“Is this person okay?”

Seeing from afar, Small Head Ghost stood on his tiptoes to look around, feeling uneasy.

Big Head Ghost saw the several rakshasa spirits overhead, then looked at this person covered in blood, and couldn’t help but feel frightened. He tugged at Small Head Ghost’s sleeve and said: “Looks quite scary, we’d better not meddle in other people’s business and leave quickly.”

“Right.”

Small Head Ghost fancied himself a clever ghost, never getting involved in messy affairs. When it was time to protect himself, he’d protect himself without any hesitation.

Even if he saw someone hanging dead by the roadside, it had nothing to do with him, let alone now?

After thinking it over, better to avoid trouble than invite it. Small Head Ghost didn’t hesitate and turned to leave: “You’re right, we should hurry back. Yesterday’s stove still needs repair—”

Halfway through his words, his body hadn’t completely turned around, but his speech suddenly stopped abruptly.

A pair of green eyes stared fixedly at the edge of the ash, unable to look away.

“What’s wrong?”

Big Head Ghost was startled by this and quickly reached out to shake him: “Small Head, are… are you alright?”

Small Head Ghost was shaken a few times, couldn’t see clearly that thing in the distance, and angrily shook off Big Head Ghost, impatiently saying: “Don’t make noise, don’t make noise, there seems to be something over there, take a look?”

“Something?”

Big Head Ghost was always half a beat slow in reactions. Following Small Head Ghost’s indication, he looked over and immediately said “Eh”: “There really is something.”

“Let’s go have a look.”

A fool doesn’t take advantage when it’s offered!

Small Head Ghost was one who never shortchanged himself.

His two green eyes emitted green light, and he crept forward, yet moved extremely quickly through the grass, approaching.

Getting closer, Small Head Ghost could see more clearly.

It was a woman.

Though her face was covered with blood, looking at her facial features, she was actually quite elegant and delicate. But at this moment she was prostrate on the ground, completely unresponsive, as if her soul had scattered.

Strangely, around her was a patch of ash, but she herself wasn’t stained with even a bit of ash.

It was as if the surrounding grass hadn’t been burned before she fell here, but had caught fire after she arrived.

But…

This “female corpse’s” clothes showed no signs of burning.

“What the hell…”

Small Head Ghost immediately noticed something was wrong and couldn’t help swallowing.

He was now exactly one zhang away from this corpse, right at the edge of the ash.

On this edge lay a sword, with some ash on it. The scabbard was black, and the patterns on the hilt were heavy and exquisite.

An inexplicable sense of dignified weight emanated from this sword, simply frightening.

Not an ordinary item!

Almost at first glance, Small Head Ghost’s heart was screaming.

He suppressed his suddenly violent heartbeat, carefully looked at the “corpse” prostrate on the ground—no movement.

So he didn’t hesitate, directly bent down, picked up the sword, and held it in his hand.

“Good heavens, I’ve struck it rich!”

The moment the long sword came into his hand, Small Head Ghost felt an aura emanating from the sword that almost made him want to kneel down!

Definitely a good sword!

Heaven, even when he had passed by the largest treasure shop in the underworld’s mountain and sea market, he had never seen such a fine thing!

Small Head Ghost was so excited he could barely breathe.

He trembled as he stroked every simple wooden grain on the scabbard, every exquisite casting pattern on the hilt…

His pair of green eyes actually showed signs of bloodshot.

Could this be the legendary “what is lost in the east may be gained in the west”?

Could this be the legendary “misfortune may be a blessing in disguise”?

Could it be that heaven was compensating him, finally giving him the possibility to rise up and become a high official in this underworld?

A series of thoughts quickly flashed through Small Head Ghost’s mind.

He was extremely excited and turned around to talk to Big Head Ghost, but unexpectedly, when he turned his head, Big Head Ghost was no longer behind him.

Where was he?

At that moment, Small Head Ghost suddenly shuddered, and before he could speak, he heard a strange cry!

“Mother!”

It was Big Head Ghost’s voice.

Small Head Ghost was startled and nearly dropped the sword he had just obtained. He hurriedly turned to look.

This look didn’t matter, but when he saw, Small Head Ghost was almost scared out of his wits, just short of dying completely!

