Heavenly Realm

The moon was dark, the wind high; an ancient temple stood in the wilderness.

Before the long-abandoned Mountain God Temple, crows suddenly took flight as though startled by something, circling overhead and cawing.

Two figures slowly emerged, as if they had stepped out of another time and space, appearing before the Mountain God Temple without warning.

One wore green robes and had white hair, looking hale and hearty despite walking with a slight limp. The other wore black robes and had a jade-like face, his bearing tall and heroic.

Though one was old and the other young, both possessed an extraordinary presence. Yet they were travel-worn, fatigue showing on their faces.

"Master, have we come out of the Yin-Yang Road already?"

Though this was his second time traveling that miraculous road, Zhou Sheng still looked around in astonishment.

After the magistrate had departed, his master had led him along the Yin-Yang Road for another half hour before pulling him off some cliff.

There had been no sensation of weightlessness, nor had he been smashed to the point of broken bones and torn sinews. Instead, his vision had blurred, and he had appeared before this dilapidated Mountain God Temple.

This should have been one of the exits from the Yin-Yang Road. Yet no matter how carefully he observed, he could not see where it connected to that road.

"Stop looking. You have not yet completed your apprenticeship and are not qualified to 'borrow the road.' Unless someone leads you, or your cultivation reaches the realm where your yin spirit can leave the body, you will not find this road."

Yu Zhensheng thumped his right leg and said, "Jiangzhou lies ahead. Let's rest in the temple for the night and continue after dawn."

"This leg of mine has been still for too long. Moving it all at once really does hurt."

Hearing this, Zhou Sheng hurriedly supported his master as they headed toward the Mountain God Temple.

At the same time, he was secretly astonished. Qinggu County was in Bing Prefecture, separated from Jiangzhou by more than a thousand li, yet they had somehow already reached Jiangzhou's borders.

Stepping over the rotten threshold, the two entered the temple.

Cobwebs covered every corner, weeds grew wildly across the floor, and the clay statue of the god had nearly half its body missing. Yet it still glared with a ferocious expression, looking especially chilling in the night.

Ordinary people naturally would not dare visit such a ruined temple in the wilderness in the dead of night. Even without demons or ghosts, they would be scared half to death.

But to master and disciple, it was nothing at all.

Yu Zhensheng sat down wherever he pleased, unconcerned by the filth. He leaned against a pillar to rest, gently rubbing his right leg.

"Master, let me help you."

Zhou Sheng crouched down and massaged the pressure points on his master's right leg. Only when he saw his master's expression ease somewhat did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

From earlier until now, his master's brow had been unconsciously furrowed. Zhou Sheng knew his master had been forcibly enduring the agonizing pain in his leg.

In his previous life, he had read a similar tale in the Taiping Guangji. An Underworld Official had been traveling at night when the reins of his carriage suddenly snapped, making it impossible to proceed. He took out the Book of Life and Death and discovered that he could take the back sinews of a nearby woman to replace them.

The Underworld Official ordered his subordinates to pull out the woman's back sinews and use them as reins so they could continue onward.

That night, the woman cried out about the pain in her back all night long. By morning, she was dead.

When a person's tendons, bones, and channels were pulled out by ghosts and gods, there might appear to be no external injury, but inside, they had long since rotted beyond recognition.

King Yama had pulled out his master's leg sinews, yet after all these years, his master could still walk unhindered. That alone showed how profound his Dao cultivation was. But if he fought using magic, it would likely feel like steel awls piercing bone and knife tips slicing flesh.

"Master, that Exploring the Underworld Mountain—"

Zhou Sheng wanted to learn more about the play that could enrage King Yama, but before he could finish, his master cut him off sternly.

"Do not even think about that play!"

Yu Zhensheng warned, "If you do not wish to walk my old road, then never mention those three words again. Better yet, forget them—forget them as completely as possible!"

"I must have lost my head back then. I never should have told you..."

Yu Zhensheng's attitude was more resolute than ever before. Zhou Sheng even caught a trace of... nervousness on his face?

It was as if merely hearing those three words had instantly tightened his master's nerves. It was an almost instinctive reaction.

He asked no further questions, merely silently committing Exploring the Underworld Mountain to memory.

