Body: "He's a composite, or you could say, a representative."

Li Zhiyuan: "Mm."

Body: "The people of Fengdu are watching you. More precisely, they're assessing you."

Li Zhiyuan: "If it weren't for the fact they didn't know I could control this miasma, the result of this assessment would be really hard to say."

Body: "To them, if you don't pass, then you can just go die, and there's no need to assess you anymore.

If you do pass, then you gain the qualification to communicate with them.

Go talk to them in reality. Not everyone resists you and wants you dead.

If you want to protect your people more safely and get through this wave, then you'd better learn how to talk."

Li Zhiyuan: "Their composite wants to kill me."

Body: "That's normal. Any power will instinctively reject parachuted outsiders."

Li Zhiyuan: "Let me remind you of something."

Body: "Say it."

Li Zhiyuan: "You liking carving is fine, but maybe drag some of your focus back."

Body: "I'm doing it on purpose. I've deliberately suppressed my own growth, refused to improve, otherwise you'd habitually treat me as your staff officer.

You're the Heart Demon, I'm the Body. Our relationship shouldn't be that close.

When it's life and death, joining hands reluctantly is enough. On normal days, stop dropping by so often."

Li Zhiyuan: "Annoyed I'm bothering you?"

Body: "The fishpond over there is dug, the fish are raised. When you need to throw out trash, go toss it over there yourself, treat it as feeding the fish, just don't come here.

Otherwise, I can always initiate a struggle for control over this body from time to time, or let you recall that feeling from before—your mind going cold and disconnected."

Li Zhiyuan: "Enough. You keep tinkering with your schemes. I hope they're at least interesting."

Body: "Live well and keep getting stronger. My whole layout of schemes is being held back by your lack of effort."

Li Zhiyuan turned and left.

The Body lifted a foot and stamped out the fire on the ground.

It walked back into the basement and shut the iron door.

On the newest workbench, what it was carving was exactly this Judge's statue, already more than half finished.

The engraving knife lifted, fell, the statue split apart and returned to a lump of clay.

"What trash."

...

In reality, Li Zhiyuan opened his eyes. In front of him was Run Sheng, looking at him with concern. Run Sheng didn't dare come closer or touch him, because the Evil Qi still clung to him, and he was afraid it would burn the teenager.

"I'm fine, Brother Runsheng."

Run Sheng nodded and sat down, the white in his eyes gradually fading.

On the other side, Zhao Yi and the others had finally finished wiping out all the Ghost Generals.

Everyone was panting hard, drenched in sweat.

Tan Wenbin: "First time I've experienced enemies sitting there letting you kill them and it's still this exhausting."

Zhao Yi's face was deathly pale, lips and eyelids a deep purple. He patted Lin Shuyou on the shoulder.

Lin Shuyou turned to look at him, surprised: "What's wrong with you?"

Zhao Yi reached up, plucked the peach blossoms from his own chest one petal at a time, gathered a handful, and handed them to Lin Shuyou, saying:

"Hold them in your mouth. After you digest them, remember to return the petals to me."

Lin Shuyou took the petals. The instant he touched them, he heard the child in the depths of his heart shout excitedly:

"How did he do that, how did he do that!"

Right after, the child urged, "Quick, put them in, quick!"

Lin Shuyou put a petal into his mouth, then immediately threw his head back. His body spasmed as he let out a long moan—of pleasure.

High-quality, pure ghost energy was like nectar and jade dew to the child; it could directly nourish its soul body.

Zhao Yi looked at Tan Wenbin and asked, "Zhuangzhuang, want to try a petal too, see the effect?"

Tan Wenbin shook his head: "It's ghost energy. It'll pollute my spirit beast."

Zhao Yi: "Pollution's no big deal, as long as it gets stronger."

Tan Wenbin: "Ten years from now, when they regain freedom with a Merit body, if they're full of ghostly energy, they'll just have to keep living on the run."

Zhao Yi: "There's a reason that guy Li is willing to drag you along to sit the college entrance exam."

Tan Wenbin: "You're the same."

Zhao Yi chuckled, then pointed at his own chest and said to Lin Shuyou, "Eat slowly, don't rush. When you're done I'll squeeze some more out for you. My heart's still black!"

After the reminder, Zhao Yi walked toward the teenager.

