Song Ciwan and Aunt Zhou stopped in front of the inverted Buddha statue.

An inverted Buddha blocked the path. Could they still go forward? 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

DING DONG, DING DONG...

The silken tassels swayed, their crisp chimes making one’s heart pound. Aunt Zhou clutched her chest, gasping for breath. "Th-this... Are we still going forward? That Fairy, did she also pass this way?"

Song Ciwan’s response was to flip her palm, revealing a small Copper Mirror with ghostly patterns on its back.

It was the Tongyou Mirror she had stored in her Heaven and Earth Scale. This mirror could reveal Low Level Ghosts, Yin Qi, and the true forms of Village Level or weaker strange entities!

Song Ciwan held the mirror and channeled a wisp of True Qi, aiming the mirror’s surface at the inverted Buddha.

A moment later, a twisted shadow materialized from the inverted Buddha’s head and face.

The shadow had the shape of a human head and a scorpion’s tail. The instant the Tongyou Mirror’s light fell upon it, the shadow inside the statue seemed to sense it. Its scorpion tail twitched, and a sharp SCREECH that felt like it could pierce one’s very Divine Soul suddenly rang out amidst the swaying tassels.

"Ah!" Aunt Zhou cried out, stumbling backward.

Song Ciwan turned the Tongyou Mirror, and with a flick of her fingers, a wisp of blazing flame—the Heart Sutra Fire combined with Samadhi True Fire—shot forth.

The flame was a brilliant white. It was just a thin, unassuming thread of light, but its speed was almost too fast to perceive.

Before Aunt Zhou’s cry could even fade, the flame had already pierced through space and ignited the scorpion-shaped shadow within the Buddha statue.

The Spirit Fire and True Flame merged, their power multiplying wondrously. In a mere moment, the shadow’s scorpion tail shot up as it was burned into nothingness with a shriek.

THUD! The inverted Buddha statue collapsed to the ground. The many hanging silken tassels beside it all changed color, becoming like lifeless dry grass, and RUSTLED to the floor.

In the eerie glow of the moss, the statue’s painted surface was mottled. On its head, one stone eye remained, its pupil lifeless as it stared out at the world.

Her heart still pounding, Aunt Zhou stammered in a panic, "Miss Song, just now... what was that?"

Song Ciwan retracted the Tongyou Mirror and gave Aunt Zhou a gentle push. "A Low Level strange creature. No need to panic, I’ve already killed it. You should go on ahead."

The statue was a statue, but what lived inside it wasn’t a true Buddha. It was a ghost!

The Heaven and Earth Scale appeared: [Gray Travel Level Mysterious Ghost Spirit, aura of wrongful death, eight taels and two maces, sellable.]

Hearing her words, Aunt Zhou carefully stepped over the fallen Buddha statue and walked a few steps forward.

Once she had passed, Song Ciwan followed behind her.

But out of Aunt Zhou’s sight, Song Ciwan summoned the Heaven and Earth Scale again. With a turn of her Qi Absorption Technique, she silently sucked the fallen Buddha statue on the ground into the scale.

In addition to the statue, she also took all the discolored red silken tassels from the cave walls, scraping the place clean.

’Whatever it is, useful or not, I’ll take it all back. I’ll sell it all later when it’s convenient!’

This experience opened the door to a whole new world for Song Ciwan once again.

She suddenly realized her thinking had been too limited. Since the Heaven and Earth Scale could sell anything, why not broaden her horizons a bit?

For the rest of the way, Song Ciwan, leading Aunt Zhou, encountered several more small Gray Travel Level ghosts. She killed each one with a single strike before scavenging everything she could from the surroundings.

She didn’t even spare the mud and rubble tainted with a ghostly aura. By doing so, she was also clearing the path for anyone who might come after. Who could say Song Ciwan wasn’t benefiting others while helping herself?

After walking for an unknown distance and time, the terrain of the tunnel suddenly changed, shifting from a gentle, winding path to a winding, upward slope!

Without delay, Song Ciwan pulled Aunt Zhou along, leaped up using her Qi, and climbed the steep slope. After some distance, she suddenly felt a wave of rolling heat wash over them from ahead.

Accompanying the heat wave was a crimson glow and the sound of bells and drums, seeming both distant and near.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

It was a heavy, profound sound, carrying some ancient rhythm. It beat through the winding, deep underground path, both heart-shaking and mysteriously vast.

Aunt Zhou followed obediently by her side, having gradually learned not to cry out or talk too much. But now she couldn’t help but speak up. "Miss Song, up there... could that be the exit? Are we really on the right path?"

The bizarre wonders she had experienced today had already pushed the limits of what she could have imagined in her entire life... yet it had all actually happened!

As a result, Aunt Zhou herself seemed to have changed a little. She had started to think more and was now brave enough to ask questions.

But Song Ciwan didn’t answer her, because her hearing was much sharper than Aunt Zhou’s. Amidst the heavy beat of the bells and drums, she could faintly hear a man and a woman conversing somewhere deep within the red glow.

The woman’s voice said, "Xiao Lang, Humans and demons walk different paths. In the end, it is I who have wronged you. Since it has come to this, let us part ways today and consider our fate together finished..."

The man’s voice immediately pleaded in anguish, "No, Ming Zhu! When we met ten years ago, you said you were repaying a past kindness and that we were destined to be together. For you, I defied my sister-in-law’s wishes and repeatedly refused the marriage she arranged for me."

"Five years ago, I was ambushed by a Scorpion Demon and nearly died from its poison. It was you who spat out half your Dragon Pearl, willingly sacrificing a thousand years of your Cultivation to save me."

"Three years ago, you were summoned back to the Dragon Palace. The Dragon King tried to force you to marry into the East Sea court, so I borrowed the Sea-Stepping Fan from the Three Immortals of Kunlun and stormed the Dragon Palace to bring you back."

"Two years ago, when I faced the Five Elements Thunder Tribulation, you once again gave up half your vital blood to pull me back from the brink of Demonic Thought Soul-Burning..."

"Ming Zhu, we know each other so deeply, our fates are endlessly intertwined. We are already a part of each other. How can you bear to say goodbye to me now?"

"I can never agree! We swore eternal vows back then. If I were to ever break with you, may my heart be carved out, my bones scraped, may I be sliced into a thousand pieces and bleed to death!"

"Ming Zhu, are you truly trying to take my life?"

...

It was a long speech, and the man’s voice was filled with sincere emotion, every word laced with a bone-deep tenderness.

The woman’s voice softened, sounding mournful. "Xiao Lang, I don’t want to leave you either, but... I..."

She hesitated for a long time, unable to give the real reason she had to leave him.

After waiting for so long without a straight answer, the man’s voice grew urgent again. "Ming Zhu, is the Dragon King forcing you again? This nonsense about Humans and demons walking different paths—I refuse to believe it! Don’t be afraid. If I could borrow the Sea-Stepping Fan back then, what’s stopping me from borrowing it again?"

"Ming Zhu, if not, then... then bear me a couple of children!"

"Once our children are born, when the Dragon King sees his charming and adorable grandchildren, no matter how angry he is, his fury will surely dissipate."

"Ming Zhu, come back with me right now. I’ll immediately ask my sister-in-law to arrange our wedding!"