Xie Bi'an, seeking to maintain control, spoke before we got close: "Wu Chengfeng, why did you bring an outsider? Who is she?"
I immediately seized the opportunity to "betray" Longyue: "This beauty is formidable, the Big Boss of our Yang Realm's Northeast Mohe Group, Miss Longyue!"
"Greetings, esteemed Underworld Envoys." Longyue was polite yet unfettered. Maintaining her stance facing Xie Bi'an and the others, she bowed slightly to them.
Xie Bi'an knew of my ties with Mohe and, upon hearing Longyue's identity, immediately understood. She leaned over to the aloof beauty in the center position and whispered a few words. Longyue stood slightly ahead of me, and I saw her ear twitch. She was likely eavesdropping, but she couldn't hear. She was a ghost from another world, and communication wasn't through sound waves but magnetic field transmission—as Zheng Bingbing had analyzed.
The central beauty nodded slightly after listening. Xie Bi'an and the other two commanders exchanged glances and then nodded in agreement.
Longyue sensed something was amiss and immediately retreated half a step, clenching her fists, ready for battle.
Suddenly, the figures of the three commanders vanished. However, because I had activated my spiritual energy observation technique, I could see these three ghostly energies swiftly encircling Longyue from three directions, forming a triangular formation. Wu Zhao was directly in front of Longyue, while Xie Bi'an and Ma Jiaojiao were to her rear flanks. The three commanders attacked simultaneously, their six shadowy palms striking towards Longyue!
Unexpectedly, their attack hit nothing but air. As their six palms met, a shockwave of purple energy erupted. The shockwave repelled the figures of the three commanders, but Longyue, in the center, had vanished again!
My reaction speed was too slow to grasp what had happened, but the three commanders were much faster. They immediately changed direction and pursued behind me.
By the time I turned around, the three commanders were already locked in combat with Longyue. It was a chaotic melee because I couldn't see their moves at all—they were too fast, a blur of afterimages. I could only observe their mingled energies through my spiritual energy observation technique.
The surrounding cornfield suffered greatly. Wherever the four went, the corn stalks were flattened and broken. The fight rapidly moved away from the City God Temple, like a whirlwind. In mere seconds, I could no longer see them with my naked eye. Only my spiritual energy observation technique could still track the four streams of purple energy rapidly moving towards the edge of my "spiritual energy radar screen."
"Lord Wu, let's go!" the portly judge hurried over, tugging at my sleeve, "This is the strategy devised by Commander Wu and the other two. They were worried they couldn't defeat that ginseng demon, so they decided on a tactic of diverting the enemy to save the besieged, allowing the Young King of Hell and me to escort you away!"
His rushed words genuinely shocked me, as the information was immense!
Longyue wasn't human? No wonder her complexion looked so strange. She appeared human, with three energy streams, but the central one had a distinctly different color from the other two. So she was a ginseng demon!
Wait, isn't ginseng a plant? Can plants cultivate into demons?
But if she was a demon, why would she be the spiritual leader of the Mohe organization? The Mohe organization were "demon hunters." Was I hunting myself?
What astonished me even more was that this beautiful woman in the tall hat was actually the Young King of Hell!
She was the boss of the Underworld Envoy Office, the superior of Xie Bi'an and the other eight commanders, and she personally appeared to save me? And she was a mere red energy ghost! A red energy ghost dared to cause trouble in the human realm? What if something happened to her? If the successor to the Underworld King collapsed, the Underworld would be thrown into chaos!
"Let's go, Chengfeng," the Young King of Hell said softly, sounding quite friendly towards me.
"Greetings, Your Highness!" I knelt on one knee and offered a simple salute. This was my great spiritual leader!
"Mmm, rise, let's go."
"Where are we going?" I asked the portly judge.
"That ginseng demon is too powerful. We can only seek temporary refuge in the Underworld. Let's hope she dares not follow."
"...She can break into the Underworld?" I frowned. Regardless of what sort of spirit or demon she was, she was ultimately from the Yang Realm.
"Lord Wu, you may not know," the portly judge said as he pulled me towards the City God Temple, "Ginseng absorbs the essence of the sun and moon. After ten thousand years of cultivation, it becomes a demon, having already stepped beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements. Even Immortals cannot deal with her, so how can our Underworld? The Young King of Hell has already taken a great risk in saving you!"
"Stepped beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements." This phrase sounded so familiar. Wasn't it a line from Journey to the West, spoken by Sun Wukong?
Could it be that this Longyue was a character like Sun Wukong? A female Sun Wukong who liked to eat chili oil noodles?
If that were the case, it would be understandable that the three underworld commanders couldn't defeat a Sun Wukong...