I'm caught in the cycle of endless competition, you're waiting for me in the apocalypse.

"Xiao Jiu, do you know where the Gate of Hell is? Hurry, let's go save them!" As the car drove away, An Xin could no longer hear what they were saying. The most important thing right now was to get to the Gate of Hell to save them!

"Yes, the map on the Fortune Scroll shows its approximate location."

"Okay, you navigate, we'll go now." An Xin didn't care about the consumption of spiritual energy. She took out her Ruyi and enlarged it, then pulled Gu Shuohan and Ao Jue along. With a sprint, they flew towards the Ghost Gate.

On the way, she told the two of them about the conversation she had overheard. Gu Shuohan was very surprised: "You said three Taoist priests? Who could they be? I wonder if they were injured..."

They quickly flew to the vicinity of the Ghost Gate, which was the other end of the Dark Forest. Unfortunately, the Ghost Gate had no physical form and left no trace after closing. An Xin could only wander around the area, even activating her Heavenly Eye and Heavenly Ear simultaneously.

Half an hour later, she was already quite tired and could only use spiritual liquid to replenish her mana.

"The city lord said it was at the Ghost Gate! All three Taoist priests should have been seriously injured! How come we didn't see anything?"

"Let's look for it. After all, we've wasted some time going back and forth. Maybe it's climbed somewhere! Hahaha!"

"The city lord is amazing! He actually injured the Taoist priest!"

An Xin's ears twitched, and the voices of several ghosts reached her ears.

Following the sound, she quickly found several ghosts. They were scattering in all directions, searching for the Taoist priest, muttering incessantly about how the city lord would treat them if they brought him back…

An Xin was extremely anxious at this moment. She expanded her Heavenly Eye to its maximum range and drank a bottle of spiritual liquid.

"Finally found him! I saw Wei Ran! He was hiding in a hole in the dead tree!" An Xin became even more anxious when she saw Wei Ran, wondering how badly they were injured.

Landing steadily outside the withered tree, An Xin couldn't help but admire Wei Ran's hide-and-seek skills. He was truly invisible even from the side; no wonder those ghosts had walked past him several times without noticing him.

"Third Senior Brother, it's me, An Xin! Come out quickly!" An Xin whispered to the withered tree trunk.

No response.

Gu Shuohan chimed in, "Wei Ran, you've finally met your match! Serves you right for always being so cocky!"

"The first time my senior brother met me, he gave me a bracelet!" An Xin gently tapped the tree trunk. "It really is us!"

Wei Ran cautiously glanced outside and, upon discovering it was indeed An Xin and the others, excitedly climbed out of the tree hollow. He hugged An Xin tightly, and before he could say anything, An Xin gently said, "Third Senior Brother, it's so good to see you. Now is not the time for catching up. Tell me, where are the other two people who came in with you?"

Guided by Wei Ran, the group successfully took Li Qingchuan and Qi Mingxuan away from right under the ghost's nose.

The group successfully met and nearly burst into tears of joy.

After briefly looking at the group and finding no major problems, An Xin breathed a sigh of relief. She then made the Ruyi even larger and led the group back to the Soul Return Tower.

After returning to the alley outside the building, An Xin exchanged cloaks and translators for the three of them, gave them some instructions, and then the group went upstairs in a grand manner.

Because of the cloaks, the waiters didn't know who was who, and seeing that the number of ghosts was about the same, they served them attentively.

Having returned to the VIP suite discreetly, An Xin breathed a sigh of relief and invited the others to sit on the sofa and rest. She then took out six small jade bottles from her Qiankun World and distributed them to everyone.

"Here, drink this first! The spiritual energy here really doesn't last long!" After finishing the spiritual liquid in the jade bottle in one gulp, An Xin felt like she had finally come back to life. Watching the three haggard men finish their spiritual liquid, she began her interrogation, "Why did you come here? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

“Xinxin, Master told us everything. He knows you blocked the lightning tribulation and then disappeared. We were very worried. Uncle Qiu said you were in the ghost world, but he didn’t know your specific situation, so we had to go find Anna.” Li Qingchuan briefly recounted the twists and turns of that day. Looking into An Xin’s eyes, he felt a joy of having found her again.

