The Martial Saint rose to power starting as a substitute bridegroom.

From this high platform, one can see all the activity at the intersection of the dock square.

"Hiss—" Liang Bai gasped, his brows furrowing into a deep frown. "I noticed that person too."

There was no other reason than that the man was too tall and strong, three or four times larger than an ordinary man.

Even more strangely, ever since Li Yuan caught a glimpse of this person, the Xuan Sha Qi within his dantian began to churn like boiling water.

It was a kind of manic-bloodthirsty frenzy.

It makes one's mouth dry and tongue parched.

The burly man quietly moved a few steps and stood behind a young girl.

Then, something truly chilling happened.

From beneath the large cloak, a huge, hairy hand emerged, about to cover the girl's mouth and nose.

"Stop!" Liang Bai shouted without thinking, and his figure shot down from the watchtower like an arrow, heading straight for the big man.

The shout startled the man, making him tremble.

He immediately abandoned his target, turned back and glared fiercely at the source of the sound, then fled like a whirlwind.

"Ah! A monster!"

The girl let out a piercing scream, and the crowd erupted into chaos, scattering in all directions like a receding tide.

Fatty Sun and his dozen or so brothers tried frantically to stabilize the situation, but it was like an ant trying to shake a tree—they couldn't stop them at all.

The burly man disappeared in the blink of an eye, blending into the fleeing crowd.

"Brother Liang, come with me!"

Li Yuan called out to Liang Bai and then sped off in the opposite direction.

In fact, Li Yuan couldn't pinpoint the exact direction either; it was just that the mysterious evil energy within his body was stubbornly clinging to that direction.

The two walked one after the other, their feet barely touching the ground, until they stopped at the intersection of a T-junction.

To the left is a narrow alley, and to the right is a street of deserted shops.

Upon reaching this point, the Xuan Sha Qi within Li Yuan's body suddenly lost its resonance.

"Split up and chase them!"

"good!"

Li Yuan darted into the narrow alley.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he stopped, put his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath.

There was another crossroads ahead.

The mysterious aura seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, without any further fluctuation.

At the entrance of the alley, in front of a coffin shop, sat a thin, dark-skinned old man blowing sugar figurines. His face was covered with wrinkles as if carved by a knife and axe, resembling a piece of withered tree bark.

"Old man, have you seen anyone pass by here? About this tall—" Li Yuanchao asked, gesturing to the newly carved tombstone beside the shop door.

The old man glanced at the tombstone, then lowered his head again without uttering a word.

Li Yuan stepped forward, took out two copper coins, and bought a sugar figurine.

The old man finally spoke up: "Young man, you speak so tactlessly. That tombstone is at least eight feet tall. Where in the world is there a person that tall? Besides, I'm busy making sugar figurines all by myself. I don't have time to watch over people for you..."

Just then, a boy, about seven or eight years old, ran out of the courtyard next to the coffin shop. He was covered in mud and had bubbles coming out of one of his nostrils.

"I saw it!" the boy pointed. "Over there! They ran that way!"

Li Yuan patted the boy's head, stuffed the sugar figurine into his hand, and turned to chase after him into a narrow alley on the right.

Even he himself didn't understand why he was so persistent. Perhaps it was to find out the details of the "Yuan Sha Gong", or perhaps he wanted to find clues about the second half of the technique.

The mysterious aura seemed to be closely related to that person.

The alley was dark and damp, with many sections only wide enough for one person to pass sideways. The road surface was covered with moss, and there was not a single person in sight for a long stretch, indicating that it was rarely used.

The narrow alley, after only a few hundred steps, leads to another fork in the road.

Li Yuan looked around; the alleys on both sides were winding and mysterious.

He couldn't help but feel the urge to back out.

This place is unfamiliar to most people, and that man didn't seem like a good person. I wonder if he had any accomplices.

Even if you catch up, you might not get away with it; instead, you might get into trouble.

He secretly memorized the path he had just taken and was preparing to turn back.

Suddenly, a strange rustling sound came from deep within the alley on one side.

Li Yuan held his breath, his gaze fixed on the source of the sound.

He took a deep breath, drew the "Wolf Fang" dagger into his hand, held it behind his back, and quietly approached step by step.

The sound was coming from a dilapidated mud-brick house on the right. Through the tattered curtain on the window, a small oil lamp could be vaguely seen burning inside.

The paper pasted on the window frame had long since rotted away, leaving only a few wooden strips sticking it up.

The sound was like heavy breathing, occasionally interspersed with a suppressed groan or two.

Li Yuan groped his way along the wall to the window and reached out to lift a corner of the curtain.

Looking inside, they were immediately stunned.

Inside, on a low couch covered with an old red cloth...

