The Years When I Was the Boss of the Evil Abyss

In the deep mountains of Nanwu, the eerie wind swept across the back mountain path, and the ground was in disarray. The rugged mountain path was now filled with a figure leaping up and down. Zhang Fugui had never run so desperately in his life. The undead behind him seemed to appear closer and farther at random, and several times their claws brushed past his ears, nearly costing him his life.

"This isn't working, Daoist," Zhang Fugui gasped, "I can barely run anymore. These things are too fierce."

Su Yu shifted his gaze with difficulty, the shadowy figures of the undead becoming clearer in his sight. His attention was drawn to the ink spots within their bodies. Since earlier, the ink dots within the white ghostly mist seemed more active, moving through the undead like a source of power. This was different from what Su Yu had seen before with the undead and unlike Zhang Fugui's manipulation of the Yin energy.

Thinking this, Su Yu looked down at the Yin energy inside his body, now stabilizing. The energy was growing denser, and his thoughts drifted to the familiar hand seal, and to the uncontrollable body that had fallen off the cliff.

Just as Su Yu was trying to make sense of these sensations, one of the undead lunged toward them and sent Zhang Fugui flying. Zhang Fugui hit the ground hard, stunned. The undead turned its bloodshot eyes toward Su Yu and stomped down on his injured leg before leaning forward.

The undead crawled closer to Su Yu's leg, saliva dripping from its sharp fangs, and it suddenly bit into his leg, drawing blood. The sharp pain shot through Su Yu's mind, and the Yin energy within him grew heavier. He instinctively kicked the undead, knocking its head aside.

Zhang Fugui, having barely gotten up, almost collided with the undead again. He stared in disbelief. "The Diamond God Leg…"

Su Yu struggled to rise, lowering his gaze to the Yin energy forming around his other leg. His eyes flickered in deep concentration, the totem-like patterns in his vision spinning faster.

Zhang Fugui snapped out of his stupor and, rushing over, tried to carry Su Yu on his back. But as soon as he lifted him, he noticed something strange. The fog river, which should have been behind him, was clearly visible in front of him now.

"Wait, something's wrong… I was running away from the river, why is it right in front of me?"

"Zhang Fugui!" Su Yu's sharp voice rang out.

Zhang Fugui turned back, realizing the undead was charging again. This time, the undead raised its hand, and Zhang Fugui felt an immense force pulling him backward. The undead grabbed Su Yu's shoulder with one hand, while using its claws to latch onto Zhang Fugui, forcibly pulling Su Yu from his back and locking him at its waist. It began dragging him away.

Zhang Fugui struggled, but he couldn't free Su Yu. "Daoist!" he cried, terrified, as the undead continued dragging them toward the fog river.

Nearby, the wild ghosts in the fog river sensed the movement, their attention drawn by the scent of blood. One by one, they converged on the undead's direction.

The undead growled angrily, a surge of Yin energy blasting out from its body, scattering the nearby wild ghosts with ease. The wind sliced through the air, and Su Yu felt a sharp pain in his ears, unsure whether it was from the undead's roar or the throbbing pain inside his mind.

The mist in the fog river seemed to provoke something within Su Yu's dantian. The peaceful Yin energy there stirred, and the ink spots inside the undead began to cluster and scatter. Su Yu could feel his own Yin energy reacting to this.

As the undead neared the river, the mist became colder, carrying with it the stench of decay. Broken white bones scattered across the riverbed, their jagged texture palpable underfoot. The cold river water and mist soaked Su Yu up to his waist, the pain from his broken leg intensifying.

In the distance, a voice echoed faintly in his mind: "Those born with incomplete souls should not attempt to learn the Tao. Even the spirit platform can't be guarded!"

"Still a blind man, can't even recognize a few big characters, the master doesn't even want to teach him."

"Fifteen years old, still only at the initial stage of Qi cultivation, it's a disgrace to the Su family to let this be known."

As the cold wind howled further, he was dragged by his clothing to the edge of a cliff. Someone whispered softly in his ear:

"How pitiful... you can only blame your ill fate."

What does "ill fate" mean? Who has ill fate? The totem sensed danger and desperately wanted to control the boy's body. But at that moment, the moment the totem activated the yin energy from the boy's dantian, the resistance from the host immediately severed the flow of yin energy!

Su Yu suddenly opened his eyes, pain flooding his mind once again. The thick stench of corpse water filled his nostrils. He reached out and grabbed the wrist of the living corpse.

The totem inside his eyes was confused: "?"

