The Northern Yin Emperor Has Sent for You

There was no time to lose. Once Luo Yu made up his mind, he immediately took out the water-controlling array disk and swiftly set it up in front of them.

The rising globes of water soon drew near. The moment they entered the range of the array, they abruptly began to gather and shrink toward the center.

Seeing that the formation was working, the two were overjoyed. After waiting a short while, the mass of water was completely drawn in, becoming a vivid blue orb floating at the heart of the array.

Luo Yu opened his mouth and spat out the primordial chaos, then sent out his power to guide the disk, drawing the water into it as well.

The Great Emperor of Ten Thousand Methods and Bewitching Heaven, having sealed the two within his treasure, finally felt reassured. He then activated the water-controlling array inside the gourd artifact and released the “Converting True Water” locked within. He had obtained this true water centuries ago while robbing and killing ghosts, but because he had never found an elementally compatible water to refine it with, he could only think of this roundabout method to use it.

He estimated that the true water had already filled the entire gourd. After waiting a while longer, he sent in his divine sense to inspect the situation: both of those people had protective true fire around them, and when the phoenix went in, it had still been fully conscious. Its true fire had probably burned away quite a bit of water; that was rather distressing. He had to see just how much he had lost.

His divine sense entered the gourd, only to find it completely filled with water, while the two had vanished without a trace. He was not worried that they had used some kind of invisibility art; that sort of thing could never deceive him. But what was that orb floating in the water? It had not dissolved under the true water, so it had to be an extraordinary treasure. It was impossible to probe it with power inside the true water, so he would have to collect it first and examine it afterward.

The demon-ghost eagerly drew the water out of the space within, then extended his power to guide the orb out and held it up for a closer look. At that very moment, a sudden change erupted: the orb violently emitted a pulse of power, and then vanished!

Before the demon-ghost could react, a blaze of golden flame lunged straight at him. His heart jolted in alarm.

No good! They escaped!

How could this be?

He hurriedly retreated by leaping backward. The instant he dodged aside, he felt a piercing pain in his soul, as if his spirit had been badly wounded. Lifting his eyes, he saw that his treasure, the Water-Nurturing Gourd, had already been swallowed by a mass of golden fire, and the last trace of green light was burned into nothing with a hiss.

The demon-ghost went mad in an instant.

My true water is still inside it!

With a venomous glare, he fixed his eyes on the two people who had appeared before him and snarled through clenched teeth, “You are not dead? How did you escape from my gourd?”

Luo Yu gave a sly grin. “We just hid inside a spatial treasure and slipped out!”

The demon-ghost shouted sharply, “Nonsense! How could my Converting True Water be resisted by some empty-spirit stone? What trick did you use?”

Luo Yu made a face. “Converting True Water? That true water was switched out ages ago. What you had was only liquid spirit essence taken from an artifact. Hahahaha!”

The demon-ghost was so enraged he nearly exploded. He let out a furious cry, “Give me back my true water!” and spat out a white sword, stabbing straight at Luo Yu.

Qin Yue summoned golden flames to block in front of Luo Yu and said coldly, “Then perhaps you should first pay us back for the lives you tried to take!”

Before the last word had even faded, he swung Red Abyss and wound in to attack.

The demon-ghost’s mind had already been severely injured, and his movements were much slower. Qin Yue drove him into constant danger, leaving him with no power to counterattack. Luo Yu feared he might use illusion arts again, so he immediately transformed into a phoenix and joined the assault, making matters even worse.

The demon-ghost grew frantic, roaring in fury, “You two are utterly shameless! Ganging up on one man like this!”

Qin Yue said lightly, “You’re already at the Infant Realm. How can you still complain that we outnumber you?”

The demon-ghost was momentarily choked speechless. Under their relentless attacks, he had long since developed the intent to flee; but the two clung to him so tightly that he did not even have a chance to cast illusion arts, and his body was being wounded again and again.

At last, he gambled on taking a slash to the back and sprang into the air to escape. Unexpectedly, the phoenix flashed over with instant movement, clawed at him, and made him stagger. In the next breath, a blade pierced straight through his heart.

