Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

Shen Yu kicked him to the ground. The assassin, who had suffered a heart injury, was still crawling on the ground. His eyes were lifeless, staring intently at Shen Yu, and his arms and limbs were twisted into abnormal arcs.

Seeing this, Shen Yu kicked him again, and the assassin was kicked over. He crawled for nearly a meter before stopping when he was exhausted.

This was exactly the same zombie that Shen Yu had faced before.

Still shaken, Shen Yu instinctively knew he couldn't stay there any longer and turned to head back the way he came. He had barely taken a step when another arrow shot towards him from the woods.

Unable to dodge in time, Shen Yu took a step back and stepped onto the edge of the well. The stone bricks there had long been rotten and cracked. As soon as Shen Yu stepped on it, the edge broke open, and he immediately lost his balance and fell into the abandoned well.

The abandoned well was filled with black, still water. Shen Yu fell into it, thrashed around for a couple of moments, and then sank.

Only a very heavy, muffled sound came from the well. Silence returned, broken only by the occasional rustling of a python moving through the trees.

Two or three minutes later, another guard wearing a pure black mask jumped down from a tree branch in the distance. He put away his bow and arrows and walked toward the abandoned well with a clear purpose.

A foul odor rose from the black water of the abandoned well. This stone well, which had been used to dump corpses for many years, contained countless bodies, and the black water smelled terrible.

The guard stood staring at the surface of the black water, which remained undisturbed. After a moment, he turned and walked to the side, picking up a heavy stone and carrying it over.

The width of the stone was about the same as the well opening. He came to the well and reached out to smash the heavy stone down.

Several diamond-shaped blades suddenly flew out of the black water in the well. After two very soft sounds, the guards only saw a flash of white light.

The blood vessels in his throat were completely severed. The guard stared wide-eyed. His body stiffened as he tried to move forward, but another blade pierced through his forehead and embedded itself deeply in the tree trunk behind him.

The guard was thrown back two steps by the force of the impact, and his arm fell to his side as the heavy stone crashed directly onto the yellow earth in front of him.

With a thud, the body of the bodyguard fell to the ground.

Shen Yu continued to hold his breath in the black water. He patiently waited for a while until there was no further movement above the wellhead before suddenly leaping out from the bottom of the black water.

Fortunately, he had learned to hold his breath in order to deal with Wen Yu. Otherwise, if he had fallen into this abandoned well, Shen Yu would have been doomed.

Shen Yu reached out and pressed against the wall of the abandoned well. He wiped the water droplets from his face and supported himself by gripping the gaps between the stone bricks around the well wall.

He looked up at the sky; it was still early morning, and the sky was faintly lit. But he was in the deepest part of the dense forest, where the lush foliage of the trees blocked out the little light remaining above.

Damn it… Shen Yu frowned. He hadn’t told the others where he was when he came out. He was still fast asleep, clinging to life. Not to mention Coal Ball, the missing and useless leader, they wouldn’t even notice whether Shen Yu was alive or dead…

A foul stench emanated from the surface of the black water, making Shen Yu feel nauseous and his mind foggy.

When he first submerged, he saw the scene below: a layer of bones, all skulls looking upwards with dark eyes. In that instant, it felt as if countless hands had grabbed Shen Yu, clamoring for him to be buried with them.

Shen Yu gripped the wall of the stone well tightly with his fingers. The well was more than ten meters high. He tried to climb up a little, but he fell down due to exhaustion.

"Lanyu, save us..."

"Lanyu, come quickly and save us..."

"It's all your fault! You've ruined us..."

"Go back...go back...Master, I want to go back..."

"Go and be reincarnated."

"No...no...I don't want to! I refuse to be reincarnated, I'd rather suffer an eternal death! I want to come back, I want to come back...I want to kill you all..."

The dull pain in Shen Yu's head grew stronger and stronger. He gripped the cracks in the stone bricks of the wall so tightly that his nails broke and bled.

Shen Yu's lips were pale as he floated in the black water, vaguely remembering grabbing onto someone's corpse. The rotting flesh on that corpse regenerated amidst various illusions, eventually slowly merging into a young face.

With sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and a pure black band symbolizing the identity of a cultivator worn on his forehead, he smiled at Shen Yu, his eyes crinkling: "Junior Brother, you're back."

Shen Yu's eyes trembled: "I..."

"Come with me quickly, or the mountain gate will be closed."

Shen Yu stood there, unaware that he had somehow found himself in a vast expanse of emptiness.

The foul-smelling black water had long since receded. Shen Yu was dressed in a plain white robe, and he wore the same headband as the one worn by the Taoist priest, with a pure gold lotus totem delicately drawn on the black band.

Xiao Dao had already run a few steps ahead to the mountain gate. He stood at the gate and waved repeatedly to Shen Yu: "Lan Yu—come up quickly! Master is waiting for you, come quickly—"

Shen Yu looked up and saw layers upon layers of white stone steps in front of him, so dense that he could hardly see the end.

"Nine thousand steps to the Cloud Ladder..." Shen Yu murmured to himself for some reason. He turned around and looked back, but there was still nothing behind him.

There are no other colors, let alone any vivid characters or voices, just large blank spaces—just like his unknown past.

Shen Yu withdrew his gaze, looked upwards, and slowly lifted his leg to step onto the first stone step in front of him.

"Xuan Lin, the third prince of Yue, once again requests that His Majesty descend the mountain! Just as Cheng Yi stood in the snow outside his master's door in ancient times, I today brave the blizzard to demonstrate my resolve..."

Another voice trembled from the side. Shen Yu froze, turning to look at his side, and saw that Emperor Yue had somehow appeared beside him.

No… Xuan Lin was not yet the Emperor of Yue at this time. His face was not as cold as it is now, and he still retained some of his childishness. He was dressed in a simple jade robe and climbed the steps in front of him one by one.

As Shen Yu watched him pass by, he abruptly stopped in his tracks, halting his ascent up the mountain. He stared at Xuan Lin's retreating figure for a few seconds before abruptly turning and heading in another direction.

He didn't enter the mountain gate, but went to the former Empty Prison.

"Where are you going?" Xuan Lin's face suddenly loomed large in front of Shen Yu. Shen Yu was startled by the sight and took a step back. He stared intently at the person in front of him, his hand instinctively gripping the dagger at his waist.

“Lanyu, I know I’ve wronged you. But the war situation is getting worse, and I have no choice. As for those wounds… I will have someone treat them for you.” Xuanlin said, and then knelt down on one knee in front of Shen Yu. “Please… come down the mountain with me one more time.”

Shen Yu hesitated for a moment, then turned to leave without thinking, but his body moved on its own and he said, "Okay."

Shen Yu stood there, stunned. Xuan Lin's face disappeared. Shen Yu turned his head and looked up at the mountain again, where he saw an old man standing at the mountain gate.