The Hehuan Sect cultivates alchemy; my senior sister helps me refine alchemy throughout the world.

Tie Suanpan knelt on the ground, cold sweat streaming down his neck.

He originally wanted to make up an excuse to get by, but when he met Shen Yifei's ambiguous smile and heard the words "only one chance," his words changed as they reached his lips.

He swallowed hard. "Yes...it's the judge."

Shen Yifei raised an eyebrow: "Which judge?"

"Judge Cui, who is in charge of the Book of Life and Death in the Underworld," Tie Suanpan blurted out. "This Reincarnation Decree was originally a bet that the King of the Underworld lost to Thirteen Sister. The King of the Underworld was unwilling to give up and had been looking for an opportunity to take back the Reincarnation Decree. However, Thirteen Sister had a bet contract written by the King of the Underworld himself, so he couldn't just take it by force. Therefore, he sent a few of us to keep an eye on it and to take it back as soon as it left the Gates of Hell."

"How did you know that the Reincarnation Order was to leave the Gates of Hell?" Shen Yifei patted Tie Suanpan's face.

"The token bears the judge's soul-guiding seal! Judge Cui left a restriction on the token back then, so as long as the token leaves the Gate of Hell area, he can immediately sense its location."

Liu Mengli narrowed her peach blossom eyes. "That judge is really stingy. He even held back something after losing something."

Seeing that the two men believed him somewhat, Tie Suanpan quickly continued to feign innocence: "Grandpas, I've told you everything I know. Please, be magnanimous and spare my life."

Shen Yifei did not rush to respond.

He looked down at Tie Suanpan's fawning face and suddenly felt the cursed power in his consciousness begin to stir again, as if it wanted to drain Tie Suanpan dry!

Shen Yifei suppressed his impulse and asked again, "Besides ordering you to seize the token, did the judge tell you anything else?"

Iron Abacus's eyes flashed: "No...nothing else."

"That's all? Did the judge overestimate the four of you, or look down on me? He only sent the four of you to steal the Reincarnation Decree? Heh, you're kidding me..."

"Master, we are ghosts now... but you're right, I think this judge is either stupid or dumb!"

Shen Yifei shook his head. "I feel this trip is not simple; it might be another trap."

However, Shen Yifei didn't care. No matter what conspiracies or traps there were, he had to go to the Wangxiang Terrace. He had to retrieve his mother's soul!

He forcefully suppressed the urge of the curse to drain the iron abacus dry. "Go back and tell the judge to wait for me at the Viewing Platform! I want to meet him too! If he tries any more schemes, I'll kill them all!"

Upon hearing Shen Yifei's words, Tie Suanpan felt as if he had been granted a pardon. Ignoring the three brothers lying on the ground, he scrambled away and disappeared at the end of the Yellow Springs Road.

"Master, do you believe him?" Liu Mengli asked.

"I'd say I believe it only halfway, but two things are certain: first, they are indeed being watched by Judge Cui; second, this Reincarnation Decree is not as simple as we imagine."

Liu Mengli took his arm. "Master, who cares? Even if the Ghost Emperor blocks our way, we'll still take him down! Come on, let's go pick up Mother and take her home!"

Liu Mengli spoke with great bravado, but as soon as she finished speaking, she paused, glanced back, and curled her lips into a smile: "Master, that little slut has been following us all the way. Aren't you going to take her in?"

"Let her come if she wants," Shen Yifei thought for a moment. "With her limited cultivation level, if she's willing to take the risk, then let her come."

"Master, aren't you afraid she'll be snatched away by a vicious dog?" Liu Mengli leaned against his arm with a smile. "She only followed you because of you, and you, on the contrary, don't know how to cherish a lady at all."

"Stop being sarcastic," Shen Yifei poked her forehead. "If something really happened to her, would I just stand by and watch her die?"

Liu Mengli rubbed her forehead. "Master, this little vixen is quite something, aren't you even a little bit tempted?"

"If you say that again, I'll send you back to the Cauldron of All Things."

"Oh, Master, I won't say anything more, I was wrong. By the way, you still can't contact the inside of the cauldron?"

"Hmm, this curse power is quite strange..."

"Master, it's nothing. Shi Yan is the leader of the nine demon gods; he knows us inside and out!"

"Oh, so do you think he's a good person or a bad person?"

After pondering for a while, Liu Mengli shook her head. "She's always polite to everyone, has a very good temper, and never gets angry."

"What powerful martial arts techniques does he possess?"

"He controls time; none of us have any secrets from him!"

……

As they talked, they quickly crossed the Evil Dog Ridge.

The two walked and talked, heading forward along the Road to the Underworld.

This road was completely different from the one at Evil Dog Ridge. The road surface had turned into a dark red flagstone, bare and without a single blade of grass. On both sides of the road were hazy, desolate fields, obscuring the distance and making it impossible to hear any sound.

The more Shen Yifei walked, the more uneasy he felt.

He glanced back, but the path behind him had vanished into a gray fog, and he couldn't see the way he had come at all. Looking ahead, all he could see was a hazy gray expanse, as if he were walking through an endless passage.

"Mengli, this road doesn't seem right," Shen Yifei said in a low voice. "How long have we been walking?"

"About... an hour? Two hours?" Liu Mengli couldn't say exactly how long it had been.

"At our speed, we should have seen Jinji Mountain in an hour or two. But look ahead, it's still the same road, without even a bend."

Liu Mengli frowned as well. She squatted down, reached out and touched the dark red stone slab under her feet, tapping it twice with her fingertips: "Master, something's strange. There's a restriction on this stone slab. We're probably just going around in circles."

Shen Yifei's expression changed slightly: "A ghost wall?"

"This is much more advanced than being trapped in a maze." Liu Mengli stood up, her eyes slightly narrowed, and the power of reincarnation faintly flowed in her eyes. "Someone has set up an illusion array here, trying to trap us to death."

Shen Yifei chuckled: "It's not that Judge Cui again, is it?" He patted the Reincarnation Token at his waist. "I haven't even gone to cause him any trouble yet, and he keeps tripping me up."

"Master, don't worry." Liu Mengli closed her eyes, gently pressing one hand on the ground. A faint golden aura spread from her palm, seeping into the ground inch by inch like ripples in water.

After a long while, she opened her eyes. "Found it. The key to the formation is in the southeast, about three hundred feet away, where a stone house is hidden."

"A stone house?"

"Yes, the core of the illusion array is located inside the stone house, which is covered by a layer of restrictions."

"The key to the formation? Okay... Mengli, let's gouge out his eye now!"

Following the direction Liu Mengli pointed, the two stopped looking at their feet and walked for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. Sure enough, they saw a stone house emerging from the mist ahead.

The stone house was small, with the door ajar, through which a sliver of dim light shone.

Shen Yifei tiptoed to the door and listened intently.

There were voices inside the room, their voices high-pitched and thin.

"Strange, strange indeed! That road is usually free of ghosts, so why is it so eerie today?"

Another voice, somewhat hoarse, said, "Old Huang, could it be that person is coming?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Yifei's lips curled up.

That person?

Could this formation have been prepared just for me?

He raised his foot and kicked the door open.

"Clang!"

The door panel slammed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

Inside the room, two people were squatting in front of a stone table, frantically fiddling with a bronze mirror on the table.

Hearing the noise, the two of them looked up at the same time, both turning to look at the doorway.

Shen Yifei stood at the door, raised his hand to greet the two, "Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm the person you've been waiting for!"