209: Chapter 208 The Ghost Mother Emerges from Seclusion, A Citywide Manhunt Order Issued!

The Nether Palace, a top-secret Forbidden Ground ten thousand meters underground.

This was a boiling sea of blood, with countless skulls bobbing in the bloody water. In the center of the blood sea, atop a massive lotus platform made of white bone, a woman dressed in red with an enchanting face that exuded endless evil energy suddenly snapped her eyes open.

Her eyes had no pupils; only two clusters of eerie green ghost fire burned fiercely within them.

“Aaaaaah!!!”

A piercing shriek, like the wailing of a vengeful spirit from the Nine Nether, instantly pierced through the Secret Realm and shattered the Void Realm for ten thousand miles around!

The Ghost Mother of the Nether had emerged!

She had originally been in secluded cultivation at a critical moment, attempting to charge into the Middle Stage of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm, and was on the verge of a Breakthrough.

But just now, through her mental connection, she had nearly suffered a Qi Deviation!

Her Vice Palace Master, Sword Demon Zhang Cheng, was dead!

Her most relied-upon Nine Nether Heavenly Prison had been breached!

What made her tremble with even more fear was that... the gift she had spent countless resources preparing for Immortal Lord Yuheng had been stolen!

Even... Immortal Lord Yuheng's own life tablet had exploded into powder in that very instant!!

“Who is it?!!”

“Who on earth did this!!!”

The Ghost Mother of the Nether went mad! Completely insane!

Immortal Lord Yuheng dying on the territory of her Nether Palace was nothing short of a total disaster! If Seven Luminaries Immortal King were to place the blame on her, having ten thousand lives wouldn't be enough to pay for it! The entire Nether Palace would be razed to the ground by that Immortal King!

Only by capturing the murderer, extracting their soul, and refining their essence to present to Seven Luminaries Immortal King could she perhaps win a slim chance of survival!

“Boom!”

The blood sea surged as the Ghost Mother of the Nether soared into the sky, her terrifying pressure as a Grand Unity Golden Immortal instantly enveloping the entire Tianlan Ghost Market!

The originally noisy and bustling ghost market fell into a deathly silence at this moment. All Cultivators knelt on the ground, trembling as they looked up in terror at the red figure in the sky that resembled a demon god.

“Pass down this seat's [Ghost Mother Order]!”

The Ghost Mother of the Nether's voice, like rolling thunder, resounded in everyone's ears:

“Every organization and every Loose Cultivator belonging to the Ghost Market! Activate the city-wide protective array immediately and lock down the entire city! Entry is permitted, but no one is allowed to leave!”

“A rat has killed a distinguished guest of my Nether Palace and is currently hiding in the city!”

“Anyone providing a clue to the murderer will be rewarded with one Top-Grade Immortal Vein! They will be granted the position of Chief Elder of the Nether Palace and enjoy ten thousand years of offerings!”

Once this reward was announced, the eyes of countless outlaws instantly turned red. A Top-Grade Immortal Vein! That was enough resources to establish a medium-sized Sect!

But that wasn't even the most shocking part.

The ghost fire in the Ghost Mother of the Nether's eyes jumped wildly. A smile that was twisted with madness appeared on her enchanting face as she roared through gritted teeth:

“If anyone can take his head...”

“This seat is willing to become his Dao Companion! We shall share the ten-thousand-year foundation of the Nether Palace! And I shall personally teach him the Dao of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal!!”

Boom!

As soon as this order was issued, the entire Tianlan Ghost Market instantly boiled over! No, it exploded!

Not just because of that Top-Grade Immortal Vein, but because of that last part—becoming her Dao Companion!

Though the Ghost Mother of the Nether was cruel and malicious, she was a genuine Grand Unity Golden Immortal! Furthermore, she was exquisitely beautiful and her reputation for beauty was widespread!

If one could climb onto this high branch, it would be a literal ascent to heaven in a single step, saving a hundred thousand years of struggle! For these outlaws in the Ghost Market who lived every day on the edge of a blade, the temptation was greater than the heavens!

In an instant, all the riffraff of the Ghost Market—whether they were old monsters in seclusion or street thugs—all became bloodshot with greed!

Factions that originally hated each other were now surprisingly unanimous.

“Search! Dig three feet into the ground if you have to, but find him!”

“That's not a murderer, that's a walking mountain of gold! That's my dowry for a wife!”

...

At the edge of the Ghost Market, in a dark and filthy alleyway.

Space fluctuated slightly as Lin Feng's figure emerged silently.

