When he rushed to Shen Ming’s hospital room, Li Chanyi was scratching her head at a customized monitor: “Does this thing even work? It keeps jumping around—is it broken?”
“Hey? Ye Ye, you’re back?”
Ye Yang asked, “How is he? Has he woken up?”
Li Chanyi replied, “Not yet. I don’t know if this equipment is malfunctioning, but it suddenly showed that his soul had returned to its place. Now it’s not responding again.” This special cardiac monitor was jointly made by the hospital director and an external affiliate of YCG—a national academician—specifically to track Shen Ming’s condition.
Ye Yang’s heart pounded with anxiety. Had he still not made it in time? “What time is it now? How much time is left until the deadline?”
Li Chanyi said, “There’s still a whole day. Don’t worry.”
Then why wasn’t he awake? Ye Yang felt even more uncertain. Staring at Shen Ming’s motionless form on the hospital bed, he even began to doubt whether everything he had just experienced had been a dream.
Seeing the panic on his face, Li Chanyi asked, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Ye Yang walked over and sat down by Shen Ming’s bed, frowning as he observed him closely. He picked up Shen Ming’s hand and turned it over and over, studying it for a long moment before finally saying, “It’s a bit complicated. I don’t really know how to explain it.”
They had barely spoken for a moment when Director Tu arrived. “You rascal, where exactly did you go? Your colleagues couldn’t find you—they were scared out of their wits!”
She looked him up and down, even rubbed his face to make sure he was all right, then raised her phone and stepped back out. “Stay right here. Let me call your team leader Xing back first.”
As soon as Ye Yang’s location had reappeared, she had rushed over without delay, not yet having had time to inform Xing Tian and the others.
Xing Tian hadn’t arrived yet when the hospital director and Elder Li showed up. They had come because of the alert from the monitor.
The moment Elder Li appeared, she cast a spell over Shen Ming. The hospital director looked at her expectantly. “How is it? How is it?”
Elder Li’s expression brightened with surprise. “It really has returned. Now Lord Xuanwu’s spirit and flesh are reuniting, and the force that had been pulling at that last sliver of his spirit is gone as well.”
“Really?!” Ye Yang shot to his feet. “So I wasn’t dreaming!”
“Dreaming about what?” Elder Li twirled a lock of hair by her ear. “Come to think of it, I haven’t asked you yet. Lord Xuanwu’s sudden recovery—did you do something? Where have you been these past few days? Even I couldn’t find you.”
Learning from the hospital director that Shen Ming was out of danger—that his body was rapidly healing and he would wake up soon—Ye Yang finally felt relieved.
With the tension gone, he realized just how extraordinary an experience he had been through: “Elder Li, you might not believe this, but I went to the underworld.”
Elder Li: “?”
“It’s a long story. Let me think about how to tell it.”
…
After hearing Ye Yang’s account, Elder Li, Li Chanyi, the hospital director, Director Tu, and the newly arrived Xing Tian, Wu Jie, Chi Lian, and Grey Bro all had different reactions.
“So… you accidentally ended up in the underworld, just happened to run into a little ghost you had once helped, and that little ghost guided you to Lord Xuanwu? What kind of luck is that?” Wu Jie was astonished.
Elder Li, who knew far more, found it even harder to believe. “How is that possible? We’ve long since explored the abyss under the Underground Floating City. It has a bottom. Apart from spiritual power failing there, nothing about it is mysterious—it’s perfectly ordinary. Falling in would only get you killed. There’s no way it leads to the underworld.”
Li Chanyi, who didn’t understand any of this, was nonetheless impressed. “The underworld—that’s where people go after they die, right? Do the Kings of Hell really exist?”
“The Kings of Hell are nothing. The two beings Ye Ye met were Ghost Emperors. The Kings of Hell work for them.”
“Wow, Ye Ye, that’s amazing! You’ve got connections in the underworld now.” Li Chanyi’s eyes lit up. “When I die, could you pull some strings to help me get reincarnated into a good life?”
“Pfft—” Wu Jie laughed out loud. “Dream on. Do you really think you can just pop into the underworld anytime? Ye Ye’s experience was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. It’s probably impossible to replicate.”
Elder Li tugged at her hair again. “Regardless, his luck is truly remarkable. With fortune like this… If he hadn’t happened to meet Teng Hua, little Ye would have met only one of two possible fates.”
Li Chanyi asked curiously, “What fates?”
Xing Tian, still shaken, answered first: “All the water in the underworld is collectively called Yellow Springs water. The swamp he fell into was also made of it. It’s said that if a living soul soaks in it for too long, they gradually lose their soul—their memories and consciousness—and can never recover.”
Elder Li nodded. “The other possibility: little Ye could have been discovered by some other little ghost who didn’t know him. They would have followed procedure, escorted him to the Halls of Hell for processing, and sent him back. He might have returned as an idiot or a madman. Either way, definitely not normal.”
“That’s terrifying…” Li Chanyi’s voice dropped to a whisper.
Ye Yang felt a wave of belated fear too. At the time, he had been so focused on finding Shen Ming that he hadn’t noticed anything. Now, looking back, he realized he had actually seen quite a few horrifying things in the underworld.
Wu Jie couldn’t stop puzzling over it. “I still don’t get it. How could falling down once lead to the underworld? That doesn’t make any sense. Fine, I’m going to try it myself!”
No sooner said than done—Wu Jie got up and ran off.
“Hey—” Xing Tian tried to call her back, but she was already gone.
