The ghost soldiers borrowed the road, marching in perfect formation. Heaven and earth trembled. They seemed to come walking out of the remote ancient past, advancing toward some eternal and unknown destination, their primordial wild energy surging into the heavens.

In his late years, Zhang Lin had grown strange and unpredictable. He had entered the Divine Ruins, ventured into immortal mausoleums, and witnessed the ghost soldiers borrowing the road — and the remote ancient sages had stepped aside to make way for them.

Banners fluttered as the ghost soldiers passed, heading toward some unknown distant place. It made one’s hair stand on end. Ye Fan halted the others and stood motionless — none of them dared to disturb the procession.

No one else could see it. Even Duan De, who had made a deep study of mausoleum science, had every hair on his body standing upright at this moment, struck by some nameless intuition — yet he could see nothing at all.

“What? The ghost soldiers are borrowing the road?!” When the tens of thousands of ghost soldiers had passed and Ye Fan spoke the words aloud, every one of them cried out in shock.

Underground where the yin energy is heavy, certain yin spirit entities and the like can form, sometimes also called ghost soldiers — but these were entirely different. These were true netherworld soldiers, beyond all rational understanding.

“I have already cultivated the Yin-Yang Celestial Eye, and yet I couldn’t see even a shadow. Only my instincts told me that a terrifying group of presences had passed by…” Duan De said, with a shudder.

“I heard the Great Emperor Wushi mention something once — something about ghost soldiers appearing somewhere, but I didn’t listen to the details.” The Black Emperor said regretfully.

Ye Fan was the most unsettled of all. The eerie phenomenon that only appeared in a Wellspring Heavenly Master’s twilight years — he had now seen it with his own eyes. Was this some kind of ill omen?

“I remember now — I’ve seen a handwritten journal from an earlier master, and it contained a record of this. The one who achieved the highest mastery of geomancy and burial arts entered the Netherworld Soil in his late years and witnessed the ghost soldiers.” Duan De clenched his fists tightly.

But that journal was incomplete — it was never finished. The former master had been scared to death mid-writing and had died of fright right there in his stone chamber, seated with an expression of terror on his face.

When the others heard this, their blood ran cold. According to Duan De, those who achieved the highest mastery of geomancy and burial arts rarely met good ends — that came as no surprise.

“Let’s follow them and see — where exactly are they going?” Ye Fan said. Having witnessed this, and thinking of Zhang Lin’s twilight years, his heart was uneasy. If he didn’t get to the bottom of it, something would keep nagging at him.

Duan De immediately lifted both feet in a gesture of hearty support and agreement. He believed a towering milestone of geomancy and burial science was before his eyes, that he was about to uncover a secret that had been kept for ten thousand ages, and that he would become a legend in history.

“It really makes one’s hair stand on end. But I’ve heard that the blood of black dogs can ward off evil…” Li Tian muttered.

The Black Emperor’s expression immediately turned hostile. It twisted its head to stare at him, baring a mouthful of gleaming white teeth.

“How about… Brother Black, you contribute a bit of blood so the rest of us can feel a little braver?” Li Tian, heedless of his own safety, continued.

“Woof!” The big black dog reared up on its hind legs and lunged over, biting with ferocious intent.

“Quiet — don’t disturb the ghost soldiers.” Ye Fan separated them, then was the first to follow after, since only he could see them and so he led the way.

The great swarm of ghost soldiers was like a torrent of iron and steel, seemingly capable of slaughtering all enemies in their path. The grim and chilling energy they emanated caused the heart to quail — drawing even slightly close threatened to shatter one’s physical form.

The primordial Purgatory was vast and boundless, with complex and varied terrain. Across the ground lay endless skeletal remains, embedded in layers of stone and turned to fossils.

All manner of ancient life forms — grotesque and terrifying, with human bodies and beast or phoenix features, eight arms and four heads — the fossilized remains of beings never seen or heard of before filled the watchers with astonishment.

