Luo City, Demonic Path

At dusk, a gust of wind swept past the entrance of the half-collapsed school, making the remaining half of its sign creak and sway.

On the blurred, illegible sign, only the words "Second Middle School" could still barely be made out. The rest had long since faded beyond recognition.

Beyond the school gates lay an even more desolate scene.

The towering teaching buildings had become shattered ruins, while the other structures had collapsed in heaps. Only a few pages of books, fluttering in the wind from time to time, still seemed to speak of the students' once-resounding voices as they read aloud.

Unfortunately, everything had vanished with the rising of the Blood Moon and the arrival of the apocalypse, leaving behind nothing but ruins.

On the half-intact athletic field, a figure was busily at work.

"Crimson Corpse Mud, three taels of Blood Sacrifice Stone, five meters of Soul Dyeing Cloth, two qian of Blood Sand Gold..."

Zheng Yi calmly counted through the materials he had brought with him, laying them out one by one as he carefully began setting up the array.

The Soul Guiding Array was a type of formation that attracted souls, commonly used by demonic cultivators to plunder the souls of those they had slain.

This was merely the most basic sort of array. In the Cultivation World, both the Righteous Path and the demonic path possessed such techniques, so it was not difficult to set up.

First, Zheng Yi had already bought the Array Disk for the Soul Guiding Array. He only needed to place each material in its corresponding position according to the instructions.

Moreover, he had used the Soul Guiding Array several times before, so he was thoroughly familiar with the process. Before long, he had finished arranging it.

"They say Luo City's Second Middle School is a Ghost Cave. Countless people died here, and there's even a terrifying Red-Clothed Female Ghost. My Soul Devouring Banner just happens to be missing a primary soul. I hope this place can give me a 'surprise' this time."

Zheng Yi had been in this Apocalyptic World for several days. He had captured a few survivors to learn about the situation, then let them go.

During that time, he had even crossed paths with the legendary Ability Users. Sensing that he was not someone to provoke, they had remained restrained and gone their separate ways.

As for the rumored Ghost Masters, he had yet to encounter one, but sooner or later, he would.

He was currently in a city called Luo City. Not long after the Blood Moon appeared, it had fallen into a city of ghosts.

Without the restraints of law or morality, some people were even more despair-inducing than Evil Ghosts.

Zheng Yi had encountered several such incidents over the past few days. He usually could not be bothered to interfere, only taking action when something was truly too unbearable to watch. As for the rest, there was nothing he could do to help.

This world ran too deep for him to do anything about it. After all, Zheng Yi himself was only a minor cultivator and could not make much difference.

Furthermore, the Blood Moon hanging in the sky could suppress his spiritual power. Zheng Yi found this world profoundly strange; its waters were too deep, and strengthening himself was the urgent priority.

After all, the endless zombies and the unceasing stream of Vengeful Spirits and fierce ghosts were heaven to a demonic cultivator.

In the Cultivation World, demonic cultivation techniques were renowned for their strange methods and rapid progress. Yet their unstable foundations and the ease with which one could suffer qi deviation were also their flaws.

Blood Demon Path, White Bone Path, Nether Path, Heavenly Corpse Path...

Since ancient times, these demonic factions had exploited human bodies to the utmost. Flaying skin and stripping bones, seizing souls and refining spirits, binding souls and enslaving ghosts—those were child's play.

Human Skin Scripture, White Bone Pagoda, Flesh and Blood Demon Pool...

All manner of demon arts and secret techniques emerged without end.

However, the demonic path created much killing karma, and the backlash of Blood Sin was exceedingly severe. At best, one would lose half one's life; at worst, one's soul would scatter, leaving not even the chance for reincarnation.

When cultivators slaughtered one another, the Karmic Force incurred was relatively slight.

But slaughtering mortals meant being bound by countless resentments, drowning in blood debts, and having one's soul burned by karmic flames. Even demonic powerhouses and Old Devils with the faces of fiends would shudder at the thought.

Being struck by heavenly lightning during tribulation, being entangled in Blood Sin, having one's Divine Soul clouded by dust, being blinded by profit—each was a path to death. Some were even blown to death while refining treasures, or choked to death while consuming Spiritual Objects.

If one passed the trial, all would be well.

If one failed, one would die and vanish, ending it all.

