I'm in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have one equipment slot!

In the middle of this massive city wall, there is a heavy wooden door that requires several people to lift, and it is currently hanging high in the air.

Both sides of the wooden door.

Seven or eight strong men stood on each wall, each holding a white bone spear with a sharpened tip, their eyes scanning the wasteland outside the wall warily.

When Zhou Yuan and Mei Ning came into view, the guards immediately tensed up, pointing their spears diagonally. The leader, a burly middle-aged man, shouted:

"Halt! Who are you? Where did you come from?"

The sound echoed across the empty, pebbly beach, carrying the unique sense of vigilance and solemnity of the place.

Zhou Yuan stopped and responded loudly, his voice carrying clearly through the doorway:

"We were sucked in by the ghostly mist, lost our way, and stumbled upon this place. We wanted to stay in the village temporarily and also look for something."

Upon hearing this, the guards on the wall seemed to relax their tense expressions and exchanged glances.

The middle-aged man who looked like the guard leader carefully examined the two people under the wall for a few moments.

Noticing that Mei Ning, though pale, was neatly dressed, and Zhou Yuan appeared calm and composed, unlike his disheveled appearance after struggling in the wild for so long, he had some doubts, but still waved his hand:

"So it's another unlucky soul caught up in the Ghost Mist. The Ghost Mist has been more frequent lately than in previous years... Come on in! The rules will be explained to you once you're inside."

He seemed quite familiar with this kind of thing, his tone even carrying a hint of nonchalance.

With his command, the winch turned, the thick rope creaked as it rubbed together, and the heavy wooden door slowly lowered, crashing onto the ditch in front of it, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Zhou Yuan nodded slightly to Mei Ning, and the two stepped through the wooden door into the world behind the stone wall.

Upon entering, Zhou Yuan quickly scanned the entire village with his eyes.

The village is tightly surrounded by tall, thick black stone walls in the center, like an independent fortress.

The buildings inside the wall were all built with the same kind of dark stone blocks, square and mostly low and simple. Although they were not arranged in an orderly manner, they still left crisscrossing passages.

The air was filled with the smell of cooking fires and the cool, shady scent unique to stone walls.

But what is most eye-catching is a stone platform that rises abruptly from the ground in the very center of the village.

The stone platform was not large, and its base was square, yet it was unusually tall.

It was thirty or forty feet long, standing like a giant black stone pillar in the village.

The top of the stone platform was not a platform, but rather a place from which a faint purple mist continuously emanated.

These purple mists were not dense, but they were continuous. After rising, they did not dissipate, but instead formed a thin layer of purple mist that enveloped the entire village.

At that moment, in the overcast sky, a thick, dark blue lightning bolt tore through the clouds, slicing down and heading straight for the village.

However, when the lightning touched the purple mist, it did not unleash any earth-shattering power. Instead, it was absorbed and dissolved silently by the purple mist, like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

In the blink of an eye, they disappeared without a trace.

Only the fog rippled slightly.

"Magic array restriction..."

Zhou Yuan understood.

Although this dark and gloomy place is devoid of spiritual energy and cannot be used to perform the formations commonly found in the cultivation world, the power of the yin souls contained in the soul stones can replace spiritual energy and construct some simple defenses.

This purple mist barrier is clearly designed to defend against the deadly blue lightning in the sky.

"You two, newbies, come here for a second."

The middle-aged man who had led them in hadn't left. He approached with two guards armed with spears, beckoning to Zhou Yuan and his companion in a rather impolite tone:

"The village elders want to meet the newcomer and ask him some questions. Come with me."

Zhou Yuan nodded, his expression calm.

He gestured for Mei Ning to follow.

The three followed the middle-aged man through several stone-paved paths and arrived at a hall that was slightly larger and more orderly than an ordinary stone house.

There were also two guards at the entrance of the hall. When they saw the middle-aged man leading his men over, they silently made way for him.

The hall was dimly lit, with a few oil lamps burning against the wall, casting a dim yellow glow.

Directly opposite the entrance, there are several rough stone chairs, with three people sitting on them.

In the center was a slightly plump old man with a round face and a short, gray beard. He was wearing a faded gray cloth shirt and had a kind smile on his face.

On either side sat a man and a woman. The man was lean with sharp eyes, while the woman was about forty years old with a serious expression.

After leading Zhou Yuan and his companion inside, the middle-aged man bowed and stepped aside.

Seeing Zhou Yuan's composed demeanor and Mei Ning's impressive appearance despite her slight timidity, the elderly man in the center showed a hint of surprise in his eyes. His smile then warmed further as he spoke:

"Please have a seat, both of you. Now that you've entered this place, you are of the same kind. In this desolate land, humans should naturally support each other. My surname is Qin, and I am an elder of this village. May I ask how you two are addressed and where you came from? This place is very different from the outside world, and there are some rules that I need to let you know."

Zhou Yuan did not sit down as instructed, but merely clasped his hands slightly and said in a calm tone, "Elder Qin, since we have already fallen into this realm, our identities outside are meaningless. I am Zhou Yuan, and this is Miss Mei Ning. We were indeed swept into the ghost mist and were fortunate enough to survive, ending up here."

Elder Qin nodded, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over Zhou Yuan's waist.

Hanging there was a peculiarly shaped leather bag (a spirit beast bag) and a seemingly ordinary but actually finely stitched brocade pouch (a storage bag) with hidden spiritual patterns.

A glint flashed in his eyes, and he stroked his beard, saying, "Young friend Zhou, that's a storage bag at your waist, isn't it? ...You two are cultivators in the outside world!"

"I guess so," Zhou Yuan said without denying it.

Upon hearing this, Elder Qin exchanged a glance with the two people on either side of him, both revealing an expression of "as expected" mixed with slight regret.

The lean man even shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"Sigh, he really is a cultivator."

Elder Qin sighed, his tone becoming solemn. "Young friend Zhou, Miss Mei, I must tell you the truth. This place is called the 'Land of the Netherworld,' filled with 'Spirit-Severing Qi.' The magical power and divine sense that outside cultivators are so proud of are completely imprisoned here, making them no different from ordinary mortals. Over the past few hundred years, quite a few cultivators have been sucked into this place by the ghostly mist, including many with profound cultivation."

"However, this place is a dead end, a place where there is no way out! When those cultivators first came here, most of them were like you two now, either hoping for a way out or confident that they could find a way out, but in the end... without exception, they all wasted their lives here, growing old, sick and dying like ordinary people..."

He paused, looking at Zhou Yuan's calm, expressionless face and Mei Ning's suddenly pale complexion, and continued:

"I am not saying this to discourage you two, but rather to hope that you will recognize reality and accept your situation as it is."

"The most important thing here is to survive. The village doesn't support idlers. If you want food and shelter, you have to work, either by participating in guard duty or by going out to collect and hunt soul stones that can be used by Yin beasts. Considering that you two are new here, you can settle down for today and we'll arrange your work tomorrow."

When Mei Ning heard the words "no return" and "wasting her life," a chill ran through her heart.

She couldn't help but look at Zhou Yuan.

But Zhou Yuan remained calm and even gave her a reassuring look.

She suddenly remembered that this Senior Zhou had taken the initiative to bring her here to "wait" for the ghost mist!

He must know this place, and he must... be confident of getting out!

Thinking of this, Mei Ning's panicked mind calmed down considerably.

She simply stood silently beside Zhou Yuan.