Wei Ran continued, "Xinxin, we mobilized a lot of people to find Anna, and finally found her and that man at a farmhouse. We received the news and wanted to capture them, but they could fly on swords. We could only follow them by flying over grass, which consumed a lot of our physical and spiritual energy. We were discovered when we reached the Ghost Gate, which is why we were unable to catch them."

“I heard them say you were injured, and it seemed like you were badly injured, otherwise they wouldn’t have just left you there.” An Xin tilted her head and looked at Qi Mingxuan, who hadn’t spoken yet.

"Because of your jade pendant!" Qi Mingxuan took out his broken jade pendant and said reluctantly, "It was your light-elemental shield that saved our lives. It's just a pity about the jade pendant... They thought we couldn't withstand his fatal blow, so after knocking us down, they didn't check us carefully and hurriedly took the woman away."

"Oh, I see. That's great. I'm so glad you're all alright."

"Xinxin, aren't you going to introduce her?" Qi Mingxuan gestured with his chin toward Ao Jue.

"Oh, I was so nervous I forgot..." An Xin recounted in detail how she and Gu Shuohan got here and what they had done all day, saying with a proud look, "How about that? I'm amazing, right? We made a lot of money as soon as we arrived!"

As she spoke, she released Di Ting, and then had Di Ting release the ghost generals.

"Come, come, we should get to know each other. Let me formally introduce you. This little dragon is named Ao Jue. These four ghost generals are Mulan, Qubing, Wan Jun, and Wan Che... My beloved generals. These are my senior brothers and my partners. This is Di Ting, Ao Jue, my second senior brother Li Qingchuan, my third senior brother Wei Ran, Qi Mingxuan, and Gu Shuohan! From now on, we're all on the same side! Don't be shy!"

An Xin opened her arms wide with great gusto, as if to say, "These are all my beauties!" Several men looked at her with strange expressions. Gui Jiangmen, on the other hand, looked completely bewildered. Only Di Ting naturally jumped into An Xin's arms, wagging its tail, its dog eyes full of trust.

"Alright! We have a lot to do tomorrow, so everyone should get some rest. Here's what we'll do: Xiao Jiu, you take the Ghost Generals to the warm jade room to rest. Second Senior Brother, Third Senior Brother, Qi Mingxuan, Gu Shuohan, the four of you will each be in two separate rooms. Xiao Jiu and Ao Jue will come with me."

Upon hearing this, the four men all turned to look at the handsome, androgynous young man with white hair. Their gazes held a mix of envy, sourness, disapproval, and anticipation – a sense of schadenfreude.

Ao Jue felt as if he were being slowly sliced ​​to pieces by glares from behind, his scalp tingling. In an instant, he transformed back into his white snake form, coiling around Di Ting's neck. Only then did the strange atmosphere in the room ease somewhat.

The culprit, An Xin, was completely oblivious to her own shortcomings. She said to Gu Shuohan, "Ahan, you're the weakest one here right now. That won't do. We don't know how long we'll be stuck in this godforsaken place. I've thought about it. You're free now, so why don't you spend the next two days here cleansing your body? I think this bathtub is great; you can soak in it. If you're really worried, I'll stay with you."

The men all turned to look at Gu Shuohan again! Gu Shuohan wore a bitter expression. He didn't want this, but what could he do? He was just too weak...

With everything arranged between the humans and the ghosts, An Xin took out the original porcelain bottle of spiritual liquid and had Gu Shuohan drink it and soak in the bathtub. Finally, after a vote, Ao Jue was left to take care of him.

She quickly went back to her master bedroom. After washing up again, An Xin jumped onto the cloud-feel mattress, took out her "nothing to do" sign, and began her "phone-scrolling" adventure.

