Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Reincarnation I

Hands trembling like sifted chaff, heart anxious like oil frying.

These ten words can vividly describe Mingyue's current state.

Heaven knows, ten minutes ago she broke free from Yan Jun's grasp, only to see the ground shaking violently. She estimated that if they both continued pulling, they would both fall. At the same time, she 'assumed' Fengdu was just a tourist attraction, and the ground crack couldn't be more than a few feet deep—such shallow thoughts led her to bravely jump down herself.

Who would have thought—

A moment of arrogance, a future of misery.

This abyss was strange, the closer she got to the bottom, the stronger the pull of the cold wind.

Along the way, she repeatedly used her trident and blade to stab into the earthen walls to increase resistance, but still didn't reach the bottom. Instead, Mingyue's exposed skin was scraped and bruised by the abyss's earthen layers.

Just before reaching the bottom, Mingyue was completely enveloped by the strong yin energy and blood winds from underground, tumbling and smashing down like a ball.

However, fortunately, she finally landed on solid ground.

Self-inflicted harm is unavoidable.

Mingyue looked up, barely able to see the sky—where a few summer stars could be faintly seen—and her heart was filled with sorrow.

It was cold.

The crack beneath her feet wasn't a "canyon type" but a "narrow sky type," the bottom being far more cramped compared to the wide crack on the surface.

Now the only way to think of escaping was a dumb method—using the simple rope and tools on her, a knife and sword, to climb back up. Mingyue sized up the abyss's height with her gaze, silently praying for herself.

First, she thanked her older brother for forcing her to practice rock climbing when she was young.

If she really had to climb up—her biceps would probably be out of commission for three months.

The surroundings were pitch black.

Compared to the strong sulfur smell from the surface grasslands with aftershocks, this underground area, closer to the earth's core, had no bad smell, pure and clean—except for the eerie and thick yin energy, everything else seemed normal.

"..." Mingyue recited the geological layers from her textbook in her mind, hesitating for a moment, then pulled out a Land God talisman and stuck it on her right eye.

Land God, Land God, I’m underground now, please protect me.

I don't want to become the "lightbulb" of the underground yin world because of my Yang eyes.The moment the talisman was pasted onto her eyelid, her vision blurred for an instant, then quickly became clear, almost as if she were walking in the human world on the surface.

Mingyue was surprised by the level of saturation in her Yin eyes at this moment.

She rarely relied on her left eye, but when used suddenly in this Yin-energy environment, the effect was outstanding.

Ming Er-ge, after thinking for a while, decided to follow the narrow, cramped underground path toward the central area of the ghost city scenic area.

After all, everyone was headed toward the central public rest areas.

Whether it was climbing the walls to save herself or shouting for help, she needed to go to a place with more people.

The Ghost Gate's specific location was at the northeastern boundary.

So, Mingyue stumbled southwest through the underground.

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

It was long enough that, despite her patience in not lighting a fire talisman, she couldn’t help but want to turn on her flashlight.

The underground Yin energy was so dense that she definitely couldn’t light the fire talisman.

Fire talismans burn human fire, Yang fire, and lighting them here could pose too many risks.

However, before Mingyue could turn on her flashlight, she saw faint green glows appear ahead in the canyon. As the light grew, the Yin energy surged, and Mingyue's left eye's clarity increased dramatically, almost as if she had turned on a microscope with a hundred times magnification.

"Beep beep beep!"

A notification came from the communicator on her wrist, alerting her that the Yin energy concentration had risen. The reading had jumped quickly from 3 on the surface to 7.

7—higher than the Yin energy concentration in the Black Mountain caves.

Mingyue pondered, feeling uneasy.

She had always felt that the Yin energy concentration calculation on this communicator was strange.

Logically speaking, the base Yin energy concentration in Fengdu was 3 (the value detected when she first entered the examination area)—which still felt hundreds of times higher than in the outside cities or wilderness environments.

Assuming 1% of 3 was the normal living environment for a human.

Then, the current reading of 7 meant a Yin-energy hell with more than 230 times the usual environment's cold wind.Mingyue struck her arm against the black earth beside her: "..."

What kind of place is this?

Ancient strata?

The foundation of a scenic area?

Or... did my luck really land me in the true Fengdu after digging?

The flickering lights drew nearer. Mingyue turned off her flashlight and found herself in a glowing forest. Specks of green filled her vision, like stumbling into a firefly forest. If it weren’t for the gloomy, silent underground, this scene could easily be a set for a romantic drama.

