The next stretch of time for learning skills would have to be squeezed out of Brother Binbin.

The brief lesson came to an end.

Li Zhiyuan: "You've learned it."

The Tomb Master nodded, lowered his hands, and smiled:

"I'm very much looking forward to it."

...

In reality.

The black patterns under the Tomb Master's feet shattered, cutting off the escape route of those three.

The timing was something Li Zhiyuan had deliberately grasped, choosing the moment when the three-stick-incense rule's time limit was just about up and they were about to leave.

A moment earlier wouldn't work; he couldn't force them into a corner too soon, otherwise they would get hurt and pay a price, but everyone on his side present would die.

The rules were made by them; as the weaker side, before you have the ability to break those rules, you have to work hard to be more familiar with them than the stronger side.

Of course, while getting familiar, you also have to keep a clear head; inertia makes it easy to naively assume the rules will never change.

Their reaction appeared.

Three lights of different colors flowed over the Tomb Master's body—red, black, and white.

The red light immediately went to cut off the connection between Li Zhiyuan and the Tomb Master's corpse; in that instant, a mass of extreme negative emotions began to crash into Li Zhiyuan's mind.

The boy's body swayed, he dropped back down to one knee, face twisted in pain, but still gritted his teeth and stubbornly continued that overreaching tug-of-war.

His physical condition earlier had been real, and the burden he'd borne just now was indeed too heavy; that part wasn't an act, but now, it was.

The Underworld's specialty form of torment was torture on the level of soul consciousness, and at this moment, the one represented by the red light had fallen into a kind of path dependence.

Little did he know, these extreme emotions simply didn't work on the boy—he was a freak.

Though this freak had used some means to make himself a bit more "normal," such that he could now be affected by these emotions, for Li Zhiyuan it was just one more step in the process—he only needed to dump this trash into the fish pond his Body had built deep in his consciousness to use as feed.

The boy also knew this method was destined not to fool the other side for long, but it didn't need to—"long enough" was enough.

The black light gathered above them into a low-lying dark cloud; in an instant, the surroundings were pitch-black like ink.

He was using this method to evade the gaze probing from above and to cloak the existence of the three of them.

The white light first circled once around the Tomb Master, forming a barrier, then began erupting outward.

They had broken the rules again, but this time, they paid a price.

Those lights counted as their origin; every move they made now was a kind of consumption.

It wasn't much, and the intensity wasn't high, but the longer a being had lived, the more stingy and tight-fisted they tended to be in this regard.

Moreover, after breaking the rules, some influence of the old rules was still retained. For instance, right now, they could no longer continue controlling the Tomb Master's corpse to fight.

Originally, they were the temporary owners of this body; now, they had become thieves illicitly occupying it.

Li Zhiyuan's breathing grew rapid; he was using this to send a signal to Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi spread his arms, the crack of the Gate of Life and Death at his chest spun rapidly, and that strand of white light that had been pulled out was dragged over to him.

A shrill scream burst from Zhao Yi's mouth; his body convulsed violently, his eyes rolled upward, turning completely white.

To take on the Soul Power released by that one all by himself— even though that one was not going all out—was still terrifying.

But right now, if he didn't carry it, no one could.

Run Sheng and Lin Shuyou were both at the edge of exhaustion; at this moment, the two of them launched their final attack.

The shovel blade and Double Mace struck the white-light barrier; the barrier shuddered, then bounced them away.

The two of them forced themselves up and charged again, using this way to help reduce the pressure on Zhao Yi.

"Three monks and no water to drink" doesn't just refer to monks.

Li Zhiyuan could see that even at this point, those three were still stingy as ever, doing their best to conserve their own origin and even comparing among themselves.

The black light was in charge of blocking the sensing from above; the red light was suppressing the body and cutting the link between the body and Li Zhiyuan; the white light's offense and defense always followed the consumption level of the other two, firmly refusing to pay more and suffer a loss.

In their eyes, Li Zhiyuan and his group were the barefoot rabble, while they were the lofty beings clad in official robes.

"Zhao Yi!"

Yin Meng shouted anxiously and charged toward Zhao Yi, her eyes full of concern.

Anyone who didn't know better would think the relationship between Yin Meng and Zhao Yi was incredibly good.

She rushed to Zhao Yi's side, wanting to help him block the onslaught from the white light.

Unfortunately, her identity could make anyone below a Judge hold back, but in front of these three, it wasn't that sensitive or important. At least, when the white light brushed against her and she let out a piercing scream, it looked that way.

Zhao Yi lunged forward, thrust out a hand and shoved Yin Meng away with force, bellowing:

"Get lost, you idiot!"

Yin Meng hit the ground and rolled several times.

At the same time, Li Zhiyuan abandoned the tug-of-war, as if he truly could no longer withstand that wave-like impact of negative emotions, and let go of the connection with the Tomb Master's corpse.

The boy pressed his forehead to the ground, his right fingertips clawing up the dirt before him, displaying an intense, burning unwillingness to accept this.

The red light, having completed its task, immediately withdrew.

Seeing this, the white light swiftly retracted as well, leaving only the white barrier in front of them, still struggling to fend off Run Sheng and Lin Shuyou's feeble attacks.