Chapter 7

The projection was visible to everyone, and even after Xiang Feng cut off the image, the crowd remained dumbfounded, unable to process what had just happened.  

Yu Zhengzheng’s face turned pale. “Protector Xiang must be joking, right?”  

Shanshui looked at her with a gaze full of pity. “Don’t be afraid, Miss Zhengzheng. When you come back, I’ll use my family’s ancestral craft to make a treasure for you.”  

Yu Zhengzheng blinked in confusion. “What exactly did your ancestors do, Miss Shanshui?”  

Shanshui replied matter-of-factly, “They ran a coffin shop.”  

Yu Zhengzheng: “…”  

Under the envious and jealous gazes of the two sisters from the Yuling Sect, she slowly pulled out the mimosa plant given to her by the old boatman. Reluctantly, she stepped onto the narrow bridge alongside Shanshui.  

Filled with hope, she turned back to glance at Xiao Yuqing, wishing he would suddenly exude heroic boyfriend energy and say something like, *”Don’t worry, with me here, you don’t have to go anywhere.”*  

Instead, when Xiao Yuqing noticed her looking back, he saw her face full of uncertainty. Trying to encourage her, he smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. “Miss Yu, you’re the best! I believe you’ll become the greatest spiritual furnace in the cultivation world!”  

Yu Zhengzheng: “…”  

*What’s wrong with everyone in Yuling Sect? Are their brains filled with water?*  

Just as she was about to grit her teeth and press on, she heard a voice filled with emotion behind her. “Sister, wait!”  

Yu Zhengzheng’s eyes welled up with tears. That little brat, Yu Jiangjiang, may not treat her well on regular days, but in critical moments, blood ties still mattered!  

Her eyes reddened as she turned back, silently vowing that if she survived, she would let go of her grudges against Yu Jiangjiang and strive to be a good, loving sister.  

But Yu Jiangjiang, looking at her storage bracelet, wore a distressed expression. “Sister, you probably won’t need those Guiyuan Pills. Why don’t you let me hold onto them for you? Otherwise, if your storage bracelet locks up, the pills will go to waste.”  

In Penglai Mountain, storage bracelets and rings were bound by blood. If their owner died, the item would become a lump of useless metal, and the contents could never be retrieved.  

Yu Zhengzheng almost lost control and wanted to throw her spiritual herb at Yu Jiangjiang’s head. Just as she prepared to argue with her, a familiar singing voice rang faintly in her ears again. Suppressing her emotions, she looked straight ahead and continued walking into the mist.  

The Wuchuan River stretched over ten meters wide, its murky green waters as eerie as the Dead Sea outside Guixu Mountain.  

The only difference was that in the Dead Sea, she merely had to hold onto the spiritual herb while staying in the boat. Here, she had to cross a narrow, rotting log bridge while contending with pesky illusions.  

Her eldest senior brother’s handsome face appeared again. Having dealt with him once before, she didn’t even bother acknowledging him.  

“Zhengzheng, I’m willing to do anything for you, as long as you forgive me…”  

“Zhengzheng, that must be heavy in your hands. Let me hold it for you, okay?”  

Like a clingy, persistent nuisance, he trailed her with every step, babbling apologies and trying to trick her into handing over the spiritual herb.  

If she didn’t need to maintain her balance, she’d have smashed him with the herb by now to let him experience the joy of obliteration.  

Although it was just a ten-meter journey, Yu Zhengzheng felt like she’d walked an entire lifetime. Her poor sense of balance, combined with the decaying tree trunk, meant one misstep could send her plummeting into the Wuchuan River.  

When she finally landed safely on solid ground, she patted her drenched clothes and looked down in confusion.  

*Why am I so wet? Did I scare myself into producing milk?!*  

Peering closely, she sighed in relief. It turned out her wound had reopened.  

Shanshui, seeing her blood-stained white robes, paled. “Miss Zhengzheng, you’d better stop the bleeding quickly. The King despises the smell of blood.”  

Yu Zhengzheng: “…”  

Her eyes widened in frustration. “Then could you kindly teach me how to stop the bleeding?!”  

Shanshui bent down, dug up some dirt, and tentatively suggested, “Maybe… cover it with this for now?”  

Yu Zhengzheng: “???”  

To stop the bleeding as quickly as possible, she pulled out a handful of Guiyuan Pills and swallowed five at once.  

