98: Chapter 90 Signal Cut Off! The Underworld Emperor Has Logged Offline

Xu Mo's barely audible mutter, "This bunch of bastards is putting on a grand show," felt like an ice pick stabbing fiercely into Pei Duo's eardrums.

Pei Duo’s body, which had been languidly leaning on the tiger-skin soft couch, instantly tensed up. The sensation was like finding a cold snake in her bedcovers in the middle of the night.

She didn't turn around, not even letting the expression on her face falter in the slightest. She merely used the motion of adjusting her wide robe sleeves to quickly slip her right hand inside her collar, her fingertips brushing against the black jade pendant.

What her fingertips touched was a piece of ashen, stiff, and ice-cold stone.

The dark light that had been circulating inside the jade pendant was now dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye, until it was completely extinguished. That feeling was too familiar—it was exactly like when the signal was cut off in the trial room of Xibalba.

The connection to the Underworld was severed.

"Eldest Princess?"

On the high platform, Daji’s five-colored feather fan had stopped moving at some point.

The seductive charm in her soul-snatching fox eyes dispersed like mist blown by the wind, replaced by a chilling, scrutinizing coldness that made one’s blood run cold.

"Zheng—"

The sound of the chime bells suddenly became sharp and hurried. The originally grand and solemn Shang music now carried a bizarre, mournful shriek, like countless wronged souls scratching fingernails on a blackboard.

The movements of the dozens of dancing girls froze mid-motion, and then they surrounded her in a fan shape with extremely distorted postures. The candlelight flickered, and the thick white makeup on their faces appeared paper-white at this moment, their upturned smiles as rigid as paper effigies.

Daji slowly stood up. Her voice was still sweet and cloying, but it was like honey laced with deadly poison: "Why does Your Highness not drink? Could it be that you find this humble servant's wine... not 'clean' enough?"

The air seemed to solidify.

All pretense was stretched to the absolute limit, needing only the final straw.

Xu Mo moved.

He slowly stood up, elegantly removed his gold-rimmed glasses, pulled out a silk handkerchief, and meticulously wiped the lenses.

"The wine is good wine."

Xu Mo raised his head. His eyes, now unobstructed by the lenses, held a look of almost cutting mockery. He looked at the high-and-mighty Daji as if watching a clown wearing a dragon robe.

"It’s a pity the brewing technique is too petty and cannot stand on a grand stage."

Xu Mo placed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and gently flicked the luminous cup filled with wine, producing a crisp 'ding' sound.

"In my Huaxia, offering a toast dictates that 'full cups honor the guest, while full tea insults the host.' But this wine of yours is only filled to seven parts, leaving three parts empty..."

A cold arc curved on Xu Mo's lips. His voice suddenly rose, carrying the unique arrogance and disdain of a citizen of a great nation:

"That is reserved for the dead!"

The moment his words fell, the dagger was drawn!

"Move out!"

"Boom—!"

Lin Sa, who had been poised for action, erupted without warning.

Her foot, clad in a Martin boot, violently kicked the heavy bronze table in front of her. The table, weighing several hundred catties, shot out like a cannonball, carrying a whistling wind, smashing directly into the cluster of approaching dancing girls.

"Crash—"

The delicacies and rare foods across the table spilled onto the floor.

A scene that made one's scalp tingle appeared.

The spilled 'fine wine' did not flow when it hit the ground; instead, it instantly hissed and transformed into countless black vipers as thin as silk threads, writhing as they burrowed into the seams of the white marble floor tiles.

"Ah—!!"

The 'Yin Merchant nobles' below the platform, who had maintained a dignified appearance, let out inhuman roars.

Their originally rosy and plump faces now peeled off in large chunks like melting wax, revealing rotten, blackened muscles and stark white bones beneath. They were not living people at all, but a group of evil spirits wearing human skin!

"Baka—!!"

Daji—or rather, Tamamo-no-Mae—finally tore off her hypocritical mask.

She let out a sharp screech. Her voice was no longer soft Chinese but had turned into a piercing, harsh Japanese accent.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Above the great hall, nine phantom fox tails, thick as ancient trees, shot toward the sky, instantly tearing through the dome of the Deer Terrace.

The originally magnificent Yin Shang great hall underwent a catastrophic transformation in an instant.

The red curtains turned into ghastly white funeral shrouds. The majestic bronze pillars transformed into vermilion torii gates smeared with black lacquer and exuding a scent of decay. The rich aroma of wine and meat that filled the air instantly became a nauseating stench of corpses, mixed with the sickly sweet scent of rotting cherry blossoms.

The so-called 'Prosperous Age of Yin Shang' was merely a painted skin.

This place had been a sinister and terrifying Japanese ghost realm from the very beginning!

