Before long, the wind eased slightly. The great bell plummeted from the sky, clanging as it bounced and rolled for several dozen zhang before coming to rest.
Xu Ying tumbled out, his legs shaking so badly he nearly collapsed. He steadied himself by gripping the bell, then stood.
After the chaos, everything fell silent.
Xu Ying staggered forward, climbed a small hill, and froze. The Plague God's tentacle had struck the very spot where they had stood, carving a crater a hundred zhang across—its bottom invisible!
White smoke still rose from the pit.
Xu Ying caught his breath. The bell swayed over: "A-Ying, the Plague God has likely marked you. If its first strike missed, it will remember you from time to time and send another."
Xu Ying shuddered, forcing a smile: "The Plague God has been sent back to the Celestial Dao world. It cannot come down so easily."
The bell said: "Unless someone summons the Plague God again. The moment it descends, it will sense your presence and stab you with a finger."
Xu Ying laughed loudly to bolster his courage: "Summoning a Heavenly Deity is no simple matter. I doubt anyone will summon the Plague God again anytime soon."
The bell said with feigned nonchalance: "By the time the Plague God descends again, my injuries should be healed."
Xu Ying's eyes brightened: "When you are healed, can you resist the Plague God?"
The bell spat: "When I am healed, I will obviously get as far away from you—as from this Plague God—as I can, so you fool can be struck dead! Since I met you, my life has been nothing but suffering: injured by the fox-woman, beaten by deities, used by you to smash walls. And now this Plague God debt!"
Xu Ying said: "I feel my blood and qi surge these days, as if I am on the verge of breaking through to the Gate-Knocking stage."
The bell's tone softened: "Focus on your cultivation. Don't keep worrying about the Plague God's revenge. If the sky falls, I'll hold it up—I'm tall. That is, after you break through, lend me some blood and qi for healing..."
Xu Ying sat on the hill and activated his Celestial Eye, surveying this strange land. The black pestilence energy that had filled heaven and earth was gradually dissipating. In the distance, people still lived—but the Plague God's tentacles had been stripped from them, leaving only scars. Before long, they would recover.
The sky and earth were clearing.
"So the girl in the coffin's purpose was to send away the Plague God and save the people."
Xu Ying felt a twinge of doubt. The girl had been imprisoned in a dry well in Stone Mountain's desolate temple for thousands of years—should she not have been a ferocious demon lord?
Why would a demon lord save the people?
If the girl in the coffin was good, then what about the one who imprisoned her?
And what about the great bell?
Xu Ying suddenly thought: he had assumed the bell's master was a righteous figure suppressing evil. But what if the bell's master was the villain?
"It is also possible they are both villains," Xu Ying thought, glancing at the bell.
As he mused, the bell—worried the girl would return—slipped quietly into the back of his head, hiding near the Mud-Pellet Secret Treasury.
Thunder rumbled in the sky, with blinding flashes illuminating heaven and earth at intervals.
Xu Ying felt uneasy. After a long time, the strange phenomena in the sky vanished. Shortly after, a black coffin flew toward him and landed before him.
Xu Ying looked up and saw the girl descending gently from the sky.
"I have severely wounded the one who summoned the Plague God. My Primordial Spirit is still tracking him to discover his true purpose, so I cannot personally escort you back."
She opened the black coffin, fumbled inside, and produced two leaves and a basin of water. She placed one leaf in the basin: "When you reach the Nether River, place this leaf on the water. Stand on the leaf, set down the basin, and blow on the leaf within the basin. Remember—do not let anything disturb the water in the basin. I have placed a spell within it that will return you to Wuwang Mountain."
Xu Ying took the basin, still holding the other leaf, about to speak—but found himself floating involuntarily into the air. In the next instant, he stood at the bank of the Nether River.
He turned. The girl had vanished.
Xu Ying steadied himself and examined the leaf. It was an ordinary maple leaf—still green, not yet turned yellow.
"Can this maple leaf really take me back to Wuwang Mountain?"
