Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 167 Taking an Adventure Right After Becoming a Millionaire

Following the coordinates provided by Han Wenshan, Xu Yan and Chen Zhiwei traversed the chaotic edge of Liuquan Village and finally arrived at the boundary of the restricted area marked as the "subsidence zone".

Looking at the desolate area in front of her, clearly cut off from its surroundings, Chen Zhiwei unconsciously stopped and frowned.

"Senior brother, this place gives me a very bad feeling." Her voice was filled with obvious worry. "The psionic energy is chaotic, like torn cloth, and... there's an indescribable chill about it."

Xu Yan stared at the distorted horizon ahead and nodded.

He also felt that unsettling aura, but what concerned him more was the strange sensation coming from his right arm; the dormant "Abyss" was throbbing slightly.

“I know,” he said in a deep voice, his gaze sweeping over the girl’s tense profile. “But we have to go in. The coordinates Han Wenshan gave us point to this place, and the ‘Abyss’ within me… seems to have been touched by something as well.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhiwei looked at his arm with concern: "Is it because of the environment here?"

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Xu Yan slowly raised his right arm, feeling the strange pulling sensation. “It’s more like a…call.”

Stepping into the subsidence zone feels like crossing some invisible boundary.

The hustle and bustle of the outside world was instantly stripped away, replaced by a chilling, deathly silence.

"This place... is so eerie!" Chen Zhiwei couldn't help but exclaim, instinctively gripping Xu Yan's arm tightly. As a talisman master, she was particularly sensitive to energy. "The spiritual energy is not only chaotic, but also mixed with some kind of... filthy aura."

Xu Yan looked around, her heart heavy.

The earth was covered with jagged cracks, and huge concrete slabs were warped at an illogical angle, with exposed steel bars rusted into an eerie dark red.

"Stay close to me," he whispered, then added with concern, "If things go wrong, don't worry about me, get out of here immediately."

Chen Zhiwei shook her head firmly: "Since we've come together, we should go back together."

The air was thick with the smells of dust and rust, and deeper still, a chilling aura lurked, seeping into the very bones.

"Here you take the jade cicada." Xu Yan stuffed a piece of black jade into Chen Zhiwei's hand.

"Hmm..." Chen Zhiwei touched the jade cicada: "I will keep it in use."

Xu Yan's right arm throbbed intensely once again. At the same time, the Soul-Suppressing Iron Brand on his palm also felt a clear burning sensation, as if it were a warning or a resistance against the pulling force.

"Can you feel it?" His voice was slightly hoarse due to the strange movements within his body. "'Yuan' is becoming more and more restless, as if it is being strongly attracted by something."

Chen Zhiwei warily surveyed the ruins swallowed by darkness: "A call? Could there be something of the same origin here? Senior brother, this is too dangerous!"

“It is precisely because of the danger that we must find out.” Xu Yan’s gaze was as sharp as a hawk’s, fixed on the depths of darkness. “I have a feeling that important clues about ‘Abyss’ are hidden here.”

Looking up, the iconic halo of Liuquanji has almost disappeared here, with only a few broken streetlights casting pale and flickering light, which only makes the distorted shadows look even more eerie.

"Do we really have to go deeper?" Chen Zhiwei asked, looking at the darkness ahead that seemed to swallow everything. Her voice was filled with unease.

Xu Yan took a deep breath, suppressing the increasingly intense throbbing in his right arm: "I have to go. But promise me, if the situation gets out of control, you must ensure your own safety first."

Chen Zhiwei did not answer, but simply gripped his hand even tighter.

This silent response moved Xu Yan, but also worried her.

He knew that in this strange subsidence zone, an unprecedented adventure was just beginning.

Just then, the screen of the silver-level terminal in Xu Yan's hand suddenly began to flicker violently, and the signal indicator bar jumped wildly between "weak" and "none". The energy turbulence in this area was severely interfering with communications.

"The signal is about to drop." Xu Yan frowned, preparing to put away the terminal.

However, in this highly unstable gap, an encrypted message forced its way in, accompanied by an exceptionally crisp notification sound:
[Han's Group: Transferred 9,000,000.00 yuan to your anonymous account ending in XXXX (with note: Distribution of supplies from point three)]

Nine million!
Chen Zhiwei also saw the dizzying string of zeros on the screen. She was stunned at first, and then her eyes lit up with unbelievable surprise.

