Especially the Wang family's young Master, Wang Zisheng—right now his little face had gone pale. In his whole life, he had never imagined that someone would be this rude to him…

You could tell their gazes were subconsciously darting toward the stone cave. Hu Ma understood what they meant, so he raised his hand, calmly looked at his own fingertip, and said, "Don't count on the State Preceptor to protect you."

"Maybe I'm not as capable as he is, but if I decide to kill someone right in front of him, he won't be able to stop me…"

This naked threat made the few members of the Wang Family present feel their chests stuffed full of stifled rage.

Just then, a figure flashed within the stone cave—it was the State Preceptor, walking out while holding a box wrapped in a bundle.

Seeing everyone's eyes turn to him, he shook his head slightly and said slowly, "There's no need to look at me like that. If he wants to kill someone, I truly can't stop him."

"…"

The Wang Family people were suddenly stunned, their expressions twisting, bodies trembling slightly. They were furious, yet there was also a great sense of defeat.

One of the Ten Great Surnames, the illustrious Undying Wang Family, actually being threatened to their faces by a descendant of the Hu Family…

"Law-Attending child, have them explain everything one by one, not missing a single word."

But Hu Ma could no longer be bothered to speak with them. Face cold, he gave a curt order: "Don't play any tricks. I have plenty of capable people at my side, and even an expert from the Si Ming Path. Once I get your Magic, I'll have her look it over first. Get one word wrong, and I'll kill one of you."

Calculation was taken aback for a moment before realizing he was the one being called. He could only step forward with a bitter face to negotiate with the Wang Family.

To think that at seventy-three, he'd ended up as a 'child'…

Theoretically, going from a jianghu drifter to the child serving beside the Main Sacrificial counted as a promotion in rank—but this title…

…well, whatever!

Seeing how forceful Hu Ma was being, all the Wang Family people had turned livid. That young Wang family scion's face was flushed red from holding it in, as if he wanted to shout something, but the Wang Family's Master suddenly barked coldly, "Give it to him."

The people beside him were stunned.

This Wang Family's Master had just been seething with anger at Hu Ma, not hiding his dissatisfaction in the slightest, yet now he said with a cold face, "We of the Wang Family are not afraid of death, but we are afraid our Magic will be lost. Since the Hu Family wants it, then give it to him."

"After he gets the Magic, whether he still wants to kill us or not, that's up to him!"

"…"

The Wang family's young Master still didn't quite understand, but hearing this, he just felt it was tragic and heroic.

The two great hall officers, the sword catching and the Inquiry, suddenly grasped the Wang Family's Master's intent, felt somewhat relieved, and thought their little lives were probably saved.

"Is the thing ready?"

Hu Ma ignored them, only looking toward the State Preceptor, his gaze falling on the box in the latter's hand. "What's that?"

"The bone command passed down through the generations of Main Sacrificials in the Daluo Dharma Sect."

The State Preceptor slowly raised his head and looked Hu Ma in the eye. "When you came to seek me this time, to ask about this matter of returning home—was that your own idea, or did someone else teach you to do it?"

Hu Ma frowned slightly and looked at him. "What difference does it make?"

The State Preceptor actually nodded slowly, his voice low. "Whether it's you or them makes a great difference to me."

Hu Ma neither agreed nor denied it, simply looking at the State Preceptor for a long moment before slowly saying, "Just now, the Wang Family mentioned that when you left Shangjing City, you also had a chance to give us a harsh lesson?"

"Yes."

Hearing his words, the State Preceptor let out a long, slow breath and said frankly, "Back in Shangjing City, I knew about the cooperation between your Hu Family ancestors and Lao Junmei and the others, and I was caught completely off guard. I was expelled from the Daluo Dharma Sect and became a laughingstock in the eyes of the world."

"In my heart, I did feel some resentment. I even once thought about whether I should call out those things that are basically imprisoned in the Netherworld Palace and let you all…"

He paused slightly, then said with a chill, "…taste the feeling of defeat as well."

Listening to this, Hu Ma did not find it strange. He simply said calmly, "Anyone who loses will want to flip the table. That's normal."

"But since you thought of it, why didn't you do it?"

"…"

"It's just that…"

The State Preceptor actually hesitated.

After a long while, he only gave a bitter smile and said, "I couldn't think of what meaning it would have."

Having said this much, there was an unexpected openness to his tone. He gave a bitter smile and said, "Losing is losing. Though I'm unwilling, I must admit it."

"If losing means I have to throw everything away and drag out the Netherworld Palace just to vent for a moment, that would make me no different from some ignorant village bumpkin."

"If I lose, I must at least lose with dignity."

"So in the end I am ashamed of this thought, and only wish to see how you will act, to see whether you can bear the weight."

"..."

Seeing him like this, even Hu Madou found it somewhat interesting; it was as if he had lost a bout and was becoming more and more like a human.

