Shi Xia absolutely refused to admit that a soft... uh... cute... uh... anyway, a girl like her would suddenly become something like a Pure Yang Body. This spiritual root must have grown in the wrong place. If Scout hadn’t explained that "Pure Yang" only referred to the unique spiritual energy in her body and not her gender, she might have yanked out that little white sprout inside her.
As long as it didn’t involve gender, they could still be friends!
As for what exactly her spiritual root’s attributes were, it took her a while to understand.
Simply put, it had all attributes. Meaning she could absorb any kind of spiritual energy. Thinking back to when she first drew in qi, she had indeed absorbed all types. This was somewhat similar to a mixed Five Elements spiritual root, but fundamentally different. Because the Yang attribute was the umbrella term for all spiritual energy—the Five Elements originated from Yang—Pure Yang had an innate attraction to all spiritual qi. Compared to a mixed spiritual root, which required cultivating each type of energy one by one, this was much simpler.
Moreover, Yin and Yang opposed each other, so all the sinister energies in the world couldn’t get close to her. Earlier, those evil ghosts had vanished the moment they touched the spiritual energy she released. Shi Xia suddenly remembered how, when she first arrived in this world, that demonic cultivator’s spell had knocked everyone unconscious—except her. She hadn’t felt a thing. That must have been because of her spiritual root.
So, her body was immune to all demonic cultivation spells? That meant no demonic cultivator could harm her. Just thinking about it made her a little excited!
Wait a minute...
She herself was currently labeled as the "Demon Lord’s little sister"...
Which meant the people she really needed to worry about were the righteous cultivators, not the demonic ones.
...Then what’s the damn use of this?! Ugh!
"Look, Benefactor! That should be the exit over there. Let’s hurry and leave this ghostly place!" Long Aotian pointed into the distance.
Sure enough, there was a stone gate, tightly shut and covered in pockmarks as if something had been carved into it.
Shi Xia glanced around. Everywhere she looked, ghosts were trembling like leaves in the wind. Yeah, this was definitely a "ghostly" place.
Grabbing Scout’s hand, she headed toward the gate. The moment she moved, the ghosts shook even harder. Their eerie red eyes flickered like searchlights. Maybe they were too terrified, but despite their trembling, none of them moved out of her way. Some even yanked their own heads off and hid them behind their backs, pretending they couldn’t see her...
Seriously?!
Shi Xia shook her head and kept walking. Honestly, her fear of ghosts was practically cured by these cowardly spirits.
Just as she reached the gate, something round and white rolled to her feet—an eyeball, spinning in place.
She turned and saw a female ghost in red missing one eye, her left socket a dark, bloody hollow. But she was too scared to retrieve it, clinging instead to a half-skeletal ghost beside her and shaking so hard its bones clattered to the ground.
Shi Xia sweatdropped. Was this really necessary? With a sigh, she bent down, picked up the nearly squashed eyeball, and handed it back.
The female ghost froze, staring at her in disbelief before hesitantly reaching out a pale, bony hand. But she snatched it back at the last second, still too afraid to take it.
"Here, take it," Shi Xia insisted.
The ghost blinked (or would have, if she had both eyes), stretching her hand out and pulling it back repeatedly before finally accepting the eyeball. Sensing Shi Xia’s kindness, she forgot her fear and studied her curiously. Then, as if making a decision, she popped the left eye back in—only to pluck out the right one and offer it to Shi Xia with both hands, stretching her bloody lips into what was probably meant to be a flattering smile. Unfortunately, her gory face twisted it into something more horrifying than friendly.
"For me?" Shi Xia was baffled.
The ghost nodded eagerly, almost excited.
Shi Xia’s eye twitched. Being bribed by a ghost—and a malevolent one at that—was... indescribable.
"No thanks, you keep it." Two eyes were enough for her.
The ghost looked devastated, shoving the eyeball toward her again.
Persistent, huh? Shi Xia sighed. "I really don’t need it."
Now the ghost seemed on the verge of tears. Desperate, she yanked out her other eye and offered both.
"......" It wasn’t about quantity! And why eyeballs of all things?!
"That must be the key to the gate," Scout said, nodding at the stone door.
Shi Xia turned and saw a circular indentation in the center, exactly the size of the ghost’s eyeball. So that was how they opened it—no wonder she was so insistent.