The woman was licking her lips, looking quite pleased, when she inadvertently opened her eyes and met Li Yuan's gaze.

"ah--"

With a scream, the woman shrank back like a startled rabbit and hurriedly crouched behind the bed.

The man was bald. He grabbed his pants and pulled them up in his hand, stammering, "You...you...you..."

The two stared at Li Yuan, their eyes filled with fear and embarrassment.

"You...continue."

Li Yuan turned and left.

He let out a long sigh of relief, no longer having the will to chase after that strange man.

They turned back the way they came, intending to go to that deserted street to meet up with Liang Bai.

……

Huaiyin Street.

The air was filled with the aroma of fried rice cakes and roasted peanuts, all mixed together.

Along the street, a branch of an old tree peeks out from the courtyard wall of a house, with a few slightly red persimmons hanging on the branch, and several children are poking at them with bamboo poles below.

On the streets, there were displaced disaster victims everywhere, staring longingly at the steamers in the pancake shops, licking their chapped lips.

"Father—Mother—Don't sell me! I can work and earn money!" A little girl of seven or eight years old cried her heart out.

Li Yuan looked in the direction of the sound and saw a young girl being dragged away by a man who looked like a steward. A middle-aged couple nearby were only wiping away tears and did not step forward to stop them...

The people around watched this scene calmly, as if it were nothing new to them.

Selling sons and daughters is the only way for children to survive.

In a roadside tavern, several men in long gowns wearing melon-shaped hats stood by the counter drinking and talking in hushed tones.

"Why are there so many refugees lately, and the number keeps increasing day by day..."

"The city of Futaba in the south has been afflicted by a locust plague, resulting in a complete crop failure this year. These refugees have fled north along the river to this place, doing anything in their desperate need for food..."

"Futaba Castle? When we were plagued by bandits, didn't we get all our food from Futaba Castle? So what's next...?"

"...Alas, that's right. I'm afraid Linjiang City won't last more than a few days!"

……

"Li Yuan!"

Just then, a woman dressed in a pale white short-sleeved shirt and an indigo knee-length skirt excitedly called out in their direction.

Li Yuan turned around, and the person who came was Song Ziwei.

Song Ziwei looked at Li Yuan with a rather complicated expression.

Just over ten days ago, she went to the Qingniu Martial Arts Society to recruit guards, and was "humiliated" by this person.

To be honest, there was still some resentment at that point.

Strangely enough, this hatred was mixed with something else, which made her unconsciously call out when she saw Li Yuan.

"What are you doing here?" Li Yuan didn't have much affection for this person.

"Can't I study at Jingya Academy in front of here?" Song Ziwei asked stubbornly.

"What are you doing here again? Did you come here to drink and listen to music?" Song Ziwei rolled her eyes and said, "I advise you not to make a fool of yourself. Today isn't a casual day..."

Song Ziwei is studying at a school here.

Not far down this street is the back gate of Jingya Academy.

"Well, another day is fine too," Li Yuan sneered.

Song Ziwei proudly raised her small face, and upon closer inspection, the corners of her mouth subtly turned upwards. "Then...you're not looking for me, are you?"

She knew, of course, that Li Yuan was not the kind of man who frequented brothels.

Besides, he doesn't have the means.

This guy, though, has such a sharp tongue.

No man is any good!

"Let me tell you, I, Song Ziwei, am not that kind of woman who does things casually..."

Li Yuan frowned. "You're overthinking it."

He had no time to deal with this troublesome woman; his gaze was anxious as he looked around the street.

At the other end of the street, a deafening sound of gongs and drums suddenly rang out.

Li Yuan looked in the direction of the sound and froze on the spot.

The first thing that catches the eye is a large banner over ten feet tall, with ten large characters written on it: "The abyss descends, and bliss is attained."

Li Yuan was startled: People from the Abyss Cult.

He came from another world and had no fondness for religion or similar things, always avoiding them whenever possible.

But given the current situation, it's clear that there's no way to avoid it.

The large flag was planted at the bow of a "tour boat". The entire ship was extremely large, actually a two-story platform.

On the lower platform, there was a huge, gilded chest, about the size of a double bed.

Beside the giant box stood two actors, one old and one young, their faces covered in greasepaint, both dressed as "painted faces," diligently performing some kind of trick.

On a higher platform stood a tall man shrouded in a gray-black cloak. He had a fair complexion and piercing eyes, like two cold flames.

The entire "tour boat" was carried by dozens of burly men on their shoulders. These men were all emaciated and pale, but their eyes were full of excitement, shining with a sickly light.

"Esteemed guests, catch!" Two actors grabbed a handful of copper coins and scattered them to both sides.

This caused quite a stir. The onlookers, especially the refugees, who had been watching the spectacle, rushed forward in a frenzy to grab the loot.

