Corpse Retriever.

Chapter 431

"How dare you scheme against the young lord of Fengdu Underworld!"

The sound was as loud as a bell, as if it were thunderclaps rising in the howling evening wind.

First "disciple," then "young lord."
this means,

The Emperor officially announced his involvement in this wave.

Looking into the distance, all one sees are towering peaks reaching into the clouds, layer upon layer of mountains;
Upon closer inspection, one can still discern that one mountain is higher than another.

To achieve your goal, sometimes you don't need to wade through water and get wet.

The true skill lies in using minimal effort to achieve maximum effect.

The Emperor himself did not personally arrive; otherwise, the karmic backlash from the Heavenly Dao would not have fallen upon Fengdu Ghost City, five thousand miles away.

What came was merely a shadow of the Great Emperor.

This shadow could only block the tomb owner for a while, but that was enough.

The tomb's occupant, accompanied by a massive, scattered black figure behind him, launched an attack on the gate of hell in front of him.

The emperor stood there.

They watched helplessly as the gates of hell continued to crack.

At that moment, the armor appeared behind the tomb owner.

The tomb owner noticed and stopped moving.

At this moment, it knew its fate was clear.

“Hehe…hehehe…hehehe…”

Faced with the outcome, there is no room for evasion.

It felt like a joke, a fool being fooled.

It was as if he was performing a one-man show from beginning to end, and the only audience member in the audience was always enthusiastically giving him a round of applause at every key moment.

In fact, even now, it doesn't know exactly where it went wrong.

Because it cannot realize that it has been a fool for a very, very long time.

The dilapidated gate to the underworld collapsed with a deafening roar, revealing a figure resembling a temple sculpture against the backdrop of the night.

The emperor's gaze fell on the suit of armor.

Throughout the entire ordeal, the emperor did not waste a single glance on the tomb's occupant.

Avoiding it doesn't mean being afraid, but rather being too lazy to go through the trouble.

Even if a child from the neighboring house makes a lot of noise and is prone to jumping around, you'd be too embarrassed to actually scold them.

Moreover, when it comes to being unruly, it is far inferior to its own disciple who is good at closing doors.

The armored figure raised its hand towards the tomb's occupant.

The enormous black shadow behind the tomb owner seemed utterly powerless to resist, and was instantly sucked into it.

Including the tomb owner himself, after tilting his head back, his body elongated and eventually disappeared completely into the armor.

But even though the armor was on, the tomb's occupant could no longer be seen; it was no longer qualified to wear or wield the armor.

It was once free; later, this ancient burial became its cage; finally, its prison was confined within this suit of armor.

Inside the helmet, there was no light, and no emotion.

However, the armor also seemed to be "meeting the Emperor's gaze".

The Emperor nodded slightly and said:

"Imperial decree: Summon you to Fengdu."

The armored man turned around, took a step, and disappeared from the spot.

The emperor's shadow also vanished.

Only one book, "The Book Without Words," remained in the original location.

The wind rustles the pages of the book. On the first page, a woman is covered in wounds, almost unrecognizable from her previous life, as if she has just endured a period of unbearable suffering.

The wordless book was turned over and over again, page by page, and the book began to be "blown away" on its own.

The evil book felt free, finally having the chance to break free from the boy's control and embrace its own boundless horizons.

After a while, a series of "clattering" sounds followed.

Despite the prevailing trend, "The Book Without Words" has "turned over" again.

On the first page, a woman in a prison cell huddled in a corner, sobbing anxiously.

She could escape, but her original body, the "Evil Book," had been destroyed by the boy. Now, residing in the "Wordless Book," she wasn't confident she could completely shake off the boy's senses and pursuit after escaping.

She knew very well what awaited her if the escape occurred and she was unfortunately found by the boy again.

Even though she had just suffered oppression and humiliation, the thought of this still sent chills down her spine.

Furthermore, she realized that she seemed reluctant to escape.

Where can I escape to?

Should I go find someone else I can bewitch, rely on, and manipulate?

She used to be incredibly enthusiastic about it, but now she finds it tedious and boring.

She wanted to stay here and wait for the boy to come out and pick her up. Once the first page was turned, she wanted to pour out her heart and tell him that she had never given up resisting or surrendered during that time. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been imprisoned on the second page disguised as 'Ye Dui'.