But these weren’t fireflies.

Living insects couldn’t emit such eerie green light.

Mingyue crouched down and "pulled" one of the glowing points out. In the darkness, she examined the arm bone.

The age marks on the bone were terrifyingly old.

It was indeed a human hand.

Indeed, a ghostly fire.

Looking at it this way, the vast glowing forest before her was likely dense with human bones, flickering ghostly flames due to the mountain winds from the earthquake, hidden deep in the dark underground, unseen by anyone.

"..." Ahead, it was still pitch black. Knowing that an old senior was accompanying her, Mingyue smacked her lips, took out a purification charm, and pressed it to her mouth. She knelt down and recited a prayer for the hand bone in front of her, then took out a Qi charm and rubbed it on the surface of the bone. A large amount of phosphorus dust swirled up, catching fire. The Yin energy charm burned, casting an eerie green glow on Mingyue’s face.

"Sorry, senior."

"I'll borrow your fire for a moment. I’ll burn incense for you in the new year."

Mingyue muttered.

The entire scene was eerily quiet.

The broken and scattered bones silently stared at Mingyue as she stumbled forward, sending a chill down her spine.

Mingyue held the phosphorus fire ahead, unconsciously touching her neck. Inwardly, she mocked herself with gold plating: feels like I'm touring Dante’s Hell.

As she moved forward, the air began to smell of blood.

Mingyue wiped a visible charm, holding it up to the phosphorus fire. The thick blackness under the green flame didn’t change much, but the blood color it revealed was tainted and filthy under the green light.The phosphorus fire bones stuck in the mountain wall were decreasing in number, but the murky, dirty color began to appear on the mountain wall, winding upwards.

"..." Mingyue raised the phosphorus fire, and the scene before her was shocking!

The green light blended with the blood color, and the walls on both sides were covered with the marks of bodies climbing, twisted and contorted, as if the fresh blood stains left by the living people who had desperately struggled before dying had seeped into the earth, turning into filthy mud.

Mingyue: "..."

Two discoveries.

The good news was that these "things," whatever they were, had already climbed up.

The bad news was, they had all come back from the dead.

Mingyue wrapped her hand with a Yang energy charm and stuck it to a blood-soaked clump of earth. It wasn’t fresh blood—it was dead blood, foul and stinking, comparable to the bones of the Water West Gate turning back into living beings.

As she moved forward, something truly bizarre happened.

After a turn ahead, Mingyue heard the sound of water.

It was unmistakably clear, like a splash of water.

Liquid reflects light, and even in the deep, pitch-black abyss, she could vaguely see faint glimmers, like a patch of mixed-colored satin.

"..."

Mingyue felt a chill run through her body, and the phosphorus fire in her hand almost slipped out of her grasp.

One day, when the dragon gets water, the Yangtze River will flow backward.

This was just a saying spoken out of frustration.

No matter how many times she heard it, it didn’t mean Mingyue could remain as steady as a mountain when faced with a filthy river flowing upwards, splashing its tail in the air, completely defying the laws of physics.

This water was flowing from the underground, heading upwards.

This was bad, really bad.

The Yin energy concentration here was beyond extraordinary.

The place was full of zombies and wild bones scattered all over.This river is actually flowing backwards and jumping over steps.

Every rule is the opposite of the earthly realm.

Where on earth is this place?

Mingyue was so worried she felt like she was going bald.

At the same time, she noticed that there were many "people" around, either standing or sitting, their faces unclear, their bodies covered in a translucent glowing white.

"..."

Mingyue stiffened, matching her movements with the rhythm of her heart, pounding like drums. Instinctively, she touched her right eye to make sure no Yin energy had leaked out.

Someone called her, their voice weak: "Why aren’t you coming over?"

"The Reincarnation Pool isn’t open yet."

"Why are you standing so far away?"

I’m afraid that if I go over, either you’ll be scared to death by me, or I’ll be scared to death by you, Mingyue thought, taking a few steps forward just to humor the situation.

The spirit talking to her appeared as a young man, his voice hollow and ethereal, his expression innocent, with a white face that didn’t show any distinct features.

Mingyue replied vaguely: "I was bored, so I just wandered around." After saying it, she immediately regretted it, feeling like it was such a fake answer that she couldn’t even stand hearing it herself.

Surprisingly, the young spirit nodded, believing her without a hint of doubt.

"Don’t wander too far."

"The Reincarnation Pool will open on the 15th of July."