"Nine...nine million?!" She almost exclaimed, instinctively grabbing Xu Yan's arm, her voice filled with a long-lost sense of relief and excitement, "Senior brother! We...we really got it! We don't have to worry about the next batch of talisman materials and intelligence money anymore!"

This sudden windfall was like a ray of light, instantly dispelling some of the gloom in her heart caused by her circumstances.

With this money, many practices and investigations that were previously impossible due to a lack of resources will become possible.

But this excitement only lasted a few seconds.

She looked around at the distorted darkness, feeling the biting cold in the air, and her excited expression was gradually replaced by a more complex emotion.

"But..." her voice lowered, tinged with bitterness, "what's the point of making so much money if we can't leave here alive?"

Xu Yan looked at her account balance, her heart also filled with turmoil.

This money not only signifies material relief, but also sends a strong signal.

“In this godforsaken place, where the signal is on the verge of being cut off, he was still able to transfer the money on time and in full,” Xu Yan said slowly, his eyes sharp. “This shows two things: First, his ‘transaction credit’ is indeed solid at present, at least when it comes to ‘payment,’ he hasn’t played any tricks.”

He paused, his tone becoming even more somber: "Secondly, this also proves that Han Wenshan's power and methods are far deeper than we have seen. He can accurately grasp the timing of our arrival and complete financial operations under such adverse conditions... This person is definitely not simple."

Chen Zhiwei nodded. After the initial joy subsided, reason regained its grip: "He's using this money to curry favor with us, and also to flex his muscles. He's giving us a taste of the benefits while letting us know that he can find us anytime, right?"

“That’s right.” Xu Yan put away the terminal, feeling the increasingly clear call in his right arm, which contrasted sharply with the unsettling silence around him. “The money has arrived, which means he still needs us for the time being, or rather, he wants to continue to observe our value. But this makes me more wary—the more he invests, the bigger his ambitions will inevitably be.”

He took a deep breath, suppressed the surging thoughts in his heart, and tightened his grip on Chen Zhiwei's hand.

“Let’s go,” he said, his gaze fixed on the darkness, where unknown dangers lurked and the secrets of “Abyss” lay hidden. “Since the creditor is so ‘trustworthy,’ we can’t give up halfway. Stay close to me, Yu Chan, protect yourself. We need to be alive to spend this money.”

The two stayed close together, cautiously making their way through the ruins of the subsidence zone.

Each step was taken with utmost care, the gravel crunching underfoot, a sound that pierced the deathly silence.

“The yin energy here is much stronger than outside.” Chen Zhiwei lowered her voice and unconsciously moved closer to Xu Yan. “I have a feeling that something is watching us from the shadows.”

Xu Yan's sharp gaze swept across the swaying shadows around him, and a series of subtle tremors came from the "Abyss" inside his right arm.

“It’s not just the yin energy,” he said in a low voice. “The ‘Abyss’ within me has been very restless since just now, as if it has caught a familiar scent. This feeling… is very strange.”

The further we went, the colder and more biting the air became, as if a tangible chill was seeping into our bones through our clothes.

Chen Zhiwei suddenly gripped Xu Yan's sleeve, her voice trembling slightly: "Just now...did something float by over there? I think I saw a semi-transparent shadow..."

Xu Yan looked in the direction she indicated and saw several distorted, transparent shadows flashing past among the ruins, carrying an inhuman chill.

“They are wandering spirits,” he said in a deep voice, while shielding Chen Zhiwei behind him. “However, with Yu Chan here, they shouldn’t approach on their own. But the number of wandering spirits here is indeed abnormally high.”

Chen Zhiwei subconsciously touched the jade cicada on her chest, feeling the faint warmth it emitted, which made her feel a little more at ease.

“This jade cicada has saved us so many times. But senior brother, why are there so many wandering spirits gathered in this kind of place? They look... like they are guarding something.”

"This is probably not a coincidence." Xu Yan stopped and looked ahead with a serious expression. "It seems we've found the entrance."

Right before them lay a massive sinkhole, like a gaping wound in the earth, with jagged concrete fragments resembling the fangs of a wild beast. A chilling aura emanated from it, carrying a strong earthy smell and some indescribable stench.

