Chapter 145

The man surnamed Xie on the main platform began waving the command flag in his hand.

Wisps of black energy continuously rose from below, gathering into the black vortex, making it grow larger and denser.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the man surnamed Xie wasn't casting a spell; he was merely guiding.

The curse cloud above his head was, in essence, unrelated to him.

Perhaps because the curse power from those around him had been drawn upward and concentrated, they temporarily became less "unbearable to look at."

At least, when Li Zhuiyuan deliberately turned his head and his gaze nearly encompassed someone sitting beside him, he felt no strong warning signs in his heart, and his eyelids no longer twitched.

Though still very dangerous, Li Zhuiyuan continued to turn his head and look at the person.

For the first time, he saw the person clearly.

Dressed in a black robe, he was nearing forty. Even with a face as pale as snow, the resolute lines of his features remained visible.

Despite being long dead, he still exuded an aura of righteousness.

It was a contradiction, yet it genuinely existed.

This was because centuries ago, this very person had arrived here full of fervor, shouting slogans, and suppressed the General, averting a great catastrophe.

Such a person, even in death, commanded respect.

At this moment, his eyelids were lowered, and his hands formed seals.

He was casting a spell.

Li Zhuiyuan shifted his gaze, freely looking at the others.

The people present primarily wore clothes of four colors, representing the four families of the Old Tianmen sect.

They were the elite of the four Old Tianmen families of that generation; otherwise, they wouldn't have been chosen to fight alongside the Dragon King.

Xiong Shan and his group had investigated the story from back then, and through Lihua, Li Zhuiyuan also roughly understood the sequence of events.

All that was known was that after that battle, the "big figure," the Qin family's Dragon King, vanished from the martial arts world.

Li Zhuiyuan suspected that the Qin family's Dragon King was Qin Kan, as Qin Kan was also from the Yuan Dynasty.

In the genealogies of other families, he would undoubtedly be Qin Kan.

For instance, in the Yin family's genealogy, when glorious ancestral deeds were mentioned, there was no need to think or doubt; turning to the first page of the genealogy would undoubtedly show Yin Changsheng as the one who did them.

But the Qin family was different; too many Dragon Kings had emerged from their lineage. Even though the Yuan Dynasty was short-lived, there was no guarantee that only one generation of Dragon Kings appeared from the Qin family during that time.

It was unknown whether the Qin family's Dragon King's subsequent disappearance was due to severe injuries from the battle preventing him from acting again, or if he grew tired of the martial arts world and decided to retire, or perhaps a new generation of the family was emerging, allowing him to rest.

However, when the Dragon King intervened, he brought along the four Old Tianmen families, and when sealing the General, he even allowed Niu Daojie to sacrifice his own blood relatives to complete the sealing.

This clearly showed how difficult the General was to deal with back then.

Sometimes, it wasn't about being unable to defeat them; some evil entities were genuinely hard to kill.

In short, that battle was brutal; just counting the number of people present here revealed that almost all of the core strength of the four corpse-driving families was lost here.

Now, everyone present was doing the exact same thing.

They were all forming seals, all casting spells.

Those wisps of curse power were converging upward in this manner.

At first, Li Zhuiyuan suspected that the man surnamed Xie had turned them into puppets.

But Li Zhuiyuan quickly dismissed this guess.

If the man surnamed Xie possessed such great power, why would he be hiding here?

He would have long since taken the initiative to seek revenge on those three families himself.

Therefore, they were not puppets, at least not under the control of the man surnamed Xie.

Next, Li Zhuiyuan began observing whether they possessed self-awareness.

The environment here was very similar to what he had seen with the Cat-Faced Old Lady.

The Cat-Faced Old Lady had also once used the paper figures, tables, chairs, pots, and bowls on the first floor of his great-grandfather's house to set up a birthday feast.

However, the General was, after all, an entity that had once required the Dragon King's personal intervention to suppress. Comparing him to a newly formed corpse demon from the countryside was simply too insulting to the General.

This place was actually the General's "miasma," where he used his own resentment, along with that of the buried and fallen soldiers, to create a unique environment belonging to him.

The maidservants and eunuchs, the Yuan soldiers, and the knights, all those phantom figures seen on the way here, were actually the General's phantoms (chang), as they all existed by relying on him.

But that didn't mean all phantoms were under absolute control.

