Above the Great Dao

Chen Shi followed in his footsteps, attempting to activate the Blood Lake Scripture. Suddenly, streams of blood-colored energy appeared from nowhere, surging into his body, permeating his Primordial Spirit, nourishing his Three Souls and Seven Spirits, nurturing his Primordial Spirit, and even strengthening his "body"!

Peng Ju looked over in surprise. He hadn't yet understood the Blood Lake Scripture, but Chen Shi had already mastered it.

As the Blood Lake Scripture revolved, Chen Shi silently recited the Divine Language.

"Observe the mysterious essence, the too-bright purple spirit. The Nine Gods soul passage, open the jade truth. A Yi blazing, flying sky flowing sound... Six changes and transformations, utterly eliminate evil. Grandly crowned the profound wilderness, attaining immortality in myriad ways!"

After reciting the Divine Language, blood light gradually flowed and swirled behind Chen Shi's head, forming an irregular halo standing vertically behind him.

Within the halo was a pool of blood.

A peculiar power from the pool of blood flowed into him, being constantly refined.

In a short moment, Chen Shi's bones appeared shiny and bright, feeling that the Qi-Blood depleted by his Primordial Spirit had also been replenished!

Chen Shi exclaimed softly. The Blood Lake Scripture seemed ordinary, yet its enhancement of the Primordial Spirit seemed no weaker than Xiaolang's Emperor Chapter Skill!

Xiaolang's Emperor Chapter Skill primarily enhanced the Primordial Spirit, while the Blood Lake Scripture mainly enhanced the soul. The focuses of the two Cultivation Techniques were vastly different!

"The Primordial Spirit evolves from the Nascent Soul; when the Nascent Soul is cultivated to a certain size, it can merge with the soul to evolve into the Primordial Spirit. Therefore, the cultivating path in the Mortal World focuses on the Nascent Soul part, with less emphasis on the soul's enhancement. But the underworld's Cultivation Technique seems to be the opposite, primarily cultivating the soul," Chen Shi thought to himself.

While activating the Blood Lake Scripture, he explained to Peng Ju.

After half a day, Peng Ju finally grasped this Cultivation Technique and tried to practice it.

However, he had never practiced before, always relying on the power in his bloodline. This was his first time cultivating, yet Chen Shi showed no frustration, patiently teaching him how to focus his Heart Spirit, how to awaken the too-bright purple spirit, and how to transit the soul with the Nine Gods.

It took him several hours to barely enable Peng Ju to operate the Cultivation Technique once.

Chen Shi then guided him to operate it several times, and when Peng Ju finally mastered it, Chen Shi smiled and said, "Your family's traditional cultivation is indeed good; it's a very effective technique."

"Really?" Peng Ju's eyes sparkled.

Chen Shi laughed, "Of course it's true. Although I don't claim to be number one in the underworld, I'm certainly one of the top in the Mortal World!"

As they cultivated the Blood Lake Scripture while traveling, Chen Shi felt his soul and white bone skeleton becoming increasingly robust, silently marveling at the technique's mystique. Peng Ju progressed rapidly too; the Blood Lake Scripture could not only fortify his Divine Soul but also stimulate the Bloodline Power in his physical body, making his internal strength grow stronger and stronger.

As his Bloodline Power improved, the wounds on his wings gradually healed.

During this time, they passed over dozens of great mountains, with fog-woven roads extending in all directions. Numerous ghosts walked along these roads, and now that Chen Shi had a white bone skeleton body, even traversing against the flow wasn't difficult, unlike the torment of climbing Sword Mountain or descending Fire Mountain.

"Without possession, even one step against the flow would be incredibly difficult!"

Chen Shi watched as dozens of white mist roads merged into a single avenue, with tens of thousands of souls walking upon it, heading into the distance. Curiosity gnawed at him, making him want to follow these ghosts to see what force was drawing them forward.

"I'm not strong enough yet; I'll investigate properly when my Primordial Spirit grows stronger!"

Chen Shi withdrew his gaze, quickly following Peng Ju.

He saw that the trees in the Yin Mountain were locust trees, extremely tall, with bird's-nest-like houses hanging from them. Often numerous such nest houses would cluster on a single tree, forming a village.

