The sky in the Underworld is always gloomy.

The Qingjiao Army marched rapidly across the灰-black plains.

On the back of his Hei-Xue Zhi-Ma, Luo Si stopped healing, opened his eyes, and looked towards the horizon.

A hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.

“That’s Shui-Zang Gu!” Ning Zhuo knew the location, as Sun Ling-Tong had been there before, only to be intercepted nearby.

Ning Zhuo also showed a look of doubt—the scene before him was very different from what he remembered.

A dense cloud of灰-black mist rose from the valley, condensing into a oppressive leaden cloud in the low sky.

Two black hills resembled the skeletal remains of giant beasts lying prostrate.

Ning Zhuo frowned, “Why do these two black hills seem much lower than I remember?”

The hills looked like two giant beasts in a standoff, tearing open a relatively narrow but bottomless crevice between them—that was the entrance to Shui-Zang Gu.

“There was clearly a major battle here!” Luo Si communicated with a grave expression.

Both he and Ning Zhuo showed concern. The former worried about Gui-Gu Lao-Ren, while the latter was anxious about Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin.

As the distance shortened, the details of the灰-black mist became clearer.

Countless tiny,灰-white flocculent objects floated and drifted in the mist. Like the ashes of burnt paper or the spores of some fungi, they silently spun, emitting an odor mixed with mildew, putrefaction, and a strong fishy smell.

“This is the unique Zang-Shui of Shui-Zang Gu. Normally, it flows as a stream within the valley,” Luo Si introduced, his voice heavy.

Sun Ling-Tong had never entered the valley, but Luo Si had been in and out too many times and was quite familiar with its conditions.

Ning Zhuo remained silent, his heart growing more urgent, wishing he could plunge into the valley immediately to find his mother.

But he ultimately forced himself to endure, instead giving orders for the entire army to be on alert and proceed slowly.

This action earned him a look of approval from Luo Si.

Having experienced several major events, Ning Zhuo’s military acumen had already far surpassed the ordinary.

“You all set up camp nearby and keep a close watch on Qing-Chi. Don’t let her suffer any more harm,” Ning Zhuo ordered. “We’ll be back soon.”

Qing-Chi was still unconscious.

Unlike Luo Si, who recovered quickly and could already ride a horse on his own, Ning Zhuo arranged for the Qingjiao Army to temporarily camp near the entrance of Shui-Zang Gu. He and Luo Si then went into Shui-Zang Gu together to investigate.

Finally, they reached the entrance.

A strong stench hit Ning Zhuo’s nose like a physical blow.

Ning Zhuo almost suffocated.

He quickly held his breath, letting Luo Si go first, and followed closely behind him into Shui-Zang Gu.

The mountain walls in the valley were covered with honeycomb-like holes, thick greasy moss, and slippery trails left by snakes and insects.

“This place used to have clear mountains and water, and the air was at least very fresh,” Luo Si sighed.

With the situation unclear, both cautiously chose to walk rather than fly into the air—which could easily make them targets.

Underfoot was not rock or soil, but an even path.

It was a swamp formed by a mixture of bone fragments from some destroyed ghostly creature, rotten aquatic plants, viscous mud, and fragments of pale talisman paper.

The Zang-Shui was still being drawn into the sky, turning into a灰-black mist—this was the lingering power of a spell after an intense battle that was still affecting the surroundings.

But as for what kind of spell it was, Ning Zhuo could only tell that it wasn’t a water-elemental one.

“There must have been a terrifying magical bombardment here!”

The further they went inside, the more prominent the scaled protrusions on the mountain walls became. Shrouded in the灰-black mist, they seemed like various ferocious ghosts and monsters that could pounce at any moment.

Both had already spread their divine senses and activated detection spells.

Cautiously advancing several hundred steps, the distance between the two mountain walls grew wider.

Turning a corner, a wide battlefield lay before them.

The ground was flat, half covered in thick, chilling frost, and half scorched black, as if baked by raging flames.

At the foot of the mountains on both sides, spiderweb-like cracks crisscrossed. On the mountain walls, there were many distorted lines and scars; it was hard to imagine the impact they had suffered.

“What are these?” Ning Zhuo narrowed his eyes slightly, his heart sinking.

At the edge of the battlefield opposite, he found many remnants and fragments of paper figures!

The two crossed the battlefield, and as they drew closer, the big-headed youth easily identified these paper figure remnants as belonging to the paper figure army of Bai-Zhi Xian-Cheng.

They continued forward, noticing a significant increase in paper figure fragments on the mountain path.

Torn-off paper arms, paper legs, shattered paper armor, and deformed paper weapon fragments were mixed in with the mud and gravel, forming a scalp-tingling graveyard of paper scraps.