At some point, Big Head Ghost who had been following Small Head Ghost had walked past him and directly into that patch of ash, even crouching beside that “corpse.”

His somewhat fat right hand was extended, as if he had just touched something terrible, rigidly suspended in mid-air, not daring to move.

Seeing Small Head Ghost look over, his entire face collapsed, full of panic, with a crying tone in his voice: “Warm, warm, it’s a living person…”

“What…”

How was that possible?

Small Head Ghost simply couldn’t believe what Big Head Ghost said. Just as he was about to scold him for talking nonsense, his peripheral vision swept over, and the words about to come out were suddenly stuck in his throat.

The female cultivator’s clothes were not the common style seen in the underworld, and even the silk thread used for her belt carried a strange aura.

She also had two finely crafted small bags hanging at her waist, without a speck of blood on them.

Most importantly, whether the clothing or the bags, they were all very “solid.”

“…”

Good heavens, this time they were in big trouble.

Small Head Ghost felt his scalp tingling.

Inside the Extreme Domain lived all the deceased, while outside in the Nineteen Continents or Human Realm Island, all lived the truly living.

In the Extreme Domain underworld, all ghosts drifted like solid matter, looking no different from ordinary people outside, but in fact, they had no physical bodies, only souls.

But living people were different.

Living people had both souls and physical bodies, and when touched would be warm, not cold.

Their clothing and accessories were also real, and would carry a “yang energy” quite different from the underworld, making people feel warm.

This female cultivator before them was a truly living person, a real living soul!

Legend had it that sixty years ago, the Extreme Domain and Nineteen Continents had fought a great war.

Small Head Ghost had only heard people mention it but didn’t know the reason. However, he clearly remembered that a drunken judge had said: Between the underworld and Nineteen Continents, there was already a barrier of yin and yang. With the Nine-Headed Bird dead, ordinary cultivators’ souls no longer entered reincarnation, and once dead, they were truly destroyed.

Underworld ghosts could almost never appear in the Nineteen Continents, and cultivators from the Nineteen Continents absolutely couldn’t appear in the underworld!

But…

But what was this female cultivator before them?

Small Head Ghost felt his mouth go dry, holding the sword he had picked up, his eyes flickering with divine light for a moment, not knowing what to do.

Big Head Ghost saw him silent for a long time and became even more panicked.

“Small, Small Head, what should we do? Should we report to Judge Chu? This…”

“Shut up!”

Small Head Ghost suddenly spoke, interrupting Big Head Ghost’s words.

Big Head Ghost was stunned, then saw Small Head Ghost actually walking toward him, also crouching down, and actually grabbing the female cultivator’s arm from the ground.

“What are you doing?”

Big Head Ghost was greatly alarmed.

Small Head Ghost’s face showed a determined fierce look. He looked around, seeing no one had discovered them, and said through gritted teeth: “We ghost cultivators in the Extreme Domain all start cultivation with souls, only powerful cultivators can cultivate physical bodies. A living person’s flesh is a great tonic. Since no one knows now, we’ll carry her back and cook a pot, surely able to increase our cultivation considerably!”

“…”

Big Head Ghost was simply stunned by Small Head Ghost’s audacious words, standing there motionless.

Small Head Ghost rolled his eyes at him: “Coward, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and lend a hand! Do you want us to be discovered in a while?”

“I…”

Big Head Ghost thought dully, always feeling this wasn’t quite right, but his stomach suddenly rumbled. He considered for a moment, then still walked up to help Small Head Ghost lift the person.

The two moved efficiently, and soon carried the person away.

The several rakshasa spirits circling overhead, seeing their “prey” taken by others, chased after them for a while until the two disappeared behind a gray mountain range in the distance, then reluctantly flapped their wings and flew back.

In the original spot, only a patch of miserable white ash remained in the grass.

Jian Chou had a very, very long dream.

In the dream, she finally completed her plan.

Over three thousand heads screamed in unison, the thousand-foot giant Buddha collapsed thunderously, stellar streams surged, and Xie Buchen’s figure was instantly submerged in the torrent…

In her daze, she actually felt that at that moment he seemed somewhat confused, offering no resistance, as if he had seen something.

What exactly had he seen?

Jian Chou was somewhat puzzled.

But such confusion quickly disappeared completely.

Too exhausted, so much so that even thinking became difficult.

