Since the Soul Guides had appeared and were ready to ferry the souls of the deceased, Eight took the opportunity to switch the screen back to Liu Erwa's first-person perspective, beginning to observe his experiences after his soul had left his body. However, since Eight had already retrieved Liu Erwa's memories, he no longer needed to serve as the visual medium. Now, Liu Erwa could watch his own post-death experiences along with everyone else.
In the scene, the souls of Liu Erwa and Hu GuiZhen had already left their bodies and were silently floating above their respective corpses at the bottom of the well. As a pure white light gently descended upon their souls, the bewildered and dispersed eyes of both Liu Erwa and Hu GuiZhen regained their focus.
Upon seeing his mother's soul, Liu Erwa immediately tried to rush into her embrace. However, he soon realized that his body was completely unresponsive. Panicked, he kept calling out to his mother. But Hu GuiZhen simply nodded at him with a serene smile before being drawn out of the well by some force.
Following suit, Liu Erwa's soul was also irresistibly pulled out of the well. He then saw his parents reunited. Their souls were being led away into the distant sky by a Soul Guide shrouded in holy light, wearing a black robe with pristine wings on its back. Meanwhile, another Soul Guide was leading Liu Erwa's soul in the opposite direction.
Seeing this, Liu Erwa began to struggle desperately, trying to break free and join his parents. But how could he escape the pull of the Soul Guides? Thus, Liu Erwa could only watch in agony as his parents ascended higher and farther away. Finally, after his parents smiled at him once again in farewell, they disappeared completely with the Soul Guide.
Watching Liu Erwa and his parents ascend into the sky, Hao Yun couldn't help but comment, "Hmm, it's quite peculiar that even though it's called the 'Underworld,' souls are ferried to the heavens instead of being dragged underground."
Shrugging, Judge Yan responded, "The term 'Underworld' is just a name, it doesn't necessarily mean we have to live underground, right? The reason we don't drag them underground is that the Soul Guides need to lead the souls through a specialized teleportation channel back to the Underworld. You know, on Earth, countless beings die every day. If we were to open teleportation portals on the Earth's surface frequently and extensively, it could destabilize the spacetime continuum here and cause trouble. Therefore, the best choice is to set up these teleportation channels outside of Earth in the universe."
"So, if teleportation portals are frequently opened in the universe outside of Earth, wouldn't it also cause chaos in the spacetime continuum?" Hao Yun asked in confusion.
"It would still cause some chaos. But the composition of the extraterrestrial universe is much more stable than that of a single celestial body. Additionally, the various spacetime lines within the universe are relatively spacious, allowing for better dissipation of the pressure generated by opening teleportation portals. Therefore, even if we frequently use divine power within the cosmic environment, it's unlikely to cause damage. And even if divine power were to cause damage to the cosmic environment, we could more easily repair it," Judge Yan explained.
"But for celestial bodies like Earth, which have a single composition, they not only have to bear countless spacetime lines but also numerous beings within those spacetime lines. This makes the total pressure on a single celestial body enormous. If we're not careful, it's very likely to destroy a spacetime line on a single celestial body, or even the entire primitive celestial body," Judge Yan continued.
"Moreover, using divine power within the cosmic environment reduces the chances of upper realm priests exposing themselves to lower realm beings. After all, to ensure the stable autonomous development of the lower realms, we generally don't allow lower realm beings to know any true information about the Divine Realm," Judge Yan explained.
Curiously, Hao Yun asked, "But humans have launched so many satellites into orbit around Earth, wouldn't those satellites have captured the movements of the Soul Guides near Earth?"
"In reality, can you compare yourselves to the Divine Realm?" Judge Yan asked rhetorically.
"Definitely not," Judge Yan replied. "We're just workers from the Divine Realm, following the rules set by the Divine Realm. We can't mess around, or we'll incur divine punishment. When I say this, I'm just fantasizing, making it sound lofty."
Hao Yun rolled his eyes, "Then shouldn't your Soul Guides fly into the Underworld instead of directly entering the ground? That would be more appropriate, wouldn't it?"
Eight, who was operating the holographic projection, chuckled and replied, "Hehehe, of course that's happened. Normally, we use a concealment technique to hide ourselves when we descend. But there was one time, due to the negligence of a ferrying guide, his movements weren't completely hidden, which led to his discovery by an observation satellite from a world along an Earth spacetime line, causing quite a stir at the time. As a result, that world entered the era of cosmic exploration, attempting to find traces of us."
As Hao Yun listened with interest, and since the scene still depicted Liu Erwa crying and struggling, wanting to be with his parents, before new developments occurred in the image, he wanted to confirm with Eight if certain rumors about encountering angels or similar events on Earth were true. Were the so-called angels in those events actually Soul Guides whose tracks were accidentally exposed?
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However，before Hao Yun could speak, an irresistible yet mysterious voice interrupted him: "I understand the feeling of parting with your parents, but don't worry too much. Perhaps you can still see them? Of course, as long as you remain quiet and obedient. Hehehe."
Clearly, Liu Erwa hadn't expected this stern and somewhat terrifying priest to speak to him. So, he stopped protesting and looked at the priest's black face, partially concealed under a large hat, timidly asking, "A-are you saying... you can help me reunite with my parents?"
"I didn't say that. But if you can remain quiet, cooperate with my work, and obediently listen to me, well... maybe hope won't abandon you," denied the Soul Guide, his words full of strong implications of being able to help Liu Erwa reunite with his parents.
