The Grotto-Heaven Has a Flaw

Although the information contained within that scroll was far too fragmented and blurred, Li Hai still managed to glean a significant amount of important intelligence.

One such piece of information was that, aside from the empty Side Hall, the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven in its complete state actually possessed numerous other buildings and regions.

According to the information, these structures and areas included the Front Hall, Main Hall, Material Warehouse, Armory, Secret Treasure Vault, Technique Library, Curio Vault, Drill Ground, Forest Park, Garden, Herb Garden, Beast Garden, Alchemy Room, Prison, Torture Chamber, courtyards, pavilions, and a vast number of residential bedrooms.

However, these buildings and areas had long since vanished without a trace, scattered to unknown locations.

Li Hai felt a deep sense of regret regarding this.

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

If that were the case, how many treasures must be hidden within the Armory, Secret Treasure Vault, Technique Library, and Curio Vault—places that sounded "valuable" just by their names alone?

Furthermore, the Herb Garden, Beast Garden, and Alchemy Room were also certain to house incredible items.

At the mere thought of it, a thick sense of curiosity and greed began to spread through Li Hai's heart.

At the same time, contrary to his previous speculation, the shattering of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven was not caused by an invasion of foreign enemies or internal strife within the Naihe Mansion.

The true reason was that, long ago, the Naihe Mansion had encountered a world-shaking enemy.

During the war against this adversary, the Naihe Mansion suffered defeat after defeat, falling into a miserable state.

Ultimately, on the eve of their near-extinction, the high-ranking members of the Naihe Mansion reached a resolution.

This resolution was to preserve a spark for the Naihe Mansion, in the hope that it might one day undergo nirvana, be reborn, and forge its former glory once more.

The Naihe Token in Li Hai's hand was that very spark.

Since it was a seed, it could naturally grow, strengthen, and bear fruit.

According to the records in the scroll, one only needed to successfully activate the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

Once activated, it could be repaired, step by step, until it reached perfection.

To "repair" it, bluntly put, meant to continuously hunt down ghosts of various levels and use their soul-remains as a catalyst to summon back the various buildings and regions scattered outside the human world.

Strictly speaking, this was an open scheme devised by the predecessors of the Naihe Mansion.

Because to rebuild the Naihe Mansion, one would inevitably require formidable strength.

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

However, rashly killing experts in the human world would be too conspicuous and would not facilitate the hibernation and growth of the new generation of Naihe Mansion inheritors.

Therefore, killing ghosts was the best and most secure choice.

Of course, Li Hai did not overthink it.

In his view, this so-called "repairing the Grotto-Heaven" was not much different from a player spending money in a pay-to-win mobile game to unlock heroes, buildings, weapons, and the like.

The only difference was that in the mobile game, one spent money, while here, one spent ghosts.

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

Due to the fragmented nature of the scroll's information, he also had no way of knowing if other Grotto-Heavens existed in this world.

But synthesizing all the information, Li Hai was inclined to believe they did.

That, however, was a matter for another time and need not be mentioned for now.

In any case, these things were still far off; for Li Hai, the most important thing right now was how to activate the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

Fortunately, there was a clear record regarding this in the complex information of the scroll, otherwise, Li Hai truly would not have known how to proceed.

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

One had to find the descendants of those former Naihe Mansion members and use their blood to drench the Naihe Token to activate it.

Li Hai did not care much about why the predecessors of the Naihe Mansion had designed such a slightly cruel method, especially one directed at their own people.

He only knew that he was going to kill.

His targets were the two wives of the Second Master of the Black Wolf Bandits from the Guo family.

That's right, the lineage of Guo Huaijin were the descendants of the former Naihe Mansion members.

As for how Asu, an outsider, managed to obtain the Evil Spirit Earth Yin Absorption Method from the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven—whether before or after her death—that was an unsolved mystery Li Hai would never know the answer to.

He could only guess that it might have been related to the Guo bloodline she was carrying in her womb.

"Guo Huaijin has three daughters and one son," Li Hai pondered. "The youngest son passed away from illness after leaving behind Guo Shiwen, and the eldest daughter married far away many years ago. Only the remaining twin daughters, the second and third, were arranged by Guo Huaijin to marry Zhou Hu twenty years ago, and they even bore him a son and a daughter."

"Hmm," he mused. "Old Dog Guo's two daughters must be in their thirties or nearly forty by now. Women of that age usually stay indoors and are not easy to kill, so... I'll just kill that son of Zhou Hu."

Having made his decision, Li Hai tucked the Naihe Token into his pocket and transformed into a sinister ghostly shadow, speeding rapidly toward the Three-Fork Junction.

As for whether Zhou Hu himself would have any objections, that was entirely outside the scope of his consideration.

Those in the Steel Sinew Iron Bone Realm were already unafraid of ordinary firearms; they would only feel pain if hit.

Li Hai, having already refined the Iron Barrel Bell-Coiling Manual to its peak, probably wouldn't even feel a hint of pain if attacked by firearms.

So, to hell with being afraid of him.

If he's killed, he's killed; what are you going to do about it?

"Eh?!"

Somewhere in the ruins of the Ghost Forest, blanketed in black ash, the Daoist holding the Divination Banner suddenly stopped, his expression turning tense. "Strange, truly strange. That intermittent evil aura... why is it heading in my direction?!"

Heaven have mercy, he only wanted to sneakily gather some intelligence; he had neither the intention nor the ability to deal with such a ferocious ghost.

"Could it be that the ghost sensed my presence from all the way over there? This, this..."

The Daoist wore a look of utter despair. "What level of ghost is this? How is it so absurd?! It's over, it's all over."

He didn't even consider running—how could he? Could a man on two legs outrun a flying ghost?

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

Gritting his teeth, the Daoist immediately pulled a stack of narrow yellow talismans from his sleeve, preparing to face the approaching evil spirit.

But just then, the evil aura that he sensed hurtling toward him from afar vanished into thin air.

As the Daoist looked left and right, suspicious and paranoid, a thick, heavy hand suddenly reached out from behind and slammed onto his shoulder:

"Fortune-teller, what are you doing here?"

"Ghost!!"

The Daoist jumped three feet into the air in shock, hurriedly turning around to hurl the pile of yellow talismans at the person behind him.

However, his vision blurred, and those dozen or so talismans were snatched away entirely by a large hand moving with heavy afterimages.

"Eh?! You..."

The Daoist stared blankly at the bald, burly man before him. "You're not a ghost, you're a human."

"No kidding." Li Hai grinned. "Of course I'm a human, and a damn good one at that."