The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

"This house hasn't been cleaned for at least five hundred years." Lin Du sneezed one after another, and tears even came out of his eyes.

Lin Du originally wanted to sit down, but he didn't dare to. Even after using a cleansing spell, he couldn't get clean immediately, and the stone slab became soft and yielding underfoot.

Her face darkened as she felt the coffin lid vibrate, each vibration extremely heavy.

The ghost's malevolent aura far exceeded her expectations.

Xia Tianwu walked up to Lin Du, took out a pill, and said, "The Yin Sha on your neck hasn't been removed."

Lin Du's skin was pale, as if she hadn't seen the sun for a long time. Her neck was slender, and the black hand pressed against her carotid artery was a stark contrast between black and white, making it even more eerie.

Lin Du swallowed the pill but remained squatting on the coffin lid.

"Junior Uncle, what should we do now? Should we go look elsewhere?" Ni Jinxuan asked.

Lin Du was silent for a moment, "The Soul-Slaying Array should have used living people."

However, the core of the array engraved on the stone carving can indeed be regarded as a living person, because the core should have talismans supplying yang energy.

"Junior Uncle... what do you mean?"

Lin Du continued, "But a living person is best. I saw that the engravings were made by the same person, and this evil spirit..."

She looked at Yuan Ye, who understood immediately. "In my judgment, it's at least a thousand-year-old vengeful ghost."

Lin Du nodded. "This is just one courtyard. Although this city isn't large, it's more like a small town, and it's still within the range of my divine sense, but..."

"Wait a minute..." Xia Tianwu noticed a detail, "Your divine sense can already cover the entire city?"

Lin Du blinked. "Is this something I can say?"

Before they could answer, Lin Du replied, "It should be fine, since no one outside can hear us anyway."

Xia Tianwu silently withdrew his divine sense, which had only extended beyond the courtyard. "It seems that Granny Ma's nourishing soup was quite effective?"

Lin Du felt a chill. "I'm so weak, Second Nephew."

Xia Tian patted her head. "Alright, come down. Let's go look around somewhere else."

Lin Du didn't move. The coffin lid thumped rhythmically, which had made all four of them immune, except for Lin Du.

She felt like a drop of water bobbing up and down on a loudspeaker playing heavy metal music, rising and falling with the drumbeats, rhythmically thumping and pounding.

Lin Du was still squatting down. "Guess why I'm not coming down?"

"Why?" Yuan Ye was extremely cooperative, showing a strong thirst for knowledge.

"Because I have to hold down the coffin lid..." Lin Du squatted down weakly.

Yuan Ye: ...

He tentatively suggested, "I can find a way to trap him, but the iron coffin's mechanism seems to have loosened due to the passage of time. It needs some time to be modified, and ideally... it shouldn't be shaken violently."

Lin Du waved his hand, "Understood."

Thus, in the water mirror, the four members of the Supreme Sect squatted on the coffin lid, leaving only a red-robed youth still tapping and banging on the edge of the coffin.

Seemingly finding the time too long, they even started gnawing on the dried braised duck legs.

"I want to report this! The disciples of the Supreme Sect are not taking the competition seriously!"

"Could it be that they gave up because it was too difficult?"

"Today I've truly witnessed someone who just loafs around and waits to die."

"But this ancient city is indeed strange. That evil spirit just now must have had at least a thousand years of cultivation. Isn't this secret realm too dangerous? Can a few children at the Cloud Ascension Realm really handle it?"

"Even the Supreme Sect doesn't have a single person at the Great Perfection of the Cloud Ascension Realm. This year is really too difficult for them."

Several elders on the seats also looked solemn.

Ju Yuan frowned. "Are you crazy? We need to deal with a thousand-year-old evil spirit, and you're sending those kids?"

Even the leader of the Heng Sect was surprised and widened his eyes. "The Soul-Suppressing Formation... This formation is not only large in scale, but its difficulty and danger also far exceed other formations. Moreover, it does not belong to the formations among the 108 formations, but to the 36th formation. Furthermore, it is a modified Soul-Suppressing Formation that utilizes stone statues..."

