The first to lose patience was the Confucian Muddy Ghost.

A shout filled with imposing Literary Energy exploded like thunder over the Netherworld; before the sound faded, a figure in green cloth slowly emerged from the darkness.

He wore a Four-sided Peace Hat on his head and a green cloth Confucian shirt washed pale, his face handsome and refined, with brows that should contain the gentle elegance of a scholar, yet now were overshadowed by a deep gloom.

In his hand, he held a wolf hair brush soaked in thick black ink, with densely carved Confucian maxims on the handle. The once grand Literary Energy around him surged restlessly, yet was firmly entangled by ink-thick Polluted Energy, intertwining into a strange and powerful aura.

His eyes stared fixedly toward the direction of the incense smoke, in them a near-maniacal obsession, and he shouted, "I am Wen Huai’an, Confucian Scholar, guarding this Netherworld for three hundred years. How could I let a mere child act willfully and noisily here?"

As soon as Wen Huai’an’s words fell, a figure in a robe gracefully floated out from the darkness.

With white hair yet a youthful face, and features as fine as jade, he should have appeared to possess the semblance of a transcendent sage, yet his eyes were sinister like a snake’s.

With a flick of the horsetail whisk in his hand, the white dust strands stood tall, gleaming with chilling light, and on his waist hung a peach wood sword filled with black talismans.

He took steps in the Seven Stars and Eight Trigrams manner, every step stirring the surrounding yin energy, symbols around him circulating against orthodox Taoist principles, exhibiting black, uncanny Taoist charm. He was the Taoist Muddy Ghost, Xuanji Zi.

"Brother Wen speaks rightly."

With another flick of the whisk, Xuanji Zi’s voice came out cold and piercing like a snake’s hiss, "Intruding upon the Netherworld, you disrupt the order of yin and yang with incense from the mortal world, destroying our centuries of Taoist foundation. Today is the day of your demise."

The third figure emerged from the darkness to the sound of a deep Buddhist chant.

A fat monk with big ears, draped in a tattered dark red cassock, held a string of pitch-black Bodhi beads in his hand, each bead carved with a distorted Buddha image.

A compassionate smile was etched on his face, murmuring "Amitabha Buddha", yet his slightly squinted eyes hid nearly insane greed and desire.

Around him, Buddha’s Light entwined with demonic energy, half belonging to the Compassionate Buddha Country, half to uninterrupted Hell; he was the Buddhist Muddy Ghost, Liao Chen.

"Amitabha Buddha."

With hands pressed together, his voice was hoarse and murky, like a millstone scraping against stone, "Layman, your obsessions run too deep. By invading the Netherworld, you’ve disturbed the peace of this Yin Realm. It would be better to lay down your arms and follow me into Reincarnation, avoiding an outcome of God and Soul Annihilation and eternal damnation."

Though speaking words of compassion, his hand grasping the beads tightened, with the Buddha-demotic energy around him surging more fiercely.

The last figure emerged silently, devoid of excess words, only bringing forth a sky-high Soldier Evil Qi from the darkness.

He was clad in Mystic Iron Armor, worn and full of marks from swords and blades, containing long-dried blackened blood. He held a Breaking Formation Spear over ten feet long, its shaft mottled yet sharp as ice.

With a towering build akin to an unmovable mountain standing there, surrounded by Soldier Evil Qi, silhouetted behind him appeared thousands of stampeding troops, with clashes of weapons and soldiers’ cries faintly reaching, carrying the chill of a mountain of corpses and sea of blood. He was the Military Muddy Ghost, the renowned general Huo Jingshan.

Without needless words, he merely turned his spear horizontal, the spear tip bursting with cold light, aiming directly at the incense smoke’s core, his voice booming like a bell.

Carrying the bloody resolve of battlefield, each word was ironclad, "Words are useless. Today, let children like you be buried here entirely."

Confucian Literary Energy, Taoist Uncanny Charm, Buddhist Buddha-Demonic Energy, Military Soldier Evil Qi—four distinct yet equally formidable auras instantly sealed the entire battlefield.

Four overwhelmingly strong auras erupted together, Yin Dross Power surged like a tsunami toward the sky-colored incense smoke.

Wen Huai’an’s wolf hair brush, steeped in tangible Yin Ink, swept out with countless twisted textual phantom images rising.

Xuanji Zi’s peach wood sword buzzed and vibrated, the black talismans on it all lit up, and yin talismans in the air condensed like rain.

Liao Chen’s beads suddenly flew apart, each Bodhi bead roaring with the dual aspects of Buddha and demon.

Huo Jingshan stepped forward, his spear thrusting with the momentum of thousands of troops, though its tip hadn’t reached, the chilling intent of corpses and sea of blood had already locked onto the incense smoke’s core.

With four forces attacking simultaneously, all escape routes were sealed, and amidst the surge of Yin Dross Power, even the surrounding void turned inky black. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Yet just as the four killer moves were about to collide with the incense barrier, a figure like a startling arc burst through the fog.

Shen Siyuan wielded a Coiled Dragon Spear, his form skimming through the void, the Five Elements Magnetic Force within him erupted around him.

His wrist turned, the spear swung horizontally, without an earth-shattering shout, only a crisp hum as it sliced through the void.

A radiant glow, brilliant to the extreme, spread abruptly along the trajectory drawn by the spear tip.

It wasn’t a singular brilliance but a weave of gold, green, black, red, and yellow hues, as though a starry river lay atop the spear’s edge, or a rainbow spanning the sky after rain, flowing with a dreamlike halo, beautiful enough to make one’s heart tremble, breath held unconsciously.

Yet behind this ultimate beauty was the utmost killing power.

Where the five-colored gleam passed, the surrounding void bent and folded under the Five Elements Magnetic Force.

Wen Huai’an’s sweeping Yin Ink brushstroke, Xuanji Zi’s shooting black talisman sword qi, Liao Chen’s bouncing Bodhi beads, Huo Jingshan’s thrusting Breaking Formation Spear shadow—four moves capable of splitting mountains and seas—collided with this splendid glow like striking a rapidly spinning magnetic mountain.

Ear-piercing shattering sounds broke out in succession, Yin Ink ground to dust by magnetic power.

Black talismans burned out inch by inch in the light.

Bodhi beads hurled back in shock.

The spear shadow containing Huo Jingshan’s thousands of troops was bent and forced back, and even he was driven to retreat repeatedly by the counter force, two deep trenches exploding underfoot.

In a single exchange, their collective encirclement was forcefully shattered.

Shen Siyuan didn’t pause for even a moment, his toe tapping the void.

The Coiled Dragon Spear in his hand spun and danced, the Five Elements Magnetic Force continuously pouring toward the spear tip, every swing producing radiant streaks slicing the air.

At times like a hanging galaxy, where it fell magnetic power erupted violently, shredding Xuanji Zi’s whisk dust strands to bits.

At times like a rainbow across the sun, where it passed void layered with folds, Wen Huai’an’s all-out brush stroke crumbled under it like paper.

At times speeding like lightning, gold and black magnetic forces weaving into nets, ripping apart Liao Chen’s mixed Buddha-demonic charge.

The spear in his hand was no longer just a weapon but an extension of his body.

Each radiant streak was breathtakingly beautiful, yet each glow contained the power to destroy all, twisting the essence of everything.

The four were driven back by Shen Siyuan’s spear tactics, forced to defend with all their might, temporarily suppressed.