“Long Chen, can you grow up a bit? Don’t mess around.” Yue Xiaoqian looked at the round thing in Long Chen’s hand. That was a gold coin.

“Hehe, everyone says that money can make even ghosts do work. Let’s try it!” laughed Long Chen.

Yue Xiaoqian sighed. Sometimes Long Chen made her absolutely speechless. He actually wanted to bribe a ghost.

“Little ghost, come over. Big brother has a big pile of money here. Do you want it? Do you want to make some money?” Long Chen’s voice was full of excitement. Yue Xiaoqian felt goosebumps. This seduction was too obvious.

“Long Chen, don’t mess around!” reprimanded Yue Xiaoqian. But she had just finished saying that when a disbelieving expression appeared on her face. That ghost actually slowly approached Long Chen.

“Come, don’t be afraid. Tell big brother what’s going on here. I have lots and lots of money for you. Once you have money, you won’t be alone. You can buy a house and marry some beautiful ghosts. You can stay in your ghost room all day and listen to your ghost women tell you ghost stories. Heavens, that kind of blessed ghost day really makes a person envious.” Seeing the ghost slowly get closer, Long Chen was delighted. Nonsense continued to spout from his mouth.

Yue Xiaoqian was flabbergasted. Even though she thought of herself as educated, this kind of situation had escaped the scope of her learning. Could money really make even ghosts do work?

Long Chen didn’t feel any fear as the ghost approached him. He didn’t feel any feeling of danger, and Yue Xiaoqian had also said that ghosts were just manifestations of greed. If a person wasn’t intensely greedy, they couldn’t be possessed.

A shadow appeared on Long Chen’s hand. It was like a hand, and it grabbed the coin. The coin floated into the air and then vanished.

Long Chen and Yue Xiaoqian were shocked. What was going on? The coin had disappeared without the slightest spatial fluctuation. This situation was bizarre.

“Hey, don’t leave once you take my money!” raged Long Chen. The ghost had used some unknown method to take his coin and then retreated to its original location.

That was extremely irritating to Long Chen, and lightning runes appeared on his finger. He pointed at the ghost, shouting, “Hand back my money!”

Crackling sounds filled the air, and the ghost seemed to have been frightened. It disappeared.

“Fuck, I lost a gold coin just like that?” raged Long Chen.

Yue Xiaoqian was silent for a long moment before suddenly saying, “I think I’ve figured something out. Ghosts are unable to differentiate the value of money. It was only drawn over to your gold coin because it was contaminated with too many people’s desires. That is what it sensed, and it thinks it’s something good for it. Don’t get angry. This idea of yours is good. Take out another gold coin and see if you can draw it back.”

“Will that work? It looks like it has already fled,” said Long Chen. But he still took out a golden coin. These gold coins were from the Phoenix Cry Empire. He only kept them as memorabilia.

“Don’t worry, ghosts have no intelligence. As manifestations of greed, they quickly forget any danger,” said Yue Xiaoqian.

As she had expected, the black figure slowly appeared. It quickly appeared in front of Long Chen again. This time, Long Chen had learned from last time. He held onto the coin tightly, not letting it take it away no matter how it pulled.

“Ka Ni Yi Gu Ka Qi Lu.” Yue Xiaoqian suddenly said a string of bizarre syllables.

“Xiaoqian, you know how to speak ghost?” Long Chen was shocked.

Even a peaceful person like Yue Xiaoqian couldn’t bear such a thing. She hit him in fury, saying, “You’re the one speaking ghost[1]! I’m using these tones to see if I can communicate with it using Spiritual Strength. If you don’t understand, then don’t speak!”

Long Chen was amazed by her knowledge. How did she know this?

Yue Xiaoqian repeated it three times, but the ghost ignored her. It was still trying to take the gold coin from Long Chen’s hand, but with Long Chen’s tight hold over it, it was unable to.

But on the fourth time that Yue Xiaoqian repeated it, her eyes suddenly brightened. “Long Chen, give this coin to it and then take out another one. But don’t give that one to it for now.”

Hearing that, Long Chen let go. Yet again, he still couldn’t figure out how the gold coin simply vanished. He took out a second one.

Yue Xiaoqian immediately began to communicate with it. Long Chen didn’t know what she was saying. It sounded like nonsense to him.

Following her instructions, he ended up giving the ghost a total of eight gold coins before it suddenly moved. Yue Xiaoqian pulled on Long Chen, following the ghost.

“What’s going on?” whispered Long Chen.

“I managed to communicate with it, and it will bring us to the core region of the trial. All we need to do is give it some money. Long Chen, this idea of yours really was brilliant. We can just let the ghost lead the way,” said Yue Xiaoqian excitedly.

