Xu Ying and Yuan Qi could smell the aroma of meat from a distance, making them even more hungry.

Inside the tavern, many strange-looking people were eating and drinking. Xu Ying glanced over and felt a chill in his heart. In his peripheral vision, he saw not people, but skeletons sitting there feasting on food made of human hearts and brains.

As Xu Ying and Yuan Qi walked forward under the strange gazes of the tavern's patrons, a skeleton asked, "Where are they going?"

An old ghost replied, "To the Lookout Tower. They shouldn't go any further. Once they see their hometown from there, they'll never be able to return to the mortal world."

The old ghost muttered, "They should stay here like us, let us devour their flesh and blood, and become lonely ghosts like us, instead of going in there to die..."

The fog ahead gradually thickened, and the green tiles and white walls of a long street appeared in Xu Ying's sight. The street was wide, and old shops lined both sides.

Xu Ying felt a sense of familiarity looking at the street, but he was sure he had never been here before.

Then, the sound of reading came from a private school nearby. Xu Ying followed the sound and looked inside the window. Over twenty children were studying there, and a young man in his twenties was their teacher.

Xu Ying felt that he recognized the young man's face, but couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

After class, the children ran out of the private school, and a gentle woman in a white dress, the mistress of the school, came out and petted their heads.

Xu Ying felt a sense of familiarity looking at the woman, but couldn't remember where he had seen her before either.

The woman noticed Xu Ying and asked with a smile, "Young man, who are you looking for?"

Xu Ying shook his head and asked for directions to leave. The woman pointed him in the right direction, and as Xu Ying walked away, a mischievous child bumped into his leg and called out "Ah Ying, don't run too far, it's time for lunch!"

Xu Ying stood there in shock, then turned to look at the child, who looked exactly like him when he was a child.The child's face lit up with a smile, and his body dissipated like dust.

In just a moment, Xu Ying burst into tears.

"A Ying, what's wrong?" The snake demon Yuan Qi noticed him stop and asked in confusion.

"I saw my parents."

Xu Ying stood there for a long time and said in a hoarse voice, "But I don't recognize them. I don't remember what they look like or their names. I saw them just now, but I didn't recognize them..."

He threw Da Zhong aside, knelt on the ground, and sobbed quietly while covering his face, "I can't remember what they look like or their names. I saw them just now, but I didn't recognize them..."

Yuan Qi leaned against his side and patted the young man's shoulder, whispering, "A Ying, we should keep going."

Xu Ying silently stood up and walked in the direction the woman had pointed.

Ahead, the road was long and difficult, a rugged path.

Beside it was a flat road, but Xu Ying didn't follow it. Instead, he took the difficult road.

"Stop!" The group of gods quickly caught up to the wine shop and suddenly one of the men in gray clothes said in a deep voice, "That's the way to the Netherworld. Let's go around!"

The gray-clothed man looked young, but he was extremely tall, about thirteen or fourteen feet, with dragon horns growing on his forehead and sharp fingernails, unlike a human.

A god said, "Senior Brother Shi Long, what will happen if we enter the Netherworld?"

The gray-clothed man was Shi Long, a holy god in the Ningyuan Confucian Temple.

The Ningyuan Confucian Temple was large and prosperous, dedicated to the great sage Confucius. There were four bronze pillars in front of and behind the main hall of the temple, with four stone dragons coiled around them, carved from the hardest stone.

Because of the temple's prosperity, the four stone dragons gradually gained divine power!

The four dragons had absorbed the incense for four hundred years, each with extraordinary achievements, and had forged golden bodies. Shi Long was one of the four stone dragons.

Shi Long's eyes flickered as he said, "The Netherworld is not within the jurisdiction of the Nether Court and is extremely mysterious. It is said that once you enter, you will see your hometown. It is located between the underworld and the mortal world. If you are not careful, you will never come back and become a lonely ghost!"

At this moment, a voice laughed and said, "I've heard that some dying people hide in the Netherworld, living between the underworld and the mortal world, not alive or dead, not aging or dying. It is extremely dangerous to rashly enter their territory. These beings will do anything to stay alive!"

Shi Long looked over and saw County Magistrate Zhou Yang leading a group of officials walking quickly towards them.

The two men looked at each other and their gazes shifted away.

Shi Long said, "Xu Ying won't come out alive if he enters the Netherworld. County Magistrate Zhou can go back and report now."Zhou Yang said lightly, "He has violated the law of the king. If he lives, he must be seen. If he dies, his corpse must be seen!"

The two looked at each other again. Smoke and mist surrounded Shi Longzi's head, and the scent of incense gradually became stronger. The golden light gradually appeared on his body, which was a sign of the operation of the Golden Body!

Zhou Yang smiled slightly, calm and composed, and said softly, "The Golden Body of the Yin Court is slightly inferior to my Zhou family's Diamond Body. It's quite a coincidence that I have just cultivated the Diamond Body!"

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Shi Longzi sneered, "Who knows which is better between the Golden Body and the Diamond Body? Besides, County Magistrate Zhou is still young. How far has he cultivated the Diamond Body?"

Zhou Yang smiled and said, "The second level!"

Shi Longzi's pupils slowly shrank, feeling the pressure.

If Zhou Yang had only cultivated the Undead Body to the first level, he could still easily win. But if he had cultivated it to the second level, it was uncertain who would win!

The two were in a fierce competition, which could very likely result in both losing, or even both dying!

Zhou Yang didn't want to tear his face with him, and suggested, "Since Xu Ying has entered the Nostalgia Platform and his life or death is unknown, why should we fight to the death? Shi Longzi, let's bypass the Nostalgia Platform and wait for him on the road ahead."

Shi Longzi nodded and said, "Whoever gets Xu Ying will depend on luck!" After speaking, he led his men away.

