The thousand-year-old female ghost was extremely powerful, so much so that even the minor ghosts at the gates of the underworld recognized her, and none dared to question her.
She stormed straight into the underworld and rushed toward the Blood Sea of Lanka.
However, when she arrived at the edge of the Blood Sea, the newly acquired divine power that the thousand-year-old female ghost had just obtained was already exhausted.
At the harbor overlooking the sea in the underworld, the thousand-year-old female ghost stood with Shui Miao atop a giant rock, gazing at the endless Blood Sea of Lanka, its crimson waters seemingly capable of swallowing everything. She hesitated involuntarily. If she couldn’t leave quickly enough, more experts from the Immortal Realm would chase her here. Yet she herself was gravely injured and simply unable to cross the Blood Sea.
“Senior, why did that痴佛陀 willingly sacrifice himself to save us?”
The痴Buddha was gone, and the cave was now filled with violent and malevolent energy. The Golden Immortals were either gravely injured or even killed. Shui Miao naturally realized that the痴Buddha must have self-destructed. Deeply shaken, Shui Miao reflected on how powerful and loyal the痴Buddha had been, while the thousand-year-old female ghost appeared so cold and heartless. What exactly was their relationship?
In fact, Shui Miao still found it hard to trust the thousand-year-old female ghost.
Because she showed no sorrow or grief over Chi Futuo’s death, Shui Miao directly suspected that she had been exploiting him.
The痴佛陀, as the name implied, was a rather foolish Buddha.
The thousand-year-old female ghost was heartless and treated him merely as a puppet.
Shui Miao thought differently—since she could treat the痴佛陀 as a puppet, couldn’t she also treat him the same way?
“At a time like this, you still have the heart to think about this?” The thousand-year-old female ghost frowned, casting a cold glance at Shui Miao before turning her gaze toward a giant ghost ship docked within the harbor. “Come, we’ll leave by ship. Even if we drift to an island in the Blood Sea, we can’t stay here waiting.”
The thousand-year-old female ghost’s coldness chilled Shui Miao to the bone, and he quickly shut his mouth wisely.
However, the thousand-year-old female ghost’s mystery once again stirred complex emotions within Shui Miao.
The giant ghost ship resembled a monstrous fish, as large as a three-story building, its surface dark and shrouded in a thick layer of yin energy. Many ghost laborers were carrying black sacks in long lines, loading supplies onto the ship. Many other ghosts, dressed in various styles of clothing, were passing inspections and walking aboard the ship one after another.
Indeed, this was the Blood Sea, where gravity differed from the rest of the underworld. Ghosts with weaker powers could only walk like living beings, unable to float at all.
Of course, there were also wealthy elites here. Some were carried in sedan chairs, some drove cars, and some even rode monstrous beasts.
Following behind the thousand-year-old female ghost, Shui Miao approached the checkpoint. In front of it stood more than a dozen ghost officers dressed in purple uniforms.
The thousand-year-old female ghost stepped forward to inquire about the procedures for departure at sea.
Meanwhile, Shui Miao stood aside, watching curiously.
Shui Miao had visited the ghost market and wandered through the Spirit Treasure Pavilion before, but had never truly and carefully observed the underworld.
Observing closely now, he felt a fresh sense of novelty.
Firstly, the attire—whether ghosts or demons, as long as they had some status, their clothing was uniquely and surprisingly varied. You could see garments from any dynasty of ancient times, along with bizarre and unusual outfits, and even modern clothing. In short, the place looked like a grand masquerade ball.
Of course, their appearances were also bizarre and diverse—domestic, foreign, normal, strange, peculiar, terrifying, and grotesque. Almost every kind of character imaginable was present.
However, to board the ship, one had to pay a large amount of ghost money to obtain a boarding permit.
Listening to the conversation between the thousand-year-old female ghost and the ghost officers, Shui Miao learned that this was a comprehensive ghost ship bound for Dragon Island. Its main purposes were to transport supplies to Dragon Island and to ferry noble elites of the underworld to the island for tourism and enjoyment. However, to obtain a boarding permit, one first needed to present a ghost certificate issued by the underworld.
The ghost certificate was essentially equivalent to an identification card.
The thousand-year-old female ghost discreetly slipped a large sum of ghost money to the officer, who immediately smiled and led the two of them to a small booth beside the checkpoint. Inside the booth sat an old man, busily tallying accounts with an abacus. The officer whispered to the old man, claiming that these two were his relatives who had forgotten to bring their ghost certificates and asking for leniency to issue two boarding permits.
Inopportune as it was, the thousand-year-old female ghost handed over a thick stack of ghost money. The old man understood immediately, nodded with a sly smile in his narrow eyes, accepted the money, and retrieved two thin white tokens from a cabinet. Picking up a writing brush, he looked at the thousand-year-old female ghost and asked, “What’s your name, and your ghostly birth details?”
Upon hearing this, Shui Miao immediately became interested. Finally, there was a chance to learn the thousand-year-old female ghost’s name.
However, the thousand-year-old female ghost took out another stack of ghost money and placed it in front of the old man. “Old sir, please help us out. We’re fleeing from hardship, so names don’t matter—just make up two for us, if you will.”
“Fleeing hardship?”
The old man and the officer exchanged knowing smirks after glancing at Shui Miao.
It seemed as if they had encountered a pair of illicit lovers.
Shui Miao immediately felt embarrassed and hurriedly furrowed his brow in protest.
