Return to Reality

Chapter 33: Returning to Reality

"There isn't much time left, let's go."

Wearing a Human Skin Mask, Li Yi pulled Zhao Qian and they quickly ran through Ghost Street.

He had bought the Coffin Grass and two Mud Horses, resolving all matters. He had wanted to spend more, but time was insufficient, so he had to give up. Otherwise, he could have spent more Lifespan to buy some strange and exotic items.

After all, Li Yi was prepared to default on his debts.

Relying on his memory, Li Yi didn't take the wrong route, and soon brought Zhao Qian to the familiar alley from before, then turned left and right.

Not long after, the two stopped in front of the gate of a small courtyard.

Looking around and seeing no ghosts lurking nearby, Li Yi dared to speak, "Miss Zhao, I won't be going in. Please trouble you to bid farewell to my Master for me. I'm afraid if my Master sees me, he'll waste time over the Coffin Grass, preventing you from leaving here safely. Besides, I need to go home."

"I still have parents at home to take care of. It's a pity I'm not alone, otherwise I'd really want to go to Xingzhou with Master to take a look."

"Brother Yi." Tears welled up in Zhao Qian's eyes. Although she and Li Yi had spent very little time together, less than an hour, they had experienced a lot.

Especially just now, to become a disciple of a Master for less than an hour, he had directly spent sixty years of Lifespan.

She knew very well that this parting at Ghost Street meant they would likely never meet again in this lifetime.

"It's okay, you need to take good care of yourself and Master in the future. If fate allows, we might meet again," Li Yi said seriously, patting her shoulder.

"I think I saw Yin Soldiers wandering nearby just now. You should go in quickly. I'm leaving."

At this moment, Li Yi's peripheral vision caught something.

It was as if an ancient soldier holding a spear was drifting past. His hair stood on end, and his heart leaped in alarm. He didn't dare to chat any longer, quickly put on his mask, and turned to run.

"Brother Yi!" Zhao Qian called out again.

Li Yi didn't look back, just waved goodbye. His figure quickly disappeared around the corner of the alley.

"Creak!"

At this moment, Zhao Ge, inside the house, heard the commotion and hurriedly opened the door.

Zhao Ge looked around. When he saw Yin Soldiers wandering nearby, his expression changed drastically. He quickly pulled Zhao Qian into the courtyard and then closed the gate.

Fortunately, the Door Gods on the gate had not faded.

The Yin Soldiers passed by without disturbance, just drifting past, and continued to search for the scent of other living people.

Inside the courtyard.

Zhao Ge grunted, "What happened? Where's Mengde? What's with the blood on your shoulder?"

His eyesight was excellent, and he immediately noticed the bloodstain on Zhao Qian's shoulder.

It was left by Li Yi when he patted her shoulder.

"Brother Yi just left. He asked me to bid farewell to Father, saying he wanted to leave Ghost Street and go home. He didn't come in because he was afraid of delaying our time. Brother Yi is fine, he's very safe. This blood was left when Brother Yi signed the contract," Zhao Qian explained. She then took out the Coffin Grass. "Father, look, this is the Coffin Grass Brother Yi bought."

Zhao Ge was initially a little disappointed to hear that Li Yi had left without saying goodbye. But upon hearing that Li Yi was fine, he breathed a sigh of relief. However, when he finally saw the Coffin Grass in his daughter's hand, his eyes widened: "Such a large Coffin Grass? How much Lifespan did it cost?"

"Sixty, sixty years," Zhao Qian said, not daring to hide it, stammering the words.

"Sixty years?"

Slap!

Zhao Ge instantly flew into a rage and slapped Zhao Qian across the face. "You scoundrel! Mengde doesn't understand the ways of the world, but don't you? Sixty years of Lifespan is equivalent to taking his life. After all my hard work, I finally found such a good disciple, and you're ruining him. The medicine is expensive, if you can't afford it, fine. Anyway, your father's life is coming to an end."

Zhao Qian's face turned red from the slap, but she didn't dodge, just endured it, and then cried, "Daughter knows, but daughter couldn't stop Brother Yi. He signed the contract without any hesitation."

Zhao Ge kicked Zhao Qian down again and pointed at her, scolding, "Can you fool others with that excuse, but not me? If you truly wanted to stop him, could Mengde have signed the contract? Clearly, you were hesitant and half-heartedly let Mengde buy this Coffin Grass."

"Father, what choice did you want me to make at that moment? Sixty years of Lifespan, daughter couldn't afford it. If daughter could afford it, she wouldn't have hesitated. Brother Yi acted at that moment. Although daughter feels guilty, she didn't know whether to stop him or not. If she had stopped him and missed the time, daughter could only watch Father die." Zhao Qian started crying.

Hearing this, Zhao Ge slowly lowered the hand he had raised, then slapped his own old face heavily.

"Sigh."

He sighed heavily, then sank into deep self-blame and pain.

Zhao Qian continued, "Father, Brother Yi has a Lifespan of 150 years. He'll be fine. In the future, as Brother Yi's Cultivation progresses, he'll naturally be able to make up for the lost Lifespan. Don't you believe in Brother Yi's speed of Cultivation?"

"Lifespan of 150 years? Is that true? You're not lying to me," Zhao Ge said, suddenly raising his head and staring at her.

"Brother Yi used the Lifespan Plate to measure it. I saw it with my own eyes, it can't be faked," Zhao Qian said, wiping away her tears and standing up.