The dim battlefield stretched further than the eye could see, with ribbons of demonic cloud coiling through it, ghastly and horrifying, enough to set the heart pounding.

Especially dreadful was the sight of tens of thousands of ghost soldiers marching relentlessly onward, carrying with them a heaven-engulfing murderous intent, which made the scene feel all the more uncanny.

“Where are they going?” Ye Fan and the others had followed for more than a hundred li, yet the great army showed no sign of halting.

“A great fog is rising ahead!” The group was startled. It appeared with complete abruptness — an exceptionally dense mist that swallowed the entire stretch of sky and earth, leaving only a misty blur ahead, impenetrable even to the Celestial Eye.

Ye Fan was even more astonished. The army of ghost soldiers was diminishing — as though they were entering another world, arriving at their destination.

“Move quickly — circle around and take a look.”

He was the first to sprint forward, skirting around the tens of thousands of troops and entering the region of mist. In that instant, his entire body felt as though it was being cut by knives, and goosebumps rose all over him.

It was not just ordinary people — even cultivators at the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm would have their bodies crack apart here, slaughtered by the gloomy and chilling energy.

“It’s incredibly dense — the dark and malevolent energy penetrates the nine heavens. It truly feels like entering the Netherworld Soil!” Duan De said in alarm, drawing on his years of tomb-raiding experience to make his judgment.

“Brother Black, I still can’t stop my hair from standing up. Couldn’t you just contribute a bit of blood, really?” Li Tian nagged.

“Woof!” The big black dog’s bald tail shot straight up, and its gaping maw opened, eager to swallow someone alive.

“Hold it down — what in the world have we come to?!” The monkey put a stop to them, his golden-fire eyes blazing with light. His expression grew solemn and heavy as he pointed ahead.

The mist was thick and heavy. This stretch of land was not the primordial battlefield — it was a bizarre and eerie domain, truly resembling a patch of Netherworld Soil. Its appearance was completely unlike what lay outside.

“Something is wrong. A moment ago when the great fog hadn’t risen yet, what lay ahead was a boundless plain — the primordial battlefield. But now everything has completely changed.” Li Heishui said.

It was a bizarre transformation that left them baffled. Everything stemmed from the sudden appearance of the great fog — it felt as though they had been brought to an entirely different world.

“This place is connected to another world…” Duan De said in astonishment. They couldn’t see the ghost soldiers, yet they sensed the netherworld forces were diminishing.

“Brother Ye, what do you see?” Yan Yixi asked.

“This place looks like an entrance to a world. The ghost soldiers are entering it — it resembles the Nine Deep Underworld!” Ye Fan’s heart was far from calm.

“We’ve already come this far — let’s go in and take a look!” Duan De egged everyone on. As an authority on geomancy and burial arts, he was urgently eager to excavate some long-kept secret of ten thousand ages.

The mist was heavy and the space ahead was vast — the ghost soldiers had not filled it entirely, leaving enough room for them to enter. The group, bold with their formidable skills, pressed forward.

The malevolent energy grew ever more intense. Their flesh felt as though it were being scraped by blades — the netherworld energy surged wildly, threatening to tear them apart.

Netherworld Soil!

At last they stepped inside. This was a stunning stretch of land — nothing like the primordial battlefield. It was not a world unto itself, but rather seemed like a passage.

“A road leading to the Netherworld Soil?!” Duan De rubbed his hands, both excited and stirred. He had seen scattered references to this in some of the earlier masters’ journals, but no one had ever shed clear light on it.

Black earth, grey mist, an unknown road ahead — the ghost soldiers ignored them entirely, marching forward in orderly fashion, disappearing into the distance.

“What is that smell — it’s so fragrant!” The Black Emperor’s nose twitched. Its copper-bell eyes went wide and round as it stood on its hind legs, staring ahead.

The others exchanged baffled glances — none of them could smell a thing. But the Black Emperor swore up and down that it had caught a fragrance, claiming it might be an immortal divine herb.