The moment he landed, he sensed something was wrong.

The air was thick with a highly agitated killing intent. A slight sweep of his Divine Thought revealed that the streets were filled with Cultivators holding weapons and having bloodshot eyes, searching house by house, not even sparing a rat hole.

“Master... this commotion is a bit huge.”

Huang Fugui poked his head out from Lin Feng's robes, looking at the crazed crowd outside and shrinking his neck. “That old lady is playing for keeps; the whole city is looking for us.”

Lin Feng gestured casually, and a wanted poster that had just been pasted on the wall with wet ink flew into his hand.

On it was a drawing of a black-robed person wearing a bronze mask. Though the portrait was blurry, this outfit was far too easy to recognize.

Below it was written the reward amount, as well as... that bizarre “Dao Companion” reward.

“Tsk.”

Looking at the wanted poster, Lin Feng couldn't help but laugh, his smile a bit playful.

“This old witch, she's even sacrificing her charms just to catch me? Is she that desperate to marry?”

“She's really going all out. Unfortunately, I have no interest in an old auntie who's tens of thousands of years old.”

However, jokes aside, Lin Feng knew very well that his current situation was extremely dangerous.

This was, in the truest sense... having the whole world as his enemy!

In this Tianlan Ghost Market, he was now a walking mountain of gold and silver, plus the promise of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal wife.

Who wouldn't lose their mind over that?

Even if he could kill enemies of a higher rank, facing millions of Cultivators in the city plus that enraged Grand Unity Golden Immortal, fighting head-on was definitely a dead end.

“Master, what do we do? Fight our way out?” Huang Fugui asked. Though he was trembling, a fierce light also flickered in his eyes.

“Fight?”

Lin Feng shook his head, glancing at the [10 trillion] critical hit points that had just been credited to his panel.

The corners of his mouth curled into a mad and confident arc.

“Fighting our way out is too tiring, and it's easy to fail unexpectedly.”

“Since they want to find me so badly, since they want to play...”

“Then I'll... give them a huge surprise and play along with them properly.”

Lin Feng looked toward the center of the Ghost Market, in the direction of the towering and magnificent “Wanbao Tower.”

That was the only power in the Ghost Market not completely controlled by the Nether Palace; it was also a branch of the Myriad Realms Merchant Alliance.

“That old fellow Wan Sanqian, since he took my money, he has to provide proper after-sales service, right?”

A sharp light flashed in Lin Feng's eyes.

“The most dangerous place is the safest place.”

“Come, to Wanbao Tower!”

“We're not just going to survive; we're going to completely muddy the waters of this Ghost Market! Let them know what it means to be easier to invite a god than to send one away!”

...

Tianlan Ghost Market, the top floor of Wanbao Tower.

The atmosphere here was completely different from the suffocating tension outside; it was so quiet that one could even hear the sound of the Top-Grade spirit tea, “Dao Enlightenment Leaves,” unfurling in the boiling water.

This was an extremely luxurious secret room. The surrounding walls were embedded with “God-Forbidden Stones” capable of blocking Divine Sense probes, and the floor was paved with Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade salvaged from the depths of the East Sea.

“Tower Master Wan, you didn't lose out on this deal.”

Lin Feng sat lazily in a grand armchair, with Huang Fugui tucked in his robes, occasionally burping as he digested that piece of Chaos Origin bone. The bronze mask on Lin Feng's face had been removed, revealing a clean-cut yet slightly wicked face, looking at the person opposite him with a half-smile.

Opposite him sat a round, middle-aged fat man who looked like a Maitreya Buddha. He wore a brocade robe embroidered with coin patterns, and a professional fake smile of “harmony brings wealth” was constantly on his face.

This was the Tower Master of Wanbao Tower, Wan Sanqian. A ruthless man rumored to be able to “strip the undergarments off an Immortal Emperor if the price was right,” he was also the representative of the only power in Tianlan Ghost Market not fully controlled by the Nether Palace.

Wan Sanqian's eyes crinkled into slits as he toyed lovingly with two storage rings in his hands.

One was the “sky-high passage fee” Lin Feng had just paid, and the other was something Lin Feng had tossed to him like trash—bits and pieces stripped from Immortal Lord Yuheng's corpse, including an identity jade plaque engraved with the words “Seven Luminaries.”

Though they were just scraps, the trace of pure Half-Step Immortal King aura lingering on them could not be faked.

“Young Master Lin... oh no, I should address you as Senior Lin now.”