Thus, while demonic cultivators cultivated quickly and their methods were bizarre, they faced all kinds of restrictions and paid a price for it. Otherwise, the Righteous Path of the Cultivation World would have been wiped out long ago.

But Zheng Yi felt that, upon coming to this Apocalyptic World, he seemed to have found a bug in the system.

If I can't slaughter mortals to cultivate demon arts, then killing zombies should be fine, right?

This world was so severely polluted that these zombies, fierce ghosts, and resentful spirits were like viruses breeding within a healthy body.

Besides, Zheng Yi wondered—with that bizarre Blood-Colored Moon hanging in the sky, did the Heavenly Dao of this world even still exist? That was a question in itself.

What delighted Zheng Yi even more was that, though this world was bizarre, the zombies, fierce ghosts, and resentful spirits here were truly delectable.

Those zombies brimmed with blood qi, while the fierce ghosts, though mutated, possessed astonishingly pure Soul Power—of even higher quality than the souls of ordinary mortals.

There was an endless supply of zombies for him to kill, and all sorts of high-quality Vengeful Spirits and fierce ghosts for him to subdue and refine. He did not need to worry about some Righteous Path cultivator jumping out from nowhere, shouting for his blood, nor did he need to fear being burdened with sin or flooded by Karmic Force.

In fact, slaughtering Evil Ghosts and zombies could even be considered a help to this world.

Such a uniquely blessed cultivation environment was practically a sacred land for demonic cultivators.

Now, it seemed Zheng Yi had made the right gamble this time.

Zheng Yi raised his head and glanced toward the horizon. The final trace of sunlight had completely vanished below it.

In an instant, a smear of scarlet moonlight spilled down, and strangeness blanketed the earth. The faint breeze that had been blowing moments ago turned icy in the blink of an eye, becoming a surging yin wind.

The howling yin wind swept through heaven and earth in waves. Its rushing roar sounded like the murmurs of ghosts and gods.

One moment, it echoed in the distance; the next, it seemed to whisper directly beside his ear.

In such an environment, cold seeped into one's bones, while a mixture of terror and awe continued to breed in the depths of one's heart.

Amid the howling gale, a surge of ghostly aura silently rose, as though darkness had opened a gate to a terrifying hell. Tangible and intangible black shadows seemed to crawl out from the depths of hell, spreading layer upon layer across the abandoned campus.

The surging ghostly aura shot into the air like a fountain, shrouding the entire field and everything in the school along with it.

Ghostly aura pressed down like black clouds; hideous Vengeful Spirits bared their fangs and claws. The scene before him was far more real than any horror movie, appearing vividly within the school.

Without a doubt, beneath the light of the eerie Blood Moon, yin winds wailed and the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade began. At this moment, this place had truly become a Ghost Cave.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Watching the winds and clouds churn before him, the yin winds howl, and the ghostly aura surge forth.

Seeing countless Vengeful Spirits and sinister black shadows appear one after another in every corner of the school and across the field with his own eyes.

Not only was there no fear on Zheng Yi's face, but he smiled instead. A thread of excitement welled up within him, and he could not help shouting "Good!" three times before laughing loudly. "After searching for so long, I've finally found a precious land."

"Soul Guiding Array, rise!"

Forming hand seals with both hands, Zheng Yi wasted no words and directly activated the Black Fiend Technique that had been converted within his body barely a dozen days ago.

Strands of black aura seeped from his fingertips, extending into endless threads as he pointed through the air at the Array Disk's location.

A chain reaction immediately followed. A swath of gray light flared up, and strange array foundations emerged from the ruined corner, steeped in ghostly aura as they formed an array.

The array was not large, only two meters high, a semicircular structure three meters in diameter. This was the lowest-grade Soul Guiding Array, a basic version.

A Soul Guiding Array of this level could only affect an area spanning a few hundred meters around it.

The reason Zheng Yi chose a Soul Guiding Array of this scale was simply because it was cheap.

Of the Spirit Stones in his possession, after setting aside what he needed for cultivation resources, travel expenses, bribing the Outer Sect Deacon, joining the Soul Devouring Sect, purchasing the Soul Devouring Banner, and the Soul Guiding Array, there were not many left. He could only use them sparingly.

After all, a single coin could stump a hero; in the Cultivation World, Spirit Stones were hard currency.