“As if this kind of Nine Deep Underworld domain could produce divine herbs!” Duan De threw cold water on the idea.

They moved forward with caution. After advancing five li, they finally caught a whiff of a heart-refreshing fragrance, and every one of them was reinvigorated by it.

“What a nose on that dog — it could smell it from several li away.” They all marveled inwardly, but didn’t dare say it aloud, for fear of being bitten.

They advanced another li or so, and the fragrance grew so thick it was almost liquefied, nearly making one dizzy with pleasure, driving them irresistibly to quicken their steps in search of its source.

“There’s a pool ahead!” They were astonished. Ahead glittered the shimmer of water, with column after column of ghost soldiers filing past it in orderly rows. The fragrance was coming from there.

“A yellow pool — the water is terrifying, deeply unnerving. Why does it feel like corpse water to me?”

The pool was no more than ten zhang across, bubbling and gurgling, its yellow color deeply unsettling, with a wave of gloomy and malevolent energy washing over them — yet it also carried a heart-refreshing fragrance mingled within.

Duan De produced a white wooden rod and probed it into the water. The entire white wooden rod instantly turned yellow, with death energy coiling around it. He immediately cried out in shock: “This is the Yellow Springs!”

They found it utterly incomprehensible. Where exactly had they come to? Even in an extreme yin death ground, giving rise to a small hollow of Yellow Springs water would be remarkable enough — yet here there was so much.

According to legend, Yellow Springs does not belong to this world at all and cannot normally exist within it. Everything they were seeing today appeared bizarre and mysterious beyond measure.

Splash!

A spray of water burst from the Yellow Springs pool, and a divine herb emerged — entirely jet black, shaped like a divine orchid carved from ink jade, with the aura of the Great Dao flowing through it, standing over a meter tall, its fragrance filling the air.

“A deathless divine herb!” Li Tian and Duan De’s mouths were practically watering, and both could barely restrain themselves from snatching it up.

“No — this is the Dark Underworld Grass!” Ye Fan called out sharply.

Even the Black Emperor, who was so tempted that saliva nearly dripped from its mouth, nodded: “Correct — I once saw a stalk of it in the Undying Mountain. It’s identical. But I still want to bite into it.”

They drew in a deep breath. Every pore on their bodies relaxed and opened up, their minds cleared and their spirits refreshed, as though they had received the most sacred of baptisms — almost as though they might ascend to the heavens on a rosy cloud.

But unfortunately this was not an immortality herb. If consumed, it would have terrifying side effects — a fate worse than death.

Long ago, the three ancient powerful figures who had besieged the Peerless Divine King had eaten a stalk of Dark Underworld Grass and lived for nearly five thousand years as a result — but their bodies had rotted to the state of corpses, with only their divine will persisting.

“This is a demonic flower — terrible beyond measure, yet also a peerless rare treasure of the heavens and earth. Taking it with us may prove useful in some unforeseen way.”

This was not the Undying Mountain. There were no great emperor array markings here, so it could be picked. Yet the Dark Underworld Grass had already gained spiritual awareness. It transformed into a streak of dark light and dove back into the pool. They acted simultaneously — refining the entire Yellow Springs pool into a sealed vessel and trapping the herb within.

Clank clank clank!

Chains rattled and rang out sharp and clear.

The group was startled. The roots of the Dark Underworld Grass were locked by a chain of netherworld iron — otherwise they might not have been able to capture this rare treasure that had persisted through the ages.

“These are not physical chains — they are a strand of the Dao order, locking it in place here. Truly bizarre!” After careful observation, they looked at one another in bewilderment.

“Let’s take the whole Yellow Springs pool with us. Let this stalk of Dark Underworld Grass keep growing — it may truly have great use in the future.” In the end, they sealed both the Yellow Springs pool and this terrifying demonic grass into a small white jade cauldron.

Ahead flowed a river of blood — no more than a zhang wide, crimson and vivid, silent and still, flowing toward the distance.

