After Marrying the Lord of the Underworld

At this moment, Jing Xian felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave. Even the eighty thousand cold winds of the ghost world could not compare to the coldness at this moment.

 

The invisible force in the air approached, accurately hitting Lu Yingjiu’s body—

 

At this time, Lu Yingjiu actually smiled.

 

The neon lights outside the car window were bright and dazzling, casting on his eyebrows and hair tips, giving a faint sense of gloss. He hooked the corner of his mouth, didn’t speak, but Jing Xian knew what he was thinking.

 

Just like on ordinary days, when Lu Yingjiu deliberately teased him, seeing him suffer a setback and could only prove himself with actions, he also had this kind of smile with gentleness and cunning.

 

Every time he saw this smile, Jing Xian’s heart would be moved, and he couldn’t help but want to entangle with him again, tossing the whole long night.

 

But at this moment, his mind was blank. Lu Yingjiu was still sitting next to him, less than ten centimeters apart, and he could take him back as long as he reached out—

 

But it was too late.

 

There was a void beside him, and Lu Yingjiu disappeared.

 

The traffic returned to normal, and there were honking sounds everywhere. Pedestrians began to move, and billboards changed colors.

 

Everything in the world returned to its track, Chen Xiaoling yawned lazily in the co-pilot, yawned, and muttered, “Why haven’t we arrived at the hotel yet…”

 

No one answered her.

 

She muttered, “Are you two doing something indecent? Xiao Lu, say, that the big demon he…”

 

She turned her head.

 

The back seat was empty.

 

****

 

Salty taste.

 

The salty taste of seawater.

 

Lu Yingjiu’s consciousness was blurred, and after a long time, he recognized that the sound in his ears was the sound of waves. The sea breeze came oncoming, blowing his hair. The taste reminded people of large pieces of dried salt. If bathed in the wind for too long, the body will probably have the smell of sea water as well.

 

Where am I…

 

His head was a little painful, he opened his eyes, and his vision could not focus for a long time.

 

It took him a long time to see the scene in front of him clearly: the shining cold white light, the black asphalt mixed soil ground, the scattered unmanned vehicles, the straight and neat steel cables falling from the sky, tightly hooked on both sides of the road. Looking further away, there was only the pitch-black sea, without any lights or land.

 

This was a seaside bridge.

 

And he was sitting on the middle isolation guardrail, as if he had just woken up from a dream.

 

His head still hurt, accompanied by occasional dizziness. Ordinary people might not be able to sit still, but he supported his body and barely stood up to look around.

 

There were sparse cars on the bridge, without drivers.

 

Most of the cars were broken, the glass was broken, the seats were rotten, the taillights were half destroyed, and the trunk lid was gone. Their heads faced different directions, as if they had been hit by a huge force, such as a serious car accident.

 

The phone had no signal, and the compass couldn’t be used either. As soon as it was turned on, it spun wildly.

 

Several cars had their doors open, and Lu Yingjiu sat in, looking around in the driver’s seat.

 

He didn’t find a driver’s license, or anything that could prove the driver’s identity, but he did find half a cup of matcha latte. When he touched it, the cup was still warm, as if the driver had just left not long ago.

 

But are there really people around here?

 

Lu Yingjiu stepped on the hood of a red Chevrolet, got on the roof of the car.

 

Looking around, there was no end to the bridge and vehicles, empty, without a single figure. Another strong wind, on the entire seaside bridge, there was only him and his bulging clothes.

 

Lu Yingjiu briefly fell into confusion.

 

He couldn’t even be sure if this was the real world.

 

But he didn’t hesitate, simply jumped off the car and started walking in one direction.

 

As he walked, he felt a warmth at his feet.

 

“Awoo!” A familiar voice came.

 

He looked down and saw hairball sticking close to his feet, wagging its tail at him.

 

“…Did you follow in too?” Lu Yingjiu couldn’t help but laugh, picked up hairball and scratched its chin.

 

“Awoo!” Hairball answered.

 

—Although its tail was wagging fast, Lu Yingjiu still knew that it was not in a good mood.

 

After all, Lu Yingjiu had been pulling it for so many years, and he knew its thoughts clearly: it was alerting the surrounding environment on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was unhappy because it didn’t see Jing Xian.

 

So Lu Yingjiu held it, walked and explained, “I know you want him to come with…..but it’s not possible.”

 

“Awoo?” Hairball looked up at him.

 

“Priests are restricted in the mortal world, can’t exert much strength, and probably only one or two percent left.” Lu Yingjiu said, “Moreover, he came to the mortal world with his physical body, which itself violates the rules. If he dies, he really dies.”

