"Hey, wake up, stop sleeping. You're going to die soon."
The annoying voice lingered in my ears, and someone kept grabbing my ear.
It wasn't that I didn't want to open my eyes, but the consequence of being invaded by Yin energy was that my thoughts became numb. Coupled with the sealing of the Xuan Yang True Qi within my body, my physical condition was no better than that of an ordinary person.
"You're going to make me so angry..." With an angry exclamation, I suddenly felt a sharp pain on my left cheek, followed immediately by my right cheek.
No way? I'm already dead, and I'm still being slapped? Who the hell is this? This is too much!
*Slap, slap—*
With a series of slaps, I felt my face swell up. At the same time, my anger surged with each slap. In all my years, when had I ever been slapped like this? Even my master, who had educated me for ten years, never hit me like this. Who the hell are you, daring to hit me like this?
Reaching out to block, counterattack, and push hard, I executed this sequence of movements as smoothly as flowing water. This was also one of the training methods my master had for me. Although my body was stiff, it didn't feel stiff at all when I used it.
"Ah... hooligan..."
My heart tightened. No way? Did I push in the wrong place? Why was the place I pushed so soft, and there was even a desire to push again? Did I push somewhere I shouldn't have? With a shrill scream, my numb consciousness gradually cleared up. However, I didn't dare to open my eyes. I cautiously opened a sliver to see who I had pushed and where I had pushed.
As soon as my right eye opened a crack, before I could clearly see the situation in front of me, I was met with a punch. Before I could even cry out "Ouch," a second punch, then a third followed. Each punch landed with a solid impact, and with every blow, I felt my bones groaning and my internal organs weeping.
"Hooligan, pervert, how can you not change your hooligan ways even in death? This young lady will beat you to death."
Hearing the slightly familiar scolding in my ears, I was both surprised and scared, because the owner of the voice was none other than Fifth Princess. Wasn't she in the Half-Yin Realm? How did I suddenly end up here? Did she drag me here after I died?
Ignoring the pain in my body, I opened my eyes, dodged her next attack, and with a sudden burst of strength in my hands, I grabbed her two jade-like hands that were attacking me and asked, "Am I dead?"
Fifth Princess hadn't expected me to suddenly explode. She was stunned as I held her hands. Most importantly, we were only a fist's distance apart, and I could see the rouge on her lips through her veil.
A hint of charm flashed in her eyes, and a gentle force erupted from her hands, forcefully pushing me back. I felt my arms go numb, and I could no longer exert any strength.
"Dead, you're already quite dead, otherwise how could I have pulled you into the Half-Yin Realm?"
"This... I just died like this? I just turned eighteen today, and I haven't even had a girlfriend yet, nor have I ever touched a girl's hand, and I just died like this?" I looked at Fifth Princess in disbelief, unable to accept the reality of my death.
If I had seen Ox-Head and Horse-Face after death, I could have accepted it. After all, I was a person from the Yang world, and seeing them was understandable. But when Fifth Princess's voice sounded in my ears, a glimmer of hope arose in my heart, and I even suspected that I wouldn't die this time and could escape with my life. But what was the result? In the end, I couldn't escape this path of being frozen to death by Yin energy invading my body.
"Girlfriend? Even holding hands? Didn't you just owe me your hand?" Fifth Princess's almond eyes widened, and the surging Yin energy churned around her like a stormy sea, blowing me off the bed.
It was then that I realized I was in a bamboo house within the Fifth Prince's mansion. Although I fell off the bed, I felt pain, but this pain was very faint, as if someone who had been in the ice and snow for too long had their body numb and lost all sensation.
I felt my heart pounding. This feeling of pain could only be felt by the living. Could it be that I wasn't dead? Thinking of this, I reached out and pinched my thigh hard.
Huh? No feeling?
I clearly felt pain when I fell to the ground just now. Was it an illusion? I switched legs and pinched it hard again. This time, a piercing pain shot from my thigh, making me grimace and almost jump up.
