On the Path to the Great Dao Chapter 323: Mistress Lingsu

"Red-Haired Ghost chased you?"

Chen Shi stood up, paced back and forth, and asked with puzzlent, "Who exactly is this Young Master? Why does he want the Three Lives Stone? Miss, you were guarding before, do you know this Young Master?"

The Boat Girl shook her head. "We underworld officers take orders from the underworld marshal, the underworld marshal takes orders from the judge, the judge takes orders from the King of Hell. We have not heard of any Young Master."

Chen Shi asked, "Who ordered you to suppress and my mother?"

The Boat Girl said, "The underworld marshal's orders."

"Then where is that underworld marshal?"

"Dead."

The Boat Girl's face darkened as she said, "Chen Yindu stord into the Immortal Capital and abducted you. We couldn't defeat Chen Yindu, so we went to find the underworld marshal, only to discover he was already dead. We then went to seek the judge, only to find the judge dead as well. My father and I sought out the Righteous Official, but even he was missing. We were driven to desperation; losing you would have ant certain doom, so we imdiately abandoned our true forms and escaped to the mortal world."

Chen Shi felt a slight jolt in his heart. His death had happened eleven years ago; the ti he was sealed here must have occurred between three and eleven years ago, probably less than eight years, perhaps only about five.

In just five short years, massive upheaval had taken place in the underworld—underworld masters, judges, and the King of Hell: so dead, so missing!

A burly female yaksha held a wine cup, eyes half-lidded with drunkenness, and leaned toward Chen Shi with seductive lashes: "If you are willing, drink this cup."

Chen Shi pushed lightly with his hand; the female yaksha flew back, smashed through a wall, and went tumbling dozens of yards away.

Chen Shi muttered to himself, "When Grandpa led Granny Sha, Uncle Blue Goat, and the others into the underworld to rescue , they also found severe turmoil. Ghosts and underworld spirits were fighting each other, with heavy casualties. It seems sothing huge happened in the underworld during that ti! No—more precisely, that wasn't the only period!"

The Three Corpses Gods looked at one another when they saw him send the female yaksha flying.

Such a beauty, and still not to the master's taste?

Chen Shi suddenly realized that Zhong Dao and Tie had reincarnated over twenty years ago. That ant the underworld catastrophe had already begun more than twenty years ago!

"But Tongue-Pulling Hell split apart more than fourteen hundred years ago. This war may have lasted far longer than I thought... Regardless of all that, my purpose here is only to rescue my mother!"

Chen Shi steadied himself and silently vowed, "Tomorrow I will find a chance to bring mother out. Nothing else matters!"

He relaxed, then danced and sang rrily with the brothel's female yakshas, rejoicing exuberantly.

Peng—Peng—Pengju was overjoyed at the sight, convinced their plan had worked.

As dawn neared, the Three Corpses Gods imdiately transford into a gust of yin wind and vanished, leaving Chen Shi to pay the bill.

Chen Shi settled the account and returned to the Primordial Palace. He opened the front hall—empty, with no sign of Pengta.

He checked the two side halls as well, and found no trace of the other two corpse gods.

The Three Corpses Gods must only appear at night.

Chen Shi retrieved the food he'd prepared in advance from the small temple and ate to fill his stomach. Only after eating his fill did he set out.

He took Black Pot and followed the Boat Girl, traveling along the Celestial Streets.

By day, the Immortal Capital seed far quieter than the night before, but the Celestial Streets were no longer populated by people. Instead, ghosts and spirits road. The lowest-level beings were small yakshas, ox-head and horse-face lesser ghosts, so begging for work, so doing dirty, grueling tasks.

Above them were large yakshas like Chen Shi, ox-head monsters, and horse-face monsters—still rely ghosts and fiends, not yet gods.

Only those commissioned by the underworld and honored with incense offerings truly ranked as ghost gods. Without incense, they remained rely monsters.

Walking the Celestial Streets, Chen Shi scanned the horizon. Endless Primordial Palaces stretched out before him, with no end in sight, leaving him deeply shaken.

How vast was the Immortal Capital?

Had anyone ever reached its edge?

"The Primordial Palaces of everyone on the Western Ox New Continent are all here," the Boat Girl said. "People die at every mont, and at every mont new lives are born. Primordial Palaces constantly collapse, and other Primordial Palaces constantly form."

Chen Shi tilted his head and looked at the boundless palaces. So houses held towering primordial spirits, majestic and godlike—likely the Primordial Spirits of powerful cultivators.

Such grand Primordial Spirits were rare—only one among tens of thousands of palaces. Yet even one was awe-inspiring.

Seeing this, he finally understood the small yaksha's words.

"The little yaksha said the Primordial Palace is like a person's body. It was right! The Primordial Palace mirrors the body in the underworld, but more wondrous. In the underworld the Primordial Spirit hides within the Primordial Palace. In the mortal world the Primordial Spirit hides in the body. The Three Corpses Gods are the ghosts ford from a person's various base and worldly thoughts."

