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City Master Qi propped her chin with the back of her hand, “What happened next was somewhat expected. Since we couldn’t go back, we decided to stay here. Unfortunately…” She chuckled at herself, “I guess our luck wasn’t good. In the process of searching for a way back, we inadvertently opened a crack.”

“The one that leads to the town of Ghost Jiangnan?” Xu Zirong’s heart stirred as he asked in a low voice.

City Master Qi glanced at him, momentarily jealous of the man who was even more beautiful than herself. However, she quickly dismissed such thoughts and spoke with seriousness, “Exactly.”

“Why didn’t you return to the central city through that crack?”

City Master Qi sighed and recounted the subsequent events.

Speaking of which, it was really unclear whether the people from the central city were unlucky or something. They were living peacefully at home when suddenly, a powerful gust of wind transported them into that world. After struggling in vain to find an exit and going through numerous hardships, they finally managed to open a crack. However, they never anticipated that it would lead to even greater trouble.

According to City Master Qi, the residents of the Ghost Jiangnan town were not truly living people. They were all former residents of the central city who had died before. Since they were inexplicably drawn into that world, and there were many peculiarities in the world, the city master at the time ordered to collect the souls of all deceased townspeople, fearing that leaving their souls there would prevent their reincarnation.

Later, after a long period of research, they finally managed to open a crack leading back to the real world. Just as everyone was cheering in anticipation of returning home, reality dealt them another harsh blow.

The crack they opened became a link connecting the two worlds, and the devilish energy from that world began pouring through towards the real world. What was once a quiet and peaceful town in Jiangnan quickly turned into a dead city in a matter of moments. The thick devilish energy was too much for even a nascent soul cultivator to bear, let alone ordinary people.

The cultivators who had opened the crack were instantly dumbfounded. They wanted to return to the real world, but not at the cost of destroying it. Seeing an entire town perish in a short span of time due to the devilish energy, it was clear that if that energy spread, the real world would be in grave danger.

Although they were cultivators, their attitude towards ordinary people was completely different from those four arrogant immortals.

They greatly valued the lives of ordinary people. In their point of view, although ordinary people might be weak individually, they constituted a vast majority. Countless talented cultivators had emerged from among those ordinary people.

As a cultivator’s cultivation base increased, the likelihood of leaving descendants decreased. If they let ordinary people perish, then one day, cultivators would cease to exist.

It was precisely due to the long-term perspective that they had a very serious understanding of the consequences if the devilish energy leaked out.

The sudden influx of dense devilish energy could undoubtedly wipe out an entire domain of ordinary people in the shortest time possible. If the leaked devilish energy could maintain its level of concentration for an extended period, even cultivators would not survive.

To prevent the tragedy from occurring, the cultivator responsible for opening the crack immediately decided to close it. However, they did not expect the devilish energy of the current world to crazily surge toward the crack, like a shark sensing blood.

The cultivator was horrified. Despite the cultivator’s profound cultivation base, facing an entire world’s devilish energy was still beyond his power. Watching in desperation as the rampaging devilish energy was about to destroy another world through the opened crack, the cultivator steeled themselves and constructed a unique space to completely isolate the Jiangnan town from the real world, at the cost of their own cultivation base.

A small town no longer in the real world naturally could not serve as a channel for the spread of devilish energy. However, to everyone’s surprise, the real world seemed to have a natural attraction to the devilish energy of their current world. The devilish energy diffused in Jiangnan town inexplicably formed a connection with the central city, linking the Ghost Jiangnan Town and the central city together.

Through the connection with the central city, the devilish energy was still able to enter the real world. It was just that due to the special nature of Ghost Jiangnan Town, the amount of devilish energy that could spread was limited.

However, if the devilish energy was not controlled, sooner or later, it would erode the barrier between Ghost Jiangnan Town and the central city. Once it broke through the layer of restriction, the devilish energy could completely infiltrate the real world, using the central city as a springboard.

Feeling helpless, those cultivators had to temporarily put aside their research on finding a way back and instead focus on resolving the mess they had created. Through years of effort, they finally managed to devise a method to temporarily control the spread of devilish energy.

The townspeople of Ghost Jiangnan Town had long since perished, but their bodies, nurtured by the devilish energy, showed no signs of decay. Only bodies like those could withstand the corruption of the devilish energy and consume it.

The deceased townspeople from the central city willingly took on the task, forcibly infusing their own souls into those bodies that had been nourished by devilish energy.