The entrance to the so-called "hidden main drainage channel" was wide open in the dark, like a giant mouth waiting for its prey to walk into its trap.

Chen Zhiwei peered down, and the faint light of the talisman appeared so small in the deep darkness.

"Should we go down?" she asked worriedly, her voice unconsciously softening. "The atmosphere down there is even more eerie than here. I have a feeling... of unease. And look at the edges of the light and shadow, aren't there more pale figures floating around?"

Xu Yan felt the increasingly intense throbbing in his right arm, the call from the same source almost breaking through the suppression.

“We have to go down.” He took a deep breath, suppressing his churning blood. “What’s down there is definitely connected to ‘The Abyss.’ The feeling is too strong. But stick close to me. If things go wrong, we’ll retreat immediately.”

He took the lead in climbing down the steep slope, with Chen Zhiwei following closely behind, the two keeping a step's distance apart.

The deeper you go, the more damp and cold the air becomes. Unnatural dark green marks begin to appear on the walls, like some kind of dried viscous substance, gleaming eerily in the dim light of the talismans.

"Senior brother, listen..." Chen Zhiwei suddenly stopped what she was doing, her voice filled with tension, "Is there some kind of sound? Like... a sobbing sound?"

In the darkness, faint sobs and whispers could be heard, seemingly coming from a distant place, yet also seemingly close at hand.

Several translucent shadows floated past the rock wall, ignoring the two of them, simply wandering aimlessly along some ancient path.

“It’s the whispers of wandering spirits.” Xu Yan lowered his voice, cautiously observing his surroundings. “The Jade Cicada is still working, so they can’t detect us. But there are far too many wandering spirits here, and… have you noticed that they all seem to be moving in the same direction?”

After descending about twenty or thirty meters, the slope gradually became gentler, and they finally stepped onto solid ground.

Xu Yan took out a flashlight, but the light from the spiritual energy talisman seemed to be swallowed by the darkness, only illuminating a limited area in front of him.

At the edge of the light, more ghostly figures of various shapes appeared and disappeared.

Some retain human form, dressed in simple, ancient clothing;

Some were twisted and deformed, exuding a strong sense of resentment;

Some were even just pure energy clusters, shimmering with an eerie green or pale white light.

“These stone bricks…” Chen Zhiwei squatted down, his fingers lightly touching the ground, “and these carved patterns… this could never be a modern drainage system. I’ve never seen the style of these patterns before, but they feel very ancient, extremely ancient.”

Where the beam of light swept, strange patterns, long since blurred, were carved on the rough, ancient, and massive stone bricks.

Even more chilling was the faint yet lingering eerie smell of sandalwood mixed with the stench of corpses that began to permeate the air.

“Look over there.” Xu Yan suddenly pointed to a phantom figure dressed in ancient armor not far away. “This attire… is at least from several hundred years ago. And he looks more solid than the other wandering spirits.”

Chen Zhiwei gasped, her voice trembling with disbelief: "Could it be that we're not in some drainage ditch, but... in an ancient tomb? How could something like this be hidden underground in Liuquanji?"

Just then, Xu Yan's right arm suddenly jerked.

That sense of shared origin suddenly became incredibly clear and intense, pointing directly into the depths of the passageway.

It was as if at the very core of that tomb, something was echoing the "Abyss" within him, issuing a call that transcended the long years.

"It seems that Han Wenshan's 'surprise' to us is much bigger than we imagined."

Xu Yan stared intently into the depths of darkness, where perhaps more than just danger lay hidden; it was also the key to unraveling the mystery of the "Abyss."

"This is not just a tomb, but a forgotten kingdom of ghosts."

Chen Zhiwei gripped his hand tightly, her fingertips icy yet resolute: "Whatever lies down there, now that we're here, we have to find out. Just... be extremely careful."

The two adjusted their breathing, bringing themselves to their peak condition, and cautiously and resolutely ventured deeper into the unknown core, which shared the same origin as the "Abyss," under the watchful gaze of countless silent ghostly figures along the ancient path that resembled a tomb passage.

Each step reverberated on the cold, ancient bricks, producing a hollow echo that was particularly clear in the deathly silent tomb passage.

