For a moment, the meeting fell into silence. Shade kept making faces at me, which irritated me. I turned my head, glaring at him from the corner of my eye.
At this moment, Xu Fu stood up and walked onto the stage. Pointing at the three-dimensional Hell diagram above, he gave a wicked smile and spoke.
"Making Hell fall is nearly impossible, you know."
"Xu Fu, if your Immortality Society doesn't want to participate, then just stay out of it. We won't force you."
Emperor God couldn't help but interject. Xu Fu shook his head.
"That Ksitigarbha monk's power is no longer what it used to be. The old Hell you exist in, back then, Ksitigarbha had only just stepped onto the Buddhist path. But now, Ksitigarbha possesses the power of a Buddha. You think you can overturn Hell? Ridiculous."
I looked at Xu Fu with some suspicion. What he was saying now seemed meant to push some agenda. There was definitely something fishy going on.
"Xu Fu, when did you become so timid and afraid of trouble?"
Shade's smile vanished. He stared hard at Xu Fu.
"The Dark Banquet... Heh. If you were really capable, you wouldn't be trying to seize Ethan Zhang's instinct. I know all about your origins."
That one sentence left Shade utterly shocked.
"Ethan Zhang, why don't we join forces? What do you say?"
As Shade spoke, he walked over to me and stood right in front of me. Behind him, Black Moon burst out laughing.
"Looks like you're all in a hurry, so you want to get it over with as soon as possible, right?"
Indeed, the Dark Banquet members have been extremely impatient ever since we arrived in this world.
"What exactly are you all in such a rush for?"
Ray Lin asked nonchalantly. Shade didn't answer; he just stared at me and then pointed at Xu Fu.
"He'll be a huge obstacle for you in the future. Getting rid of someone like him early would benefit both you and us. Think about it, Ethan Zhang."
I shook my head.
"There's no need to consider it. I won't cooperate with you."
"Let's move on to the next proposal, shall we?"
At this moment, Xu Fu looked at Phantom Sage and began to speak. Phantom Sage nodded, glanced around, then waved his hand. Suddenly, white lights appeared beneath our feet.
"The next matter also concerns our Hell strategy. I'll personally take you all to see the results of our work."
Everything around us began to change. Beneath us, a burst of white light appeared, with countless sparkling particles rising up.
Suddenly, I noticed green light above my head, and all around, the green seemed to cover everything. Below, it was like a layer of glass—transparent. We were standing in the air above nine islands.
"Everyone, please look down."
Phantom Sage said, and began his explanation.
Everything on this island is the product of the second Emotion Isolation Lab experiment. The 'seven emotions' represent the seven kinds of human feelings. When these emotions reach a certain level, the people here, made of yin energy, undergo physical changes—losing reason and turning into beasts.
This phenomenon was discovered by Phantom Sage by chance, back when there weren't many people in this world. There was an incident.
There was a guy who, before death, was mentally unstable. He wasn't anything special, but in life, he killed many people out of hatred. At first, everything was fine, but one day, he suddenly started killing in large numbers.
In this world, at first his actions went unnoticed. It wasn’t until there were many victims that he was finally caught. But by then, he had already begun to change—his body twisted, turning into something like a wild beast, sprouting fangs and claws.
"Everyone in this world is made of Yin energy. The Yinfolk are very similar to ghosts, but there’s one key difference: Yinfolk have a physical body, while ghosts do not. Both, however, share a common trait—when emotions build up to a certain point, they mutate. Some ghosts, after intense trauma, accumulate so much Yin and resentment that they become evil spirits. That’s what happens to the laborers in Hell who have worked for thousands of years—their forms change, becoming completely unlike normal people. Some have skin like ancient bark, some grow horns, some shift from walking upright to crawling. The transformations are endless."
Phantom Sage spoke, and suddenly the image below us shifted to a forest, filled with bizarre, twisted beasts. Some fought with each other, others rested.
"When a particular emotion inside someone reaches a certain threshold, this kind of mutation occurs. After that incident, we established the Emotion Isolation Lab. Periodically, I extract intense emotions from people in this world and process them into food that the Lab’s subjects can consume, slowly amplifying their chosen emotion."