Xu Ying tossed the leaf onto the Nether River. As it fell, it grew rapidly, and when it landed on the water, it had become two or three zhang long, its stem curving upward.
The leaf floated on the Nether River, perfectly still.
Xu Ying gingerly stepped onto the leaf, testing it, then stood.
The great maple leaf floated stably on the water, untroubled by the Nether River's waves.
Reassured, Xu Ying sat with the basin and blew on the leaf within. The leaf drifted forward—and strangely, though the basin was only a foot across, the leaf never seemed to reach its edge.
The tiny basin seemed to contain boundless space!
As Xu Ying watched the leaf in the basin, a sudden gale blew from behind, propelling the maple leaf upstream against the Nether River at breakneck speed—covering dozens of li in an instant!
Xu Ying was alarmed, but the gale weakened. The leaf's speed dropped.
As if by instinct, he blew again on the leaf in the basin. Sure enough, the gale surged, driving the maple leaf upstream once more—swift as the wind, racing back the way he had come!
Xu Ying marveled: "Who would have thought such magic existed—it is truly divine!"
The bell flew out from behind his head, disdainful: "It is merely spatial folding. Nothing remarkable."
Xu Ying extended a finger, trying to poke the leaf in the basin. The bell panicked: "A-Ying, don't!"
Suddenly, thunder boomed above. Xu Ying looked up and saw the sky split open. An immense finger, its friction against the air generating rolling thunder and fire, descended from beyond the heavens—pressing down toward the maple-leaf boat!
Xu Ying hastily withdrew his finger. The titanic finger from beyond the sky halted as well.
Xu Ying pulled his finger back. The sky-piercing pillar shrank and vanished.
Xu Ying broke into a cold sweat.
The bell exhaled: "Spatial magic is not a toy. Be careful you don't get yourself killed. Behave!"
Xu Ying sat obediently before the basin. When the maple-leaf boat slowed, he blew to give it speed.
But he was still a youth at heart. He surreptitiously dipped a finger into the basin. The finger from beyond the sky reappeared, penetrating the firmament.
"My finger is so enormous!" Xu Ying marveled.
He adjusted his position to keep the sky-finger away from the river, admiring his colossal digit at leisure. Then—BOOM—the finger struck a mountain peak. Xu Ying jerked his hand back in pain; his fingertip was bleeding.
On the left bank of the Nether River, a mountain peak exploded. Rocks flew, scattering dozens of li away.
Xu Ying was startled and did not dare play further.
The bell, seeing him chastened, burst into delighted laughter, clanging merrily.
The maple-leaf boat traveled eastward for over a thousand li, reaching a desolate region. Steep mountains flanked the Nether River, and the current was swift. At a bend, the waters slowed. Ahead, a light appeared—a painted pleasure barge, brightly lit, gliding upon the Nether River.
At the bend, the water was as wide as a sea. On the western hills hung a moon as large as a bushel, making the peaks seem smaller by comparison.
Xu Ying silently admired the spectacle. The Nether realm possessed its own strange beauty.
"A-Ying, not just any ship can sail the Nether River," the bell whispered. "This barge is likely hostile."
A voice drifted from the barge: "Nai Yue, the wind is picking up on the river. Hang the wind-breaking lantern."
A woman's voice: "Yes, Young Master Xiang."
Xu Ying saw a woman emerge from the barge carrying a lantern. Her figure was graceful as she rose on tiptoe to hang it beneath the eaves.
The moment the lantern was hung, the gale ceased. The maple-leaf boat drifted to a stop on the water.
Xu Ying raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Then the "Young Master Xiang" emerged from the barge. He gazed at Xu Ying from a distance, surprised: "The one who lashed the Plague God in Zhudu and drove it back into the Celestial Dao world—turns out to be a mere youth."
Another pleasure barge sailed over. A beautiful woman aboard it giggled: "Young Master Xiang, he was frozen by your wind-breaking lantern and didn't know what to do—clearly a novice. You made such a grand arrangement, inviting me to help, just to deal with such a junior?"
Xu Ying's heart sank: "Trouble! So behind the Plague God's descent, there are multiple players. One lured the girl away, and the others are blocking me on the river."