Many creatures like Peng Ju from the underworld flew in and out of these dwellings.

As Chen Shi passed by these villages, strange bird-beaked people would often emerge from the houses, folding their wings and tilting their heads to look at him, seemingly curious about him.

Chen Shi inquired with Peng Ju and learned that they were the Funiao Clan. Like the Bull Head, Horse Face, and Yaksha clans, they were among the large and numerous races of the underworld. But due to their excessive propagation, their status wasn't high.

In Yin Mountain, clusters of towering locust trees stood sky-high, standing between or atop mountains, with villages of the Funiao Clan dotting one after another.

Many ghosts passed through the mountain paths, yet the Funiao Clan paid them no mind.

Suddenly, a commotion arose in a Funiao village, and many Funiao Clan members jumped to the edges of the houses, craning their necks to look in the same direction.

Chen Shi was gazing upward, unsure of what was happening, while Peng Ju's expression changed slightly. He hurriedly pulled Chen Shi aside to stand on the hillside outside the road.

From afar, waves of fog surged forward, accompanied by eerie laughter echoing from within, quickly engulfing them.

With wide eyes, Chen Shi watched as huge claws burst from the fog, seizing a ghost, lifting it up and retracting it into the fog.

Many grotesque hands reached out, grabbing for the ghosts on the road, with scarlet tongues rolling them up.

The fog appeared to conceal many ravenous Taotie, wantonly devouring these ghosts.

Chen Shi watched the scene, his heart shocked.

"This isn't Yin Mountain, it's Qianyang Mountain!"

He suddenly realized, having seen similar scenes when ghostly cyan hands had crushed him, almost being devoured by these misty monsters!

"So, I'm still in Qianyang Mountain!"

"Possibly not far from Huangpo Village!"

But was Qianyang Mountain this vast in the underworld?

Based on Granny Sha's underworld Nine Districts geographical map, the scale of Qianyang Mountain in the underworld should be far less than that of Yin Mountain!

"Qianyang, Yin Mountain, Yin Yang..."

A thought flashed in Chen Shi's mind. The relationship between Qianyang Mountain and Yin Mountain might not correspond to the geographical layout of the Yin Yang realms!

However, he had no time to ponder more as his heart filled with rage. Unthinking, he charged into the white mist road, raising his hand to activate the Fourth New Talisman. The Circulation Fire Realm whirled out from his arm, expanding to acres in size, heading straight for a clawed limb.

"Swish!"

The Circulation Fire Realm rotated, charring the jagged claw to cinders, blazing along the robust forelimb, illuminating the creature within the mist. With a whoosh, it reduced the forelimbs of the quadrupedal ghost-headed creature to ashes!

The creature showed a terrified expression, staring at the small white bone skeleton that was Chen Shi.

Lightning flashed under Chen Shi's feet, and in the next moment, he was in front of the creature's forehead, delivering a punch that caused the creature's massive skull to cave in, slamming it to the ground, with its brains splattering around!

"What are you doing?" Peng Ju shouted loudly.

"It eats people!" Chen Shi was still enraged.

"That's livestock raised by the Ghost God!"

Peng Ju was flustered, quickly saying, "You've caused trouble!"

Chen Shi angrily responded, "The grazing livestock eat the ghosts of our people!"

"That's just how the underworld is!"

Peng Ju rushed to his side, pulling at him to fly into the sky, speaking quickly, "You souls who have fallen into the underworld are like pasture, always getting eaten. It's always been this way, throughout history."

"Always been this way?"

Chen Shi, being pulled into flight, felt a touch of sadness, gripping tightly. Peng Ju couldn't rise, which made him angry, "It's always been the case! You people become ghosts, and then you're not people anymore! You're pasture! Come on, let's go! The grazing Ghost God is coming!"

Chen Shi remained unmoved, retracting his hand.

"I'm not leaving. In life, I was never afraid."

Peng Ju was slightly stunned, only listening to the calm yet forceful voice of the small skeleton, "After death, as a ghost, why should I fear?"

"I will see who dares to treat my Human Clan as pasture!"

——The author had been ill, feeling drowsy after taking medicine, and almost fell asleep. There may only be one chapter tomorrow. Sorry.