"Hiss..." Even though Wu Jinliang had done numerous greedy and selfish deeds, he couldn't help but take a sharp intake of breath at this moment.

He truly hadn't anticipated that the Master would have such a big appetite, even wanting to get the "Beidou Refusal Array" into their hands.

Immediately tossing the matter of the Red-clothed Woman to the back of his mind, he solemnly reminded, "Chun Tian, we all know the importance of the Reversing Soul Tree to the Phoenix Clan. The 'Beidou Refusal Array' is a crucial barrier that protects the Divine Mountain of the Phoenix Clan. Without this grand array, to guard the Divine Mountain, it's possible the Phoenix Clan's stronghold might relocate to the mountain. If we disrupt this barrier, we touch upon their foundation, and how could they swallow such a loss without retaliation?"

Shi Chun pointed at his head, "You've misunderstood one thing. This isn't their barrier; it's our possession. The original owner of the grand array is Jin Zhan. After we took Jin Zhan's legacy book, we obtained the key he offered. Therefore, this grand array is equivalent to Jin Zhan gifting it to us. They're merely occupying it by brute force."

Wu Jinliang instinctively touched his chin, muttering to himself, "Does that mean the Phoenix Clan is occupying our possession? Listening to you, I suddenly feel a bit uneasy myself..."

Shi Chun: "It's good that you have this in mind. Now, stop thinking about it, even if you do, it's useless. We must take it step by step. Our foremost task is to secure that batch of Death Refusing Incense. All other matters should temporarily pause for stability."

Wu Jinliang nodded slightly, "That will at least take several more days."

Shi Chun: "It's a perfect time to read some books."

Wu Jinliang was surprised, "Read books?"

Shi Chun glanced around, "Let's go. This place isn't fit for a long stay. Find a safe spot to settle first."

Wind Scale was taken out, quickly unfolded, and enveloped the two to ascend into the sky.

Away from this area, after finding a remote mountain top and checking all around, Wu Jinliang then used the Earth Escape Technique to open a cave on the mountainside. After the two entered, they used spells to somewhat close up the entrance area.

Several pieces of Sandalwood Gold were placed on the cave wall as lights, and Shi Chun shook out a large pile of books.

Wu Jinliang was a bit stunned, "I say, Chun Tian, are you really going to read books?"

He thought reading more books was beneficial, but truly being buried in a pile of books suddenly made life feel a bit heavy.

Shi Chun: "Since we need to deal with the Netherworld, we can't go without knowing more about that place. These are all books related to the Netherworld that I found in the library. Use this free time to understand them better."

Said that way, facing pragmatism, Wu Jinliang didn't say anything more, and instead sat down. He cast a spell to make the ground into a reclining chair shape, then took out a cushion to lay down, grabbing a book lazily to flip through.

Time varies by person; some feel it's long-lasting, others brief and fleeting.

In Chao Yue Hall, Li Hongjiu, who initially intended to make a protocol appearance, kept a sense of amazement after climbing through several floors of the Book Collection Pavilion. The abundance and breadth of the collection, spanning ancient to modern times, far exceeded his previous understanding, with many volumes possibly unique.

This is likely the reason why the library could continue operating persistently.

On the second floor, he saw the reason behind the survival of those ancient texts with Dong Liangyu. There were books on the brink of aging and decay; idle Dong Liangyu would personally copy them, re-registering them as new books for replacement.

Ren Wenjing's scripts were elegantly neat.

Such efforts evidently transcended beyond her generation.

Perhaps due to being rewritten, the books' exteriors appeared ordinary, initially obscuring the value of the collection within.

Moreover, what astonished him was that amidst such a vast and complex library, Dong Liangyu could remember the original location of each book during sorting.

This left him in silent awe; the heavens didn't provide this woman a good physique but endowed her with a brain exceptional in wisdom.

Li Hongjiu encountered Fu Que multiple times inside the Book Collection Pavilion. He knew who he was, aware of his fame, but did not engage in conversation, merely nodding slightly when they met.

The Red-clothed Woman behind the library counter continued in a half-asleep, half-awake state through the day, maintaining her presence from dawn till dusk, her abacus clicking and clacking, sketching a few lines in the ledger, marking the end of day's work.

At the dining table, Li Hongjiu and the Red-clothed Woman could eat together, the latter having wine, and the former having conversation.

Inviting people to impart doctrines and teachings naturally required providing ample good wine.

Li Hongjiu was aware of this, realizing that having enough wine had nothing to do with Shi Chun.

Thus it became a matter of coveting one's wine while Shi Chun coveted the person. Wasn't this a bit excessive?

The wine wasn't the problem; it was that occasionally the Red-clothed Woman brought out a jar to toast him. After drinking, she returned to her room and immediately transmitted a message to Lan, informing the location of Shi Chun and dispatched someone to investigate briefly.

The reason was sensing that Shi Chun remained still in a spot; dead, perhaps?

Consequently, someone ventured to the area overnight, but the situation was a bit tricky, with untamed wilderness complicating the identification of specific targets, and spell use hindered as they were ordered not to alert prematurely.

Eventually, a void fissure magically appeared, and the Red-clothed Woman emerged in a flash, surveying the environment before lightly landing on the mountain top.

Beneath the vast starry sky, she closed her eyes for a moment, soon locating the target's exact location. However, upon reopening her eyes, there was astonishment, seemingly unsure if she had mistaken something. She then closed her eyes again for quite a while before reopening, muttering, "Reading books?"

