A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

The group continued south along the railway line, encountering only a few scattered zombies along the way.

After walking for about ten miles, the old high-rise buildings of the old town disappeared, and all around, low bungalows appeared. After walking a while longer, large fields began to appear on both sides of the railway line.

Unbeknownst to them, they had already walked onto the railway viaduct, more than ten meters above the ground.

Seeing that they had reached the suburbs, everyone felt a sense of relief.

They looked back at the bizarre city behind them. It was beautiful, but it was besieged by zombies and impossible for anyone to survive.

Duan Rong stood on the railway viaduct and looked up. He saw a small village at the other end of the fields, and it was almost dusk.

He looked down at the area below the overpass and saw a field of farmland. Not far from the field was a pond filled with lotus leaves.

Duan Rong looked at everyone and said, "We should go down now. It's getting late, let's spend the night in that village over there."

Lu Chu looked around and asked, "How do we get down?"

This entire section is made up of elevated bridges; there's nowhere to go down.

Duan Rong glanced at the ground and said, "Just jump down. It's farmland below. You won't die from this height."

Lu Chu looked down and felt a little uneasy. If it were his previous body, he was confident that he would be fine after jumping down, but with this body, he was not so sure.

Duan Rong didn't give him a chance to hesitate, because before Lu Chu could voice his objections, Duan Rong took off his backpack and threw it down, then jumped off the railway viaduct without saying a word.

The soil in the farmland below was still quite loose. Duan Rong landed with both feet, burying his ankles directly in the soil.

He pulled his feet out of the ground, glancing around as he waved to the bridge, saying, "Get down! It's okay! You won't die."

Seeing that Duan Rong had already jumped down, Guo Tian threw down his backpack and jumped down as well.

Then, Jiang Hanyan and Xu Hui also jumped down.

Finally, Lu Chu could only jump down shakily. He jumped down, lost his balance, and sat down hard on the ground. Fortunately, the ground was soft and he didn't twist his ankle.

They each put their backpacks back on and headed along the ridges of the fields toward the village.

In the fields on both sides of the ridge, the wheat is almost ripe, and a faint aroma of wheat can be smelled in the breeze.

The village wasn't far away, and the group soon arrived at the village entrance.

As soon as they reached the village entrance, several white-haired zombies rushed towards them, but in one fell swoop, they were cut down by Jiang Hanyan's Longquan sword.

On a table at the village entrance, there was a chess set that was not yet finished.

Duan Rong turned his head and glanced at the Longquan sword in Jiang Hanyan's hand, then laughed and said, "There probably aren't many zombies in this village. I think you can only use this Longquan sword to harvest wheat from now on."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Hanyan smiled, turned to look at the wheat field swaying in the wind, and said, "Harvesting wheat is not bad either. Who says swords can only be used to kill people?!"

At this moment, everyone followed Jiang Hanyan's gaze and saw that under the twilight sky, the wheat fields were undulating, which was very beautiful.

At their feet, several fallen zombies had thick, green fluid oozing from their skulls...

Just then, the beautiful fields under the dim light, the undulating waves of wheat, began to appear as an unreal double image, which quickly shattered like cotton wool...

And not only that, the wheat fields began to break apart; the sky, the massive ironworks, the distant elevated highways, and even further into the distance, the silhouettes of the city all began to shatter, drifting away like cotton wool…

As this world shattered, the real world that seemed to be hidden beneath it emerged.

The crowd stood there, their eyes filled with disbelief.

Although this was their second time emerging from the magical realm, the sense of unreality had not diminished but rather intensified.

Because of their repeated emergence from shattered illusions, they became increasingly skeptical of the reality of the world before them.

The lake and sea of ​​flowers before them, and the central altar in the distance behind them, all told them that they had returned to the ruins of gods and demons.

The second phase of the Soul Illusion has ended!
The group exchanged glances and immediately noticed that Su Xinjue and Du Wan were lying motionless on the ground.

Death in the magical realm is real death!

Everything in the illusion is fake, but death is real. If you die in the illusion, your soul will be erased by the will of gods and demons.

Guo Tian walked over, checked the two people's breathing, and then shook his head at the crowd.

Although Su Xinjue and Du Wan had serene faces and normal skin color, they had stopped breathing.

