“Dad, are you okay?”

Zhang Siyao felt something was off about Zhang Fuguang. She had never seen such an expression on his face before.

“I’m fine.” Zhang Fuguang reined in his emotions, then smiled and patted Zhang Siyao’s head, saying, “Hungry, aren’t you? Let’s get ready for dinner.”

“Mm.” Zhang Siyao nodded.

Although she was concerned about this matter, she knew from the note that Lin Qingyi probably wouldn’t be coming for now.

But what did Lin Qingyi want with Li Changqing?

Outside Changting Town, by a lake, reeds swayed in the wind. The slowly setting sun in the distance gave off a somewhat desolate feeling.

By the lake, a bonfire was lit, illuminating Lin Qingyi’s face, making it look very calm.

He casually picked up a branch and threw it into the fire. The burning wood crackled.

“What a terrifying nightmare.” Lin Qingyi yawned, then muttered to himself, “They even chopped off my head. Those people from the Blood Shadow Sect really show no mercy.”

Saying this, Lin Qingyi lowered his head and chuckled.

“Li Changqing…”

“And Li Hengsheng, who appeared in Changting Town more than a decade ago. His imprisonment with Yue Hanjun seems to coincide.” Lin Qingyi extended his hand, on which was an Acceptance of Rings. He took out a piece of paper and a pen from it.

He wrote a few lines on the paper, then whistled.

The next moment, a black hole appeared on the ground.

A small head popped out from the hole. The creature looked strange, like a human, but with a horn on its forehead, perhaps more like a little devil.

Its body was pitch black, with only its eyes being white. It looked at Lin Qingyi with a dumbfounded expression.

“Deliver this to your little mistress.” Lin Qingyi said with a smile, then handed the letter to the little black creature.

“She said she’s not my mistress. She said if I call her that, she’ll slaughter me. She also said you’re shameless.” The little black devil said fearfully.

“Less talk, deliver it quickly.” Lin Qingyi scolded with a smile.

“Mm.”

The little devil immediately burrowed back into the ground, and the black hole disappeared.

After sending the item, Lin Qingyi looked at the lakeshore not far away, then raised his head to look at the moonlight, murmuring, “Night has fallen again.”

Ghost Devil.

As night fell.

At this time, the disciples of various sects were no longer nervous and afraid, but felt a kind of eager excitement.

Looking at the increasing merit points every day, all the disciples were becoming more and more motivated.

“Come on, it’s time for another night of slaughter!”

A disciple of the Iron Sword Sect laughed loudly.

After saying this, many disciples of the Iron Sword Sect took up their swords and went out onto the street, like gangsters.

Disciples from other sects also got up one after another. Although it wasn’t midnight yet, they had already started heading towards the streets.

They hurriedly looked for a good place, then waited for the appearance of the Ghost Clan.

“Fourth Brother, let’s go. Let’s try to kill more of the Ghost Clan and earn more today.” Zhou Jun also crawled out of his tent and shouted at Li Hengsheng in the distance.

However, at this moment, Zhou Jun was surprised to see a crowd of disciples in the distance, all seemingly looking at something.

“What are they looking at?”

Zhou Jun walked over and found that two people were playing chess.

One was Li Changqing, and the other was Li Jinsong.

“Senior Brother.” Seeing Zhou Jun coming, Li Hengsheng smiled and said, “The Qinglian Sword Sovereign has come up with something called chess. It’s very interesting. Pavilion Master Li is about to lose.”

“Oh?”

Zhou Jun also leaned in to look.

He saw various chess pieces on the board, with words like chariot, horse, and cannon written on them.

These chess pieces were all carved out of wood by Li Changqing when he was idle. Wasn’t it too easy for Li Changqing to make some round chess pieces?

Indeed, these past few days had been too boring for Li Changqing.

When he first came in, Li Changqing thought this place was full of danger and excitement, and there might even be some great danger. But after a few days, the Ghost Clan hadn’t shown any strong fighters, so these old guys didn’t make a move.

Every day was just eating and sleeping, and eating again after waking up.

Li Changqing felt like he was wasting his time.