She wanted to confide in the boy about how difficult things had been for her recently, and how she had almost thought that he was going to perish in this crisis and that she would never see him again.

The still-raging evening wind carried a hint of bittersweet tenderness.

If you were passing by, you could almost hear a woman crying faintly, filled with endless grievances and bitterness.

"Waaaaah...waaaah...waaaah, this poor soul of mine, oh dear~"

……

Li Zhuiyuan supported himself with his hands and slowly stood up from below the rock wall.

His injuries weren't serious, just a lot of scrapes, and it hurt a lot when he moved around.

Compared to mental exhaustion and torment, physical harm seems to be more likely to trigger his threshold.

Runsheng lay on the ground, the combined effects of the recoil damage from the formation and the full opening of his energy gates causing his entire body to become paralyzed.

However, he is still conscious.

As Li Zhuiyuan passed by him, Runsheng opened his eyes and looked down at his pocket.

Li Zhuiyuan squatted down, reached out his hand, and there he found a can of Jianlibao.

Security was tight upon arrival, with dedicated security personnel and everyone having to pass through a smaller array under the larger array. So, apart from the clothes they were wearing, they had no other personal belongings.

Runsheng found this can of Jianlibao in the well shaft. It must have been left behind by the construction workers when they stopped work and left. Runsheng picked it up and put it in his pocket.

The treatment here is excellent; for example, drinks are provided in abundance at every campsite.

"Pfft!"

Li Zhuiyuan opened the Jianlibao and took a sip.

Seeing this, Runsheng closed his eyes with relief and fainted.

Tan Wenbin knelt on the ground, his eyes completely white.

Li Zhuiyuan placed his fingertips against his brow.

The condition is not good, and it will be difficult for him to regain consciousness in a short period of time.

At a critical moment, Tan Wenbin burned the beast spirit to arouse resentment and intimidate Ye Dui's five senses, causing Ye Dui to lose the opportunity to maintain the formation, thus allowing the boy to break the formation quickly.

As for Ah-you, he suffered the most.

He lay there, his entire body flushed red, unconscious.

Li Zhuiyuan first cleared a clean and flat area nearby, and then gently pushed Ayou over there.

Then, with the same agility as when setting up an array, while Ah-you was still unconscious and unable to feel pain, she cleaned away the pebbles and debris from his body. Otherwise, when the skin and flesh grew back, she would have to do a second cleaning, which would not only be troublesome but also painful.

After doing all this, Li Zhuiyuan stood up and walked towards a octagonal-shaped tumor lying on the ground in front of him.

Being able to isolate the tomb's occupant and fight only against Ye Dui, who was imprisoned in his place, was a huge advantage.

If they were to confront the tomb's occupant directly, and things came to a head, they wouldn't even have the chance to fight back with their fighting strength.

However, Ye Dui is really not easy to deal with.

This is a true old fox.

While it may seem like they've suffered heavy losses, these injuries are commonplace for the team as a whole.

If Ye Dui's bell works as intended and summons the undead knights, then the outcome is truly unpredictable.

Within the tumor, Ye Dui's face emerged, struggling to maintain his image—his last act of defiance as a Confucian scholar.

"According to the plan, it was supposed to impersonate me to approach you. One thing it did correctly was its performance. I'm just not reconciled. Why was I tricked into coming here? Why do I have to endure this torture..."

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand, and karmic fire condensed, burning towards the tumor below.

There were no screams, but the tumor was throbbing wildly, so it must have been very painful.

After a while, the boy stopped, the karmic fire dissipated, and the tumor not only calmed down but also shrank.

The boy bent down and picked up the tumor, which was now only the size of his palm, and held it in his hand.

Ye Dui continued to wriggle, revealing an even smaller face.

Well, he even grew a few more whiskers on himself.

"It's back, along with the armor."

When this human skin I'm wearing is destroyed, the armor will inevitably come into play, and its power originates from here, from that armor. It has absolutely no ability to resist that armor.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then what kind of master does it have?" Ye Dui: "There must be a reason for this. Fate is always so unpredictable, isn't it?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "I think fate is pretty straightforward."

……

Above, in the banquet hall.

The armored figure returned to the central steps, turned before the throne, and sat down.

