Chapter 752: The Ghost Face Mask
"Brother, someone's come to visit you in prison, bringing you food!"
Qin Mu peeled back the willow leaf on his brow and said to the giant infant suppressed within the Qin Continent, "It's a big sister, very pretty, but she has a snake tail and a man's voice."
"I'm never picky!"
The infant looked up, overjoyed, then suddenly grew suspicious. "You're not lying to me, are you? If you're lying, I'll beat you to death and then eat you. If you're not lying, I'll eat you while you're still alive."
Before Qin Mu could respond, Lu Li's voice from the Nai River was rough and gruff, cackling, "Qin Fengqing, I'm not here to find you this time. I'll spare your life for now. There will be other days; sooner or later, you'll fall into my hands."
She clearly had a woman's body, but her voice was a thick male one—very eerie.
Lu Li's tail undulated as she swam forward along the Nai River.
The infant in the Qin Continent flew into a rage. "Wicked little brother, you were lying to me after all! Come in here, and watch me beat you to death, tear off your head and limbs, and then eat you!"
Beside him, the Heavenly Duke's avatar and the Red Emperor's consciousness had long since hidden within the Qin Mountains, afraid of being caught in his wrath.
Qin Mu pressed the willow leaf back on, chuckling. "Why is Lu Li being so sensible this time?"
As he spoke, enormous bodies swam beneath the surface of the Nai River, swiftly passing under the Bridge of Life and Death.
Qin Mu's expression froze. They were countless Netherworld fiends and Netherworld gods!
Led by Lu Li, the Netherworld gods were bringing an unknown number of fiends, shuttling through the Nai River!
Those slimy, pitch-black bodies beneath the river's surface were colossal, yet they moved through the water-and-fire-mixed river as nimbly as fish. Their numbers were staggering, enough to make one's scalp crawl.
"The Four Grand Commanders stationed in the Netherworld by the Heavenly Court have arrived!"
Old Ox looked down at the bridge and said, "This time, opening Fengdu is meant to turn it into another Netherworld Capital. Once it's complete, Fengdu will be as vast as the Netherworld Capital. I suspect not only the Four Grand Commanders—Lu Li, Xuan Ming, Han Lei, and Yu Huang—will make a move, but even the Netherworld Emperor himself won't be able to sit still."
He punched toward the Nai River, but only managed to make water and fire erupt from it, unable to harm the gods and fiends beneath the surface in the slightest.
This was because the Nai River was the boundary connecting Fengdu and the Netherworld. Those fiends appeared to be swimming underwater, but they were actually moving within the Netherworld.
Although Niu Sanduo's fist techniques were fierce and domineering, and he was a grandmaster of martial arts at the Lingxiao realm, he couldn't break through the boundary to attack those fiends and gods.
He only knew martial arts techniques and had little understanding of Netherworld abilities.
"The Netherworld Emperor will make a move too?"
Qin Mu asked doubtfully, "Sister Di Yiyue is right here. Does he dare to show his face?"
Qin Mu had heard something about the entanglements of love and hate between Di Yiyue and the Netherworld Emperor. The First Ancestor of the Human Sovereign had quietly told him about it.
Back then, the Netherworld Emperor had pursued Di Yiyue, but on their wedding night, he struck her down without mercy, murdered her, and suppressed her corpse at the very bottom of the Nether Prison.
Now that Di Yiyue was opening Fengdu, would the Netherworld Emperor still dare to appear?
"If he dares to show up, I'll admire his thick skin."
No sooner had Qin Mu thought this than the space of Fengdu began to tremble incessantly. The sky split open, and the Netherworld Emperor's face emerged from the rift, his two enormous eyes rolling around as he scanned the area.
Qin Mu was stunned.
Old Ox said, "You underestimated his thick skin. Now that the Netherworld Emperor has appeared, these Netherworld fiends and gods can probably march into Fengdu."
Before he finished speaking, the Netherworld Emperor in the sky opened his mouth and muttered something in deep, obscure Netherworld language. A surge of demonic energy gathered and coalesced into a vertical eye on his brow.
The vertical eye opened, and a beam of black light descended from the sky, slicing into the Nai River where fire and water flowed together. The river split apart, and from the rift, gods leaped out one after another, roaring loudly.
The Netherworld Emperor's gaze continued downward from the sky, cutting all the way to the Bridge of Life and Death.
Niu Sanduo roared, his body swelling section by section until he became a towering, ox-headed divine being. He threw a punch, shattering the Netherworld Emperor's gaze.