“Hehe, you praise me. If it weren’t for your communication ability, this method of mine wouldn’t have worked either. I don’t know how to speak ghost,” laughed Long Chen.

“Dislikable. Don’t spout nonsense. If you didn’t know how to speak ghost, that Huang Junmo wouldn’t have been hoodwinked by you,” said Yue Xiaoqian.

Long Chen decided to keep his mouth shut. The two of them followed the ghost. Every now and then, it would stop and Long Chen would have to give it a gold coin.

After Long Chen had given it over a hundred gold coins, and after they had walked for over two hours through twisting and winding corridors, light finally appeared in front of them. The ghost immediately stopped, not daring to go any further.

Long Chen thought about it. As expected, with money, it was possible to get even a ghost to work for you. He decided to be a bit magnanimous and directly gave a hundred gold coins to it as a bonus. Then he and Yue Xiaoqian walked into the light.

Before they even entered the light, he felt several powerful auras ahead. There had to be experts already there.

The space in front of them suddenly opened. This was a world of light, with a bright sun hanging in the air. Only now did Long Chen realize the two of them had made a mistake. Perhaps if they had been walking aboveground, it would have been much easier to reach this place.

It seemed as if the underground core trial had already crumbled. As a result, it was revealed aboveground in a huge space around twenty miles wide.

There was a hill ten meters tall in this space. That hill was covered in a layer of light.

Once Long Chen entered, he immediately felt that something was wrong. He felt like some kind of energy had been stripped off him.

“This place forbids the usage of magical arts. Nor can you use heaven and earth’s energy,” warned Yue Xiaoqian quietly.

The two of them had only just entered when countless eyes stared at Long Chen like blades.

There were hundreds of experts here. They were walking around the hill, frowning in thought. There were experts from the Righteous path, the Corrupt path, and the ancient races. But none of them were speaking.

So when the two of them appeared, it immediately drew all their attention. When they saw Long Chen, they were shocked.

“Long Chen, you’re still not dead?” A chilly voice rang out, one that caused everyone’s hearts to shake.

That voice had come from a person with shoulder-length hair. He was surrounded by a terrifying energy, and his eyes emitted a cold light. There was a third eye on his forehead that was closed. Terrifying fluctuations came from him.

“Oh, aren’t you Xue You? Your complexion looks much better than before, and your neck looks much sturdier than ever. I wonder if it will be severed as easily again? And you’ve even grown back both your legs? Not bad, not bad, congratulations.” Long Chen looked at Xue You with a bit of surprise.

His words caused everyone to jump in fright. People had heard of Long Chen’s sudden rise, how he was powerful enough to fight with the other peak experts, but those were only stories. The peak experts in the Immemorial Path were existences that had blossomed from childhood. Their fame had been known for many years.

But Long Chen’s rise had been too sudden. Many people thought he was simply bragging, trying to raise his status without any true power to back it.

But now, everyone was dumbfounded. Long Chen had not only fought against Xue You, but he had also severed his neck and his legs? If that was true, Long Chen was practically heaven-defying.

Xue You ignored his provocation. He was still shocked. “Leng Yueyan let you go? That’s impossible!”

Leng Yueyan was merciless and vicious. All these years, Xue You had fought against her, and he had narrowly escaped death several times. That was why he was so confused.

Long Chen had already wasted a great deal of his energy fighting him, so how could he still be alive after facing Leng Yueyan? That made no sense.

“Tch, do you think I’m as weak as you and would have my leg cut off instantly in a single exchange? No matter how amazing Leng Yueyan is, she’s nothing more than a beautiful girl. Sooner or later, I will subdue her and make it so that she can’t even fight back.” Long Chen patted his chest confidently.

Before Xue You could even respond, an indifferent voice rang out. But that voice was imposing and icy. “Really? I really look forward to that day.”

Everyone was startled. They hastily looked up to see that at some unknown point, a figure had appeared in the sky.

She was beautiful, perfectly so. Her sapphire eyes possessed a breathtaking beauty.

This woman, who was an embodiment of the pinnacle of beauty, caused everyone to get goosebumps. It was like a blade was pressed against their throats.

A bloodthirsty aura filled the world. It was like killing intent, but not. It was like it had come from her bones, or perhaps even her soul.

“Leng Yueyan!”

Long Chen was shocked. Unconsciously, his hand was already gripping his broadsword tightly. All his energy began to slowly condense as he took on a battle posture.

[1] ‘Ghost words’ means nonsense or lies. So by asking her if she knew how to speak ghost, Long Chen was kind of insulting her a bit.