“Well played, Bai Hao. Vile and sinister, vicious and merciless, reviler of the clan....” The Bai Clan patriarch was currently speeding along, coughing up blood and wracked with bitterness. Although the detonation of the soulhoarding pagoda hadn’t killed him, it had gravely injured him. At the moment, he was in no condition to be thinking about trying to kill the Giant Ghost King. Right now, he had to fear for his own life!

There could be no better opportunity than this moment for the patriarchs of the Chen and Cai Clans to kill him.... After all, the three clans were cooperating at the moment, but in general, were enemies!

The Bai Clan patriarch was in no mood to bet his own life, and therefore drew on every scrap of energy he had left to flee back to the Bai Clan, where he could safely go into secluded meditation and start recovering!

He had no attention to spare for what was happening back in Giant Ghost City, or with Bai Hao!

The longer one lives, the more one will fear death. That was the current situation with the Bai Clan patriarch. After all, the fate of his clan rested on his shoulders, and the clan as a whole couldn’t afford for anything to happen to him.

Meanwhile, back in the city, two new deva auras suddenly erupted out into the open. One of them began to speed toward Bai Xiaochun, and the other... went after the Bai Clan patriarch!

As for Bai Xiaochun, he was racing through Giant Ghost City, trying to keep his aura concealed, his heart racing with terror.

“I’m finished. Kaput. Dammit, I was too impulsive. It’s all the fault of this Giant Ghost King. He’s too conspicuous!” Bai Xiaochun felt like crying, but no tears would come. At the moment, he was so nervous his soul was trembling.

Equally nervous was the Giant Ghost King, who couldn’t stop coughing up blood, and whose aura was incredibly weak. The destructive blast just now had far surpassed a deva attack, and had very nearly killed him.

Feeling like he had just survived a deadly calamity, he looked over at his captor in astonishment.

He could tell that this Bai Hao was a crazy daredevil who wouldn’t shrink back from any challenge. However, worried that he would say the wrong thing and piss him off, he very carefully chose his words as he said, “If... if you just keep running around randomly like this, you’re going to get captured. Listen, let’s go back to the stone turtle... I can--”

“Who said you could talk!?” Bai Xiaochun growled angrily, his expression as cold as ice. He even reached over and slapped the Giant Ghost King across the side of the head.

More blood sprayed out of the Giant Ghost King’s mouth, and his anger boiled. However, the crazed look in Bai Xiaochun’s eyes caused him to shiver and simply suppress his anger.

“This guy is crazy!!” he cursed inwardly. “A complete psycho!!”

By this point, he truly regretted his decision of pulling Bai Hao into his game to spice things up. If he could go back and do things over again, he would absolutely, positively change his decision. After all, if Bai Hao had ended up being killed by the Bai Clan, he wouldn’t be anywhere near a situation like this....

“Listen up, you old bastard,” Bai Xiaochun said angrily. “All of this is your fault. I almost just got killed trying to save you! If you don’t want to thank me, fine, but how dare you try to trick me into going back to that stone turtle. You think I’m an idiot or something? As soon as I went back into that turtle, I’d be dead!”

He was truly feeling very irritated. Then he thought about how it was the little turtle who had gotten him into this mess. If it weren’t for the little turtle, he would have long since made his getaway.

“And then there’s you, little turtle!” Gritting his teeth, he looked down at his bag of holding. However, the little turtle was long gone. Clearly... he knew that he had caused some really big problems.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“Well,” Bai Xiaochun thought, “I can’t change things now. I guess if I have to I’ll just hand over the Giant Ghost King....”

When the Giant Ghost King saw the ominous glint in Bai Xiaochun’s eye, he suddenly had a very bad feeling. He also realized that if he wanted to get out of this tribulation alive, everything would come down to this Bai Hao.

“Brother Bai Hao... there’s no need to go do anything hasty. What... what exactly do you want? Whatever it is... just tell me, I’m sure I can accommodate you!" The Giant Ghost King’s words came a bit haltingly as he tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible.

Inside, he was bemoaning how everything had played out. Originally, everything had been going exactly according to plan. He should have been safe in the stone turtle during his decay period, until his cultivation base was back to normal. At that point, he could have wrapped up his game perfectly. But then everything had gone wrong. He had made the critical error of trying to use a crazy person as a pawn. Too many things had then occurred which he could never have anticipated happening....

Glaring angrily at the Giant Ghost King, Bai Xiaochun said, “I want a deva soul, old man! A metal-type deva soul! If you have one, give it to me right now, and I’ll let you go immediately!”