From the scattered pieces of information, An Xin discovered the essence of this world.

This world consists of four main cities, several smaller cities, and remote areas. Due to an unexpected attraction to the spirit world, the world's rules changed, causing this small ghost world to split off from the Ten Kings of Hell and become a forgotten corner. The path of reincarnation is no longer smooth; ghosts inhabiting this world who wish to travel to other worlds must rely on their own cultivation. Only by re-forging their physical bodies and undergoing the Body Tempering Realm, allowing their bodies and souls to reunite and harmonize, can they achieve rebirth. Only after becoming true humans can they go to the mortal realm, but even then, they will only be mortals.

“That city lord has already reached the Foundation Establishment realm, so he can be considered a reborn person. I think Fu Mochen from the Netherworld Auction House is stronger than him; I can't discern his realm.” Touching Di Ting's now solidified body, An Xin asked in a good mood, “Does Xiao Jiu also need to go through such complicated cultivation to recover?”

“I am a split soul. Even if I fully recover, I will still be a clone! I am completely different from these ghosts. Besides, in the normal ghost realm, in addition to the Ten Kings of Hell, there are 13 stations, all of which are related to sins and punishments and reincarnation. In other words, your next destination is determined by your merits and demerits.”

"Oh, so this world is actually just a part of the Ghost Path, or even a dispensable part. Then the rules of this world are missing, which is why it has this eerie, pieced-together feeling. How come both of these worlds on the same frequency are heading towards destruction?"

"The spiritual energy in the spirit world is newly born, which also foreshadows the demise of an old world. This Netherworld is like a part of the Yin and Yang poles. If the energy here slowly dries up and disappears, then the spirit world will become a truly independent world with its own unique Heavenly Dao rules."

"The changing of the old and the new? Is that what the old locust tree is trying to tell me? A world destined to perish?" An Xin fell into deep thought, and only spoke again after Gu Shuohan dragged his nearly dead body back to his room to sleep. "If the boundary is opened, both worlds will be destroyed. And only by preserving the Spirit World until this world dies can the true Spirit World live?"

With this question in mind, An Xin drifted off to sleep...

........................

"Damn it, can't you find the three seriously injured people?" Kwon Yuri's eyes were bloodshot with anger! "Go down there and accept your punishment. Hurry up! Do I have to invite you?"

After the ghosts drifted away, Kwon Yuri looked at Kwon So-hwa, who had been sitting silently on the sofa, and said impatiently, "Why did you call me back in such a hurry?"

"Father, try this." Quan Shaohua slowly took out a jade bottle from an exquisite wooden box, then took a small, delicate glass, poured in a little spiritual liquid, and handed it to Quan Yuli: "Concentrated spiritual liquid, a treasure making its debut at the Netherworld Auction House. Try it first, and then we'll talk about other things."

Kwon Yuri glanced at the glass, which was almost empty, took it, and put the liquid in her mouth.

In an instant, pure energy coursed through his body, dispelling the discomfort and even clearing his overly chaotic mind. His previously depleted spiritual energy slowly returned. A greedy glint flashed in his eyes: "Good stuff! The spiritual energy is extremely pure; it's beneficial to the soul, body, and even consciousness. What's the price?"

Seeing that his father was satisfied, Quan Shaohua told him everything that had happened at the auction house. "Father, we can get a share of the profits too, can't we? Just like always..."

"Hahaha... Shaohua, not bad, you've improved. I want both the spirit liquid and the money! Hahaha..." Quan Yuli looked confident and undisguised, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "With this spirit liquid, why worry about whether our strength can't break through? Xie Zian, just you wait."

"Father, the woman you brought back..."

“Keep her alive, she’ll be very useful. This spiritual liquid should also be useful to her, just give her a sip, and make sure she doesn’t die.” Kwon Yuri curled her lips sinisterly, looking out of the floor-to-ceiling window of the only six-story room in the city. “A seven-tiered pagoda? Soon I’ll be able to live in that tower too.”