For example, Xiao Huangying from his hometown, now Xiao Yingying, who works as a helper at his great-grandfather's house, is actually a phantom of the entity under the peach tree, but Xiao Huangying's actions are entirely autonomous.

So, did these people here, who were forming seals and casting spells, possess autonomy?

Li Zhuiyuan, currently in the banquet hall, was unaware that Zhuang Zhuang, outside and proclaiming himself a Dragon King, had already established connections with the eunuch through bribery.

If he had known, he would have been certain that the phantoms here, these "people," had actually retained a part of their self-awareness and were not puppets controlled by the General.

Li Zhuiyuan could only analyze based on the General's state: a General on the verge of fading away would probably find no meaning in staging another shadow play for himself at this point.

Then, while the man surnamed Xie on the main platform turned to face another direction, Li Zhuiyuan pushed aside the straw figure beside him and deliberately waved at the person next to him. Although the other person continued casting the spell, their eyes, beneath lowered lids, actually flickered in his direction.

He had self-awareness.

Li Zhuiyuan pushed the straw figure aside again and looked around.

Everyone in the surrounding circle glanced at him while continuing to cast their spells.

They all had self-awareness!

Li Zhuiyuan re-embraced the straw figure, astonishment in his eyes. They knew what they were doing!

These ancestors of the Old Tianmen's four families, especially those from the three families who died fighting to suppress the General, while being fully self-aware...

...were casting a curse on their contemporary clansmen, or rather, their descendants.

They had fought together here. When Niu Daojie decided to sacrifice his family's future to complete the General's sealing, they jointly swore an oath: mutual vigilance among families, sharing life and death.

This was a guarantee to Niu Daojie, to ensure that the family which made the greatest sacrifice would not fall into complete decline in the future.

But how much binding power did the ancestors' vows hold over their descendants?

The effectiveness of an oath largely depended on the person.

And indeed, after Niu Daojie's battle, his surviving clan moved to Peach Blossom Village, guarding the General's tomb for generations.

The Ming and Qing dynasties should have been the golden age for corpse-drivers, but the other three families forcefully suppressed them.

According to the man surnamed Xie, there must have been a hidden reason behind the General's resurgence in the late Qing Dynasty, and the three families gathering again in Peach Blossom Village to seal him.

It was likely the three families intended to completely seize everything from them.

Firstly, Niu Daojie occupied the General's tomb, leading to suspicions that the Xie family had gained benefits from it. Secondly, Niu Daojie truly possessed unique family techniques coveted by the other three families, such as the spellcraft they were witnessing now.

In any case, after that battle in the late Qing Dynasty, the Niu Daojie lineage became sparse, almost dying out.

The three families who participated in that battle and returned never spoke of the events.

The ancestors of these three families, upon learning of what their descendants had done, made a choice and took concrete action.

Since the ancestors' vows couldn't restrain their descendants, they would use a curse.

They would repay the Xie family's debt, and they would clean up their own family's affairs!

Li Zhuiyuan found this scene absurd, with a hint of sorrow in its absurdity.

Accustomed to the deceitful atmosphere between the living and the dead, and to constantly calculating, plotting, and exploiting human weaknesses, he suddenly faced such purity and felt an intense sense of unsuitability.

Confronting a group of such "clean" people, he suddenly felt a bit soiled himself.

Li Zhuiyuan looked up again at the black vortex above; much had condensed, but very little had flowed out.

This was because most of the curse power had been intercepted and could not dissipate.

Perhaps what little flowed out was what allowed the corpse-driving teams to periodically visit those three families and randomly take away one of their descendants.

This level of loss certainly caused fear and discomfort for the three families, but it was far from shaking their foundations.

Furthermore, it was evident that the three families were constantly trying to understand the rules here and had already initiated targeted actions.

From a professional perspective, there was only one reason for the intercepted curse power: the General had not yet completely faded away.

Whether the General intervened to stop it was not important, because as long as he existed, this place remained his miasma, and the curse power could not escape this environment; at most, only a tiny wisp might overflow.

And now, truly, too much had accumulated.

When Li Zhuiyuan looked at this black vortex, he felt a sense of dread.

Once such a vast and dense amount of curse power lost its restraint and completely erupted, it wouldn't just be those three families who suffered.

Even if every member of those three families had their heads chopped off three times over, they couldn't absorb so much.

More likely, the curse power would backfire onto the casters. These righteous individuals who had sacrificed themselves to suppress evil entities back then would, under the influence of the curse's resentment, lose all self-awareness and transform into terrifying, maddened evil spirits.