The Giant Ghost King stared back at him in wide-eyed shock. Completely confused, he replied, “You... you kidnapped me because... you want a metal-type deva soul?”

The entire concept seemed completely and utterly absurd. He almost wondered if he was listening to the biggest joke in the world.

Bai Xiaochun was actually starting to get anxious. After all the hardships he had gone through to reach this point, if the Giant Ghost King didn’t agree, he would probably cry....

“Yeah, I do,” he yelled. “So what? Not gonna give it to me? Don’t push me too far, old man!”

“No, I’ll give it to you! I will....” The Giant Ghost King felt like he was about to collapse mentally. Although deva souls were precious, they weren’t that important to him in the grand scheme of things. He had assumed that this Bai Hao would be after something far more grand. And yet, it turned out that all he wanted was a deva soul....

“Damn you, Bai Hao!” he moaned inwardly. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? Was all of this worth it? You’re doing all this for a mere deva soul? You dragged me out of the stone turtle for that....”

“Hand it over!” Bai Xiaochun said impatiently. “Where is it, in that ring of holding?”

With that, he looked around furtively, and then ducked into a nearby alley.

When the Giant Ghost King responded to the question, he tried to word things perfectly. “I... um... I don’t actually have it on me right now. There are only random things in that ring of holding. The deva soul is in my secret palace, but with the current level of my cultivation base, I can’t open it right now. Listen, I have a suggestion, Brother Bai Hao. Just take a minute to think it over.... Keep me safe for a month. After that, my cultivation base will recover naturally, and I swear that as soon as it does, I’ll open my secret palace and give you that deva soul!”

The truth was that he really didn’t have any way of producing a deva soul at the moment.... Furthermore, after what had just occurred with the Bai Clan patriarch, he was also fairly certain that his best chance at staying alive was to stick with Bai Xiaochun. Besides, based on his observations of everything that was happening, he was very worried that Bai Xiaochun might hand him over to the three clans to save his own life.

As soon as the words left the Giant Ghost King’s mouth, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes blazed with anger. Smacking the Giant Ghost King across the head again, he said, “You think Lord Bai is stupid, you old bastard!? After your cultivation base recovered, the first thing you would do would be to kill me!”

Bai Xiaochun gritted his teeth at how foul the Giant Ghost King was to think he was so stupid.

Eyes burning with anger, but heart pounding nervously, he said, “Back when the Bai Clan patriarch was originally trying to kill me, and you saved me, I was very grateful. I helped you interrogate prisoners, and even helped you clean out the Cai Clan’s soulgrounds. But what did you go and do? Repay kindness with enmity, that’s what! You stripped me of my status as a prison guard and turned me into a prisoner! Outrageous!!”

By this point, Bai Xiaochun realized that he had done something monumentally crazy. He had kidnapped a demigod king.... In the past, he would never have even considered doing such a thing. However, at the moment, he was running out of options. In fact, he was even thinking of trying to work out a deal with the three great clans to trade the Giant Ghost King for a deva soul....

When the Giant Ghost King saw the look in his eyes, his heart started to pound even harder.

“Brother Bai Hao, please, don’t do anything rash. You mustn’t! Just... just hear me out. Why don’t you place a restrictive spell on me? Then you won’t have to worry about me causing problems for you even when my cultivation base is back to normal!”

“With my cultivation base?” Bai Xiaochun shot back, feeling angrier than ever. “What kind of restrictive spell could I possibly put on you? You’re really pushing things too far, old man!!” Flicking his sleeve, he was about to continue yelling when the Giant Ghost King cut him off.

“It doesn’t matter if your cultivation base is lower than mine. I’ll teach you a restrictive spell and even help you use it... that should do, right?” The Giant Ghost King really felt like crying. Considering his status in the world, for him to say things like this was unprecedented. It had been a very, very long time since he had pled with anybody in this fashion. Unfortunately, he had no other options....

“You’ll help me put a restrictive spell on yourself?” As far as Bai Xiaochun was concerned, it seemed like a silly notion. Worried that Bai Xiaochun would fly into a rage again, the Giant Ghost King quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and even spat out a mouthful of blood as he forced out a strand of his life essence divine sense. Then, he combined the blood and the divine sense into a sealing mark, which began to glow with multi-colored light as it rested there in his palms.

“Brother Bai Hao, you... you just need to put a drop of blood here. Then absorb the restrictive spell, and you’ll be set....”