As the sounds of string and wind instruments filled the air, the once empty banquet hall was immediately filled with a large number of guests, singers, and dancers. Everyone drank, danced, and reveled to their hearts' content.

The armor sat there quietly, both the center of attention and an out-of-place presence.

……

Ye Dui: "Now, shouldn't you go there?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "What does it mean to you whether I go there or not?"

Ye Dui: "In my opinion, that place is the closest place to the sky, representing the transmission of the will of heaven. The owners of the Goguryeo tombs throughout the ages must go there, walk through it, and make contact with the way of heaven, and from then on uphold the will of heaven."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then why did it try to escape?"

Ye Dui: "Because during its term, problems arose, and it got stuck here, permanently stuck here."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I want to know what happened after that person took you out of the cell and to the banquet hall to face it."

Ye Dui: "I..."

Li Zhuiyuan: "You should have witnessed the whole thing, instead of being kicked back at the very beginning."

Ye Dui: "Yes, I witnessed the whole thing. It tried to kill him, but failed every time."

He mocked its "divine punishment," calling it a joke, and laughed that it was precisely because it was so useless that Heaven had permanently confined it here to prevent it from going out and making a fool of itself.

He was seeking death; he always was.

Then it ate him.

I watched it eat; it was still laughing and continuing to mock and ridicule as it was being chopped and deboned.

Even while being roasted, it would ask if it tasted good, and before its own head was cut off, it would feed it a piece of meat so that it could taste its own flavor.

Hearing this description, Li Zhuiyuan could imagine the scene.

It can be said that Wei Zhengdao when he was on the river and Wei Zhengdao who sought death later were completely different characters.

In the first half, Wei Zhengdao is immersed in and enjoys that superior "desire for control" and "sense of dominance".

He left the river quietly, learning from Uncle Qin's example, yet he still repeatedly attracted covert suppression from other top forces in the martial arts world.

Wei Zhengdao's silence was more like Li Lan's state of mind when he was ill. He was not pretending to be low-key, but rather he completely looked down on these people in the martial arts world, thinking that they were "dirty" and "low-class" and did not deserve to see his true face, let alone worship him.

In short, he enjoyed playing around in the world of martial arts, but didn't want his clothes to get wet.

Li Zhuiyuan could imagine just how "happy" Wei Zhengdao must have been back then.

In the latter half of the story, Wei Zhengdao falls into a morbid obsession with seeking death.

He couldn't stop the car.

It is highly likely that it will enter a vicious cycle in which the more one tries to die but fails, the stronger one becomes, and the stronger one becomes, the less likely one is to die.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Why can't he die?"

Ye Dui: "I...how would I know?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Mm."

Ye Dui: "I've become like this just to survive, but he's living a perfectly healthy life, even though he's trying to die."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Your guess."

Ye Dui: "His body and soul seem to be completely integrated. He is in the state of a normal person, yet he possesses immortality comparable to a powerful and extreme evil spirit."

The latter can be worn down by time and eventually disappear, but he... can heal himself.

Li Zhuiyuan: "After it ate him, it took him to that place?"

Ye Dui: "Yes, that place can only be entered when the tomb owners of each generation are conferred titles. Only one person can enter at a time, and they must voluntarily pray and offer sacrifices to purify impurities and receive divine blessing."

After it eats him, it can take him into that place.

Li Zhuiyuan: "And then?"

Ye Dui: "It came out, and all that was left of it was its skin. The inside was completely empty. Therefore, it found a way to leave this ancient burial site, which was to have someone wear its skin and serve time here in its place."

That's when it was chosen.

For me, this meant better treatment, the ability to continue surviving, and the chance to explore the questions in my heart, so... I agreed.

Li Zhuiyuan: "And what about him?"

Ye Duineng could easily distinguish which "he" Li Zhuiyuan was referring to.

"He...is dead."

A smile appeared on Li Zhuiyuan's lips.

Ye Dui thought the boy believed he was lying to him, so he immediately said, "That one is really dead. That one was annihilated in that place. Only it came out alone, no, only its soul wrapped in that skin."

It paid a heavy price, but by taking advantage of the terrain, it successfully killed him!

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes: "Continue."