They would charge out, wreak havoc, and unleash an even more terrifying disaster.

Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help but look at the man surnamed Xie on the main platform, still vigorously waving the command flag.

He had no objection to the man surnamed Xie seeking revenge.

But couldn't he do his work less crudely?

If he were to do it, he would decide the timing of his action based on the General's specific time of demise, thereby controlling the situation perfectly.

Even if he was impatient for revenge and didn't want to wait any longer, he would still devise a method to better transmit the curse power outward, instead of letting it accumulate here completely, growing larger and larger like a balloon being inflated.

In short, the young man would ensure that those three families were almost wiped out, leaving only a few stragglers to live a miserable life worse than death under the residual effects of the spell, for his own entertainment when he was bored.

Li Zhuiyuan gazed into the man surnamed Xie's eyes.

Was this something he simply couldn't achieve, or was it entirely not what he desired?

He was blind, but Li Zhuiyuan didn't believe he was unaware of the enormous explosive he had planted, and that it was still being compounded today.

Could it be that what he wanted was complete destruction?

What was to be destroyed was not only the three families, but also the peace that their ancestors had protected with their sacrifices.

Did he think it was foolish, stupid, or worthless, and just wanted to use a catastrophe to overturn everything?

Li Zhuiyuan believed this was the man surnamed Xie's true intention, and it also explained the General's gaze towards him.

Li Zhuiyuan again surveyed the people still forming seals around him. So, the General must have also found it quite ridiculous and helpless.

He had once wanted to escape this triple-heaven suppression and unleash a unique disaster upon the surrounding area, but he was suppressed.

Yet, those who had suppressed him back then were now preparing to create a new catastrophe no less devastating than his own.

When this new catastrophe would occur depended on when he perished.

He himself... had surprisingly become the one preventing this catastrophe.

Li Zhuiyuan began lightly tapping the table with his left hand, while his right hand mimicked swirling a wine glass that didn't exist in reality.

The young man's mind quickly began to sort out the entire sequence of events.

His "Fourth Wave" was likely meant to resolve this disaster.

As of now, although the General was rapidly fading, he still existed, which aligned with the original timing for the Fourth Wave.

As for Xiong Shan, he had, from the very beginning, misunderstood the intent of his "wave."

He thought Jiang Shui wanted him to seal the General, and he almost succeeded. The problem was, given the General's current state, taking another sealing strike would likely accelerate his demise.

Then, the powder keg here would be ignited and explode.

It was even possible that his near success last time was due to the General deliberately holding back.

Because it was clear the General could see his true self through the straw figure Xiong Shan had created.

He had even recognized his inherited identity.

Xiong Shan's expertise in Chenzhou Talisman disguises was useless in the General's eyes.

The General was dying, but some of his power and insight remained.

From the General's perspective, he might not actively instigate it, but it seemed he also wouldn't mind if this explosive detonated.

He might view it simply as setting off a grand fireworks display for his own funeral.

He felt a mutual respect and understanding with the Dragon King and the righteous individuals who had suppressed him, but this didn't mean that he, a great evil entity, had been reformed and now cared for all living beings.

At this moment, the man surnamed Xie stopped waving the command flag, a smile on his lips.

Below, everyone also stopped forming seals and casting spells.

Gradually, the vortex of curse power, which had grown larger and concentrated in the air, began to disperse, falling back onto each person below.

They became unbearable to look at once more, and even more so than before.

Li Zhuiyuan sat upright, his blind spots reappearing over large areas.

The man surnamed Xie disappeared.

Li Zhuiyuan took the opportunity to end his journey to the netherworld.

On the main platform, he saw the man surnamed Xie standing before Yin Meng, telling her something.

Yin Meng's previous journey to the netherworld had ended quickly, so she hadn't seen the man surnamed Xie's earlier actions.

Of course, Li Zhuiyuan suspected that even if Yin Meng had seen it, she probably wouldn't have understood what exactly was happening.

The man surnamed Xie first recounted his family's hardships. Li Zhuiyuan, having good hearing, heard the entire conversation and learned his name was Xie Shun'an, a very straightforward name.

Finally, Xie Shun'an asked Yin Meng, "Tell me, should I take revenge on them?"

Yin Meng didn't answer, merely watching him warily.

The man surnamed Xie smiled again. It seemed he wasn't expecting an answer, merely wanting to chat since a guest had arrived.