"Queue up then."

The 15th of July.

That’s still over half a month away, little brother.

Mingyue: "..."

Mingyue silently muttered to herself: "One day in heaven, one year on earth." Perhaps the way the souls kept time was different from that of the living. Then she asked, "The Ghost Festival... isn’t the 15th of July still some time away?" She wisely avoided using terms like "year" and "date."The young man nodded. "Yes."

"But still, you must wait patiently."

"Don't hold any grudges."

"Chances to enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation are rare. No matter how long you wait, you must do so willingly."

All must be "willing."

It sounded like religious brainwashing.

Mingyue felt that the way this spirit thought was bizarrely gentle, but at the same time, she felt that he truly had no complaints.

The young man took a few steps closer to Mingyue.

Mingyue switched tactics. "Where is the Reincarnation Pool?"

The spirit nodded and then shook his head. "It's in the mountain. I don't know the exact location."

Mingyue looked toward the mountain he pointed to — it was clearly the mountain wall that split open into the abyss.

Mingyue: "..."

Well, that's a good answer.

The land of China stretches 90,000 miles, where mountains may be separated by water, but all paths are connected.

This "mountain" of yours, where exactly are you referring to? If you want to make things up, I could pull you all the way to Changbai Mountain.

However, the textbook didn’t lie to me; ghosts really don’t call it the underground. They call it "the mountain."

Still grumbling inwardly, the young man in front of her asked, "You just came from over there. What’s the situation?"

Mingyue didn’t understand. "What situation?"

The boy replied, his tone serious, but his words were unclear. "They have resentment."

"The sky cracked open. Those with resentment turned red and left."

"What I’m asking is, did they leave? Are they done leaving?"Mingyue: "......"

Mingyue was at a loss for words. She didn’t know how to replace the word "zombie" with a less offensive term, so she just nodded randomly. "They left, they left."

The young boy asked again, "Where did they go?"

Mingyue answered casually, "The sky cracked open, they went to the sky."

The young boy stared at her. "Why didn’t you go to the sky?"

Mingyue: "......"

Ming. Living. Yue almost choked on her own saliva from this question. "What? I don’t have resentment."

The boy stared at her, his faceless expression resembling a giant eye. "But you changed color."

Mingyue pulled at her clothes, then made up an answer seriously. "This is clothes I picked up while traveling in the human world."

"Impressive, huh?" she added, then laughed.

The boy didn’t laugh.

He pointed at Mingyue’s eyes and said, "Your eyes are glowing, yellow."

"They’re flashing."

"It’s yang energy."

Mingyue: "......"

Mingyue quickly covered the Land God talisman, which had been blown open by her breath.

However, for some inexplicable reason, after chatting with her for so long, none of the souls by the river had approached. But now, as soon as the words "yang energy" left her mouth, it was as though they had been amplified a hundred times. All the ghosts turned in unison and then floated over.

Mingyue: "......"

Seeing the situation turn bad, Mingyue stopped trying to engage in conversation. She hurriedly took out a steel fork and made a few threatening gestures. "Don’t come any closer."

— These pure white spirits were very benign, completely naked, without a single thread of karma. They really did seem to be completely innocent, ready to re-enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Mingyue didn’t dare use her usual method of dealing with ghosts on them.

Killing reincarnation ghosts meant she no longer wanted to reincarnate herself.

So, she could only resort to some deterrent measures.However, it was useless.

More and more white spirits gathered around, and in the dark underground, only this patch of silver light remained.

Oh no.

Mingyue pushed forward, constantly coming into contact with these spirits, passing through each other countless times.

If being passed through by a spirit felt like being drenched in a bucket of ice water,

Then right now, Mingyue felt like swimming naked in the Arctic Ocean during the polar night.

The spirits were chattering all at once:

"Ah, you’ve changed color!"

"You smell!"

"Oh my, you can wear clothes and carry a bag!"

"Oh! She’s a living person!"

Mingyue: "......"

Not only can I wear clothes, I can also fart out yang energy and scare you all to death.

Unable to tolerate it any longer, Mingyue took out the yang energy talisman and waved it. A weak stream of yang energy leaked out, like water hitting boiling oil. Instantly, the spirits shouted "Oh—" and retreated thirty meters, sticking to the mountain wall like climbing ivy, shivering.

Mingyue sighed. "Sorry, sorry for disturbing your reincarnation. I really apologize."

With that, she left the phosphorus fire behind and ran toward the flying river, diving headfirst into the water.