“Fortunately, we have this jade cicada to protect us,” she said softly, her voice unusually clear in the silence, “and those things dare not come near us.”

Xu Yan glanced at the wandering souls that were faintly visible in the darkness; they were indeed kept out by the invisible barrier of the Jade Cicada.

“Speaking of which,” he suddenly lowered his voice, “don’t you feel that Master knows far more than he appears to?”

Chen Zhiwei paused slightly.

"Grandpa," she said carefully, "did often say things that were quite profound. I still remember the solemn look on his face when he handed me this talisman bag."

During their conversation, they arrived at the edge of the massive sinkhole and found the entrance.

A palpable aura of yin energy emanated from it, sending chills down one's spine.

"Should we go down?" Chen Zhiwei asked, looking at the darkness that swallowed up the light, her voice filled with worry.

Xu Yan felt the throbbing of "Yuan" inside his right arm and took a deep breath: "Go down."

He took the lead in climbing down the steep slope, with Chen Zhiwei close behind. The further they went, the more damp and cold the air became, with whimpering whispers echoing around them. Countless translucent shadows drifted around them, but fortunately, the jade cicadas protected them, and they paid no attention to the two of them.

"Senior brother," Chen Zhiwei asked in a low voice during a break in the climb, "Do you think Grandpa isn't as simple as he seems on the surface?"

Xu Yan carefully steadied himself on the stones, and countless fragments of memories from his past life flashed through his mind.

Those secrets about their master and the "Mirror of Shared Life" have now become a heavy burden.

He knows too much, but he can't tell you everything.

"Do you know that the Soul-Sealing Camera that Master left me also has a special lens called the 'Mirror of Shared Life'?" He spoke carefully, his voice sounding particularly deep in the narrow space. "Master has always been far-sighted. Do you remember what he said when he last instructed me on cultivation? 'There are some mysteries that you need to solve yourself.'"

Chen Zhiwei suddenly stopped what she was doing and looked at him in surprise: "The Mirror of Shared Life? There wasn't one in the box Grandpa left me. Senior Brother, how did you know? I've never heard Grandpa mention it before..."

Xu Yan's heart tightened as memories of her past life flooded back.

In that vanished time and space, the master gave him the Mirror of Shared Life.

But he used the Mirror of Shared Life to make everything irreversible.

Those memories are so vivid, as if they happened just yesterday.

But how can all this be explained to Chen Zhiwei, who knows nothing about it?
He smiled bitterly to himself, his heart filled with contradictions.

Concealing the truth puts her in danger of information asymmetry, but revealing the truth rashly could cause more trouble.

In the end, he could only offer a vague explanation: "Perhaps... Master mentioned it during a casual conversation." This weak explanation failed to convince even himself.

Chen Zhiwei clearly didn't believe it, but before she could ask any more questions, the two of them had already descended about twenty or thirty meters and finally touched solid ground.

“These stone bricks…” Chen Zhiwei squatted down, his fingers tracing the rough, ancient patterns on the ground, his attention temporarily drawn to the discovery before him. “These patterns… this doesn’t look like a modern drainage system at all, it looks more like… the passageway of some kind of ancient tomb!”

Just then, Xu Yan's right arm suddenly jerked!
That sense of shared origin suddenly became incredibly strong, pointing straight into the depths of the passageway.

This sudden surge of emotion strangely resonated with a scene that seemed familiar from a past life.

"It seems that this place is far more complicated than we imagined." Xu Yan stared intently into the darkness, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

His memories, which shouldn't exist, may be the key to unraveling all of this.

The two adjusted their breathing and cautiously ventured deeper into the passageway.

Guided by the halo of their flashlights, they made their way through the dark tunnel.

The Jade Cicada was extremely effective, almost perfectly isolating the two people's life force and spiritual energy fluctuations.

The deeper Xu Yan went, the stronger the strange feeling in his heart became.

The rough stone walls, the winding downward slope, the peculiar smell in the air—a mixture of millennia-old dust and some kind of damp energy—everything carried a damnably familiar feeling.

“Zhiwei,” Xu Yan suddenly stopped, his voice low and tinged with barely concealed disorientation, “the structure of this place… seems somewhat familiar to me.”

Chen Zhiwei looked at him in surprise, her eyes questioning.

