Let’s rewind time a bit, to a few minutes before Zheng Xiu arrived and took out the maimed freaks with a single punch each.

He followed the command of his powerful ally, Feng Bei, and planned to kill the Immortal Lady first.

This Ghostly Realm was born from the Immortal Lady; the convergence of Human Souls created it.

But in Zheng Xiu’s experience, as long as he dealt with the source that spawned the Ghostly Realm, he could break through it.

He knew three Miracle Masters had appeared over there, but he wasn’t worried.

With Feng Bei around, there really wasn’t much to worry about.

’Worst case, I’ll just reload.’

Master Zheng was full of confidence.

The ability to be reborn after death within the Alternate Space called the Ghostly Realm was Master Zheng’s greatest asset for taking it on.

Insect eggs burst open one after another. Zheng Xiu swung his Broken Saber, using the half-blade to forcibly block the strands of hair attacking him wildly.

The [Coiling Dragon Eighteen Slashes] having reached the Masterful level was a pleasant surprise for Zheng Xiu.

He felt like the protagonist of a fantasy novel who had just had an epiphany; everything was suddenly crystal clear.

Every move and stance flowed like water, utterly seamless. He could execute a technique with a mere thought, instinctively knowing which move to use for any given situation.

After cutting down dozens of monsters, the sound of their wails in his ears, Zheng Xiu arrived before Fairy Mei.

"You wretched boy! You deserve to die! Die!"

The "elegant" form of the half-human, half-insect Fairy Mei once again dealt Zheng Xiu an extraordinary mental blow.

His mind was buzzing.

He started seeing illusions of Fairy Mei.

Fairy Mei stripped off her clothes.

Her creamy flesh was completely exposed, her insectoid face attempting a seductive look.

One half of Fairy Mei’s face held a wicked, wanton smile.

The other half couldn’t be called a "smile." To Zheng Xiu, it looked like that half-insect face wanted to devour him, a delicious young morsel, whole.

’Right. The mental impact of facing this depravity head-on is in a totally different league from just imagining it.’

Zheng Xiu didn’t want to describe Fairy Mei’s form a second time. He gritted his teeth, stepped forward, aimed for the virtual dotted line down her center, and slashed!

SWOOSH!

Zheng Xiu felt a rush of air behind his neck. A sharp scythe, like one blade of a pair of shears, slashed at him from behind.

The Immortal Lady’s face twisted into a vicious grin that screamed, ’My cunning plan has succeeded!’

A shiver went down Zheng Xiu’s spine, and the fine white hairs on his delicate, childlike skin stood on end.

[Intuition].

The trigger rate for his Masterful [Intuition] was delightfully high.

A bloody, uncensored image of his own decapitation flashed through his mind.

It was like a single frame in a slideshow.

Followed by the single, massive word: [DEATH].

He instinctively ducked, and two scythes whistled over his head.

Zheng Xiu looked down at where the scythes came from, his scalp tingling as he cursed inwardly. Fairy Mei’s form was now far from Human. An Immortal Lady of the Divine-Tuning Witch Path, she must have summoned a mantis demon from somewhere to possess her, for her shape was growing ever more grotesque.

The two scythes actually sprouted from behind the Immortal Lady’s rear, attached by two hideous, twisted fleshy tendrils. No wonder the attack had been so stealthy.

Fairy Mei’s tail-scythes!

’You’re fucking telling me this is a mantis?’

’What kind of Female Mantis has a thorny asshole?!’

SLASH!

He brought the saber down!

’Let me show you what it really means to cut along the dotted line!’

It split her skull, cleaved her neck, bypassed her sternum, and tore all the way down through her torso!

Zheng Xiu was putting every last ounce of his strength into it!

One hundred and twenty percent of his Divine Power!

His Muscle Strength stat of thirty-six, far surpassing that of a Mighty Man, erupted completely in that one slash.

CRACK!

With a sharp crack, the pressure on the Broken Saber Zheng Xiu was desperately forcing down suddenly eased.

The next second, Zheng Xiu looked at the clean hilt in his hand, then at the half-blade stuck in the Immortal Lady’s stomach. It was a bit awkward.

Everything but the handle was stuck in the Immortal Lady’s crack!

’I cut along the dotted line! But not all the way through.’

A large gash tore open in the Immortal Lady’s abdomen, spraying out a foul-smelling fluid. Zheng Xiu hastily dodged aside.

The scene sparked a flash of inspiration in the ever-so-particular Zheng Xiu, who came up with a line of poetry: ’The pregnant Immortal Lady’s water joyfully breaks.’

"AAAAAAAAAAH—"

A piercing shriek erupted from the Immortal Lady’s half-mouth, half-orifice.

In the blink of an eye, her two back-scythes, dragging long fleshy tendrils, latched onto the wall and began to climb.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

The cripple’s Magic, which used sound as its medium, echoed through the cave, its effects reaching them.

Just as Zheng Xiu moved to intercept her, the dull thumping sound reached him. He stumbled, a kick landing wide of the mark.