So he came up with a chess game to teach these bored masters.

As for why not play Go?

One reason was that Go required too many pieces and needed to distinguish between black and white. It was troublesome to make and the materials were hard to handle.

The main reason was that Li Changqing, as a modern person, had less exposure to Go and played more chess. Although he wasn’t a master, it was easy for him to beat beginners.

In his previous life, after a busy day, Li Changqing liked to play a few rounds on a certain online battle platform when he got home.

His rank was not bad, and his win rate was high. Since coming to the Cangyuan Realm, he hadn’t played chess because it didn’t exist here. Everyone played Go.

Today, after teaching Xue Qianbai, he directly slaughtered Xue Qianbai in three rounds.

Xue Qianbai excused himself to practice swordsmanship and stopped playing with Li Changqing.

Peak Master Wu Wenying of the Law Enforcement Peak, itching to play, took over Xue Qianbai’s seat and continued to be slaughtered by Li Changqing. The Peak Master of Baili Peak couldn’t stand to see his sect being bullied, so he replaced Wu Wenying and got beaten.

In the end, it was Li Jinsong who was stubborn and decided to teach Li Changqing a lesson, to avenge the night when Li Changqing broke into the Dao Mountain Ancient Land.Li Jinsong, who had been observing for most of the day, believed he had familiarized himself with the rules. He thought that with his experience in Go, he could easily defeat Li Changqing.

As a result, he was trounced by Li Changqing in nine consecutive games.

By now, Li Jinsong’s hand was trembling with anger as he held the chess pieces, and he seemed somewhat dazed.

Even Li Changqing felt a bit guilty.

He wanted to persuade Li Jinsong to stop playing, but Li Jinsong wouldn’t listen. He was determined to knock Li Changqing off his pedestal today.

“Alright, we need to start preparing,” Zhou Jun said to Li Hengsheng.

“Okay.”

Li Hengsheng nodded.

As the sky grew darker and the clouds rolled in, blocking out the moonlight, it felt as if a heavy weight was pressing down on everyone’s hearts.

The recent battles had created an unspoken understanding among the disciples of various sects.

However, there were exceptions.

Like Lu Shiran from Guanglan Palace.

These days, no one had seen how Lu Shiran fought. Every day, as soon as the battle began, she would rush into the forbidden area and venture deeper into the Sky-Overturning Ghost City.

There were more Ghost Clan members there, and unknown dangers as well.

But precisely because of this, Lu Shiran’s merit points kept increasing, making others green with envy.

During this period, two disciples with exceptional postnatal cultivation levels tried to emulate Lu Shiran and earn more merit points by venturing deeper.

But the result was that one of them died in the deeper area.

And the other, although he managed to escape, was seriously injured.

So no one dared to explore the deeper area anymore, believing it was better to proceed cautiously and steadily.

“I’m done playing.”

Li Changqing was a bit bored and tossed the chess pieces aside. Playing chess was fun, but constantly beating a weaker opponent lost its charm after a while.

On the other hand, Li Jinsong, who was sitting across from Li Changqing, was sweating profusely. He was trembling all over from losing, his eyes bloodshot, and he glared at Li Changqing, gritting his teeth, “What? You’re scared, aren’t you?”

Li Changqing: “???”

Scared of what?

Scared you’ll drop dead on my chessboard?

“You don’t dare to continue playing with me, do you?” Li Jinsong said with an expression uglier than crying.

“You know I’m about to beat you, don’t you?”

“If you have the guts, keep playing. What’s the point of running away halfway? But if you admit defeat now and say you’re a novice, I might let you off.”

Hearing Li Jinsong’s words, Li Changqing was speechless, “Li Jinsong, you really have the toughest mouth I’ve ever seen. I bet even a sword from a land god couldn’t pierce your mouth, could it?”

“If your teeth were made into a weapon, I bet it would top the Divine Weapon list, wouldn’t it?”

“Enough talk, let’s play another round. I’m about to win. I’ll show you my strength!” Li Jinsong glared at Li Changqing.

“Who gave you the illusion that you’re going to beat me?” Li Changqing was puzzled.