Chen Shi gained so clarity: during the day, reason rules and the Primordial Spirit leads, so the Three Corpses Gods lay low. At night, reason fades and moonlight influences the soul, allowing the Three Guards to take charge.

If soone sleeps and reason is entirely gone, the Three Corpses Gods might lead the owner's soul into debauchery across the Immortal Capital.

In other words, the entire Immortal Capital is actually the physical bodies and dreams of countless people, manifested in the underworld!

Nurous ghosts and gods attach themselves to such an Immortal Capital.

"There are even deeper mysteries in here, but that's the general idea."

Chen Shi looked around. The Immortal Capital was vast and ethereal; everything felt impossibly strange.

Before he realized it, they had returned to the courtyard the Red-Haired Ghost had entered last night.

Outside the courtyard many small yakshas were lined up in orderly ranks, hundreds strong.

These little yakshas carried poles or forks on their shoulders and wore their travel sacks—usually cloth bags with so dried food and joss paper—and moved forward slowly.

Chen Shi stepped forward to ask. A small yaksha replied, "The master here is giving a banquet and hiring hardworking little yakshas as errand boys. The pay is high. We're just trying our luck, maybe we'll get a job. The mansion doesn't need big yakshas, so queuing is useless."

Chen Shi smiled. "I'm just passing through, not vying for a job with you. What is the na of the master here? What's their background?"

"I don't know."

Chen Shi questioned several little yakshas; none knew the courtyard master's na.

He followed the Boat Girl and Black Pot, passing by the courtyard. This courtyard was far larger than other Primordial Palaces—its periter stretched for dozens of miles. Behind the courtyard lay a patch of darkness; faintly, a Celestial Street hung within the gloom, and in the distant dark rose a single Primordial Palace, with no other palaces in sight.

The front of the courtyard and the back seed like two different worlds.

"My daughter and I ca here last ti to rescue your mother," the Boat Girl said.

Chen Shi observed the road; both sides were pitch-black, without light.

He focused his mind, turning his qi and blood into a talisman, and ford a Five Thunder Talisman in the darkness.

The instant lightning flared, an enormous monstrous beast lay prostrate in the dark—its head to tail spanning dozens of miles, encircling that Primordial Palace!

Along both sides of the road were flat boats, each with a horse-face ghost god standing or sitting or wearing a bamboo hat and lying on the boat. The flat boats floated in the darkness like vessels on a river.

When the thunder flared, Chen Shi turned and left, and each horse-face ghost god on those boats rose and opened its eyes to sweep the lightning-struck place.

They carried Children's Heavenly-Aperture Lamps in their hands; the lamps' light burned like torches and swept forward.

Beams of light converged and destroyed the Five Thunder Talisman!

The horse-face ghost gods discovered it had only been a single Five Thunder Talisman; they imdiately scanned the area where Chen Shi had been, but Chen Shi had already moved on.

The beams retracted, leaving only bright eyes in the darkness.

Suddenly, behind those eyes, vast eyelids spanning dozens of yards slowly opened, hellfire flickering and streaming outward.

A giant dog lay curled in the dark; Chen Shi's mother's Primordial Palace was nestled in the beast's embrace.

The giant dog awoke, and the horse-face underworld officers panicked: "Huo Dog has awakened! Huo Dog has awakened!"

At that mont, a tall scarlet figure landed into the darkness and took position on the road to the Primordial Palace—Red-Haired Ghost, red hair streaming, shouting, "What's the commotion?"

Seeing the giant dog awake, his face shifted with alarm. He hurriedly produced a talisman, which flew out and stuck onto the giant dog's forehead.

The giant dog roared, rocking the underworld officers to unsteady footing; even Red-Haired Ghost staggered, and then the beast cald and fell asleep again.

Red-Haired Ghost breathed a sigh of relief, looked around, and asked, "What happened just now?"

One of the underworld officers explained the incident with the Five Thunder Talisman. Red-Haired Ghost's eyes flashed. "A Five Thunder Talisman? Seems the last affair isn't over—soone foolish is stirring. Guard this place well; I'll go tell the Young Master."

"Orders received."

Red-Haired Ghost returned to the courtyard. Inside, the garden's lakes and mountains were delicate and beautiful; even in the underworld it resembled a fairyland.

He entered the Secretariat Hall where the Young Master was receiving guests. After a mont, a palace-clad woman stepped out of the hall and nodded slightly to Red-Haired Ghost.

"Greetings, Mistress Lingsu!"

Red-Haired Ghost dared not be remiss and hastily saluted. After Mistress Lingsu departed, he entered the hall and reported the matter to the Young Master.

The Young Master was surprised: "A Five Thunder Talisman? The intruder wasn't a ghost god, but a living person. Ghost gods wouldn't use that kind of talisman."

