PD -Chapter 133 The New Ghost Emperor

I was startled, thinking that what we feared most had come true. Just moments ago, Shentu had been bragging about how well-hidden her barrier was, and now, in the very next second, we had been discovered?

Bzzzz…

A tremendous roar echoed into the tunnel from outside, shaking even my spirit form.

“Someone is actually attacking my barrier…” Shentu muttered in a low voice before her figure flashed and vanished from the tunnel.

Liu Xiaopeng and I exchanged a glance and immediately chased after her.

We rushed out of the tunnel and entered the interior of Ghost Gate Pass.

The yellow sand road that had been outside was gone. In its place was a road paved with black stone slabs. Looking into the distance, I could see clusters of low buildings as well as a chain of rolling hills beyond the pass.

At that moment, a massive barrier covered the sky above us. It was clearly something Shentu had erected to conceal our presence so that the inhabitants of the underworld would not spot us from afar.

Someone outside was currently attacking it. The originally transparent barrier rippled like the surface of a lake struck by a giant boulder.

“It’s that scholar!” Liu Xiaopeng narrowed his eyes and pointed into the sky.

Only then did I shift my attention away from Shentu, who had just flown out of the barrier, and toward the figure in the air.

The man wore a white scholar’s robe and carried a folding fan. He was the very same scholar we had nearly run into when Shentu first brought us from the mortal world to Mount Taozhi.

Earlier, he had looked pale and frail, like a sickly man suffering from chronic anemia. Yet the power he was displaying now felt no weaker than Shentu’s.

Looking at the scholar whose long robe billowed in the air, I sighed inwardly.

Could he be the Ghost King-level expert Shentu had mentioned?

As I was thinking this, Shentu had already burst out of her barrier and launched an attack.

The scholar had clearly been prepared. With a flick of his hand, he unfolded his fan and effortlessly blocked her strike.

When the attack failed, Shentu transformed into a crimson shadow and retreated back into the barrier.

After hesitating briefly, the scholar used his folding fan like a sword and sliced open a gap in the barrier before immediately following her inside.

“Shentu…” The scholar stared at her from the air, surprise visible on his face. “Why are you doing this?”

“Yu Lei, I never expected that you would be the one sitting in my position in the end.”

Shentu looked up at the scholar as the two confronted each other in midair.

The moment I heard that name, it felt vaguely familiar.

After thinking for a while, I finally remembered.

The records concerning the underworld in The Heavenly Secrets Record did mention someone named Yu Lei.

And it turned out my earlier guess had been correct. He was indeed a Ghost King-level figure.

For some reason, his image even appeared in certain depictions of door gods in the mortal world.

From what Shentu was implying, after she caused trouble and was expelled from the underworld, this man had replaced her and become the new Eastern Ghost Emperor.

“Shentu, we once served together. I advise you to turn back before it’s too late.”

Yu Lei spread open his folding fan, standing proudly with bright, unwavering eyes fixed on her.

Then, as if noticing something unusual about the former Eastern Ghost Emperor before him, his brows furrowed slightly.

“You… are incomplete?”

I almost laughed out loud when I heard that.

Not to mention Shentu.

Her body trembled slightly as she rolled her eyes at him.

“Bookworm, who starts a conversation with a woman by telling her she’s incomplete? No wonder you’re destined to die alone.”

“You’re the fragment of spirit that escaped back then?”

Yu Lei continued staring at her.

“If that’s the case, come with me to see the Great Emperor of Fengdu. Atone for your crimes and help us retrieve the other two-thirds of your spirit that remain imprisoned. Perhaps then your sins can be forgiven.”

“Ghost Emperor, you’re absolutely right.”

Shentu spoke with a strange mixture of mockery and sincerity.

“This time, that’s exactly why I’ve come back.”

The scholar, however, seemed incapable of understanding jokes.

Anything could be taken seriously by him.

His brows knitted together slightly.

“Oh?”

He asked in earnest.

“And how do you intend to do that?”

Shentu’s eyes darted about mischievously.

Then she crooked a finger at him.

“Come closer, and I’ll tell you.”

It was obvious she was trying to toy with him.

What I never expected was that the scholar actually fell for it.

He closed his fan, stepped through the air, and walked right up to her before asking again what exactly she planned to do.

Shentu burst out laughing.

At the same moment, red light flickered from the right hand hidden behind her back.

The shattered Ghost Emperor Seal slowly materialized.

The instant the scholar stopped moving, Shentu suddenly struck.

The damaged seal crashed toward him.

“You…”

Yu Lei frowned.

Clearly annoyed that Shentu had made a fool of him.

His reaction was swift. The moment the seal descended, he retreated rapidly and swung his folding fan, releasing a burst of white light to block it.

“Stubborn beyond redemption.”

The scholar’s voice turned cold.

He retreated all the way to the edge of the barrier and then stopped.

Instead of withdrawing further, he suddenly adopted the same stance as Shentu.

Stepping through the air, he thrust both palms forward.

A gigantic seal manifested before him.

Wrapped in white mist, it appeared far larger than Shentu’s damaged one.

Most importantly, the four characters “Eastern Ghost Emperor” upon it were complete and intact.

Boom!

The two Ghost Emperor Seals collided.

I felt as though the entire Ghost Gate Pass shook violently.

The weakness of Shentu’s broken seal became apparent instantly.

The moment the seals struck each other, the white radiance engulfed and swallowed the dark-red spiritual energy.

My heart sank.

The instant I saw that seal, I realized just how wrong my earlier judgment had been.

This scholar’s current strength wasn’t merely at the Ghost King level.

He was a genuine Ghost Emperor.

The two seals rebounded from one another.

At the same time, Shentu and Yu Lei had already closed in and become locked in fierce hand-to-hand combat.

Every move they exchanged carried enough spiritual power to seem capable of tearing space itself apart.

“Come on, let’s help!”

I shouted to Liu Xiaopeng.

My body became a blur as I shot into the sky, flinging out a chain of talismans.

The talismans surrounded Shentu and the scholar, forming a five-pointed star.

I knew my spiritual power was limited.

There was no way I could fight a Ghost Emperor head-on the way Shentu could.

Fortunately, Shentu had taken the lead, allowing me to provide support through formations.

The moment the basic pentagram formation was completed, Shentu understood my intention.

She deliberately retreated, no longer engaging the scholar in close combat.

Seeing the talismans circling around him, Yu Lei paused briefly.

But by the time he realized what was happening, my grand formation had already taken shape.

“Spirits of Yin, spirits of Yin, let heaven tremble and earth darken. Boundless divine power, devour the sun and consume the stars.”

As I chanted the incantation, fierce ghostly winds suddenly arose.

It felt as though all the yin energy and spiritual power throughout Ghost Gate Pass were being drawn under my control.