Several hours later.
The spatial passage before him suddenly shattered, and dazzling light drove back the darkness.
Chen Changqing stepped off the Teleportation Array platform, and gusts of bone-piercing, icy wind struck him head-on.
He had arrived in Xuanming City, a great frontier city on the Northern Border of Central Province.
Unlike bustling, warm Separation Fire City, Xuanming City lay beneath heavy clouds all year round. The air was thick with the pungent smell of sulfur and faint traces of baleful yin energy and deathly aura.
Built against a mountain, the city had walls made entirely of black Xuanming stone, rising a hundred zhang high and covered in rune formations designed to withstand attacks from ghosts.
Most cultivators passing through the streets wore grim expressions, and each carried some measure of icy, baleful energy.
Many had Soul-Locking Banners, Soul-Gathering Jars, and other yin-aspect Dharma Artifacts hanging at their waists.
Of all the ghost cultivator settlements on the Jiuzhou Continent, this was the closest to the Nine Nether Ghost Domain.
Three thousand li north of Xuanming City lay the Nine Nether Ghost Domain, known as a forbidden zone for the living.
Xuanming City's streets were livelier than Chen Changqing had imagined.
Although icy, baleful energy filled the air, shops lined the streets one after another, offering goods of every description. Soul-Locking Chains, Soul-Devouring Banners, Yin-Gathering Flags... a dazzling assortment of yin-aspect Dharma Artifacts was on display, and plenty of shops specialized in selling all manner of yin-spirit materials.
The cultivators passing by came in all shapes and forms.
Some were pale-faced ghost cultivators wreathed in black mist; others were condensed yin souls with intact physical bodies, their eyes gleaming an eerie green. More numerous still were human cultivators who practiced ghost-path techniques. They mingled with true ghost cultivators without incident.
Chen