He was a noble young lord, delicate-featured. If Xiang Tianyu were here, he would be stunned; this young man's appearance matched his visage from thirty years ago, as if he had not aged at all.

The Young Master rose and smiled, "So it was Chen Shi who ca."

Red-Haired Ghost drew himself up. "He caused such a fuss—he dares return to the underworld?"

The Young Master half-smiled, half-serious: "He dares indeed. Imdiately lead the underworld officers to seal off Chen Shi's Primordial Palace! He will have nowhere to go in the Immortal Capital; he will certainly return to his Primordial Palace!"

Red-Haired Ghost was about to go carry out the order when the Young Master called after him: "Also, keep an eye on his Three Corpses Gods. He's very cunning, but the Three Corpses Gods will expose his trail."

Red-Haired Ghost acknowledged and hurried away.

Chen Shi, the Boat Girl, and Black Pot hastily put distance between themselves and the courtyard. After they had gone dozens of miles, they stopped. Chen Shi frowned: "The defenses are so tight, there's no way to rescue mother! Especially that enormous beast in the dark—the strength it displays is unfathomable. We are absolutely no match."

"Yes!" Black Pot said.

Chen Shi nodded. That monstrous beast was likely kin to Black Pot but fully grown and peerlessly powerful.

The Boat Girl fretted: "Last ti my father and I ca, there weren't so many ghost gods guarding. They must have bolstered the defenses. What can we do now?"

Chen Shi halted and looked around. Ghosts and spirits filled the Immortal Capital everywhere. Rescuing soone from here would be extrely difficult. Only at the mont of extraction, if they could imdiately return to the mortal world and escape from there, would they have hope.

At that mont, a carriage rolled past them and stopped. The carriage window opened; a palace-clad woman glanced at Black Pot.

Black Pot stared at the woman. The woman smiled faintly and said, "Naughty dog."

Black Pot coughed in surprise—she was unaffected by Black Pot's influence!

Chen Shi's heart soared. People immune to Black Pot's influence were often extraordinarily powerful.

The palace-clad woman turned her light away and landed on the two yakshas that Chen Shi and the Boat Girl had transford into, eyeing them up and down. She laughed, "Has Sha Qiutong's transformation technique beco this sophisticated? Even I cannot tell your true forms."

Chen Shi and the Boat Girl were chilled to the bone. The Boat Girl's face went pale and she trembled like a sieve. Suddenly she stamped her foot hard, beca a gust of yin wind, and vanished.

She was terrified—she escaped back to the mortal world, leaving Chen Shi and Black Pot behind.

The palace-clad woman was unperturbed and focused her gaze on Chen Shi. Curiously she asked, "Why didn't you run?"

Chen Shi honestly replied, "I don't know how."

The woman snorted with laughter. "You don't know the spell to return to the mortal world? You dared to sneak in without that? What audacity! Since the trouble's already happened, don't go back to your Primordial Palace—soone is waiting to ambush you there."

Chen Shi hurriedly asked, "Why are you telling this?"

"Why 'Miss'?"

The palace-clad woman couldn't help laughing. "Like your grandfather—sweet-tongued. Don't call 'Miss'. Call Mistress Lingsu, or Chen Yindu will scold for pretending to be young."

Chen Shi bowed. "Greetings, Mistress Lingsu."

Mistress Lingsu asked, "How is your grandfather?"

Chen Shi's face went dark. "My grandfather... is dead."

Mistress Lingsu brightened and cheered, "He's finally dead? Heaven be praised! With him gone, I can have you all to myself!"

She grew excited and imdiately ordered the driver to turn toward Chen Yindu's Primordial Palace. She laughed, "Chen Yindu, you always had too many female companions in life—now at last you'll be mine alone!"

Chen Shi was stunned and hastily chased after the carriage. "Mistress Lingsu, could you take to my grandfather's Primordial Palace?"

Mistress Lingsu stopped the carriage and smiled, "Get in!"

Chen Shi climbed aboard, with Black Pot leaping after the carriage.

The carriage interior was spacious, like a small palace; clouds served as cushions and mist as tables and chairs. They could see the outside scenery, but those outside could not see inside.

Chen Shi collapsed onto a cushion. In front of him the driver was a skeleton of a hundred bones, and the mounts were two bone dragons pulling the carriage through the air, weaving between countless Celestial Streets as one Primordial Palace after another flashed by.

Chen Shi glanced anxiously at the carriage's tail. Black Pot bounded nimbly and managed to keep pace with the carriage, which put his mind at ease.

He looked at Mistress Lingsu. The palace-clad woman was gorgeously beautiful, sowhat voluptuous, with a full Primordial Spirit and an air of ease and dignity.

Chen Shi summoned his courage and asked, "Mistress Lingsu, are you my grandmother?"

Mistress Lingsu's expression darkened; she sneered, "No. I want to know which little rascal she's been with!"