PD -Chapter 127 Secluded Cultivation

Shentu brought the yellow paper to me and continued, “The Underworld of Youdu is heavily guarded. No matter which soul arrives there, it will inevitably be inspected.”

She pointed at the paper in her hand. “This is the Youdu Route Guide. It is the certificate that a soul presents when it reports to the underworld after death.”

I frowned and examined it closely. On this long sheet of yellow paper—three chi long and two chi wide—were printed words such as: “Issued by the Emperor Yama of Fengdu for the Route Guide,” and “All people in the world must carry this guide in order to enter Youdu for reincarnation and ascension,” and other similar phrases.

There were also three seals stamped on it: “King Yama,” “City God,” and “Great Emperor Fengdu.”

“After a person dies, the Yin officers and Rakshasa who guide the souls of the dead will issue this route guide,” Shentu continued. “Only with this document can a soul pass through the Ghost Gate. After verification with no discrepancies, entry is allowed.”

“So, when the time comes, you two will disguise yourselves as dead souls, holding the route guide, and mix in with the ordinary soul procession to enter with me,” she said.

“At that time, I will pretend to be the Rakshasa escorting you. As long as you don’t cause trouble, you should be able to pass through smoothly.” Shentu looked at me and Liu Xiaopeng, her expression showing clear concern.

I rolled my eyes at her. In my mind, I thought: we’ve already handed over our primordial spirits to you—what exactly are you still worried about? If you end up treating us like real dead souls and send us into hell, we won’t even have time to cry. And yet you’re the one acting uneasy…

Still, I forced myself to stay calm and said with a smile, “Nothing will go wrong. We’ll follow your instructions.”

After hearing my answer, Shentu looked at my sycophantic expression and seemed quite satisfied. She gave me a meaningful smile, then continued.

“Once inside, I will lead a group of souls. You just need to blend in. After entering the gate, we will immediately eliminate the gate-guarding Yin soldiers as quickly as possible and seize the Ghost Gate. We must not alert anyone inside the underworld. Only then will we have enough time for Liu family boy to refine the Black Jade.”

Shentu stroked her chin and spoke to herself, not caring whether we could keep up.

After she finished, she finally looked up at us again. “Do you understand what I just explained?”

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. But then I asked, “About those Yin soldiers guarding the Ghost Gate… how many are there? Can we really take them down quietly with just us?”

“There are eighteen Punishment Evil Ghosts guarding the Ghost Gate,” she replied. “They also have some lesser ghosts under them. As for their strength… they’re just slightly stronger than you.”

She pointed at me.

I froze for a moment, nearly swearing out loud. I knew she was deliberately insulting me. But the thought of eighteen evil ghosts stronger than me still made my heart sink—and I had to admit, I was a bit scared.

“Relax. If I wasn’t confident, I wouldn’t be wasting time here with you,” Shentu said lightly. “Just follow my instructions and act according to the situation.”

She made it sound effortless, but Liu Xiaopeng and I felt as if we were about to hand our souls over to the devil. If anything went wrong, there would be no turning back.

After thinking for a moment, I said, “We can follow your plan… but I want to delay it for a few days.”

“What, scared?” Shentu paused, the corner of her lips curling up as she looked at me provocatively.

To be honest, going to the underworld to steal the Ghost Gate was something I couldn’t even imagine in my dreams. Saying I wasn’t afraid would be a lie.

But now that I was already on this ship of thieves, and after preparing for so long—and since this was the only way to defeat the Five Direction Ghost Emperors and Lucifer—if I didn’t try, I would still feel unwilling inside.

Tang Shanshan’s figure once again surfaced in my mind. I had sworn that no matter what, even if it cost me my life, I would save her.

What I feared most was not losing my life—but losing my life without saving Tang Shanshan. If that happened, she would truly have no one left to rely on.

My request to delay a few days wasn’t about backing out. I needed preparation—mentally and in terms of ability.

I needed time to carefully reconsider Shentu’s entire plan. And I also needed to use that time to improve my strength—at least to reach the level of those gate-guarding evil ghosts—so I could have some confidence.

“That’s fine too. I also need some time to prepare a few things,” Shentu said after a moment, as if she had already seen through my thoughts.

Soon, we left the bank vault. Zhu Zhu instructed the bank staff to seal off the room in the vault temporarily and stop using it.

During the following days, I did not return to the office. With Zhu Zhu’s help, I stayed in a secluded mountain estate.

I began secluded cultivation, pushing myself to my absolute limits to rapidly improve my spiritual power and master the advanced techniques within the Record of Touting Xuanji, including powerful Thunder Department spells, Divine Sky Thunder Arts, advanced spirit-control incantations, and large-scale summoning techniques.

These methods sounded simple when described, but each was its own complete system. Each system contained dozens of spells, and truly mastering them required a lifetime of effort for most people.

At this point, I was only trying to grasp everything temporarily and forcefully memorize the techniques, hoping to unleash their maximum power within a few days.

Thunder-based spells were my first attempt, while I was already more familiar with fire-based techniques. During this period, I combined both thunder and fire methods and developed my own training approach, which caused my cultivation to progress rapidly. When I examined my inner spiritual state, I found my energy had greatly increased, and my primordial spirit had become even stronger.

These days, I replaced sleep with meditation. In meditation, I entered a pure white, tranquil space…

Within it, I constantly analyzed and simulated our upcoming plan. This itself was also a form of mental training.

Beyond thunder and fire techniques, the improvement in my spiritual power also allowed me to begin grasping the fundamentals of spirit control and summoning arts.

After a week, I had achieved my intended results. Although I still wanted more time to push my power to its peak, a voice deep inside kept urging me forward—I could not wait any longer.

I hadn’t seen the others for seven days. When we met again, I noticed Liu Xiaopeng had also changed significantly. With my improved perception, I could now sense fluctuations in others’ aura and spiritual energy, and I could tell his power had increased as well. He must have also found some understanding of the Immortal-Slaying Sword and his bloodline abilities.

“Let’s go. It’s time.” I took a deep breath, got into the car, and once again traveled with Zhu Zhu, Liu Xiaopeng, and Shentu to the bank vault.

Next, we would leave our physical bodies behind in that heavily guarded vault, under Zhu Zhu’s care… and let our primordial spirits leave our bodies, following Shentu into the underworld of Youdu.