At this moment, the teenager was standing beside that Judge's body. The Judge was dead, but his body hadn't vanished like those generals. It had been preserved.

Zhao Yi: "So which Judge from the folk tales is this supposed to be?"

Li Zhiyuan: "A mashup."

"Tsk…" Zhao Yi bent down and began checking the body. "It's an empty shell now."

Li Zhiyuan: "Purify him."

Zhao Yi swept the copper coin sword over the body. The body rapidly vaporized, and in the mist a tiny child's skeleton appeared.

A string of beads hung around the white neck; there were jade rings on its fingers, bracelets on its wrists, and a gold lock on its ankles.

Zhao Yi: "The burial goods are pretty generous."

He reached out to touch the necklace, then realized something and pulled his hand back. "Brother Xiao Yuan, you're the boss now. You do it."

Li Zhiyuan reached out and grabbed the necklace. A gentle warmth spread out. On the tiny skeleton, a stern human face surfaced, and faintly behind it, a towering palace could be seen.

To own a palace in the Underworld meant his status absolutely far surpassed a Judge's.

And although the manifested image was blurry, it still roughly matched a lot of the statues worshipped in temples.

Zhao Yi sucked in a cold breath in his heart.

"We could have a talk..."

The tone was lofty, looking down.

Before the other could finish, Li Zhiyuan let go of the necklace and moved on to the ring.

Another figure emerged from the child's bones, once again with a palace behind it, though the image itself had changed.

"You are quite impressive..."

Zhao Yi bit down hard on his lip.

Then the teenager continued down from the bracelet.

"Not impossible..."

"First let's be clear..."

"Let me say this up front..."

They clearly all had things they wanted to say, but Li Zhiyuan only gave their images a glance and didn't listen to a word.

After inspecting everything, the teenager took off all the jewelry, gathered it together, and piled it up on the ground.

"Brother Runsheng, Xiao Hei's blood."

Run Sheng opened his backpack and took out a small bottle—the "travel money" Xiao Hei had gifted them before they left home.

Li Zhiyuan pulled out the cork, tipped the bottle, and let the black dog blood flow out, pouring it all over the pile of jewelry.

"Zzzla zzzla..."

Like hot oil meeting fire—the damage wasn't that high, but the insult was massive.

To beings of the underworld, this was basically the equivalent of pissing on a living person's face in the mortal world.

Zhao Yi exclaimed in shock, "You're insane, that's the Ten Courts…"

Li Zhiyuan: "Compared to you sending them that lazy mutt, this doesn't even count as offensive."

Zhao Yi: "I didn't know, that was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"

Li Zhiyuan said calmly, "If you're a knife, then you'd better have the awareness of being one. You think we've got the right to privately cut deals?"

Zhao Yi: "Logically I get it, but in practice this is still way too shocking."

Li Zhiyuan drew out an Evil-breaking Talisman.

Zhao Yi started to stop him: "No, wait!"

Li Zhiyuan looked at Zhao Yi: "Still harboring fantasies?"

Zhao Yi let out a "ha ha," took the Yellow River Shovel from Run Sheng, spat a glob of phlegm onto the pile of jewelry, then stomped on it, grinding it back and forth under his foot. Finally he raised the shovel and brought it down hard, smashing the jewelry into powder.

After doing all that, Zhao Yi staggered back a few steps, a bit drained, propping himself up on the shovel,

and sighed:

"Li, tell me, do you think we're still going to make it to Fengdu alive this time?"

Li Zhiyuan: "If we commit suicide on the spot, we can report in directly. We'll get there faster."

Zhao Yi: "Why are you so practiced at this? We've been walking the Jiang for about the same amount of time—how long have you actually been a knife?"

Li Zhiyuan didn't answer, because in all likelihood, he'd been one from the very start.

Zhao Yi: "Alright, everyone, pack up your stuff. We've got to find another ride."

Li Zhiyuan reminded him: "Give me back the copper coin sword."

Zhao Yi: "It's my the Zhao family sword. Why should I give it to you?"

Li Zhiyuan looked at Zhao Yi and blinked.

Zhao Yi: "Tch, what are you looking at? Once it's in my hands, it's mine. If you want a treasure, go get one yourself with your own skills!"

Li Zhiyuan nodded in satisfaction and said:

"Okay."