This was a guest invited by the General, and he had no right to dispose of her, or he would anger the General, because, theoretically, he was also just one of the General's guests.

But not for long.

Xie Shun'an picked up the General's armor and left with a loud laugh. His movements seemed exaggerated, but considering what he was doing, they actually appeared understated.

Li Zhuiyuan sat properly in his original seat. He hadn't understood before why they were unbearable to look at, but now he did: looking at them was like an ordinary person staring at a powder keg about to explode. Getting close could lead to being incinerated.

The banquet ended.

The corpse-driving teams outside re-entered, starting to take guests away.

Now, he should be worried about his own departure.

If a local corpse-driving team really came to pick him up, would he be taken to their lair after getting onto the bamboo stretcher?

Imagining himself standing among a crowd of unbearable entities, the scene was truly a bit hopeless.

Just then, Li Zhuiyuan saw a eunuch walk up to him and point at him.

"Huh? Aren't they going to see the guests in the back off first?"

Immediately, Li Zhuiyuan heard Tan Wenbin's and Runsheng's footsteps.

They squatted down behind him.

Li Zhuiyuan turned around with his eyes closed, first placing the straw figure on the stretcher, then holding onto Runsheng's clothes.

Beside him, he also heard the footsteps of Xiong Shan and Lihua, along with a child's soft murmur.

It seemed almost too smooth, so smooth it was as if the eunuch had been bribed with a red packet.

So, it was indeed true; all the phantoms here retained a significant degree of self-awareness.

"Brother Xiaoyuan, our plan..."

Along the path down the mountain, a eunuch or maidservant stood at regular intervals.

As they reached a corner, Runsheng pulled out two incense sticks, lit them, and stuck them into the ground.

The nearby maidservants and eunuchs immediately ran over, squatted down, and began to inhale.

Following Tan Wenbin's plan, Li Zhuiyuan seized the opportunity to quickly leave the group, jumping into a pit at the corner. This was actually a recess on the side of a cliff.

No sooner had Li Zhuiyuan landed than he heard something falling from above. He immediately turned and reached out, catching a swaddled infant.

These parents certainly were bold, just throwing their child down like that.

However, Li Zhuiyuan also knew that Xiong Shan and Tan Wenbin had reached an agreement, as their side still had two more people to bring down.

Li Zhuiyuan sat in the recess, holding the child.

After a while, another person slid down from above; it was Lin Shuyou.

"Brother Xiaoyuan!"

Lin Shuyou was overjoyed to see Li Zhuiyuan, practically weeping with happiness, and was about to come forward to recount his recent tension and anxiety. Instead, a swaddled infant was tossed to him, which he had to quickly catch.

Li Zhuiyuan said, "You take care of the child for a bit."

Lin Shuyou nodded, "Understood."

"Where's Mengmeng?"

"I don't know. When I was put on the bamboo stretcher, I saw that Brother Bin was carrying me. Then Brother Bin told me to jump off here; he said they still had to go pick up more guests."

Li Zhuiyuan frowned slightly. Did that mean Yin Meng was being picked up by Xiong Shan and his wife?

But the question was, why hadn't Yin Meng come down with Lin Shuyou?

He didn't believe Xiong Shan was deliberately uncooperative, as Xiong Shan's son was still with him.

Next came a long period of waiting.

Li Zhuiyuan took out paper and a pen from his bag. He pondered and sketched methods to resolve the impending crisis, while listening to Lin Shuyou's account.

The general idea was largely consistent with his own conjectures.

Yin Meng had suddenly learned how to journey to the netherworld.

But it wasn't as he had thought, out of boredom on the train or while watching Brother Hu's trio.

Instead, it was because of that particular play, when Lin Shuyou and Yin Meng, acting as a quarreling couple, were so fully immersed in their roles while "setting the hook" in front of Brother Hu's trio.

The quarrel was fake, that was true, but the content of their argument was all real.

Mengmeng had been hurt.

Along the way, whenever she had a break after swapping shifts with Lin Shuyou, she desperately tried to practice journeying to the netherworld.

Under the strong stimulus of shame, she actually managed to master it.

It was worth noting that Granny Liu had once given Yin Meng the assessment of being "innately dull-witted."

This alone showed how greatly Yin Meng had been stimulated this time.

As for Brother Hu and his two companions, although they were karmic threads created by Li Zhuiyuan, they indeed connected to the current after arriving here.