Zhao Ge said, "Dragon Sinew, Tiger Bone, robust Blood Essence, extraordinary talent. A Lifespan of this much is not surprising. But losing sixty years of life is like losing half a life. My daughter and I owe Mengde greatly. If I had known this would happen, you should have left with Mengde just now, helped him take care of his parents, served them, and you could have taught him the fighting style I haven't finished teaching."

"Father, daughter will go find Brother Yi now and repay Brother Yi's kindness with the rest of her life." Zhao Qian said, and immediately prepared to rush out.

Zhao Ge hesitated for a moment, then finally grabbed her before she stepped out of the courtyard. "There's not enough time. The Soul-Departing Incense's time is almost up. Mengde might have already left Ghost Street by now. Forget it, forget it. Mengde and I lack fate. Let's go back, let's go back. If we meet again in the future, you can go with him then."

"Okay, everything will be as Father decides." Zhao Qian pursed her lips, having no choice but to suppress the urge in her heart.

At this moment.

There was a sudden banging sound at the courtyard gate.

The huge commotion immediately startled Zhao Ge and Zhao Qian.

"Quick, quick, get back into the coffin! The Door Gods on the gate have failed, and the Yin Soldiers and ghosts are about to break in. We can't stay here any longer, we have to go back." Zhao Ge snapped back to reality, he rushed into the main hall with his daughter and quickly opened the coffin lid.

The coffin was empty inside.

Zhao Ge first put his daughter into the coffin and closed it, then he lay down in another coffin next to her. With a surge of force from his hands, the lid also slammed shut with a bang, settling firmly in place.

After the two of them got in, the courtyard gate was suddenly blown open by an eerie wind.

The chilling wind swept into the hall, scattering the white paper money strewn across the floor.

The Soul-Departing Incense had burned out.

But the two coffins in the middle of the hall had mysteriously vanished.

Zhao Ge and Zhao Qian, who were inside the coffins, had also disappeared.

The eerie wind swirled around, finding nothing, and finally blew open the window before leaving the small courtyard. All that remained was the mess on the ground, and the piece of wood imprinted with a Fist Print.

Meanwhile.

A corner of Ghost Street.

Li Yi was squatting on the ground, his finger dripping blood.

The blood dripped onto a small horse made of mud on the ground.

"Seriously, is this actually going to work? I can't believe I'm actually resorting to something this bizarre."

He was filled with doubt at the moment, but Li Yi had no other options and could only try his best. Otherwise, he might truly be trapped and die on this strange street.

However, after the blood stained the mud horse, something incredible happened.

A gust of black, eerie wind began to swirl around the mud horse.

The wind grew stronger and stronger, making it almost impossible for Li Yi to open his eyes.

Then, amidst the gale, Li Yi actually heard the neighing of a spirited horse.

"Is this really that magical?"

When the black, eerie wind subsided, Li Yi opened his eyes wide and saw a majestic, divine black steed appear before him. This steed was not alive; its body was still made of mud, but it could move freely.

Such a sight was beyond Li Yi's understanding.

But then he remembered that ghosts existed in this world, and Extraordinary Creatures were real, so what was happening before him didn't seem so strange.

"Take me away from this Ghost Street and back home." Li Yi leaped up and sat on the steed.

Although he didn't know how to ride a horse, he could hold onto its neck tightly to avoid falling off.

The steed neighed and reared, then snorted, emitting black smoke from its nostrils.

Then, with thundering hooves, the steed instantly galloped away with Li Yi.

"So fast."

Li Yi felt the wind whistling past his ears, his vision blurring. Riding the steed felt indescribable, like soaring through the clouds.

"Wait, the flesh and skin on this horse are falling off?"

He immediately noticed that as the steed galloped, large chunks of its body were peeling away. Li Yi held up his hand and saw it was covered in black mud.

This mud was foul-smelling and pungent; he had no idea what had been mixed into it.

But the steed didn't stop, it just galloped madly in one direction.

The surrounding buildings gradually changed.

The ancient and eerie streets began to disappear, the large red lanterns overhead gradually extinguished, and the silhouettes of tall buildings slowly emerged from the surrounding darkness. Many scrapped cars began to appear on the road nearby. All these changes happened in an instant.

It was as if Li Yi had crossed into another world and returned to the modern city.

"I really made it back alive."

Suddenly.

The steed's speed began to slow. Li Yi found himself at the entrance of a street in the Ruined City, with the dangerous area behind him.

He looked back.

The strange street still existed, as if hovering between reality and illusion. Li Yi could even see the figures of many terrifying ghosts wandering about, proving that everything that had happened was not a dying hallucination, but real.

The steed's gallop became unsteady. Its body had deteriorated too severely, and its stark white skeleton was even visible inside.

After another few hundred meters.

The mud horse seemed to have reached its limit. It couldn't take Li Yi back to the old city. With a mournful neigh, it completely disintegrated, turning into a pile of mud and rotten bones.

Li Yi fell from the steed. He quickly steadied himself and looked at the completely ruined mud horse, feeling a pang of regret.

"So it was a one-time consumable, not reusable. Fortunately, I was prepared and bought two mud horses." He patted his pocket.

The remaining mud horse was intact and undamaged.

However, he kept it only as a backup; Li Yi wouldn't use it easily unless it was a special occasion.

"I'll walk the rest of the way myself, it's not far anyway." Seeing the familiar surroundings, Li Yi gradually felt more confident. He didn't linger there and immediately retraced his steps along the route he had taken to the dangerous area.

He glanced around briefly.

It was still the middle of the night, and there were about two or three hours until dawn.

It seemed Li Yi hadn't been trapped on Ghost Street for very long.