The barren mountain wall was still fresh, as if it had been sliced by a blade. I was riding on a petal of the Red Spider Lily, with Isabelle Frost standing at its tip. We were heading toward the Styxwater.
Hell must be rebuilt as soon as possible. Every day, people die in the Living World, and the only place the departed souls can go in Hell is those torturous realms—regardless of guilt, they are temporarily cast in. The number of underworld officers is now less than one-tenth of what it once was.
The most urgent problem now is the Reincarnation Passage. No new life can be born in the Living World. Looking at the once mist-shrouded Mount Shade, the entire mountain has completely changed. Previously, Styxwater was drawn here by the Emperor God and others, utterly destroying everything on Mount Shade.
The original stone forest had turned into a riverbed. Soon, we saw a silver-white river flowing in the distance. The Red Spider Lily petal landed beside a large stone inscribed with the character "sword."
The river surged violently. I could sense the complex emotions within this Styxwater, which could corrode anything. I crouched by the riverbank.
"Don't touch it. Even a little contact will be unbearable," Isabelle Frost warned.
Isabelle Frost spoke, and I stood up, gazing across to the other side. There, a vast forest was visible. I remembered Zhang Qingyuan once mentioning that was where Shen Yanjun and his swordsmen group’s Sword City used to be, but now nothing remains—no trace of any presence.
"Let's check the source."
I said, and Isabelle Frost nodded, lifting me as we continued to drift onward. I tried using Instinctual Coexistence to sense, but felt nothing. Before us stretched an endless, dried wasteland, with the Styxwater quietly winding through it.
At the far end of the boundless gray-black sky, there was still only a long, silver-white river.
"Is the source far away?"
I asked, and Isabelle Frost replied.
"Every time is different. Sometimes it takes just a few minutes, sometimes hours or even days."
This river truly is strange. We still don’t know how the Emperor God and the others managed to draw the Styxwater here.
If it can't be controlled by power—no matter what kind of force is used—once you enter the Weakwater, you are completely swallowed and disappear. It’s an extraordinary river.
Half an hour had passed, and we still hadn’t seen any sign of the source. Isabelle Frost sat down.
"Miss Frost, when did this Styxwater first appear?"
I asked, and Isabelle Frost shook her head, her expression softening a little.
"Lady Meng once told me that this Styxwater River existed when she first arrived in Hell."
I looked at the river in surprise, not expecting it to have existed even before the old Hell was founded. At that moment, a rare smile appeared on Isabelle Frost’s face. She seemed to have changed lately, no longer as cold as she used to be.
"Yin Choujian was always so unpleasant, whether alive or dead."
I smiled faintly and nodded. At that moment, a trace of sorrow appeared on Isabelle Frost’s face. Perhaps her view of Yin Choujian had changed. I didn’t really know what happened between the siblings, but it seemed Isabelle Frost had finally let go.
"Are we there?"
I stood up and looked toward the distant horizon. A misty, black mountain appeared. Isabelle Frost stood up and nodded, and we quickly flew toward the mountain ahead.
As we drew closer, I saw that the mountain was so tall its peak was invisible, shrouded in gray-black mist. Isabelle Frost and I stopped. I noticed a sculpture beside the Styxwater flowing out of a huge cave. It looked like some kind of creature—maybe a ghost, maybe something else. There was a small hole in the ground, and the monster’s mouth was wide open, slowly dripping water into the cave below.
I could feel that this was Soul Cleansing Water, but now it seemed completely dried up. I gazed quietly as Isabelle Frost walked over, reached out before the monster’s head sculpture on the mountain wall, and let a drop of water fall onto her fingertip. She turned around and held her finger up to me.
"What do you think?"
After staring for a moment, I felt something strange and shook my head.
"Try it and see."
As I spoke, I willed a half-black, half-white humanoid to appear. Coexistence quietly gazed at the drop of Soul-Cleansing Water, then looked at the monster sculpture.
"Go inside!"
