# 365
**Chapter 365: No Living May Leave**
Lin Qiye couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh.
He had heard of all four of these gods—no, they were practically household names.
Osiris was one of the nine great gods of Egyptian mythology, the ancient lord of the dead.
Hades, naturally, was one of the twelve Olympians, the king of the Greek underworld, elder brother to Poseidon and Zeus.
Yama was the Indian god of death, also known as King Yama, sovereign of the afterlife.
As for Satan… he was the demon lord of Hell, recorded in the Bible.
All four held dominion over death. With the disappearance of Great Xia’s underworld deities like the Emperor of Fengdu, shattering and absorbing Fengdu would bring them immense benefit!
And this final, forgotten fragment was forever buried beneath the northern lands of Great Xia.
“Since the Emperor of Fengdu is gone, who rules this town now?” Lin Qiye asked again.
—No one rules. After the ghosts and gods left, the cycle of reincarnation didn’t change; it still sends all souls onward. But we spirits who remained trapped in Fengdu can never leave.
—We’ve existed too long. Some souls have mutated into vicious ghosts. If this continues, this broken Fengdu will become a city of fiends.
Lin Qiye stared, stunned. He hadn’t expected the paper figure that had nearly killed him outside was actually one of this ghost city’s guardians.
Presumably, after the ant queen tunneled through the wall, the paper soldiers followed the passage outward. Some even stumbled through the cracks into the primeval forest…
Thus, the eerie legends were born.
That explained why, when Lin Qiye’s group found the paper figure in the abandoned logging camp, it hadn’t attacked—only fled. Its duty was to protect Fengdu; anything that posed no threat wasn’t its target.
But when Lin Qiye had approached the bronze gates, he was an intruder, so the paper soldiers swarmed him. Without the Mortal Divine Realm, he would’ve been assimilated on the spot.
Something occurred to him. “Have you seen a huge white ant?”
—Yes. About two years ago it appeared in a corner of Fengdu. Every paper soldier hunted it. Wounded, it fled the city. We don’t know where it went.
Lin Qiye nodded; his guess had been right. The ant queen had escaped from Fengdu, and the tunnels leading here were the paths it left behind.
“I understand,” he said. “Last question—how do I leave this house?”
The dead may enter; no living may leave. Lin Qiye’s living aura couldn’t pass the vermilion gate, yet he couldn’t stay trapped forever.
The ghost hesitated, then cautiously wrote on the paper money:
—The door won’t open. How about you climb the wall?
Lin Qiye: …
The corner of his mouth twitched. He turned and strode out of the house.
Great—if the door’s locked, just hop the fence. Brilliant!
Turned out climbing worked. A light leap took him over the low wall and back outside.
He swept the area with mental power, confirmed no paper soldiers were near, and sprinted toward where he’d come from.
With the Mortal Divine Realm’s perception, he always hid just before patrols arrived, returning safely to the black wall.
The tunnel had collapsed; reopening it would take ages. The open ground offered no cover—if any paper soldier spotted him while he dug, he’d be hunted endlessly.
After pondering, he left the cave mouth and walked to the bronze gates.
Maybe they could be opened from the inside?
He pressed his hands against the metal, pushed with all his strength, even boosted himself with Skyward Bard—nothing budged.
After a minute he sighed in defeat.
Within Fengdu, every gate follows the same law: the dead may enter; no living may leave.
He couldn’t open it.
Unlike the house, here there was no wall to hop—the black ramparts didn’t have a crack big enough for a thumb.
Risk digging the tunnel after all?
While he racked his brain, a blinding golden light erupted in the distance!
A rumbling followed.
Lin Qiye jerked his head up, recognized Baili Pangpang’s Yaoguang, and froze.
They came in too?
He snapped out of it and shot toward the sound.
…
Inside Fengdu.
Four figures raced along the broken central stone road.
“How’s it look?” Cao Yuan asked while running.
Baili Pangpang adjusted his monocle, glanced back: the dark road was empty—yet a freezing tide of death swept after them!
His face went pale. “More joined—over a hundred ghosts now! Some look weird, part insect, part beast, and they’re fast!”
“Damn it! Can’t we shake them?” Li Deyang cursed.
“Shake them where? This place is wall-to-wall ghosts!” Baili Pangpang snapped, then yelled, “Another pack ahead! Thirty-plus!”
“Left turn!!”
Li Deyang swerved without thinking; all four screeched left into an empty side street.
Behind them, two waves of frigid death merged and surged forward.
“Touch that aura and you’ll lose ten years of life,” Cao Yuan warned.
“Hell no! I’m not dying here!” Baili Pangpang howled, sprinting from last to first.