Over the river there was a stone arch bridge, ancient in its style, its age impossible to determine. All the ghost soldiers were crossing over it, advancing onto the other bank.

“I can see the ghost soldiers on the other side!” Li Heishui said.

The others shuddered as well. After crossing the stone bridge over the blood river, all the ghost soldiers became visible, continuing their advance along the way.

“Is this a stretch of Netherworld Soil forged by an ancient netherworld emperor of old? Or is there truly an inconceivable world at the other end?” Duan De was deeply uncertain.

“The mist is about to dissipate — we’re going to be expelled back to the ancient battlefield!” The monkey said.

The fog was disappearing. The various bizarre scenes were fading into translucence — only the blood river ahead and the stone bridge remained real. The last column of ghost soldiers was nearly across.

Without question, once all the ghost soldiers had passed, everything would vanish — unless they crossed over entirely themselves.

“This seems like a spatial node — the burial ground of several million ancient clan members has linked together the otherwise discontinuous stretches of Netherworld Soil.” Duan De analyzed the reason behind the ghost soldiers’ borrowing of the road.

“It’s almost gone — the last ghost soldier has stepped onto the stone arch bridge.” Li Heishui said.

In that moment, Duan De made a move that no one could have anticipated. He lunged forward with great speed and grabbed hold of the last ghost soldier, bodily wrestling it back.

Then crash, bang, clatter — a brawl erupted. Yin wind howled, death energy surged, and this stretch of land became ice-cold as a frozen cellar.

Too ferocious!

Everyone was stunned. Even the Black Emperor could only say this much and then opened its gaping maw and charged forward.

Ye Fan and the others rushed in together — some pressing down hands, some grabbing legs, some twisting necks — wrestling with a ghost for the first time in their lives. To the touch it was ice-cold and bone-piercing, somewhat prickly.

The ghost soldiers only materialized on the stone arch bridge and the far bank. Once dragged back, its true form was invisible — but Duan De scattered a heap of powder over it, and it immediately took on a visible shape.

“This powder was ground from the planks of the coffin of that ancient undying celestial emperor — you could be the Great Luo Immortal Ghost come in person and you’d still have to show your form for me!”

The ghost soldier’s strength was enormous. Apart from Ye Fan and the monkey, it would have taken more than one person to pin it down. Duan De looped the ghost-binding rope around it eighteen times in both directions, trussing it up thoroughly.

When everything settled down, they stared at one another. For the first time in their lives they had caught a living ghost!

It wasn’t that they had never encountered yin spirits before — but those had all been ethereal, reduced to ash with a single strike, not worth mentioning. What they had captured this time was something rather out of the ordinary: it had a physical body.

“Quite solid.” Duan De felt it over, then said: “Want to try for yourselves?”

“You’re truly depraved!”

But the others crowded up anyway, together examining this ghost soldier. Its entire body was covered in black iron armor, its flesh pale and bloodless. The Black Emperor was quite curious and felt it over and over as well, finding that its great paw was nearly going numb from the cold.

The battle attire on its body was very ancient — of some age impossible to determine — and bore the brand of the ages upon it, solid and undecaying.

“These battle garments must have been a rare ancient armor even before the primordial era. Truly incredible — they are not transmitted holy weapons. How have they survived for such an immeasurably long span of time?” The monkey was puzzled.

Crack!

The moment the words left his mouth, the black battle garments cracked apart. Strand after strand of dark netherworld energy seeped out, and the battle attire began to decompose, crumbling into dust.

“What is happening — can so many ghost soldiers gathered together resist the passage of time, and is it only now finally returning to dust from whence it came?”

Clang!

Duan De struck out, knocking off the ghost soldier’s helmet and exposing its true appearance — a pale, ashen face, eyes tightly shut, gray hair hanging loose, with a death energy around it that was profoundly frightening.

This was a man who appeared to be in his forties or fifties. He did not move, and once bound by the ghost-binding rope, he ceased struggling — like a death sculpture.