 

He stepped on a piece of broken glass, making a crunching sound under his feet.

 

Hairball listened quietly.

 

He continued, “Neither humans nor ghosts can contend with the Heavenly Way. Previously on the highway, he had already killed the servants of the Heavenly Way, and I felt something was wrong at that time.”

 

At that time, Jing Xian held him in mid-air, summoned hundreds of ghosts, and tore up the dogs of the Heavenly Way. He rarely showed his ghost side in front of Lu Yingjiu, with sharp and terrifying nails, and a gloomy aura all over his body.

 

When the illusion was broken, they returned to Yao Gou’s car, and Lu Yingjiu leaned back into Jing Xian’s arms.

 

Jing Xian’s face was as usual, whispering to comfort him, but his body temperature was cold, without breath or heartbeat.

 

Lu Yingjiu thought it was because his body had not yet returned to normal after his ghost transformation.

 

But later he felt something was wrong, and pondered: Jing Xian clearly still had breath and heartbeat when he was transformed into a ghost, so why didn’t he have it when he got to the car?

 

The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

 

Since he used his physical body, then the absence of vital signs was also a very serious matter, often indicating the disappearance of power and the imminent destruction of the physical bodies.

 

Jing Xian was not seriously injured, so the only explanation was that he once again violated the rules and was punished.

 

—Because of what?

 

Because he, as a priest, tried to contend with the Heavenly Way. (TL: incase someone is confused, Priest is a Chinese word, pronounced shén guān, which means a deity or spirit with a title. Perhaps ghosts become priests only when they have a title, and Jing Xian, originally a ghost with a title, the Ghost King, is generally also a priest, but instead of just the normal priest, he was Ghost King, the ruler of the ghost world)

Lu Yingjiu had a vague guess.

 

Until today, Jing Xian held him in his arms, looking directly at the giant eye on the horizon, and his hand was as cold as a dead person.

 

At this moment, Lu Yingjiu confirmed that Jing Xian was indeed fighting with great pain.

 

How painful must it be for the flesh and blood to kill the breath and heartbeat in an instant?

 

Lu Yingjiu couldn’t imagine.

 

But Jing Xian would never show any abnormalities—even according to Lu Yingjiu’s understanding of him, even if he was dying, what he thought was not how to escape, but how to cut off more heads.

 

At this time, holding hairball and walking on the deserted bridge, Lu Yingjiu continued, “So, I don’t want him to get involved in this matter anymore.”

 

He laughed and said, “Of course, even without this, I wouldn’t let him help me anymore. I don’t want to see him get hurt because of me, let alone him being in danger forever. This should be my war alone, I should face it alone.”

 

Love is mutual.

 

As much as Jing Xian wants to protect him, he also doesn’t want Jing Xian to get hurt.

 

Hairball made a soft call, “Awoo~~” and then rubbed his hand.

 

“Yes.” Lu Yingjiu said, “I know I still have you. But you also see the consequences of contending with the Heavenly Way, I will not use your power again.”

 

Hairball: “Awoo! Aw awoo!” Very dissatisfied.

 

“It’s okay.” Lu Yingjiu rubbed it, “I will figure out a way myself.”

 

During the conversation, a burnt smell came from the wind.

 

The smell was very pungent, and Lu Yingjiu could smell it clearly from a distance. He looked ahead, and there was thick smoke.

 

After bypassing several twisted cars, a car emitting black smoke appeared.

 

The front half of it had been burned to a skeleton, pitch black. There was still a hot temperature at the trunk, the fire was not extinguished, and the orange-red flame licked the taillights.

 

Lu Yingjiu took a few steps forward, his breath stagnated—

 

There was a charred corpse in the driver’s seat.

 

He pinched a talisman.

 

The talisman floated leisurely in the air, and the crystal clear water flowed out of it, sprinkling on the thick smoke. Hairball jumped out of his arms, opened his mouth wide at the trunk, and made a “vomit!” sound, and also began to vomit water.

 

It usually drinks a lot, and now it’s like a small water truck, continuously spouting water.

 

The fire in the trunk was just a small cluster, and it was quickly extinguished.

 

The person in the driver’s seat had been carbonized by the fire, let alone the face, even the gender couldn’t be distinguished. Lu Yingjiu looked around the car, everything was burned, it seemed that no clues could be found.

 

He said to hairball, “You go in and find it.”

 

Hairball got the order, jumped in flexibly from the back door, and started sniffing around.