But the thousand-year-old female ghost remained calm, showing no expression at all, making it impossible to read her thoughts.
Money talks—true in the mortal world, and equally true in the underworld.
In no time, the old man handed the two tokens to the thousand-year-old female ghost and Shui Miao.
Shui Miao glanced at the token in the female ghost’s hand. Her name was written as Bai Susu, while on Shui Miao’s token was written “Black Egg!”
“What the hell!”
This was just too insulting!
Shui Miao was furious and glared fiercely at the old man as he left. However, the old man merely gave him a look of disdain, clearly thinking, “Pretty boy, shameless indeed! Not a penny to your name, yet you managed to land such a wealthy beauty…” Words failed to capture his full contempt—pure envy and jealousy filled the air.
After boarding the ghost ship, the thousand-year-old female ghost paid to rent two adjacent rooms.
Inside her room, the thousand-year-old female ghost sat in meditation, absorbing yin energy to heal her wounds.
Shui Miao, on the other hand, discovered that the room was surprisingly similar to a hotel room in the human world. It seemed that even ghosts enjoyed the luxuries of the living.
With no money and nowhere else to go, Shui Miao lay on the bed, pondering his thoughts.
Before long, a strange horn sounded, and the ghost ship set sail.
To Shui Miao’s surprise, the ghost ship did not sail on the surface of the Blood Sea but instead dove underwater, cloaked in yin energy, moving like a submarine. That explained why he hadn’t seen many ghost ships when he flew over the Blood Sea before.
Shui Miao had originally planned to meditate quietly for a while until they reached Dragon Island.
However, soon after, laughter from women and the sound of musical instruments came from outside his room.
Curious, Shui Miao opened the door and followed the sound down a corridor. Looking down, he saw a massive hall below. In the center, on a circular raised platform, dozens of young women in revealing outfits were swaying their waists seductively and alluringly. Below the stage, many female musicians were playing instruments. Further out, tables were filled with ghosts and demons enjoying various delicacies.
“Huh?”
Shui Miao suddenly felt a stirring in his heart and noticed a particularly unusual group.
In a corner of the hall, a large group of dwarves were drinking and singing joyfully.
Their attire was exactly the same as the Red Tribe dwarves Shui Miao had seen before.
Shui Miao’s heart quickened, and he scanned the group for any sign of Bru.
Sure enough, after only a brief look, Shui Miao spotted Bru!
“Great! I must go find him!”
Shui Miao was extremely excited and hurried downstairs.
Previously, Shui Miao had entrusted Bru to ask his tribe to investigate the thousand-year-old female ghost in the Immortal Realm. Later, Bru had mysteriously appeared once, simply waved his hand and disappeared. Shui Miao felt there must be something wrong, and today he was determined to get the truth from Bru.
※※※
Meanwhile, in her room, the thousand-year-old female ghost was extracting divine energy from the Phantom Mirror, fully restoring her injuries, completely unaware of Shui Miao’s actions.
Back at the dry well cave, the thousand-year-old female ghost had used the Phantom Mirror to capture two Golden Immortals.
Now, these two Golden Immortals were the best nourishment for her.
Her recovery was rapid. Within an hour, she would heal her wounds. After absorbing the two Golden Immortals, she would fully restore her power.
“Bru! Bru!”
Shui Miao excitedly ran to Bru’s side.
Bru was slightly startled. Seeing it was Shui Miao, he was greatly surprised. “Shui Miao, how… how did you get here? How could you be here?”
“It’s a long story, Brother Bru. I’m so lucky to meet you here.” At this moment, Shui Miao was no longer worried about the thousand-year-old female ghost, because he believed her injuries were extremely severe and that she wouldn’t recover for at least ten days or half a month.
“Uh…”
Bru nervously glanced around, then grabbed Shui Miao’s hand and pulled him into a small room.
Bru also summoned two dwarves dressed in white robes.
As soon as they entered the room, Bru immediately had the two dwarves set up a barrier to prevent any high-level spiritual senses from eavesdropping.
Once the barrier was in place, Bru immediately said, “Little brother, actually, this time I gathered various experts from our tribe here for three purposes: first, to kill the dragon on Dragon Island; second, to find you in the underworld; third, to explore the treasure we discussed together. But now I’ve met you here unexpectedly. What’s going on? What happened to you in the underworld? Why are you here alone?”
“This is really a long story, hard to explain briefly,” Shui Miao didn’t want to waste time talking about his own trivial matters first. The information Bru had gathered was what he urgently wanted to know. “Bru, quickly tell me, why did you leave without saying a word last time? Did you discover some secret?”
“Indeed, it’s a huge secret!”
Bru’s face was grave. “Shui Miao, last time I was worried about your safety, so I didn’t dare to tell you the truth about the thousand-year-old female ghost. Now I’ve heard that the thousand-year-old female ghost barely survived, gravely wounded by the Immortal Realm. That’s why I decided to find you and tell you the truth. However, there’s something you need to be mentally prepared for!”
“What… what is it?”
Shui Miao immediately thought of his father, his heart instantly tightening with anxiety.
Bru furrowed his brow and sighed deeply. “I’ve just received new information about your father…”
“What happened to my father?”
Shui Miao felt his head “buzz” instantly, his emotions spiraling out of control. He tightly gripped Bru’s arm, tears welling in his eyes, staring intently at Bru.
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