This Is the Ultimate?

Wu Sansheng carried Qi Yu's corpse on his back and hurried back with the few people who remained. There was no other way out, so they could only retrace their steps. Fortunately, the place had been designed to keep outsiders from entering, with no concern for anything inside getting out. They had gained some experience along the way, and their journey out went smoothly.

The group soon reached the place where they had met Yu Zhi and his two companions, but so many had died that only five of them remained. Qi Yu had lost his life too.

Wu Sansheng felt a chill in his heart. Over all these years and through so many tombs, they had always been prepared to risk their own heads, but suddenly finding themselves carrying someone else's head still made his blood run cold. Qi Yu was different from those hired hands. He was an heir of the Nine Gates, just like them. His death made them realize that they really could die, not just escape death by a hair's breadth.

Fortunately, they had gotten their hands on Fo Ye's medicine. With Fo Ye and Second Master around, they could hold off the attacks from "It" for a while longer. Ever since the Nine Gates stopped obeying "Its" orders, the Wang Family had risen rapidly. Now the Nine Gates depended entirely on Fo Ye and Second Master to keep them standing. Once those two fell, the Nine Gates would inevitably suffer a crippling blow.

Wu Sansheng reckoned he had to think of a way!

The sound of jumbled footsteps made Hei Xiazi, who had been waiting in the tomb all this time, prick up his ears. He listened carefully. Four or five people, probably those from the Nine Gates. His mouth stretched into a mocking smile. Only this handful left alive? Good, good! Really good!

He then stopped caring whether they lived or died and continued cultivating. Apart from places rich in spiritual energy, the best place for the Blind Man to cultivate was somewhere with the sinister yin energy found in tombs like this. Add a suitable helping of vicious ghosts and vicious creatures, and it was even more delicious.

Hei Xiazi decided to cultivate while waiting for Yu Zhi and Zhang Qiling. Zhang Qiling had told him to wait a month, but he had his own ideas. He had nothing to do if he went back anyway, so he would wait here for two months first, then go out to check on those people and gather some information before returning to wait for the two of them.

"Second Master, we fulfilled our mission and brought back the Longevity Pill, but-Qi Yu is dead. Qi Yu is dead."

Only when Xie Lianhuan saw Er Yuehong did he finally let himself relax and burst into tears. He had not spoken a word on the journey back, holding Qi Yu's head tightly in his arms and bringing it back with care.

"What happened?"

Looking at the corpse on Wu Sansheng's back and the head cradled in Xie Lianhuan's hands, Er Yuehong was dazed as well. Qi Yu was still so full of life before his eyes just over ten days ago, yet in the blink of an eye he had become a corpse.

They had rushed back from Changbai Mountain as fast as they could, but four or five days had still passed. Qi Yu's corpse had already begun to give off the stench of decay. Pain, regret, and guilt showed on Er Yuehong's face. He had watched Qi Yu grow up. He closed his eyes for a moment, then said slowly, "Let Xiao Yu be laid to rest."

"Sansheng, take the Longevity Pill inside to Fo Ye. I'll make the arrangements for Xiao Yu's funeral." Er Yuehong patted Wu Sansheng on the shoulder.

The group hurried to the room at the back, where Wu Sansheng handed the box to Zhang Rishan. "The Longevity Pill."

Holding the box, Zhang Rishan pinched and pressed it with the Faqiu Finger of his right hand. Just as it had that day, the box opened like a lotus flower. A round, plump pill rested on the lotus receptacle at its center. It was a plain, unadorned pill, no different from the medicinal pills they usually took. But this had been brought out of a thousand-year-old tomb, so it was certainly not as ordinary as it looked.

He picked up the pill, supported Zhang Qishan, and fed it to him. He had thought he would need water to help him swallow it, but to his surprise, it melted as soon as it entered his mouth.

A few minutes later, everyone watched in amazement as Zhang Qishan's breathing grew long and steady, the wrinkles in his skin began to disappear, and even his graying hair slowly began to turn black.