Xu Yan didn't continue speaking because an even more turbulent wave of memories exploded in his mind.

It wasn't a memory from this life! It was from his previous life, in the underground space beneath that nursing home, where he and A-Zhe had mistakenly entered an extremely similar underground structure.

What sent chills down his spine was that he had found a few words of his master's in the dilapidated shrine in that space, which clearly mentioned, "Chen Dingkun's soul was shattered here in the abyss, winter of the year Wuzi."

This sudden connection startled him. If that were true, could it be related to his master taking him in and teaching him how to use a camera?
Seeing the change in his expression, Chen Zhiwei couldn't help but tense up, instinctively tightening her grip on the jade cicada at her chest: "What's wrong? What did you discover?"

Xu Yan snapped back to reality, forcibly suppressing the surging doubts within him. "...Nothing," he mumbled, unable to articulate the shock stemming from another life, "I just feel that the layout of this place has a kind of deliberate, artificial feel to it."

This thought plunged Xu Yan into an even deeper silence.

If his guess is true, then what is the real purpose of the master guiding them here?
Just then, a faint light appeared ahead, along with... a suppressed psychic energy fluctuation that seemed to come from the depths of the soul, a mixture of grief and resentment.

The two exchanged a glance, immediately suppressing all distracting thoughts, and more carefully concealed their auras, clinging to the cold stone wall like geckos, silently creeping forward.

At the end of the passageway, the view suddenly opened up.

A huge natural cave appeared before the two of them.

"My God..." Chen Zhiwei gasped, her voice trembling slightly with shock, "Where...where is this?"

Xu Yan was also stunned by the scene before him.

On the cave walls, countless stones emitting a ghostly green phosphorescence resembled stars from hell, casting an eerie, ghastly green hue over the entire space.

His gaze was immediately drawn to the circular altar in the center of the cave, which was clearly man-made.

The altar, made of some kind of black jade, was covered with dense, chilling curse runes that could send shivers down one's spine at a glance.

His gaze finally settled on the figure kneeling with his back to them in the very center of the altar.

“That uniform…” Xu Yan’s pupils suddenly contracted, his voice extremely low, almost squeezed out from between his teeth, “Is it someone from the Central Divine Firmament Bureau?”

Chen Zhiwei looked in the direction he indicated, and when she saw the golden insignia on the man's epaulets that gleamed with a cold light, and the ghostly face that covered the upper half of his face, which looked like it was both crying and laughing, her face turned deathly pale.

"Ghost-faced Judge... Jiang Yu!" She almost cried out in surprise, but fortunately she covered her mouth tightly with her hand in time, silencing the exclamation.

Her heart was pounding, and even her fingertips were trembling slightly. "How could he be here?!"

Xu Yan's breathing suddenly stopped, all the muscles in his body tensed up instantly, and even his blood seemed to freeze.

Jiang Yu!

A gold-level giant with whom they have a grudge and whose strength is unfathomable.

If he discovers that they are spying here, they will have no chance of survival in this isolated underground paradise.

"Don't move..." he warned in a low voice, while pulling Chen Zhiwei behind him to hide them in the shadows of the passageway exit as much as possible. "The Jade Cicada is still working; he might not be able to find us."

Thanks to the Jade Cicada's miraculous power, Jiang Yu did not seem to immediately perceive the specific presence behind him.

His entire attention was focused on the withered roses on the altar, protected by an energy shield. His fingertips gently caressed them through the barrier, a tenderness that seemed completely at odds with his fearsome reputation as the "Ghost-Faced Judge."

However, just as Xu Yan and Chen Zhiwei held their breath, a sudden change occurred.

Jiang Yu paused slightly as he stroked the energy shield.

"!" Xu Yan's heart sank suddenly.

Jiang Yu's head, which was wearing a ghost mask, was turned at an extremely slight angle.

Although they didn't turn around completely, a chilling feeling, as if they were being locked onto by an invisible apex predator, instantly gripped their hearts!
"He...he noticed?" Chen Zhiwei's voice trembled uncontrollably as she gripped Xu Yan's arm tightly.

Xu Yan didn't answer, but his eyes said it all. Although he couldn't pinpoint the exact location, his intuition, typical of a Gold-level expert, had already detected a subtle, discordant anomaly.