Zheng Xiu watched, dumbfounded, as two scythes extended from the Immortal Lady’s rear and nimbly carried her up the wall. They rapidly dug out a hole at the top, and in the blink of an eye, she had scurried inside.

It all happened so fast. Her wall-climbing, hole-digging, and entry were so silky smooth, executed in a single instant. She was so terrifyingly proficient that Zheng Xiu didn’t even have time to use [Taunt].

’She got away!’

Zheng Xiu was furious.

’But can a normal person, with their head, neck, and chest split down the middle... still run away like that?’

Zheng Xiu could no longer comprehend Fairy Mei’s anatomy. He’d have to discuss it with Dou Xie another day.

Just then, Zheng Xiu looked back and saw that a "Miracle Technique free-for-all" was underway.

After taking two steps, Zheng Xiu sensed something was wrong. It was as if an invisible maze had appeared on the flat ground, making him lose his bearings.

In the distance, Yue Yan was in peril, but Feng Bei came to her rescue.

Zheng Xiu recalled what Yue Yan and Feng Bei had explained about the theories behind a Miracle Master’s Casting.

THUMP THUMP THUMP.

The sound was relentless. Across the way, the cripple, the blind man, and the deaf man were shouting ceaselessly.

’So the medium is sound!’

Without a second thought, Zheng Xiu’s biceps bulged. He cupped his palms and clapped them over his ears.

The disorienting feeling vanished, and his sense of direction instantly returned.

Blood trickled from both of Zheng Xiu’s ears. An ’I knew it’ expression on his face, he laughed and said, "This Magic isn’t so hard to break!"

...

「In the mountain wall’s cavern.」

As Zheng Xiu landed a punch on each of them, the three maimed men were sent flying, vomiting blood.

It was pure, unadorned violence, without any bells and whistles.

In an instant, Yue Yan’s vision returned. She stared in shock at the youth ten paces away, blood streaming from both his ears.

It was as if she were seeing him for the first time, her eyes wide with astonishment.

The three maimed men’s Magic was, indeed, not difficult to break.

There were two kinds of people who could easily unravel their Chain Skill.

The ruthless and the abnormal.

Feng Bei was the abnormal type—an Innate Mystic who wielded an Omen.

As for Young Master Zheng...

The trio was embedded in the walls, barely breathing.

The deaf man was in the worst shape; he had taken the most damage from beginning to end.

First, Yue Yan had severed five of his fingers, then Feng Bei had obliterated his arm. Now his chest was caved in, and foamy bubbles emerged from his mouth. His blackened lips trembled as if he were still trying to struggle, but he couldn’t even utter a single word.

"Deaf Man! Cripple!"

The Monk struggled to his feet. A small chunk of his skull was missing. His eyes were shut tight as he blankly called out the names of the other two.

Zheng Xiu’s ears were now silent, his mind completely focused.

He walked silently toward the blind man. ’The other two use sound as their medium, so they’re no threat to me. I’ll take out the blind man first—the one who can *maybe* still open his eyes.’

One step. Two steps. Three steps.

Soon, Zheng Xiu stood before the blind man.

"CAW!"

The Blood Crow, which had been hidden high above observing the battle, suddenly let out a sharp cry and hastily flew away.

Bloody blisters started bubbling up on the blind man’s face.

The blisters swelled, burst, swelled, and burst again.

In the blink of an eye, the blind man’s face and body looked as if they’d been tilled by a plow, pockmarked and ravaged with no inch of skin left intact.

Feeling the scorching heat within his body, the blind man, who had been blankly calling for his comrades, froze. Then he began to chuckle darkly, spitting out clots of blood. He sat down on the spot, cross-legged, and pressed his palms together.

[Intuition].

Zheng Xiu felt that something was wrong again.

He whipped his head around to look at the other two.

The bodies of the cripple and the deaf man were also starting to blister, before swelling and bloating as if being pumped full of blood.

His [Intuition] was firing off repeatedly, but even without it, Zheng Xiu could see something was terribly wrong with the three men.

He kicked off the ground and shot backward.

"Go, quickly!"

In his haste, Zheng Xiu pointed at the only exit, signaling for his three companions to get out immediately.

He could reload a save, but the one thing he wasn’t sure about was whether they would come back to life along with his reload if they died in the Ghostly Realm.

Zheng Xiu wasn’t sure. He couldn’t be.

Feng Bei and the other two had entered the Ghostly Realm directly by breaking through the Dark Curtain, just as he had.

As long as he himself was alive, reloading was always an option. But he couldn’t gamble with the lives of others.

The trio—the deaf man, the blind man, and the cripple—swelled up like balloons. Their skin turned translucent, revealing every last blood vessel and tendon within!

They were like three water balloons filled to bursting.

POP~ POP~ POP~ POP~

The three men’s faces were contorted in agony. Their eyeballs popped from their sockets, shot out, and hit the walls, turning into flattened splats.

The blind man was well and truly blind now, yet the corners of his mouth stretched to his ears in a grin that was also a grimace, like he was laughing and crying at the same time.

The deaf man babbled incoherently.

The cripple’s cane clattered to the ground.

"Ah..."

The three of them said in unison:

"It’s the boss’s... ’Fireworks’!"