Spirit Hall?!

The man had barely finished speaking when Huo Yuhao gave him a swift death.

What the man would never know was that the moment he had revealed his malice without restraint, his ending had already been decided.

The man's corpse lay sprawled on the ground. In another dimension, invisible to the living—

The man's soul, entwined in black mist, crawled out of his corpse and lunged at the boy with claws bared.

Yet the boy, who should not have been able to see him, met his gaze with unerring precision. The man's soul trembled uncontrollably as a suffocating terror, even worse than death, rose within him.

A wisp of pale flame rose from the youth's fingertip, and an enigmatic gray soul ring appeared. At that moment, the boy seemed to transform into the lord of the dead.

Grey felt as though his soul had been frozen into a white candle, then... lit.

His memories were uncontrollably drawn forth and rifled through.

"You old bastard! If you'd handed your daughters over to this Soul Elder sooner, none of this would've happened! I've had my fun, and now you deserve to die!"

A slightly younger version of the man arrogantly pinned a plainly dressed old farmer beneath his foot. As he tightened his belt with both hands, his foot did not stop moving, crushing the old farmer's limbs one joint at a time.

It was his first act of evil. The first time was always unforgettable.

The scene shifted. The man was older now, looking just as he did in the present. He seemed to be running through a forest as beams of various soul skills continually shot toward him from behind.

A group of low-level soul masters in standard uniforms pursued him relentlessly.

"What a bunch of lunatics!"

"I only killed the ordinary people in two little villages. Was there really any need to chase me like this?!"

The man was clearly quite skilled at escaping. At last, he fled into a small tavern. After giving the low-level soul masters chasing him the middle finger, he jumped into a dark passageway inside the tavern.

The passage was deep. It resembled this place somewhat, yet was also vastly different.

Before the man had walked far, a young woman appeared before him and gave him a token. Huo Yuhao had an identical token in his possession, though the number on it was different.

Her graceful figure and dangerously alluring aura tugged at every nerve in the man's body.

The young woman called herself a Killing Messenger. As she led him forward at an unhurried pace, she explained everything about Killing City.

With the young woman's steps and explanation, the dark city seemed to come alive.

Countless people who had been curled up in corners like living corpses gradually gathered around her.

The young woman clearly did not care about the gazes fixed upon her. She was accustomed to such scenes and continued her explanation without pause.

Through the man's perspective, Huo Yuhao listened to her explanation as well. This place was indeed called Killing City.

This was a paradise for cold weapons, where soul skills were forbidden.

Killing was prohibited in the outer city, but the inner city had no such restrictions. It was wholly a world where the strong ruled.

Those who came here had to enter the Hell Slaughter Arena once a month. Otherwise, they had to pay two cups of Bloody Mary. So-called Bloody Mary was, in truth, human blood.

That was why so many people in the outer city were gaunt as skeletons, like living corpses.

The only way to leave this place was to achieve a hundred consecutive victories in the Hell Slaughter Arena, then pass the Hell Road. Otherwise, there was absolutely no possibility of ever getting out.

The last person to leave this place had supposedly done so more than twenty years ago.

By this point, Huo Yuhao no longer wanted to watch. The man's soul was simply too filthy, and he did not want to sour his mood any further.

But the scenes of the man's memories flashed by quickly. On his first time entering the Hell Slaughter Arena, he had encountered a formidable foe. The strongest among them had already won nine consecutive matches, and the man had used every method at his disposal to kill him.

Watching those killings from a third-person perspective gave Huo Yuhao a powerful sense of familiarity.

Before Huo Yuhao had time to make any further associations, the man's curses after narrowly escaping death completely captured his attention.

"Damn Spirit Hall, damn the Pope, damn Bibi Dong!"

"If I can get out, I'll definitely make Spirit Hall pay the price!"

"..."

The flame of the man's soul gradually went out, while the expression on Huo Yuhao's face slowly turned blank.

"I... returned to... twenty thousand years ago!"

Huo Yuhao touched his forehead in disbelief—or rather, the Time God's divine core that existed there.

"Is this the opportunity you gave me? But what is this?"

After going through so much, Huo Yuhao had already understood that fate's gifts had long since been secretly marked with a price. But what did the Time God want from him?

"Heh... at least... at least they're still alive, living well in this world." One face after another flashed through Huo Yuhao's mind, and his expression grew even more resolute.

Having another chance to see those who had passed away—nothing could be better than that.

Having confirmed the time, Huo Yuhao felt an even greater sense of urgency.

Bibi Dong had already become the Pope of Spirit Hall. Tang San's rise was not far off.

He absolutely could not waste time here. Once Tang San became a god again, it would only be a matter of time before history repeated itself.

Huo Yuhao's eyes darkened as he looked at the corpse lying beside him.

Without the slightest hesitation, he placed his left hand over it. The corpse had only recently lost its life, and the soul power within it had not yet fully dissipated. Strands of soul power slowly flowed into his body through the point where his palm touched it.

His meridians were nourished, his flesh, blood, and bones were strengthened, and even his Golden Dragon bloodline seemed to pulse for an instant!

"Heh, Huo Yuhao, Huo Yuhao... after killing so many civilians, you really aren't much different from an evil soul master." Huo Yuhao twirled the tip of his hair, which had turned white from casting necromancy before returning to normal after devouring life essence. With a self-mocking smile, he tossed aside the shriveled corpse.

He could not absorb the power of faith in the Divine Realm. It was not merely because of Tang San's blockade; the greater reason was that hardly anyone believed in him.

No one would have imagined that he, the man who had founded the Spirit Pagoda and held the fate of both soul masters and soul beasts in his hands, would have so few believers.

The reason was the Mingdu Explosion, which had nearly destroyed the Sun Moon Empire.

Ordinary soul masters believed he was a madman controlled by his emotions.

Soul beasts hated him to the marrow because of the Spirit Pagoda's oppression of soul beasts and soul spirits.

Evil soul masters did worship him for his utterly inhumane methods, but Huo Yuhao found it disgusting.

Casting aside these stray thoughts, Huo Yuhao had no intention of abandoning this method of cultivation. Outside, he naturally would not cultivate this way, but here, he felt no psychological burden whatsoever.

From this man's memories, Huo Yuhao had already seen clearly that everyone who could appear here was an evil soul master in the truest sense.

And when dealing with evil soul masters, only killing could stop killing.

With that thought, a great door radiating endless deathly aura appeared before Huo Yuhao.

Then he leaped into it.