The pills dissolved in her stomach, and a warm golden light enveloped her body. Memories of sneaking into her useless father’s study to read cultivation manuals surfaced in her mind. She adjusted her breathing rhythm and steadily calmed her energy.  

Gradually, the bleeding ceased. She removed her outer white robe, tore the inner layer into strips to bandage the wound, and retrieved a black dress from her storage bracelet to change into.  

Shanshui nodded approvingly. “The scent has faded quite a bit now.”  

Yu Zhengzheng finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for the reminder, Miss Shanshui.”  

The two of them continued walking forward, the vast sea of clouds slowly fading away. Before she could clearly make out the building ahead, she sneezed from the cold.

“This is the Luán Palace. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, this was a divine temple, a hall where the goddess once resided.”

Shanshui pointed to the high ground covered in thick snow and sighed softly, “The divine temple was once the most beautiful place in the world. After the goddess passed away, it turned into this.”

Yu Zhengzheng knew of the goddess. She was the daughter of the divine race, a woman blessed by the Heavenly Dao, born amidst the eyes of the world, destined to be a goddess with innate divine power.

The goddess did not need to cultivate. She was born at the peak of life, looking down upon all beings. She was revered by millions, able to summon the wind and rain, and was immortal, with countless offerings dedicated to her in the human world.

But such a fortunate life ended tragically. When she died, she was all alone, with no one to even collect her body. When the news of her death spread across the Six Realms, people celebrated as if she had committed some unforgivable sin.

Yu Zhengzheng didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she often wondered why, at the time of her death, the goddess didn’t take the Ghost King, her own son, along with her.

The Ghost King inherited his mother’s divine power but did nothing with it. Countless souls had perished at his hands, and no one knew when the Heavenly Dao would strike him down with a bolt of lightning to explode him on the spot.

Yu Zhengzheng’s hands and feet were numb from the cold, and her voice trembled slightly. “Shanshui, what should I do to survive?”

Shanshui looked a bit hesitant. “The king’s temperament is hard to predict. I’ve accompanied him for thousands of years by my master’s side, and I still can’t figure out his mind.”

Yu Zhengzheng almost cried when she heard this. So, does that mean there’s no way back?

“Don’t worry, Zhēngzhēng,” Shanshui patted her arm, trying to comfort her. “The king kills quickly, one strike and it’s done. It shouldn’t hurt much.”

Yu Zhengzheng: “…?”

She grabbed Shanshui’s hand, tears streaming down her face. “Do you have any kind of quick death medicine, like Cockscomb Red? Just give me a quick end and let me leave a whole corpse.”

Shanshui shook her head. “I don’t have that kind of medicine, but don’t worry. If you’re worried about your corpse, I can sew your head back on if it falls off.”

Yu Zhengzheng felt that if she spoke more to Shanshui, she wouldn’t just cry, but might end up wetting herself too.

Shanshui hesitated for a moment, finally saying something sensible. “The king likes obedient people. Just remember, don’t oppose him. Everything will go smoothly if you just follow him.”

Yu Zhengzheng quickly took note of this, wiping away her tears. “Any other things I should watch out for?”

Shanshui counted on her fingers and shared everything she knew. “Men like sweet-talking women. When you meet the king, make sure to say things like ‘It’s so big,’ ‘I like it so much,’ and ‘Push harder’ when you talk to him.”

Yu Zhengzheng: “…Who taught you this?”

“I overheard it outside my master’s room. When a woman says something like that, my master gets very happy.”

Shanshui looked up at the sky. “It’s getting late. I need to go back and sleep with my master. You should go up now.”

Yu Zhengzheng was completely confused. Watching Shanshui walk away, she decided that if she survived this, she would save this naïve girl from the flames.

She looked at the snow-covered Luán Palace and slowly lifted her stiff legs, walking toward the seemingly endless stone steps.

The Luán Palace was built high up, and just walking up the stairs took an entire incense stick’s worth of time. Her feet were in thin cloth shoes, while the stone steps were covered in thick snow. Each step she took, her ankles sank deep into the snow.

The higher she climbed, the stronger the blizzard became.

The cold wind slapped her face like a cruel stepmother, stinging like a knife. Her feet were almost submerged in the snow, and by the time she reached the top, her face and feet were numb with cold.