Thinking carefully, from childhood until now, his master had taught him nearly every Lord Bao Play, except Exploring the Underworld Mountain.

Naturally, he knew what Exploring the Underworld Mountain was, but his master's version of it had to be anything but ordinary.

It was a play his master had acquired in the illusory realm of Unity of Person and Role, where he had encountered deities, communicated and merged with them.

That play had directly changed his master's fate.

The underworld magistrate had changed color the instant he heard of it. King Yama had flown into a towering rage over it. And because of it, his master had lost the use of his right leg.

What kind of magic did that play possess?

"Brat, instead of thinking about such impractical things, why not think carefully about how you'll survive the Ghost Festival two months from now?"

"Lu Pan certainly will not let that opportunity pass."

At the mention of this matter, even Yu Zhensheng, who was always free and composed, had a trace of gravity flash through his eyes.

As he frowned in thought, he picked up his waterskin and took a drink, only to hear his disciple's voice beside him.

"Master, then we can only strike first and take out Lu Pan!"

"Pfft!!"

Yu Zhensheng sprayed out a mouthful of water. He looked at his disciple irritably and said, "Then tell me, my divinely capable disciple—how exactly do you intend to take out an underworld magistrate?"

But Zhou Sheng looked entirely serious. "Master, I think that since we cannot defeat him, we should reason with him by the rules. Does he not constantly claim to represent Underworld Law? Then we will use Underworld Law to kill him!"

A glint of killing intent appeared in his eyes. Even if the other party was an underworld magistrate, a deity of the netherworld, once they had become mortal enemies, it would be a fight to the death.

"The head-swapping case killed so many innocent people. If we can find a way to report it to the gods of the Heavenly Realm, specifically those who hate evil as bitterly as they hate an enemy—Lord Guan, Patriarch Huaguang, Wang Lingguan..."

Zhou Sheng named several great deities in one breath, his gaze blazing and his words ringing like iron striking stone.

"The Patriarch of our Yin Opera lineage is King Ma. Master, do you have a method to report this to the Patriarch?"

Yu Zhensheng shook his head.

"Then could we visit Daoist temples at Longhu Mountain or Maoshan and ask the Daoists to relay it for us?"

Zhou Sheng continued asking.

Since this world had an underworld, magistrates, and King Yama, it meant there was also a Heavenly Realm, with gods and immortals of every kind.

If they could bring this case before Heaven, then Lu Pan would be the one who should fear.

Yet to his surprise, Yu Zhensheng shook his head again and let out a soft sigh.

"It is not bad that you thought of this method, but unfortunately... it has become obsolete."

"Obsolete?"

Zhou Sheng froze, unable to understand for a moment.

Yu Zhensheng slowly raised his eyes and looked through the broken roof at the starlit night sky, and at the eternal moon that had never changed through the ages.

"If this had been nine hundred years ago, your method would have worked. You would not even need to seek other gods. Just for daring to strike Patriarch Huaguang's statue with yin lightning today, the Patriarch could have stormed the underworld once more and made him scatter his soul and disperse his spirit!"

"Unfortunately, after Huang Chao proclaimed himself emperor, the gods and Buddhas of the Heavenly Realm responded less and less to the mortal world. And now..."

"Apart from sensing a faint trace of divine aura when Casting Holy Cups, there has been no other response. Even when Daoists of Longhu Mountain burn incense and submit memorials, it is useless."

"It is said that Zhang Jixian, Celestial Master Xujing and the thirtieth Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain, once used Dao cultivation unmatched in all the world to forcibly open Heaven's Gate and peer into the Heavenly Realm, wishing to uncover the truth."

"What happened?"

Zhou Sheng hurriedly asked.

Yu Zhensheng gave a cold laugh. "The result was that Celestial Master Xujing underwent Liberation by Violence that very day."

After a pause, he sighed deeply. "That was the cultivation of one who had endured eight heavenly tribulations—a grandmaster whose glory shook ancient and modern times, who would not need a second sword to kill Lu Pan. Yet at merely thirty-six, he ascended and underwent Liberation by Violence."

"Since then, no one has tried to communicate with the Heavenly Realm again."