 

Taking advantage of this gap, Lu Yingjiu looked around.

 

A sign stood on the right side of the road, reading “Kangli Bridge, 228KM”

 

Is this a milestone?

 

But how can there be a bridge that is more than 200 kilometers long and has no end?

 

Lu Yingjiu squinted his eyes.

 

Hairball called out a few times, jumped out of the car window, and had something shiny in his mouth.

 

Lu Yingjiu took it and found that it was a golden pocket watch, which was very exquisitely made.

 

This old-fashioned pocket watch, usually only seen in movies and TV shows, was unscathed in the fire, without even a trace of ash on it, and it felt cold to the touch.

 

Lu Yingjiu flipped it over and indeed found the traces of a small knife carving on its back: it was a tiny talisman used to suppress evil fire.

 

Exorcists often leave this talisman on important and flammable items. The pocket watch was not burned thanks to it.

 

He opened the pocket watch.

 

The hands of the pocket watch were still, and there was an old yellowed photo inside.

 

A man and a woman stood together, a couple.

 

Lu Yingjiu carefully took out the photo, turned it over, and saw the blue-black pen writing on the back:

 

“Zhang Haokong”

 

“Wang Yaya”

 

In addition to this, there were two small pieces of talisman paper behind the photo, probably for emergency use.

 

Lu Yingjiu looked at the charred corpse again. Although he couldn’t tell the gender, the person who carried the exorcism items was probably…a man from the Zhang family.

 

He sighed lightly and asked hairball, “Is there anything else?”

 

Hairball shook his head vigorously.

 

Just as Lu Yingjiu was about to move on, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

 

The photo in his hand seemed a bit too thick, especially in the middle area, which was slightly raised.

 

He immediately held up the photo against the bright light on the bridge.

 

There was a faint shadow in the middle of the photo.

 

There was indeed something!

 

He flipped his hand and took out a butterfly knife, gently cutting the edge of the photo. His hand was very steady, and he could accurately cut the thin photo from the middle.

 

After cutting about half a centimeter, the tip of the knife loosened and hit the hollow layer.

 

He then gently tore it open, dividing the photo into two, and the thing in the layer fell out:

 

It was another thin piece of paper, carefully folded together.

 

It was so thin that even a little more force would tear it.

 

Lu Yingjiu carefully unfolded it.

 

What appeared in front of him was the pattern of a formation, and it was very familiar… it was the one they saw in the Rainy Day Museum, on the wall of Zhang Chengzhou’s office!

 

The formation had seven vertices, representing the need for seven exorcists to operate together.

 

The goal was to go to the ghost world.

 

Now, one vertex of this formation had been circled, and a date was hastily written next to it: “2017.9.5, unfinished.”

 

Lu Yingjiu was very familiar with this date, it’s the time of the Ghost Festival that year!

 

If one wanted to contact the ghost world, this time point was the best choice.

 

Combined with the circled vertex…

 

Lu Yingjiu had a vague guess in his heart.

 

It’s possible that this man named Zhang Haokong was one of the seven exorcists.

 

But why did he die here, die in a burnt-out car?

 

Did he die on the way to complete the formation?

 

He was wondering when he suddenly felt a chill on his back. A cold feeling of being watched rose up, engulfing him.

 

Lu Yingjiu turned his head abruptly.

 

At the end of the dark sea, there was a huge eye at the horizon.

 

The eye was staring at him intently.

 

Then, there was a strange noise on both sides of the bridge.

 

Whoosh whoosh whoosh——

 

Patter patter patter!

 

Something was climbing up the road from the bottom of the sea along the bridge!

 

Hairball’s whole body exploded, constantly howling, making a warning sound.

 

Clang!

 

A silver hook was then hung on the railing, deeply embedded in the wall!

 

A terrifying, green-black face appeared, like a bull or a horse. It was soaking wet, and seawater was flowing down its body along the iron hook, staring at Lu Yingjiu, and the corner of its mouth pulled out a terrifying smile.

 

The servants of the Heavenly Way.

 

Not only it, but in just a few seconds, the bridge was full of more than a dozen servants holding divine weapons, each of them looked terrifying, each of them was like a wild beast.

 

Their faces were written with madness, but their positions were extremely precise and orderly, forming an effective encirclement, trapping Lu Yingjiu in it.

 

Like a group of cunning and ferocious hunters, they were hunting their long-coveted prey.

 

Hairball’s silver eyes lit up.

 

It wanted to fulfill the contract of inviting the gods as usual, lending its power to Lu Yingjiu.

