“The story begins three thousand five hundred years ago…”

Yan Luowang pondered for a moment, then began to tell his story.

And as soon as he opened his mouth, he pulled the time back to a distant era.

The history Yan Luowang told was clearly different from what Chen Xiao had learned.

Because according to Yan Luowang, at that time, the land of Jiuzhou was divided into nine vassal states.

Yan Luowang was one of the vassals, in charge of the Liangzhou area, known as Yan Luowang.

The land of Jiuzhou was constantly at war, with disputes year after year.

Every vassal hoped that he could unify Jiuzhou and take charge of the grand ceremony!

However, Yan Luowang was an exception. At that time, he hoped to achieve immortality more than unifying Jiuzhou.

At this time, a person appeared, promising that he could make him immortal, but he also had to pay a price for it.

Yan Luowang said that if he could achieve immortality, he would be willing to pay any price.

Then, that person taught him a cultivation method that used souls as nourishment.

And this person was the Iron Man.

Ghost cultivation (gui xiu) appeared in the world from then on.

In the next five hundred years, Yan Luowang's ghost cultivation lineage flourished and grew stronger.

But strangely, after that person taught him ghost cultivation, he disappeared quietly.

As for what the price was, Yan Luowang didn't know either.

It wasn't until five hundred years later, three thousand years ago, that the Iron Man returned.

He designed to lead Yan Luowang's ghost cultivation lineage into this underworld, and put Zhulong in the River of Oblivion (Wangchuan).

From then on, the ghost cultivation lineage was imprisoned here.

The ghost soldiers (gui cha) could still leave the underworld and go to the mortal world to collect people's souls, but Yan Luowang could not.

Even if he only took half a step away from the Naihe Bridge, Zhulong would rush out of the River of Oblivion and drive him back.

Only then did Yan Luowang understand that what he had obtained was not immortality at all.

What he obtained was an endless curse.

But it was too late to regret, and he couldn't even commit suicide.

Because his mental power had grown so strong that he couldn't kill himself at all.

After listening to Yan Luowang's words, Chen Xiao had many questions in his heart.

Needless to say about the Iron Man, Chen Xiao's doubts about this person grew heavier and heavier.

He wasn't even sure whether this Iron Man was a righteous character or a villain. This person seemed to be playing a game of chess in Jiuzhou, spanning thousands of years.

In addition to this, there was also the matter of the ghost soldiers claiming lives. According to what did they hook people's souls and claim their lives?

After listening to Chen Xiao's questions, Yan Luowang took out a simple and heavy book with the three characters '生死簿' (Sheng Si Bu, Book of Life and Death) written on it.

"The Book of Life and Death really exists?"

Chen Xiao's eyes widened suddenly.

"This Book of Life and Death was also given to me by the Iron Man."

Yan Luowang explained.

"The Book of Life and Death is not like the legend, which can control everyone's life and death. In fact, all the people appearing on it are elderly people. What our ghost soldiers call hooking souls and claiming lives is to wait until the old people completely breathe their last before collecting their souls. As for those who died unexpectedly, they are not listed."

"Of course, some wandering souls will be captured if they are discovered by ghost soldiers, but their names will not appear on the Book of Life and Death."

Yan Luowang added.

Hearing these words, Chen Xiao was stunned.

What high technology is this? Can it predict people's life and death in advance and then appear on the Book of Life and Death?

"Then what happens after they are captured? Are all those souls refined by you?"

Chen Xiao asked.

"Not at all!"

Yan Luowang shook his head with a smile,

"Our ghost soldiers and ghost messengers in the underworld are all from the first group of people who cultivated with me."

"Although there are also people in the mortal world who cultivate the way of ghosts, they are not considered to be from our ghost cultivation lineage, so in the past few thousand years, the ghost cultivation in our underworld has remained at a relatively low number."

"There are so many dead souls, how can we refine them all!"

Chen Xiao frowned and asked again, "So what about the remaining dead souls? They can't be reincarnated, can they?"

"Reincarnation? As far as I know, there is no such thing!"

Yan Luowang said, "In fact, most of the dead souls we collect are thrown into the soul refining furnace!"

"Soul refining furnace? What is that?"

"The soul refining furnace is a vessel for refining dead souls, similar to an alchemy furnace, which can refine dead souls into black crystals, which we call soul crystals,"

Yan Luowang explained.

Chen Xiao had a very strange expression on his face. This matter sounded reasonable, but it made people feel disgusted from the bottom of their hearts, because those dead souls were living people before they died.

And as a human being, Chen Xiao naturally couldn't accept this kind of thing.

Although from another perspective, this soul refining furnace is a bit like a garbage incinerator…

Yan Luowang watched Chen Xiao's expression, and then explained: "Master Chen, don't misunderstand. It is not our intention to use the soul refining furnace to refine soul crystals. The soul refining furnace was left by the Iron Man, and he also ordered us to refine soul crystals. If we don't do it, then Zhulong will fly out of the River of Oblivion to cause trouble…"

Chen Xiao asked: "You said that soul crystals are refined for the Iron Man, so how do you send the soul crystals to him?"

"We don't send them, he comes to get them."

Yan Luowang explained, "He comes to the underworld every five hundred years to take away the soul crystals refined in these five hundred years. Speaking of which, five hundred years have passed since he last took the soul crystals, which means that the Iron Man is coming again."

Hearing this, Chen Xiao's mind moved.

After pondering for a moment, he picked up the Judge's Pen (Pan Guan Bi) and wrote on the ground with vigorous strokes.

"I'm at the edge of the soul refining furnace!"

The streamer flickered, and the next moment, Chen Xiao came to a huge underground palace.

Above his head, more than a hundred feet high, was a mountain rock dome.

And in front of him was a huge circular cliff black hole, the diameter of the hole was thousands of meters.

A very strange aura came from the hole.

The aura had both gloomy coldness and scorching heat, giving people the feeling of being in both ice and fire.

This aura filled the entire underground palace, and the closer to the entrance of the cave, the stronger the aura became.

The edge of the hole was inlaid with a circle of thick, simple, dark yellow metal.

Chen Xiao frowned and looked carefully before he understood that this circle of thick yellow metal was the mouth of the soul refining furnace.

The part below it was the soul refining furnace.

And the aura of ice and fire was the aura used to refine dead souls.

Chen Xiao looked into the soul refining furnace, it was pitch black, like a void, and nothing could be seen.

Just then, a few hundred meters to his left, a team of ghost soldiers was escorting a group of dead souls towards the mouth of the furnace.

The dead souls were expressionless, like walking corpses, lined up in two columns.

At this time, the two dead souls at the front of the queue had reached the edge of the mouth of the soul refining furnace.

The ghost soldiers kicked one by one, and the group of expressionless dead souls plunged into the void like dumplings…