Mistress of the Underworld and Her Little Celestial Wife - Chapter 107

Mu Yin had long suspected that this golden expanse, no matter how vast, must have boundaries. The difficulty in escaping lay in the fact that the sky and ground were the same color, making it impossible to distinguish direction after prolonged exposure, and even causing severe snow blindness.

Imagine wandering aimlessly in a place where directions were indistinguishable walking in a straight line was nearly impossible. Moreover, the mushrooms grew much faster than humans could move. The boundary Mu Yin had painstakingly explored would take at least ten days to half a month for a person to traverse, even if they walked in a straight line with a clear goal.

Last time, Mu Yin had collapsed after just one day of running. Surviving ten days in such a place was almost unthinkable.

Mu Yin gazed joyfully at the mushroom wall and resolved to push forward, climbing higher.

Meanwhile, the mushrooms in other directions had also reached their limits. But in one direction, Mu Yin made a shocking discovery.

It was not a good one.

On the vertical golden wall, dried blood was smeared like paint, dark red and thick. At the base of the wall lay numerous corpses, scattered haphazardly.

The bodies varied in size and age, their faces twisted in despair and agony. Some had clutched their throats in their final moments, and the blood on the wall undoubtedly belonged to them.

Perhaps out of despair believing they could walk their way out, only to find the wall Mu Yin guessed they had followed it for a long time, maybe even left markings, only to circle back to the starting point.

Hopeless. Helpless.

The people of the West Moon Kingdom had struggled and wept. They thought finding the edge of this world would mean escape, never imagining they would be trapped here forever.

Mu Yin stared at the blood pooled beneath the bodies, wondering how much courage it had taken for them to end their own lives, to splatter their blood so high on the wall.

If Ah Qin saw her people perish in such despair, she might well collapse.

Mu Yin averted her eyes from the gruesome scene and urged the mushrooms to climb higher.

After ascending another four or five hundred meters, the mushrooms hit another wall. Frowning, Mu Yin looked at the inverted world and realized she might have reached the “ceiling” of this realm.

What kind of place was this?

Just as she assumed the ceiling would stretch as endlessly as the ground, the mushrooms suddenly stopped.

Not exactly stopped, they had simply reached the end.

“Another dead end?” Mu Yin was baffled. She directed the mushrooms to release their spores, and others gathered around. Visualizing the space in her mind, she realized it resembled an open wooden box or more accurately, a tissue box with a wide opening.

The spores scattered into the golden sky but found no solid surface to land on. The expanse seemed like a bottomless void, forever out of Mu Yin’s reach.

Was this the limit?

Mu Yin sighed deeply and set down the mirror, suddenly feeling a scorching heat coursing through her body. A realization struck her.

She had been away from Si Lingqing for ten days.

Mu Yin had vanished for ten days.

Everyone in the Five Skandha Sect knew their young mistress had gone missing. Nearly the entire sect had been dispatched to search, with Hong Zhuang and others working day and night to contact the golden mushroom, trying to reach Mu Yin.

Unfortunately, there had been no news of Mu Yin so far.

Yu Luo paced anxiously in the courtyard, waiting for updates from the latest group of disciples. Soon, someone came running to report: “Madam, madam, we have news!”

Yu Luo looked at the disciple hopefully. “Have you found Mu Yin?”

The disciple shook their head. “Not the young mistress, the eldest young lady has returned.”

Yu Luo paused briefly before asking, “Then where is Ah Qin now?”

“She probably went to Senior Sister Hong Zhuang.”

“Good, let’s go too.”

The group arrived in force at Mu Yin’s courtyard. Hong Zhuang was in the study with several other disciples, while Si Lingqing stood out starkly in black by the window, her expression grave.

“Ah Qin,” Yu Luo approached her daughter. “Have you found Mu Yin?”

Si Lingqing shook her head.

Yu Luo sighed. “That poor child. Who knows what hardships she’s enduring? How has she survived all these days.”

“Don’t worry, Mother,” Si Lingqing said. “I’ll find a way to bring her back.”

Yu Luo had naturally heard about Si Lingqing capturing the princess of the West Moon Kingdom and asked, “What about that princess from the West Moon Kingdom? Have you gotten anything from her?”

At this, Si Lingqing fell even deeper into silence.

Strangely enough, she had expected Ah Qin to try escaping after being imprisoned in the Underworld, but the princess showed no signs of panic even when locked in a lightless cell. When Si Lingqing visited her, Ah Qin even teased her with a few remarks.

But Si Lingqing didn’t want to hear it. All Ah Qin ever said was about convincing Si Lingqing to “give up” Mu Yin words that disgusted her. If Mu Yin weren’t still in Ah Qin’s hands, Si Lingqing would have torn her apart already.

Now that Yu Luo brought it up, Si Lingqing felt a headache coming on.

“We’re still questioning her,” Si Lingqing said. “But she refuses to reveal Mu Yin’s whereabouts. We’ll need another approach to make her talk.”

