Are There Only Demonesses Left in the Cultivation Realm?

Lu Changyuan shook the Three-Life Fruit in his hand.

"Has the Third Prince ever eaten a Three-Life Fruit?"

Su Youwan shook her head.

’The last time the Netherworld appeared, I hadn’t even been born yet.’

Lu Changyuan figured as much. "To reject a gift from heaven is to invite disaster."

The Silver-haired Maiden said, "Is that saying really meant to be used in a situation like this?"

Lu Changyuan chuckled, then broke the Three-Life Fruit open with a CRACK. Strangely, the grayish-black fruit wasn’t filled with the grayish-black maggots of ghouls and the netherworld. Instead, its flesh was a tender pink, looking quite appetizing.

"Don’t worry about all that. Here, I’ll give you half."

He handed half of the Three-Life Fruit to Su Youwan, then popped his own half into his mouth and began to chew.

Lu Changyuan had already eaten this fruit once before; a second time would only let him taste its flavor.

Unlike the fruits it had borne in the past, this Three-Life Fruit was so bitter he wanted to spit it out.

It was like the life of a mortal. In the past, they had no money and could only sell their labor for a few pieces of silver. Later, when their lives improved, they were too old to walk far, unable to see new scenery or enjoy fine food.

A lifetime passes in helplessness and sorrow.

Lu Changyuan expressionlessly swallowed the fruit.

Su Youwan furrowed her picturesque brows. After a moment, she also took a small bite of the fruit.

The expected illusion of three lives never appeared. She felt nothing at all.

A Supreme Being would not be confused by a fabricated trio of lives, let alone be drawn to an illusory Dao.

So it was as if they had both eaten it, and yet, as if they hadn’t.

The battle between the Fourth Realm Cultivator and the frenzied cultivators was now raging elsewhere. Lu Changyuan and Su Youwan didn’t linger, instead continuing toward the far end of East City.

As they walked deeper into the Netherworld, they saw ruined walls and debris burning with blue flames. The once-majestic Royal Palace was now so dilapidated that only glimpses of its former glory remained.

The original swallowtail-shaped upturned eaves and the Bronze Bells that once hung from them had all faded into shadows, vanishing into death.

Lu Changyuan said coolly, "As long as the Nether Monarch does not return, this place will remain eternally in ruin."

Su Youwan reached out a fair hand and brushed over the ancient markings. On a nearby wall were some stone carvings. They seemed to depict a person with a pair of pointed ears, holding a spear and fighting a monster.

"The Nether Monarch lived three thousand years ago, but this scene looks older than that. In recent years, someone brought back a similar totem from some ancient ruins, along with some illegible writing."

"Perhaps the Nether Monarch found a similar totem back in his day. The era of the Ancient Three Thousand Great Demons was a long, long time ago, after all."

Lu Changyuan had no intention of digging deeper into the matter.

"So, is Young Master Lu going to enter the Royal Palace?"

"We can’t. The Nether Monarch’s residual Dao is inside the Royal Palace. Going in would be suicide."

’Besides, the Sun and Moon Gnomon isn’t in the Royal Palace before us.’

Lu Changyuan looked at the ruined gates of the Royal Palace with a faint, enigmatic smile. "If the Sun and Moon Gnomon truly returned to the Netherworld, it’s probably down below."

Su Youwan waited silently for Lu Changyuan to continue, only to see him raise Broken Thought and stab it fiercely into the ground.

DANG!

A sound as pleasant as a clear spring stream echoed, and the space before them abruptly rippled.

Lu Changyuan gazed at the familiar scene. "The Nether Palace has two sides. The one above is where the monarch rests, while the one below is a prison for guilty Spirits."

Not only that.

The Path of Death was also below.

If a Spirit from the Sin Prison walked the Path of Death, it could be pardoned.

The Path of Death and the Sin Prison were always inseparable.