In the first illusionary realm of gods and demons, none of them died. But in this second illusionary realm, they lost two of their companions.

Everyone felt a sense of sadness.

After discussing it, they decided to bury Su Xinjue and Du Wan in a place surrounded by lakes and flowers. This place was the only scenic spot within the ruins of gods and demons, and burying Su Xinjue and Du Wan here would be a way to give them a final resting place.

With everyone's combined efforts, they used their weapons to create two large pits in the sea of ​​flowers, burying Su Xinjue and Du Wan in their respective places.

Then, they picked some red arrow flowers, tied them into bouquets, and placed them on the two people's graves as a small memorial.

The group stood for a while in front of the two graves in the sea of ​​flowers, then turned and walked out of the flower field.

The past is gone, but they still have to keep going.

The route back had been planned before they entered the second illusionary realm of gods and demons, but unexpectedly, two people were missing this time.

The return journey suddenly became much quieter.

Especially with the joke-loving Du Wan gone, the group walked in silence.

After they had walked for a while, Guo Tian suddenly looked at Duan Rong and asked, "Duan Rong, have you obtained the mark of a god or demon?"

When Guo Tian asked this question, everyone's eyes lit up. This wasn't just Duan Rong's problem; it concerned each and every one of them. After all, having experienced two hellish illusions of gods and demons, no one wanted to go through it a third time.

Duan Rong gave a bitter laugh and said, "The mark of gods and demons, how could it be obtained so easily? Apart from the Ancestor, no one else in the past thousand years has obtained it."

Upon hearing this, everyone frowned. Did that mean they might experience the illusion of gods and demons a third time?

Duan Rong naturally knew what everyone was thinking, so he said, "I think there probably won't be a third Divine Demon Illusion." "Why?!" Everyone turned to look at Duan Rong, their eyes showing interest.

Duan Rong said, "Because the second illusion mission was obviously poorly completed, resulting in the loss of two companions, there should be no need for a third illusion mission for further evaluation. Moreover, according to the information provided by Lin Youjian and Liu Su during the training camp, there are not many teams that have experienced three illusion missions to begin with."

In truth, Duan Rong knew very well that there would be no third Divine Demon Illusion, because he had already obtained the Divine Demon Mark. There was no longer any need for the Divine Demon Illusion to appear.

He said this simply to guide them to think about the already confirmed answer, which would also dispel their doubts and enhance the team's combat effectiveness on the return journey.

As for the issue of his obtaining the divine and demonic mark being exposed, he wasn't worried at all. Whether he had obtained it or not, only he himself knew.

As expected, Duan Rong's words clearly convinced everyone.

They all felt that the second mission to the Divine Demon Illusionary Realm had been poorly completed; it was an undeniable fact that both Su Xinjue and Du Wan had died within the illusion.

Moreover, as Duan Rong said, very few teams actually experience the illusion three times.

In other words, they most likely wouldn't experience the divine illusion a third time. This information undoubtedly relieved everyone, and even their steps seemed lighter.

Perhaps their bad luck had already run out, because the next few days of their journey went smoothly without any unexpected incidents.

Several days later, they returned to the area where the ghost bride and ghost baby were active.

This is unavoidable, because the area where the ghost bride and ghost baby are active happens to be near the place where the sect's grand formation opened a passage.

There are now five of them, making it difficult to divide them into groups for defense. So they stopped dividing them into groups, with Guo Tian leading the way and Duan Rong bringing up the rear.

In the darkness, Duan Rong held up a torch, his gaze sweeping around. The ghost bride and the ghost baby were very likely watching them from the surrounding darkness.

Throughout the night, everyone remained vigilant, keeping a close watch on their surroundings.

When the darkness faded and the pale yellow sky reappeared overhead, they all looked exhausted.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They had entered the territory where evil spirits were active, but the evil spirits did not attack them. Perhaps they were still wary of Duan Rong's Soul Piercing Technique.

If that's the case, they can successfully reach the place where the sect's grand formation has opened the passage, and once the passage opens, they can return to the Nine Provinces World.

After traveling all night, as usual, they would rest for an hour every morning to eat something and replenish their energy.

An hour later, they all stood up again and continued on their way.