She glanced at the surrounding environment, realizing as long as she encountered Shi Chun, she'd inevitably find occurrences defying common understanding.

The entire day, finding such a stationary location, these two fools chose a quiet remote spot just to read books? Has the current Demon Path really become this peculiar?

She really wanted to see what those two were actually reading.

However, though her domain could perceive every subtle movement, it couldn't discern the words on the pages.

So the Mother-child Talisman sent a message to Shi Chun, saying she missed him again, asking where he was and what he was doing.

Shi Chun's reply was the same old routine, saying he missed her even more, and claimed he was busy running errands for her.

Reading the message, the Red-clothed Woman was amused and angry, hiding leisurely in the cave at her feet, having the nerve to claim he was bustling around for her.

If she couldn't pinpoint his location now, she might have fallen for his deceit again.

She could imagine the last time he had likely deceived her in a similar manner, feeling both furious and itching with resentment.

Despite her anger, she ultimately didn't alarm him, quietly withdrew, but under her direction, her hidden watchers managed to locate the exact position of the target.

Within the cave, time oblivious of the outside world's passing or lengthening.

Just before noon the next day, Wu Jinliang suddenly sat up, holding a book, saying, "Chun Tian, look quickly, the Netherworld Langdang River…"

Langdang River? Shi Chun naturally wasn't unfamiliar with this term. Last time in the Netherworld, a black-faced general named Lao Xi had self-reported his territory, which was Langdang River.

He immediately got up and moved closer to look. Wu Jinliang pointed at the lines, reading, "Zhu Yong Pavilion, the Soul Wheel central office established in the Langdang River…"

Although they hadn't read much about the Netherworld, they knew what the "Zhu Yong Pavilion" was, one of the ten palaces that controlled the Netherworld.

However, the content in this book was precisely what the two of them needed to understand. Shi Chun straightforwardly snatched the book to examine it closely, while Wu Jinliang became the one peeking from the side.

The book described the destinations of souls after animals' deaths.

Upon examining in detail, it turns out that after various animals die, their souls go to different categorized destinations; there's a place for humans, a place for birds, totaling ten categories, each governed by one of the Netherworld's ten palaces.

And Zhu Yong Pavilion is the place where souls of wolves, dogs, and such go. Its soul organizing center is in Langdang River.

After reading the relevant records, the two almost simultaneously looked at each other. No wonder after killing the Earth Wolf earlier, it had directly reached Langdang River.

Wu Jinliang seemed to realize, saying, "So killing a person using Death Refusing Incense can't directly reach Langdang River; it can only work on animals like wolves and dogs."

Shi Chun flipped through the pages, pointed, and said, "This categorization of soul destinations among the ten palaces, we need to remember it well, it's useful."

"Once you've memorized it, I'll take a look again." Wu Jinliang returned to lie down, crossed his legs casually, and picked up another book to flip through.

As the sun set, stars reappeared in the sky, and the Red-clothed Woman returned to the mountain peak from a crack in the void, once again closing her eyes to focus and sense.

The people below reported, continuously no one emerged, didn't see the target do anything, she was somewhat unbelieving, so she came to investigate personally.

The results proved the people below were correct, the two in the cave indeed were still there, doing nothing else, still reading books.

She figured there was definitely something fishy with those books, curious about what they were reading.

The problem was she wanted to hear what the two were discussing but couldn't, as those two rascals were really just reading silently, she waited there for a long time without hearing them speak a word.

In fact, Shi Chun and the other occasionally did talk, if she had stayed there, she could have heard them, but the issue was, she couldn't stay there personally for long.

Then she couldn't resist, used the Mother-child Talisman again to send Shi Chun another message, saying she missed him, asking where he was and what he was doing.

As a result, she received another blatant deception as expected, ultimately having to pretend to stay clueless knowingly, leaving with a faint cold smile at the corner of her mouth.

She returned to the Book Collection Pavilion to find Sword Saint Fu Que, hoping he could personally help keep watch, wishing to utilize Fu Que's cultivated Sword Awareness to listen to what the two were saying without alarming them.

"No, I am not your subordinate dog."

Fu Que's refusal was swift and uncompromising, leaving no room for negotiation, the Red-clothed Woman could only roll her eyes and walk away, having no temper about it.

As day turned to night, on the third night, after receiving Lan's report that she still didn't see the target doing anything, the Red-clothed Woman did not visit in person or send any more messages seeking irritation.

On the fourth afternoon, Shi Chun received a message from Yin Xu, the owner of Zhu Lang Pavilion, saying a package was received with words to pass to him, saying the dish was ready, placed in the usual spot.

Shi Chun immediately knew it was that batch of Death Refusing Incense again being refined, delighted, he chuckled out loud, "Jinliang, Granny Qi's speed this time wasn't slow, the goods are ready and have been placed in the old spot."

Wu Jinliang got up, pulled out the Mother-child Talisman, and said, "Alright, I'll have Xiao Sheng go pick up the goods."

Shi Chun also got up and said, "We need to get to work too, with the goods in hand, we can continue having her refine more materials, and start the experiments for crossing into the Netherworld."

He casually gathered the pile of books on the ground. Before setting out, he habitually activated his right eye superpower to scan the surroundings; it would have been fine not to look, but upon looking, his expression suddenly tightened, urgently stopping Wu Jinliang who was about to use the Earth Escape Technique, "Don't move, there's an ambush outside!"

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