Liu Erwa evidently understood the Soul Guide's implications. He nodded and fell silent, obediently allowing the Soul Guide to lead him slowly into the air. At this moment, a glimmer of hope seemed to appear in Liu Erwa's eyes again as he silently watched his parents disappear into the distance, soon disappearing into the sky with the Soul Guide.
Suddenly, Dao Lao's expression turned serious as he spoke, "Eight, please rewind the footage to before the Soul Guide spoke. There seems to be something wrong with this Soul Guide."
"What's wrong?" Hao Yun quickly focused his attention again, asking in a serious tone.
Dao Lao didn't immediately answer Hao Yun's question. Instead, after Eight rewound the footage to before the Soul Guide spoke, Dao Lao summoned a screen and overlapped it with Eight's screen.
"Although the projection only displays Liu Erwa's first-person memories, in reality, what Liu Erwa has remembered is not just these images. In fact, beings in their soul state have very powerful memory and perception abilities. This allows them to not only remember the scenes they see but also all the different energy fluctuations they sense from their surroundings."
"However, since many energies exceed the soul's cognitive range, they usually only have the ability to record the energies they perceive, but they cannot truly distinguish the origins of these energies," Dao Lao explained, motioning for Eight to play the footage of Liu Erwa being led away by the Soul Guide again.
As the footage played again, Dao Lao manipulated the screen he summoned to scan the images from Liu Erwa's first-person perspective and continued, "Although souls cannot perceive certain energies they've recorded, it's not difficult for my mold spirit energy tracking system. So—"
Dao Lao was interrupted midway as an alarm sounded from his system screen, accompanied by a synthesized electronic voice, "Warning! Anomalous energy fluctuations detected! This energy is suspected to be mold spirit energy!"
"System, are you sure?" Dao Lao asked urgently.
"Comparing the mold spirit energy scanned from Liu Erwa's body, the similarity between the two energy patterns reaches 99.9999%. Please proceed to apprehend immediately! Please proceed to apprehend immediately!" the system's electronic voice warned.
"System, mark the location of the mold spirit energy," Dao Lao continued with a furrowed brow.
"The location has been marked. Please check and proceed with the arrest as soon as possible!" the system replied, marking an oval shape in the sky with a red line on the screen.
Then, following Dao Lao's signal, Eight slowly replayed the footage from Liu Erwa's first-person perspective before the mold spirit energy appeared. From the displayed situation, the mold spirit energy seemed to suddenly appear in Liu Erwa's field of vision and, in a very short moment, disappeared into the Soul Guide's black robe. After the mold spirit energy entered the Soul Guide's black robe, the system lost track of it. It seemed that the mold spirit energy had once again entered a hidden state.
The footage paused again at this point, leaving everyone present in shock. It was truly unexpected that mold spirit energy would appear at this moment and dare to hide within the Soul Guide's robe. As for why the mold spirit energy would hide within the Soul Guide's robe? The answer was quite obvious—it intended to use the Soul Guide as cover to infiltrate the upper realm of the Divine Realm!
"Dao Lao, are you saying that mold spirit energy has the ability to hide its tracks? But does it really have the ability to hide within a priest's body without being detected?" Hao Yun stared at the footage of the mold spirit energy disappearing into the Soul Guide's robe, his face full of confusion.
"Of course not. The divine power and mold spirit energy of the Divine Realm repel each other. Moreover, this is the boundary of the Divine Realm, making the divine power on the priest's body even more capable of restraining mold spirit energy. Therefore, even an ordinary priest can immediately break the mold spirit energy's concealment ability and force it to reveal itself upon approaching invisible mold spirit energy, using the power of protective divine energy." Dao Lao replied firmly.
"Of course, if an average priest encounters extremely powerful mold spirit energy, the vast difference in strength will prevent the priest from sensing the presence of that mold spirit energy. However, such cases are very rare. Because the extremely powerful mold spirit energies have almost been hunted to extinction by us. Moreover, the fact that the mold spirit energy in the footage appeared under the suppression of the Soul Guide's divine power also indicates that it's not an exceptionally powerful mold spirit energy," Dao Lao added.
"So, mold spirit energy loses its ability to conceal itself under divine power's suppression. If that's the case, how did it manage to hide under the Soul Guide's robe again? Since the Soul Guide was able to force it to reveal itself, there's no reason he wouldn't notice the mold spirit energy hiding in his robe, right? Could it be—" Hao Yun realized at this point that his next words might cause significant trouble.
Master Gu, seeing the situation, spoke up voluntarily, "If I'm not mistaken, that Soul Guide intentionally allowed the mold spirit energy to hide in his robe and actively applied a concealing technique to facilitate its return to the upper realm with him."
The atmosphere immediately turned exceptionally solemn. Because everyone understood that Master Gu's statement meant that there was a traitor within the organization of the Underworld Realm. And this traitor was none other than the Soul Guide who was specifically responsible for extraditing souls.
It's important to note that the Soul Guide, as a priest who frequently travels between the upper and lower realms and often guides souls from the lower realm to the upper realm, holds a rather special and crucial position. If there's any abuse of power, favoritism, or corruption among these priests, it would undoubtedly bring considerable trouble to the Underworld Realm and even the entire upper realm of the Divine Realm. Especially if they condone or even aid the mold spirit energy, which has always sought to disrupt the order of the Divine Realm, in entering the upper realm, it would pose a significant threat to the safety of the entire upper realm.