Uncle Nine: You were supposed to drive corpses, so you summoned the Monkey King!

After dark, Lin Chen and Qiu Sheng rushed back to Renjia Town.

The gate to the mortuary was ajar, and the courtyard was quiet.

Lin Chen carried his suitcase and pushed open the gate to enter the courtyard. Uncle Jiu was teaching Maoshan Ming how to draw talismans.

Seeing the two return, Uncle Jiu put down his purple-tipped brush.

"Something happened?"

Lin Chen placed the leather suitcase on the stone table and opened it, revealing an iron box covered in white frost inside.

Uncle Nine stared at the box for a long time.

"The seal has been broken?"

"It's half broken." Lin Chen recounted what happened on the water.

Uncle Nine walked around the stone table a couple of times with his hands behind his back. Then he stopped, took out the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Mirror, and a beam of purple-gold light shone on the iron box.

The white frost on the surface of the box melted quickly, revealing a crack about the width of a finger.

No yin energy emanated from the crack. A dark red bone fragment lay inside, exuding an eerie aura.

Uncle Nine's brows furrowed into a knot.

"Uncle-Master, what is this?" Lin Chen asked.

"This is the key to Guixu," Uncle Nine said.

"key?"

Uncle Nine nodded. "The Nine Nether Sect's Ten Meridians Grand Array not only draws energy from the earth, but it's also a massive lock."

"They want to completely open up that century-old underground yin vein in the southwest."

"This bone fragment is the life-bound bone of the century-old zombie king. Only it can stabilize the key point of the Yin meridian array."

Uncle Nine placed the Bagua mirror on the box to suppress the aura of the bone fragments.

"The fact that they were in such a hurry to move the bone fragments means that preparations at Guixu are complete."

"Now that the bone fragments are in our hands, the sect leader of the Nine Nether Sect must be in a panic."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the sky outside the mortuary changed color.

The night sky was covered by dark clouds.

A dark red beam of light appeared in the southwest, turning half the sky crimson.

All the dogs in Renjia Town started barking.

The yin energy from underground seeped out from the soil. The withered leaves in the yard were swept up and flew around by the wind.

Uncle Nine walked to the middle of the courtyard and looked at the pillar of light in the southwest.

"He can't wait any longer. Without the key, he's going to force his way through the formation."

Master Four Eyes came out of the house carrying the Crimson Thunder Sword.

"Senior brother, isn't this commotion a bit too loud?"

Uncle Nine turned around and unleashed his aura.

"Go and invite Chizuru and Master Ikkyu here."

"Auntie Zhe, bring out all the top-grade talismans in the mortuary."

"Lin Chen, go and prepare black dog blood and cinnabar, the more the better."

Uncle Nine glanced at Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai beside him.

"Close the door tightly. Nobody is allowed to go out tonight."

Half an hour later.

Master Qianhe carried two peach wood swords, one long and one short, into the mortuary.

Master Ikkyu followed behind, with Buddhist prayer beads around his neck and a wooden fish in his hand.

"Senior brother, the earth's energy in the southwest is disordered," said Daoist Qianhe.

Uncle Nine nodded and pointed to the iron box on the table.

"The old monster from the Nine Nether Sect is trying to forcefully open the Void Returning to Nothingness. Lin Chen intercepted the key to the array's core."

Master Ikkyu put his hands together and recited a Buddhist chant.

"This old monster has lived for a hundred years and his cultivation is too high. He forcibly opened the earth's veins, and all living things within a hundred miles will suffer."

Master Four Eyes slammed the Crimson Thunder Sword into the ground, smashing half a brick.

"What's there to be afraid of? We're a bunch of old bones stuck together, what are we afraid of, some half-human, half-ghost thing?"

Uncle Nine walked to the ancestral tablet and lit three incense sticks.

"Let's go to Guixu tonight."

Lin Chen stood to the side watching these people.

Uncle Nine was radiating the magical power of a mid-stage Earth Master.

The long and short swords on Master Qianhe's back hummed.

Master Ikkyu's wooden fish hammer was gripped so tightly that it left marks.

Master Simu also put away his usual joking manner.

"Lin Chen will come with us. Qiu Sheng, Wen Cai, and Mao Shan Ming will stay behind," Uncle Jiu arranged.

Just as Qiu Sheng was about to speak, he was glared at by Master Simu and shut up.

"With your mediocre skills, you'd just be a mouthful of food for them. Just stay put."

The group carried their belongings and pushed open the gates of the mortuary.

The livestock dared not go southwest, and the five men did not hire a carriage, relying entirely on their own strength to travel.

Lin Chen followed, circulating the Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture. The four people in front moved extremely fast.

Uncle Nine took a step that covered three or four meters, using the technique of shrinking the distance to an inch.

Master Qianhe and Master Yixiu followed closely behind. Master Simu ran alongside, carrying a fifty-pound heavy sword.

After running for two hours, the five of them crossed more than a hundred miles of mountain roads and entered the deep mountains of southwest China.

There is a canyon ahead. Green miasma floats at the entrance.

"Outer barrier." Daoist Qianhe took out a compass, but the pointer spun wildly and got stuck.

"Master Ikkyu, this is troublesome."

Master Ikkyu sat cross-legged and struck the wooden fish.

With the sound of knocking, the green miasma began to churn and disperse.

Master Qianhe drew his short sword, bit his fingertip, and drew a blood talisman.

The short sword flew out of his hand and into the depths of the miasma.

A passage was blasted through the miasma.

"Let's go." Uncle Nine led the way into the canyon.

The passageway was filled with mutated zombies that lunged at the group.

Master Four Eyes swung his Crimson Thunder Sword in a wide arc, and the sword ignited with pure Yang golden fire.

With a single sweep of his sword, he severed seven or eight zombies.

Lin Chen, wielding the lightning-struck wooden sword, activated the Heavenly Thunder Summoning Technique and followed behind, clearing out any lone zombies.

The five fought their way through the canyon and arrived at the entrance to Guixu.

There's a sinkhole in front of us. The red light is coming from the bottom of the sinkhole.