Xu Ying coughed and blustered: "Who are you? How dare you block my path! Are you braver than the Plague God?"
The beautiful woman and Young Master Xiang exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.
Xu Ying said coldly: "I can lash the Plague God—can I not lash you two? Leave at once, and I will not hold your insolence against you."
The beautiful woman giggled: "This little ghost is putting on airs in front of us. We can see his cultivation level plain as day. Young Master Xiang—shall I take him, or will you?"
Young Master Xiang held a folding fan, snapping it open with a flourish, waving it with dashing elegance. He smiled: "Thirteen Lady, capturing the one who sent away the Plague God is a great merit. I leave this honor to you."
The beautiful woman regarded Xu Ying, and something stirred in her heart: "In past years, we captured only fair-skinned, delicate youths. This dark-skinned one—never tasted that before..."
Xu Ying was both terrified and furious: "She wants to eat me!"
The beautiful woman giggled. Suddenly, two red silk ribbons shot from the ship, dancing over the river, then transforming into two red dragons—heads as large as small mountains, their fierce aura overwhelming!
The lead dragon roared, its dragon cry shaking the mountains, and lunged toward the maple-leaf boat.
Xu Ying reacted instantly. He pressed a finger into the copper basin, and the sky erupted in lightning and thunder. A flesh-colored pillar of heaven descended, coiling with rolling thunder and fire, pressing down on the red dragon like pressing a worm—pinning it from the surface to the riverbed!
The water exploded, raising waves a hundred zhang high, tossing both barges and the maple-leaf boat into the air.
Young Master Xiang and the beautiful woman paled, steadying themselves. The beautiful woman cried: "He's playing the pig to eat the tiger—a cunning old fox! We underestimated him!"
Xu Ying raised another finger, pressing thumb to fingertip, and flicked.
A giant thumb descended from the sky, middle finger springing outward. The second red dragon coughed blood and was flung away by the flick, crashing into a nearby Nether mountain—its organs shattered, bones broken, dead beyond doubt.
The dragon pinned to the riverbed had also been crushed, its internal organs destroyed, its flesh corroded by the Nether River until only a pile of bones remained.
Xu Ying was both surprised and delighted: "This copper basin has that kind of power?"
The beautiful woman, equal parts furious and terrified, screamed. Behind her, layers ofCéu appeared—greatCéu nested within smaller ones, with river visions beyond them, their Dao rhythms humming!
As she prepared to strike, Xu Ying hastily placed his hand in the copper basin and flicked again. His middle finger burst through every layer of Nuo sorcery and divine power, annihilating them all, and struck the beautiful woman with devastating force.
The barge exploded. The woman coughed blood, her hair in disarray, tumbling several li before crashing into a mountain.
On the other side, Young Master Xiang had raised his folding fan to strike—but suddenly felt a dark weight descend overhead. He looked up, and his eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
Above, a sky-covering hand wreathed in endless flames plunged downward toward him!
He launched himself into the air, sprinting across the void, fleeing for his life.
The hand formed a fist, pursuing him for over a hundred li before landing a distant blow that sent him plummeting into the wilds—fate unknown.
The beautiful woman burst from the rubble, soaring like a startled swan: "Thirteen Lady's eyes were blind! I offended the dark-faced senior—please forgive me!"
"Dark-faced?"
Xu Ying, incensed, stabbed his finger repeatedly into the basin until he finally struck the beautiful woman, shattering her bones and sending her crashing to the ground, coughing blood.
Behind Xu Ying, the bell had been watching, stunned.
"It seems the only one who has not improved all these years is me."
It thought: "The fox-woman was imprisoned by me for three thousand years, yet her cultivation never stalled. Her divine arts are truly heaven-shaking. Even if no one had rescued her, she would have defeated me and escaped on her own before long!"
Hanging in Stone Mountain's desolate temple, it had slumbered for millennia, wasting time. The girl in the coffin, meanwhile, had continued to refine her powers. As the bell weakened and she strengthened, it realized it could no longer fathom her full abilities.