 

However, this time Lu Yingjiu did not respond to it, but instead picked it up and threw it hard into the distance!

 

“Awoo?!” Hairball flew through the air, “Awoo awoo awooo?!”

 

Lu Yingjiu had applied a talisman, and his strength was extraordinary. This throw sent it flying dozens of meters away.

 

This distance was enough for it to get away from the encirclement of the servants. When it landed rolling and looked up again, all it saw was a flurry of swords and blades around Lu Yingjiu!

 

The servants screamed sharply, rushed forward, and tried to chop the prey into pieces in a frenzy.

 

But Lu Yingjiu moved gracefully like a swallow, with the power of the talisman surging in his blood.

 

He stepped on the hood of the car and leaped into the air. Behind him, a heavy hammer fell and pierced the iron plate, and an axe brushed past his clothes. He held the knife in his right hand, twisted his waist at a very exquisite angle in mid-air, and the knife, like a light butterfly, kissed the servant’s neck.

 

This kiss carried a cold light.

 

The servant’s heavy head fell to the ground with a thud, and black blood burst out, spraying three to five meters high like a fountain!

 

Before the blood hit the ground, Lu Yingjiu had already circled behind like a ghost and cut the throat of another servant.

 

Two servants rushed out, their divine weapons brought a gust of wind and chopped towards his head. Lu Yingjiu didn’t look back, bit his finger, and casually smeared the gushing blood on the talisman—

 

The talisman burst into intense light!

 

The talisman driven by blood was extremely dangerous, but also extremely powerful, only he dared to use it so casually.

 

The talisman fluttered lightly out.

 

This was a fire-summoning talisman, which usually burned into a fist-sized fireball at most, not very threatening. But at this moment, the servants watched it flutter across the sky, all stopping in their tracks.

 

Instinct made them aware of the huge danger.

 

And in fact, their intuition was correct.

 

Lu Yingjiu made a gesture.

 

A sun exploded above the bridge!

 

No one could look directly at that light.

 

If someone looked directly at a flash bomb, then they would experience severe scattering, afterimages, and blindness, their eyes would hurt to tears, and every turn would feel like there was grit rubbing. And now, the light of this talisman was much brighter, the dark sea miles away was illuminated, the waves were bright, and the majestic bridge seemed to be burning.

 

The servants’ murky eyes went blind directly.

 

Blood gushed from their eyes, they covered their eyes and screamed, rolling on the ground in pain.

 

And this was not the end, along with the arrival of the light came flames.

 

The flames wrapped around their bodies, swallowing them all, burning them to ashes.

 

The light and fire lasted for a good half a minute before they began to fade.

 

The power of the talisman was ineffective against Lu Yingjiu, even in the strong light, he still looked around with sharp eyes.

 

Whoosh whoosh whoosh——

 

Patter patter!

 

That disturbing climbing sound came again, this time more and denser, the friction sound of the divine weapons and the bridge surface was like a storm.

 

How many servants came this time?

 

At least a few hundred, right?

 

Lu Yingjiu clenched his short knife and took a deep breath. Sure enough, countless faces popped up at the edge of the bridge, and the new servants pounced on him fiercely—

 

“Awoo!” There was a loud cry.

 

Hairball  finally rolled back!

 

Lu Yingjiu frowned slightly, looked in the direction of the cry, only to plunge into the soft black fur. At the same moment, dozens of servants close to them were cut in half at the waist.

 

The sharp claws cleanly cut them in half.

 

Blood mist exploded in the air, Lu Yingjiu was stunned, and took a half step back.

 

What appeared in front of him was a tall black beast.

 

Its fur was shiny and smooth, its eyes were silver, its wolf-like body was strong and robust, its limbs were long and good at fighting, and its claws were still stained with black blood. Just by looking at it, the fierce and ferocious aura around it made people dare not approach. No one would doubt that it would bite through the necks of all enemies and thirst for their blood.

 

Is this…

 

Is this his hairball?

 

Lu Yingjiu looked dumbfounded, looking at the black beast over and over again.

 

The black beast was affectionate, rubbing its big head against Lu Yingjiu. Its long tail flicked, and the ground was shattered for nearly half a meter, and more than a dozen servants were smashed into mud.

 

Lu Yingjiu was shocked, and after a few seconds, he said, “You…”

 

The black beast wagged its tail, excitedly waiting for his praise.

 

Lu Yingjiu: “Are your legs really that long?! I thought you would never grow taller! Your legs used to be only three centimeters long!”

 

Black Beast: “..…”