Chapter 333
Chapter 333
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unnumbered]
Chapter Title: Desperate Escape from Immortal Capital
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the Immortal Capital, countless Yin Messengers surged toward the Young Lord's Yuan Chen Palace, propelling wooden boats as they charged into the darkness.
The Immortal Capital was vast, teeming with ghost gods managing its myriad affairs. This was the underworld governance system left from the True King era. Even after the Ten Kings Yama had been replaced once, the system remained unbroken, operating with ruthless efficiency.
Facing the valiant onslaught of the Yin Messenger army, even Du Yiran at his peak, even Blackie Pot, even the Boat Lady possessing the Red-Haired Ghost's body, and even the three Judges struggled immensely.
The group was forced closer to the Yuan Chen Palace. Only Du Yiran held the forehead of the Calamity Vessel, ensuring the talisman on its brow wasn't peeled off.
He was, after all, a Mahayana Realm existence with tremendous combat prowess. Amid the siege of numerous Yin Messengers, he held firm without retreating an inch!
But his pressure was mounting.
Earlier, he had been full of vigor, feeling that returned to his twenties, he could handle any expert in the world—even underworld ghost gods or Judges. But now, he felt he might as well be an old bag of bones lying under the waterfall in front of his mountain home, watching the sunset as he awaited death.
After fighting this long, he was utterly exhausted. His arms felt like they bore two great mountains, heavy beyond measure. His vital blood surged like rivers within him, sluggish to mobilize. The Void Great Realm he once wielded effortlessly had lost its smoothness.
The unity between his primal spirit and flesh body loosened under the Yin Messengers' attacks.
He had always thought himself invincible under heaven, his flesh and primal spirit in the Void Great Realm refined without flaw—only his body had aged, marking the twilight of a hero.
But now, besieged by the Yin Messengers, he realized how many flaws he still had.
At the Yuan Chen Palace's front, Judges Jia Yuan, Wang Fu, and Zhu Shun cast aside concerns of shocking the world. Each unleashed their thousand-zhang golden bodies, channeling the power of their Judge's Pens.
Wang Fu's Judge's Pen hooked souls and seized spirits. His massive brush, thick as a rafter, struck a Yin Messenger or Yin Commander and dragged their soul right out of their body!
Jia Yuan wielded his massive pen like a spear, igniting it with the demonic fire of karmic sins. The blazing karmic flames clung unrelentingly, incinerating foes' flesh and primal spirits amid agonized screams, crippling their strength.
Zhu Shun summoned his Judge's Pen, drawing on the Knife Mountain Hell's power. With every motion, endless blades danced through the air.
The three Judges commanded a Ghost God Domain spanning nearly a thousand li. Step into their domain, and they controlled your life and death.
Any one of them, placed in the mortal world, would be an inconceivable powerhouse.
But in the underworld, where ghost gods abounded, even Judges couldn't hold out long against a siege!
Worse, there were Fire Judge and Earth Judge. These two had been Mahayana Realm experts of the Yan Clan in life, enjoying millennia of incense worship after death. A thousand years ago, they revolted, replacing two underworld Judges and assuming their roles—granting them immense authority in the bureaucracy.
Their combat power was astonishing, matching any of the three Judges without faltering.
With over a dozen Yin Commanders piling on, the pressure on the three Judges was immense.
The three Judges held the front, absorbing most attacks, while Blackie Pot and the Red-Haired Ghost fended off the charging Yin Messengers.
Suddenly, rivers pierced the long sky, winding through the Immortal Capital. Dodging heavenly streets and the Yuan Chen Palace, they surged this way.
Atop the rivers floated countless wooden boats manned by tall, lanky Horse-Faced Yin Messengers. From afar, they raised bronze lamps, beams of light piercing through. Then the rivers poured into darkness, boats carrying Yin Messengers charging in.
These were Yin Messengers from nearby the Immortal Capital, rushing back upon hearing of the chaos.
Seeing wooden boats sailing from the darkness, despair gripped the group.
This was the underworld's ghost god army—impossible to resist!
"Has the Top Scholar not come out yet?" the Red-Haired Ghost couldn't help calling.
No sooner had the words left than Chen Shi burst from behind them.
Joy flashed in their hearts, quickly turning to frowns.
Chen Shi had found his mother's soul—but now, how to break the siege?
Blackie Pot shook its body, whipping up black winds to sweep up the group and send them back to the yang world. But the winds rose and abruptly stopped.
In the darkness, ghost gods pinned down the yin winds—it couldn't unleash its divine abilities.
Blackie Pot's heart sank.
At that moment, Chen Shi charged outward. Light blazed from the small temple behind his head as he sacrificed a stone goddess statue, shouting, "Protect me!"
It was a stone beauty with a ten-foot head and ten-foot body. The moment it flew out, a bizarre Ghost God Domain unfurled.
This was Lady Shiji, now fully unleashed by Chen Shi.
