Chapter 126: The Mysterious Stone Hall

The three of them chose the path on the far right. After walking for a while, a faint glow appeared ahead, and the tunnel gradually grew brighter. At first, they were pleasantly surprised—light usually meant an exit, so this must lead back to the ghost city.

But the further they went, the stronger the light became—so bright it almost stung their eyes. It didn’t look like the murky light of the Underworld at all. In fact, it seemed more like sunlight—something that belonged to the human world above.

“Eh? There’s a door up ahead!” Captain Jiao, who was walking in front, suddenly exclaimed.

Yun Jiao looked up and indeed saw a massive stone gate at the end of the tunnel. Blinding white light streamed through the cracks, illuminating the walls until everything gleamed like snow. It looked exactly like an exit.

Captain Jiao’s face lit up. “This must be the way out!” He instinctively grabbed Yun Jiao’s arm and moved toward the gate.

But before they could take another step, Xi Teng’s face darkened. He lunged forward and yanked them both back.

“Are you two trying to get yourselves killed?!” He glared at them furiously, pointing at the gate. “Can’t you tell what’s coming through that crack? That’s spiritual energy! You two newly dead ghosts—do you have a death wish? You’ll disintegrate on the spot!”

“Spiritual energy?” Both Yun Jiao and Captain Jiao froze. When they focused their senses, they could indeed feel it—the light wasn’t just light. It carried the distinct breath of spiritual energy. And what was stranger, it was stronger than what they’d ever felt in the human world.

Why would there be spiritual energy in the Underworld? Could this tunnel really be leading back to the mortal realm?

Had they… actually found a way back?

The two of them looked bewildered, but Xi Teng mistook their reaction for fear. After all, ghost cultivators were naturally repelled by spiritual energy. Thinking he was protecting them, he immediately stepped forward, summoning a thick surge of yin energy that wrapped tightly around all three of them.

“Stay behind me,” he said gravely. “Don’t leave my yin aura, no matter what.”

The two: “……”

Should they tell him that they weren’t ghosts—that it was his yin aura they couldn’t stand, not the spiritual energy?

But before they could say anything, Xi Teng was already leading the way toward the door, carefully shielding them as they approached. The door itself didn’t seem to have any kind of sealing array. After a quick look around, they found a small lever-like mechanism set into the wall.

Xi Teng sent a pulse of yin energy toward it, and with a thunderous rumble, the heavy stone door rose upward, flooding the tunnel with dazzling white light. Yun Jiao squinted against the glare and stepped inside.

She had barely taken two or three steps when Xi Teng, walking ahead, suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Captain Jiao, unable to brake in time, crashed straight into his back.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in confusion—then followed Xi Teng’s gaze and froze.

Xi Teng’s eyes were wide with disbelief, his entire face filled with shock. Yun Jiao instinctively looked forward—and saw it too.

They were standing inside a massive stone hall. At the very center of the hall glowed an enormous array, and above that array floated a man.

He wore a black robe, his figure lean and tall, his face youthful, refined, and faintly scholarly—so familiar that Yun Jiao’s heart skipped a beat.

“Han—” she began subconsciously.

“Senior Brother Han!” Xi Teng shouted, rushing forward before she could finish. He sprinted straight toward the array, trying to break in and pull the man out—but the moment he got close, he was thrown back by a violent force. The spiritual energy around the formation suddenly flared, surging chaotically.

Xi Teng crashed several meters away, but he scrambled back to his feet almost immediately, drawing the large blade on his back to try again.

“Wait!” Yun Jiao stepped forward quickly and grabbed his arm. “You can’t break the formation that way,” she said sharply. Then she glanced at the person suspended within and added softly, “Besides… he’s already gone. What’s left is only his shell.”

“No way!” Xi Teng’s face went pale. His eyes darted back to the man in the array, disbelief written all over his face. “That’s impossible! He’s the Lord of Youdu! Who in the Underworld could ever harm him?”

