What exactly was the background of the person Qiangu Zhangting had ordered her to kill?
Na Nali lowered her head, concealing the sudden glint in her eyes.
Interesting.
Really, more and more interesting.
A dangerous curve lifted the corners of her mouth.
Who knew how long had passed.
The road had been peaceful and uneventful.
"Let's head back. The Evil Soul Masters have probably all withdrawn by now," Luo Yang said.
"Okay."
Yuanen Yehui didn't need to think about it. She figured she just had to follow Luo Yang's lead.
"Big sister, where are you two from?" Na Nali asked, pretending to be curious.
"We're both from the Spirit Pagoda. We came here on a mission to hone our combat skills," Yuanen Yehui replied with a smile.
"You people from the Spirit Pagoda are so nice. When I grow up, I want to join the Spirit Pagoda too and serve the people." Na Nali looked up to them, acting like a well-behaved child.
"That sounds great."
Yuanen Yehui was delighted, feeling as if she'd recruited a new member for the Spirit Pagoda.
"..."
Luo Yang kept smiling, but inside, he thought viciously:
You'd better be a good kid!
Otherwise—
If you're really planning to pull some tricks, don't blame me for grabbing those twin ponytails and giving you a good lesson.
They hadn't gone much farther when, just as the three of them were about to leave the ruins—
"Ahhhhhh—!!!"
A piercing, pig-slaughtering scream suddenly tore through the deathly silence!
"What's going on?!"
Yuanen Yehui instantly went on the defensive!
Luo Yang's gaze sharpened as he looked toward the sound.
At the mouth of an alley not far away, a security patrolman in the Spirit Pagoda's gray-blue uniform came charging out like a madman!
"D-dead—!"
"They're all dead!!"
His face was contorted with terror, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets as he let out a scream that barely sounded human:
"Our people! A whole squad! They're all, all dead!!"
"Explain yourself!" Luo Yang stopped him and demanded in a low voice.
But the man could no longer hear anything.
His gaze suddenly went vacant. His face rapidly turned ashen, and something seemed to writhe violently beneath his skin—
"Pfft—!"
Before the three of them, his body burst like a punctured waterskin, melting into a pool of thick, foul-smelling pus that spread across the ground.
His clothes, Soul Tool, bones... Everything dissolved, leaving behind only a horrifying stain.
Yuanen Yehui's face turned deathly pale.
Na Nali's brows knitted tightly together.
Luo Yang's pupils contracted. Without another moment's hesitation, he barked:
"Move!"
This was not an enemy they could handle.
An entire well-equipped security squad had been wiped out without a sound, with no survivors escaping.
The enemy had to be an Evil Soul Master at least at the Soul Saint level, if not stronger!
Running was their only option.
And yet—
Three minutes later—
"Have... haven't we been here before?" Yuanen Yehui stared at the horrifying pool of pus on the ground, which had not yet been cleaned up. Her voice tightened.
Luo Yang fell silent.
He recognized the half-dissolved shoulder patch bearing the Spirit Pagoda's emblem.
They had returned to where they started.
"Let's try again."
He made the decision at once.
The three of them chose a direction and sprinted at full speed.
Five minutes later—
The pool of pus appeared before them again.
Yuanen Yehui's heart sank to the bottom.
The mask of ease had vanished from Na Nali's face, too. She raised her head, carefully sensing the spatial fluctuations around them, and lowered her voice:
"Something's wrong... This isn't a Soul Skill, and it's not a spatial blockade..."
"It's a domain," Luo Yang said calmly.
"This isn't a spatial Soul Skill or an illusion. It's a domain. Its purpose isn't to trap us, but to warp our perception of space and direction, so no matter where we go, we end up back where we started."
He paused. "I have a domain too, so I'm sensitive to this kind of aura."
Yuanen Yehui stared at him in a daze.
A domain... She didn't have one herself, but she'd heard of them. They were an incredibly rare and powerful ability.
"What about Aunt Leng?" Yuanen Yehui asked. "Shouldn't she be protecting us from the shadows? Didn't she notice anything strange?"
Luo Yang fell silent for a moment before giving the worst possible answer:
"I'm not sure Aunt Leng is still nearby. If we're lucky, she's been dragged into this domain too and is looking for a way to break out."
He paused.
"But if we're unlucky... this domain has cut off the inside from the outside, and she can't sense us at all."
The air seemed to freeze.
Just then—
A suffocating, terrifying aura swept in from all directions without warning!
It was cold, rotten, and deathly still, like the corpse-stench that had built up in a mass grave over a thousand years—or the blood dripping from the Grim Reaper's scythe.
Yuanen Yehui's breathing suddenly quickened.
Then—
Her expression changed dramatically.
"This isn't a Soul Emperor... not even a Soul Saint! This is..."
The words caught in her throat.
Because that figure had already appeared.
Without warning.
As if he had been standing there all along, above the ruins.
A Black-Robed Man.
He was tall and emaciated, his black cloak hiding every contour. Beneath the hood was nothing but deep darkness, his face impossible to see. Only a single point of ghostly green light flickered within it, like the gaze of the Grim Reaper.
He simply hovered in midair, without releasing a single Soul Ring or revealing the slightest trace of Soul Power.
His mere presence was enough to suffocate them.
"Weren't the Evil Soul Masters... only supposed to be as powerful as Soul Emperors at most?"
Yuanen Yehui's voice was horribly hoarse, every word seeming to scrape its way out of her throat.
Luo Yang didn't answer.
He knew the answer.
The intelligence had been wrong.
Or perhaps they had never come for those few "stragglers" in the first place.
There was only one reason a powerhouse of this level would be lying in wait here.
He was waiting for someone.
The Black-Robed Man finally spoke.
His voice was hoarse, low, and devoid of emotion, like two rusted iron plates grinding together. Every word pressed heavily upon their souls.
"I... am the Death Messenger."
He paused, and the point of ghostly green light slowly swept over the three people below.
At last—
It settled on Luo Yang.
"By the Cult Master's command, I welcome the Holy Son back to the cult."
The wind stopped.
Even the air seemed to cease flowing.
The wind stopped.
Even the air seemed to cease flowing.
Yuanen Yehui's body went rigid, her mind utterly blank.
Na Nali's pupils contracted. Her heart skipped a beat.
The Cult Master's command? How had she not known?!
As for Luo Yang, his head was full of questions.
Wait, bro, why had the Holy Spirit Cult taken a liking to me?!
Luo Yang's thoughts raced.
Suddenly, he thought of the only possibility: perhaps it was his Martial Soul.
Undead Scourge.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit Cult had taken an interest in him because of his Martial Soul!
But the problem was, he had never revealed his Martial Soul in front of any Evil Soul Master. He had never even encountered anyone from the Holy Spirit Cult.
And the most, most, most important question was—
How had the Holy Spirit Cult gotten the information?
But there was no time to dwell on those questions.
Because—
The Black-Robed Man moved.
He swept toward Luo Yang.