Duan De intended to confine and draw out an imprinted memory from between his brows, to see what this so-called Netherworld Soil was truly about. But at that moment the man’s death energy grew even more intense. His entire body emitted a cloud of dark light, as though it had ignited, and it began to shrink — shrinking continuously in the most bizarre fashion — reducing to the size of a thumb, then dropping to the ground with a ding.

Dark light flickered. The middle-aged man vanished. In his place on the ground was only an ink jade carved figurine — lifelike, identical in every detail to the ghost soldier from moments before.

“What is this — how did it turn into this?” The Black Emperor came forward and prodded it with its great paw.

Duan De’s expression changed. A flash of radiance appeared in his palm, where two similar ink jade figurines materialized — also only thumb-length, exquisitely lifelike — and he said: “I dug these out of an ancient mausoleum once. They were left behind by a geomancer.”

“What good are these? How bizarre.” Li Tian and the others crowded around, picked up the ghost soldier jade figurine from the ground, and racked their brains without reaching any conclusion.

“It’s a pity that handwritten journal was never completed. That geomancer was scared to death in that stone chamber, otherwise we would certainly understand far more.” Duan De clasped all three ink jade figurines in his palm.

“Let’s set this aside for now and go rescue the wild man first.” Li Heishui said.

“I feel somewhat uneasy — I’m not sure why, but the sight of the ghost soldiers borrowing the road feels deeply strange…” Ye Fan murmured, looking back over his shoulder. He saw nothing.

“What are you looking at? The ghost soldiers have long since disappeared. Getting frightened by your own imagination can scare a man to death.” Li Tian grumbled.

Ye Fan suddenly let out a cold snort and stamped hard on the ground. Origin energy rose from the earth and transformed into a great dragon that surged forward, rearing its head and leaping, brilliant and dazzling.

“Is there really something there?!” The monkey and the others were all startled. Even with their formidable spiritual perception, they had not sensed a thing.

Ye Fan stared out at the dim ancient battlefield, streaks of demonic fog coiling through it. He saw no shadow of any person — yet in the darkness there was always a presence that made him uneasy.

After that they fell into silence. No one said a word as they pressed forward. Ye Fan borrowed the Divine Maiden Furnace and stayed on constant alert, ready to launch a fierce strike at any moment.

“It’s coming again — there it is, I can truly sense it. It should be coming for me…” Ye Fan transmitted his voice into the minds of the others.

After advancing more than a hundred li, he suddenly raised the Divine Maiden Furnace and hurled it backward. A heaven-engulfing divine radiance illuminated the entire stretch of sky, and the dim battlefield blazed with brilliance in an instant.

From behind came a shrill, blood-curdling shriek that made the scalp crawl. A gloomy, freezing chill descended over every one of them — a feeling impossible to put into words.

In that split second of fire and lightning, Ye Fan glimpsed a figure flash and vanish — it sidestepped the Divine Maiden Furnace and disappeared into the darkness. That brief backward glance that revealed its true face made the cold run from Ye Fan’s head all the way down to his feet.

“What did I just see — a terrifying ghost monkey!” Yan Yixi sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

“Its entire body covered in red fur, and those eyes — so vicious and malicious. That one brief glimpse nearly turned my body to an ice sculpture. It was terrifying!” Li Heishui couldn’t help shuddering several times.

Only Ye Fan said nothing. He stared into the darkness, clenching his fists so tightly — with such force — that his fingers had gone white.

“Brother Monkey, do you have any relatives? I clearly saw a red-furred fierce ghost — with a thunder god’s beak, and a face that somewhat resembles yours!” Li Tian said.

The monkey nearly swung his great iron staff to crack Li Tian on the head. His golden-fire eyes shot out divine light, and his expression turned solemn and heavy as he gazed into the darkness.

“What manner of creature is that? It seems extremely difficult to deal with. From my many years of tomb-raiding experience, this is without question the kind of tomb master one encounters only once in tens of thousands of years — if not something even more frightening!” Duan De drew his conclusion.

