Pushing open the main courtyard gate, a wide jade belt avenue led directly to the main hall. The road was paved with the finest emerald green jade stones, fluorescent and translucent, dazzling and enchanting, everywhere flickering with a kind of fantastical radiance. The sky had grown somewhat darker now, and countless lights flickered throughout the palace in brilliant splendor. Giant eastern pearls served as decorations, bright luminous pearls as lamps, exotic flowers and rare plants filled the air with intoxicating fragrance – everywhere displayed sumptuous luxury and ethereal immortal energy.

All around, lights flickered and fragrance lingered. In the enormous great hall, only a huge circular carpet was placed in the center, adorned with clustered flowers in golden magnificence, painted with the pattern of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix. Around the carpet was a circle of small tables laden with food, now fully set as if waiting for someone to come eat.

Rich aromas immediately wafted out, and Da Huang let out a sharp cry, pouncing forward eagerly.

Just then, a sudden muffled groan rang out. Qing Xia and Chu Li heard it simultaneously and turned to look. They saw a young man bound all over, wearing a plain white cotton robe with his face covered by a black cloth, lying in a corner of the great hall. Obviously having heard the sound, he was struggling desperately.

Qing Xia and Chu Li immediately flashed forward, reached out, and pulled off the person’s face covering.

In that instant, all three were greatly shocked.

“Lin Mubo?” Qing Xia opened her mouth wide and called out in astonishment, “How could you be here?”

Chu Li nimbly untied the restraints on Lin Mubo’s body and pulled the cotton cloth from his mouth. The historian, with his bruised and swollen face and disheveled clothes, for the first time rebelliously failed to perform the kowtow ceremony. His eyes stared blankly at Qing Xia for quite a while before he slowly nodded and said with emotion, “So the tales of ghosts and spirits are truly not empty words. I just never expected this netherworld to be so magnificent and splendid, completely different from what I imagined.”

Like a large club suddenly striking Qing Xia’s head, she was instantly stunned, all the questions she had prepared stuck in her throat. She stared fixedly at Lin Mubo as burning anger rose within her, almost wanting to throw out her fist and beat this obtuse scholar to death.

Chu Li’s face alternated between pale and red as he pressed his lips tightly together, saying nothing.

It was he who had originally told Lin Mubo that Qing Xia was Xiangju and had already died. Now facing this minister who was utterly loyal to him, how could he open his mouth to tell him he had been treating him like a fool and deceiving him all along?

“Good deeds bring good rewards, evil deeds bring evil rewards. I wronged the young lady in the past, but I never expected to meet her again today in this ghostly underworld. The mysterious and unpredictable nature of worldly affairs is truly difficult to foresee.”

The scholarly man’s hair was disheveled, with horizontal and vertical marks across his face, looking quite embarrassed. Yet he still unconsciously shook his head and nodded while sighing with emotion, appearing both ridiculous and infuriating.

Qing Xia glared at Chu Li with bulging eyes, her gaze almost shooting flames. Chu Li cleared his throat lightly and asked in a deep voice, “Minister Lin, what happened? How did you get here?”

Lin Mubo seemed to only now notice Chu Li standing nearby. He was immediately shocked and dismayed, staring blankly at Chu Li. Suddenly his brow furrowed tightly, his eye sockets turned red, looking as if he was about to cry. Qing Xia and Chu Li were alarmed and were about to speak when Lin Mubo was already weeping like a fountain, prostrating himself and crying, sobbing as he wailed, “Why is the Great Emperor also here? Could it truly be that Heaven wants to destroy our Great Chu?”

Chu Li and Qing Xia suddenly felt the entire world had darkened. They hadn’t expected this pedantic scholar to be entangled in confusion to such a degree. Chu Li raised his eyebrow and said sternly, “Shut up and answer me immediately!”

This stern shout immediately made Lin Mubo recognize the proper demeanor of the Great Emperor. He quickly stopped crying and said chokingly, “I don’t know either. That evening I was reading in my tent, happening to see a passage about the Way of Filial Piety and Integrity in ‘The White Length Travel Records’ by Shu Yanzi. I felt the words were enlightening and thought-provoking, striking my heart deeply. Suddenly literary inspiration flowed like a spring, and I took up my brush to write down some of my humble thoughts. But after writing just a beginning, I could go no further, discovering that no matter what, I could not surpass the insights of our predecessors. From this I deeply understood that the wisdom of the ancients is profound and mysterious, difficult to…”

Chu Li and Qing Xia frowned tightly, almost wanting to split open this scholar’s head with a knife to see if it was stuffed with straw. Chu Li’s face was gloomy, and unable to endure his lengthy discourse any longer, he suddenly shouted angrily, “Get to the point! No one wants to hear your pedantic sour words!”

Lin Mubo’s eloquent discussion of filial piety and integrity was interrupted. He stammered in confusion for a long time, then suddenly frowned as his scholarly temper rose. He said gravely, “Your Majesty the Great Emperor, this minister is crude and foolish, but I now have words in my heart that I must speak. I cannot help but risk death to remonstrate once more. Please permit my memorial.”