From the hidden realm of Qingfeng Nunnery onward, it had been needle-point confrontation, step-by-step calculations, step-by-step killing intent.

She was, and so was Xie Buchen.

Xie Buchen hid his trump card, and she also hid the “One Person Platform.”

Any cultivator who ascended the One Person Platform could obtain their own “opportunity” on it.

Everyone knew she had ascended the One Person Platform, but except for her master Fudao Shanren, no one else knew what she had actually obtained on the One Person Platform.

That was an opportunity that, if spoken of, would probably shock even Master Hengxu.

—She had gained the ability to communicate with the One Person Platform.

The moment she placed the ghost axe on the Weapon Dissolution Platform, she gained the One Person Platform’s recognition.

Stellar streams rushing up, the sky turning from day to night, she seemed to stand outside the entire dome, touching a completely new world, watching a changing universe.

That stellar stream Dao seal that could only be used once was one of the opportunities given by the One Person Platform;

The stellar power infused from above, suddenly increasing her entire strength by thirty percent, was the second opportunity given by the One Person Platform;

Her spiritual consciousness communicating with the One Person Platform, being able to use the One Person Platform’s existence to teleport herself elsewhere, was the third opportunity given by the One Person Platform.

Probably Xie Buchen would never imagine until death that the One Person Platform he had missed ultimately became the source of his defeat, would he?

All along the way, she had acted without restraint, possessing strange strength and swift reactions. Even guessing that Xie Buchen had trump cards, she remained fearless…

All of this was because she possessed the strongest strike, held the hardest trump card!

Even if she couldn’t kill Xie Buchen, she was confident she could retreat unscathed.

The end of her memories stayed at the overturning heavenly lake, stayed at the brilliant starlight of the One Person Platform…

Thus, it came to an abrupt end.

What replaced it was a warm feeling, as if someone had soaked her in water, but her limbs and bones all transmitted a sore pain, and she seemed to be bound, unable to move at all.

This feeling wasn’t very comfortable.

Her eyelids were heavy as if weighing ten thousand pounds, making her too lazy to lift them.

In her daze, Jian Chou only felt her head was heavy and drowsy, vaguely hearing two voices, one clever, one dull.

“Add more, add more! Light it up, light it up!”

“Mm!”

“Quick, array, array, array, Mixed Origin Array! There’s still a piece of earth silver not placed properly over there, hurry!”

“Oh…”

They seemed to be busy with something, with continuous small sounds.

Jian Chou vaguely heard words like “don’t discover,” “dangerous,” “strange,” “fool,” but put together, she couldn’t understand what they meant.

Her mind was full of mush, even thinking became slow.

The long dream gradually withdrew from the depths of her mind.

The sounds outside finally began to become clearer.

Those heavy eyelids also finally lightened a bit, so Jian Chou slowly opened her eyes.

The dark and heavy world cracked open a small fissure toward her, with dim yellow light penetrating through the crack, then gradually expanding.

It was a small room.

Or rather, a… kitchen?

The strangely shaped broken wooden door had a door bolt, windows nailed full of wooden strips were tightly closed, and all four walls had cracks that were carefully plastered with yellow mud, leaving ugly “scars.”

Her position seemed somewhat high.

Jian Chou slowly withdrew her gaze and looked down, immediately struck speechless.

This was actually a round stove, but instead of a pot on the stove, there was a large vat.

The vat’s rim had several chips, as if from long use and accidental bumps.

At this moment, the vat was filled with water, with fire burning underneath, so the water surface began to bubble and steam rose, making Jian Chou’s vision somewhat blurred.

That’s right, she was now actually tied up and placed in this shabby water vat, set on the stove to cook!

This…

What was this situation?

Jian Chou felt everything around her had a strange, unfamiliar quality, not knowing where the One Person Platform had teleported her.

No matter what…

She couldn’t be controlled by others.

Almost the moment she discovered she was in a predicament, Jian Chou exerted force with her hands, trying to break the ropes binding her.

But when she exerted force, the ropes didn’t move at all!

Jian Chou was somewhat stunned.

She vaguely discovered something was wrong.

Her body, flesh, and even bones were all fine, without any problems, obviously having used her strong regenerative healing ability to repair the injuries from the previous battle with Xie Buchen.

But now, she couldn’t detect even a trace of spiritual power anywhere in her body!