She gazed at the red palace doors, took a deep breath, and moved forward slowly.

If it weren’t for the fear of turning into an ice statue, she felt she could stand there for another three days and nights.

Upon entering the Luán Palace, Yu Zhengzheng realized how wrong she had been. Inside, everything was covered in thick frost, like an ice cellar, and the temperature inside was hardly different from the outside.

She sniffled, feeling certain that even if the Ghost King didn’t kill her, she would freeze to death here.

She sneezed three times in a row and shivered as she stepped inside. “I am Yu Zhengzheng, disciple of Mount Péng Lái, here to pay my respects to the Ghost King.”

She didn’t know where the Ghost King was, as the palace was too large. The white silk curtains hanging from the dozens of red lacquered pillars obscured her vision. She could only call out for now.

A cold, indifferent voice came from within the inner hall. “Come in.”

Yu Zhengzheng hesitated. His voice was low and hoarse, sounding somewhat familiar, though she couldn’t recall where she had heard it before.

She dared not linger, as Shanshui had said that he didn’t like disobedience. Fearing he would become displeased if she delayed, she carefully stepped forward, trying not to slip on the thin ice beneath her feet.

Yu Zhengzheng had thought the inner hall would be as cold as the outer, but to her surprise, it was warmer inside, at least the floor wasn’t frozen.

She didn’t dare look up at the Ghost King, only able to catch glimpses of the hem of his white robes.

Rong Shang stood by the hot spring, gently rubbing the texture of his Buddhist beads. He looked lazy, squinting his eyes. “Come here.”

It was just in time. He was about to bathe.

All the servants who had once served him in the Luán Palace had died. He disliked noise, so all his servants were mute.

This time, in a hurry, he didn’t have time to select new servants, so he had ordered Xiang Feng to bring Yu Zhengzheng here.

Yu Zhengzheng didn’t dare breathe too loudly, walking cautiously toward him.

Her mind was in chaos, not knowing what she was supposed to do.

The Ghost King had summoned her to serve him. Since she was here, she had already mentally prepared to lose her virginity, but now that the moment had come, she was still filled with fear.

The Shura King was over a hundred thousand years old, and still a subordinate of the Ghost King, which meant the Ghost King was probably much older.

The Shura King already looked like a greasy middle-aged man, so the Ghost King probably wasn’t much better off. Even if he wasn’t a half-dead old man, he must have looked like a balding middle-aged uncle.

She had just turned eighteen, and if the Ghost King had been younger, she might have treated it as a one-night affair. But the Ghost Kingm was over a hundred thousand years older than her grandfather, and just thinking about it made her feel like she would die on the spot.

Yu Zhengzheng didn’t know how much effort it took to stop herself from running away. She walked step by step toward him, as if she were walking toward an endless abyss.

When she was just a few steps away from him, she stopped, trembling, her head nearly burrowing into the ground.

Rong Shang knew she was timid, so he didn’t scare her. He extended his arms, lazily closing his eyes. “Undress.”

Yu Zhengzheng jumped in surprise. “Undress?”

Was this really happening so quickly?

Her heart seemed to be pounding in her chest, and she could barely breathe.

Yu Zhengzheng’s fingers hovered over her waist, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

Rong Shang waited for her to undress him, but she didn’t make a sound. He frowned, displeased. “I won’t say it again.”

Yu Zhengzheng panicked. In her mind, she saw a male cultivator with a blood hole in his neck and a female cultivator with her tongue hanging out on the ground. Hastily, she tore off her clothing.

After waiting for a long time without her undressing him, Rong Shang slowly opened his eyes, ready to punish her. But then he saw her frantic attempt to remove her clothes, now only in a flimsy undergarment.

Rong Shang was speechless. “I told you to undress me!”

Yu Zhengzheng burst into tears. “But I’m already undressing myself!”

Seeing her about to pull off her undergarment, Rong Shang let out a cold laugh. “Do you have a death wish?”

Yu Zhengzheng was utterly terrified. Of course, she didn’t want to die! The Shura King still owed her ten thousand top-grade spirit stones!

Could it be that the Ghost King thought she lacked charm?

Shanshui’s words echoed in her ears like an alarm clock, endlessly repeating.

Grinding her teeth, she lunged forward. Her slender fingers grabbed his waist firmly. “You’re so big! I really like it… Should I try harder?!”