Chu Li immediately felt overwhelmed. In the past two years, Lin Mubo had managed the Privy Council, performing his duties faithfully and handling affairs appropriately. He was not without merit as a capable minister for maintaining the status quo. However, his degree of pedantry was simply unimaginable, especially his daily remonstrations, which were almost maddening. Yet as the top scholar of the Nan Chu imperial examinations, Lin Mubo was a model for all Nan Chu scholars, with hundreds of censors and officials behind him waving their pens in support. Even he could not casually interrupt his lengthy discourses in court. But seeing him still having such leisurely mood in the current environment, his face darkened, and he almost couldn’t resist reaching out to wring his neck.

However, he was still only at the thinking stage, while Qing Xia had already taken action. The petite woman glared fiercely, grabbed Lin Mubo by the collar, and swung her fist up with a whooshing sound, stopping it in front of his eyes as she said sternly, “If you continue chattering endlessly, I’ll really let you see what the underworld looks like!”

Lin Mubo was upright by nature and had always believed in the life principle that reason could take one anywhere in the world. Even when facing the Great Emperor of Nan Chu, he dared to openly contradict him. But facing the vengeful spirit of Miss Xiangju, the only person he had wronged in his life, he felt inexplicable fear and guilt. Seeing Qing Xia’s fierce glare and raised eyebrows, he immediately became tongue-tied and mumbled, “I saw the Great Emperor leading troops out of camp to meet Prince Xuan of Qin in battle, so I spread out my scroll wanting to record the historical facts. But not long after, there was suddenly a tremendous sound, and heaven and earth were shaking. I had a flash of inspiration and knew that what books described about the earth’s fury, cracking and roaring, had really happened. I hurriedly followed what the books said and found a book chest to crawl into. I had just fastened the lid when the entire earth suddenly collapsed. My head struck heavily against the book chest, and I lost consciousness.”

Qing Xia and Chu Li frowned tightly and looked at each other, secretly wondering if the ravine splitting that occurred on the battlefield that day was merely aftershocks, and the main earthquake had actually been in the Nan Chu military camp? If this were true, without Qin Zhiyan leading troops to rescue people, wouldn’t Nan Chu’s elite soldiers have been completely annihilated?

The mound of yellow earth in the east immediately appeared before their eyes. Could it be that the earth had split and the entire military camp had collapsed? Thinking of this, the two almost simultaneously saw enormous terror in each other’s eyes. Under such fierce natural forces, there was nowhere to escape. Aside from this bookworm who relied on books his entire life, who else could have escaped with their life from such a great disaster?

Just then, Da Huang suddenly pricked up his ears sharply, his round eyes staring straight at the door.

Qing Xia frowned, alarm bells ringing in her mind. She crouched down and listened – not far away, chaotic footsteps were rapidly approaching. Judging by the sound, there were no fewer than fifty or sixty people.

With unclear enemies and allies, overwhelming numbers against few, the other party’s identity unknown, and their own environment unfamiliar, they were completely in a passive disadvantageous position. Without even fighting, it was clear they would definitely lose.

She suddenly jumped up from her spot, grabbed rope, and quickly bound the dazed Lin Mubo again, covered his face, pulled Chu Li and ran toward the exit, shouting in a low voice, “Da Huang, follow!”

The snow-white little beast had been bouncing at a table for ages without managing to eat a single piece of meat. Hearing this, it hurriedly followed Qing Xia. But just as the two reached the door, the footsteps outside had already approached. Qing Xia knew it was too late. Her bright eyes swept around the room and saw a narrow, elongated red wood cabinet in the corner. She ran over in a few steps and opened the cabinet, only to see it was filled with women’s silk garments, skirts, robes, and gorgeous clothing. Without further hesitation, she pushed Chu Li inside, then leaped in herself. Seeing Da Huang barking anxiously beside the cabinet, she quickly put her finger to her lips, made a silencing gesture, and said in a low voice, “Find somewhere to hide yourself,” then closed the lid with a bang.

Almost simultaneously, the hall door was pushed open by someone, and light footsteps sounded within the hall. Qing Xia and Chu Li looked out through the keyhole and could only see the person from the waist down.

The person who entered was actually a woman, wearing white silk embroidered shoes, a blue and white dress, with long black hair hanging down. Although they couldn’t see her face, they could determine she was definitely an extraordinarily beautiful woman.

Only she entered alone, walking straight to Lin Mubo’s side and crouching down. From Qing Xia and Chu Li’s angle, they could only see her delicate, slender back.

The woman extended her slender jade hand, removed the face covering from Lin Mubo, and suddenly sighed softly, saying in a low voice, “Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience.”

Lin Mubo was gagged and could only make muffled sounds, unable to speak.

The woman’s voice was gentle and soft, like water flowing in a deep mountain stream, as she said quietly, “I know this is very uncomfortable for you, but I cannot release you, otherwise he would be displeased. But if you promise me you won’t shout randomly, I can give you some water to drink and something to eat. I’m not afraid of you calling for help – this place is full of our people, and no one would come to rescue you anyway. I’m just afraid your shouts might be heard by others, and if they told him, he would blame me for being soft-hearted again.”

Lin Mubo nodded repeatedly after hearing this, and the woman smiled, removing the cloth strip from his mouth.

“Wait here, I’ll get you something to eat.”

The foolish scholar finally realized he wasn’t dead and hurriedly said, “Miss, could you please tell me where this place is? Who are you people? Why am I here?”