Gradually, the small town of Jiangnan “came back to life.” However, the souls of those townspeople could not withstand the damage caused by the erosion of devilish energy. They constantly forgot their memories, and in the end, they did not even know why they were alive.

In order to let the townspeople continue living, a cultivator skilled in manipulating memories made some modifications. Every year during the Ghost Deity Festival, their memories had to be re-input. Thus, the lives of those people were repeated year by year, in an endless loop.

As for why those who killed the townspeople would become townspeople themselves, it was mainly to ensure that the number of townspeople was sufficient to digest the devilish energy surging from the crack. Since some people killed some townspeople, it was only fair that they used their body to make up for it, wasn’t it?

Most of the monsters in the town were just unlucky souls. Initially, the number of townspeople was insufficient to digest the devilish energy pouring out of the crack. Therefore, the bones buried around the town were transformed by the cultivators into ghost cultivators. Those roaming foxes, yellow weasels, and other animals were forcibly bestowed with wisdom to make up the numbers…

The changes to black and white in the small town were not controlled by the cultivators, and even they were unsure why. However, considering that Ghost Jiangnan Town itself was a uniquely created space, strange occurrences were normal to occur.

With that said, the general cause and effect had been explained. Although there were still some other doubts, Xu Ziyan would not insist on asking since the other party had not mentioned them.

Of course, Xu Ziyan’s lack of inquiry did not mean that he was not curious. Besides him in the group, there was still Tianle, who might die from extreme curiosity.

“So, what’s the deal with that red veil?” Tianle asked with an “innocent” expression.

As soon as the two words “red veil” were mentioned, the city master’s face immediately darkened, as if she remembered something unpleasant.

She vigorously rubbed her temples, “This matter concerns a secret of our central city. It’s not convenient to disclose it to you. Just know that Thousand Miles of Fated Marriage was once an artifact we used to suppress the devilish energy and was lost by accident.”

She looked up and noticed Xu Zirong’s wary expression. She could not help chuckling, “Rest assured, since you picked it up, it means you have a connection with it. Besides, we don’t need it now.”

“Is it because you have better alternatives?” Xu Ziyan could not help asking.

City Master Qi nodded calmly, “You can say that, but all of this is unrelated to you. Don’t you want to leave here? Let’s talk about that.”

Xu Ziyan’s eyes brightened, “Do you have a way to leave this place?”

City Master Qi lowered her eyelids, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of her mouth, “Indeed, but why should I tell you?”

Xu Ziyan’s expression froze. Then, he looked meaningfully at City Master Qi, “Our purpose is clear to you, so don’t hesitate to speak. As long as it’s a reasonable request, there’s always room for discussion.”

Xu Ziyan emphasized the word “reasonable”. They certainly wanted to leave, but they also needed to know what the cost would be. If the demands were too excessive, they could always seek an alternative. After all, as long as they had the Thousand Miles of Fated Marriage, survival in the current world of devilish energy should not be a problem.

“Don’t worry, this matter does you no harm. In fact, it might even bring you some benefits.” City Master Qi lightly laughed.

Xu Ziyan raised an eyebrow. He was quite surprised by her words, but whether there really were benefits for them depended on what she had to say next.

City Master Qi’s request was for Xu Ziyan to rescue them from that eerie world of devilish energy.

To accomplish that feat, it was definitely not something that could be done overnight.

Fortunately, City Master Qi was not the unreasonable one, because she did not insist on making Xu Ziyan do the investigation alone. The cultivators from the central city had lived in that world of devilish energy for thousands of years. Through uninterrupted research over the millennia, they had made numerous discoveries.

However, those discoveries left them feeling very desperate, because every opportunity to leave came with one basic requirement: The person leaving must not have too much spiritual energy that was converted from devilish energy in their body.

Considering that the central city had been developing for so many years, all the cultivators had absorbed spiritual energy that was converted from devilish energy. Based on appearance, they were no different from ordinary cultivators, but in reality, their connection with the world of devilish energy had become so close that it was nearly impossible to sever.

Note that it was nearly impossible, not completely impossible.

They still had a chance to leave, but the condition was that the force pulling them out of that world had to be immensely powerful.

It was evident that such power could not be achieved by just one or two cultivators. It would require hundreds, even thousands of high-level cultivators to come together and concentrate their power using an array. Only then would there be a possibility.

However, the problem now was that all the cultivators in the central city found it difficult to leave that world, so who could gather so many cultivators from the outside to rescue them?

The answer was simple: Only the cultivators who entered from the outside had the opportunity to leave. That was because they had not absorbed the devilish energy there, providing them a chance to leave.