After walking for a while, they suddenly stopped in front of a pile of boulders that stretched out like a mountain range.

They naturally recognized this place. Especially Jiang Hanyan, whose eyes flashed with resentment and fear. Because in a certain inner space where they passed through this pile of rocks, the ghost infant had left a kiss on her neck.

During that time, she even thought she was going to die. Fortunately, Duan Rong later used the veil of a ghost bride to wipe away the kiss of the ghost baby for her.

Even so, the kiss of the ghost baby became the most terrifying nightmare in her heart.

Jiang Hanyan suddenly asked, "Can we bypass this place?"

This place is quite strange. Not only is the sprawling pile of rocks, resembling a mountain range, very extensive and time-consuming to navigate, but it's also covered with thorny devil vines. These highly poisonous vines are very difficult to deal with once they multiply, and could easily lead to death.

Therefore, they chose to pass through a certain space under the pile of rocks, which is also the path marked on the map.

Unexpectedly, in order to evade the ghost bride's pursuit, the ghost infant hid somewhere in the underground space and attacked Jiang Hanyan just as they were passing through it.

Jiang Hanyan was clearly afraid of being attacked by the ghost baby again.

Guo Tian took out a map and looked at it, saying, "We can go around it. Although it will take an extra day, we have plenty of time now. We can definitely make it in time. If we go back along the original route, it will not only be dangerous, but it will also take an extra day. That means we'll have to wait around near the opening of the passage for a whole day. That place is quite dangerous too. Don't forget, we encountered the ghost bride on our very first night in the ruins!"

“I agree to take the detour!” Lu Chu answered first.

“I agree too!” Duan Rong chimed in.

Jiang Hanyan gave them a grateful look.

Xu Hui shrugged and said, "Then I have no choice but to agree."

Jiang Hanyan couldn't help but smile. Although her companions' decision was partly for safety reasons and not entirely to take her feelings into consideration, she was still grateful.

Guo Tian quickly replanned the route, and the group bypassed the vast, mountain-like pile of rocks and headed in another direction.

A day later, in the dim light of night, the group of people carrying torches arrived at a pool of water.

They sat down to rest by the pool, and Xu Hui took out a silver needle to test the water source.

This pool was the first water source they encountered upon entering the ruins, and it was here that they first encountered the evil spirit of the Ghost Bride.

After Xu Hui confirmed that there was no problem with the water source, they went to the pool to fetch water, then sat down and ate dried meat while drinking water.

Lu Chu said, "Now that we've arrived here, we should be able to reach the place where the sect's grand formation opens the passage tomorrow."

Guo Tiandao said, "We should be able to get there before dawn. Tomorrow is the day the great formation will be activated, so it will probably take us several hours to get there."

Lu Chu took a bite of dried meat and said, "Finally, we can go back. This ruins of gods and demons is a truly cursed place."

Guo Tian said with a solemn expression, "The last mile is the hardest. As long as we haven't entered the great formation's passage, it's best to be careful."

Although Guo Tian said this, everyone felt that the trip should be fine now. After all, they had been moving around this area for the past few days, and neither the ghost bride nor the ghost infant had made a move against them, clearly still wary of Duan Rong's Soul-Slaying Technique.

The evil forces will be suppressed as soon as it gets light tomorrow.

Their successful return to the Nine Provinces world should be a foregone conclusion.

Just then, Duan Rong's eyes suddenly lit up. He was sitting not far from the pool, and he was astonished to find that the ugly moon reflection in the pool, which looked like a green rabbit, had suddenly turned blood red in that instant.

As the water rippled, the blood moon shattered into pieces, just like a pool of blood.

Duan Rong's expression turned solemn. He suddenly looked up and saw a blood moon in the dark sky, emitting an eerie crimson light. The light was not only strange and terrifying, but also much brighter.

Within the ruins of gods and demons, a blood moon descends!
The moment Duan Rong looked up, everyone noticed something amiss, because at that very moment, they all saw their companion's face illuminated by the blood-red light.

Within the ruins of gods and demons illuminated by the blood moon, evil spirits absorb the moonlight, greatly increasing their malevolent power. Simultaneously, stimulated by the blood moonlight, these evil spirits enter a state of frenzied greed, becoming extremely dangerous. (End of Chapter)