Zheng Xiu’s expression was calm as he described the Immortal Lady in detail—beautiful on one side, grotesque on the other.

At first, when Dou Xie heard that the Immortal Lady was unclothed, with a graceful and voluptuous figure, a hint of embarrassment crept onto his face. His breathing quickened, his face flushed, and his imagination ran wild.

But when Zheng Xiu mentioned that the Immortal Lady’s other half was an insect’s body with a swollen belly that had a human face inside, Dou Xie couldn’t hold it in. Stomach acid surged up his throat, and he wretched miserably.

"Steady your mind!"

Yue Yan had been about to mock Dou Xie for being "useless," but then she remembered they were in the Ghostly Realm. Her expression changed slightly, and she slapped the back of his head. "Don’t let your mind wander! Have you forgotten the teachings from when we first entered Ye Weiyang?"

Dou Xie’s face was a ghastly shade of purple. Startled by Yue Yan’s slap, he instinctively swallowed back the bile that had just reached his throat.

"You, calm yourself and quickly drive the fear from your thoughts." Feng Bei ignored Dou Xie and took a few steps toward Zheng Xiu. Her elegant brows furrowed slightly as she reminded him, "In the Ghostly Realm, a chaotic mind is easily influenced by the Filthy Qi that bleeds from the Darkness. Do you remember what I told you about the four parts of the Human Soul? Mortals cannot enter the Darkness because the ’Will’ within their Human Soul is easily drawn out and defiled by the Filthy Qi upon approach."

Seeing Zheng Xiu’s silence, Feng Bei warned him again, explaining, "When the ’Will’ in a Human Soul is contaminated, it is called ’losing Will.’ A mild case results in listlessness, which can still be treated by a Spirit Binder who can stabilize your Soul Intent. But once the ’Will’ is completely stripped from the Human Soul, you will irreversibly descend into madness and become a useless wreck, with no Magic that can save you!"

Zheng Xiu timidly raised his hand. "Actually, I wasn’t finished. The Immortal Lady’s eyes and hair..."

The color, having just returned to Dou Xie’s face, drained away again as his imagination presumably filled in the blanks.

Yue Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She quickly cut off Young Master Zheng’s detailed description. "My dear Eldest Young Master Zheng, could you please stop talking? This kid is still new to the Path. He’s inexperienced and his will is weak. If you keep going, you’ll really be the death of him!"

As soon as she said it, Yue Yan herself froze.

’In terms of age, Young Master Zheng is even younger than Dou Xie.’

’In terms of the Path, besides being stronger, having Spirit Communication, and possessing Divine Power, Young Master Zheng is an ordinary child. Dou Xie, on the other hand, was promoted to the Twenty-Eight Constellations at a young age and filled the previous ’Dou Xie’s’ vacant spot because he had entered the Path of Scholars.’

’One had to understand that in the Ghostly Realm, not only were space and time warped, but all sorts of bizarre things happened when you neared the Darkness. The phrase "defiling one’s eyes" was no laughing matter; if you couldn’t steady yourself, you could truly be scared into madness.’

’So why was Young Master Zheng able to withstand the impact of such filth?’

Zheng Xiu had a good heart and, fearing he might actually be the death of Dou Xie, said no more about the Immortal Lady. At that moment, his gaze couldn’t help but fall on the figure of "Zheng Erniang" in the distance. He saw the panicked image of the Second Lady gradually fade until she disappeared completely.

"There’s no need to worry." Feng Bei guessed Zheng Xiu’s thoughts and offered a comforting explanation. "Bi Shui has cast Magic on the Zheng Family, which will certainly protect the Second Lady’s Human Soul. The Zheng Erniang you see here is merely a fragmented form, not the real her!"

Zheng Xiu nodded. He squatted by the edge of the hole in the ground, waiting for Dou Xie to steady himself before preparing to enter.

The wide cavern sloped diagonally downward for several dozen feet before turning sharply. The light couldn’t penetrate past the bend, obscuring what lay within. Something was clearly amiss.

Feng Bei stood quietly behind Zheng Xiu, watching the boy’s sturdy back. The image faintly overlapped with the back of Zheng Shan from all those years ago.

In truth, Feng Bei was conflicted. She knew that once someone entered a Path, they belonged to it. They would face countless dangers in the future, their fate no longer their own.

She didn’t want to see Zheng Shan’s son facing peril, but the boy was born with Spirit Communication. His life was destined to be anything but ordinary. Once he entered the world, stepping onto a Path was practically a certainty.

’Could this be Senior Zheng Shan’s wish? For his son to inherit his legacy, to glimpse the Path, to master Miracle Techniques?’

Feng Bei’s mind was a mess, overrun with conflicting thoughts.

’This boy’s sudden appearance in the Zheng Family can’t be a coincidence.’

’Could it be that Senior Zheng Shan’s divine foresight allowed him to calculate that we would meet in the Zheng Family, hoping that I, Feng Bei, would resolve our past karma by becoming the boy’s guide in his Path Cultivation?’

