"Let's go! Guys, kill these underworld officers! Seize the Book of Life and Death! This place will be ours!" With that, Yuan Er led the charge towards the city.
What Bai Lingmiao hadn't expected was that the divine powers these Xinsu displayed were not primarily their own cultivation abilities, but rather a myriad of strange and wonderful powers from other sects.
These Xinsu, like Li Huowang, had learned things from various other places.
Seeing a continuous stream of underworld soldiers pouring out, Bai Lingmiao's earlier suspicions deepened. "Ox-Head, Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence are all here, and Fengdu City too. Could this truly be the Underworld?"
"If the Underworld really exists, then wouldn't my family members all be here?"
However, seeing that they were already fighting at the city gates, Bai Lingmiao immediately refocused her thoughts and pulled out a string of human bone prayer beads from her satchel.
She slowly closed her eyes, and with a face full of compassion, recited Buddhist scriptures from the Zhongyin Temple, while slowly turning the human bone prayer beads in her hand, which were made from ground human brow bones.
Each time she turned a bead in her hand, the underworld officers who had suffered fatal injuries in the distance instantly perished.
During the pauses in Bai Lingmiao's chanting, control of her lower body transferred to Er Shen.
Her grotesque half-beast face split open, and her blackened fingernails pulled out a drum whip, rapidly striking the human bone drumhead. "Feet on the earth, head to the sky! Dressed in robes, whip in hand! First drive the red, then drive the yellow, drive the long python and spirit mink, bringing the King of Sorrow!!"
As her entire physical body rapidly merged with various beasts, and various organs extended from within her, Er Shen swung her legs in reverse joints, charging forward, leaving a trail of blood and gore in her wake.
Underworld officers and ghost generals continuously emerged from Fengdu City, but Yuan Er and the others, looking at the bodies on the ground, seemed to see hope, and exerted themselves even more vigorously in displaying their divine powers.
Just as the surrounding corpses piled up more and more, a judge with one grotesque half-face and one rotting half-face floated towards them, riding a sinister wind.
The assisting spell immediately ceased, and Er Shen looked in astonishment at the gigantic judge, who was several heads taller than a human. "There's actually a judge here? This ghostly place is becoming more and more like the Underworld."
Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao's chanting paused slightly, but immediately after, she continued to turn the prayer beads in her hand and resumed her chanting.
When the judge settled on the roof of a haunted house, looking at everything below, his lidless eyes suddenly widened, and he roared like an opera singer: "Hmph! How can this be—!!"
With that, he raised the judge's brush in his hand, and quickly sketched lines on the dark purple book he held.
As he sketched, the corpses strewn haphazardly on the ground immediately revived, standing up again and surrounding Bai Lingmiao and the others.
Unbeknownst to her, Bai Lingmiao's chanting ceased. Her mouth trembled as she opened her eyes, staring in utter shock at the Book of Life and Death in the judge's hand.
"That thing is real, everything they said is true! That's the real Book of Life and Death! With that, I can bring everyone in the village back to life!"
"Grab it!" With a shout from Er Shen, both the Xinsu and the white donkeys simultaneously abandoned their surrounding enemies, charging towards the judge.
"Hmph!" Looking at these people, the judge's face showed disdain. As he raised his judge's brush and looked at one of them, with a light stroke on the Book of Life and Death, a white donkey's body immediately stiffened, falling to the ground dead.
Just as he turned his gaze to the Xinsu with the full beard, and was about to make another stroke on the Book of Life and Death, Bai Lingmiao appeared before him.
As the judge's brush descended, Bai Lingmiao's hand simultaneously tapped the Xinsu's head.
When the brush was lifted, the bearded Xinsu still stood there unharmed, his soul not having been taken by the Book of Life and Death.
When someone attempted to manipulate a person's death, as Xinpan, the arbiter of death, it would be quite embarrassing if Bai Lingmiao couldn't prevent it.
"Don't be afraid! With me here, he can't determine your life or death! Quickly, seize that Book of Life and Death!!"
Everyone who heard this instantly threw caution to the wind, charging even more furiously towards the judge.
Many even abandoned their defenses, letting other underworld officers strike them with weapons, as they couldn't die in this place anyway.
Continuously sketching on the Book of Life and Death, and seeing that it had no effect, the judge on the roof panicked. He immediately floated up, preparing to retreat and make other plans.
"When the old immortal comes, don't forget to bring the three treasures, the three treasures! The Immortal-Binding Lock, the Immortal-Binding Rope, and the Soul-Capturing Vase carried behind the horse! Throw the three treasures at you; if the grip's not tight, kick it with your feet; if the bind's not firm, push with your feet!!"
The drumbeats instantly ceased, Er Shen raised the drum whip, forcefully swung it through the air at the judge above, then sharply pulled it down.
Subsequently, the judge seemed as if he had truly been pulled by something, losing control of his body and falling downwards.
By the time the fallen judge tried to get up, it was too late; in the distance, the white donkeys raised their saintess high and threw her forcefully towards them.
Er Shen, with a crazed expression, rushed forward with wild laughter, her black fingernails digging into the judge's cheek. As she exerted tremendous force and pulled, the judge's entire jaw was ripped open.
While Er Shen was taking action, Bai Lingmiao was not idle either. She stretched out both hands, grasped the Book of Life and Death in the judge's hand, and pulled it hard.
As she snatched the Book of Life and Death, which was almost taller than herself, and felt its heavy weight in her arms, Bai Lingmiao couldn't help but shed tears of excitement. She was certain she could bring her entire family back!
However, the next scene caught everyone off guard. As the underworld officers and ghost generals retreated like a tide, another judge, holding a Book of Life and Death, slowly floated down.
But that wasn't all; on the other side, yet another judge, also holding a Book of Life and Death, slowly floated down.
Judges appeared one after another. When everything settled, a total of nine new judges stood before them.
Looking at the Book of Life and Death in her arms, and then at the books in the judges' hands, Bai Lingmiao cried out, "What in the world is going on?!"
"The Ten Kings of Hell naturally have ten judges! Don't you even know that?" Yuan Er, looking very grim, quickly approached with a group of Xinsu.
"Who told you there are ten judges?"
"My grandma told me, of course, and all the elders in the village say so. How can you not know something everyone knows?"
Upon hearing this, a terrifying conjecture in Bai Lingmiao's mind made her body tremble violently.
"I misjudged you before; I didn't expect you to have such capabilities. If one judge can be handled, these nine should be manageable too, right?" Yuan Er asked, gripping his magical artifact tightly.
Er Shen immediately understood Bai Lingmiao's thoughts, and promptly looked at Yuan Er, warning him: "We can certainly handle nine judges, but I'm worried about the underworld hounds in this Underworld!"
"Underworld hounds?"
