Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 557 My Life Was Traded for a Cat

“I can tell the Ghost King is holding back, but you really don’t seem to be acting.” Ren Yuan sized up Wu Xie.

"Ugh!" Wu Xie rolled her eyes, not wanting to pay him any attention.

"What advice does the Ghost King have for me?" Ren Yuan asked, clasping his hands in a respectful gesture towards Wu Xian. He was a man of principle, incapable of repaying kindness with enmity.

"I am here to lend you a hand," the Ghost King replied.
"Meow……"

"You want to help?" Ren Yuan was so surprised he couldn't close his mouth, but what surprised him even more was that a cat's head peeked out from the Ghost King's arms.

"A tabby cat?" Ren Yuan was dumbfounded, unable to understand how the tabby cat had ended up with the Ghost King.

"Wenli, are you dead?" That was the only possibility he could think of.

"It's not dead, but it's playing dead." The Ghost King pressed the cat's head back into his arms with a look of disgust. "When we set off, it was still bragging to me, but it stopped talking halfway through the journey."

"Give it back to me first." Ren Yuan reached out his hand to ask for it back.

"No, this is exchanged for your life. The deal is done, and there's no going back on it." The Ghost King resolutely refused.

"What?" Ren Yuan stared at A Yao in shock. "He's talking nonsense, isn't he?"

Ayao lowered her head in shame, feeling terribly sorry for the tabby cat. It must be angry with her, that's why it didn't say anything.

"It is indeed true." Wu Gu also appeared on the Chinese Shenzhou and testified, "It was I who came up with this idea for them."

"..." Ren Yuan was momentarily speechless. Although Wenli was his good friend, the thought of exchanging a cat for his resurrection felt rather strange...

It was Zu Chongzhi who broke the awkward silence.

"Are we setting off or not? Isn't time running out?"

Ren Yuan looked at Wu Xian, Wu Xie, and Wu Gu... How the hell are we supposed to set off?

What if, while you're dreaming, the Ten Witches break your bones and tendons, turning the tables on you and trapping you in their trap?
“We can join forces with them,” Chen Qingzhi said in a deep voice.

"Alright." Ren Yuan naturally trusted his judgment and called out loudly, "Let's go!"

"Alright, let's go!" Zu Chongzhi shouted, and the Chinese Shenzhou flapped its wings and flew into the vortex of light.

~~
A dazzling array of colors and bizarre lights flashed before everyone's eyes.

Once visibility returned to normal, the Chinese spacecraft had already arrived over a large swamp.

A familiar aura washed over him. Ren Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense and saw the Golden Crow perched on the Jianmu tree in the East Sea, and the Jade Rabbit pounding medicine in the Moon Palace...

"This is the Yunmeng Great Marsh, and Dreamland is located deep within it," he said to Chen Qingzhi and the others who had just arrived.

"Is the realm of the Dream God so vast?" Chen Qingzhi asked in astonishment.

"This isn't a divine realm," Ghost King Wu Xian said with a sneer. "It's just His unconscious dream. Here, He is just like us, without any special privileges."

"Yes." Ren Yuan nodded and said, "We've been in Yunmeng Marsh for so many years, and we've never interfered with Mengxiang."

"That's because Wu Yang is too lazy to bother with us. If he had known this day would come, he would have flown over and blasted us to smithereens long ago," Zu Chongzhi said with a sneer.

“Alright…” Ren Yuan nodded and asked Wu Xian, “Now you can tell me what you’re up to?” “Nothing special, we just want to get rid of Wu Yang.” Wu Xian said in a deep voice, “That woman is a madwoman, yet incredibly powerful. I’ve been fighting her for decades and haven’t gained any advantage.”

"Not only did we not get any, we were all chased back to our hometown," the witch chuckled.

"Don't bring up the sore spot." Wu Xian glared at him, then said seriously to Ren Yuan:
“Boy, although you have become an ancient god, you are still no match for Wu Yang on his home turf.”

"Can you do it?" Ren Yuan asked.

