The relationship between Xiao Mou and Lian Zhao had never been good.

Lian Zhao had a domineering temperament and usually looked down on everyone, only casting proper glances at those she deemed worthy—mostly the strong or those in positions of power. When Xiao Mou first joined the clan, he was just an ordinary ghost cultivator. Because of his consumptive illness, he always appeared pale, had a solitary personality, and didn’t fit in well. He wasn’t well-liked within the Wuchang clan, so how could he possibly receive a pleasant face from Lian Zhao?

He had probably been bullied by her numerous times, both openly and secretly.

It was only later, through his talent in cultivation, that he gradually gained the attention of the clan elders and suddenly became a rising star of the Wuchang clan, finally escaping his previous predicament.

But his temperament seemed unchanged.

He appeared completely accustomed to being oppressed by Lian Zhao, showing a meek and submissive demeanor. He didn’t display the slightest intention to compete with Lian Zhao or raise his head with pride, which was truly infuriating to witness.

Having obtained the passage token, they should naturally leave the eighteenth layer of hell.

However, throughout the journey out, Xue Yin felt extremely stifled.

She recalled Lian Zhao’s seductively enchanting appearance upon return, and that mocking remark that could pierce straight into one’s heart. Her entire face had turned completely cold, unable to control the dark, jealous hatred in her gaze.

How sharp was Jian Chou walking ahead?

The moment that gaze fell on her, she clearly felt it. Though she said “sorry” in her heart, her actions were quite annoying as she turned around and casually glanced at Xue Yin.

Without words, her contemptuous mockery was conveyed clearly.

Xue Yin trembled with rage.

After one glance, Jian Chou paid her no more attention.

This Wuchang clan female cultivator Lian Zhao was usually mortal enemies with this Xue Yin within the clan. Simply because the other had joined the clan earlier and had higher cultivation, people always compared her to herself.

Over time, even without previous enmity, hatred would naturally arise.

Moreover, Lian Zhao inherently had a contemptuous personality and was skilled at bullying others with her backing. Not to mention the other party harbored malice toward her—seizing opportunities to mock and bully was never wrong.

According to Jian Chou’s true nature, she naturally wouldn’t do such things. She was more like flowing water, more like a high mountain—regardless of others’ mockery or ridicule, her heart remained unmoved. But she was playing Lian Zhao now, so some things, once done, were done.

She felt no guilt and was quite composed.

As for Qu Zhengfeng’s transformed Xiao Mou, he was naturally solitary and taciturn. Basically, he didn’t need to say much, as “Lian Zhao” would shrewdly arrange everything perfectly, leaving no flaws.

The journey proceeded without obstacles.

After leaving the eighteenth layer of hell, they were not far from outside Wangsi City.

The entire eighteen layers of hell was enormous, with the main structure underground in the Extreme Domain. Naturally, there was more than one exit, corresponding to many locations among the Extreme Domain’s seventy-two cities. Since the conscripted ghost soldiers needed to rush immediately to the Ghost Gate Pass battlefield, choosing the exit outside Wangsi City was unsurprising.

A Wuchang clan elder had been waiting here for a long time.

His face was full of wrinkles, his eyebrows white, but his pupils were deep, dark silver—a master who had cultivated to the Golden Body realm, equivalent to the Soul Separation stage in the Nineteen Continents.

Seeing Lian Zhao and the others only emerging now, he was already somewhat impatient: “You should have arrived an hour ago. Why were you delayed so long? What were you doing?”

“Weren’t we all waiting for Junior Sister Lian Zhao? Originally, it was just to investigate the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array, but who would have thought it would take an entire hour, making us all wait so long.”

Such an excellent opportunity to create trouble, Xue Yin naturally wouldn’t miss.

Moreover, what she was saying was all true—something everyone had witnessed. No matter what, Lian Zhao couldn’t deny it.

This elder surnamed Kong, called Kong Yin, was quite an authoritative figure within the Wuchang clan. Hearing these words, his brows immediately furrowed as he looked toward Jian Chou: “Lian Zhao, is what Xue Yin said true?”

Of course it was true.

After all, these two ghost cultivators had been unlucky enough to be captured by Qu Zhengfeng who had ambushed them halfway.