Passing through the thin ripple, it was as if heaven and earth had been inverted. When the two looked up again, they faced an endless darkness. Vaguely visible through the Nether Qi, which seemed to devour all light, were rows upon rows of prison cells.

The cages were spaced evenly, each one holding an illusory Spirit. At a glance, all of these Spirits seemed to be on their last breath, on the verge of dissipation.

The Spirits of the Sin Prison would be ground down here, eventually becoming the foundation of the Netherworld.

Lu Changyuan didn’t pay the Spirits much mind, instead flying swiftly toward the deepest part of the prison. Here, there was a stone sculpture shaped like an Hourglass. At the very center of the sculpture was a large, circular cavity, completely empty inside.

It was like a perfect statue missing its head.

Lu Changyuan had seen this sight before.

The last time he came, this place looked exactly the same.

’But it shouldn’t look like this now.’

"Young Master Lu?"

Su Youwan walked to Lu Changyuan’s side. "Why are you just standing there?"

Lu Changyuan’s expression was grave. "Are you sure the Sun and Moon Palace Master had someone return the Sun and Moon Gnomon to the Netherworld back then?"

"Yes, that is correct."

The Silver-haired Maiden repeated, "There’s no mistake. Back then, the Sun and Moon Palace Master had a Cultivator named Chen An return the Sun and Moon Gnomon."

"What happened to that Cultivator afterward?"

"That, I do not know."

Lu Changyuan pointed to the center of the Hourglass. "If the Sun and Moon Gnomon truly returned to the Netherworld, it would have come back to this spot, because this is the beginning of the Path of Death."

But the center of the stone sculpture was empty.

"Either Chen An never returned the Sun and Moon Gnomon..."

’That’s impossible. The text prompt indicated that the Sun and Moon Gnomon is in the Netherworld, so Chen An must have returned it back then.’

That left only the worst-case scenario.

"Or, someone stole the Sun and Moon Gnomon and has been hiding inside the Netherworld for several hundred years."

From the time the Sun and Moon Palace Master returned the Sun and Moon Gnomon until now, the Netherworld had opened a total of three times.

"Young Master Lu, look over there."

Su Youwan suddenly spoke. Lu Changyuan followed her pointing finger and saw a cell where a Spirit seemed to have gone mad, desperately ramming against the bars.

The Spirit only had half of its body left. It had clearly been imprisoned in the Sin Prison for an unknown length of time, and it was about to dissipate.

Lu Changyuan suddenly spoke, his voice filled with disbelief. "Luo?"

Lu Changyuan recognized this Spirit.

He recognized it because this Spirit had once been very strong. It had even tried to stop Lu Changyuan from stepping onto the Path of Death, and Lu Changyuan had beaten it up several times for its trouble.

’But this Spirit should hold a high status in the Netherworld. Why is it in the Sin Prison!?’

Seeing Lu Changyuan, the Spirit let out a hoarse roar, as if using all its remaining strength to warn him of something.

In that instant, Lu Changyuan raised Broken Thought and blocked an attack from the darkness.

CLANG!

A flash of sparks illuminated the darkness.

A massive axe had appeared before Lu Changyuan’s Broken Thought.

Someone was ambushing him.

Lu Changyuan lashed out with a kick as a shower of sword strikes fell like shooting stars. Only then did he get a clear look at his attacker.

It was also a Spirit.

But this one was clad in armor, held a spear, had horns growing from its head, and was pitch-black all over.

Lu Changyuan parried the opponent’s spear, and his Spring Sword flowed forward relentlessly, slicing the foe in two.

Spirits are made of resentment.

Broken Thought can sever the six worldly desires, so naturally, it can sever the resentment of a Spirit.

This Spirit wasn’t very strong and quickly perished under Broken Thought.

Only then did Lu Changyuan breathe a sigh of relief and turn back to look at Luo.

The Spirit named Luo was still roaring.

"Beware... Xiao Qingfeng?"

’Isn’t that a name on a memorial tablet?’