"You'll understand soon enough!" the woman murmured softly, then leaned her head against Chen Hao's chest.

Chen Hao had intended to dodge just in time, but he froze instead.

The scent of the woman was all too familiar. Before this moment, there had been only one person in the world whose fragrance was so unique, and only one person whose scent Chen Hao would remember so vividly. Yet today, here in the Eighteen Levels of Hell, there was a second person carrying that scent.

In a trance, unable to help himself, Chen Hao mistook the woman before him for Ye Yuqiao once again.

When the woman leaned into his embrace, Chen Hao meant to push her away, but once again, he froze. Everything about the hug—the feeling, the posture, and the position she leaned into—was all too familiar.

Chen Hao quickly raised his hand and embraced her waist, only to find that the woman's waist and softness were exactly the same as Ye Yuqiao's.

"Hey," the woman's voice suddenly snapped Chen Hao out of his daze, "do you have feelings for me now?"

Startled, Chen Hao hastily pushed the woman out of his arms, and his uneasy heart was immediately filled with guilt towards Ye Yuqiao.

"What's wrong?" the woman chuckled lightly, "Are you afraid of falling in love with me?"

Suddenly, Chen Hao reached out to remove the woman's mask.

But he was too slow.

His hand hadn't even touched the woman's mask when she promptly turned into a dark shadow and retreated several meters.

"Don't be naughty!" As her voice echoed, the woman's figure emerged from the shadow, "It's not time for you to take off my mask yet."

"Hmph!" Chen Hao's mouth curved into a grin, "Haha, I won't hide it from you, I almost mistook you for someone who is very important to me, but now I can completely distinguish between the two of you!"

"You're lying!" the woman retorted urgently, her voice betraying a hint of anger, "How could you possibly tell us apart?"

"It's simple," Chen Hao said, pausing for a moment before explaining slowly, "because she would never avoid me, at most she would only command me to stop. She would let me know that no matter what happens, she would be by my side, even if I was doing something she disapproved of."

Unexpectedly, the woman began to cry. Although the mask obscured her tear-streaked face, her mournful sobs were already echoing off the steep surrounding walls.

Chen Hao, with a puzzled expression, asked, "With every move you make, your figure, and the scent on you, you're identical to her. Have you been imitating her for a long time? Are you doing this to confuse me? If that's really the case, haha, I must tell you, your wishful thinking..."

"Shut up!" the woman suddenly commanded, her tone as cold as ice in the dead of winter. After a couple of sobs, she whimpered, "It's not at all what you think. Don't you want to know what I look like? I will remove the mask myself to show you!"

Chen Hao was taken aback, not understanding why the woman before him was so angry and cared so much about this matter.

The woman raised her left hand, grasped the edge of her mask, and then slowly lifted it.

However!

"Ugh!" Chen Hao suddenly let out a scream as his Yin Soul and the surrounding air were shattered into pieces by a force so terrifying.

"Ah!" The woman cried out in surprise, her mask already off by now, but Chen Hao could no longer see her.

"You should not have appeared before him!"

"Zhao Chong!" The woman glared angrily at Zhao Chong, who was slowly approaching, "Mind your own business!"

Upon reaching the woman, Zhao Chong sighed and said, "For the sake of our plan, I had to do this! Go back to the Purgatory Fire Pool. After he wakes up, I will take him to the poolside. Don't you want to see him every day? You can hide in the pool and watch him then!"

"What do you want to do with him by the poolside?"

"Unseal the Blade Soul of the Nether King's World-Slaying Blade!"

After pondering for a long time, the woman nodded and said, "Alright then, I'll head back first."

"I will make him forget everything that just happened, including you. You won't mind, will you?"

"I do mind!" The woman's tone suddenly turned sad, "But what you're doing is right. I was too reckless, I shouldn't have been in such a rush to see him!"

Having said that, the woman transformed into a black shadow and swiftly departed.

Zhao Chong turned his head, his brow furrowed. After a light cough, the fragments of Chen Hao's Yin Soul that had been shattered on the ground gathered together at one spot and reformed into a complete Yin Soul. The fierce female ghost that was bound to the torture rack, along with everything else surrounding it, was pulverized into dust.

Zhao Chong stepped forward, squatted beside Chen Hao, and with two fingers of his left hand extracted a stream of Primordial Spirit particles from the head of Chen Hao's Yin Soul; these particles were Chen Hao's recent memories. He rubbed his fingers, obliterating the stream of Primordial Spirit particles without a trace before standing up.

After a while, Chen Hao came to. Since he had lost his recent memories, he thought that he had just arrived at the Eighteen Levels of Hell.

"Zhao Chong," Chen Hao said with a look of surprise on his face, "is this the Eighteen Levels of Hell?"

"How did you get here?" Zhao Chong feigned confusion, "Do you know how dangerous this place is? Did His Majesty also agree to let you come here?"

Chen Hao nodded and then told Zhao Chong how the Yin Souls of Xie Xiaofeng and Tang Jing were sent to the Eighteen Levels of Hell by the Hand of Death.

After listening, Zhao Chong's brow tightened even further. To him, Xie Xiaofeng and Tang Jing were just two insignificant lives, certainly not worth Chen Hao taking the risk to come to the Eighteen Levels of Hell. He hadn't expected that Ye Yuqiao would actually agree to let Chen Hao do this.

"Is she testing me?" Zhao Chong felt a shock in his heart, his expression filled with panic, "This is bad, I shouldn't have appeared here!"

"No, that's not right," Zhao Chong's frown deepened, "it's only logical that I appear here. What I need to do now is to take Chen Hao to the Gate of the Nether King and then have him unseal the Blade Soul from the Nether King's World-Slaying Blade."

"Rich and handsome, rich and handsome?"

Zhao Chong snapped back to reality, his brow relaxed as he said, "I'll look for Xie Xiaofeng and Tang Jing, but first I need to take you somewhere."

"Hmm?" Chen Hao looked puzzled, "Where to?"

Zhao Chong did not speak any further, but instead stepped forward, took Chen Hao's arm, and instantly moved him to the front of the Gate of the Nether King.

"That was fast!" Chen Hao exclaimed, then caught his breath as he turned to look at the Gate of the Nether King beside him.

"What a huge gate!" Chen Hao marveled, then looked up. Even at the limit of his sight, he couldn't see the top of the Gate of the Nether King.

"Just how tall is this gate?"

"Endless!" Zhao Chong said, "This is the extreme end of the Eighteen Levels of Hell, also known as the Gate of the Nether King, symbolizing that the end of Hell is an endless suffering and bondage!"

A violent tremor ran through Chen Hao's heart.

This was the Gate of the Nether King, where Yuqiao had sacrificed her Yin Soul to set up the seal years ago. The so-called end of Hell had become the start of his and Nether King Yuqiao's extraordinary fate.

This was a gate of significant importance...

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