“…”

“…”

The speechless Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost were truly disheveled in the wind.

They didn’t know how to explain to Jian Chou.

According to general reasoning, the ghosts in the City of Wrongful Death all died against the natural order, before their allotted lifespan was up, and must stay in the City of Wrongful Death for a prescribed period before going to reincarnation, so they would certainly have lodging.

But the reality was different.

With so many ghosts in the City of Wrongful Death, this place wasn’t under the jurisdiction of any Yama Hall, and the ten great ghost clans held territory here, so the registry office here could be said to be completely powerless.

With the ten great ghost clans overhead, what could they actually accomplish?

So nominally, the registry office of the City of Wrongful Death belonged to Lord Qin Guang’s palace, but in reality it had great independence.

Now the officials at the registry office of the City of Wrongful Death all had lucrative positions.

If new ghosts could offer decent tribute, they might receive good treatment.

Little Head Ghost and Big Head Ghost weren’t wrongful death ghosts, but they’d heard plenty about the treatment of poor ghosts.

Thinking about it now, it was truly colder than the wind blowing over.

However…

Little Head Ghost suddenly raised his head, looking at Jian Chou with eyes so bright they were blinding: “Of course! How could the City of Wrongful Death not have lodging? Great Lord Jian Chou, Great Lord Jian Chou!”

“What is it?”

Having just worn an expression of despair, Jian Chou had thought the City of Wrongful Death was indeed so shabby and was seriously considering whether to sit down on the street and cultivate after the registration was finished. Why was Little Head Ghost suddenly looking at her with such frightening eyes?

It was just like…

Like looking at a person made of pure gold.

Big Head Ghost cradled his oversized head, preventing it from accidentally falling off. After seeing Little Head Ghost’s expression, he finally understood with telepathic connection.

The two stood on either side of Jian Chou, making eye contact across the space—

That’s right, this was a fat sheep!

Take her to the registry office, and they definitely wouldn’t lack for lodging!

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. The City of Wrongful Death definitely has places to stay. Like Great Lord Jian Chou, you have so many powerful things, and if you have anything else in that qiankun bag, you can take it all out when the time comes…”

Little Head Ghost grabbed Jian Chou’s left hand, and Big Head Ghost hurriedly grabbed her right hand, pulling her together toward the other end of the street.

“Take it out?”

Jian Chou still didn’t understand what they were talking about.

Big Head Ghost stammered: “In, in a while, we, we might also find a place to stay. First time staying inside the City of Wrongful Death, it’s re-really nice.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Great Lord Jian Chou, you have money, don’t worry! When the time comes, we’ll just smash jade stones in their faces and see if they dare not give you a place to stay! Don’t be afraid, we’ll back you up!”

Little Head Ghost was boasting again.

Jian Chou was being half-dragged, half-pulled by them, so she had no choice but to follow along.

However, from these two little ghosts’ mysterious muttering, she had already figured out the gist of it: So after all this fuss, the underworld also had corrupt practices?

She blinked, not knowing why she suddenly thought of Zhang Tang.

Because it was too wide open, with not a single obstruction to be found, the wind blowing in wasn’t gentle at all—it was like being on a plain, whooshing loudly.

Jian Chou’s entire robe fluttered and danced in the wind.

She looked back and saw that the two tightly closed gates were now quite distant.

Zhang Tang’s residence was embedded among this row of mansions. The entrance wasn’t small, but it wasn’t conspicuous either. Above the gray-black door frame was the plaque she had seen earlier.

She hadn’t been able to see it clearly when looking up before, but now that she was farther away, she could vaguely make it out.

It clearly read “Zhang Mansion.”

No wonder Zhang Tang’s earlier indifferent glance at her had been so strange.

A big plaque hanging up there—she should have seen it long ago.

Smiling inexplicably, Jian Chou mused that this person’s peculiar behavior was indeed true to form: not exposing this matter was beyond Jian Chou’s expectations; later helping her enter the City of Wrongful Death was even more unexpected.

Of course, what surprised her most was his final “betrayal” of directly shutting them out at the last moment.

Iron-faced impartiality?

Power-wielding cruel official?

Upright and incorruptible?

None seemed quite right.

Never mind.

It was ultimately a debt of gratitude.

Jian Chou turned back around, listening to Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost’s chatter, and continued walking forward with them.

Revenge when wronged, repayment when indebted.

How this Zhang Tingwei thought wasn’t important; she remembered this debt of gratitude.

“How much farther to the registry office?” Jian Chou asked.

Little Head Ghost said: “Just walk for two more quarters of an hour ahead, very quick, very quick.”

As if afraid that Jian Chou would decide not to go, Little Head Ghost looked nervous.

Jian Chou didn’t have many jade stones, but she could take out some pills as bribes, though she didn’t know if the other party would become suspicious. She curved her lips, about to tell Little Head Ghost about this point, but unexpectedly, just as her smile appeared, it instantly stiffened—

Having just experienced the separation of body and soul, with only her soul now outside, Jian Chou’s sensitivity to the external world had suddenly increased.

