I had guessed the outcome, but when the moment came, I still had to try. As yang energy continuously transformed within me, vitality returned to my body.

The clods of earth clinging to me fell away one after another. A coffin indeed appeared not far from me.

The coffin, bursting from the earth, instantly hurtled towards me. The forceful wind it generated buffeted my face, and my palms rose to meet the flying coffin.

The thick wood of the coffin cracked under my palms, and the coffin's momentum faltered.

As I raised my hands again, Ye Yang silently appeared beside me, reaching out to support the coffin. "Maintain your half-ghost state."

Ye Yang was alright?

Not only was Ye Yang free of dirt, but the coffin also seemed hesitant to touch him. It circled around him, seemingly planning to bypass Ye Yang and attack me.

However, Ye Yang didn't give the coffin a chance to advance, constantly moving to block its path.

While the two were locked in a stalemate, my aura reached equilibrium, and I truly became half-ghost.

I could achieve this because I had consumed the Ghost God Relic. But what about Ye Yang?

Before I could think further, Ye Yang took a step back and stood shoulder to shoulder with me.

The moment his foot touched the ground beside me, the valley before us shattered like glass struck by a giant hammer, breaking into countless colorful fragments.

The true Dead Man's Gulch was abruptly revealed before us.

Dead Man's Gulch was less of a gully and more of a canyon nestled between two mountain peaks.

The rock walls on either side of the canyon were devoid of frost, featuring only cave-like openings. Each cave held a complete corpse seated in meditation, with a thick white candle placed before it.

Streams of yin energy flowed through the thousands-meter-long canyon, disappearing beneath our feet.

Ye Yang and I must have been standing above a cave to see the water vanish below us.

Although the water flowed swiftly through the canyon, countless graves and coffins stood erect within it.

These graves and coffins seemed fixed in the water, defying the rushing current, standing firm and unyielding.

I whispered, "Can you still determine where we can step?"

"I can't tell anymore!" Ye Yang shook his head.

As I was about to step forward to examine the water, the candles in the caves on both sides of the canyon suddenly ignited without a flame, illuminating the entire valley and clearly revealing the faces of the corpses within.

I glanced at the mountainside and frowned. Why did those people seem so familiar? Where had I seen them before?

Ye Yang murmured, "When did the Four Great Families take their seats?"

It then dawned on me. Weren't the people sitting in the caves the warlocks from the Four Great Families? They had walked past me just an hour ago. Although I hadn't memorized everyone's face, I remembered several key figures.

Just as I turned back to look at the mountain walls, the Four Great Families approached from another direction.

One moment they were clearly sitting in the caves on the mountainside, and the next, they were approaching from our left.

In the blink of an eye, they stopped less than fifty meters away. More than a hundred people stood neatly in eight rows, not a single person uttering a sound. From a distance, it was hard to distinguish whether they were people or ghosts.

As I frowned, Meng Die and her group appeared near us from yet another direction.

All three paths would eventually converge, but no one knew whether the ones who arrived were the living or the dead.

Meng Die cupped her fist from afar and said, "Li Po, we finally meet. Let me introduce myself, I am Meng Die."

I said calmly, "You should say, we finally meet formally."

Meng Die took a small step back. "This is your battlefield. As an observer, I won't disturb you. Please proceed!"

What a Meng Die, distancing herself with a single sentence.

My agreement with the Meng family was for me to uncover the secret of Dead Man's Gulch myself.

According to the rules of the warlock world, without clear evidence, even if Meng Die appeared near me, I couldn't accuse her of interfering with my business. I could only persuade her to leave!

I said calmly, "Liang Jie Tang is conducting business, the living should withdraw."

As soon as I finished speaking, Ye Yang drew his dagger and threw it between me and Meng Die.

When warlocks are conducting business and a competitor appears, they can politely ask them to leave, or they can make their position clear: Crossing the line means death.

A girl from the Meng family stepped forward and said, "Why are you being so fierce? Who wants to watch you?"

Meng Die raised her hand and said, "Xiao Yan, don't say too much. If they don't want us to watch, we'll leave."

"But..." Xiao Yan only managed to say two words before Meng Die glared at her.

I spoke again, "If you're leaving, then leave Dead Man's Gulch!"