A wave of disgust rose from the depths of my heart. What they were doing was no better than the Immortality Society—perhaps even worse.
"Earlier, we sent batches of Yaksha to the Nether Syndicate for experiments. The results were astonishing. Everything produced here has a physical form, composed entirely of Yin energy. In a world without restraints, their power was unmatched. After consuming humans, their strength grew even faster. That’s why everything living on these nine islands will become our formidable army in the future."
At this, Xu Fu shook his head, sighed, and stepped down from the stage.
"We have no interest in this."
Emperor God glanced at our side, then at Luna Quay’s, before speaking.
"Well then, everyone should be clear now. There are currently 187,893 beasts on these nine islands, and over 6,000 of them are strong enough to defeat a Blue Wraith. This is the core fighting force of our world. Once they leave this world, they will be an incredibly powerful army. So, I hope you all make your decisions soon."
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Shade clapped his hands and burst into loud laughter.
"Of course, the Dark Banquet is eager to cooperate with you. The real issue is the other two factions."
After speaking, Shade glanced at us. At that moment, I saw Luna Quay stand up.
"Agreed. The Nether Syndicate will work with you and join your strategy."
A wave of mixed emotions welled up inside me. I looked at Luna Quay; Emperor God looked at us.
"Well, Ethan Zhang, this is a good opportunity for you too. The power of the Yin Realm may not easily affect the living world, but they will act—they won’t let you become more troublesome in the world of the living."
"I’m not interested."
I said it, looking at Luna Quay. I truly couldn’t understand why Luna Quay agreed to cooperate with these people. All along, I’d considered Luna Quay a friend. Suddenly, I realized something—emotion had completely disappeared. In Luna Quay, I saw no trace of humanity.
"What’s wrong, Ethan Zhang? We’re not friends. It’s just that, for a while, we happened to cooperate. That’s how this world works. Still, thank you for helping us find clues about these people."
I was startled, staring at Lan Jiuqing as he burst into laughter.
"We zombies aren’t like you ghosts. When you visited the Nether Syndicate before, we only cooperated because circumstances aligned. Now, for us, maybe cooperation is no longer possible."
I glared at Lan Jiuqing. He looked back at me with a sly grin.
I stood up and smiled.
"When will we get to see the core of this world?"
Emperor God looked at me and smiled.
"Alright, since some are unwilling to cooperate, the three parties who’ve reached consensus need time to discuss. For now, do as you wish. Tomorrow, we’ll reconvene for the next topic."
As soon as Emperor God finished speaking, I noticed that, except for us and Xu Fu, the others began to fade away. Within minutes, they were gone.
Back in the Ghost Domain, I felt heavy-hearted. Ghost Book Sage sighed helplessly.
"Qingyuan, this is a huge decision. Honestly, if we really go to war with the Yin Realm, our strength would be laughable."
"Old man, you’re overthinking it. If a real fight breaks out, we’ll all be cannon fodder."
Xu Fu laughed heartily. All of us felt the same—we had no intention of getting involved.
I looked at Jiang Tianci. He, too, wore a deeply troubled expression, his brow furrowed.
"Is that guy really my corpse?"
I watched Jiang Tianci nod.
"It’s just a different kind of existence now."
I forced a bitter smile, recalling the story of Zhuang Bo and Yin Choujian’s father, Yin Youchen. For the Nether Syndicate, emotion is now the top priority. Luo Yichen and the others have glimpsed a way to recover their feelings. Maybe that’s why Luna Quay chose to cooperate with Emperor God.
"Ethan Zhang, tomorrow, just pretend to agree with them."
Yixue suddenly spoke. I looked at her in surprise.
"Learning more can only benefit us."
Xu Fu snorted coldly, his body gradually fading away.
"Let me give you some advice: Don’t get involved just to try things out."
I drifted slowly toward the apartment building, needing to be alone. The thought of Luna Quay and Emperor God working together weighed heavily on me. I never expected this.