Reluctantly, Shi Xia took one. "Thanks."
The ghost cackled eerily.
She placed the eyeball into the slot. With a series of clicks, the pockmarked door lit up, lines of light forming a glowing array before the gate slowly swung open.
A shimmering screen appeared between the doors, projecting a scene. The figures in it looked familiar—a stone chamber where four people stood or lay unconscious, their faces twisted in agony as if trapped in nightmares.
"Isn’t that Lv Yi and her little clique?" The four were the treasure-hunting team from before. "Looks like they took the other path." They hadn’t passed this chamber, meaning they must have chosen the Gate of Life.
"What’s wrong with them?" Long Aotian frowned at their expressions. "They don’t seem injured, but they look..."
"Illusions," Scout explained. "They’re trapped in one. Illusions test the mind. If their resolve is weak, they’ll be fooled by falsehoods and never break free."
So their path was even harder. Shi Xia felt a pang of relief—thank goodness they’d taken the Gate of Death.
The vision lasted only a dozen seconds before fading, leaving the gate’s interior dark once more.
Shi Xia hesitated. "Is it even more dangerous inside?" More ghosts, maybe?
As she debated, the red-clad ghost suddenly offered her a bone, grinning creepily as if suggesting she throw it in to test the way.
Shi Xia took the object with a look of exasperation, sizing up the female ghost. "Not bad, you've got quite the future ahead!" The flattery was impeccably timed—though she couldn't help wondering which poor soul's bone this had been yanked from.
The ghost covered her face with both hands, exuding a shy yet eerie "hehehe" chuckle.
Shi Xia tossed the bone inside. With a gurgling sound, flames suddenly flickered to life, illuminating the space in an instant. Behind the door lay a massive stone chamber, as spacious as a sports field but eerily empty, with several distant doors faintly visible on the opposite side. The light came from a row of fire basins lining the stone walls.
Seeing no immediate danger, Shi Xia relaxed and stepped inside. Just as she reached the center of the chamber, the door behind her creaked and slowly swung shut. In the distance, she could still see the red-clad ghost waving at her wistfully—with the bone. Seriously?!
Do you guys realize how adorable you are? Does the King of Hell even know?
"Earlier there were only two doors, and now there’s a whole row of them," Long Aotian muttered, frowning at the lineup ahead. "Which one are we supposed to take?"
Shi Xia was equally baffled. Was this some kind of stone-door matching game? Why were there doors everywhere?
"Don’t tell me each one leads to another challenge, like before?"
"No," the Scout shook his head. "Judging by the colors, these are arranged according to the Five Elements. One of them must be the exit."
Long Aotian startled. "Five Elements? But there are six doors!"
The Scout didn’t respond.
Shi Xia took a closer look. There were indeed six doors, each a different color. The farthest to the right was gold, followed by green, blue, red, and yellow—all standard Five Element colors, which explained the Scout’s reasoning. The odd part was that there were two red doors.
"Hey, there are symbols on these doors!" Long Aotian pointed at the lower corner of a red door. "This one looks like a flame. So it really is Five Element markings! Both red doors have them. Benefactor, check if the others do too."
Shi Xia inspected the rest. Sure enough, each door had a small, simplified symbol in its corner—representations of the Five Elements. The red doors bore flames, the yellow one a wall, the blue one a water droplet, the gold one a tiny sword, and the green one…
Uh…
Shi Xia’s lips twitched. She felt like a flock of crows had just flown over her head as she stared at the symbol on the green door, utterly speechless.
"These doors all look the same. Which one do we pick?" Long Aotian grumbled after a long inspection, walking over impatiently. "Benefactor, I bet the exit is behind one of the red doors. Why don’t you choose? We’ll follow your lead."
"I pick that one," Shi Xia pointed straight ahead.
"The green one?!" Long Aotian blinked. He’d suggested the red doors—was there something he missed? His eyes lit up. "Wait… have you already deciphered the secret of this door?"
"Ha…" Shi Xia’s face darkened as she gestured at the symbol on the green door.
Long Aotian immediately crouched to look, and even the Scout glanced over curiously.
"This symbol isn’t the Wood Element!" Long Aotian scrutinized it several times. "I’ve never seen anything like it. Benefactor, do you recognize this?"
"I do…" More than just recognize it—this exact symbol was plastered all over her world. A running green figure, ubiquitous in her original universe!