The moment his body hit the ground, a small human figure the size of a fist wriggled out from the top of his head and panicked, flying desperately toward the sky. Its speed was astonishing, almost fast enough to catch up with light itself. But after it had only flown a few yards, it came to a screeching halt: a brilliant golden net had blocked its path. Before it could turn around, the phoenix chasing after it pecked it firmly in the mouth.

Qin Yue took the ghost infant from the phoenix’s beak, sealed it with power, and stored it in his bracelet.

The phoenix flapped its wings and transformed back into human form, then looked toward the ghostly corpse on the ground.

“Huh? It changed!”

The slender ghost corpse on the ground was revealing its true form: the body contracted further and further, gradually turning into a gigantic butterfly. Its wings were covered in a layer of rainbow-hued scale dust, gleaming and reflecting a metallic sheen.

Luo Yu said curiously, “It’s a butterfly spirit! So the multicolored specks on that fierce ghost were the scale dust from its body. Hahaha! Good stuff, good stuff! Take it back and scrape it off slowly!”

Qin Yue nodded, raised a hand, and tried to draw it into his bracelet, but it only shifted slightly and gave no other response.

“There’s still a Sky-Calming Ruler inside it. That treasure is too heavy, so it has to be refined before it can be collected. Go and gather the soul fire first.”

Luo Yu obediently nodded and went off to collect the soul fire.

Seeing that Luo Yu had already started work, Qin Yue also sat down, summoned a ball of alchemical flame, and began refining the Sky-Calming Ruler.

That treasure was extremely sturdy and very difficult to refine. Qin Yue burned it for a full day and night before only barely completing the initial refinement and finally drawing it into his dantian. Yet that was still far from enough to bring it under complete and effortless control; he would have to continue refining it with alchemical flame inside his dantian for a long while yet.

Qin Yue put the butterfly into his bracelet. After sweeping his divine sense around to find Luo Yu, he immediately flew over and joined him in refining the soul fire.

The two of them were like farmers who had just reaped a bumper harvest, humming cheerfully as they worked, when suddenly they saw a mass of dark clouds rolling toward them from the horizon. Within the clouds, ghostly figures and fluttering banners could be faintly seen.

Luo Yu narrowed his eyes to look more carefully. Inside the clouds was actually a troop of ghost soldiers and ghost generals, each armored in shining mail and brimming with imposing presence. On the banner at the very front were the three large words: North Yin Flame.

At that moment, the two gates of the southern entrance to Capital City of the Dead, which had always remained shut, opened as well. Two lines of ghost soldiers filed out and stood in perfect order beside the main road outside the city. Behind them came waves of ghostly officials, some of whom had even played finger-guessing games and drunk wine with the two before. At this moment, these old ghosts all stood spirited and solemn, waiting for the approaching procession.

The two of them saw the display and immediately understood who had arrived: the Great Emperor of the Northern Underworld.

Luo Yu was instantly excited. This was the boss of the kings of the underworld! Could he get a close-up look? Such a rare opportunity. Rumor had it that this supreme lord usually stayed holed up at home and never came out, a classic shut-in. Though the Ten Kings of Hell had high standing among the living, in the underworld they were merely civil officials. This one, however, was essentially an emperor, a descendant of one of the most prestigious imperial lineages in the world, a direct descendant of the Flame Emperor.

Just as Luo Yu was still buzzing with excitement, he saw a light cavalry detachment rush out from the imperial procession. A ghost general in heavy armor rode at the front, astride a warhorse with a mane of blue, its four hooves treading dark clouds and leaving a trail of blue fire as it galloped toward them.

When the general reached a point about a hundred meters away, he tugged the reins. The ghost horse immediately reared up, gave a long, clear whinny, and then obediently stood still.

The ghost general swept a glance over the two of them and cupped his fists.

“May I ask why the two immortals are here? Do you know where these wandering ghosts came from, and why they are unconscious here?”

Luo Yu said, “We came to the underworld for sightseeing, and we ran into a fellow called the Great Emperor of Ten Thousand Methods and Bewitching Heaven. He sent these wandering ghosts to surround the city, and we knocked them out with river water.”