“Let’s play another round.” Li Jinsong insisted on challenging Li Changqing.

“This is getting boring.” Li Changqing couldn’t help but say, “How about we make a bet?”

“A bet?” Li Jinsong was taken aback. “Bet on what?”

“I’ll bet a Painting Treasure against you,” Li Changqing said. “I promise it won’t be a loss for you. It’s a good Painting Treasure. If you win, it’s yours. But if you lose, you’ll have to give me your Silk River Map.”

“I quit!”

Hearing that Li Changqing wanted his Silk River Map, Li Jinsong immediately pushed the chessboard away. He wasn’t going to play anymore. That thing was his lifeblood. How could he just lose it to someone else?

Having finally gotten rid of the troublesome Li Jinsong, Li Changqing turned around to see Xue Qianbai sitting on a stone platform, looking into the distance, lost in thought.

Li Changqing leaped over to Xue Qianbai’s side and asked, “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about this trial,” Xue Qianbai said calmly.

“What’s wrong with this trial?” Li Changqing asked. “Everything is going smoothly.”

“That’s exactly the problem.”

Xue Qianbai’s gaze became focused. “Today is already the fourth day, and things are unusual. The strongest Ghost Clan member we’ve encountered is only at the Prenatal Realm. It’s not right. According to previous records, at this point, we should have encountered several Prenatal Realm completions or even Grandmasters.”

“But so far, no strong opponents have appeared.”

Xue Qianbai’s words resonated with Li Changqing. “Yeah, that’s why it’s so boring. We can only watch and can’t take action.”

“I suddenly wonder, what would happen if we did take action?”

Li Changqing was curious about this question. They had always been told that they couldn’t attack those below the Prenatal Realm, but no one had explained what would happen if they did.

So Li Changqing decided to ask Xue Qianbai.

“Sanctions.”

Xue Qianbai looked at Li Changqing and said, “You’d be sanctioned by the rules.”

“Rules.”

Li Changqing pondered the rules Xue Qianbai mentioned and curiously asked, “When I entered, Zhang Yuanzhi explained these so-called rules to me, but I still can’t figure out whether these rules were set by the heavens or influenced by Buddhist verses.”

“I don’t know either.” Even Xue Qianbai shook his head, indicating he didn’t know.

“So, what would happen if we were sanctioned?” Li Changqing wanted to know how terrible it could be.

“Cultivation will be completely lost,” Xue Qianbai said. “You will become an ordinary person. Not only that, but you will also be marked by the rules and be hunted by countless members of the Ghost Clan. These ghosts are drawn to those who are marked. If anyone consumes this person, they will gain their cultivation. However, if you can persist until you leave the Ghost Devil, your cultivation will also recover.”

“That’s terrifying.”

Li Changqing’s face changed.

Becoming an ordinary person in the midst of the Ghost Devil meant being devoured by evil spirits, didn’t it?

Moreover, a strong cultivator who lost all his cultivation and was targeted would be hunted by countless members of the Ghost Clan. At that time, other strong cultivators would not protect you, because protecting you would mean they would have to fight against the ghosts below the Prenatal Realm.

By then, it wouldn’t just be him who lost all his cultivation.

As for relying on your disciples to protect you? They would probably be willing but unable.

By that time, you would have to bear it alone. But in this Ghost Devil, for an ordinary person to survive was like a fool’s dream. The chances of survival were almost nonexistent.

Such a punishment was indeed terrifying. Just thinking about that scenario made Li Changqing shiver all over.

“So, never violate the taboo,” Xue Qianbai seriously told Li Changqing. He wasn’t worried about others, but he was worried that if Li Hengsheng encountered any danger, Li Changqing wouldn’t be able to resist helping.

By then, no one could save Li Changqing.

“Don’t worry.”

Li Changqing nodded.

His life was important.

Xue Qianbai said solemnly at this moment, “There must be something wrong when things are abnormal. I have a bad feeling about this Ghost Devil trial. We should be careful.”

“Okay.” Li Changqing believed that Xue Qianbai’s feeling was not unfounded.

As midnight arrived.