Everyone cried out inwardly, The Longevity Pill is actually real! But no one said it aloud. They had only resorted to the Longevity Pill because Zhang Qishan was beyond the help of medicine, treating a dead horse as if it were still alive.

By the time all of Zhang Qishan's hair had turned black, Zhang Rishan was visibly delighted. He called softly to him twice. "Fo Ye, Fo Ye."

Unfortunately, Zhang Qishan gave no response. Still, his overall condition was good, and his breathing was steady and strong.

"All right, Rishan, Fo Ye may need some rest. Everyone should go and rest." In the end, Er Yuehong spoke up, and they left the room and each went home to recuperate.

The five-colored light inside the Bronze Door blocked spiritual sense. Whether he used his spiritual sense or his eyes, he could not see Zhang Qiling. Yu Zhi held the warm hand in his, and feeling the firm squeeze in return, he breathed a slight sigh of relief. At least they had made it in. What he feared most was Zhang Qiling suffering any harm in some corner he knew nothing about, whether to his mind or his body.

Yu Zhi suddenly noticed that the spiritual energy here seemed much denser than outside. How strange. He had heard before that the Cloudtop Heavenly Palace was built atop a dragon vein. Could a dragon vein be a spiritual energy vein?

After roughly half an hour, the five-colored light gradually faded, and Yu Zhi finally saw the whole scene. They seemed to have entered another world. Apart from the sound of their breathing, there was no other sound. The silence was deathly.

Before them was a river of filthy, churning water. The river appeared to be several hundred meters deep, and its far end was hidden in the mist, out of sight. A bridge made of an indiscernible material spanned the river, with one end on their side and the other disappearing into the mist. There was no telling where it led.

"Have you remembered anything?"

Yu Zhi asked his Zhang Qiling, then suddenly laughed because a line had occurred to him: The Zhang Qiling-brand tour guide device-you deserve one! He really was too much like an automatic guide device taken on a trip, triggering the story of whatever place they reached and explaining its background.

Zhang Qiling did not press him, because he could see that his A Li was imagining all sorts of messy scenes in his head again. He had grown used to it over the past few years. It was better not to ask, or he would be so stunned he'd have a heart attack. That was the voice of experience.

"I remember some of it. This place is hell. The Ultimate is hell!" Zhang Qiling said gravely. He remembered what this place was for, and what his mission was for!

"Hell? What hell? The Eighteen Levels of Hell? The one from the myths?"

Curiosity left Yu Zhi dumbfounded. This was truly hard to imagine. When he had read the book before, everyone had been guessing what the Ultimate was, thinking it was something very fantastical and imaginative. Of course, that was not to say hell wasn't fantastical; it just wasn't sci-fi enough!

"You can think of it as an imitation of the Eighteen Levels of Hell, not the real hell. As for whether the Eighteen Levels of Hell from the myths actually exist, I don't know either."

With a hint of recollection, Zhang Qiling told Yu Zhi, "This bridge is called the Bridge of Helplessness, but there's no Meng Po or Meng Po's soup here. Once we cross it, we'll reach the entrance to the Eighteen Levels of Hell. It should be a building set upside down underground, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. I don't know exactly what it is."

"Like, the first level is Tongue-Ripping Hell, and the second is Scissors Hell?" Yu Zhi asked, drawing on the stories he had read.

"No. These Eighteen Levels of Hell have none of those punishments, and no officials either. There are only endless monsters inside."

"Monsters? Where did they come from? Then why did we come in? To guard them for ten years?"

"They were produced inside the Queen Mother of the West's body. We kill them all, and when they're all dead, we leave-or die here." Zhang Qiling looked at the mist churning ahead. Something seemed about to emerge from within it.

"Wait, I don't quite understand, big brother. What on earth is this!" Yu Zhi was utterly bewildered. Now hell was connected to the Queen Mother of the West too. What did any of this have to do with anything?

"We'll talk later. The monsters are coming out. Let's deal with them first."