Then Director Tu, who had been silent all this while, suddenly spoke up. “Could it be… that the problem lies with the person who pushed little Ye?”
A passage has opened between the human realm and the underworld. This is a major security risk that must be resolved as soon as possible. Director Tu had been thinking it over for half a day and had finally found a possible breakthrough.
“Yes, that’s very likely. I’ll look into it immediately.” Xing Tian stood up. “Ye Ye, try to describe that person again in more detail.”
Ye Yang thought back carefully—only to realize that he couldn’t remember what that person looked like at all!
“That doesn’t make sense. I stared right at him for several seconds when I fell!”
Xing Tian and Director Tu exchanged a glance. “That person is definitely suspicious!”
·
The human cultivator who had been pursued in the Underground Floating City became the focus of the investigation, but this time, Ye Yang didn’t take part.
Shen Ming was still sleeping. Although everyone assured him that his body was out of danger, Ye Yang was still shaken. Afraid that something else might go wrong, he stopped going to work and stayed by the hospital bed every single day.
His talent and ability, greatly upgraded after his unexpected ordeal, proved very useful. Every day, Ye Yang worked hard to convert energy and channel it into Shen Ming’s body, hoping to help him wake up sooner.
Li Chanyi teased him, “Even newlywed couples aren’t this clingy.” Downstairs, there really was a young couple. The wife had been in a car accident on her wedding day and had been in a coma for two weeks. Her husband had stayed for the first three days, but no one had seen him in a long time.
Ye Yang had been embarrassed at first, but after hearing it so often, he fired back, “Do those couples even really love each other? They can’t compare to the bond between me and Teacher Shen.”
Li Chanyi had her doubts about this so-called “bond.”
Elder Li came by almost every day, grumbling about why he still wasn’t awake and how she didn’t know how to write her report, only to be shooed away by Ye Yang.
Others, like Director Tu, Yu Bei, and Ye Yang’s colleagues and friends, also visited occasionally. After all, Shen Ming had saved all their lives—it was only right to come see him.
Ji Qing had come a few times too, bringing some specialty health products from the demon realm, before going back to help Director Tu with the manhunt. Living in the Underground Floating City, he was a great help.
About half a month passed peacefully, and then Ye Yang grew restless again.
“Why isn’t he awake yet?”
Li Chanyi dug a finger in her ear and couldn’t help saying, “If you ask me, who am I supposed to ask? Every day, the first thing you say to me is that. I’d like to know too—all his indicators are normal, so when is he finally going to wake up?!”
Yu Bei and Elder Li had both come to examine him, repeatedly assuring Ye Yang that there was no problem. It was just that Xuan Wu was, after all, a deity, and his original body had been especially massive. Recovery naturally took time.
“Think about it—last time he was injured, he spent over a thousand years healing and still wasn’t fully recovered. This time, his spirit separated and then reunited with his body. Of course, that takes a while too.”
“Besides, when he wakes up this time, maybe his old injuries will be completely gone. If that’s the case, lying in bed for a few extra months would be perfectly normal.”
Ye Yang had no choice but to continue channeling energy without pause, anxiously waiting.
While Shen Ming was unconscious, one other thing happened: news arrived from the Wolf Forest that the Holy Guide had died.
According to the wolf who brought the message, the previous Holy Guide had suddenly lost his mind during the most recent full moon. At the edge of the Wolf Forest, he had clawed open his own chest with his bare hands, crushed his own heart, and killed himself.
It was exactly as Ye Yang had dreamed. Professor Lang had ultimately paid for his mistakes with his life.
Beyond a long sigh, Ye Yang had nothing to say.
But there was also good news. The lost wolf cub from the Wolf Forest had been found.
Not long ago, Xuan Lu had suddenly appeared at Sword Sect. After being driven away by Qin Zhi, he was temporarily settled at YCG’s Eastern Continent branch. He had brought the little wolf cub with him.
It turned out that after being abandoned by Lu Pingping, the cub had run and run out of sheer terror. By unfortunate chance, it encountered the members of Xuan Lu’s clan who were hunting him. Not really daring to kill Xuan Lu outright, and seeing the cub, they decided to seal Xuan Lu inside the little wolf’s body. That way, they wouldn’t have to kill anyone, yet still achieve their goal of exiling Xuan Lu.
The cub had been returned to the Wolf Forest and placed under Lu Pingping’s care. Its tumultuous experiences had caused its growth to stall. Wolf cubs born at the same time had either already evolved into werewolves or grown into adult wolves. But its ordeal in China had also brought some benefits—a resilient mindset and the physical modifications made by the demons—both of which made it the top candidate for the next Holy Guide.
…
Finally, several more months passed. One day after autumn had arrived, Shen Ming quietly opened his eyes.
Ye Yang, who had been by his side almost the entire time, was naturally the first to notice.
“Teacher Shen?! You’re finally awake!”
Seeing Shen Ming part his lips as if to speak but unable to form words, Ye Yang quickly grabbed a cup. “Do you want some water? Do you feel any discomfort anywhere? I’ll go get—”
Before he could finish, Shen Ming grabbed his arm. The cup wobbled, spilling water on the blanket, but no one paid it any mind.
Ye Yang stared blankly at Shen Ming, utterly certain that he must be hallucinating—
Because he saw Shen Ming reach his other hand under the blanket, feel around, pause suspiciously, and then… pull out a pitch-black egg.
Ye Yang’s pupils contracted: An egg? Where did an egg come from? Did Xuan Wu lay an egg???
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