Qin Mu looked toward the Nai River and saw countless fiends swarming out like ants from a nest, crawling from the Netherworld through the crack into Fengdu.
"So it's the old farmer's mount, that old ox."
The Netherworld Emperor immediately noticed the bridge and laughed, "It would take your master to be a match for me. Heh, and Qin Fengqing is here too. Your physical body belongs to me now..."
Just then, a blade light shot up into the sky. It was Tian Shu swinging his saber at the Netherworld Emperor. The Netherworld Emperor sneered and let Tian Shu's strike land on his face.
The face was cut open, but then the face in the sky vanished, and another face appeared—also the Netherworld Emperor's.
Tian Shu the Heavenly King was about to strike again when suddenly, one face after another emerged on the dark dome of Fengdu. The Netherworld Emperor's handsome visage appeared in the hundreds, completely covering the dark sky!
Hundreds of faces in the sky all opened their mouths at once, and from those mouths, arms extended, reaching downward by the hundreds!
Tian Shu resisted with his Divine Que Saber, chopping off many of the giant hands, but even more grabbed down.
Niu Sanduo stood on the bridge, his fists fierce and domineering, driving back the grasping hands, but there were too many in the sky for him to withstand.
At the same time, the Four Grand Commanders of the Netherworld crossed the Nai River, marshaling tens of thousands of Netherworld gods leading endless fiends to attack the gods and fiends of Fengdu within the divine city.
In the Divine City of Fengdu, gods and fiends roared to the heavens and charged to meet them. On both sides of the Nai River, a terrifying slaughter erupted.
Suddenly, Yan Wang, who had been opening Fengdu, flew over. He spread his cloak, and the vast divine city was instantly covered by it.
Yan Wang snapped his cloak open with a whoosh, and on both sides of the Nai River within the city, bones lay everywhere!
The countless fiends and gods were all turned to bones by him.
"That adopted son of the Kai Emperor does have some skill! But your Netherworld techniques aren't fully mastered yet!"
In the sky, giant hands reached down, grabbing Yan Wang's cloak and lifting him up. Yan Wang was startled. He roared and drew his sword, slashing at the hands holding him!
Lu Li, Yu Huang, Xuan Ming, and Han Lei, the Four Grand Commanders of the Netherworld, seized the opportunity to charge into the city, launching a massacre. The gods and fiends of Fengdu were mostly in their primordial spirit forms. Although they had regained physical bodies in the realm of the dead within Fengdu, they couldn't withstand the Four Grand Commanders. Many were beaten until their souls scattered.
Suddenly, a gate flew over and crashed down in the center of the world with a thunderous boom.
"The Netherworld Capital Heavenly Gate!"
Lu Li and the other gods cried out in alarm. The power of the Netherworld Capital Heavenly Gate pressed down, and everyone's primordial spirit sank. They were all crushed to the ground, unable to move.
Di Yiyue's figure floated up. She stood barefoot on the Netherworld Capital Heavenly Gate, looking up with a faint, mocking smile. "Husband, why don't you come in person? Why only manifest with your techniques? Your wife would very much like to hear your sweet words again."
On the dark dome, the Netherworld Emperor's faces trembled violently. Suddenly, all the faces merged into one, and that face slowly faded and disappeared.
"Di Yiyue, I am indeed ashamed before you, so I won't contend with you. It's not that I fear you."
His voice grew more distant. "But my task is complete. I didn't cut open Fengdu to stop you personally, but to let the power of the Netherworld enter. Netherworld Capital Heavenly King, you cut off Earth Lord's horn to establish Fengdu. Now you must settle your grievances with Earth Lord! I can now withdraw in success..."
Di Yiyue's heart tightened, and she quickly looked toward the Nai River.
The Nai River suddenly fell silent.
The fiends and gods surging from the river stopped fighting, frozen in place. Lu Li, Xuan Ming, and the other Four Grand Commanders stood guard before the Netherworld god army, poised for battle.
On the Nai River, a paper boat drifted out. On the boat, a pillar of light shone like a lamp, illuminating Fengdu.
At the bow, an old man with an indistinct face stood up, reached up, and took down a horse lantern, his expression blank.
Then, more paper boats drifted out—countless paper boats flying out from the Nai River. On each boat was an old man with an indistinct face, holding a horse lantern that could tear through the darkness!
Countless paper boats floated into the sky, and the light from the horse lanterns shone in all directions. The sky trembled, twisted, and contracted. The earth rumbled and shrank. The towering mountains in the darkness actually sank back into the ground, flattening out!
