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Yan Chuyao was also splattered with blood across her face.

She was at her breaking point.

The low-level ghosts Yan Chuyao had attracted could be wiped out with just a wave of Wen Tuti's hand. The group of ghost cultivator lackeys naturally couldn't let their boss exert himself, so they hurried forward to help.

Yan Chuyao slumped to the ground, panting heavily.

Only after Wen Tuti and the others left did she drag her exhausted body to follow them with great difficulty, stuck to Wen Tuti like glue wherever he went, never leaving his side.

Wen Tuti scowled at her. "Why are you following me? You're nothing but trouble."

Yan Chuyao whined, "My father is a revered Emperor Yuan Realm master! If you protect me, I’ll make sure he rewards you when we return!"

"Big deal, an Emperor Yuan Realm cultivator?" Wen Tuti scoffed. "Can he give me premium-grade Spirit Pills?"

Yan Chuyao: "...No." The Red Rock Forest barely even had ordinary Spirit Restoring Pills, let alone top-grade ones.

"How about spirit fruits?"

"...Also no." The underground rivers in the Red Rock Forest were limited, so the spirit fruits they bore were scarce.

Wen Tuti sneered. "Then your father is useless!"

Yan Chuyao felt as if she had been hit right in the feels, her entire being crumbling.

Watching this, Wu Xiongan thought Wen Tuti was truly talking nonsense. Having a favor owed by an Emperor Yuan Realm cultivator was far more valuable than any material reward. This demon cultivator really had the mindset of a child, not understanding the bigger picture.

Ignoring the stubborn Yan Chuyao, Wen Tuti ordered his Ghost Cultivator underlings to keep watch outside Xuan Yin City.

"Keep your eyes peeled. If you spot these people, report back immediately."

To ensure they could recognize them clearly, he even showed them images of Wen Qiao, Ning Yuzhou, Ning Jichen, and Shi Wuming from a recording stone.

After carefully studying the images, the Ghost Cultivators obediently went to stake out Xuan Yin City.

Seeing him send all the Ghost Cultivators away, Wu Xiongan asked doubtfully, "Aren’t you afraid they’ll take the chance to escape?"

Wen Tuti grinned, his expression innocent and adorable, but his words were brutally cold. "If they want their souls to scatter into nothingness, I won’t stop them."

So the little demon had a way to control the Ghost Cultivators.

Though intensely curious, Wu Xiongan knew better than to pry further.

Yan Chuyao, who lacked such tact, was immediately shut down by Wen Tuti. "Who are you? Why should I tell you anything? Keep yapping, and I’ll toss you out to fight ghosts!"

Once again, Yan Chuyao shrunk into a cowering mess, thoroughly terrified of ghosts.

——

The flying vessel came to a stop before Xuan Yin City, and Ning Yuzhou and the others disembarked alongside the surrounding Ghost Cultivators.

The moment they stepped off the vessel, they were hit by a thick wave of dense Yin energy.

The Yin energy here was far more concentrated than anywhere else—a paradise for Ghost Cultivators, but pure torture for Human Cultivators.

Wu Jingping and the others maintained straight faces, but inwardly, they were dying inside. They had thought the discomfort in Sang Xiang City was bad, but now, in Xuan Yin City, they realized just how much worse this place was to Human Cultivators.

It was said that Xuan Yin City sat right by the Undying Sea, where Yin energy hung thicker than anywhere else, drawing Ghost Cultivators by the dozens to train here.

Ahead stood the towering and majestic black city walls, glowing with an icy, ominous gleam. The banners atop the walls fluttered, their crimson characters seemingly infused with some mysterious and formidable power, like an unshakable pillar anchoring the city to the gray, frozen land.

The city gates were massive, guarded on either side by Ghost Cultivator guards clad in black armor and wielding weapons.

All the ghost cultivators voluntarily queued to enter the city, with an entry fee of fifty Yin Stones—many times pricier than Luye City.

Upon hearing the fee, Wu Jingping and the others couldn't help but twitch their faces, never having felt so strapped for cash before.

As Ning Yuzhou led Wen Qiao to join the queue, he keenly sensed several gazes falling upon them.

He surreptitiously scanned over and noticed a few ghost cultivators hiding among the crowd, eyeing them suspiciously, which immediately put him on guard.

Ning Jichen grew very nervous—had their identities been exposed by the ghost cultivators?

Fortunately, by the time they entered the city, those ghost cultivators had made no move.

After they disappeared into the city, the ghost cultivators swiftly dashed toward the barren wasteland, arriving after half a shichen at the foot of a cliff.

The cliff appeared smooth and featureless, with nothing particularly remarkable about it.

As the ghost cultivators arrived, ripples spread across the cliff face, and a rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed boy holding a fluffy panda cub emerged.

"Did you find them?" Wen Tutu asked excitedly.

The lead ghost cultivator hesitated. "Boss, we can't be certain if this counts as finding them."

"What do you mean?" Wen Tutu asked, puzzled.

Wu Xiongan and Yan Chuyao, who had just stepped out of the cave, also looked confused.

The ghost cultivator explained, "Boss, are you sure the people you're looking for are humans? Because they appear to be ghosts now."

Wen Tutu was startled at first, but then, recalling Ning Yuzhou's abilities, he calmed down and pressed, "They've come to Xuanyin City? How many of them are there?"

"All the people you asked us to find are here. But they're not humans anymore—they're ghost cultivators now."

Yan Chuyao asked in surprise, "You didn't misidentify them, did you?"

"Absolutely not. We can tell the difference between humans and ghosts."

"Could they have died after arriving in the Netherworld and then turned into ghost cultivators due to the environment here?" Yan Chuyao speculated, feeling secretly pleased.

Wen Qiao was simply too beautiful—so breathtaking it made other women envious, which naturally made Yan Chuyao feel threatened, always worrying that Leng Yi might fall for her.

If Wen Qiao had become a ghost cultivator, the gulf between living and dead...

Wu Xiongan's gaze shifted. Unlike Yan Chuyao, he wasn't so gullible—instead, he sensed something unusual in this situation.

The people Wen Tutu was searching for must have found some way to voluntarily become ghost cultivators—or disguised themselves as ghost cultivators so convincingly that even real ghost cultivators were fooled.

At this thought, he grew excited too, eager to track down those individuals and ask them about their method. If they could disguise themselves as ghost cultivators, they could navigate the Netherworld without fearing constant targeting by ghost cultivators.