Even the wind felt much colder than before.

At this moment, however, an even more bone-chilling sensation descended from high above!

In that instant, Jian Chou stopped in her tracks and looked up.

The architectural styles of the City of Wrongful Death varied—some were pitch black, others were colorfully brilliant, and the brilliant spots emanated points of light that illuminated the entire city.

The sky overhead, however, was a place they could hardly illuminate.

In the deep darkness, a powerful consciousness seemed to emanate, slowly spreading like layers of clouds, faintly calling for something…

On the long street, Jian Chou felt her entire body about to tremble.

It was a feeling of spiritual connection.

Her soul was fluctuating along with it, as if she couldn’t control herself and was about to respond to this call.

It was the Ghost Axe!

The Ghost Axe was calling to her!

“Great Lord Jian Chou?”

Little Head Ghost and Big Head Ghost were startled, seeing that Jian Chou had suddenly stopped walking and was looking up at the sky. But when they followed her gaze upward, they discovered nothing unusual.

“What happened?”

“Cui Jue…”

There was a tremor in Jian Chou’s voice.

The powerful pressure in the sky above existed almost tangibly, pressing down until one could barely breathe. Within it, there was always a voice, as if calling her name.

Her spiritual consciousness had been curled up in her spiritual platform, but now it was restless and eager to move.

But she firmly suppressed it—

She couldn’t.

Previously, Jian Chou’s spiritual consciousness had been unable to move an inch in the Extreme Realm, but after the separation of body and soul, her spiritual consciousness could operate freely, recovering to half of what it had been during her Golden Core stage, able to cover a hundred zhang in radius.

She didn’t know if Cui Jue had used similar methods to investigate before, but this was the first time she could detect it.

If she had no knowledge of Cui Jue’s abilities and intentions, she would probably respond to this Ghost Axe’s call right now and fall into his trap!

When Little Head Ghost had returned to report, he had said enough: the Grand Judge Cui Jue of Lord Qin Guang’s palace, using some unknown ability, could use the spiritual consciousness mark on the Ghost Axe as a source to trace back to the Ghost Axe’s owner.

Now, wasn’t this exactly what was happening?

Jian Chou felt cold inside. Her pair of clear eyes gradually became covered with frost as she gazed at the horizon.

She didn’t answer Little Head Ghost’s question again, just stared like this.

Motionless as a mountain.

Even though that voice called ever more urgently, Jian Chou firmly pressed down on her restless spirit and soul, not responding in the slightest.

For a full quarter of an hour, that powerful, cold consciousness slowly moved away from above the City of Wrongful Death.

The dark sky of the Extreme Realm was endless forever.

Just as no one knew whether this expanse of evil Extreme Realm soil had any boundaries.

Cui Jue held his hands one above the other, forming hand seals, slowly bringing them together toward the center, like rivers finally converging, like a hundred streams finally returning to the sea.

A ball of deep blue spiritual light emanated a gentle aura, rotating like a water sphere, condensing between his palms. As he opened his eyes, it slowly dissipated.

Rising from his seat, Cui Jue furrowed his handsome brow and looked toward the Ghost Axe placed on the weapon rack.

It was extremely quiet, just like the most ordinary axe in the world, with almost no light at all, even bearing spots of rust, showing none of the glory from its days of campaigning in the Extreme Realm.

It was like a beauty in her twilight years, a general grown old.

An inexplicably uncomfortable feeling arose.

Cui Jue paced over to the Ghost Axe and looked at the condensed myriad ghost inscriptions on it for a long time, finally slowly relaxing his frown.

He couldn’t detect anything.

For several days now, using Ghost Gate Pass as the center, he had tried for a long time using the technique Lord Qin Guang had taught him, but just now, even when he had spread his spiritual consciousness as far as the more distant City of Wrongful Death, he had gained nothing.

The City of Wrongful Death should be the boundary. Logically, if the Ghost Axe was there, its owner shouldn’t be far away.

Could it be that Lord Qin Guang’s judgment was wrong?

Cui Jue was also completely puzzled.

After the original owner died in battle in the Extreme Realm, the Ghost Axe automatically broke through the boundary and returned to the Yashan Armory.

So this time, the Ghost Axe’s possessor was most likely still a Yashan cultivator, and a living person at that.

A living person in the Extreme Realm filled with ghosts, yet still couldn’t be found?

Cui Jue shook his head and walked past the Ghost Axe, pushing open the door. The dark night was silent, and the door opened soundlessly, though there were people moving about in the distance.

This was the rear hall of the Reception Department. During his time here, Cui Jue had been staying in this place.

Not worried in the slightest that anyone would steal the Ghost Axe, he slowly walked out, going all the way out of the rear hall, then out of the underworld, toward Ghost Gate Pass, thirty li directly in front of the underworld.

With one step, his figure became blurred.

Cui Jue’s speed wasn’t particularly fast, but it certainly wasn’t slow either. In the time of three to five thoughts, he had returned to Ghost Gate Pass.

His deep and light blue robe gave him a gentle bearing different from the other ghost cultivators in the Extreme Realm.