The space that Di Yiyue, Tian Shu the Heavenly King, and Yan Wang had worked together to open was instantly reverted to its original state by the Netherworld Envoy elders!
"Vaisravana Heavenly Palace!"
Yan Wang roared. The earth shook incessantly, and in the darkness, a divine city suddenly emerged—its black walls, like cast iron, stood in the depths of Fengdu. It was one of the thirty-six heavenly palaces of the Kai Emperor's heavenly court: Vaisravana Heavenly Palace.
"Heroic spirits of the Kai Emperor who fell in battle!"
Yan Wang stared fiercely at the paper boats filling the sky, raised his sword high, and shouted sternly, "Bones of the Kai Emperor who fell in battle! I beseech you, fight one more battle for the Kai Emperor!"
Boom. Boom.
From within the iron-black divine cities came terrifying tremors. Inside the cities, tall white skeletons slowly stood up, grasping their tattered weapons, standing silently, their eye sockets burning with blue flames.
These were the gods and fiends who had died in the battle that ended the Kai Emperor's era. Their divine bones had been buried in Fengdu, and now, answering Yan Wang's call, they awakened from death.
Suddenly, the gate of an iron-black divine city swung wide open. A three-headed beast rushed out, carrying a skeletal divine being as it galloped forward, its hooves clattering rapidly.
That skeletal divine being carried a tattered banner on his shoulder. The banner fluttered in the wind, and one could faintly make out the character "Yue."
On the Netherworld Capital Heavenly Gate, Di Yiyue stared blankly at this "Yue" banner, and suddenly tears streamed down her face.
That was her banner.
As the First Heavenly King, she had also commanded her own army of gods and fiends. But before the catastrophe struck, she had left to marry the Netherworld Emperor.
Now, she saw her banner again, but her subordinates had already turned to bones.
Even as bones, they still carried her military banner!
The skeletal divine being galloped forward, then suddenly halted his mount. He planted the banner heavily beneath the Netherworld Capital Heavenly Gate, raising his head proudly, chest puffed out.
Behind him, countless skeletal gods and fiends marched forward with a rustling sound, stopping behind him, perfectly aligned.
The gates of one iron-black divine city after another swung open, and more skeletal gods and fiends poured out, forming square formations, silent and still, facing off against the paper boats in the sky.
The old man on the paper boat shook his sleeves, and countless paper figures and paper horses flew out from his sleeve, transforming into countless gods and fiends.
Neither side made a sound, standing in silent confrontation.
"Cutting off Earth Lord's horn comes at a price."
On a paper boat, the Netherworld Envoy elder held his horse lantern, speaking calmly. "The rules of the Netherworld cannot be broken. Return Fengdu today, and no lives will be harmed. Refuse, and not a blade of grass will remain."
Di Yiyue and the others felt a chill. Tian Shu grabbed a wine jar and frantically poured wine down his throat, shouting, "Lord of the Mansions, it was I who cut off Earth Lord's horn! If you have a grudge, come at me alone!"
"You're drunk again."
The old man on the boat glanced at him and said indifferently, "Don't bother trying to resist. In the past million years, the number of worlds I've destroyed for resisting is beyond count. As long as the rules of the Netherworld are violated, no one is innocent."
Di Yiyue sneered, "The Netherworld Capital is also Earth Lord's horn! Why doesn't the Lord of the Mansions go destroy the Netherworld Capital instead of bullying us? The rules of the Netherworld are nothing but dog shit—whoever is stronger can twist your dog-shit rules as they please!"
The Netherworld Envoy elder frowned and said no more.
The light of the horse lanterns continued to shine, and Fengdu was on the verge of being reverted to its original state.
Yan Wang gritted his teeth, gripping the sword in his palm tightly, and said in a deep voice, "Prepare for mutual destruction!"
The Netherworld Envoy elder sighed. "Stubborn and unyielding."
Suddenly, on the Bridge of Life and Death, Qin Mu carved a mask and tossed it down to a paper boat below.
The Netherworld Envoy elder looked down at the mask. It was a familiar ghost face mask, with two tear streaks on it.
The Netherworld Envoy elder looked up toward the bridge. Qin Mu said softly, "I understand. I've returned."
The Netherworld Envoy elder's body shook violently. The countless paper boats in the sky suddenly collided, and all the Netherworld Envoy elders merged into one. He bent down and picked up the mask.
The old man stared at the mask for a moment, then put it on the back of his head.
"Mu."
He looked up at the young man on the bridge. "Do you know how many years have passed?"
—Yi Mu has returned! Unintentionally wrote 3,700 words, excitedly asking for votes!