The Grotto-Heaven Was Incomplete

Although the information contained in that scroll painting had been far too fragmented and vague,

Li Hai had still learned quite a few important things.

One of them was that, aside from the empty Side Hall, the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven in its complete state had actually contained many other buildings and areas.

According to the information, these included the Front Hall, Main Hall, Supply Depot, Armory, Treasure Vault, Technique Library, Rare Treasures Vault, Training Ground, Woodland, Garden, Medicine Garden, Beast Garden, Alchemy Room, Jail, Torture Chamber, Courtyard, Pavilions, and countless bedrooms and living quarters.

However, all these buildings and areas had now vanished without a trace, scattered somewhere unknown.

Li Hai found this deeply regrettable.

Just think: a single unimportant Side Hall had contained three powerful cultivation techniques: the Iron Barrel Bell-Coiling Manual, the Moon Marrow Refining Technique, and the Evil Spirit Earth Yin Absorption Method.

So how many good things might be hidden in the Armory, Treasure Vault, Technique Library, and Rare Treasures Vault, which sounded valuable just from their names?

And the Medicine Garden, Beast Garden, and Alchemy Room had surely held good things too.

Just thinking about it filled Li Hai with intense curiosity and greed.

At the same time, contrary to his earlier guess, the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven hadn't been shattered by an invading enemy or an internal conflict within the Naihe Mansion.

The real cause was that, long ago, the Naihe Mansion had encountered a fearsome enemy who had shaken the world.

In their battle against this great enemy, the Naihe Mansion had suffered one defeat after another, reduced to a miserable state.

Finally, on the brink of annihilation, the Naihe Mansion's leaders had reached a decision.

Their decision was to preserve a seed for the Naihe Mansion, in the hope that it could one day rise from the ashes and restore its former glory.

And the Naihe Token in Li Hai's hand was that very seed.

A seed could naturally grow and flourish, bearing fruit.

According to the information in the scroll, as long as he successfully activated the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven,

he could then repair its deficiencies, gradually restoring it to perfection.

Put simply, repairing its deficiencies meant continually hunting ghosts of all ranks, then using their Soul Remains as a catalyst to summon back the scattered buildings and regions from beyond the human world.

Strictly speaking, this was a deliberate scheme laid by the former leaders of the Naihe Mansion.

Rebuilding the Naihe Mansion would inevitably require formidable strength.

And the best way to prove one's strength was to kill enemies.

But rashly hunting down the various experts in the human world would draw too much attention, hindering the new generation of Naihe Mansion successors from staying hidden and growing stronger.

So hunting ghosts was the safest, most reliable choice.

Of course, Li Hai hadn't thought that deeply about it.

As he saw it, repairing the Grotto-Heaven was much like spending money in a mobile game to unlock heroes, buildings, weapons, and the like.

The difference was that mobile games cost money, while repairing the Grotto-Heaven cost ghosts.

As for whether any other tokens existed in this vast human world, Li Hai had no idea.

The information in the scroll was so fragmented that he couldn't even tell whether there were other grotto-heavens in the world.

But judging from the information he had seen, Li Hai leaned toward thinking there probably were.

That was a matter for later, though, so he set it aside for now.

In short, all of that was still a long way off. The most important thing for Li Hai now was figuring out how to activate the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

Fortunately, the complicated information in the scroll clearly explained this; otherwise, Li Hai truly wouldn't have known what to do.

According to that information, there was only one way to activate the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven—

He had to find the descendants of the Naihe Mansion members from back then and use their blood to water the Naihe Token. That would activate the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

Li Hai didn't particularly care why the former leaders of the Naihe Mansion had designed things this way, with such a cruel requirement—even toward their own people.

He only knew that he was going to kill someone.

His targets were the two Guo-family daughters-in-law of the Black Wolf Bandits' Second Master.

That's right: Guo Huaijin's branch of the family descended from former members of the Naihe Mansion.

As for why Asu, an outsider, had obtained the Evil Spirit Earth Yin Absorption Method from the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven, whether before or after her death, that was a mystery Li Hai would never be able to solve.

He could only guess that it might have something to do with the Guo bloodline she was carrying in her womb.

"Guo Huaijin had three daughters and one son."

Li Hai thought, "The youngest son fell ill and died after leaving behind Guo Shiwen. As for the eldest daughter, she married far away many years ago. Only the second and third daughters, twins, remain. Twenty years ago, Guo Huaijin arranged for them both to marry Zhou Hu, and they gave him a son and a daughter."

"Hmm..."

He pondered, "Old Dog Guo's two daughters must be in their thirties, nearly forty, by now. Women of that age usually keep to themselves, so they're not easy targets. So... I'll just kill Zhou Hu's son."

After making his decision, Li Hai slipped the Naihe Token into his pocket and shot off toward Three-Fork Junction like a sinister shadow.

Whether Zhou Hu himself would object was entirely outside his consideration.

Those in the Steel Sinew Iron Bone Realm already feared no ordinary firearms, though being shot still hurt.

But Li Hai had cultivated the Iron Barrel Bell-Coiling Manual to its peak. He reckoned that even getting shot wouldn't hurt.

So what was there to fear?

Kill him, and that was that. What could Zhou Hu do about it?

"Huh?!"

In a certain part of the Ghost Forest ruins, blanketed in black ash, the Taoist who had been holding the Divination Banner suddenly stopped. His face tightened with alarm. "How strange, how strange! That sinister aura that comes and goes... why is it heading this way?!"

Heaven knew, he'd only wanted to quietly scout for information. He had no intention—and no ability—to deal with such a ferocious ghost!

"Could it be that ghost sensed me from far away? Th-this..."

The Taoist looked on the verge of tears. "What rank of ghost is this? How can it be so outrageous?! It's over, it's all over."

He hadn't even thought of running. How could he? Could a man on two legs outrun a ghost flying through the air?

"I might as well make a last stand. Even if I die, it's better than being eaten by a ghost."

The Taoist gritted his teeth, immediately pulling a stack of long, narrow Yellow Talismans from his sleeve as he prepared to face the approaching evil ghost.

But at that very moment, the sinister aura he had sensed hurtling toward him from afar suddenly vanished into thin air.

As the Taoist looked around in confusion, a thick hand suddenly reached from behind and clapped him hard on the shoulder.

"Fortune teller, what are you doing here?"

"Ghost!!"

The Taoist jumped three feet in the air with fright and frantically flung a pile of Yellow Talismans at the person behind him.

But his vision blurred, and a large hand swept up all ten-odd talismans in a blur of afterimages.

"Huh? You..."

The Taoist stared blankly at the bald, burly man before him. "You're not a ghost. You're a person."

"Of course." Li Hai grinned. "I'm a person—and a very good one."