Not long afterward, at a mountain Daoist temple.
Empress Dowager Guo landed in the courtyard and helped Xie Jinhuan inside. Along the way, she noticed his body alternating between hot and cold, and a trace of heartache appeared between her brows. "Can you hold on? Why don't you leave first?"
Yin baleful intent had invaded Xie Jinhuan's body, corroding his organs and qi meridians from the inside out. He could already feel his qi and blood becoming obstructed. If a physician saw him, one look at his complexion would tell them he had less than three days to live.
But as long as his divine soul remained unharmed, once Xie Jinhuan left, this would all be a fleeting dream of yellow millet. His heart was hardly dead ashes just yet. He even had the leisure to wrap an arm around Sister Guo's waist and declare with a resolute gaze:
"A mere fatal wound is nothing to worry about. Leaving after Qixia True Person returns will be just the same. Speaking of which, if I leave and come back, won't I revive at full health?"
This was Empress Dowager Guo's first time in this wretched place as well, so she was not entirely sure.
Walking beside them, Ye Hongshang shook her head at that.
"The Netherworld has heavenly laws too. When this place was created, its rules were fixed. Everything only starts over after the Ghost Festival. If you leave now, this body will disappear, but if you come back, it will still corrode and perish. Even the time when the poison takes effect won't be delayed. You might very well end up inside a corpse. However vast my divine abilities may be, I can only exploit loopholes in the Heavenly Dao, not break this place's heavenly laws. If you want