Ye Xiu spread his hands in exasperation, the string of encounters leaving him somewhat depleted. "To think, the moment we return to the third level of the Demon Quelling Pavilion, our old friends come out to greet us."

"Are these things from the Fire Diagram Purgatory, or are they Divine Beasts?" Old Liu drew out his Ghost Executioner blade, frost crystals beginning to coalesce on his right hand. Opposite them, three monsters standing on two legs raised their scythe-like weapons. Their upper bodies resembled tricolored bones, yet their two compass-like legs supported torsos of differing lengths, complete with four arms and two heads.

"Enough chatter, kill!" Ye Xiu sent both his swords circling out in a thrust toward the Divine Beast Skeletons. After repeated practice, his Tian Miao sword techniques had reached perfection. As he weaved in to pierce one skeleton's sternum, he realized the three skeletons were mere phantoms. He slipped past the attack only to be stabbed in the back by the scythe held by one of the creatures. A surge of pain hit him. "Damn it, ah..."

"Waaah!" The skeletons, seeing their blades connect, let out triumphant screeches. They relentlessly hacked at Ye Xiu, chasing him as he darted everywhere.

Old Liu saw the situation turning sour and tried to use ice crystals to impede the skeletons' movement, but the ice spell passed right through their forms without posing any threat. "No, these things don't truly exist within this space! Get back!"

"Boom!" Ye Xiu tumbled to the ground, trying to crush the skeletons' bodies with his Black Flame, but the things could not be harmed. They spun their upper bodies, their limbs raining down sword strikes, leaving Ye Xiu nowhere to hide. "Damn it, Old Liu, aren't you skilled in Daoist arts? What are these things?"

Old Liu was also growing frantic. He glared at the mirror before him; four mirrors were directly illuminating the area between the two of them. Yet, inside the mirrors, only the image of a single red skeleton appeared. He darted forward, thrusting his Ghost Executioner toward one mirror. With a loud clang, glass shattered across the floor. "Kill the red one!"

"Tian Miao Divine Sense!" Ye Xiu launched himself forward, bursting out of the skeleton phalanx. The red skeleton stood behind the other three. He drove his sword forward, weathering fierce attacks from the front two skeletons, but managed to strike the red one squarely, shattering it into pieces. "Phew... what is the principle behind this?"

"Only those illuminated by the mirrors reveal solid forms." Saying this, Old Liu noticed the other three mirrors again. This time, the images of green skeletons appeared within them. He moved to strike one, intending to break the formation, but the blue skeleton suddenly lunged, its four long blades blocking Old Liu’s path.

Ye Xiu understood the mechanism and launched his Black Flame toward a mirror surface. However, the red skeleton, now reformed, parried the flame with a quick sword thrust, knocking it aside. "These things learned from being tricked; they aren't entirely devoid of intellect."

"Thin Face Blade!" Old Liu met the four long blades with his single sword. The Thin Face Blade shot out from his hand, smashing the mirror reflecting the green skeleton. "Now you can kill it!"

"Mn." Ye Xiu brought his dual swords back up and confronted the green skeleton's four blades. His movements were sharp and fierce, and in moments, he had cleanly dispatched the creature. "The last mirror!"

The final blue skeleton did not appear in any mirror. Old Liu engaged it in a fierce exchange but was badly wounded by the four-armed monster. He turned around, bewildered. "These mirrors can't be moved; we have to lure that thing into the range of the mirrors' illumination."

"How do we lure it? It won't come over," Ye Xiu immediately retreated to the center of the clearing, and Old Liu was forced back there as well. They watched the blue skeleton, which merely roared from a corner, refusing to advance. "If this thing won't come to us, how am I supposed to finish it?"

"What a joke, think you can escape death just by doing that?" Old Liu gave a triumphant smile and pulled out the dark sunglasses from his chest. He angled them toward a mirror and yelled at Ye Xiu, "Quick, give me a flame shot of Black Flame!"

"Heh, interesting." As Ye Xiu spoke, the Black Flame ignited. Its radiance immediately shone upon the mirror surface. The light reflected off the mirror, passing through the sunglasses, projecting the blue skeleton’s image within. "Now you can't hide!"

"Awooo..." The blue skeleton was enraged, roaring incessantly as it spun its body, preparing to charge the two men.

"One on each side," Ye Xiu responded, rushing toward the skeleton with his sword, while Old Liu simultaneously launched his Thin Face Blade to shatter the illuminated mirror. With a sharp kacha, the glass fell to the ground along with the skeleton's bones, dissolving into nothingness.

"Voom..." Following a jarring sound, the entire chaotic red space was sucked into the remaining mirror. Ye Xiu and Old Liu were pulled in after it.

"Next up must be the Grand Profound Dao Charm!" Old Liu grinned broadly and rushed in front of Ye Xiu. "Kid, you can't snatch that thing from me."

"If you can take it, it's yours," Ye Xiu made a gesture of invitation; he had no interest in any Daoist techniques. "I just want to know what Jia Yunxin is doing right now."

Having gained power from the Demon Pool, Jia Yunxin could now wield the malevolent energy within her to a greater extent. Led by the Ghost Maiden of the Womb, she arrived at the most hidden recess of the Desolate Abyss—a place littered with rotten bones and saturated with gore.

The Ghost Maiden of the Womb pointed to a massive, disc-shaped stone wall. "This is the nexus connecting the Boundless Realm and the Fire Diagram Purgatory—the Coronary Stone Forest. Do you see the aperture within it?"

Jia Yunxin had already noticed it: a single, tiny hole in the entire stone disc, just wide enough to admit two fingers. Without a word, she inserted her finger. A massive surge of malevolent energy immediately coursed up her arm to her fingertip.

"Rumble..." Blue light flared as the stone disc began to rotate violently. A star-studded cavern materialized before the two women.

"The Fire Diagram Purgatory has communicated with the Boundless Realm once more." The Ghost Maiden of the Womb's eyes shone with longing as she looked at Jia Yunxin. "You truly are the one chosen by the Heavenly Emperor's Malevolent Energy. It was not in vain that I imparted a portion of my own evil energy to you back then."

Jia Yunxin caressed her cheek, not forgetting the knife wounds. "We are going into the Fire Diagram Purgatory through here?"

"Exactly. We will find the burial place of the Heavenly Emperor's Evil Body and thus gain dominion over the entire Fire Diagram Purgatory," the Ghost Maiden of the Womb grinned, leaning her entire body toward the starlight. "When the Fire Diagram Purgatory rules the Boundless Realm, we will become its masters. When the Heavenly Ranking Holy War begins, once you obtain the power of the Heavenly Emperor's Spiritual Body, nothing within or outside the realm will match you!"

"Swoosh-prick..." Her delicate jade finger plunged through the Ghost Maiden of the Womb's chest. Jia Yunxin's eyes hardened, a smile playing on her lips. "Thank you for your guidance. I am quite capable of walking the rest of the way alone, hehe!"