The cultivators of the Ghost Clan once again appeared on the streets.

“Kill!”

The shouts of killing shook the sky.

The disciples of the Iron Sword Sect were extremely excited when they saw the Ghost Clan, like a group of strong men who had just been released from prison and saw a brothel opening. They rushed forward eagerly.

Each of them was glowing with a severe green light, which scared the newly appeared members of the Ghost Clan.

The streets were once again filled with intense battles.

“Changli, be careful,” Yin Shuyu said, leaning against Yin Changli.

“Sister, you are a disciple of the Zhanhe Residence. Why don’t you stay with them and always hang out with us, the disciples of the Medical King Valley?” Yin Changli said helplessly.

“I want to protect you, don’t you appreciate it?” Yin Shuyu said unhappily.

“You protect me?”

Yin Changli laughed, “These past few nights, haven’t I been the one protecting you?”

“Isn’t it normal for a younger brother to protect his older sister?” Yin Shuyu retorted.

“You win.”

Yin Changli took a deep breath, “Then you just follow me closely.”

As soon as his words fell, a long sword appeared in Yin Changli’s hand. His aura suddenly changed. At this moment, Yin Changli seemed to have transformed into a sword immortal, and with a wave of his hand, a sword aura was released.

It directly cut a member of the Ghost Clan who was about to rush up into two halves.

“Sword aura?”

Seeing this sword aura, Yin Shuyu was also greatly surprised, “You can actually release sword aura.”

“I am a genius in sword cultivation,” Yin Changli said confidently.

Yin Shuyu was speechless. Weren’t you a disciple of the Medical King Valley?

Wasn’t your talent in swordsmanship too abnormal?

Not only did Yin Shuyu think so, but the disciples of the Medical King Valley also thought so.

Especially Mu Qingge, she originally thought that after coming to the Ghost Devil, Yin Changli would realize that his path of the sword was hopeless and give up. But Yin Changli’s swordsmanship exceeded everyone’s expectations.

At this moment, Li Hengsheng was also fighting from one end of an ancient street to the other. The disciples of the Dao Mountain Ancient Land who were following him were also fighting vigorously.

But after dealing with the last member of the Ghost Clan on this street, Li Hengsheng looked towards the distance, towards an unknown area.

“Fourth Brother, what are you looking at?” Zhou Jun asked curiously after killing a Ghost Clan member in the Postnatal Realm and coming to Li Hengsheng’s side.

“I’m curious about what’s inside,” Li Hengsheng said, staring at the area covered by dark clouds.

“You’re not serious, are you?”

Zhou Jun said in surprise, “Don’t tell me you want to go in. You know how dangerous it is in there, right? Yesterday, the second son of the Gongsun family, Gongsun Erleng, went in and came out seriously injured. He’ll probably have to stay in bed for the rest of his life.”

That area had not yet been affected by the power of the Buddhist scriptures. Only when the next day came would it possibly truly awaken. But if someone entered it, the Ghost Clan inside would awaken.

By then, the dense Ghost Clan inside would definitely tear any human who entered into pieces.

Not to mention how many Ghost Clan a person had to face, even if a Ghost Clan that surpassed the Prenatal Realm appeared inside, it would be too late for the sect’s strong cultivators to take action.

So when Zhou Jun heard that Li Hengsheng wanted to go in, he was shocked.

Wasn’t going in seeking death?

“I want to go in,” Li Hengsheng looked around and said, “Although the danger here is low, the opportunities are also low. And since Lu Shiran can go in, I also want to go in and take a look.”

“Fourth Brother, you’re different from Lu Shiran. She’s a super genius. If you rush in, you’re likely to die inside. Be good, listen to your senior brother, live well, and don’t cause trouble.”

Zhou Jun tried to persuade him earnestly.

But at this moment, Li Hengsheng was somewhat determined. He really wanted to go in and try. He and Lu Shiran were both in the Postnatal Realm.

Lu Shiran had already left him far behind.

Lu Shiran’s appearance made Li Hengsheng think of someone.

That was Chu Changkong from the Long Night Ancient Nation.

(End of this Chapter)