The air inside the cave seemed to freeze, making every second feel incredibly long and agonizing.

At this critical moment, several oblivious wandering souls, following their established paths, happened to drift past the area between Xu Yan and the altar.

The next second, Jiang Yu moved!

He didn't even turn around completely. His free left hand was casually raised, his index and middle fingers together, and he made a light, sweeping gesture in the direction of the wandering spirits.

There was no earth-shattering roar, only a white bolt of lightning, extremely condensed, as thin as a hair yet dazzlingly bright, appeared out of thin air and silently swept across the void as if cutting through tofu.

"puff……"

A few barely audible sounds came, but the wandering spirits didn't even cause a ripple. The moment they were touched by the lightning, the spiritual energy that constituted their existence was like ice and snow thrown into the blazing sun, instantly decomposing, vaporizing, and completely annihilating, leaving not even a trace.

Instantly annihilate the wandering soul!

"!"

Chen Zhiwei's pupils dilated with fear, and she bit her lower lip tightly to keep from screaming.

Xu Yan was also terrified, breaking out in a cold sweat. His muscles stiffened, and he dared not move.

The oppressive feeling of death brought by that bolt of lightning was so real that it made him clearly aware of the insurmountable chasm between them.

"This is... the power of a Gold-level being..." He could barely hear his own voice.

Jiang Yu maintained his raised hand posture, and his gaze beneath the ghost mask seemed to linger for a moment in the now empty darkness, as if confirming whether the strangeness originated from these insignificant ghosts.

A moment later, he slowly withdrew his hand and focused all his attention back on the dried roses on the altar, seemingly blaming his momentary alertness on these uncooperative wandering spirits.

Xu Yan and Chen Zhiwei both breathed a sigh of relief, only to find that their palms were already cold and sweaty.

Just then, Jiang Yu's deep, hoarse voice echoed again in the empty cave, carrying with it a profound longing and an unyielding sorrow, as if the fierce attack had never happened:

"Ah Qiang... I'm here again..."

His voice was initially so soft as if he were afraid of disturbing a dream, and his fingertips, through the energy shield, vaguely traced the outline of the withered rose.

That hoarse voice had lost its usual coldness and hardness, and was filled with unspeakable weariness and longing.

"Not a day goes by... not a day goes by that I don't think about you."

These words seemed to open a floodgate, and the suppressed grief finally broke free.

His shoulders trembled almost imperceptibly, and his voice choked with suppressed sobs, but in an instant, all vulnerability was replaced by a bone-chilling coldness, and his tone suddenly became sinister.

“Those bastards…those bastards who ambushed us at ‘Burial God Pass’ and caused your demise!” Every word seemed to be ground out from between his teeth, carrying the stench of blood. “Their sects, their forces…all of them, everyone whose hands were stained with your blood, I spared not a single one! I slaughtered them all and burned their heritage!”

He suddenly raised his hand, pointing to the darkness around the altar, the movement carrying a violent, cathartic release.

"Look—!"

Xu Yan and Chen Zhiwei looked in the direction he pointed, and immediately felt a chill run down their spines and up to the top of their heads.

In the darkness surrounding the altar, dozens of translucent, twisting and struggling orbs of soul light floated.

Bound by an invisible force, they emit a continuous wailing of souls that can only be perceived by the spiritual sense, with extreme pain and eternal fear frozen on every blurred face.

The fragments of clothing and unique energy marks left on them indicate that these souls were core members of the forces that participated in the ambush and were later bloodily purged by Jiang Yu.

"...I have captured their souls."

Jiang Yu's voice returned to calm, but beneath this calm lay a hatred deeper and more terrifying than hysteria, a sea frozen over lava.

"Let them suffer the torment of soul refining day and night, endlessly, and let their eternal wails and despair... be a sacrifice for you."

He whispered to the bouquet of roses, as if telling them about a carefully prepared gift.

He slowly stood up, his gaze beneath the ghostly mask sweeping over the struggling souls as if they were a pile of fuel in dire need of processing.

"Moreover, their filthy souls still have one last bit of use."

He raised his hand, and several dark runes on the edge of the altar suddenly lit up. A powerful suction force was generated, forcibly extracting a wisp of pure, yet resentful, fearful, and desperate primordial soul power from several of the most tormented soul orbs.