They naturally couldn't find Shazi Village in Baichi Town, but after many inquiries, they found a place with a similar-sounding name and went there to search. As a result, these three idiots took the wrong path, not only failing to find the similar-sounding place but also getting lost in the mountains.

Lin Shuyou and Yin Meng naturally followed them all the way. Seeing the trio get lost, they certainly didn't intervene; instead, they were glad, as it allowed them to continue biding their time.

When the trio got tired and began setting up makeshift beds to sleep in the mountains, planning to find their way out after dawn, Lin Shuyou took over surveillance while Yin Meng rested.

Yin Meng couldn't sleep, so she started practicing journeying to the netherworld. With one try, she succeeded.

Her first sight after succeeding was a corpse-driving team passing by in the distance.

The team was drawn by her "gaze"...

And then, everything connected.

Li Zhuiyuan suspected that Brother Hu and his companions were located not far from the old residences of those three families, or perhaps directly on the path corpse-drivers took to 'hook' people from those families.

However, the trio were implicated by Yin Meng; they were originally sleeping when they were mistakenly assumed to be part of the group and taken into the team.

But these three had engaged in all sorts of vile acts: bullying, extortion, molestation, humiliation, and robbery. Such human scum truly belonged in a den of ghosts.

Li Zhuiyuan knew that resisting entities that didn't touch the ground was very difficult; even he had to avoid them. But he was curious about one thing:

"Did you go into a trance?"

When he asked this question, Li Zhuiyuan already knew the answer.

Lin Shuyou replied, "I tried, but I couldn't."

As expected, even the White Crane Boy dared not look directly at such immense curse power. If it truly burst forth, it would likely strip him of his divine status, leaving him unable to even be a ghost.

But this wouldn't do indefinitely. The Boy would descend for easy problems but simply wouldn't appear when things looked bad.

Everyone else was fighting desperately; why should he be allowed to pick and choose?

Li Zhuiyuan flipped a page in his notebook, then paused. "It seems," he thought, "I should design a mandatory summoning for the Boy."

"Brother Xiaoyuan, this child is so well-behaved, not crying or fussing. So cute."

Lin Shuyou was playing with the child. The child actively reached out, smiling sweetly, and tried to grasp Lin Shuyou's finger.

"Then you should hurry up and have one."

"Heh heh, my grandfather really wants me to get married and have children soon."

Li Zhuiyuan tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

How exactly should that thing be dealt with?

It couldn't be dispersed, nor could it be transferred. If it leaked outside, it would be a disaster.

But even if it erupted here, the Old Tianmen ancestors would suffer a backlash, transforming into monsters, bursting out, and causing an even more terrifying catastrophe.

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes again, lowered his head, picked up his pen, and began writing down various options and their consequences.

With his mental speed, he didn't really need to do this, but he needed to weigh the options.

After checking through the options, Li Zhuiyuan selected the optimal solution for the present situation. However, the reasoning for this optimal solution made him want to laugh.

But gradually, the young man's expression grew serious.

It seemed it might actually work, because at least it was *a* method!

At this moment, Tan Wenbin, Runsheng, and Xiong Shan's couple all slid down from above.

Yin Meng was still nowhere to be seen.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "Where's Mengmeng?"

Tan Wenbin cursed, "Damn it, Mengmeng is a distinguished guest. A high-ranking eunuch was specifically in charge of escorting her to her quarters. The eunuch I bribed wasn't as high-ranking as him."

"Do you know where she was taken?"

"Into the palace."

Lihua took her son from Lin Shuyou and kissed his forehead.

Xiong Shan spoke, "Since your subordinate was treated as a distinguished guest by the General, she should be in no life-threatening danger. At most, she'll be a guest for a few more days, then arrangements will be made for her release."

Li Zhuiyuan understood Xiong Shan's meaning and asked:

"Are you leaving?"

Xiong Shan nodded. "Otherwise?"

Li Zhuiyuan said, "Things here are a bit different from what you originally expected. I saw some things in the banquet hall that I can tell you about."

Xiong Shan's face showed conflict.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "What, you're not even willing to listen?"

Xiong Shan replied, "I'm afraid after I hear it, I won't be able to leave. I have a feeling you really want me to stay."

Li Zhuiyuan frankly stated, "I want to resolve the situation here, so I need manpower."

Lihua said, "This no longer concerns us. Once we leave here, he'll perform the 'lighting the lamp' ritual, and the rest of our lives will be dedicated to raising our son and avenging Second and Third Brother."