The boy did not move. His awareness was terrifyingly calm. His eyes still fixed on the living corpse, while the yin energy, moving faster than before, surged into his body through his skin. His meridians were once again torn apart, and the dispersed yin energy in his dantian was beginning to stir.

At that moment, the living corpse seemed to notice the movement in its arms. It lowered its head in surprise, seeing the yin energy from the Mist River rapidly gathering toward the boy in its arms. In a hurry, it loosened its grip on its prey, but the boy was quicker. In the instant the living corpse let go, the boy seized its left hand.

A sudden sense of danger surged. The living corpse struggled to break free from the unexpected restraint. The boy immediately felt the yin energy inside him respond to his will. It surged from his dantian, flowing through his meridians, and when it reached his hands, the burst of power was stronger than he had anticipated. He gripped the living corpse's wrist, yanked it toward himself, and interrupted its movement.

At that moment, the boy saw the accumulation of ink-like spots inside the living corpse. As the ink-like spots gathered near the palm of its hand, he immediately made a judgment. He leaned forward, using the force from the living corpse's resistance, and dodged the attack with a single move.

If a higher-level cultivator were present, they would have been able to see that the "qi" patterns circulating inside the boy and the living corpse were identical, almost as if they were mimicking each other's technique. From the dantian, the qi circulated in a full cycle. The boy was like a mirror, perfectly imitating the living corpse's energy manipulation and calling forth the yin energy lodged in his own dantian.

Soon, the yin energy accumulated in the boy's palm, forming like the strokes of a brush. The handprint etched in the boy's sea of consciousness was redrawn.

In the next instant, the living corpse howled toward Su Yu, and a flood of yin energy surged toward him. Su Yu felt as though his skin was about to tear apart, the pain overwhelming his mind. Blood surged in his throat, and he spat it onto the living corpse's face. The living corpse, momentarily stunned by the blood, became slower in its movements, while Su Yu's other hand did not pause. A familiar handprint formed on his fingertips, coagulating into a fat-white mark, and as he finished the last stroke, the handprint immediately solidified.

The creatures wriggling on the living corpse's body let out an ear-piercing screech. Su Yu pressed his hand onto the living corpse's face, silencing its screams and forcing its mouth shut. Sharp teeth sank into the boy's tiger palm, blood immediately spilling from his skin. Upon tasting fresh blood, the living corpse's muscles bulged, veins popping from its body, but Su Yu did not stop.

Zhang Fugui looked up in the howling wind and saw a massive handprint floating above the boy and the living corpse.

The living corpse's crimson eyes became slightly dazed. It stared at the handprint high above, and the madness in its eyes slowly faded. It stared unblinkingly, and at that moment, the boy's hand pressed down. The handprint followed his movement, collapsing like a mountain onto the living corpse's face.

Su Yu pressed the living corpse's head directly into the water, and the yin energy he had reversed inside his body surged through his palm and struck the living corpse's forehead.

Su Yu pressed down hard on the living corpse's body, blood flowing from its seven orifices. He felt as if his bones were shattering, but his sharp instincts told him he couldn't relax. The moment he let up, his opponent would strike back.

Struggling to maintain his consciousness, he ignored the intense resistance from the totem in his dantian and activated the yin energy within again.

Looking down, he saw that the ink-like spots in the living corpse's body were still active.

"Not dead yet?"

When Zhang Fugui approached, he saw the boy, covered in blood, kneeling by the Mist River's edge. The boy held the living corpse's head in one hand, and when it twitched, he slammed its forehead onto the ground. The riverbank was soaked with blood, it was hard to tell whether it was the boy's blood or the corpse's foul blood. After several blows, the ink-like spots inside the living corpse stopped moving, but the body still retained some will.

"Master?" Zhang Fugui shakily approached.

The boy, drenched in blood, opened his eyes upon hearing the voice. The pain was unbearable. When he tried to stand, the broken bones in his body protested sharply, but he did not stop. His blood dripped onto the barely moving living corpse as he dragged it by the neck.

With every movement, his bones cracked, but he was still alive.

The boy focused on his sea of consciousness, where the totem in his dantian had withered, as if everything had been drained, and even the eyes that had been wide open for so long were now shut.

**Su Yu couldn't put his feelings into words, but whenever he thought about being bound by this totem, he felt a strange sense of aversion. As the eyes closed, Su Yu's eyelids grew heavy, and his eyes began to sting, but he didn't feel upset. Instead, he thought, "This thing has weaknesses too."

"...Can you move?" Su Yu glanced at Zhang Fugui.

Zhang Fugui was startled by the eyes, now laced with crimson golden threads. "I—I can," he stammered.

