“Crazy, truly crazy…”

The little evil ghost was already stunned speechless, and with that ice-cold hand gripping his neck, he couldn’t think at all.

He only felt that Jian Chou’s words were filled with sinister killing intent!

Good heavens, who exactly was the evil ghost here?!

He was nearly scared senseless!

The little evil ghost cried out in despair: “Even if you’ve gone crazy, don’t take it out on me! Spare me—without me, who will open the door for you…”

Jian Chou heard him but paid no attention.

She only slowly thought: Crazy? Perhaps. Since I’ve already gone crazy, why not become even more insane?

The Buddha statue had already collapsed, with broken stones rolling about.

A section of the great Buddha’s finger had fallen right beside Jian Chou’s feet.

She glanced down without any mercy, stepping over it quite naturally and crushing it to powder with one foot. Dragging the little evil ghost by the neck, she walked directly toward the mural: “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you!”

Even if she was going to “kill innocents indiscriminately,” now wasn’t the time yet.

As Jian Chou’s words fell, she had completely disappeared from sight.

Inside the entire Prison Bureau, only the billowing dust, the mountain of accumulated ruins, and that section of Buddha finger crushed to powder remained.

Outside the Prison Bureau.

A bloody slaughter had come to an end.

Accompanied by “thud thud” sounds of bodies hitting the ground, one after another of the cultivators from Pan Hexun’s side had their lives ended, lying on this cold, snowy ground.

In the blink of an eye, they turned into countless black smoke and flying sand.

From beginning to end, Sima Languan had been like an outsider, standing by with folded arms.

He only carried that lantern, with his half-handsome, half-grotesque face, like a refined worldly person appreciating flowers and snow, carrying a sense of leisure.

When the thunderous collapse sound came from within the Prison Bureau, the casual indifference on his face finally drew inward. This sound was…

“Young Master, should we go in and take a look?”

One cultivator couldn’t help himself, looking at the half-open main gate with unwillingness in his heart.

Sima Languan only squinted at the interior of the gate, slowly furrowing his brows.

If he remembered correctly, aside from Jian Chou and her group, there was no one else inside. How could such a commotion arise?

At this moment, only a quarter of an hour had passed since the half-hour he had agreed upon with Jian Chou…

Sima Languan looked down at the human skin lantern in his hand, slowly curving his lips into a cruel smile: “No rush. Whatever happened, we’ll see soon enough. How could my beautiful skin possibly escape from my palm…”

His voice gradually lowered, but the bone-chilling flavor in his words deepened another layer.

The cultivator who had just suggested going in only felt the hair on his spine stand up, and for a moment, he fell silent as if frozen, not daring to say another word.

However, Sima Languan turned back to address everyone: “Three more quarters of an hour, you all—”

Halfway through his words, his voice suddenly disappeared.

An extremely unusual aura actually came from very far away in the canyon behind them, sometimes like a phoenix’s gentle song, other times like a hundred birds chirping!

“Zhong Lanling!”

Sima Languan was also a cultivator from Fengdu City. How could he not know about this mysteriously appeared fellow?

He just never expected to encounter him at this critical juncture!

He immediately gripped the human skin lantern in his hand tightly, intense killing intent surging in his eyes.

Interesting…

They had all come.

Their group stood in front of the Ice Hell Prison Bureau.

A hundred zhang away, ahead was the great canyon they had passed through earlier, the same canyon Jian Chou’s group had emerged from. The towering cliffs on both sides hung with many icicles, quite a few of which had been knocked down during their previous melee.

The ground was littered with broken ice fragments.

The great canyon wound back and forth—impossible to see the end at a glance.

Everyone tensed up, gripping their magical artifacts tightly, waiting for Sima Languan’s orders.

But Sima Languan seemed oblivious.

His brows furrowed tighter and tighter, soon completely frozen in concentration as he stared gravely at the canyon’s exit, as if a monster might emerge at any moment.

However, what followed was complete silence.

No movement at all.

Their vision couldn’t penetrate this long, winding great canyon to glimpse what was happening on the other side.

At the entrance of the great canyon on this side.

The cliffs on both sides curved inward like an embrace, creating a terrifying slanted angle. Hundreds of zhang of icicles hung down from above like transparent waterfalls.

Fu Chaosheng currently stood in the exact position where Jian Chou had stood when she was here.

Exactly the same, not even half a footprint different.

He heard the phoenix song from behind but had no intention of turning around, still gazing up at the Cloud-Carved Crane message talisman hanging on the cliff.

This was what Jian Chou had left for him.

A dead letter.

In fact, almost no one in the world could read the contents of this letter, because Jian Chou had left no soul imprint within it at all.

This was a letter that should never have been opened by anyone.

However…

Fu Chaosheng was an exception.

With the Cosmic Eyes in his possession, even without deliberately activating them, just through the aura emanating from these two eyes, he could easily see who had passed through this canyon and what each person had done here.

The Cloud-Carved Crane message, praised as godly by others, was completely undefended in Fu Chaosheng’s view.

Like a transparent piece of paper.

By leaving a dead letter here, she was trusting that he had the ability to open and read it.

And at this time, he was “Li Han.”

It seemed she had already seen through his identity.

As expected of his “old friend”—always able to perceive things so easily…

Squinting slightly, Fu Chaosheng effortlessly read the message on the Cloud-Carved Crane talisman, which was nothing more than asking him to quickly follow them after seeing it.

She wasn’t the least bit worried that he couldn’t keep up.

As a heaven-defying great demon, should he be pleased by her recognition of his abilities?

Fu Chaosheng couldn’t say for certain.

He stared at the Cloud-Carved Crane message for a long time before seeming to remember something and turning back—

When that phoenix song rang out, he already knew someone had arrived behind him.

A wild, unrestrained scholar, barefoot in the air, carrying a qin.

Zhong Lanling’s features all carried a touch of wild abandon. He had followed Jian Chou’s trail all the way here, never expecting to encounter “Li Han” at this place.

Li Han, often mentioned among the Ghost King clan.

Because of his sudden emergence, the spot that should have belonged to Li Han was taken, forcing him to compete for a place in the Eighteen Levels Above Ground Tower rather than entering the Cauldron Competition directly from the Ghost King position.

Now that they met, in everyone’s eyes, enemies had crossed paths.

However…

Zhong Lanling knew well that if he couldn’t catch up to Jian Chou on the first level, the variables would only increase below. Though that female cultivator’s adaptability was quick, her cultivation was ultimately too low…

He feared that before he could get the answer he sought, Jian Chou would already perish at someone else’s hands.

So seeing Li Han standing here motionless for so long, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

He was sizing up Fu Chaosheng, and Fu Chaosheng was sizing him up.

Due to the power of the Cosmic Eyes swirling around him, chaotic combinations of time and space formed countless phantoms overlapping on Zhong Lanling’s body.

This was indeed a monster.

A monster artificially created by the Ghost King clan.

Fu Chaosheng slowly furrowed his brows. He didn’t know how his “old friend” would react if she knew Zhong Lanling’s true nature…

For a moment, the entire canyon entrance was completely silent.

Zhong Lanling’s fingers had already pressed against the qin strings, wariness in his eyes as he asked: “Friend Li Han, would you yield the way?”

This was out of politeness.

After all, Fu Chaosheng had been standing here motionless for quite some time. There was no reason for him not to leave while expecting others to leave.

However…

Fu Chaosheng had never been human.

He raised those eyes that held vicissitudes of change and flowing light and shadow. Beneath the glass-like deep blue seemed to flash a hint of pale azure.

Yield the way…

“What if I say no?”