Her chest rose and fell. After a single breath, Feng Bei instantly regained her composure. Her gaze turned cold and her breathing grew long and steady. She looked back at Yue Yan and said softly, "We can’t wait any longer."

With that, Feng Bei’s gaze fell on the area behind Yue Yan and Dou Xie.

Yue Yan shuddered. She turned to look and saw that the "corpses of commoners" on the ground were gradually melting into pools of blood and seeping into the earth.

In the sky not far away, night had fallen. The heavens were dim, without a single star or moon. Yet the blackness in the depths of the night sky seemed to be stirred by a pair of invisible hands, twisting out of thin air into a vortex. On closer inspection, it was as if a black eye was coiled in the boundless void.

"Quick!" Yue Yan took a few steps forward, nervously holding a Silver Needle between her lips. She patted Zheng Xiu’s back and pointed at the night sky, her words muffled. "Quick, see what’s over there! Oh, no—"

Just as Zheng Xiu turned his head, picking at a pimple on his forehead, Yue Yan came to her senses. She slapped both hands on either side of his little head, holding it in place. "I misspoke! Don’t look back! You’ll go mad!"

CLAP! Yue Yan’s hands left Palm Seals on both of his cheeks. Zheng Xiu was a little dazed, his small face squished out of shape by the pressure. Yue Yan had been overly anxious and knew she had misspoken. Terrified she would get him killed, she had leaned in too close in her panic, and their lips had almost touched.

Of course, Yue Yan just saw Zheng Xiu as a naive child. The rule about men and women not touching was for adults. Zheng Xiu was only ten; even if their lips had touched, Yue Yan wouldn’t have taken it seriously. It would be like being kissed by a kitten. She wasn’t some ignorant, sheltered young lady who would make a fuss over something so trivial.

Her warm breath tickled his face. Zheng Xiu pushed her hands away, complaining, "Stop taking advantage of me. Just tell me clearly what’s going on."

Feng Bei clasped her hands behind her back, leaped into the cavern, and said, "Follow me. Don’t get too close, but don’t fall too far behind. We’ll talk as we walk."

Dou Xie took a deep breath, flipped open a page in his handwritten book of Magic, and whispered, "Mind. Like. Still. Water!"

In the blink of an eye, the ink of the four words "Mind Like Still Water" faded silently from the page, as if they had never been written at all.

Dou Xie was back to normal. He followed closely behind Feng Bei.

Anyone who wasn’t an idiot knew that sticking with Upper Three was the safest bet.

Yue Yan followed Feng Bei into the cavern, her two shallow dimples tense. In her heart, she knew exactly what was happening.

Once Feng Bei made a move, there would be little left for them to do. Relaxing slightly, Yue Yan couldn’t help but smile when she saw the bright red Palm Seals on Young Master Zheng’s cheeks.

She poked Zheng Xiu and urged, "Let’s go!"

Zheng Xiu thought, ’What’s the rush?’ He glanced back at the faint vortex in the sky, barely managing to resist the impulse to make an [Inspiration] check. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Normally, Zheng Xiu, who treated death like a side dish, would have definitely tempted fate. But today was different. The Second Lady’s safety was at stake, so the Young Master weighed the pros and cons and decided against it for now.

But even without using [Inspiration] to look, his brief glance was enough. With his [Inspiration] at the Entry realm, Zheng Xiu could vaguely sense the strangeness of that place, as if things were scrambling over one another to flock in that direction.

Truthfully, Zheng Xiu wouldn’t have been worried even if he had made an [Inspiration] check.

Zheng Shan’s experiences had taught him that any contamination an Incarnation suffered in the Ghostly Realm would be cleansed upon clearing it, without needing the help of a [Spirit Binder].

Before entering the cavern, Zheng Xiu couldn’t resist another glance back.

In the end, he gave up on the tempting idea.

’Best not to use [Inspiration] recklessly after all.’

The four of them entered the cavern one after another.

Yue Yan, the last to enter, was humming a little tune.

"Make way, make way. Men and women shouldn’t touch. Let me walk behind Lord Upper Three."

Like a nimble swallow, Yue Yan zipped through the spacious cavern, gliding over the heads of Zheng Xiu and Dou Xie.

...

After the four figures disappeared from the temple one by one, deep into the cavern.

「A quarter of an hour later.」

GURGLE GURGLE. Bubbles rose from the pool of water.

Three heads emerged from the pool.

"Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Blind man, the deaf man is asking you if they’ve left."

The cripple with the cane relayed the deaf man’s words faithfully.

"Damn it, he’s asking you!" the blind man said angrily. "How can you ask a blind man for directions!"

The deaf man grunted a few more times.

The cripple reached out a hand playfully. "Blind man, blind man! The deaf man really is asking you."

"Fine," the blind man said, resigned. His tightly shut eyes cracked open a tiny sliver.

"Looks like they’re really gone."

The blind man said with certainty.