The night was deep.

King Wumeng and King Qingyu never received a reply from the Ghost King. More and more city guards were fleeing over from Netherworld City, including several generals of the guard corps.

No one had definite news of the Ghost King; they only knew that Netherworld City had already been occupied by Chen Hao. With the opening of the gates to the Netherworld and the Samsara Path, order had been restored in the Netherworld realm of both the living and the dead.

According to messages from spies within Wushuang City, celebrations had already begun inside the city.

In such a situation, King Wumeng invited King Qingyu to his tent and whispered, "King Qingyu, in my opinion, there's a good chance that the Ghost King has really been killed by Chen Hao."

King Qingyu's face darkened and he sighed. After a pause, he asked, "Then what do you plan to do next? We still have an army of over a hundred thousand."

"Without the Ghost King, what's the use of having over a hundred thousand troops? It's just like scattered sand," King Wumeng said.

"What do you mean then, King Wumeng?"

After seriously considering for a while, King Wumeng stood up and said coldly, "Since defeat is certain, naturally we cannot continue to fight. I plan to lead the warriors of the Crow Tribe back to our tribe, and you, King Qingyu..."

After a pause, he continued, "You must fend for yourself."

Hearing that King Wumeng wanted to go their separate ways, King Qingyu was shocked and angrily said, "King Wumeng, are you really planning to give up just like that?"

King Wumeng turned back, glared fiercely at King Qingyu, then nodded and said, "As the saying goes, 'when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.' My decision shouldn't be surprising."

"You!" King Qingyu was furious but dared not speak out, his face turning a steely blue as he glared at King Wumeng.

After a moment of silence, King Qingyu walked to King Wumeng's side, patted his shoulder, and spoke earnestly, "King Wumeng, if you don't leave, we still have a chance of success. Stay. Even if we cannot have the last laugh, we can't let the Fourth Generation Underworld King and Chen Hao have an easy victory."

"King Qingyu!" King Wumeng looked at him with disgust, his voice growing stern.

"Haven't you seen the situation clearly? With the Ghost King dead, the soldiers' morale has completely collapsed. To continue to insist now is to sacrifice the lives of soldiers in vain."

King Qingyu shook his head with a mournful expression, "But if we surrender without a fight, I can't reconcile with it in my heart!"

King Wumeng scoffed with a tone of mockery, "I genuinely hadn't realized before that you, King Qingyu, were actually a man of such fiery spirit!"

King Qingyu's complexion turned ugly.

With his hands behind his back, King Wumeng slightly closed his eyes and said, "If by dawn tomorrow, there's still no news from the Ghost King, I will leave with the warriors of the Crow Tribe; if the Ghost King is still alive, then what happened tonight in this tent will be as if it never occurred."

The next morning.

There was still no news from the Ghost King.

Despite King Qingyu's repeated attempts to persuade him, he ultimately failed to stop King Wumeng from leaving with the warriors of the Crow Tribe.

King Wumeng's departure also indirectly confirmed the rumors that had spread among the soldiers the day before—the Ghost King had been killed by Chen Hao. Suddenly, the camp was in turmoil, filled with panic and disorder.

Seeing the situation about to spin out of control, King Qingyu tried to manage the pandemonium, but his efforts were futile.

Soon after, there was an outbreak of unrest in the camp. Over twenty thousand soldiers from Netherworld City, who had been forcibly conscripted into the army three months prior, suddenly scattered and fled in various directions.

Witnessing this, in order to suppress the situation and prevent more soldiers from deserting, King Qingyu sent his trusted troops to pursue and kill the fleeing soldiers.

By noon, the trusted troops dispatched by King Qingyu had returned, bringing back more than ten thousand deserters and having also killed more than ten thousand resisters along the way.

The tumult within the Ghost King Battalion's camp was quelled.

After reorganizing the ranks, King Qingyu ordered the soldiers to flee eastward, heading to Wind Shelter Valley.

Before long, this news reached the ears of Ye Yuqiao's Nether Soul Body in Wushuang City.

Upon learning of this, she immediately led an army of several hundred thousand out of Wushuang City, in pursuit of the Ghost King Battalion led by King Qingyu.

She had thought that the Ghost King Battalion would disperse into loose sand after the Ghost King's death, but unexpectedly, King Qingyu had emerged. Unwilling to start a war, she was nonetheless compelled to act ruthlessly.

Beyond that, she also had to put Chen Hao aside for the time being.

Two days later, in the northern reaches of the Dark Wind Hills, the allied forces of the Seven Great Clans caught up with the Ghost King Battalion.

Just as a major battle was about to commence, internal strife suddenly erupted within the ranks of the Ghost King Battalion. Tens of thousands of soldiers took this opportunity to flee, with those from Netherworld City readily defecting to the Fourth Generation Nether King.

In the blink of an eye, what had been a stalemate between two equal forces became a one-sided affair. Seeing this, King Qingyu was thunderous with rage yet simultaneously powerless, and thus he had no choice but to change his route on the spot, taking the remaining one hundred thousand troops to take refuge in the nearby Valley of a Thousand Ghosts.

Another day passed, and the allied forces of the Seven Great Clans surrounded the Valley of a Thousand Ghosts and began to rout the Ghost King Battalion hidden within, seizing the opportunity to also clear out the malicious ghosts and spirits that had been hiding there since escaping Hell.

..

Over a month later, the allied forces of the Seven Great Clans had completely exterminated the hundred thousand troops of the Ghost King Battalion, and King Qingyu was killed by Zhao Chong, putting an end to the longstanding grudges between the Fourth Generation Nether King and the Ghost King.

Four days later, Ye Yuqiao's Nether Soul Body, leading an army of several hundred thousand, triumphantly returned to Netherworld City.

Twenty years later, she once again stood at the pinnacle of power in the Netherworld.

As the undead soldiers of the Dust Tribe who were guarding Netherworld City opened the gates, she rode her warhorse into Netherworld City, where the streets were already packed with the citizens of Netherworld City. Everyone knelt down, welcoming the queen's return in the most devout and respectful manner.

The following day, at daybreak, priests struck the bell atop the city wall nine times and the drum five times.

At this moment, within the eastern courtyard beside the Nether King Palace, the Clan Leaders of the Seven Great Clans, various nobles, and dozens of esteemed individuals from Netherworld City had gathered, kneeling and bowing their heads, to welcome the restoration of the Fourth Generation Nether King.

Beneath the gaze of the assembled crowd, Ye Yuqiao's Nether Soul Body, dressed in red robes and wearing a golden crown, was escorted by four maids as she walked slowly over the red carpet, taking her seat on the throne of the Nether King once more.

The suspense surrounding the omen of a new Nether King that had emerged a year earlier seemed to have settled at this moment. No one had expected the Fourth Generation Nether King to return to reign over the Netherworld, resurrected in the form of a Nether Soul.

After the congregation rose from their bows, Ye Yuqiao's Nether Soul Body then issued three orders:

The first order was to rebuild the Nether King Palace;

The second order was to strip Zheng Yang, Wu Kun, and Wang Yun of their positions as Clan Leaders, demoting them to the top three amongst the ten noble families, reducing the original Eight Great Clans to Four Great Clans; these new Four Great Clans would together manage all the affairs of the Netherworld;

The third order was to reward those for their services, conferring the title of Beast King upon both Ma Mian and Niu Tou, whereas Chen Hao was made the Yang King, commanding all the armies, his status on a par with the Clan Leaders of the Four Great Clans.

The three orders were to be implemented with immediate effect.

The Netherworld had once again returned to what it once was.

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