These dark energies flowed like streams into an unseen container at the bottom of the altar.

"Their resentment, their fear... everything about them is nourishing the 'seed'."

He looked again at the withered roses, his voice suddenly filled with a kind of obsessive and committed fanaticism that crossed the boundaries of reason:
“Wait for me, A-Qiang. Wait until I use the souls of these enemies to raise the most ferocious ‘ghost,’ and then purify it… I will become stronger, stronger than Master… no, stronger than that traitor Xu Haoyu! Gold level? Far from enough! I will ascend to Platinum, step into Legend! At that time, all those related to ‘Abyss,’ all the roots of that tragedy…”

His voice abruptly stopped there, and beneath the ghostly mask, it seemed as if endless pain and brutality were intertwined.

Ultimately, it all boils down to a conclusion as light as a sigh, yet as heavy as a vow:
"...I will personally purify them completely. I swear."

Jiang Yu's curse-like vow slowly dissipated in the empty cave, but a certain name contained within it exploded in Chen Zhiwei's mind.

“Xu Haoyu…?” She repeated the name silently, her eyes widening slightly in shock.

She abruptly turned to look at Xu Yan, silently mouthing, "He's talking about... your father? Jiang Yu is your father's apprentice?!"

This confirms the scattered information Zhou Wenbin had provided them earlier: Jiang Yu is indeed the personal disciple of Xu Haoyu, the strongest gold-level contractor.

However, hearing Jiang Yu mention her master in such a resentful tone, even calling him a "traitor," still made her feel a chill run down her spine.

She looked at Xu Yan, but found no surprise in his eyes, only a deep and unyielding anger burning silently, as if this fact was already expected by him, or even part of the destiny he had to bear.

Just as Chen Zhiwei was alarmed by this relationship, Xu Yan's thoughts were already completely seized by another, even more dangerous word—

The Ghost Hunting Plan!

When Jiang Yu uttered this term, and it was associated with the Soul Refining Altar before him and the dozens of agonizing, wailing souls, Xu Yan's pupils suddenly contracted, and a chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head, almost suffocating him.

This name, like a rusty key, suddenly opened the darkest door in the depths of past life memories.

This is not hearsay, not legend... it is a firsthand, bloody testimony!
Fragments of his past life surged forth: he had seen the "monsters" spawned by this plan during his operations at the nursing home. They were no longer human, or even traditional ghosts, but man-made abominations that forcibly combined extreme resentment and psychic energy after devouring and refining the souls of the living like fodder.

They have no reason, only an instinctive hatred and a desire to devour living beings. Wherever they go, they leave behind only withered corpses and broken souls.

That's not just cruelty; it's the most thorough desecration of the essence of life, a twisted shortcut forged after humanity and ethics have been completely crushed.

In his past life, he always believed that it was the work of some mad organization hidden in the shadows of history, the masterpiece of some unknown evil sect. He even investigated it, but the clues always went cold.

But to everyone's surprise... the source of this heinous crime was right here!

The Ghost-Faced Judge, whose hatred for the world, especially his resentment towards his father Xu Haoyu, was completely crushed by the pain of losing his lover and was twisted into a destructive force.

Xu Yan's brain was working at an unprecedented speed, frantically piecing together his past life's experiences with clues from this life:
Jiang Yu harbors extreme hatred because of the death of his lover "A Qiang". He believes that his master Xu Haoyu is involved in the death and takes his anger out on everything related to "Yuan".

He pursues power beyond the Gold level not for power, but to fulfill his extremely obsessive vow of "purification".

He chose the most forbidden and quickest path, using the souls of his enemies as nourishment to cultivate powerful "ghosts," and then purifying and absorbing them.

This perfectly explains why those forces that opposed him were wiped out, and even their souls were imprisoned here.

They are both the targets of his revenge and the "raw materials" for his power.

This ancient tomb, resonating with the "Abyss," is filled with an extremely heavy yin energy and wandering spirits, making it the perfect place to carry out this evil plan. Moreover, it is secluded enough to evade scrutiny from within the Divine Firmament Bureau.

The twisted and powerful resentment characteristics of the "hunger demon" in the previous life are essentially the same as the soul source power extracted from the altar at this moment.

