Chapter 78: Re-entering the Wraith Realm

One month later, at Skeleton Mountain.

Lu Yang rode his escape light, the path clear and unobstructed; after all, with his current strength, even a normal Foundation Establishment peak cultivator was not worth his notice.

Even though he now possessed only a Yin Spirit forged from a single soul, relying on his higher status, dealing with a Foundation Establishment peak cultivator was merely a matter of a flick of his sleeve, unless the opponent, like the former Yun Miaozhen, had mastered a great divine technique or possessed a strange treasure, in which case they might stand a chance against Lu Yang.

Of course, this was limited to bullying the weak.

After losing his physical body, Lu Yang's state was actually at its lowest; encountering even a cultivator of the same status would force him to flee in panic.

Soon, Lu Yang halted his escape light.

In the distance, a black mountain range with Yin Qi surging toward the sky came into view.

"Very good, it seems the True Person of Yin Mountain has not arrived yet."

Lu Yang perceived the cause and effect, confirmed that the Wraith Realm had not yet emerged and that the people of the Martial God Gate had not arrived, only then transforming into a clear breeze and vanishing into the mountains.

In his previous life, when the Wraith Realm emerged, Lu Yang had memorized its location, so finding it in this life was easy; not long after, Lu Yang arrived before a cave, stepped inside, initially extremely narrow, then after walking dozens of steps, it suddenly opened up, revealing a vast underground lake.

"This is the place."

Lu Yang looked at the lake, sensing a strong void fluctuation, but did not enter directly; instead, he lingered at the entrance of the secret realm.

Even though times have changed, his Dao Heart remains firm.

Delay brings perfection, slowness brings safety; no rush, let's play with it first.

Lu Yang took out the Ten Thousand Spirits Banner, shook it gently, and Chen Xinan's figure immediately appeared, only to be thrown by Lu Yang into the entrance of the Wraith Realm.

He had not forgotten that there was still a Jin Dan sword qi inside the secret realm.

In his previous life, he had not cultivated the Holy Sect's techniques, so he was not killed by the sword qi, but in this life, he had cultivated the Holy Sect's body-refining technique, the Sage Thief.

Under these circumstances, who knows if that sword qi would spare him.

To be safe, it was better to let Senior Brother Chen scout the path first.

Chen Xinan: "..."

Boom!

The next second, the underground lake before his eyes rippled; borrowing Chen Xinan's perspective, Lu Yang quickly saw the scene within.

Coming into view was, unmistakably, a brilliant sword qi.

However, the sword qi did not strike down; instead, it locked onto Chen Xinan from afar, as if marking something, and then actually allowed him to enter the secret realm.

"So straightforward?"

Lu Yang looked surprised, then formed a hand seal, intending to recall Chen Xinan.

Clang—clang—!

Almost simultaneously, the sword qi, which had already settled, suddenly trembled; Chen Xinan, who had just intended to leave the secret realm, instantly turned into a mass of white Qi and shattered.

Seeing this, Lu Yang raised an eyebrow, first checking Chen Xinan's True Spirit within the Ten Thousand Spirits Banner to ensure he could be summoned again after some time, then sighed with relief; he then took out another Banner Spirit and threw it into the secret realm, testing several times before finally drawing a conclusion:

"Allowed in, but not out?"

Lu Yang pondered: "Ah, I see. The purpose of this sword qi is to exterminate the lineage of the Wraith Dao, so it will not allow anyone to leave the secret realm."

"As for why it allows entry... damn, this is using bait!"

Thinking of this, Lu Yang's eye twitched: "This is clearly using the secret realm as bait to lure demonic cultivators inside to seek treasures, then slaughter them all together!"

The hearts of the Righteous Path are too dark!

Although Lu Yang was not sure if his guess was correct, if it were him, he would definitely do so; judging others by himself, he felt the truth was nine times out of ten.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang became even more cautious.

So he waited patiently for several more months until the Primordial One Qi incarnation had once again cultivated the Martial Dao Heavenly Person, only then deploying it into the secret realm.