Xiong Shan added, "Yes, that's right, I've already decided on this. Little brother, I advise you to mind your own business. You should know that every sip and peck is decreed by fate; not everything needs your intervention. Some things are simply destined to happen."

Having said that, Xiong Shan and Lihua, with their child, prepared to climb up.

The maidservants and eunuchs had already returned to the palace. The banquet hall was now empty; they just needed to re-enter and jump down from the waterfall to return to the lake's surface.

Li Zhuiyuan watched their retreating figures and said, "Every sip and peck is decreed by fate, but aren't you curious how Second and Third Brother actually died?"

Xiong Shan abruptly stopped, turning his head to look at Li Zhuiyuan. "What do you mean by that?"

Lihua was more direct, demanding, "You know how Second and Third Brother were captured?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "I don't know."

Xiong Shan pointed a finger at Li Zhuiyuan. "Little brother, you shouldn't bring up Second and Third Brother in front of me like this."

Runsheng and Lin Shuyou immediately stood up.

Tan Wenbin shoved Xiong Shan's hand away and asked, "Three favors, and you can't even be polite? Is that it?"

Xiong Shan took a deep breath, withdrew his finger, and clenched his fist.

Li Zhuiyuan wasn't angry, nor did he feel offended, because he wanted them to stay and fight desperately for this matter.

Moreover, what he was about to say wasn't intended to deceive them; it was his genuine suspicion.

Li Zhuiyuan said, "Xiong Shan, since you're operating in the martial arts world, let me ask you something: can you truly admit defeat and withdraw by performing the 'second lighting the lamp' ritual?"

Xiong Shan replied, "Of course, that's a well-known rule in the martial arts world."

Li Zhuiyuan continued, "So the martial arts world is that accommodating? If you encounter a small wave, you just cross it, but if a big wave is coming, even if it's right in front of you, even if you're already caught in it, all danger will vanish into thin air just by quickly performing the 'second lighting the lamp' ritual?"

Xiong Shan fell silent.

He came from an unconventional background, having learned many things through his own insights. He wasn't truly clear on this matter, but what the young man said made sense; Jiang Shui (the river) was never sentimental.

Li Zhuiyuan said, "If everyone played like that, wouldn't it be chaos? Although each person only gets one chance to journey through the martial arts world in their lifetime, wouldn't everyone just pick and choose the easiest paths?"

Just like the White Crane Boy.

Even he couldn't stand the Boy's opportunistic behavior and was preparing to deal with it; would Heaven's Dao really allow it to continue?

Lihua tugged at her husband's arm, signaling him to speak.

Xiong Shan soothed his wife, then looked at Li Zhuiyuan, his tone softening a little as he asked, "Are you certain about what you're saying?"

"Not certain. That's why I'm asking you, how did Second and Third Brother die?"

"How would I know?"

"If it's truly as you said, that Second and Third Brother were only tasked with surveillance, then would they really have failed so easily?"

"That's also what I don't understand. I don't believe those two families could have taken down Second and Third Brother so easily, and both of them at that."

Li Zhuiyuan said, "I think so too."

From his interactions with Lihua, Li Zhuiyuan could sense the quality of Xiong Shan's team. Although Lihua had a child with her, she was almost flawless in terms of disguise, arrangement, and reaction.

Therefore, Second and Third Brother would, in all likelihood, be even more capable than Lihua.

Xiong Shan said, "Are you saying that because I wanted to perform the 'lighting the lamp' ritual and admit defeat, Jiang Shui started punishing me? But when Second and Third Brother were captured, I was here, trying to seal the General, and I almost succeeded!"

"So, can you now listen to me finish explaining what I discovered here?"

"Go on," Xiong Shan said, sitting down. "I'll listen."

Seeing this, Lihua also had no choice but to sit down with the child.

Li Zhuiyuan recounted the truth of the matter as he had pieced it together.

The more the people present listened, the greater the shock on their faces.

Tan Wenbin exclaimed, "The Old Tianmen ancestors could actually do something to this extent."

Runsheng said, "Heroes."

Xiong Shan's expression suddenly became grim. He said in disbelief, "So, if I had successfully sealed the General, I would have actually triggered this disaster early?"

Li Zhuiyuan said, "When I was sitting there holding the straw figure, the General saw through my disguise, so your near success that time was probably also intentional on the General's part."

