I reached out my hand to catch the demon core that radiated a dazzling light.
Although the demon core looked as cold as ice crystal, when I held it in my palm, a warm current like that from a hot spring seeped into my limbs and bones, making my almost-dispersed soul coalesce again.
I stuck out my tongue secretly. No wonder everyone in the world, whether human, ghost, demon or immortal, wanted to steal the demon core. It was simply a ladder to the sky on the path of cultivation. Beasts needed to cultivate for at least five hundred years before they could gain spiritual wisdom and start to learn the way of cultivating a demon core. It would take at least nearly a thousand years for the demon core to be refined from a mass of primordial qi in the world into a tangible form. Humans had complex minds and thus short lifespans. If they obtained the demon core of a spirit, it was like adding thousands of years of cultivation out of thin air and they could directly step into the realm of earthly immortals!
Fortunately, Mu Yuan was powerful enough to keep his own demon core.
I was lost in wild thoughts when I heard Mu Yuan say, "You should go back right away. I'm afraid it will be too late if you delay."
"Why don't you go back with me?!"
Although I didn't understand what the place of ghostly spirits that Lu Aruan mentioned was, I knew it was another space that didn't belong to either the mortal or the netherworld.
Since Mu Yuan and Lu Aruan had the pass to freely enter and exit this place, why didn't they walk out of this endless void?
"Us?!"
Lu Aruan wrinkled her nose playfully. She didn't look like a mother at all. "I did extremely bad and evil deeds before. I was punished by the Heavenly Dao to suffer here for all eternity. Mu Yuan stays here just to accompany me."
"You?! Did evil deeds?"
I really couldn't imagine what a heinous thing a lively and beautiful girl could do to be punished by heaven so severely that she couldn't even enter the underworld. It was a punishment that meant she would never appear in the three realms and six paths again!
"Hehe, can't you tell I'm a big bad guy? Heartless, full of lies, and I like to deceive people for fun!"
Lu Aruan's red dress, paired with her extremely beautiful smiling face, made her look like a fairy. No matter how I looked at her, she didn't seem to be the kind of evil and despicable woman she described!
So, I kept shaking my head.
I didn't believe that Mu Yuan would marry a woman who was extremely wicked.
"You still don't believe it?!"
Lu Aruan raised her eyebrows. Her beautiful face suddenly got very close to mine. "I used to be a red-clothed fierce ghost who had harmed countless people!"
As she spoke, her fluttering red dress suddenly turned from the inside out into a dark red stained with blood. Her pale face was distorted, with all her facial features out of shape. "If God let me out, maybe one day when my evil nature flares up, I might cause another natural disaster or man-made misfortune."
My heart was pounding wildly. In all these years, I had never seen such a filthy and fierce ghost in red. I wondered how much bullying and abuse she had suffered in her lifetime to become such a miserable, resentful and indignant appearance.
If it weren't for Mu Yuan by her side, I'm afraid this Lu Aruan would have already fallen into the demonic path and become a heretic god like the drought demon or the Buddha mother, who could bring harm to a whole area!
Thinking of this, I felt that they were a bit like Si Jiangchen and me. One of them was a being who might turn into a fierce ghost at any time, while the other tried their best to make the other become a normal person...
I sighed softly and reached out my hand to touch Lu Aruan's greenish-white ghost face.
Lu Aruan seemed to have never seen anyone other than Mu Yuan dare to get so close to her when she was in this ghostly appearance. A look of surprise flashed across her face.
Behind us, Mu Yuan in white clothes laughed. He stepped forward and took his wife's hand, saying, "Du Xinghe is one of the founders of zombies. It's okay for you to scare others with this appearance, but for this little girl, aren't you showing off your skills in front of an expert?"
"Oops! I forgot about this."
Only then did Lu Aruan remember what Mu Yuan had said. I was an indestructible bone refined by the Du family. I was originally a terrifying zombie ghost. How could I be scared by her?
"Du... Well, I'll call you Xiaohe!"
Lu Aruan also felt my closeness to her. She simply wiped her face with her sleeve and immediately returned to her former bright and charming appearance. "We've both committed the crime of killing living beings. Do you know? In order to save me, Mu Yuan flooded the entire Yu Province, and many people died. It was only right for him to be exiled to this place where there is never any sunlight. Moreover, God has been kind to me. To be accompanied by the one I love in this endless void, this life is happier than that of a god!"
I didn't understand why she explained so much to me. I only saw Lu Aruan reach out and tuck a strand of my floating hair behind my ear. Then she said again, "Mu Yuan gave the demon core as a birthday gift to our granddaughter. Xiaoxi will surely come looking for us again... If she insists on taking us out of here, I'm afraid that big demon who obeys her every word will definitely turn this place that traps ghosts into pieces!"
"Xiaoxi's husband is so powerful!"
I remembered that iceberg-like man in my mind. He did seem to be quite intimidating! However, it seemed a bit impossible for him to destroy a place under the jurisdiction of the underworld!
This place of ghostly spirits should be something like the eighteenth level of hell. Could that man named Gu Fancheng be some powerful figure in the underworld?
No, even the Ten Kings of Hell only operated according to the laws of the entire netherworld. Even when Sun Wukong defaced the Book of Life and Death back then, the King of Hell couldn't let the judges add names privately!
"Of course. My son-in-law is an ancient great demon. He is not restricted by the laws of all things in heaven and earth."
A proud and playful look appeared on Lu Aruan's bright little face again. "Only he can protect Xiaoxi's safety for a lifetime."
"Alright, alright. Your surname is Lu, not Wang. Do you need to praise your son-in-law like this?"
When Mu Yuan was with his wife, there was no trace of that cold and unapproachable look on his face. He could even tell jokes!!
I couldn't help but sigh in my heart. The power of love was really great!
"You go back and tell Xiaoxi and Acheng that we're living very comfortably here. If they dare to come and disturb our peace, we'll haunt the two of them every day and make them unable to have children in the future."
"Uh..."
I was a bit confused by Lu Aruan's words. Could being haunted by a ghost lead to infertility? How could I convey such words to Lu Xiyu!
Before I could figure out the meaning, Mu Yuan suddenly reached out and pushed me on the back, shouting, "Remember our instructions. Never come here again!"
"Ouch!!"
The clear and cold tail sound of Mu Yuan still echoed in my ears, but my body seemed to be suddenly pushed into a pitch-black tunnel. My feet shook violently, and then I gasped and opened my eyes!
In front of me was Si Jiangchen's face, which was a hundred times uglier than his ice-cold face. His eyebrows were deeply furrowed, and his slightly upturned peach blossom eyes never left my face for a moment. When he saw my eyelashes fluttering, he immediately supported my face. "... Xiaohe, if you didn't wake up, I would have caused trouble!"
Si Jiangchen's causing trouble naturally meant going to the underworld to look for my soul!