If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 1299 Po Meng
Grand Tutor Yu sighed, "As a sword cultivator with sword bones, it is my duty to fight with others."

But the enemies I've encountered recently have all been far too powerful.

They didn't even bother to fight me; they unleashed devastating, world-destroying powers the moment they made a move.

Thinking back carefully, the last time I had a truly exhilarating sword fight was in your underworld.

The ten Kings of Hell pushed me to my limit; my swordsmanship even broke through several levels.

Ximen Bao couldn't stand it any longer and took the initiative to say, "Grand Tutor, weren't you going to visit relatives? Your godson, Chi Miao, has already been summoned by me."

"Has Chi Miao arrived?" Grand Tutor Yu looked around but didn't see him.

"I also want to go to his house to see how he's been doing these past few years."

Ximen Bao said, "Chi Miao is waiting for the Grand Tutor by the Naihe Bridge behind the City of the Wrongfully Dead."

Once we meet him, we can naturally ask him to lead us on a tour of the blessed lands of the underworld.

Grand Tutor Yu glanced at the "rear" of the City of the Wrongfully Dead; it was dark and incredibly deep.

"In that case, Your Majesty, you go about your business. I will go to the depths of the underworld to find Chi Miao myself."

Ximen Bao hesitated for a moment, then pointed to a clerk beside him and said, "This clerk, Sun, is the inspector of the City of the Wrongfully Dead, Yichen, and is an old acquaintance of the Grand Tutor."

If the Grand Tutor is unwilling to mobilize a large force and bring too many underworld servants, making it a grand spectacle.

How about we have Sun Gongcao act as our guide?

Gongcao Sun Xiao immediately gave Grand Tutor Yu a fawning smile, "This humble servant is familiar with the terrain and will certainly help Grand Tutor solve his problems."

The last time he chased down the copper-headed, iron-browed ghost who guarded Xiuge, Grand Tutor Yu entered the City of the Wrongfully Dead on Yichen Ship and encountered that ghost.

The two were indeed old acquaintances.

"Alright, thank you for your help this time, Chief Clerk Sun," Grand Tutor Yu said with a smile.

"It is my greatest honor to serve the Grand Tutor," Sun Xiao replied immediately.

All the cities of the unjustly dead are built in places where the earth's veins converge.

The underworld behind the City of the Wrongfully Dead is a dimensional rift carved out along the underground veins of the underworld.

Within the dimensional rifts often lies a desolate, black wilderness, extremely barren, with only precipitous black mountains and forests that resemble ghosts and monsters. Countless demons and monsters lurk within these mountains and forests.

The direction in which the Netherworld veins extend is the direction of spacetime in the dimensional rift.

Through the Netherworld veins, all the cities of the unjustly deceased in the Netherworld are connected to the Ten Great Yama Palaces.

This rule applies only to Jambudvipa (the southern continent). Because Jambudvipa is a "divine land," its ley lines are rich enough to create dimensional rifts.

In other provinces, there are also places called "Cities of the Wrongfully Dead," which are similar to the City God's domain but do not lead directly to the Yellow Springs River or the Bridge of Helplessness of the Ten Kings of Hell.

Sun Xiao flew through the deep divine dimension, merging with the laws of the divine path, his speed as fast as data streaming through a network cable. Grand Tutor Yu was even faster than him.

In less than half an hour, they crossed the dark wilderness and arrived at the banks of a vast river that resembled an ocean.

Upon arriving here, one is already in the core area of ​​the Underworld, where one can see countless dead ghosts and the ghost messengers escorting them.

The Yellow Springs River is not yellow; from a distance, it appears as a dark, oily ocean. Upon closer inspection, the water is dark red, like blood.

In the river, clusters of ghostly spirits flickered and sank, their withered, root-like hands reaching for the sky, desperately grasping at a straw for salvation.

It cried out in pain, "Save me, I'm in so much pain!" and "Save me from the River of the Dead! I know how dangerous this is, I'll never run away again!"