Rather than waste time on Ah Qin, it was better to look for clues in the mushrooms Mu Yin had left behind.

Si Lingqing took out the cluster of mushrooms. The layered little fungi had begun to wilt. Without their master’s nourishment, they would soon lose their spiritual power and become ordinary mushrooms.

Hong Zhuang’s situation was the same. Moreover, as time passed, the golden glow around them grew fainter in two more days, they would wither completely.

“Have you managed to contact Mu Yin?” Si Lingqing asked solemnly.

Hong Zhuang glanced back at her young mistress and shook her head silently. Though they had been channeling spiritual power into the mushrooms day and night, calling out the young mistress’s name, there had been no response.

“Young Mistress,” Hong Zhuang couldn’t help asking, “Where would Ah Qin have hidden the young mistress? Can’t we just go directly to find her?”

Si Lingqing lowered her gaze. “She isn’t in this world. If she were, I wouldn’t need you to tell me, I would have already gone to her.”

Hong Zhuang also felt she had asked a foolish question. Although Si Lingqing’s abilities hadn’t been fully displayed, she was certain the other party possessed considerable strength. If even Si Lingqing couldn’t find Mu Yin, then it would be even more difficult for their small group to locate her.

Everyone fell silent, not daring to utter another word.

Si Lingqing wasn’t in a good mood either. After days of running around, she realized that if even she couldn’t find Mu Yin, the only option left was to seek help from the heavens.

The heavens…

Si Lingqing slowly raised her head, gazing at the dark sky, when a sudden thought struck her.

Meanwhile.

In the Underworld’s ghost prison, Ah Qin sat bored on the floor, surrounded by imprisoned evil spirits. The other prisoners were ragged and deranged, making Ah Qin stand out with her clear-eyed, delicate appearance.

Because of this, she was particularly popular here. Her neighbors on either side sat by the bars, eyeing her covetously for a long time, their drool pooling on the ground.

Disgusting.

Ah Qin rolled her eyes. She then noticed the patrolling imps dragging chains and whips clearly sent by Si Lingqing to keep a close watch on her and prevent any escape attempts.

But who said Ah Qin wanted to escape? She had planned to come to the Underworld anyway, though her arrival had been somewhat accelerated.

“Hey, you there,” Ah Qin called to the patrolling imps. “Can you move me to a different cell? These two ghosts keep drooling at me, and it’s making me uncomfortable.”

One of the imps turned to look at her and sneered, “Do you even know where you are? Expecting comfort? If you want comfort, try reincarnating into a better life next time. This one’s a lost cause.”

With that, the imp raised his whip and lashed it twice against the neighboring cells, shouting, “What are you staring at? Stay put! You were wicked in life, and even in death, you can’t break your vile habits. Truly, a dog can’t stop eating filth!”

The two ghosts, each struck by the whip, quickly cowered into the corners, no longer drooling at Ah Qin.

Ah Qin smiled sweetly. “Thanks.”

The imp was momentarily taken aback. He didn’t understand why this “high-priority” prisoner was smiling at him, but something about her seemed off.

Still, the saying “don’t hit a smiling face” held true even here. After completing his rounds and finding nothing amiss, the imp left the prison area.

Once the imp was out of sight, Ah Qin’s smile faded. She surveyed the tightly secured cell and decided it was time to leave.

Using a simple transformation spell, she created an identical copy of herself to remain in the cell while she slipped out unnoticed.

Though her powers paled in comparison to Si Lingqing’s, Ah Qin was still a demigod. Evading the patrolling guards, she boldly made her way to a palace that looked anything but ordinary.

Hiding behind a pillar, Ah Qin watched as imps hurried in and out of the building, carrying stacks of documents. Their busy movements confirmed she had come to the right place.

Slipping inside, she saw imps scribbling away at official paperwork. At the highest point of the hall stood another imp, hands on hips, barking orders at the others: “While the Ghost King is away, the paperwork must not fall behind! Each of you will handle a portion, then report to me. No mistakes allowed!”

The imps hastily replied, “Yes, sir!”

Ah Qin leaned against the pillar, amused. She didn’t think Si Lingqing was as formidable as she appeared. As the Ghost King, she didn’t even handle official documents nothing like Ah Qin, the princess of the West Moon Kingdom, who was truly a patriotic and people-loving ruler.

After mentally criticizing Si Lingqing, she turned and left the area, walking along the bookshelves to the innermost room.

This must be where Ghost King Si Lingqing dealt with official documents, right?

With her hands behind her back, Ah Qin strolled around the room before finally stopping at Si Lingqing’s desk, eyeing the Book of Life and Death placed on it.

“I wonder if this is real or not,” Ah Qin murmured, blinking at the object on the desk. “Whether it’s real or fake, I have to try it.”

Deep down, Ah Qin knew her people were all dead. After so many years, it was nearly impossible for any descendants to have survived. And Ah Qin’s wish was simple.

She wanted Mu Yin to stay by her side forever and she wanted all the people of the West Moon Kingdom to be brought back to life.

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