Even Amber, nestled in Shen Bai’s arms, meowed and tensed up, curling its fuzzy body into a ball.

"Shen Bai, calm yourself. Control your emotions," Elder Mu said reassuringly. "Let me find out what the solution is."

He knew, of course, that Zhou Qing was part of this retinue.

Zhou Qing was Shen Bai’s closest friend, having been with him ever since their time in Shengyun County. If anything happened to Zhou Qing, Shen Bai could become a volatile element.

Shen Bai shook his head. "Don’t worry, Elder Mu. I understand."

With that, his killing intent receded slightly, but it was still as biting as Cold Ice.

The Yin Walker cast a surprised glance at Shen Bai.

He hadn’t expected the Sword King of Fenglin State, Mu Jianlin, to be so gentle with Shen Bai.

After all, Elder Mu’s fiery temper had once been legendary. Even an outsider like him, a Yin Walker not from Fenglin State, had heard plenty of stories.

Elder Mu turned back. "Now then, tell us how to fix this."

The Yin Walker snapped out of it and pointed to the distorted patch of air. "The coordinates are damaged. The only way is to repair them. The army arrives tomorrow. If we can’t fix this by then, they’ll surely be lost on the Life and Death Road."

Elder Mu asked, "How do we repair it?"

The Yin Walker pondered for a moment before saying, "I will tend the lamp out here. Then, you gentlemen will need to send experts inside."

"I can only tend the lamp for half an hour. Since the Yin Post inside is already damaged, aberrations are bound to have appeared."

"Only after you’ve eliminated the aberrations can I repair the Yin Post."

As he said this, the oil lamp began to flicker violently.

No wind stirred, yet the flame wavered as if it might be extinguished at any moment.

"There’s no time! Landlord Mu, decide who’s going, quickly! They can’t be above the Meridian Realm, because I’m only at the Meridian Realm myself. You can only send four people. Any more, and the Yin Post will be utterly destroyed," the Yin Walker said through gritted teeth.

Fresh blood began to seep from the Yin Walker’s body again, and Shen Bai could now see a hint of ashen white clouding the man’s eyes.

After speaking, the Yin Walker raised his left hand and rolled up his sleeve.

On the Yin Walker’s wrist was a network of crisscrossing scars that looked like twisted centipedes.

The Yin Walker gritted his teeth, raised his right hand, and drew his index finger across the scars on his other wrist.

As his finger sliced across, a crimson line appeared on the Yin Walker’s wrist, and fresh blood began to flow.

The Yin Walker took a deep breath and held his bleeding wrist over the oil lamp.

Trickles of fresh blood ran down the Yin Walker’s fingers and into the oil lamp.

The dim, wavering flame began to steady as the blood dripped into the lamp.

Seeing this, the Yin Walker immediately sat cross-legged, raised his left hand, and formed a seal for a Technique.

He said no more; there was no longer any need for words.

Half an hour. That was the deadline.

If they couldn’t solve it, the army would be lost on the Life and Death Road. When the Emperor’s wrath came down, he would be the first to face the consequences.

Elder Mu, seeing how critical the situation was, wasted no more words. He looked at the members around him and commanded, "Leaders of the Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding divisions! Enter the Yin Post, slay the aberrations, and secure it for repair."

Shen Bai and the other three division leaders exchanged a look, then nodded in unison, accepting the command.

Since the mission had been assigned and only four experts of the Meridian Realm could enter, the four division leaders were the best choice.

As for Shen Bai being at the Five Organ Realm, it wasn’t considered a major issue.

Hearing that Elder Mu had made the arrangements, the Yin Walker raised his right hand.

His eyes remained tightly shut, but as he raised his right hand, a rift materialized above the oil lamp.

The rift appeared and, in just a moment, began to widen. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

In the blink of an eye, the rift grew large enough for a person to pass through.

The Yin Walker didn’t have to say another word. Shen Bai understood that they needed to enter the rift, eliminate the aberrations surrounding the Yin Post, and allow the Yin Walker to focus on its repair.

"Go," Elder Mu said.

Every second counted now; there was no time for wasted words.

Jia Shou, Ye Feng, nodded and was the first to step inside.

The remaining three exchanged glances and followed him in.

Shen Bai felt a sudden chill, and then he was gone, vanished into the rift.

A moment later, the wilderness fell silent.

Elder Mu watched the rift before him, his hand tightening around the hilt of his longsword.

...

As Shen Bai passed through, his vision swam for a moment, and then he found himself in a truly bizarre space.

The ground everywhere was scorched black earth that crunched underfoot.

In the sky above, there were no clouds, only a series of inverted images.

Mountains and rivers, lakes and seas, plants, fish, and insects—all hung suspended upside down in the sky.

On closer inspection, it looked like a mirror, reflecting an entire world upside down.

But the upside-down vista in the sky was filled with a strange, shattered quality.

Other than that, there was nothing.

After a quick scan of the area, Shen Bai felt a biting cold, as if he had been dropped into an ice cellar.

Fortunately, once Shen Bai circulated his Qi, the cold sensation vanished.

Ye Feng surveyed their surroundings. "This place... it’s vast."

None of them had ever been on the Life and Death Road before, and they found it all quite novel.

The rift they had entered through was completely gone, as if it had never existed.

The Leader of Division B, Ding Zhe, said after sizing up their surroundings, "So how are we supposed to find the Yin Post?"

Qian Hua, the leader of the Bing Division, shook his head. "I don’t know either. According to the Yin Walker, we just need to kill the aberrations."

They had all accepted the mission at a moment’s notice. The Yin Walker had to focus on stabilizing the oil lamp, which made it difficult for him to even speak, so he hadn’t left them with much information.