“Neither can I.” The Ghost King’s lips twitched twice, then he emphasized, “Of course, even in the Ghost Kingdom, He is no match for me—that’s the power of the ancient gods. Within their own divine realm, they are so powerful that they are almost invincible! Even if the main god descends, it will be difficult for them to defeat us.”

"It can be said that within our own divine realm, we are the supreme gods!" He said, emphasizing each word.

"I see..." Ren Yuan thought to himself, "Why don't I have a divine realm?" Then he remembered that Hou Jing didn't seem to have one either.

“The divine realm cannot be built overnight. It requires you to fully exercise your authority in the mortal world and will take decades or even centuries to establish,” Wu Xian explained.

Ren Yuan understood. It turned out that Hou Jing, like himself, had only been an ancient god for a short time and hadn't yet had time to establish divine rule...

“So to defeat Him, we need to destroy His divine realm first,” Wu Xie continued.

"Like when I smashed through the eighteen levels of hell?" Ren Yuan asked.

"Tch..." Wu Xie turned his head away in anger again.

“No.” Wu Xian shook his head and said, “The eighteen levels of hell are just an extension of my divine realm. Although they are also my home ground, their destruction will not harm my essence.”

"Understood." Ren Yuan nodded. The fact that the Ghost King allowed him to destroy the eighteen levels of hell itself proved this point.

“Dreams are the same; they are merely tools for us to exercise our power. Destroying those dreams will not harm Wu Yang’s foundation.” Wu Xian continued, “Moreover, dreams are elusive and shrouded in mystery; no one can find them all.”

“But if we don’t destroy Dreamland, there will be a continuous supply of energy to support the Floating Island,” Wu Gu said in a deep voice. “Wu Yanghao can also wear us down to death.”

"Don't worry about the dreamland problem, we already have a solution." Chen Qingzhi and Zu Chongzhi had been planning for many years, and now they were confident of success.

"So we can go straight for the Floating Island!" he continued in a deep voice. "The deepest part of the Floating Island is the Eternal Dream Palace, which is restricted by Wu Yang's authority, and no one can reach it directly. We must first break through Huaxu City, which is guarded by the Ten Divine Generals and countless Nightmare Bochi."

“There are ten temples in Huaxu City, which are used to support the divine realm. Destroy them, and Wu Yang’s divine realm will be ruined.” Wu Gu also said softly, “Only then can we talk about defeating Wu Yang.”

She paused for a moment and then added, "Wu Yang's origin is within the Divine Palace. No matter how many times you defeat him, he will be resurrected unless it is destroyed."

"So, our mission now is to first break through Huaxu City, then destroy the God-Slaying Temple, and finally capture the Eternal Dream Palace and kill Wu Yang?" Ren Yuan gestured as if he were strangling someone with a rope.

"Hmm." The Ghost King nodded: "But Wu Yang won't stay obediently in the Divine Palace waiting for you to come knocking, and the Ten Divine Generals won't sit idly by and watch Huaxu City fall. So the first battle will be the decisive battle. When we attack Huaxu City, we will definitely face them."

"Yes." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Now that the God of War is here, I can finally relax," the Ghost King said imperiously. "I've also brought ten thousand elite Ghost King soldiers with me, who will also be under your command."

“Alright.” Chen Qingzhi readily agreed, then asked in a deep voice, “As far as I know, Wu Yang’s subordinates are all in a spirit form, invisible and intangible, coming and going without a trace, impervious to water and fire, and difficult to be harmed by swords and spears. I wonder if the Ghost King’s army can handle them?”

“Alright.” The Ghost King nodded and said, “In order to deal with Wu Yang, I have also turned these 10,000 Ghost King soldiers into spirits. Spirits against spirits, neither of them can gain the upper hand.”

As he spoke, He raised his hand and released billowing black mist from his wide sleeves.

In the blink of an eye, the black mist spread out and surrounded the Chinese Divine Ship. Ten thousand Ghost Kings in spirit form emerged from the black mist!
(End of this chapter)