The Terrifying Forbidden Zone That Doesn't Know It Exists

Song Zongwu crossed his extra arms over his chest, and with his loose-fitting clothes, he didn't draw much attention as he ran along the building eaves.

But Ren Qing, being carried along, felt a bit awkward—neither moving nor staying still felt right.

Song Zongwu flickered a few times and arrived at Sibu Hall.

Seeing that he intended to step straight inside, Ren Qing couldn't help but say, "Senior Song, I'd rather not go in."

"There are over a hundred rooms in Sibu Hall. If we need to confirm the situation, do you expect me to search them one by one?"

Song Zongwu glanced at Ren Qing, about to say something, when he saw the other clutching his head, looking like he was in great pain.

"What's wrong?"

Ren Qing's memories began to blur. The number of Fire Workers on Hexing Street had decreased again, and for some reason, the intervals were getting shorter and shorter.

Song Zongwu noticed it too.

A dangerous aura emanated from him. His eyes shifted from blood-red to orange-red, as if resisting the strange force tampering with memories.

But realizing he had to maintain the technique constantly, Song Zongwu simply chose to scratch a few words into his skin with his nails as a reminder to himself.

Seeing how ruthless he was, Ren Qing had no choice but to take out a knife and carve words into his own arm—otherwise, there was no way to explain how a Martial Human Realm cultivator could be immune.

"Senior Song, is this the effect of some Eerie Object, or a Forbidden Zone?"

"We'll notify the other Forbidden Guards first. We need to go inside to know for sure."

Song Zongwu took out a green heart that seemed almost alive, squeezed it hard, and the heart's beating frequency immediately quickened.

Ren Qing's mouth twitched. Was this some kind of underworld communication device?

"There are thirty-six Blood Hearts in total. Anyone within a certain range can..."

Before Song Zongwu could finish, both of them suddenly sensed something wrong. Their memories of the last Fire Worker began to blur again.

"No time!!!"

Ren Qing tensed up. Though he didn't draw the Great Miao Saber outright, his right hand gripped the hilt tightly, ready to unsheathe at any moment.

"Come with me."

Song Zongwu grabbed Ren Qing by the collar and crashed straight through the wooden door, charging inside. The latter quickly began directing them along the route.

It took only about ten breaths, including smashing through several walls, before they reached the location where the Fire Worker was confined.

Song Zongwu kicked the door open and strode straight in.

They noticed a Fire Worker in his early twenties crouching dumbly in the corner, muttering over and over, "Don't kill me."

It seemed that after his companions were erased, his memories had undergone drastic changes, leaving him mentally dazed.

Ren Qing found it absurd. Just over half an hour ago, these Fire Workers had seemed relatively normal, and now they could vanish at any moment.

Though the Fire Worker didn't appear to be fully conscious, Song Zongwu still asked, unwilling to give up: "Did you go into a Forbidden Zone? How many are still alive?"

"Don't kill me, don't kill me..."

Song Zongwu stepped forward, grabbed the Fire Worker's head with both hands, and stared into his eyes with all six eyes.

"I ask, you answer."

"Is it related to the Forbidden Zone?"

The Fire Worker seemed to regain a sliver of awareness and weakly replied, "Yes..."

Then he spat blood. His internal organs began to collapse, and his life force visibly faded.

Song Zongwu didn't press further but tried to stabilize the Fire Worker's injuries.

It was useless.

Song Zongwu muttered to himself, "We must have forgotten something. Probably found a Forbidden Zone somewhere."

"At the time, Forbidden Guards and Yamen runners were sent to deal with it. But as they stepped into the Forbidden Zone, all our related memories were wiped clean."

Normally, Fire Workers wouldn't enter a Forbidden Zone, yet they were still affected—even to the point of silently disappearing themselves.

Ren Qing frowned and asked, "Senior Song, then why did some Fire Workers return to Sanxiang City? Could it be that the Forbidden Guards used them to send messages?"

"Not sure."

Song Zongwu continued, "But a Forbidden Zone itself can't move, so it's hard to see how it could affect Sanxiang City from so far away."

Song Zongwu looked at Ren Qing with a complicated expression.

With so many people in the Yamen, it was Ren Qing who happened to notice something was off—that couldn't just be written off as coincidence.

Just then, the blood the Fire Worker had spat on the floor slowly turned to ash, leaving no trace behind.

This process gradually spread to the Fire Worker's body, starting from his toes, even his cloth shoes turning to ash.

Song Zongwu said gravely, "We have to find out where the Forbidden Zone is. Otherwise, the hidden danger is too great."

Ren Qing didn't know what to say.

Forbidden Zones were formed by the Eerie Objects of dead cultivators, but to fight them, you had to rely on cultivators—trapped in an endless cycle.

Song Zongwu pressed his index finger to the Fire Worker's brow and murmured, "Yichou Year, Jimao Month, Guichou Day, Renzi Hour..."

"Found him, Left Eye Three!!!"

His six bloodshot eyes were tightly shut, but suddenly the bloodshot eye at the lower left opened on its own, swelling to twice its normal size.

The Fire Worker trembled uncontrollably, blood seeping from all five orifices, his breathing turning harsh and labored.

Song Zongwu said to Ren Qing, "I need to examine the memories within his soul. If anything unusual happens, interrupt me immediately."

Ren Qing was about to ask a question when Song Zongwu pulled a palm-sized humanoid shadow from the Fire Worker's brow.

Song Zongwu touched the shadow to his open eye, using the Six-Eyed Prison Breaker technique to directly extract its memories.

Seeing this, Ren Qing wasn't overly worried.

Though the more Eerie Objects the Forbidden Zone devoured, the more terrifying its displayed abilities became, affecting Sanxiang City...

The Fire Worker's corpse opened its eyes, then stood up with a twisted, unnatural motion.

Ren Qing retreated several steps, observing from a relatively safe distance.

No.

The Forbidden Zone's methods hadn't reached the level of remotely erasing tens of thousands of memories. It had deliberately sent the Fire Worker back to Sanxiang City.

So it wasn't that the Forbidden Guard had their memories erased upon entering the Forbidden Zone, but rather that the situation arose when the Fire Worker from Hexing Street returned to Sanxiang City.

Who knew how many Eerie Objects this Forbidden Zone had devoured, to the point where it could control the puppeteered Fire Worker from such a distance.

The flesh on the puppet's body collapsed and reformed bit by bit, its form growing increasingly deformed, like a pile of mud.

Yet Ren Qing didn't sense much threat from the puppet—it was even weaker than an ordinary person.

Still, he didn't let his guard down. The Double Pupils in his eyes began to rotate, his gaze locked on the puppet as he circled it cautiously.

He didn't use the Divine Feet Scripture, since he couldn't yet control it freely; in such a cramped space, it would only put him at a disadvantage.

Just then, the puppet crawled toward Song Zongwu at a pace far slower than an ordinary person's.

Ren Qing couldn't help but feel puzzled. Why did it seem like much ado about nothing? The Forbidden Zone's methods couldn't possibly be this simple, could they?