But obviously, they couldn’t tell the truth now.

Jian Chou had completely figured out Lian Zhao’s personality and style.

At this moment, she remained calm and composed.

Her seductive eyebrows lifted slightly, already carrying a trace of charm. She first glanced at the troublemaking Xue Yin, then turned her sparkling gaze to the silent “Xiao Mou” beside her. With quite obvious and flamboyant malice, she spoke in her lazy, languid voice: “What Senior Sister Xue Yin said is naturally true, but Elder Kong should understand—I knew the ghost soldier conscription was a matter of great importance, so how could I dare delay lightly? It’s just that Junior Brother Xiao felt unwell during the journey, and I couldn’t just ignore it and force the march, could I? So I stopped to care for him, channeling energy to heal Junior Brother Xiao’s injuries, which caused the delay.”

Felt unwell…

Stopped to care…

Channeling energy to heal…

Each word, each phrase was perfectly normal, but when spoken by the notorious Lian Zhao, it was utterly unseemly!

Everyone knew she had never treated Xiao Mou well, oppressing him, mocking him, ridiculing him. She had never shown kindness, only endless malice.

Reason told everyone—

Lian Zhao was clearly using such words to humiliate Xiao Mou while making him take the blame for her, truly vicious as a snake, utterly wicked.

But in terms of feeling, it was completely different.

No one could control the chaotic thoughts racing through their minds.

Just looking at Lian Zhao’s sidelong glances could make one’s heart itch, making people feel she seemed to be looking at them, yet also seemed to pay no attention to them at all. The more uncertain, the more one’s heart swayed, unable to let go.

It wasn’t just that the worse men were, the more women loved them.

Sometimes, the worse women were, the more men couldn’t extricate themselves.

Lian Zhao was among the elite of “bad women”—every gesture, every movement was seduction, every action was temptation.

Everyone’s gaze followed her gaze to fall upon “Xiao Mou.”

They saw his pale complexion, standing solitarily to the side, then saw him raise his head to glance at Lian Zhao, who was looking at him sideways as if certain he would have to swallow this injustice. Several traces of suppression surged in his eyes, and even his hands hanging at his sides clenched into fists.

Clearly an attitude of daring to be angry but not daring to speak.

Everyone thought he would say something.

However, Lian Zhao slightly raised her snow-white, sharp chin, looking at him with even more malicious eyes, her arrogance obviously more brazen than before, with a hint of seeming smile yet not smile.

So “Xiao Mou” ultimately said nothing.

Elder Kong Yin frowned tightly and asked him: “Is what Lian Zhao said true?”

“Xiao Mou” lowered his head, his gaze also pressing down, replying in a low voice: “It was Xiao Mou who made an error in cultivation practice. Thanks to Senior Sister Lian Zhao’s intervention and rescue, I was spared the danger of cultivation regression. This delay was truly not Senior Sister Lian Zhao’s fault.”

“…”

This development was completely beyond Xue Yin’s expectations. The moment she heard “Xiao Mou’s” answer, she was so shocked she couldn’t speak.

It was one thing for Xiao Mou not to resist Lian Zhao in daily minor matters, but in such a major issue, why was he actively taking the blame for Lian Zhao?

In between…

Had something happened that she didn’t know about?

After hearing “Xiao Mou’s” answer, everyone discussed among themselves, and their gazes toward him suddenly held several traces of indescribable ambiguity and understanding.

Men—how many could resist the beauty trap?

The ghost cultivators in the Extreme Domain were completely different from the cultivators in the Nineteen Continents who advocated pure hearts and few desires. They had seen such things far too often.

Looking at Xiao Mou’s appearance, one could imagine that something unspeakable had definitely happened halfway through. However, given his usual relationship with Lian Zhao, it was unlikely he had provoked her; most likely, Lian Zhao had deliberately provoked him.

Sometimes, Lian Zhao was just playing around.

Her methods of teasing men were naturally first-rate. Though Xiao Mou had many past conflicts with her, he was still just a young man who obviously wasn’t experienced with women. Losing control momentarily in front of such a beauty as Lian Zhao was too normal.