I looked at Coexistence in confusion. Isabelle Frost seemed to recall something and took out Lady Meng’s cane. Strands of orange ghost threads slowly flowed into the monster’s mouth—these orange threads were rare and carried an indescribable eeriness.
Gradually, I noticed the monster seemed to come alive. Its mouth began to open bit by bit, and suddenly the Styxwater beside us surged up—a huge black stone, like a bridge, connected to a cave that appeared above the monster’s mouth. Isabelle Frost floated up, and I was carried up by the orange ghost threads.
Inside was pitch black, but luminous Red Spider Lilies floated in ahead, lighting up the space. I was stunned to see a massive underground stone cavern, crisscrossed by damp stone paths. Both Isabelle Frost and I could hear water. Isabelle Frost enlarged a Red Spider Lily to carry us, weaving around bridges downward.
On the cavern walls were many simple, childish drawings—like a child’s graffiti.
"I never noticed before. This place requires power to break the spatial entrance."
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I grunted in acknowledgment. I’d just felt Isabelle Frost release an incredibly powerful ghost aura for a moment. We kept descending, and the entrance above was no longer visible.
We landed in a dried-up little pool. In the center, a spring still bubbled faintly—Soul Cleansing Water flowed from here, but now the spring was dry. Isabelle Frost crouched by the spring, releasing strands of orange ghost threads. I closed my eyes and used Coexistence to sense.
A whimpering sound came to my ear, very close, but when I opened my eyes, it vanished. Isabelle Frost seemed to sense something too.
"Be careful, Rachel Lan. Someone must have tampered with this," Isabelle Frost warned.
As she spoke, Isabelle Frost suddenly threw Red Spider Lilies of different colors in all directions. I saw many colors of Red Spider Lilies, and the entire cavern began to shake.
The bubbling sound grew louder as the Soul-Cleansing Water’s spring trembled violently—I saw water gushing forth.
"What on earth is that?"
I felt something strange—the aura was familiar, but nothing was visible.
"It’s the Emperor God and the others who meddled here," Isabelle Frost said.
Isabelle Frost spoke, and red markings appeared on her cheeks, like flowers. Black, muddy substances kept emerging from the cavern walls. I sensed it and gripped the nearly restored Beauty in my hand. Just as I was about to use my power, Isabelle Frost stopped me.
"Don’t act yet, Rachel Lan," Isabelle Frost said.
Isabelle Frost spoke, looking at the walls and then shouting.
"Whoever you are, if you don’t come out now, don’t blame me for what happens next."
Isabelle Frost shouted angrily. Suddenly, a black mass swept past me, but in a flash, Isabelle Frost appeared at my side, grabbing a shadowy humanoid. This figure had only a mouth and eyes—both white—and was grinning at me, clearly having tried to attack.
"As expected, something was tampered with. Thanks to you, Rachel Lan."
I grunted and quickly moved aside. Red light burst from the mud-like black humanoid’s body, then it exploded. The entire cavern shook, and Isabelle Frost swiftly controlled the Red Spider Lily to wrap around me, pulling me up in an instant.
A rumbling continued as the cavern collapsed. We flew out at once. The mountain wall outside remained still, but black, muddy substances poured from the cave, merging together.
Strands of red ghost threads spread across the mountain wall as the black mud poured out like a flood. The Red Spider Lily pulled me farther away.
Suddenly, I sensed a surge of power nearby. Without hesitation, I used Corpse Membrane. A flash of silver-white light—an airborne claw swept through me, turning my body into a shadow. I slashed with Beauty in my hand, cutting the claw down to dust.
The mud began to merge, quickly forming a massive creature. In the blink of an eye, a monster appeared with six legs and three eyes, a mouth like a toad, and a huge body. Its back was covered in vibrant colors, some places bulging.
"It must be some kind of beast from the illusion realm!"
I muttered, and Isabelle Frost shook her head.
"It’s something created by the Emperor God and his group. Look over there."
At that moment, I noticed tentacles under the monster’s belly reaching into the Styxwater, sucking it up with bubbling sounds. Soon, colorful streams of air burst from its back.