"Keep climbing," Old Liu urged, panicked, yet daring to yank the scalpel he had inserted into the child's face out. The moment he pulled the blade free, that face contorted into an expression of extreme agony, finally dissolving into a puff of white smoke.

As Old Liu scrambled rapidly upward again, Ye Xiu wasn't idle. Suddenly, many adult faces appeared simultaneously around his hands and feet. Their eye sockets were pitch-black, and they were all making the same motion: wide-open mouths poised to bite off Ye Xiu’s limbs. Ye Xiu thought, This is it, but unexpectedly, those things did nothing to him; instead, they surged directly toward Old Liu's direction.

"Damn it, I knew relying on the Grim Reaper was unreliable!" Old Liu, who had been looking down at Ye Xiu's suffering, had no idea those entities would swarm him like recognizing a target. Instantly, the entire tree root was covered with human faces.

Ye Xiu observed it all coldly from below. He noticed the tree faces seemed utterly unaware of what they were doing; they just rushed haphazardly across the trunk with no discernible pattern. Seeing this, Ye Xiu couldn't help but touch the spot where the tree face had just appeared. To his surprise, that face remained motionless. So, why were they chasing Old Liu?

"Right, Old Liu! It's the light, they are following your spotlight!" Ye Xiu roared toward Old Liu as if discovering a new continent. He was certain of the tree faces' behavior. This tree root abyss was utterly dark, so their ascent from below must have been attracted by the light. This meant these things were phototactic creatures, not evil spirits.

Old Liu was certainly no fool. Despite the emergency, he was listening keenly in all directions and instantly switched off the light. At that precise moment, the shaking on the entire trunk ceased. It seemed Ye Xiu’s idea had worked.

A chill swept up from the depths of the earth. Ye Xiu began climbing upward in the darkness, trying to locate Old Liu. Although his hands and feet touched surfaces that clearly felt like human faces, thankfully they showed no aggressive behavior. His real worry was Old Liu's current unknown location.

"Ow! Watch it!" At that moment, Old Liu's angry shout shattered the silence of the darkness. He was climbing down and nearly had his foot pulled off by Ye Xiu. "The Grim Reaper can't even see in the dark!"

Ye Xiu was astonished, but the astonishment had two parts. First, whether Grim Reapers really were helpless in the dark—Ye Xiu possessed normal human vision. Second, Old Liu was still moving actively in the pitch-black—this guy seemed truly resourceful.

"What the hell are you worried about? I’m right next to you!" Old Liu recovered his usual demeanor. As he said this, he thrust an object into Ye Xiu's hand. "Technology has advanced; we have night vision goggles. Luckily, I brought two."

Ye Xiu accepted the item as if seeing a dawn in the darkness. Only after putting them on did he realize Old Liu’s greenish figure was to his right. A wave of relief washed over him: "A true master still needs to use tech gear; how strange."

"Even Grim Reapers need these, especially me!" Old Liu grumbled, pointing downwards to signal continuing the descent. "You’ve confused me too; the tree faces absolutely love light, but there’s no light here at all!"

Ye Xiu leaned further down. Aided by the night vision goggles, Ye Xiu got a clearer view of the surrounding tree faces. Their empty eye sockets and bald foreheads resembled the faces of dead corpses. "What were these things planning to do just now? Eat the light, or eat you?"

"The formation of tree faces is also born from resentment. If I’m not mistaken, the tree faces we just encountered were the transformations of the villagers killed by the savage birds." Old Liu's explanation was very persuasive. "People who die from deep-seated resentment often harbor an intense longing for sunlight. These people were killed by the savage birds, attracted by the malevolent aura of the Fiend-Raven Array, which pulled them into the array’s space through the elm tree. Having finally seen light, naturally, they rushed toward us."

Listening to his explanation, Ye Xiu still had other doubts. "What about the scalpel you had earlier? Can you really kill these things with a knife?"

"This is a treasure of our Ancient Strange Dao arts: the Thin-Face Blade." Old Liu looked proud, growing more animated as he spoke. "Cultivators of the Strange Dao arts all possess a Thin-Face Blade, and the thinness of the blade indicates the level of their Daoist power. The Thin-Face Blade can destroy everything born within the Dao Realm, and it’s even rumored to be capable of slaying a Grim Reaper!"

Ye Xiu recalled the image of that child's face turning to ash and instinctively gasped. This was the first time he had heard that a Grim Reaper could be scared to death by something. "I saw your Thin-Face Blade was only the size of a surgical scalpel, and the blade wasn't extremely thin. Does that mean your Daoist power isn't high enough?"

"Nonsense! Plenty of people have thinner blades than mine. I heard some people have cultivated their Thin-Face Blade to the stage where only the hilt remains, with no blade at all." Old Liu raised his eyebrows and waved his hand, urging Ye Xiu to look further down. "Forget about the Thin-Face Blade; look beneath your feet."

Hearing how formidable the Thin-Face Blade was, Ye Xiu felt a degree of fear. However, when he followed Old Liu’s gaze downward, he spotted a faint, hazy crimson glow emanating from not far below the ground, as if red light were being blocked by paper.

Old Liu became excited. He quickly hopped down several levels, grasping the trunk with one hand while taking out a coin with the other, which he tossed toward the red area, muttering under his breath, "Heaven and Earth grant passage, go."

Clang... When the coin touched the branch layer where the red light was, it flipped over and was violently repelled. The red light also seemed to react, suddenly flaring brightly before dimming again.

"That's strange. Will this red light attract the tree faces to attack us again?" Ye Xiu felt a sense of ominous premonition. If the tree faces returned, one Thin-Face Blade probably wouldn't be enough to stop them.

Old Liu made a large leap, landing heavily on the branch surrounded by the red glow. He stomped hard a few times with his foot, then leaned in, tilting his head to listen intently. Finally, he looked helplessly at Ye Xiu. "This must be the true entrance to the Ninefold Fiend-Raven Array. This red thing isn't light; it’s blood qi. The fact that it can still seep out despite being entangled by the old elm roots countless times speaks volumes about how vicious this array is."

"Then what do we do? Can your Thin-Face Blade cut an opening in it?" Ye Xiu reached out to press the pulsating red tree bark; it seemed to move alive under his hand, undulating gently. "Isn't the Thin-Face Blade that powerful? Open a path for us!"

"Hoo..." Old Liu let out a long breath, and of course, retrieved his weapon, which resembled a surgical scalpel. He squatted down, pressing the undulating bark with one hand while carefully angling the small blade to pierce inward with the other.