The scene was utterly chaotic.

"Don't be impatient, everyone will get a share!" The two men then pulled out copper coins from their bags and scattered them to both sides.

This immediately attracted even more people to scramble for it and follow it.

More and more people gathered, and in no time at all, they swept in from the other end of the street.

This absurd scene was truly breathtaking, and Song Ziwei was completely stunned.

Seeing the chaotic crowd sweeping towards them, Li Yuan pulled Song Ziwei to the side of the road. "Go back! Go back to the academy! It'll be too late if we wait any longer!"

The situation was clearly heading towards chaos.

Song Ziwei suddenly realized what was happening and, without even saying goodbye, ran along the wall towards the academy.

Li Yuan and his companion were not the only ones on the street; the vendors and passersby along the street were all squeezed to the side of the road.

Li Yuan stood under the eaves of a two-story general store, gazing at the vast torrent of thousands of people from the Abyss Sect, at the overturned roasted chestnut and sweet potato stalls on both sides of the street, and at the cries, pleas for help, and screams drowned out by the clamor of gongs and drums...

Looking around, there was no way to avoid it.

Li Yuan stepped onto the clutter piled up beside the door, used it as leverage to leap up lightly to the second floor.

The second floor is a storage room for wine jars, bowls and plates, which is fairly clean and doesn't have much dust.

Looking out through the crack in the window, the entire street was packed with the Abyss Cult's ranks, completely jammed.

Li Yuan sighed inwardly, wondering if Song Ziwei had safely returned to the academy.

From this angle, the entire "boat" is even more breathtaking than when viewed from below.

On the lower platform, an old man and a young man were performing a scene of "beheading".

The old man pretended to be careless and chopped off the young man's head with a single stroke, causing blood to splatter everywhere, creating a horrifying scene.

At this moment, the jade-faced youth in the gray-black cloak on the upper platform leaped down, chanting incantations. He calmly took out a handful of red powder from his robes and sprinkled it onto the corpse. Incredibly, the "little actor's" body swayed and stood up again…

In an instant, cheers erupted from the audience, and countless people knelt on the ground, kowtowing and shouting wildly, "Long live the Abyss Messenger!"

Li Yuan naturally knew that this "magic trick" was just a kind of illusion.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the jade-faced youth flew back to the upper platform and threw handfuls of red powder at the crowd.

Every place it touched elicited screams and cheers.

As the cruise ship drew closer, Li Yuan gradually felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Meanwhile, the mysterious evil energy within his body began to stir again.

His body gradually warmed up, and his mouth became dry. Li Yuan licked his chapped lips, and a bloodthirsty desire suddenly surged in his heart.

The handsome young man's gaze inadvertently swept across the half-closed window on the second floor, and his eyes met Li Yuan's.

In an instant, just as prey is spotted by a hunter, the jade-faced youth trembled slightly, as if he too had some kind of sense.

Li Yuan was taken aback.

wrong!

This person is none other than... the evil spirit in the gray-black cloak who appeared at the Cold Clothes Festival sacrificial ceremony at the dock!

A hint of panic flashed in the young man's eyes. He scooped up a large handful of red powder with both hands and suddenly threw it straight up.

As the red smoke dissipated, the jade-faced youth vanished from the spot.

The crowd erupted in another frenzied cheer, and then a whole group of them knelt down as if worshipping some deity.

"Where are you going?!"

Li Yuan was now consumed by rage, almost manic. He smashed through the window and leaped onto the high platform of the cruise ship. Amidst the bewildered gazes of the crowd, he took a few quick steps, using the momentum to propel himself forward, and charged towards an alley as fast as an arrow released from a bow.

Some of the older men, slow to react, hadn't even seen what had just happened.

Bang!

A cloud of red smoke billowed towards Li Yuan's face. Li Yuan ducked and quickly covered his mouth and nose.

His steps faltered only slightly before he continued chasing forward without stopping.

But it was still a step too late.

The figure of the jade-faced youth had already disappeared. After chasing for several dozen more feet, Li Yuan had no choice but to stop.

Before them stood a high wall, its walls made of gray stone, laid out seamlessly.

It turned out to be a dead end.

And that aura of Xuan Sha that made people restless and bloodthirsty was gradually fading away.

It seems that the distance between the other party and myself is growing further and further.

Sigh, another disappointment!

Li Yuan couldn't help but grit his teeth and stomp his foot.

Although I can't understand why my body is reacting so strangely, I think it's probably related to the "Yuan Sha Gong" I practiced before.

And that half of the "Yuan Sha Gong" might be related to that jade-faced young man from earlier.

All the mysteries will likely only be revealed once the handsome young man is captured.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, he suddenly heard the sound of fighting coming from behind the high wall.