“The Lord of Youdu?” Yun Jiao was stunned, but before she could speak, Captain Jiao exclaimed in shock, “Youdu King—one of the seven Yama Lords of the Underworld!”

In legend, aside from the King of the Underworld himself, there were seven domain lords—each governing judgment, sin, merit, and punishment for the souls of the dead. The Youdu King was one of those seven.

“Senior Brother Han was incredibly powerful,” Xi Teng said hoarsely. “He’d already cultivated the Three-Yin Body. I saw him just three days ago—how could this happen…” His voice trembled as he looked again at the lifeless figure trapped inside the glowing array. Then, as if remembering Yun Jiao’s earlier feats with formations, he turned to her urgently. “Hey, little ghost—you know formations, don’t you? Can you break this one?”

“I can try,” Yun Jiao said after a pause.

“Thank you!” Xi Teng bowed slightly in gratitude before stepping aside.

Yun Jiao moved closer to the array’s edge and studied it carefully. She hadn’t expected Han Shu—her senior martial uncle’s disciple—to also hold such a powerful identity in the Underworld. But what shocked her even more was his state: his Three-Yin Body sealed, his remaining soul nearly gone. What kind of force could do this?

And this array…

“How is it?” Xi Teng pressed, anxious. He knew nothing of formations—his strength was in swordsmanship alone.

Yun Jiao gave him a sidelong glance instead of answering directly. “You knew him well?”

“He’s my senior brother,” Xi Teng said without hesitation. “We didn’t share the same master, but our teachers came from the same sect.”

“……” Yun Jiao blinked. Wait—don’t tell me your master was that idiot disciple of my ancestor? For a brief moment, she felt like the whole world was made of distant relatives. She didn’t ask further, though, and simply changed the subject. “So, you’re all ghost cultivators?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” Then, glancing again at his fallen senior brother, he urged impatiently, “So? Can you tell what this formation is?”

Yun Jiao’s gaze swept across the glowing runes once more. After a long silence, she finally said, “This is a Heaven-grade formation. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the Dual Polarity Yin-Yang Formation.”

“The Yin-Yang Dual Polarity Formation?!” Captain Jiao blurted, shocked. “That’s supposed to be a legendary array!”

“Mm.” Yun Jiao nodded, continuing her explanation. “The formation exists in two halves—Yin and Yang—opposite yet interdependent. The one you’re seeing now is the Yin half. It channels spiritual energy continuously to suppress and destroy the Yin energy of whoever’s trapped inside, until their soul completely disintegrates.”

That must have been how Han Shu died. Though, she noted, the spiritual energy here was far too dense—it was overkill.

Xi Teng’s fists clenched tightly. Rage twisted across his face. Even though ghost cultivators were not ordinary spirits, spiritual energy still burned them painfully. To be restrained and drowned in it was torture beyond imagination. Who could have done something so cruel to Senior Brother Han?!

He took a deep breath, forcing his anger down. “Can you break it?” he asked, his voice low but firm. “No matter what, we have to retrieve his remains. Maybe Master will know what to do.”

“It’s possible,” Yun Jiao said seriously. “But as I mentioned, this formation has two halves—Yin and Yang. To undo it, both must be destroyed simultaneously. Since this is the Yin half…” she knelt down and tapped the floor, “…then the Yang half should be beneath it.”

The problem was how to get there.

“That’s easy!” Xi Teng said confidently—then immediately drew his blade.

Wait—

(⊙_⊙)

Before Yun Jiao could even protest, he brought the blade down hard.

BOOM!

The ground split apart with a deafening roar, the floor crumbling beneath them. Yun Jiao, Captain Jiao, and the reckless ghost cultivator all plunged straight down into the darkness below.

What the hell?!

This guy isn’t a ghost cultivator—he’s a demonic husky in disguise!

He couldn’t give a warning first?!

(End of Chapter)