Xiong Shan's breathing became ragged, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "I... misunderstood Jiang Shui's intention?"

Li Zhuiyuan added, "But it's not just that."

Xiong Shan's body began to tremble. This outstanding man, who had risen from obscurity, was truly afraid now.

Only those who had performed the 'lighting the lamp' ritual and experienced the river understood the fear of being dominated and guided by Jiang Shui.

"Not only did I almost mess things up, but I was also planning to withdraw immediately..."

Xiong Shan knew better than anyone how immense the benefits of operating in the martial arts world were; otherwise, he wouldn't have risked bringing his son along.

But if Jiang Shui could give so generously, then the punishment it inflicted when its will was defied would be all the more terrifying.

Li Zhuiyuan continued, "If this disaster ultimately erupted because of your withdrawal, tell me, who would bear the blame?"

"I... I..."

The scene the young man described was too terrifying. If that catastrophe were ultimately attributed to him, "terrifying" wouldn't even begin to describe it.

Li Zhuiyuan softened his tone and said, "To be safe, let's get through this 'wave' before performing the 'lighting the lamp' ritual."

After speaking, Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head.

Following his usual habit, after saying that, he should have looked at the child, knowing that the child was the couple's weakness.

Rationally utilizing all conditions to achieve his goals was something he considered perfectly normal.

But this time, he didn't want to do that.

Perhaps it was because he hadn't been away from A-Li long enough this time.

Or perhaps he deliberately wanted to use this detail so that when he later recounted this 'wave' experience to A-Li, she would feel that his condition had improved another layer.

But even if Li Zhuiyuan didn't look, others would.

Runsheng and Lin Shuyou immediately looked at the child.

Tan Wenbin hadn't originally looked, but seeing that the other two already had, he reluctantly glanced as well.

There was nothing for it; everyone found the act of bringing a child along on Jiang adventures unusual. They knew the couple intended to accumulate merit for the child, but if no merit was gained and it ended up being deducted instead, then the child...

Lihua cried while holding the child, but she quickly wiped away her tears, her gaze firm, and nodded to her husband.

Xiong Shan looked at Li Zhuiyuan and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I'm also trying to achieve my goal and want you to help fight desperately. If either of you dies in the upcoming action, it'll be quite normal."

Xiong Shan immediately said, "It doesn't matter if we die; we just hope you can help us with our child..."

Li Zhuiyuan replied, "I don't like children."

Tan Wenbin stood up, mediating, and said, "Exactly, you don't necessarily have to die. You two live well. None of us here are married yet. Who has the time to live with a burden?"

Lihua smiled.

Xiong Shan stroked his wife's hair and said, "I have a request."

Tan Wenbin held up three fingers. "That's three favors, three favors!"

Xiong Shan looked awkward and said, "No, what I mean is, if I survive this time, I hope to go to Nantong, find the Li family of corpse-retrievers in Nantong, and pay my respects."

Li Zhuiyuan replied, "Agreed."

Inside the palace, which was now mostly ruins, not many intact structures remained.

Xie Shun'an walked through it, arriving before the former main hall.

This was once the center of the underground palace, where the General's coffin was buried.

Now, the palace had completely vanished, leaving only a giant pit in its place.

Inside the huge pit lay a black coffin.

Even within this palace, which now resembled a ruin, this coffin appeared remarkably ordinary and somewhat out of place.

Xie Shun'an placed the General's armor he was holding nearby, then, gripping the edge of the pit with both hands, he leaned down and called into it:

"Great-grandfather, I've come to visit you again."

"Creak..."

The coffin lid slowly slid open, revealing what was inside.

Inside the coffin, the corpse wore a pristine yellow Daoist robe, and beside it lay a set of corpse-driver's ritual tools.

However, the Daoist's face was completely covered by hair.

"Great-grandfather, open your eyes and look at me..."

The hair on the Daoist's face gradually parted, revealing the General's face, wizened and thin like a monkey's.

This was where the General's true body resided.

Back then, that member of the Xie family sacrificed a blood relative, creating a life-and-death seal. The Qin family's Dragon King then used this seal to completely suppress him.

Since then, he and that Xie family member had been one in body and soul, up to the present day.

Xie Shun'an smiled and said:

"Great-grandfather, the General has been tired for a long time. Please don't force yourself to hold on any longer. Letting the General perish soon was also your long-held wish back then."

"Besides,"

"you yourself could be freed sooner, couldn't you?"