The minor ghost clerks and minor ghost officers stationed at Ghost Gate Pass hadn’t expected Cui Jue to come here and were immediately frightened into confusion, hurriedly saluting: “Greetings, Grand Judge Cui.”

Cui Jue waved his hand, only looking up at the traces left where the Ghost Axe had deeply embedded in Ghost Gate Pass, saying: “I’ve come to take a look. You needn’t be alarmed—go about your own business.”

“Yes.”

What was he doing here in the middle of the night?

Everyone was rather confused.

But since the Grand Judge had come, they didn’t dare be negligent, and began working more diligently.

The mortals of the isolated human islands died regardless of day or night.

After death, they were sent to Ghost Gate Pass through the City God temples, so Ghost Gate Pass actually always had ghost officers doing reception work.

Therefore, the Reception Department and the Reincarnation Department were known as the underworld’s two great “work-to-death departments.”

At this moment, souls were continuously passing through Ghost Gate Pass from the long road, being checked and registered by the ghost clerks.

Cui Jue just stood under Ghost Gate Pass, carefully considering the entire matter, paying no attention to those newly arrived souls.

However, these passing souls would more or less glance at him, feeling that he was different from the other ghost clerks.

Among the coming and going souls, there were adults and children.

Some were grinning foolishly, some looked relieved, others were crying bitterly, and still others were acting crazy—

“There really are monsters!”

“Why doesn’t anyone believe me?”

“That monster is hiding in books. When I opened one, I saw all the characters on the pages were gone. It was terrifying… there really are monsters! It eats the characters from books and people’s brains too!”

…

An excited voice suddenly pierced through like a needle.

Cui Jue was deep in thought, considering whether to search the hundred li around Ghost Gate Pass again, when he heard this voice: monsters? Monsters from the isolated human islands?

He put his hands behind his back, standing under Ghost Gate Pass, and turned to look.

Among the queued souls, there was a scholar in a long robe and hat, pulling at the people in front of and behind him to talk, with a look of shock still fresh on his face, as if he had suffered some trauma, constantly talking about something.

“Really, really. Believe me, I was originally preparing for the imperial examination, but since this insect appeared, I couldn’t even memorize the ‘Doctrine of the Mean’…”

…

No one seemed interested in what he was saying, all thinking this person was talking nonsense.

There were plenty of monsters in the world—to blame supernatural things for one’s inability to study was quite contemptible.

Many people rolled their eyes.

Listening, Cui Jue felt there was something unusual about this matter.

He listened carefully for a while and roughly understood.

This was a scholar studying at the Imperial Academy, preparing for the imperial examination.

Unexpectedly, one morning when he opened his books, he discovered that his books had been eaten by insects. At first he didn’t pay attention, but later more of his books were gnawed, and all the missing parts were characters. The scholar became angry and wanted to kill the insect. But before he could kill it, he discovered that his memory had instantly deteriorated, and he couldn’t even remember books he had memorized…

“I don’t remember how I died either…”

Speaking of this, the scholar couldn’t help but cry in grief.

Not even remembering how he died was truly pitiable.

Cui Jue’s brows furrowed again. He wanted to go up and ask a question or two, but then remembered that this was after all the Reception Department’s business, and he shouldn’t interfere.

The urgent matter was still investigating the whereabouts of the mysterious Ghost Axe owner.

Thinking this, Cui Jue just filed the scholar’s matter away in his heart to pay attention to later, and directly formed a hand seal to go outside Ghost Gate Pass.

There was where the Ghost Axe had come from—perhaps there would be some clues he had missed.

In front of Ghost Gate Pass, that person was still crying loudly.

The minor ghosts quietly watched Cui Jue’s composed figure, all filled with envy: This was a Grand Judge from the Eight Directions City!

That figure grew more and more distant, disappearing in a short while.

Ghost Gate Pass faced directly toward the entrance of the underworld.

The City of Wrongful Death was still at the edge of the underworld, the massive city hidden in that expanse of mist, surrounded by blazing lava.

On the long street, Jian Chou waited for a long time. After confirming that the terrifying consciousness was no longer there and wouldn’t suddenly appear again, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Her face full of gravity, she looked at the anxious Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost, forcing a reassuring smile: “Don’t worry, it’s fine now.”

As long as she didn’t reveal her spiritual consciousness when the other party was investigating, she shouldn’t be discovered.

Jian Chou knew that she would have to be even more careful from now on: this Cui Jue she had never met was like a blade hanging over her head, not knowing when it would fall.

Big Head Ghost, Little Head Ghost, and Zhang Tang were all now involved in this matter. Once she was caught, all three would probably be implicated.

Having reached this point, she absolutely could not be discovered, even if it meant death.

Otherwise, once the executioner’s blade fell, it wouldn’t just be her head that would be severed.

This journey to the Extreme Realm was truly walking on a knife’s edge.

Exciting enough.

But it also inexplicably gave her a strong sense of determination—

Even with nets closing in from all sides overhead, she would find a way to pass through the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array and return to the Nineteen Continents.

There lay everything she treasured most.