Even the battle disc that she could previously summon at will was like dead.

Jian Chou wanted to concentrate her mind and sink into her brow’s ancestral aperture, but discovered that this “ancestral aperture” related to a cultivator’s cultivation had actually locked itself against her.

There wasn’t a trace of spiritual power in her body to use, and even her spiritual consciousness could only leave her body by one foot before being forced back into her body by some strange external pressure.

What the hell…

Jian Chou sat in the large vat, couldn’t help but be completely dumbfounded.

She didn’t feel there was any problem with her body. With her sixth level of “Human Weapon” cultivation, even being cooked in this boiling water, she was perfectly fine, her skin didn’t even turn red.

Her body was fine, her cultivation realm hadn’t dropped, but her abilities just couldn’t be used, and her spiritual power was completely empty.

Even with Jian Chou’s extensive experience, encountering this unprecedented situation, she could only feel confused.

“Where’s the firewood? Add more, add more… burn the fire stronger, or we’ll be cooking until tomorrow!”

As she was thinking, the clever voice she had heard before spoke up again.

Jian Chou was startled.

Previously, while she was in the large vat, she had looked around casually and seen the surroundings, but hadn’t looked down at the ground.

Now hearing the voice, she looked toward the sound and actually discovered a small-headed ghost with a pointed head crouched under the stove.

He was carrying a pile of wood over and placing it beside the big-headed ghost crouched in front of the stove.

Big Head Ghost was closest to the fire, with a short, fat body and big head.

Seeing Small Head Ghost bring the firewood, he picked up a piece and stuffed it into the fire chamber. His face was lit bright red by the fire inside, looking quite festive.

“Big enough, the water’s boiling, right?”

“Boiling, boiling, I can hear the sound.”

Small Head Ghost’s ears were sharp—how could he not hear such obvious bubbling sounds?

But looking at the fire in the chamber, he still felt it was too small. Anxious, he picked up several pieces of firewood and threw them inside.

“Stingy! What’s the big deal about burning a few more pieces of wood!”

“But we borrowed this from the white-haired ghost at the village entrance, later…”

Big Head Ghost watched those pieces immediately swallowed by the flames, his face immediately becoming hesitant, seeming somewhat pained.

Small Head Ghost was frustrated: “Now that we’re about to eat human flesh, where do we care about him dying? He doesn’t have food anyway, what use is firewood to him? At worst, we’ll pay him back when we get promoted and rich. What are you panicking about?”

“But…”

Big Head Ghost wanted to say they should save some for burning. If the person wasn’t cooked through but the wood burned out first, they’d still need to borrow more everywhere. If they couldn’t borrow any, they’d have to stop the fire and restart, and if the person in the vat went bad before being cooked properly, what would they do?

But before he could speak, Small Head Ghost directly interrupted: “Stop with all the ‘buts’! You have so much to say about burning some firewood. Do you know what’s called night, night long dream… dream… what was it?”

Halfway through a phrase, he suddenly got stuck.

“The nights are long and dreams are many.” A voice suddenly continued.

“Right! That’s it—the nights are long and dreams are many!”

Small Head Ghost, hearing this, finally remembered.

He was so pleased he slapped his thigh and praised Big Head Ghost: “You even know how to use ‘the nights are long and dreams are many’! Can’t tell, Big Head, you’re so capable—”

Big Head Ghost looked at him blankly.

Small Head Ghost felt his throat was blocked, with a bone-chilling feeling rising from his tailbone and instantly spreading throughout his body!

“Crack crack…”

He heard the stiff, teeth-grinding sound of his own neck turning.

His gaze moved from the fire chamber burning with flames, slowly to the high stove, to the even higher black water vat, then to the vat’s chipped rim, and finally…

To the human head emerging from the water.

Two black eyes and two green eyes met just like that.

The female cultivator who they had judged to be half-dead, with her soul not even complete, had somehow awakened.

Her previously tightly closed eyes opened, and with just one sweep of her narrow eye corners, Small Head Ghost felt his heart beating wildly—

From fright!

Sitting in the scalding water vat, being “cooked” by the boiling water, Jian Chou blinked and showed a somewhat embarrassed smile, saying quite awkwardly: “Um… may I ask if you’re planning to… cook me to eat?”