Peerless Bodyguard of a Stunning Beauty

After Zhao Rong received the package, he tore it open in no time. He pulled out something that looked like a cola bottle and exclaimed in surprise, ”What the heck? Is this some kind of joke? Is the seller messing with me? Why would they mail me an empty cola bottle?”

The assistant stared at the empty Pepsi bottle, his eyes wide with disbelief. ”Brother Zhao Rong, could the seller be deliberately humiliating you? Did they send you an empty, used cola bottle just because you gave them a bad review?”

Miss Lili frowned at the plastic bottle. ”What in the world is this? It’s just a piece of trash. Those unscrupulous merchants from the Paradise Shopping Cart are too much! Why would they mail us an empty bottle? Is this a joke?”

Lost in thought, Yu Lan mused, ”Could this empty bottle be the Express Hell Elevator? Can we use it to get from the underworld to the mortal realm?”

Xuelian’s imagination ran wild. ”Brother Zhao Rong, I think this empty bottle is a message in a bottle! It contains someone’s secret letter. Maybe after we read it, we can master some kind of martial art and become the world’s number one...”

As everyone was wildly speculating, Zhao Rong twisted the cap off the empty cola bottle. The moment he did, a holographic elevator materialized right in front of them. When the assistant and the three women saw the elevator floating in mid-air, they all gasped in amazement.

The assistant had never seen such a cool elevator in his life. He exclaimed, ”Oh my God, isn’t this some high-tech gadget from a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster? How did it just appear in front of us? Is this a spaceship to the future?”

Miss Lili reached out to touch the miraculous elevator but felt nothing at all. ”It really is a holographic elevator,” she said. ”It’s so ethereal. You can only see it; you can’t touch it. How magical...”

Yu Lan took out her phone, snapped a photo, and shared it on her social media. ”If anyone on my friends list sees this holographic elevator, they’ll think it’s a mirage... but it’s not. This is really the elevator we’re about to ride.”

With a quick flip, Xuelian jumped into the holographic elevator. She turned to Zhao Rong, the assistant, Lili, and Yu Lan. ”This elevator may look illusory and unreal,” she said, ”but now that I’m inside, it feels completely solid. Stop standing there dumbfounded! Hurry up and jump in so we can leave the underworld and return to the mortal realm!”

Just then, a horde of various minor ghosts rushed over from nearby, completely surrounding Zhao Rong’s group of five. The ghosts let out all sorts of howls as they taunted them.

”You humans must have a death wish! You ran from the mortal realm into the land of the dead. Now you’re stuck, aren’t you? We’ll capture you, throw you into a cauldron of boiling oil, make you climb the Mountain of Knives, and send you into the Sea of Fire!”

”Getting from the mortal realm to the underworld is easy. But getting back? That’s harder than scaling the heavens! Since you’ve come to the underworld, you’ll stay here and accept your punishment!”

”You can’t go back! Don’t even think about using some spell or incantation to escape the underworld and return to the mortal realm. It’s impossible!”

Just as the ghosts were certain that Zhao Rong and his group were trapped, it all happened in the blink of an eye. Quicker than words could describe, Zhao Rong and his companions all piled into the ethereal elevator.

In a flash of light, the group of five vanished from before the throng of ghosts. When the ghosts saw them disappear, presumably returning to the mortal realm, they were so shocked they stumbled and fell to the ground.

Feeling utterly incredulous, the ghosts muttered among themselves.

”Can such a strange thing happen in this world? Can people who have already died be resurrected without King Yan’s permission?”

”I’m truly baffled. How did they manage to return to the mortal realm from the underworld? Could one of them be a Sorcerer King?”

”I don’t think those five are ordinary people. Among them, there must be a Master of Spells, a Master of Magic, or a Yin and Yang Sorcerer King...”

Meanwhile, Zhao Rong’s group had returned to the mortal realm. They looked up at the white clouds in the sky, at the cars driving on the roads, and at the people walking by. They were overcome with emotion; to be alive again, to return to the real world, was truly a wonderful thing.

Zhao Rong swallowed hard, closed his eyes, and savored the fresh air. ”It’s so good to be alive,” he said. ”That hell was absolutely terrifying. It was nothing but darkness and dead silence, filled with grating noises and the wails of ghosts. You can’t even stand it for a second...”

The assistant felt as if he had been reborn. He thanked Zhao Rong and the three women, saying, ”Brother Zhao Rong, and you three ladies, I really don’t know how to thank you. If you hadn’t risked your lives to rescue me from the underworld, I would’ve been deep-fried into a bucket of KFC by now.”

Lili took a deep breath of fresh air and licked her lips, a blissful expression on her face. ”Heaven gives us one life to live,” she said. ”We should enjoy its pleasures to the fullest. We should do what we love, love who we love, and help those who need it. Otherwise, it will be such a waste when we get old, die, and go to the underworld...”

Looking at the beautiful scenery around her, Yu Lan recalled the horrifying scenes in the underworld. She shivered with lingering fear and said, ”Once you’re dead, you can’t come back. Life is just a process, as fleeting as a passing shadow. We should cherish every moment in the mortal world, be good people, do good deeds our whole lives, help those around us, and share what we have with those who need it. Only then is it a life without regrets.”

Xuelian also reflected, ”Since people are judged in hell after they die, we must be good people while we’re alive—people who are useful to society and help others. Only then might we receive a lighter sentence when we are judged in the afterlife.”

As Zhao Rong, the assistant, Lili, Yu Lan, and Xuelian were lost in their thoughts, a convoy of black Mercedes-Benz cars suddenly appeared in the distance. The convoy approached the group and came to an abrupt stop.

Then, a big shot stepped out from one of the cars.