"Since you've discovered it, you might as well stay here and become fertilizer!"

Tamamo-no-Mae's originally exquisite face split open to her ears, revealing densely packed fangs in her mouth. The foul wind spewed from that gaping maw was enough to make an elephant faint.

"Roar—!!"

Below the great hall, the thousands of 'Black Armored Yin Soldiers' who had been kneeling let out a grating 'crack' sound of bones bursting from beneath their armor.

Their figures instantly swelled to three meters tall, hideous double horns sprouting from their heads, and their skin turning crimson and cyan. The battle halberds in their hands transformed into heavy maces and odachi swords.

Red Oni! Blue Oni!

Thousands of Japanese evil spirits roared simultaneously, the sound wave almost shattering human eardrums.

Countless white Shikigami talismans descended like a blizzard from all around the hall, sealing off all doors, windows, and exits.

Trapped like turtles in a jar.

Pei Duo tightly clutched the cold black jade pendant, her knuckles turning white from the force. She frantically called out that name one last time in her heart.

Brother!

There was no response.

Her mind was filled only with the dead silence of a busy signal, as if she had been abandoned by the entire world on a deserted island in the deep sea.

The jade pendant that once awed all realms and made the Death God of Xibalba kneel was now completely reduced to a useless stone.

No Underworld Son of Heaven descended, no hundred thousand Yin soldiers erupted from the earth.

In this moment, she was truly helpless.

Panic surged into her heart like a tide, and Pei Duo's breathing momentarily hitched.

"Heh..."

Tamamo-no-Mae looked down at the slightly trembling girl, her eyes full of the cruel pleasure of a cat playing with a mouse: "What? Where is your magnificent good brother? Did he stop answering you?"

Pei Duo lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes.

Just as Tamamo-no-Mae thought this spoiled 'hothouse flower' would collapse into tears, Pei Duo suddenly lifted her head.

There were no tears in her eyes, only the fierce resolve of someone pushed to the brink of desperation.

"Swish—!"

Pei Duo ripped off the cumbersome and gorgeous white fox feather robe she was wearing—the one Tamamo-no-Mae had hypocritically draped over her.

The elaborate garment fell to the ground, revealing the practical tactical vest and Martin boots underneath.

"Bang!"

Pei Duo casually grabbed a heavy bronze candlestick from the table and, without hesitation, swung her arm in a wide arc, smashing it fiercely toward Tamamo-no-Mae's split face!

Although she lacked divine power, this strike carried the murderous aura she had honed while being besieged by evil spirits in Xibalba!

"Even without my brother, this Princess is still a formidable figure you cannot afford to provoke!"

Pei Duo roared, her voice sharp as a knife, forcefully overpowering the ghostly wails filling the hall.

The candlestick whistled through the air. Although it was deflected by Tamamo-no-Mae's protective demonic energy, the sheer ferocity of her death-defying charge actually caused the S-rank Great Demon's movement to pause slightly.

"Run!"

The moment she finished throwing the candlestick, Pei Duo turned and fled, moving faster than a rabbit.

"Where are you running? The exits are sealed!" Lin Sa sliced open the throat of a charging Red Oni, black blood spraying out.

"Down!"

Xu Mo had already calculated the route. He yelled while sprinting: "To the power core! That is the core of the Karmic Fire, and the only heart in this damned place that cannot be sealed!"

"Lin Sa, clear the way!"

"Received!"

The pair of S-rank daggers, 'blood kiss,' in Lin Sa's hands carved two mournful red streaks in the air, acting like a high-speed meat grinder, forcefully tearing open a gap in the impenetrable encirclement of evil spirits.

The three of them, seizing this sliver of life, shot like arrows loosed from a bow toward the dark passage leading to the lower levels behind the main hall.

"Insolent—!!"

Tamamo-no-Mae roared in fury.

The nine fox tails slammed down like giant hammers.

"Rumble—!!"

The main seat where the three had been standing moments before was instantly pulverized into dust, white jade fragments scattering like bullets.

Amidst the rising dust and smoke, the figures of Pei Duo and the other two had already vanished into the darkness of the passage.

Tamamo-no-Mae let out a shrill command, her voice filled with venom:

"Chase! Do not let them get near the 'Karmic Fire Core'!"

"Capture them alive! I want to turn his precious little sister into a living doll, hang her from the highest point of the Deer Terrace, and wait for that damnable Underworld Son of Heaven to come collect the corpse!!"

As the order was given, countless Red Oni and Blue Oni surged into the narrow passage like a black tide.

The painted skin of the s-rank instance, 'Lutai Startling Dream,' was completely torn away.

A life-and-death battle royale inside the mobile fortress had officially begun.