Moments later, they reached the middle section of Shui-Zang Gu.

It had undergone a complete transformation!

The originally wide mountain path was buried and blocked by a large amount of broken rocks, forming a pile of rubble.

And within this pile of rubble, several massive, mountain-like broken bodies lay prostrate.

More than half of a hundred-armed ghost god’s body was covered by the rubble, and more than half of its hundred giant arms were severed at the root! The remaining dozens of arms were mostly twisted and broken, hanging limply.

The massive body was covered with huge claw marks deep enough to expose bone, and scorched holes that pierced through its chest and back.

Its ferocious, horned head was detached and lay far away.

Luo Si said in a deep voice, “This is the Bai-Bi Gui-Shen.”

He stared at the ghost god’s head in the distance, his gaze fixed on its distorted expression.

More than one ghost god had died in battle.

The corpse of a ghost god with a lower body of tree roots and an upper body resembling a full-breasted female figure was embedded in the rock wall.

Its long robe was tattered, and many battle-damaged black glazed lanterns lay around it.

Luo Si continued, “This is an Yin-Hun Deng-Zhu.”

After another several hundred steps, they found an empty skeleton throne, overturned on the ground.

The throne was enormous.

On the ground not far from the throne, a pile of gravel almost completely buried the body of the third ghost god.

Only a right forearm was exposed.

The arm was covered with cracks, from which streaks of blue light emanated. The blue light glowed faintly, quite eerily.

Ning Zhuo and Luo Si were deeply shaken.

Aside from the third ghost god whose origin they couldn’t discern, the first two were ghost gods with outstanding combat power.

From their aura, all of them were at the Hua-Shen level!

But they had all paid the price of their lives.

Even if they were ordinary, inferior to top Hua-Shen cultivators like Wang-Chuan Fu-Jun and Wu-Yin Gui-Seng, they were still Hua-Shen level combatants.

“The battle that took place here must have been incredibly fierce!” Luo Si exclaimed.

Ning Zhuo’s gaze was profound; he naturally connected this to the three Qian-Shen Zhi-Kui in the paper figure army.

“The paper figure army led by mother encountered a powerful enemy in the valley. Most of the soldiers were lost early on, which is why there were paper fragments scattered all the way.”

“By the time she reached here, she had to use those three Qian-Shen Zhi-Kui to summon these three great ghost gods.”

“In the end, the ghost gods sacrificed themselves, but mother was able to continue forward!”

Ning Zhuo reconstructed the battle in his mind, his worry deepening: “Mother loses a great deal of her spiritual essence every time she acts. Her condition is limited, and she can’t sustain it for long.”

Thinking of this, Ning Zhuo’s heart was filled not only with solemnity but also with a burning anxiety.

Luo Si felt the same.

Both unconsciously quickened their pace, finally reaching the deepest part of Shui-Zang Gu.

The sight before them struck Ning Zhuo and Luo Si like lightning, making them forget to breathe!

The terrain at the bottom of the valley had been completely reshaped!

A giant pit, dozens of zhang in diameter and over ten zhang deep, occupied the center!

The pit walls were smooth as a mirror, showing remnants of high-temperature melting.

Viscous magma flowed within the pit, reminding Ning Zhuo of Huo-Shi Shan.

At the edge of the giant pit, the ground exhibited a strange, wavy distorted form, all rocks pushed outwards, filled with frost, scorch marks, corrosive pits, and so on.

Their divine senses continuously spread, and detection spells permeated in all directions.

Luo Si was the first to discover: “A crude magic array is hidden in the magma.”

The magic array was indeed Jin-Dan level, but it was too rudimentary, so much so that Luo Si easily broke through it with a single move.

The two followed the opening and entered the array space.

“Mother!” Ning Zhuo’s body trembled violently, his Adam’s apple bobbing, almost crying out.

“Gui-Gu Qian-Bei!” Luo Si exclaimed.

Gui-Gu Lao-Ren, in his wide gray robe, his body emaciated, lay motionless on the ground, without any signs of life.

His head looked as if a small half had been directly torn off by some sharp claws.

But his eyes were closed, and his body had been hastily treated.

Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin sat cross-legged beside Gui-Gu Lao-Ren.

She held the Da-She Lian in one hand, its end deeply embedded in a large rock slab.

She had lost half of her body, as well as half an arm and one left leg. Through the large damaged area, one could see the internal mechanisms, completely twisted and deformed.

At the wound, spiritual meridians were severed, hanging like threads.

A faint trickle of jade marrow spiritual fluid, imbued with a weak Buddhist glow, dripped from the cracks.

Scorched holes, cracks formed by freezing ice, and terrifying penetrating wounds.

Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin’s head was bowed, stained with blood and dust. Her left eye was a black hollow, its internal mechanisms completely destroyed, leaving only a few broken spiritual meridians.