"Only, I cannot bring myself to do such a thing."

Yet at this point, the State Preceptor slowly spoke again, a great depth seeming to lie in his gaze: "That does not mean others will not."

Listening, Hu Ma's eyes suddenly tightened a little, and he looked toward the members of the Wang Family.

"Not them."

The State Preceptor slowly shook his head and said in a low voice, "The Wang Family has no such standing. In those days in Douyi, the Wang Family only belonged to the line of the Imperial Physicians; they did not possess an identity that the existences in the Netherworld Palace would deign to look upon."

"But I am certain that among the current Ten Surnames, someone has all along been exerting themselves in secret, trying to reopen the Netherworld Palace and draw out what lies within that hall. It may be that they have already reached an extremely critical step."

"Within that Netherworld Palace are all sorts of things beyond the reach of mere mortals, impossible to shake."

"So after Lao Junmei and the others severed their foundation, no one bothered to concern themselves further, and in daily life they even tried their best not to think of them."

"After all, they are far too terrifying; merely thinking idly of them when nothing is amiss may allow them to seep into the human world bit by bit. This is also why the Netherworld Palace has come to be little known."

"For certain existences, so long as someone knows of them, it will bring about consequences beyond imagination."

"Yet just when I began to wonder whether I should throw the Netherworld Palace wide open and let you taste its horrors, I sensed that someone within the Netherworld Palace wished to speak with me, to the point that even I, one who knows no dreams, began to dream frequently, dreaming of those ten Emperor Ghosts..."

"I am quite sure this is because someone has been constantly seeking a way to open a passage to the Netherworld Palace. That hall door which has been shut for twenty‑four years has begun to loosen again."

"Once those Emperor Du Yi in the Netherworld Palace truly escape, whether you are fighting for the Mandate of Heaven or amid some human-world slaughter calamity, it will all turn into flowers in a mirror, the moon on the water. This world will only return to what it was twenty‑four years ago, when Douyi sat upon the imperial throne."

"..."

At this point, Hu Madou's expression had already grown somewhat grave.

Among the Ten Surnames, there was actually someone who wished to reopen the Netherworld Palace and let the things inside come out?

Douyi was the signer of that pact with Tai Sui, and the source of all this chaos. If they were truly allowed to escape, who could know what this world would become?

Only—who was it?

Even those such as the State Preceptor and the Wang Family, who had been forced to leave Shangjing City, had not, in a fit of rage, truly set their sights upon the Netherworld Palace—yet those who still sat securely in high office had already long conceived such intentions?

Judging from the timing, they had set their sights on the Netherworld Palace even before this human-world slaughter calamity.

Could it be that, though on the surface Douyi's downfall owed some merit to the Ten Surnames, within the Ten Surnames as they stand today there are still undercover agents loyal to Douyi?

It was time to strike hard.

In the face of this slaughter calamity, heads must naturally roll, yet it was not that everyone had to die. Take the Impermanence Li Family: so long as they hand over everything in their possession as agreed and relinquish the name of the Ten Surnames, then this slaughter calamity can spare them, even take them in.

But those who collude with the Netherworld Palace and seek to obstruct this slaughter calamity must have their entire clans cut down, not a single one left alive.

"Who is it?"

After a long silence, Hu Ma suddenly spoke to ask.

"Zhou, Zhu, Sun, Zhao, Chen—any of them are possible."

The State Preceptor spoke in a low voice: "After you have stirred up this great slaughter calamity, the answer is no longer important."

"I know whence this great slaughter calamity arises, and can even understand it, but the Ten Surnames cannot. They will only take it as an annihilating catastrophe, a hatred for the theft of Heaven itself."

"If that one surname's secret collusion with the Netherworld Palace is, for the moment, merely kept as a way out, then once they run into this great slaughter calamity, should they suddenly jump out and openly join hands with the Netherworld Palace, I would not be surprised in the least..."

"Du Yi Netherworld Palace, the place where Heaven and Earth entrust their weight—only the Mandate of each generation's Emperor may enter. Once within, one sits in command of a dynasty; bearing such a burden of fate, one rules for decades. Once it emerges into the world, it overcomes and subdues the Mandate of Heaven; Heaven and Earth are sure to undergo great change. Your slaughter calamity or your Mandate of Heaven, all of it will become a jest. How, then, will you resist?"

"..."

It was evident that the State Preceptor was questioning him, with even a certain intent to test him.

Hu Ma had originally come to seek the Way, yet he was now weighed down by the urgency and calamity the State Preceptor had flung at him, as if he were left with a sense of being at his wits' end.

And as the State Preceptor's pressing gaze fell upon his face, Hu Ma, as though after a long contemplation, or as though simply meeting the question head‑on, lightly, casually, let the words slip out with a faint smile:

"What difficulty is there in that?"

"Before the Netherworld Palace's gates open, just send me in first, would that not do?"