The instant the snakes surged towards us, I slashed open Ye Yang's and Lin Zhao's backpacks with two quick strokes. The water around them was immediately stained a dark red color by the snake repellent seeping from the packs.

Before the approaching snakes could even touch the discolored water, the black snakes lurking beneath the surface writhed like loaches thrown into boiling water. Squealing, they shot into the air and crashed back into the rest of the serpent horde.

Lin Zhao seized the opportunity to send a palm strike, pushing the snake repellent further away. In the blink of an eye, the snake swarm erupted into chaos, churning the water in every direction. Flying scales filled the surface, and half of the once-threatening snakes flipped belly-up, motionless.

Even though Long Shiyi's face was grim, she showed no panic. "You think a little snake repellent can save you? How naive."

Sorcerers who spend years roughing it in remote mountains and wilderness are bound to carry secret remedies against insect and snake bites. The only difference lies in the quality.

Long Shiyi said in a sinister tone, "The Little Dragon Sect of old, the one you call the Snake Worshipers, possessed at least ten different kinds of secret medicines. The disciples could dance with snakes, and the sect leader could even let venomous snakes slither all over his body. But in the end, they all became our master's food."

"The longer you struggle, the more miserable your deaths will be. Why not just give up and let me grant you a quick end?"

I stood in the water, arms crossed, and sneered, "It depends on whose snake repellent it is! Have you ever heard of Li Jianghe, the Snake King who dominated the martial world three hundred years ago?"

Ghost Three was known as the Snake King, but that didn't mean he was close to snakes. My master said that Ghost Three was only reborn as a human; if he'd been reborn as a snake, he would have been a king cobra, specializing in eating other snakes.

Ghost Three was skilled in using snake venom, but even more skilled in catching snakes. When he was alive, he couldn't feel right unless he had a few live snakes to eat with his wine every day. He killed hundreds of demon snakes, and countless venomous snakes. In his words, who bothers counting how many grains of rice they've eaten? Venomous snakes are no different from a bowl of rice to me.

Long Shiyi's eyes narrowed suddenly. "Snake King! You..."

As Long Shiyi looked down, the water's surface was still. The black snakes that had crowded the water had all become corpses sinking to the bottom during our brief exchange.

I looked at Long Shiyi with a half-smile. "Come on, then! Unleash all the demon snakes you control. See if they can withstand my Meteor Dragon Powder."

The Meteor Dragon Powder was Ghost Three, the Snake King's, unique secret medicine, said to be potent enough to kill even a *jiao* dragon. Using it against this snake swarm might seem like overkill, but I was actually guarding against another possibility.

Long Shiyi's face was no longer calm. Her eyes darted back and forth, and she edged backward.

Ye Yang glanced at me, and I subtly patted his leg.

Ye Yang then reached into his pocket—where he had the hand he'd chopped off from Tian Dan.

I quickly stepped forward to block Ye Yang behind me. "Long Shiyi, show me all your skills. If you don't act now, you'll miss your chance."

As Long Shiyi looked at me with a sinister gaze, I said unhurriedly, "I'll give you a chance to live. Write down everything about how the Coffin Gate colluded with you and plotted to frame us, word for word. Then, come with me to the underworld to testify and file charges. I guarantee I'll spare your life."

Long Shiyi said in a dark voice, "Will the ghosts and gods of the underworld listen to you?"

"You have no choice but to trust me now." I said sternly, "Your skills aren't really that great. If the Coffin Gate hadn't been involved, I would have crushed your bones to ashes long ago."

"But you should also be grateful that it's precisely because I'm dealing with the Coffin Gate that you have a chance to live."

Long Shiyi said coldly, "Living in the underworld? Compared to the tortures of the eighteen levels of hell, obliteration of the soul is the better outcome, right?"

I said calmly, "As the saying goes, it's better to live badly than to die well. No matter what, going to hell still gives you a chance to be reborn, right?"

Long Shiyi gritted her teeth. "I appreciate it, but you can keep the chance to be reborn for yourself!"

Long Shiyi suddenly took half a step back, and simultaneously formed a hand seal with both hands in front of her. "Respectfully welcome the master!"

I had already seen that Long Shiyi was wavering. She wanted to summon the demon snake behind her, but she was afraid that she would become a sacrifice as soon as she summoned it. That's why she couldn't make up her mind.

My words were just helping her make a decision.

Neither ghosts nor spirits are willing to go to the underworld, mainly because they fear the punishments there.

The underworld is not like the human world; there is no room for sentimentality in the punishments.

Take the Mountain of Knives Hell for example: For decades, even centuries, ghosts are thrown onto knives and ground until their limbs are shattered. Then, their souls are reassembled, and they endure the pain of being torn to pieces over and over again. For ghosts, obliteration of the soul is liberation.

What I wanted was to break down Long Shiyi's psychological defenses and make her summon that demon snake.