What we are experiencing now is closer to the "source" and the "experimental stage," while what we experienced in the nursing home in our previous life was already a mature and widespread "disaster."

"A madman... a complete and utter madman!" Xu Yan roared inwardly.

Jiang Yu, the high-ranking gold giant of the Divine Firmament Bureau, has long been hollowed out by his obsession, becoming a monster immersed in his own tragedy and seeking to transform this pain into destructive power.

He disguised his personal hatred as so-called "purification," yet he committed acts more blasphemous than any evil spirit.

What chilled Xu Yan to the bone even more was that this plan had obviously been underway for quite some time, and... it was very likely that it had some deeper connection with himself and the "Abyss" within him, a connection that he had not yet fully deciphered.

Jiang Yu's extreme attitude towards "Yuan" and the unknown relationship between his father Xu Haoyu and "Yuan" are like huge shadows looming over this terrifying truth that has just been revealed.

Suddenly, Xu Yan's hand was gripped tightly by Chen Zhiwei. Her fingertips were icy cold, but her palms were covered in a fine layer of cold sweat.

Xu Yan could clearly feel the tension in her body and the uncontrollable, subtle trembling, even though she didn't fully understand the terrifying nature of the "Ghost Serving Plan".

But the dozens of souls struggling in agony and wailing silently around the altar, the chilling obsession in Jiang Yu's words, and the nauseating, tangible fluctuations of resentment permeating the air as if souls were being forcibly extracted, all constituted the most direct and primal shock of terror.

"Senior brother..." Chen Zhiwei's voice was barely audible, filled with undisguised panic, "We...we have to leave, we have to leave now!"

Her eyes kept glancing at the terrifying figure on the altar, as if afraid that the ghostly face would turn around at any moment.

"I know."

Xu Yan's voice was also kept extremely low, almost the sound of air rubbing together.

He conveyed an undeniable message with his eyes, while gently tugging at her, signaling her to retreat.

The two understood each other without words and began to move backward inch by inch with the slightest movements, trying to use the jade cicada's protection to quietly retreat into the passage they had come from, like an ink droplet blending into the shadows.

I took each step carefully, afraid of breaking a pebble or making any noise that I shouldn't have.

Time seemed to stretch out, and every second felt like dancing on a knife's edge.

"Slower..."

Xu Yan whispered a reminder; he could hear his heart pounding wildly in his chest, almost breaking his ribs.

"I...I know..." Chen Zhiwei held her breath, her face pale, "But he's right there...too close..."

They dawdled and procrastinated, knowing that every second they lingered increased the danger, yet they had no choice but to slow their movements to the minimum. This agonizing contradiction made the atmosphere so tense it was almost frozen.

However, at this critical moment of life and death, just as their heels were about to touch the relatively safe shadow at the edge of the tunnel...

The "Abyss" within his right arm resembled a ferocious beast thoroughly stimulated by the bloodshed of its own kind and the powerful, malevolent hostile energy emanating from the altar.

Previously, it was only a faint restlessness, trying to break free of its restraints, but now it seemed to have sensed the aura of its destined enemy, and suddenly erupted with an unprecedentedly intense tremor.

A scorching, violent wave, carrying a primal desire for destruction, crashed against the seal he had set up, like a torrent bursting its banks, almost awakening on its own.

The throbbing was so intense and domineering that it sent a jolt through his entire right arm as if he were being electrocuted. The muscles in his forearm involuntarily spasmed, and a blurry, ancient-patterned phantom even flashed beneath his skin.

Oops!

The thought had barely crossed Xu Yan's mind when he hadn't had time to take any remedial measures, or even to completely suppress "Yuan's" riot.

On the altar, Jiang Yu, who had been standing with his back to them, suddenly froze. His body, which had just relaxed slightly from being immersed in memories and obsession, suddenly stiffened.

His masked head suddenly spun 180 degrees with a speed beyond human capabilities, leaving afterimages!

The cold, emotionless ghost mask stared directly into their direction.

The eerie expression on the mask, a mixture of crying and laughing, seemed to come alive under the glowing green phosphorescence, carrying a chilling mix of amusement and murderous intent, as if the mask had discovered its prey.

He discovered it!
(End of this chapter)