That face covered in red fur was so hideous that it refused to leave Ye Fan’s mind. He had captured a trace of its energy — it was similar to his own. It carried the unique signature that belonged to a Wellspring Heavenly Master.

“It is him — a Wellspring Heavenly Master in whose late years the inauspicious signs have manifested!” Ye Fan said gravely.

Everyone’s heart sank. They all knew how the Divine Spirit Valley had been destroyed. A Wellspring Heavenly Master whose inauspicious signs had appeared possessed a terrifying and dreadful power.

“The third generation patriarch is in the Qinling Mountains. The fourth generation patriarch is in the Primordial Forbidden Zone. The fifth generation patriarch died within the Divine Spirit Valley. This place… Is it the first generation patriarch, or the second?” Ye Fan murmured to himself.

The others felt their hair stand on end. Just how many years had the first two generations of patriarchs existed in the world? If they could absorb the essence of heaven and earth and the laws of nature, even a pig would have attained sainthood by now.

Most critically, their physical bodies were their own — but their consciousness had gone into a feral stupor, possessed by some bizarre and wicked intent, ferocious and boundless, making them the most terrifying of all.

Their first instinct now was to flee. Facing an ancestor of the Wellspring Heavenly Master lineage was certain death — without the slightest hope.

Yet when they turned back, they found source-energy markings flickering everywhere, stretching on in vast, unbroken chains. Even someone as skilled in source arts as Ye Fan would find breaking through them enormously difficult.

“Then let us press onward — continue forward into the depths. He has cut off our retreat.” Ye Fan said.

“What are we to do then — is this not a dead end?” Yan Yixi said.

“It’s alright. Patriarch Zhang Lin gave me something — eighty-one great banners left behind by the Undying Celestial Emperor. If we truly have to fight to the death, even several ancestral kings could be suppressed and slain!” Ye Fan said.

Unless he had absolutely no other choice, he was deeply reluctant to waste these precious treasures. After such an immeasurably long span of time, even the banner poles were nearly crumbling — they could only be used one final time.

Now the ancient banners had been sealed by him with nine ancient characters from the Dao Scripture, achieving a kind of permanence. Otherwise they would not have been able to persist much longer.

Ye Fan and his group advanced at speed, and since things had already come to this, they wanted to use the time they had to find Dongfang Ye, rescue him, and then use these array banners together when breaking out.

They ran on and searched everywhere. Across this vast battlefield they gradually came across dozens of corpses, dead not long ago — all members of ancient clans, every one of them with their skull caps pried open.

“These are people from the Primordial Lake — not a single weakling among them. Some are true imperial bloodline members!” The monkey was shaken.

Ye Fan crouched down and plucked a few red hairs from the pried-open skulls — bright and conspicuous. There was no doubt it was the work of the Wellspring Heavenly Master.

BOOM!

From ahead came a sound like rolling thunder — a far more terrifying battlefield, its malevolent energy so thick it could not disperse. Streaks of blood-colored lightning were appearing, the momentum awe-inspiring.

“This is the very heart of the battlefield. Dongfang Ye is most likely trapped in here, unable to break free after being driven in by pursuit. The area spans around five hundred li!” The monkey said.

After passing through a stretch of pitch-black demonic fog, the way ahead suddenly blazed with radiance — various lights flying, various ancient weapons clashing, various laws and principles flickering.

“What — this is… the weapons of primordial ancestral kings. These are their laws and principles. Can it be that someone is in the midst of a great battle here?!” The group was greatly startled.

The monkey shook his head: “No — these are only killing-intents. They are undying resentment — the battle-will of the heroic spirits of those who fell in battle, transformed into this!”

This was a terrifying battlefield. All manner of ancient weapons, all manner of divine radiance — all manifestations of laws and principles — surged and criss-crossed in all directions, and had never gone out.

“The laws and principles that primordial ancestral kings once unleashed in battle gathered the essence of heaven and earth and have cycled without ceasing, persisting until now, transforming this place into an eternal, undying killing ground. To enter here is to have little hope of surviving!”