At this, the ghost general urgently asked, “Then where has the Great Emperor of Ten Thousand Methods gone?”

Luo Yu scratched his head, a little embarrassed but proud all the same. “We destroyed him.”

The ghost general was shocked. He studied the two of them carefully, disbelief flickering in his eyes.

“Is that truly so, sir?”

Luo Yu rolled his eyes. “Why would I lie to you? If we hadn’t dealt with him, how could the city be so peaceful now?”

The ghost general stood there dumbly for a moment. Then he rode up to them again, dismounted with practiced ease, and said with clasped hands, “Forgive my rudeness. We accompanied His Majesty on this campaign precisely to slay that demon. His Majesty takes this matter especially seriously and will certainly summon... no, invite the two of you forward for a word. May I ask the two of you to wait here for a moment?”

Luo Yu was also very curious about the Great Emperor of the Northern Underworld and said, “Go ahead! We still have lots of fierce ghosts left to collect.” Seeing the ghost general mount up again, he called after him, “Those wandering ghosts were defeated by us. By rights they should all belong to us... please mention that to the Great Emperor of the Northern Underworld for us!”

The ghost general’s back stiffened for an instant, and he felt quite vexed. The dignified Great Emperor of the Northern Underworld would steal wandering ghosts from you? At most they could be used to refine some soul fire. Although soul fire was purely yin, it was also the most useless of the strange flames, with a calm and gentle nature that could neither harm souls nor refine tools. He had long heard that resources in the upper realms were scarce, but had they really become scarce to such an extent...

He went off begrudgingly to report the matter, and soon returned to invite the two of them back into the city.

Luo Yu and Qin Yue walked in the middle of the procession. The Great Emperor of the Northern Underworld sat within a luxurious carriage drawn by twelve “Fire Tomb Flying Heavenly Steeds.” These ghost horses were all extraordinarily fine specimens, their entire bodies blood-red, their eyes and nostrils spouting flames. Their innate divine ability, Ghost Horse Soaring through the Void, allowed them to carry a carriage through the air at a speed like the wind. Luo Yu was sorely tempted, but when he heard from the ghost general beside him that these horses were extremely rare and seldom born, and that these dozen had been raised for several thousand years and were inherited from the previous ghost emperor, he had no choice but to abandon the idea of catching a few from the wild to take home.

When they reached the city gate, all the ghost officials knelt to welcome them and cried in unison, “We humbly welcome Your Majesty’s sacred return!”

The imperial carriage and procession did not stop, and swept straight past the gathered ghosts into the city.

The southern district was the work zone of the underworld, and also where hell itself was located. Ghost offices stood on both sides of the avenue; cages filled the corners, cold and menacing; occasionally one could see black and white wardens escorting new ghosts to kneel by the roadside, while ghost soldiers used chains to drag the souls who had finished their punishments into the cages.

The whole street was bleak and deserted. The souls thrown into the cages were all shackled and chained, covered in scars, missing arms and legs. Only one or two still had enough strength to pound the bars and cry out in shrill injustice.

As the procession passed by, all these ghosts stared straight at them. Some crawled up from the ground and thrust out their ragged hands, clutching wildly, their mouths wide open as they made strange hissing sounds, their tongues long since torn out. Some smashed their heads again and again against the cages until their faces were a bloody ruin. In short, they all suddenly stirred into an unnatural frenzy, like the last flare before the lamp goes out.

A few who could still speak clearly clung to the bottom of the cages and cried in a hoarse voice, “Y-Your Majesty... please... have mercy... let me be reborn... I’ll never dare to be corrupt or harm people again... please... please...”

Watching this, Luo Yu felt a chill rise in his bones and unconsciously moved closer to Qin Yue. In a low voice, he asked a ghost general beside him, “Why are these ghosts out on the street?”

The ghost general said coldly, “They committed every evil under the sun while alive. After suffering severe punishment in hell, they can no longer endure the miasma of the underworld’s prisons, so they are being brought up to the surface to recover slowly. Once the medical bureau of the underworld has restored them, they will be sent back down for punishment.”

The underworld-cultivation chronicle, chapter ninety-four: the Great Emperor of the Northern Underworld requests an audience.