Lady Shiji knew a thousand days of rearing troops for one day's use—this was the moment. She unleashed her surging divine power!
Just then, Earth Judge's white bone long whip rolled in with a whoosh, countless bones crawling along it—a whip formed of skeletal skulls.
The whip lashed into Lady Shiji's Ghost God Domain. Suddenly, countless bones wailed in agony, crumbling to powder!
Lady Shiji's body grew visibly, the bone whip's power immense. The next instant, it would strike her—when Wang Fu reached out and seized it.
The two Judges exerted themselves. Wang Fu gritted his teeth, dragging Earth Judge into Lady Shiji's Ghost God Domain.
The white bone long whip was enormous, forged by Earth Judge from countless corpses through a thousand hammerings and hundred refinings into a treasure. Normally, he pastured it as countless bone skeletons on the underworld's barren plains, devouring other bones, souls, and ghosts to nurture its fearsome power.
Otherwise, it couldn't rival the Judge's Pen.
Yet now, this treasure met its nemesis.
In mere moments, this treasure rivaling the Judge's Pen lost all power, crumbling to dust into the darkness.
Earth Judge was shocked and furious, his own power draining rapidly.
His golden body differed from others. Forming one required eons of incense to gather extraordinary might.
He took a shortcut: chaining bones into a golden body, drawing power from other skeletons like a frame of bones.
But now, he felt millennia of accumulated power sucked away by that stone statue!
Terror seized him. He tried to slay the statue but was blocked by Wang Fu. He tried to retreat, still entangled by Wang Fu, unable to escape.
"I'll die, turn to echoes!"
The thought had just formed when a magma long whip lashed out, wrapping him and yanking him from Lady Shiji's domain.
Earth Judge landed behind Fire Judge with the magma whip, gasping in relief. "That big-headed woman will devour my power!"
Chen Shi charged forward along the heavenly bridge.
Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and Zhu Shun cleared the path ahead, with Lady Shiji sacrificed by Chen Shi in front.
Red-Haired Ghost and Blackie Pot guarded the rear as the group madly rushed along the bridge.
Lady Shiji, having absorbed the white bone long whip and nearly half of Earth Judge's power, grew swiftly to over fifteen feet tall—though her head still seemed slightly oversized.
Her Ghost God Domain strengthened, dissolving any bones it touched.
Even mighty ghost gods felt the petrification rapidly leaching from their divine bones!
Fire Judge's magma-formed golden body feared her domain too, forced into steady retreat by the group.
"Bigger! Bigger! Bigger! Bigger!"
Chen Shi whooshed out the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler, flying forward. With a roar, it instantly became an incomparably thick iron pillar hundreds of li long, hurtling toward Fire and Earth Judges.
The two Judges raised hands to block the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler.
Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and Zhu Shun roared, reaching to brace the other end, pushing with all their might.
Fire and Earth Judges couldn't hold, retreating as they ran.
The group bellowed ferociously, charging along the bridge.
Chen Shi sacrificed Lady Shiji, shouting, "Lady, take them down!"
Lady Shiji soared into the air, landing on the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler and racing along it toward Fire and Earth Judges to absorb them.
Suddenly, beams of light ignited, striking her—countless Yin Messengers activating their Heavenly Spirit Lamps, bombarding her divine soul.
Lady Shiji cried out in pain, tumbling down.
Chen Shi hurriedly recalled the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler, preventing her fall into darkness.
He rushed to Lady Shiji's side. She gritted her teeth, body shuddering under the barrage of Heavenly Spirit Lamps, unable to move.
Light from the small temple behind his head shone, taking Lady Shiji back into the shrine to recover.
More lamp lights poured in. Blackie Pot charged forward, demonic flames erupting around it to block most—but many still struck, shaking its soul.
Blackie Pot roared nonstop, enduring the lights to shield the group as they pushed ahead.
Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and Zhu Shun fought fiercely, hurling Yin Messengers and Commanders off the bridge, forcing Fire and Earth Judges back.
In the second small temple behind Chen Shi's head, his mother sat in the shrine. From within, she saw her son leading the group in desperate battle against ghost gods. Her heart, unprecedentedly calm, brimmed with immense joy at finding her son.
That tormenting pain seemed to vanish.
Replaced by ease.
Even in this perilous moment, she felt an unprecedented relaxation.
Suddenly, amid the melee, Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and the others felt the pressure lift—they had broken off the heavenly bridge.
The bridge was Yama King's trap tailored to capture fugitive Chen Shi: standing on it invited attacks from all sides. Off it, on the true heavenly street, assaults came only from front and rear—others' Yuan Chen Palaces barred entry without the master's leave.
Seeing this, Du Yiran sighed in relief, repelling his attackers and rushing into the stone house.
Yin Messengers swarmed, divine abilities blasting from all directions. Du Yiran dashed inside, slamming the door shut. The stone house vanished.