The scene before him was grotesque and terrifying. Zhang Fugui had seen other wild ghosts dissipate into dust at the hands of the boy, but he'd never witnessed anything like this. He looked down at the chain around his ankle, emitting a scarlet aura. He had no cultivation power to speak of, so he couldn't understand how he was surviving in such a terrifying environment. But he knew it must be connected to the boy beside him.

Su Yu let go of him, collapsing onto the ground. After a moment, he stood back up, his eyes shimmering with gold. "Drag it over."

Zhang Fugui hurriedly grabbed the living corpse and cautiously followed the boy. They arrived at the edge of the misty river.

In the panic of escaping, Zhang Fugui could no longer tell where they had ended up, but the sight before him—the misty river that couldn't be avoided no matter how they tried—filled him with more dread than before. As he approached, something in the surroundings seemed different from what they'd encountered earlier. The water flow was even more rapid...

He struggled to drag the living corpse, but suddenly, he saw the mist part, as if a curtain had been drawn back. The scene ahead became clearer. The surrounding fog around the river seemed to thin out, and then, he noticed—eyes, countless eyes staring at him.

"Ghosts!!!" Zhang Fugui gasped. "The big ghosts are all here!"

Su Yu, weary, followed his gaze. The white misty river raged violently. The noise around them grew chaotic. Just as he was about to take a step forward, Zhang Fugui suddenly grabbed his arm, urgently whispering, "Waterfall, there's a waterfall ahead!"

At the end of the misty river, the water plunged down in a rapid torrent, rushing toward a massive deep pool dozens of meters below. Thick mist shrouded the top of the pool, and the oppressive feeling emanating from it made Zhang Fugui stop in his tracks.

There had been rumors of great ghosts fighting in the deep mountains of Nanwu, though Zhang Fugui had never seen such a thing. Now, looking at the vicious spirits below the misty river, he felt an overwhelming chill, his courage to move forward completely gone.

"Master, we…" Zhang Fugui said fearfully. Just one living corpse had nearly cost them their lives. If the vicious spirits below noticed them, they'd be torn apart in an instant. They had thought that solving the living corpse problem would solve everything, but now it felt as though they had just moved from one pit into another.

Su Yu remained silent. His wounds had slowed the bleeding, and he was able to survey the situation below. The white river appeared to have split, as if directed by something, its flow now plunging directly downward. He didn't advance any further but instead looked at the few figures floating beneath them—these must be the vicious spirits Zhang Fugui had mentioned.

At that moment, he suddenly saw several strange lights wrapped in the misty pool. Unlike the usual white ghostly energy, these lights resembled the figures of cultivators Zhang Fugui had seen earlier at Nanwu Mountain's entrance.

"There are people—" Zhang Fugui blinked and looked closer. Sure enough, beneath them, he saw the figures of a dozen or so cultivators. His voice, full of joy, rang out, "It's them! It's the cultivators from Nanwu Mountain!"

"People..." Su Yu coldly eyed the figures below, his expression unchanged.

At that moment, the living corpse beside them seemed to stir again. Su Yu tilted his head and saw that the black spots inside the corpse were beginning to move.

Zhang Fugui felt a glimmer of hope. With so many powerful ghosts and vicious spirits around, they couldn't rely on the Taoist master alone, but with cultivators here, it was different. These were members of the famed Su family, and if they could stick with them, they might escape from this cursed misty river.

He was about to explain this to Su Yu when he suddenly remembered: "The Su family cultivators! Master, we can escape now!"

Su Yu glanced at him coldly. "Do you think they'll take you with them?"

Zhang Fugui froze, then awkwardly replied, "Well... maybe not, but we can follow them!"

Su Yu's eyes narrowed, and his voice remained calm, "How do you think we got in here?"

Zhang Fugui, who had spent decades at the outskirts of Nanwu Mountain, had witnessed all sorts of strong winds, but never one that could pull them into this place. "But many cultivators were also swept in... they—"

Su Yu cut him off casually, "Who knows? Maybe they were fed to the living corpses in the tombs."

Those cultivators were no different from them—just disposable pawns for the great families controlling Nanwu Mountain.

A chill crept up Zhang Fugui's spine as he processed Su Yu's words. Didn't people always say that cultivators were righteous heroes, defenders of justice? How could they possibly...

Suddenly, Su Yu moved, and with one swift motion, kicked the living corpse into the misty river below.

"Didn't it seem interested in my blood?" Su Yu sneered, watching the corpse fall. "Let's see how interested it really is."