This time, he no longer thought of leaving, but instead delved deep into the secret realm.

Soon, buildings appeared in Lu Yang's vision, most of which had turned into white bones, with only broken magical tools scattered on the ground.

Lu Yang looked around; the entire Wraith Realm was different from the outside world, having no spiritual energy remaining, only an extremely intense Earth Fiend Yin Qi; ordinary cultivators, without corresponding techniques, could not even breathe and cultivate here, and over time, even their physical bodies would be eroded by the Yin Qi.

"Would there be cultivators in such a place?"

Lu Yang pondered in his heart, but his actions did not stop; with interest, he looked around, having already realized he seemed to be inside a city.

Just then, a suppressed shout came from not far away:

"Damn... what are you doing?"

Lu Yang turned his head, only to see a human face poking out from a corner of the ruins, roaring in a low voice: "Do you not want to live? It is already night!"

Immediately, that human face first showed hesitation and struggle, then gritted his teeth, crawled out from the ruins; it was unmistakably a youth of only fourteen or fifteen years old, who hurriedly rushed to Lu Yang's side, grabbed his hand, and roughly tried to drag him away.

Seeing this, Lu Yang raised an eyebrow and did not resist.

However, the next second, the youth's expression suddenly froze in place; turning his head, despair instantly appeared on his still handsome face:

"I should not have saved you... it's over... we're all going to die."

Tap, tap-tap.

Almost simultaneously, footsteps echoed in the empty ruins; Lu Yang looked in response and saw an old man in yellow robes with dead eyes.

The old man's eyes were gray-white, pupils dilated, completely unfocused, yet staring straight at Lu Yang and the mysterious youth; as his gaze fell upon them, a visible darkness slowly approached the two, carrying a strong smell of rotting corpses.

"Yellow robes! How could it be yellow robes!?"

Following Lu Yang's gaze, the youth also noticed the old man's presence, but upon seeing the color of the old man's clothing, his face instantly turned pale.

Behind the youth, Lu Yang watched all this with interest.

In fact, he had not understood a word the youth just said, but this did not stop his interest in the suddenly appearing old man in yellow robes.

The next second, Lu Yang had already placed his hand on the youth's head.

He had no interest in wasting time talking to people and slowly gathering information; as a disciple of the Holy Sect, soul-searching directly was more to his liking.

"You!?"

The youth never expected Lu Yang to 'repay kindness with enmity'; he screamed on the spot, then Lu Yang's spiritual sense directly pierced into his brain.

In a short while, a vast amount of information flooded into Lu Yang's mind.

Language, culture, worldviews, and even all intelligence regarding this "Wu Ghost Secret Realm" were instantly dredged up by Lu Yang in exhaustive detail.

A hundred ghosts march at night; the human world is like a prison!

Within the Secret Realm, sword qi hangs overhead, so no one can tread there to cultivate; all are mortals. Only by devouring ghosts to serve Yanluo can one seek a sliver of hope for survival.

White-robed ghosts, yellow-robed ghosts, black-robed ghosts, red-robed ghosts...

Listen to the You Sect, ghost messengers.

Lu Yang digested the massive influx of information one by one; while marveling at it, he also grew suspicious: "The Secret Realm in my previous life was not like this."

In my previous life, the Wu Ghost Secret Realm was almost entirely empty; even after True Person Yinshan destroyed it, not a single living thing was seen. Yet in this life, the Secret Realm clearly still holds vitality. The cultivators of the Wu Ghost Dao from the past not only survived but also found an alternative path to cultivation.

"Could it be because of that sword qi?"

Recalling that Jin Dan sword qi which had loomed over the Secret Realm, Lu Yang immediately felt bone-chilling cold: "Could it have been wiped out entirely by that sword qi?"

But on second thought, Lu Yang felt something was wrong.

After all, that Jin Dan sword qi had remained peaceful within the Secret Realm for so many years; what exactly would have to happen to cause it to slaughter the entire Secret Realm directly in the future?

(End of this chapter)