There were also rotting corpses, burning with clusters of phosphorescent flames, so many of them that they rose and fell like foam on waves, carried by the currents of the underworld. Bones collided with each other, making a dense "crackling" sound.

It sounds creepy, looks terrifying, and makes your scalp tingle.

"Godmother, your child is over here!"

On the banks of the Yellow Springs River, amidst a beautiful patch of spider lilies, a fat ghost guard raised his hands and cheered excitedly.

He saw Grand Tutor Yu first, because Grand Tutor Yu had become a Buddha.

Before entering the depths of the underworld, Grand Tutor Yu was merely a celestial being with an ethereal appearance and an aura of immortality, his body emitting a faint glow due to the flow of immortal energy.

As the saying goes, the darker the place, the more it highlights the light.

Upon approaching the River of the Underworld, the foul and malevolent energy emanating from the river stimulated Grand Tutor Yu, causing his body to radiate a brilliant Buddhist light.

Even tiny, palm-sized golden lotus phantoms appeared around her, very conspicuous.

There are many ghosts and spirits by the Yellow Springs River, and Fat Chi Miao is inconspicuous, so Grand Tutor Yu couldn't find him at a glance.

But she radiated a dazzling aura of Buddha.

Even the souls of the dead who have fallen into the river and are unable to find release are seeking help from the "Eastern Grand Master Buddha".

Grand Tutor Yu ignored the spirits in the river and the ghost messengers nearby, and went straight to Chi Miao's side. He grabbed the arm of the beautiful ghost next to him and said happily, "Sister Peony, you've come too! After so many years, I'm so glad to see you again."

Peony was equally excited and happy. She held Xiaoyu's wrist tightly and nodded vigorously, saying, "A ghost messenger came to the mansion to call me, saying, 'Grand Tutor Yu, you have actually become the Grand Tutor of the Chinese Divine Land!'"

Even though I've heard countless legendary tales about you, it still feels like a dream.

After a sigh, she continued, "The ghost messenger said you were coming to visit relatives and asked if I wanted to see you. Of course, I was more than happy to. So Chi Miao and I have been waiting for you here."

Fatty Chi laughed and said, "Godmother, I went to watch you cause a ruckus in the underworld last time! Unfortunately, by the time I arrived, you were already gone."

Xiaoyu asked, "After I caused trouble in the underworld, were you affected?"

Fatty Chi nodded repeatedly, “It has a huge impact! I was promoted three ranks at once and became the ‘Bridge Guardian Envoy’.”

Now he has eight fierce bull-headed gods, twenty ghost generals, and over a thousand ghost soldiers under his command!

Peony continued, "When I learned that you had caused a great disturbance in the underworld, I was worried that they would drive me away from the blessed land."

A few days later, it was indeed a ghost or spirit that made me leave the 'Chi Mansion'.

Instead of leaving the blessed land, they moved into a royal palace deep within it.

The number of servants who attend to me has increased by thirty.

Besides the ghost servants transformed from funerary objects, there were also two noblewomen from China, who were princesses from the Warring States period!
They said they wanted to be my housekeepers.

How could I possibly accept this? I thanked them profusely and pleaded with them until they finally left.

Do you remember my former maid, Cui Rong?

Alas, she had a terrible fate. She had been dead for almost two years and had no place to stay, wandering like a ghost in the desolate mountains.

"This time, I was found by Jiang, the City God of Western Shu, and then sent here by Hu, the Chief Judge of the Underworld. Finally, I have a place to settle down and make a living."

“Cui Rong.” Xiao Yu did have a vague memory of her. “Of the three hundred gold coins you left behind that day, she got fifty gold coins by herself. How did she end up being abandoned in the wilderness?”

"She was unlucky in love; a man swindled her out of all her money, and then she was sold to a merchant."

As she spoke, Peony thought of herself again, her expression becoming complicated and her voice lowering.