Outside the bridge, Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and Zhu Shun pressed Yin Commanders and Fire-Earth Judges back. Then, carrying Chen Shi and Blackie Pot, they soared into the air, fleeing afar!
The Red-Haired Ghost hesitated, then quietly turned, not following. Instead, she plunged into the heavenly street, leaping away, shaking pursuers and vanishing amid the ghosts.
The group burst from the ghost god encirclement. Blackie Pot long-howled, yin winds howling around to sweep them up.
The winds blew, and Blackie Pot with Chen Shi vanished. Only Judges Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and Zhu Shun remained.
Blackie Pot could ferry souls across yin-yang realms, but the Judges' power was too great—their golden bodies couldn't breach the barrier! Fire and Earth Judges led the charge. The three Judges had fled into the streets, turning into little ghosts, blending seamlessly into the revelry of Immortal Capital.
"Wake the Calamity Vessel!"
Fire Judge's face darkened as he bellowed, "Quickly, wake the Calamity Vessel!"
By now, a Yin Messenger had climbed the colossal beast encircling Chen Shi's mother's Yuan Chen Palace. Trembling, he boldly peeled the talisman from its brow.
A terrifying aura erupted, flinging the Messenger away.
As the Yin Messenger plummeted into darkness, a pair of massive eyes slowly opened.
The monstrous beast was finally awake.
The Calamity Vessel saw the woman suppressed in the Yuan Chen Palace rescued, erupting in rage. It rose, shaking off the Yin Messengers on its body.
"Roar—"
Its earth-shaking roar echoed. Hundreds of Yin Messengers gripped its chains on their boats, straining to hold—yet it dragged them sliding forward.
On the Northern Frontier ice plains, a yin wind blew. Chen Shi and Blackie Pot tumbled out of the underworld.
Chen Shi leaped up, shouting, "Blackie Pot, hurry back to Xinxian!"
Blackie Pot streaked ahead, barking, "Woof woof woof!"
"Boat Lady?"
Chen Shi said, "She slipped away in the chaos to rescue her dad!"
Man and dog raced across the snowfields amid whirling snow, leaving no tracks.
Blackie Pot frowned slightly, a vague unease stirring—yet unsure from where.
In the underworld, hundreds of Yin Messengers clutched chains, leaping onto the immense Calamity Vessel's back.
The Calamity Vessel thundered through the underworld, tracking Chen Shi to the yang world, howling in pursuit.
Meanwhile, in Immortal Capital's great prison for heavy offenders, the guarding ghost god bowed upon seeing the Red-Haired Ghost.
"Lord Chi!"
"I'm here to interrogate the prisoner."
Escorted by two yakshas, the Red-Haired Ghost sauntered into the prison, arriving outside a cell suppressing a ghost god. She peered at the old Horse-Faced Yin Messenger inside.
"How's the old thing been these days?" the Red-Haired Ghost asked.
"Reporting to Lord Chi."
One yaksha fawned, "We lash him twenty times daily with the God-Striking Whip—whipping the old Horse-Face till he passes out in pain, then back to consciousness, but never to death."
The other yaksha laughed. "Once we catch the other female Horse-Face, we'll hang her opposite and torture the pair together."
"Good, good! You've done well."
The Red-Haired Ghost clapped, then snapped one yaksha's neck. She slammed the other's head against the wall, shattering his skull.
In the cage, the boatman arduously lifted his head, beholding the Red-Haired Ghost's smile.
"Dad, with chaos outside, I've come to bust you out!"
A short while later, the Red-Haired Ghost groggily awoke, bound tight and kneeling on the Ghost-Slaying Platform. Below bustled raucous ghosts craning necks for the beheading.
Young Lord Wei Yue sat bruised and swollen on the execution dais, face grim.
"You traitor!"
Wei Yue barked, "Time's up—off with this beast's head!"
The Ghost King strongman swung the fiend-headed blade. Light flashed as it fell. The Red-Haired Ghost frantically cried, "Young Lord, wait!"
The light passed. Her head rolled to the ground amid the ghosts' cheers.
"What the hell happened?" the Red-Haired Ghost wondered blankly in her severed head.
In the yang world, on the frigid Northern Frontier ice plains, a painted boat floated in the sky, sailing afar.
The boatman asked, "You mean you accompanied Top Scholar into the great prison, desperately rescuing your dad's soul—with Soul-Chasing, Karmic Sin, and Knife Mountain Judges at your side?"
"Yeah."
Boat Lady's eyes sparkled.
"Haha, doesn't that mean we father and daughter earned great merit before the three Judges?"
The boatman could barely contain his excitement. "Merit before the upright officials, merit before the three Judges, plus Top Scholar and his mother's souls as fugitives—haven't we hit the jackpot?"
Boat Lady chirped crisply, "Dad, we've won big!"
Laughter echoed joyfully through the sky.