Ye Dui: "It also discovered something else, that is, the reason why he, who was not the inheritor of this ancient burial, was able to be annihilated along with his physical body means that he could actually carry out the ritual here."

It believed it had made a mistake; it shouldn't have eaten him, but rather let him enter that place alone, so that he wouldn't be completely eliminated as an impurity simply because he had been granted a title.

It also said that when it entered that place again, it felt a surge of excitement, pleasure, and intense longing in its stomach.

This means that his desire to die was indeed a pretense; in reality, he had been yearning to rid himself of impurities in order to achieve a more perfect state...

It suddenly realized that if it could find another person with the same characteristics as itself, and let him enter alone to be crowned the new master, then it, as the former master, could break free from the constraints of this place and gain true freedom.

"So, you found me?"

"Yes, because you and him are so alike."

"How did you find me?"

"I deduced it by interpreting the secrets of heaven."

"Do you believe this? You first entered this place to divine the secrets of heaven, only to end up like this; and now you still believe in these secrets a second time?"

"Besides believing, do I have any other choice? Actually, it was you who lit my Ghost Face Furnace after you got it, which created a connection with me and made you part of my causal deduction."

This deduction reminded Li Zhuiyuan of the two paintings that Li Lan had copied back from the place where the giant tortoise in the East China Sea was sleeping.

In the darkness, an invisible hand has been constantly drawing him into the terrifying existence within these secret realms.

Either I get eliminated by them, or I eliminate them; whoever benefits the most is the most suspicious.

Ye Dui stammered, "He really... died inside and never came out again."

Li Zhuiyuan finally understood why they had been so badly deceived by Wei Zhengdao back then, and why they still believed him to this day.

Wei Zhengdao used the so-called "death" to make them believe this lie.

However, although Ye Dui did not lie, because he obtained the information from the tomb owner, there would certainly be some discrepancies in the details of his account.

For example, the specific events that occurred when the tomb owner visited that place a second time, and the human skin torture he performed on himself while impersonating Ye Dui, indicate that he had gained a deep understanding of Wei Zhengdao's state at that time.

Oh, right, they've really gotten to know Wei Zhengdao inside and out, so they must have a deep understanding of him.

Ye Dui asked with great anticipation, "So, you're going to that place, right? I really hope you can go and see for yourself. The feeling of experiencing it in person will definitely be completely different from my description."

You are different from it. If you can succeed, even if you become the new owner of this tomb, I believe you will have a way to break free from its constraints.

That place is truly irresistible; there, you will find true perfection!

Li Zhuiyuan: "You've been urging me to go, so what do you want?"

Ye Dui: "Please, eat me, and then take me inside with you!"

Li Zhuiyuan: "According to what you've said, I'm very similar to him. If I go in, I might be granted a title, but if I take you in, your fate will be annihilation."

Ye Dui: "If I hear the Way in the morning, I can die content in the evening! I am willing to go in, even if I can only take a look. I want to see the will of Heaven, I want to touch the existence of the will of Heaven up close, I want to find an answer."

That's why I've managed to survive. Please... please take me to that place I've been longing for.

At this moment, an old, frail voice came:

"Ahem, where are we going?"

With a full head of white hair and an old, frail appearance, Zhao Yi, hunched over, entered the cage with Chen Jing's help.

Li Zhuiyuan: "You've worked hard."

Zhao Yi waved his hand: "Hey, what are you talking about?"

Li Zhuiyuan turned his gaze back to Ye Dui, who was pleading desperately in his palm.

Zhao Yi's voice suddenly rose:
"Hey, you surnamed Li, are you really going to stop talking to me if I tell you not to?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I'll tell you what you have to say when we get back."

"Going back is a matter of going back, and now is the matter of the present."

Zhao Yi raised his trembling hand and pointed to the tumor in Li Zhuiyuan's palm:

"I don't care about the guy surnamed Li, but since there's a good place, you can't let someone else have it..."

Ye Dui seemed to understand and immediately shouted, "No, you can't, you can't!"

Zhao Yi:

"Ancestor, take me there!"

---

I'm back to my normal sleep schedule. I spent a lot of time today working on the final chapters of this volume, which resulted in this chapter being a bit short. I'll start making up for the missed chapters tomorrow. Hurry up everyone!
(End of this chapter)