Grand Tutor Yu sighed and ended the topic with Cui Rong, asking, "I see that Sister Shaoyao's soul body is solid, as if she has cultivated a Taoist technique such as Taiyin Refining Form."

At this moment, the peony looks almost like a real person.

Not only does she look exactly like a real person, but her "function" is also no different from that of a living woman. In short, if she were to follow the example of the "ghost woman from Liaozhai" and go to the human world to find a man to marry, she could have children.

Peony turned her head and glanced at Chi Miao, who was standing beside her with a respectful and fawning expression, and sighed, "You've taken in a good son!"
Chi Miao truly treated me like a mother, and over the years he has searched for many secret methods and elixirs for me.

Thanks to his sustenance, I cultivated for ten years to reach my current level.

Chi Miao smiled shyly and said, "It was originally prepared by your mother. There are more than 800 secret manuals and more than 30 kinds of pills!"
Most of the elixirs were refined by myself over the years.

"It's a pity Mother's powers are now unparalleled. Uh, no pity at all. All those ordinary cultivation techniques and elixirs I prepared are useless to Mother. Not only is it not a pity, it's actually a great thing!"

Xiao Yu felt that Chi Miao's techniques and elixirs played only a secondary role in Shaoyao's achievements.

Because the "magical power" fluctuations on the peony were not only weak, but also very superficial.

Calling it "magic power" is an insult to "magic power".

This indicates that the cultivation method she practiced was very poor.

The fact that the peony was able to achieve such a successful transformation through the practice of refining its form is likely largely due to the auspicious burial site that she prepared for the peony, which played a crucial role.

"My son, you did a great job!"

Yu's godmother patted her godson's head hard, her eyes filled with praise and satisfaction.

This made Fatty Chi so happy that his chubby face turned red and his eyes welled up with tears.

"Mother, I owe everything I have today to your planning and help. I only regret that my magic is too weak to help you." Chi Miao was both excited and disappointed.

Xiaoyu said, "I'm still taking the 'Soul Nourishing Pill' that you gave me back then!"

As for cultivation techniques and secret manuals, there are never enough of them.

"I'll take as much as you've prepared, the more the better."

"Good, good, good, I've prepared a lot, they're all kept in the manor," Chi Miao said happily.

Xiaoyu glanced at the Bridge of Helplessness and asked, "Is Grandma Tai nearby? Now that we're near the River of the Dead, it would be impolite not to visit her."

Chi Miao said, "Grandma Tai is on the Bridge of Helplessness. I often meet her and talk to her. She is a very kind person. I will take my mother to see her."

Xiaoyu told the peony to wait in the red spider lily patch while she followed Chi Miao across the Bridge of Helplessness.

If we go to the Journey to the West in later generations, a "VIP passage" will be opened on the River of the Underworld for nobles and sages: nobles will walk on the golden bridge, and sages will walk on the silver bridge.

The Golden Bridge and Silver Bridge are guarded by "bridge messengers" who carry banners to guide the souls of the dead, ensuring they walk steadily and without the danger of falling into the River of the Dead.

Ordinary talents must cross the treacherous Bridge of Helplessness.

Currently, the underworld has not yet implemented such reforms that are more in line with humane development, and all the souls of the dead are crowded on the Bridge of Helplessness.

A chilling wind swept through, penetrating to the bone; waves of blood surged, and the stench of blood filled the air.

Outside Liangqiao, blood-red waves surged hundreds of feet high, and the souls on the bridge thronged shoulder to shoulder, like water crammed into a pipe, flowing forward uncontrollably.

The unlucky souls will be pushed down and swept away by the blood-red waves.

The sounds of weeping could be heard both on and under the bridge.

After crossing the Bridge of Helplessness, there is an open-air plaza.

A withered old woman, who looked to be in her seventies or eighties, sat on a stone stool, smoking a pipe.

She was short, and when she sat on the stone stool, her feet were two or three feet off the ground, swaying back and forth.