So now, when Lian Zhao was clearly randomly shifting responsibility to him, though he was shocked and angry at this woman’s ability to change faces faster than flipping pages, he didn’t dare refute.

After all, heaven knew what they had done during that hour.

If he didn’t bite the bullet and shoulder this blame now, and Lian Zhao really revealed something, that would be utterly humiliating.

Without these two saying anything, everyone’s minds had already constructed an entire drama: facing the unpredictable hot and cold, joy and anger of a bad woman, being bullied yet generating that bit of secret love from humility, hating that she didn’t belong to him alone, yet unable to control his own downfall…

Perfect.

Reasonable and logical, without any flaws.

Even Elder Kong Yin couldn’t help but look at Xiao Mou suspiciously, but ultimately, considering that time had already been delayed for a while and couldn’t be delayed further, he didn’t dwell too much on this matter, only saying: “This delay will be recorded here for now, to be dealt with after the matter is concluded.”

Jian Chou naturally had no objection.

Qu Zhengfeng responded with a “Yes,” completely shouldering this matter as “Xiao Mou.”

Xue Yin’s gaze wandered between the two, still somewhat unable to react.

Elder Kong Yin had already moved past this matter, then looked at the hundreds of ghost soldiers densely packed behind them, saying: “Depart immediately now, rush to Ghost Gate Pass watchtower at once!”

Ghost Gate Pass watchtower.

After hearing this, Jian Chou’s gaze flickered slightly.

From the moment they had soul-searched Lian Zhao and learned about the destination for ghost soldier conscription, she had already paid attention to this point. To a certain extent, both Qu Zhengfeng and she felt it was worth risking to disguise themselves as Lian Zhao and Xiao Mou precisely because of their destination!

The watchtower controlled the earth force and yin essence.

Once the watchtower was captured, the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy of the Nineteen Continents would massively invade the Extreme Domain, occupying the area originally controlled by the watchtower.

Cultivators depended on heavenly and earthly spiritual energy; ghost cultivators depended on earth force and yin essence.

War definitely required a battlefield, and in the special Yin-Yang Realm War, the battlefield environment greatly limited both sides’ strength. Whether fighting on a battlefield filled with heavenly and earthly spiritual energy or on a battlefield filled with earth force and yin essence would be two completely different situations.

The Ghost Gate Pass battle had been in stalemate until now, without victory or defeat.

If they could sabotage the watchtower during this trip…

Both Jian Chou and Qu Zhengfeng understood the importance and knew where the key point of the Yin-Yang Realm War lay. At this moment, they still showed no flaws, following this Wuchang clan’s Elder Kong Yin toward Ghost Gate Pass.

At the same time, another group was also heading toward Ghost Gate Pass.

However, while Jian Chou and the others were going outward from Wangsi City’s direction to find the Ghost Gate Pass watchtower, this group was coming from outside Ghost Gate Pass toward the inside of the pass.

They were less than ten li from the menacingly towering Ghost Gate Pass.

Lu Xiangleng’s heart finally began to feel several traces of alarm and anxiety.

She looked toward Xie Buchen, who was gazing at Ghost Gate Pass during the march, feeling that this prodigy of Kunwu seemed to hide something in his calm eyes, but when she tried to examine it closely, she saw nothing.

On the wilderness outside the pass, withered grass stretched to the horizon.

Under the gloomy sky, dark winds howled furiously.

Lu Xiangleng had originally accompanied her sect elders to the Extreme Domain. After all, her pill-making and medical poison arts were outstanding and quite useful. Today, she had been selected along with others by Xie Buchen, under the command of Kunwu’s Hengxu Laoguai, to investigate the watchtower.

By rights, Xie Buchen was the one in charge of decision-making.

Regarding his decisions, she shouldn’t ask too many questions.

But Ghost Gate Pass was guarded by numerous ghost soldiers from the Extreme Domain. With her intelligence, she couldn’t completely figure out how he planned to lead them through this pass to spy on the watchtower located behind it.

Now that they were getting closer and closer, she finally couldn’t hold back. Her moth-like eyebrows slightly furrowed as she hesitantly asked him: “Friend Xie, Ghost Gate Pass is near. How can we get through?”