The female crown seemed to be immobilized by an immobilization spell, frozen in place.

Chen Yi glanced at her sideways. He always thought she was beautiful when she was quiet, and even now, despite being shocked, she was still beautiful.

It took quite a while before Yin Weiyin came back to her senses and said, "Did you see this using the Heavenly Eye?"

"More or less." Chen Yi replied.

In truth, he had experienced this once in a previous life, but saying it was the Heavenly Eye wasn't far from the truth.

The Heavenly Eye, without employing the Eye-opening Spell, at most could vaguely sense something was off. It could discern the origins of those man-eating ghosts but detecting that these seemingly victimized corpses were actually the most fearsome ghosts was almost impossible.

The female crown took a deep breath and said in a low voice:

"I originally thought… you didn't see their origins. At first, I thought you knew but avoided saying it to preserve your plan, using their actions against them. Moreover, that group of man-eating ghosts had shallow foundations, but later..."

"Later you thought I truly couldn't discern it?" Chen Yi finished her sentence for her.

Yin Weiyin didn't deny it, chuckling bitterly:

"I didn't expect that in the end, I'd still be wrong. Not only could you see it, but you also unveiled an even deeper truth."

Chen Yi naturally wouldn't let his mind wander over her words, thinking about something else entirely.

He simply said, "I indeed was using their actions to my advantage from the start."

Saying this, Chen Yi turned around, casually picked up a wooden stick, and began clearing away the heaps of dismembered bodies based on his memories.

The mangled remains rolled away with his motions, revealing a half-corpse clad in the official uniform of a ghost messenger, with a token hanging from its waist.

Exerting strength, Chen Yi tapped the token with the wooden stick, sending it flying into the air. Using his energy to manipulate objects, he directed the token into a nearby water tank for cleaning. Once the water flow had thoroughly cleansed it, he picked it up.

The washed token gleamed as if new, revealing a small crack at the center, so faint that it was unnoticeable unless inspected closely.

"What is this?" Yin Weiyin leaned closer to examine.

"It originally belonged to a low-ranking ghost messenger, but this particular ghost had been assisting in guiding wandering souls," Chen Yi explained.

The so-called "assisting in guiding wandering souls" referred to redirecting certain ghosts through a secret path toward reincarnation, bypassing Naihe Bridge and avoiding Meng Po's Soup. These souls retained their memories from past lives even after reincarnation.

Such occurrences weren't rare across the Three Realms, and Yin Weiyin immediately understood.

Chen Yi stepped out of the kitchen, glancing back at the courtyard. The reason he had let Liu Ting and those man-eating ghosts bring him here was precisely for this token. Otherwise, with the treacherous mountain roads, who knew how long it would take to find this location.

Breaking the token apart revealed a minute scrap of paper hidden inside. This paper contained a map of the pathway bypassing Naihe Bridge.

However, it was only half of the map.

That crafty ghost messenger guiding souls wouldn't carry the complete map on his person. Otherwise, if the wandering spirits turned malevolent and resorted to murder for the map, the ghost would lose both his life and his invaluable map.

As for now, the situation had slightly improved.

He lost his life but didn't lose the map — instead, the map benefited the stranger, Chen Yi.

"Let's go." Chen Yi said as he checked the map and oriented himself.

While comparing the map, he casually glanced at a nearby calendar. On it was written: Seventh Day of the First Lunar Month.

Currently, in Great Yu, it was the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. However, one day above was equivalent to a year below, so naturally, the calendars between the two realms didn't align.

Yin Weiyin sheathed her sword, took two steps forward, and instinctively grasped the hem of Chen Yi's attire.

Her gaze toward his back was now heavy, her lips pressed together. It seemed that since meeting him, she'd been overshadowed in every regard...

She used to think about overturning the situation frequently, but the more they interacted, the more she realized this man was far harder to figure out than she'd imagined. The more she thought about overturning the situation, the less likely it seemed.

Thinking this, Yin Weiyin felt a chill run down her spine, as if her fate was to become his cauldron furnace...

The female crown could only sigh inwardly. Thankfully, he was now technically betrothed. When he married in the future, even if her body became his cauldron furnace, as long as her soul didn't, she could stubbornly resist him entering her heart. She could secretly cultivate immortality and avoid being bound to him, let alone becoming a Zhu Yingtai who sacrifices herself for love.

Behind her came the faint sensation of tugging. Feeling her subtle reliance, Chen Yi, who faced away from her, chuckled softly.

After confirming the route on the map once again, the two set off through the stone forest.

Along the way, occasional eerie winds swept by, but with time, the two gradually adapted to the piercing cold brought by these gusts.

This kind of cold, if likened to something, was akin to the damp chill of the southern regions in midwinter — not lethal, but the invasive coldness seeping through skin and pores could penetrate the bones.

Similarly, the eerie winds didn't kill, so although difficult to endure, they could ultimately be endured.

Chen Yi held a lantern as he walked ahead. Their next meeting would be with a monk.

Based on his understanding from his previous life, the monk hailed from Goryeo, originally accompanying Goryeo's envoys to the central realms to study and spread the Buddhist Law. However, he mistakenly entered the underworld, where he remained to guard the secret path known as Yiji Dao.

The monk's name was Diguang, a skilled and eloquent high monk.

If memory served, the so-called resurrection of the late emperor involved the emperor seeking to seize control of the second hall's King Yanluo, forcibly breaking out of the underworld to return to the mortal realm.

This explained why the wandering ghostly woman had mentioned that this region was particularly chaotic.

After the emperor's possession, his intense malice and fearsome killing power were unmatched by any individual.

According to the so-called "strategy," it was necessary to gather companions to combat this Boss.

This mage Diguang was one of the companions.

Since the emperor possessed King Yanluo, Chen Yi didn't know the exact appearance of the emperor, but being well-versed in confronting the emperor, he was no stranger to the task.

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