In front of the old woman stood more than twenty minotaur-like figures, carrying teapots the size of rice cookers and continuously pouring slightly murky soup into the bowl.

It looks a bit like rice porridge.

The souls lined up and, urged by the soul guide, picked up their teacups and drank them down in one gulp.

Regardless of whether they were crying in pain or full of hope and anxiety before, after drinking the soup, they immediately became dazed and confused, and spontaneously drifted towards the cycle of reincarnation.

—That Meng Po is living too comfortably. She doesn't even have to scoop the Meng Po soup herself; instead, she makes her underlings do the work while she sits on the side smoking her pipe.

"Junior Yu Fengxian pays respects to the Goddess Houtu."

Grand Tutor Yu walked up to the old woman, knelt down respectfully, and kowtowed three times.

Tai'ao is Meng Po, and also the "Empress Houtu" in the "Heaven and Earth" system. This is common knowledge in the Three Realms, not some ancient secret.

The minotaurs carrying the large teapots kept glancing at her with curious eyes, but they didn't stop working.

The old woman exhaled a smoke ring, opened her eyes, and glanced at her. "Chi Miao's mother? You're quite polite! Get up."

The old woman turned to the minotaur and muttered, "Chi Miao's mother also gave a copy of 'Houtu Witchcraft' to the back mountain, which can be considered a great favor to you."

Unfortunately, only the first chapter of "The Art of the Earth Goddess" exists. "Bring tea."

—The Goddess Houtu also praised my "Houtu Witchcraft" and seemed to value it highly.
Xiao Yu felt reassured and said seriously, "Last time was too short, and I only had time to create one 'Witch God Technique'."

Once I have gained new insights, I will definitely help the brothers in the back mountain and all the Ox-Headed brothers to complete the remaining techniques.

"Hmm, not bad, not bad, you've put your heart into it. Serve some good tea!" The old woman nodded with a smile.

Immediately, a bull-headed man came over carrying a teapot and poured Xiaoyu a bowl of "rice soup".

Xiao Yu felt a surge of doubt: "You're the Goddess Houtu, how come you're learning from those shameless immortals and cultivating that damned 'Heart-Cleansing Mantra'? What's there about me, a junior, that you should be wary of?"

Well, compared to a bowl of "rice soup" with unknown effects, she would rather gain a "Houtu Niang" (a deity associated with the earth).

Now that she had failed to trigger the Great Destroyer, she was not only disappointed, but also began to have doubts about whether she should drink the Meng Po soup next.

"Thank you for the tea, Your Majesty." She hesitated for only a moment before picking up the "Meng Po Soup" and drinking it all in one gulp.

Houtu Niangniang is clearly repaying the karmic debt of "Houtu Wushen Gong" (Houtu Witchcraft), so she can only benefit her and will not harm her.

Upon first sip of the Meng Po soup, all the flavors and emotions—sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, joyful, angry, sad, and startled—vanished instantly.

She was like an old computer that was churning out dozens of programs, suddenly pressing the "Disk and Background Cleanup" button.

All useless distractions and emotions were cleared away, leaving only clear and distinct memories.

Even the "useful memories" from the previous life become vivid, as if they just happened.

"I've traveled thousands of miles and I'm really thirsty. Brother Ox, could you please pour me another bowl?" Xiaoyu put down the bowl and said sincerely to the Ox-Headed Man.

The minotaur gritted his teeth slightly, refraining from lashing out, and only glanced at the old woman out of the corner of his eye.

Grandma Tai smiled with her eyes narrowed.

The minotaur poured Xiaoyu another bowl of rice porridge.

"Thank you for the tea, Your Majesty." Xiaoyu quickly picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp.

But the moment the soup touched her tongue, she was like a hard drive that suddenly went "formatted," and all her memories vanished in an instant.

She stood there blankly for a long time without reacting.

"Mom, why did you even drink the Meng Po soup!" Fatty Chi wailed. "Grandma Tai, my mom's gone~~"

(End of this chapter)