Zhou Yang watched him leave, his eyes flashing, and looked at the misty Nostalgia Platform. He whispered, "The Nostalgia Platform is said to be a place where people can be between life and death. It is said that many extremely terrifying powerhouses are hidden here. When their lifespan is about to end, they hide in the Nostalgia Platform. But once you enter, you can never come out..."

Behind him, an official whispered, "My lord, is the legend of the Nostalgia Platform true?"

Zhou Yang's face changed and he chose to bypass the Nostalgia Platform from another direction. He said, "I originally thought it was fake, but later I heard a rumor."

He paused and said, "This rumor is circulating in my clan. It is said that our Zhou ancestor once faced a life-threatening crisis. At that time, the ancestor wanted to enter the Nostalgia Platform to put himself in a state of neither life nor death, and avoid the crisis. Later, he used his intelligence and extraordinary talent to finally survive the crisis and extend his life, so he did not hide in the Nostalgia Platform. That was when I learned that the legend of the Nostalgia Platform is true."

The officials looked at each other and looked towards the misty place. One official murmured, "Will the suspect Xu Ying really come out of there?"

Zhou Yang shook his head and said, "He is not at the end of his lifespan, so he may have a chance to come out. But then again..."His face darkened as he said, "...they will be consumed by those beings who are neither human nor ghost, and their souls will be possessed!"

The officials couldn't help but shiver.

In the middle of the Wàngxiāng Tower, the mist grew thicker and thicker. The road under Xu Ying's feet became more winding and rugged, with a bottomless abyss below and strange rocks like knives and spears towering above. One wrong step and he would be reduced to powder!

After passing the mountain cliff, there was a single log bridge between two fortress-like peaks. It was a round log that required extreme caution to walk on. If it rolled even a little, it would fall into the bottomless abyss!

Xu Ying took off his shoes, adjusted his breath, and walked barefoot on the log, carefully sensing the changes in the strength of his feet, step by step forward.

Behind him, the snake demon Yuan Qi coiled around the large round log, crawling forward step by step.

Looking down, they saw only clouds and mist, and a green river below. The river emitted green bubbles that bubbled up and down, and there were rotting corpses floating on the water's surface.

As each bubble inflated, it swelled into the shape of a human head, growing larger and larger, gradually floating up from the river's surface.

"Where did you come from, young man?" A young girl's face appeared on one of the bubbles, asking Xu Ying with a charming gesture.

Xu Ying didn't answer.

Yuan Qi blew a breath at the bubble, and the young girl's face on the bubble became more and more distorted, shouting, "I'm going to die! I'm going to die! Ah—"

The bubble burst with a bang, and the green river water splashed all over Yuan Qi's face.

Trembling, Yuan Qi followed Xu Ying across the single log bridge to the other side.

As they walked along the mountain path, they saw someone standing by the roadside with three legs, motionless.

As they approached, they realized that it was not three legs, but that the person was nailed to a wooden stake.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi felt their scalps go numb, quietly walking past the person. The man was not yet dead, trembling as he cried out, "Save me..."

Yuan Qi couldn't bear it in his heart, saying, "How can we save you?"

"Give me two years of life!" the man cried out.

Yuan Qi said to Xu Ying, "Give him two years of life, and we can save him. We have plenty of life left, why not save his life?"

Just as he finished speaking, the trees on both sides of the road suddenly turned around. They were all three-legged monsters with wooden stakes under their bodies, appearing to have three legs, and they all cried out, "Give me two years of life, save my life!"

Yuan Qi was startled, realizing that they were not nailed to wooden stakes, but their bodies were rooted in the earth. They had grown together with the trees.

Yuan Qi hurriedly caught up with Xu Ying, never mentioning saving people again.The two of them walked nervously along the way and saw someone sitting on the roadside with a flower growing out of their mouth. There was also someone who looked like a scarecrow standing in the ground with branches and a visible heart beating in the middle of their ribcage.

These people used strange Nuo techniques to prolong their lives, often turning themselves into plants with strange postures.

After walking for a long time, they finally saw a house with a normal person in front of it. He was a burly man with a beard who looked at Xu Ying and Yuan Qi with some surprise.

Xu Ying bravely approached and asked for directions. The bearded man was surprised and asked, "Are you from the mortal world? Who directed you here? This is the only way out of Nostalgia. Without someone pointing the way, you won't make it here!"

Xu Ying hesitated for a moment and explained that they came to Nostalgia because of their parents' guidance. The bearded man was even more surprised and said, "Nostalgia, Nostalgia. What you see here is naturally your hometown! Young man, what you saw was something from your childhood. Your parents saw the future you seven or eight years ago and pointed the way for you! They were two great masters, truly remarkable!"

Xu Ying was extremely shocked. His parents in his memory died in Xujia Ping and were just ordinary people. How could they be great masters?

As he recalled his parents' faces at the Nostalgia Platform, his memory suddenly became hazy, and his father and mother's faces gradually became blurred. They stood in his memory, but their faces were like blank paper without features.

The bearded man said, "I can send you out of Nostalgia, but my enemy is coming, and he will be here soon. Before I die, I have to fight him. You can rest in my house for a while, and I'll send you away after I kill him."

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi were shocked and puzzled.

This bearded man was truly heroic, fighting his enemy even after death.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi entered the house and saw the bearded man take out a sword box that was over a meter tall and stand proudly with one hand on the sword box.

After a moment, the wind and rain suddenly swept through the underworld, and lightning flashed and thundered. The sky became dark.

Vaguely, they saw a towering god standing in the dark clouds, shouting, "Yuan Tiangang, you broke my dragon neck on Panlong Mountain and ruined my cultivation! Today, I will kill you to avenge myself!"