quickly caught on and played along. "You've gone too far! When I return, I'll have the Ghost King kill every last one of you as an apology!"

The hundred or so ghost messengers around them froze in place, not daring to move. Soul-hooks and spirit-chains clattered to the ground in a heap.

The aura of the Dragon Throne was something anyone could sense—it had simply been overshadowed by the divine seal and the overwhelming presence of a god radiating from Lin Yu. And the ghost messengers, who loathed gods and had their eyes blinded by hatred, had failed to notice the aura on Fu Ming.

Lin Yu pressed on, her tone forceful and believable. "A living man was dragged into the Yellow Spring. As his guardian deity, of course I must come down to the underworld for a visit. You all should confess your crimes!"

Who could have expected such a turn? A mortal emperor had been led into the Yellow Spring by some careless ghost messenger—something that hadn't happened in a thousand years. Even the souls hurrying to be reborn had turned back to watch the commotion.

Seeing things take a bad turn, the ghost messengers who had come out to help quickly retreated back into the white mist to hide, fleeing faster than they'd ever flown. In a single breath, the hundred or so ghost messengers vanished without a trace.

Lin Yu grabbed one of the ghost messengers and said, "Go fetch your Ghost King. I want to personally question him about which careless ghost messenger committed such a blunder."

The ghost messenger was scared out of his wits. He didn't dare say another word and hurried off to report to the Ghost King.

Among the four realms, the divine realm was the highest. Mortals could cultivate to become immortals—not equal to the gods, but far above the ghosts and demons. Though the ghost realm and the divine realm were at odds, the ghosts, for all their hatred of gods, still had to maintain relations with the mortal realm.

This time, because of their mistake, they'd captured the emperor of the mortal world and drawn a deity down to the underworld to rescue him. After a mess like this, the Ghost King would surely kill them all!

The ghost messenger replied, "Yes..."

He was about to leave when Lin Yu called after him. "Since you've made this kind of error, there must be plenty of others you've wrongly seized. Bring everyone who entered the Yellow Spring in the past seven days. I'd like to see just how many blunders you've committed and how many people you've mistakenly captured!"

Fu Ming gave a barely perceptible chuckle. Standing behind Lin Yu, he lightly held onto the gold-threaded trim of her sleeve, his gaze lingering on her profile and the edge of her hair.

To any onlooker, it would surely seem that Fu Ming, having wandered into the Yellow Spring by accident, was terrified—and lucky his "guardian deity" had come to save him in time, which was why he clung to her sleeve and refused to let go.

The ghost messenger nodded repeatedly and scrambled away.

...

Inside the Ghost King's Palace, the Ghost King was absent. The hall stood empty.

When Di Ting, the Ghost King's trusted aide, heard what had happened, he rushed over immediately. By then, over a thousand souls had already gathered before the palace.

The crowd swelled in front of the Ghost King's Palace—these were all those who had died within the past seven days. Lin Yu stood on the high stone steps before the hall, a headache forming.

It was to find Zhou Yuan and Fu Zheng that she had demanded to see everyone who had entered the Yellow Spring in seven days. But she had overlooked one thing: there were simply too many people in this world. People died at every moment, and seven days was far too wide a net.

Di Ting was an ancient beast of the underworld who had served the Ghost King for ten thousand years before taking human form, becoming his trusted aide and the warden of the Yellow Spring.

Having heard that his ghost messengers had committed an error, Di Ting knew he was not in the right. So he showed no disdain toward Lin Yu, the so-called "deity." He spoke politely: "May I ask which honored deity has graced our eight hundred li of the Yellow Spring? It is truly our great fortune."

Lin Yu swept a glance over Di Ting, contempt clear in her eyes. She did not reply—in truth, because she had overplayed her hand and had no way to walk it back.

Lin Yu's silence did not anger Di Ting. He knew very well that gods were always so arrogant; it was only natural for them to look down on the ghosts of his realm.

Di Ting then turned his gaze to Fu Ming. Fu Ming simply stood behind Lin Yu with an expressionless face, which only confirmed Di Ting's belief that Lin Yu was a deity of considerable renown—even the emperor was her follower, willingly standing behind her in silence.

Lin Yu was still trying to figure out how to find Zhou Yuan and Fu Zheng, as well as the infant souls, among the thousands gathered before the hall.

Then, the crowd parted to make way. A young man walked through the middle of it.

"I wondered which immortal had graced us with their presence. What an honor to have you visit my Ghost King's Palace."

At the sight of the man, Di Ting's eyes lit up. "My lord Ghost King, you've finally returned!"