“Celestial Eye!”

Ye Fan called out in a low voice. Divine light shot from his eyes like lightning as he gazed through hundreds of li, trying to see through to the heart of this terrifying killing ground — but the various laws and principles quickly blocked his sight and were impossible to penetrate.

BANG!

He stamped hard on one corner of the ground, and a source-energy marking rapidly extended from beneath his feet, advancing into the distant depths of the battlefield. Ye Fan closed his eyes. A long while passed, then he snapped them open: “Dongfang Ye is alive. I sensed his Wolf Fang holy weapon — it is that which has protected his dharma body!”

Suddenly, from behind them a terrible energy appeared — ice-cold and piercing, like ten thousand steel needles driving into their spines all at once.

Not far away, a creature covered head to toe in red fur appeared. It let out a low hiss, extending one terrifying red-furred claw — reaching forward one moment, then withdrawing the next — as though in hesitation.

Ye Fan held the Divine Maiden Furnace aloft, ready to launch a strike at any moment. Every one of the group wore a solemn expression. They were now facing it head-on — this was a Wellspring Heavenly Master whose inauspicious signs had manifested, of boundless and dreadful power.

“It’s weeping!” Li Tian said in shock.

“I… do not wish to kill you.” The voice was aged and hoarse, as though it was straining with great effort to control itself. It was trembling, its entire body of red fur quivering, its frame swaying.

On its face — covered in red fur — tear drops were rolling continuously down. The fierce glare in its eyes had faded, and in this moment what seemed like a sliver of clarity had emerged. With great difficulty it forced out the words: “You… are also on the verge of becoming a Wellspring Heavenly Master. We are… of the same kind. I do not wish to kill you…”

Its words came broken and disjointed, impossible to speak in one continuous flow. The fierce light in its eyes surfaced intermittently — it could not fully control itself. It was trembling without cease.

“Its implements are of recent make — it is no being from the remote ancient era. Look at the magical tools on its hands, forged in recent times.” Duan De was sharp-eyed and spoke in a low voice.

“That’s right — could it be someone from the Wellspring King’s lineage? The oldest ancestor of that clan was one step away from becoming a Wellspring Heavenly Master in his late years. Several years ago, the inauspicious signs appeared and he vanished. The clan invited a top disciple of the Divine Calculator to conduct a deductive reading, and the result brought calamity down upon that disciple as well.” Ye Fan immediately connected all of this.

“That is I…” The red-furred creature ahead heard his murmured words and immediately became greatly agitated. A trace of clarity appeared in its eyes, and the fierce light was suppressed considerably.

“I… was brought here by the fourth generation Wellspring Heavenly Master!” It forced out this complete sentence with great effort.

“What?!” Ye Fan was greatly shocked. The fourth generation patriarch had hidden himself in the Primordial Forbidden Zone in his late years, yet the inauspicious signs had still manifested, and he had vanished without a trace. Back then, in that land of “extremes giving rise to their opposites,” Ye Fan had seen his relics.

“He instructed me to guard this place… to escort the ghost soldiers on their passage… to ensure it proceeds without error.” The red-furred creature spoke with great difficulty.

“What — the ghost soldiers’ borrowing of the road is connected to you? Where is the fourth generation Wellspring Heavenly Master now?” Ye Fan, Duan De, and the others were all deeply shocked.

“Even a Sage may not necessarily be his match if he appears…” The red-furred creature said with labored effort, then seemed to begin struggling once more within itself: “I do not wish to kill you. We are of the same kind — yet I am going into the stupor again.”

“Senior, please keep hold of your clarity — you can absolutely recover!” Ye Fan cried out loudly, his voice reverberating like a bell, resounding for all to hear.

“A warning for you… the domain of the Wellspring Heavenly Master is fraught with inauspicious signs… do not tread there lightly… they are almost here… flee quickly!” His words sent a chill through all who heard them. Who was coming? Every one of them was struck with shock and alarm.