She should have collapsed, but instead, she sat upright, cross-legged. The Da-She Lian, propped on the ground, provided her only support.

Ning Zhuo keenly noticed that Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin’s remaining right hand gripped the镰刀长柄 like an iron vise.

Her finger joints were even twisted and deformed from extreme exertion, as if she wished to merge with this weapon, displaying a will to fight to the death against a powerful enemy and protect her loved ones!

Ning Zhuo’s eyes were red, and he finally couldn’t help but cry out softly, “Mother!”

This cry immediately drew Luo Si’s gaze.

Immense sorrow and boundless terror filled Ning Zhuo’s body and mind. He knelt and threw himself before Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin.

Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin showed no reaction, a scene of complete silence.

Ning Zhuo suppressed his almost shattered mind, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably as he carefully examined the state of this damaged immortal puppet.

Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin’s spiritual essence had completely vanished!

This shattered Ning Zhuo’s heart and soul, almost causing him to collapse.

He suddenly understood that he, too, had paid an extremely heavy price to thwart Wang-Chuan Fu-Jun’s century-old scheme.

And this price, he simply could not accept!

Just then, an almost imperceptible click, like a mechanism’s spring coming loose, was heard.

Subsequently, a jade slip slid out from Fo-Yi Meng Yao-Yin’s body. Ning Zhuo subconsciously reached out and caught it before it hit the ground.

Luo Si’s eyes also reddened as he knelt beside Gui-Gu Lao-Ren. He was temporarily drawn by the strange sound, looking at Ning Zhuo with sorrowful, inquiring eyes.

Ning Zhuo immediately immersed his divine sense into the jade slip.

The next moment, his mind was greatly shaken.

This was because the content of the jade slip was left specifically for him by his mother.

“Zhuo’er, do not despair. Your mother has not truly perished, but has preserved a breath of life using the means of the strange path. In the future, when you go to Wan-Xiang Zong, open your mother’s cave-dwelling and take all its contents. When the Da-She Lian trembles, the time will be right. Please cremate your mother’s former belongings, and her spiritual light can be restored.”

“At that time, perhaps your mother can even turn this misfortune into a blessing and master more profound mysteries of the strange path.”

Upon seeing this content, Ning Zhuo immediately stopped his tears, as if returning from hell to the human world.

“Mother!” He collapsed onto the ground, utterly exhausted, feeling more tired than he had been on the sacrificial altar battlefield not long ago.

Fortunately, fortunately, there was still room for everything to be salvaged.

The jade slip contained a lot of information. After recovering, Ning Zhuo immediately continued reading.

“Shui-Zang Gu has become a desperate land. Alas, although I teamed up with Gui-Gu Qian-Bei to slay the powerful enemy, I ultimately could not save him.”

“Zhuo’er, Wang-Chuan Fu-Jun will never give up! You must leave this place, leave the Underworld, immediately! Do not linger for a moment!”

“The City Lord of Bai-Zhi Xian-Cheng—you must be cautiously wary of this person. Regardless of Wang-Chuan Fu-Jun’s victory or defeat, for Bai-Zhi Xian-Cheng, circumstances have changed.”

“Therefore, you must properly settle the Qingjiao Army.”

“You must let them stay in the Yin-Chao Hei-Shi Zhao-Di, and also let them frequently enter the Underworld.”

“Your mother received guidance from Gui-Gu Qian-Bei and discovered many of Xuan-Su Shu-Sheng’s backup plans. With these plans, combined with the military, they can shuttle between Yin and Yang, continuously exerting influence in the marshland.”

“You need to personally take care of Qing-Chi! I believe you already have some conjectures about her. These doubts will be answered in the future.”

“She must not be allowed to remain in the Qingjiao Army, nor can she be left in Bai-Zhi Xian-Cheng. This would endanger her life.”

“Take her with you, and go to Wan-Xiang Zong together.”

“Before Gui-Gu Qian-Bei’s death, he permitted me to teach you the ‘Shui-Zang Chong-He Ji-De Jing’.”

“You must diligently cultivate this Dao scripture, accumulate merit, and eliminate the Underworld’s heaven’s aversion to you—”

“When you arrive at Wan-Xiang Zong, you can seek out—she is your mother’s closest friend, and you can try to trust her.”

“Your mother also has a talisman paper business in Wan-Xiang Zong. If you reveal your identity, you should be able to inherit it.”

“Do you remember what mother told you? Do not investigate Luan-Ming Men; your current strength is far from enough.”

Ning Zhuo stood still, momentarily like a clay or wooden statue.

His mother’s words, each like a heavy hammer, struck his heart.

Every arrangement, every line, revealed a mother’s love and concern for her son.