*Pfft—*
"Silly..."
This action actually amused the furious Fifth Princess. Seeing me look at her, her expression returned to its icy coldness, as if the person who had just laughed wasn't her, but someone else.
I excitedly stood up and quickly walked up to her. I wanted to grab her hand and ask if I was dead or if she had saved me, but remembering my rude behavior just now, I stopped myself.
"Thank you, Fifth Princess, for saving my life. I don't know how to repay your great kindness. If you ever need me in the future, I will go through fire and water without hesitation." After saying that, I bowed deeply to her.
Fifth Princess's eyes did not change. After receiving my bow, she said stiffly, "How do you know you're not dead? I just found you interesting, so I took your soul here. You can talk and amuse me when I'm bored. Don't overthink it."
I said with a fawning smile, "Fifth Princess, please don't tease me. I still know it hurts when I pinch my thigh. Yin souls don't feel pain when they injure themselves. Besides, newly formed Yin souls don't have their own thoughts and consciousness. I can still recognize you. How could I be dead?"
Facing my sophistry, a hint of anger flashed in Fifth Princess's eyes again. "You still know you're not dead? If I hadn't sensed a large amount of Yin energy entering your body and guided it into the Half-Yin Realm, you would have gone to the underworld to queue up by now. Why can't you just stay put for a year or a half? Do you have to play with your life before you behave?"
Fifth Princess's voice was like a thunderous bell, causing the entire bamboo house to tremble. The items on the dressing table closest to her turned into dust, showing how angry she was this time.
Being roared at by her, I also felt a bit wronged. Who would want to die when they could live? Wasn't I forced into this situation? I wished I could kill the big black dog chasing me, kill Hu Yuan, and even step on that old geezer Hu Sixi. But I didn't have the strength, did I?
Seeing my silence, Fifth Princess pressed on, "What? You're not convinced?"
I really wanted to retort, "Unconvinced? If I had your strength, I would have swept across the land. How could I endure such humiliation?" However, thinking that she had saved my life again, I didn't know how to repay this favor, so being scolded by her was understandable.
"Heh heh... Fifth Princess, it's just that my strength is weak! Since I left the mountain, in this past month, less than two months, have you seen any situation I encountered that wasn't fraught with danger? I don't know if it's my innate bad luck or if I've been cursed by someone. In the past two months, I've encountered more life-and-death situations than in the previous ten years. What kind of things are these!"
"Hmph... You can't blame others for this. If you want to blame someone, blame..."
Fifth Princess stopped halfway through her sentence. I quickly asked, "Blame who? Why did you stop?"
"No one. Don't ask, I won't tell you even if you ask. You'll know when the time comes. Now is not the time to pursue this matter. You need to find a way to go back quickly and leave this Yin burial ground. Otherwise, in another hour, even the Great Immortal Luo would be unable to save you."
Although I was a bit unwilling to not get the secret from Fifth Princess, I was happy that I was not dead. I quickly asked her what I should do now and how to return to my physical body.
"Time in the Half-Yin Realm is different from the outside. Although you've been here for almost half an hour, less than half an incense stick's time has passed outside. Your physical body has been sealed, but the Xuan Yang True Qi within your body is still there. To break the seal, you can only rely on Yin energy to cleanse your body. However, this method will make you feel extremely painful. If you can persevere, there will be many benefits. If you cannot persevere..."
I continued her sentence, "If I can't persevere, at worst, my soul will scatter. A dead man faces the sky, and a living man lives forever... Ah!"
"Hooligan..."
I intended to express my manly spirit, but I forgot that Fifth Princess was an ancient woman. Gentlemen in those days did not speak vulgarities. My flowery language was met with a kick. Then, my vision went black. When I opened my eyes, I found myself still curled up on the ground. The big black dog not far away looked at me with its scarlet eyes filled with confusion.
"Don't think about anything else, do as I say... Heaven as the bridge, earth as the foundation, the heart as the beam, the Qi as the pillar, gather Qi in the body, open the path of the underworld..."