Lin Du actually recognized the step she had just taken; it was clearly the Eight Yang Formation's movement. For her age, she had learned it far too quickly.

One hundred and eight formations require thorough study; even those with exceptional talent would need thirty to fifty years to master them.

Meanwhile, beneath the water mirror, the sect leader of the Jishi Sect was also extremely surprised. "Why did the Wushang Sect draw this high-level secret realm? It's reserved for cultivators over a hundred years old..."

"The city sealed in the real world isn't a secret realm we created," another powerful figure chimed in. "But we personally debugged all the presets for these secret realms, so how could this problem occur?"

"No, put the children back into another space immediately!" one person decided decisively.

"No, I noticed it as soon as the Soul-Slaying Array appeared, but the teleportation barrier between that secret realm and the main secret realm world is problematic. It's one-way and can't be forcibly removed, otherwise the entire secret realm will collapse, and then spatial rifts will appear, which would be a disaster for the hundreds of children from other sects as well..."

There has never been a record of anyone who has been caught in a spatial rift and survived.

"Either give up the five children of the Supreme Sect, or give up hundreds of people from other sects... If it were you, what would you choose?"

The man stared at the other powerful figures, and they all fell silent.

"Are there any other options?"

"No, unless... a child from the Supreme Sect can meet the requirements for clearing the level."

But this is almost impossible for several children.

The elder of the Jishi Sect sneered, looking at the powerful figures before him, "I don't care about anything else, but you should know that if those people from the Wushang Sect really discover something, do you think they won't tear down your secret realm, and while they're at it, they'll also tear down these old bones of ours?"

Everyone remained silent until one of them spoke up, "We are definitely not the culprits..."

"There must be a traitor among us."

The high-level cultivators looked at each other, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense, as if they had been forced to step into a swamp and could only sink together.

"Who was the last to inspect the secret realm this year?"

"Also, investigate the members of the formation master alliance who cultivate secret realms!"

The powerful beings were in complete chaos, but the children in the secret realm were remarkably relaxed, having almost finished gnawing on a duck leg.

Inside the secret realm, Yuan Ye sniffed the aroma of the duck leg, his mouth watering so fast that he quickly set up the trap before the four of them finished eating. He put away his tools and reached out to take the duck leg from his storage bag, but Lin Du sent a burst of spiritual energy through him.

"Wash your hands first, then ward off evil spirits, or you'll be crying later."

As Lin Du spoke, he stood up from the coffin and, before anyone could react, threw the cleanly gnawed duck leg out the door.

"Junior Uncle, what's wrong with you...?"

In the water mirror, the duck leg bone was seen to transform into an exceptionally alluring beam of light, which flew out and pierced directly through a black ghost-faced bat that was trying to plunge into the formation.

Lin Du nimbly jumped off the coffin. The ghost-faced bat, with half of its wing broken, was slammed against the courtyard wall by the force of the flying attack, leaving a sticky stain of blood on the stone wall.

"What is that?" Yan Qing was startled and jumped down as well, picking up the knife.

"Ghost-faced Bat, this thing carries Yin energy. Once it enters the Soul-Slaying Array, it will disrupt the flow of Yang energy, and the array will become ineffective." A cold look appeared on Lin Du's face.

The difficulty and danger of the Soul-Suppressing Formation far exceed those of other formations. Once it is disturbed, not only will the coffin lids be unable to hold them down, but the backlash will also result in all five of them becoming victims.

Then, the one squatting on the coffin lid gnawing on dried meat wasn't them, but that thousand-year-old vengeful ghost.

"Bats are social animals and rarely appear alone."

She clicked her tongue. "It seems we've gotten ourselves into big trouble."

Yan Qing stretched his shoulders, picked up the broadsword in his hand, and said, "It's nothing."

Ni Jinxuan took down the long whip. "It's alright, it's my turn to lend a hand."

Lin Du grinned, "Actually, there is a way. The Ghost-Faced Bat has many weaknesses: fire, light, and disrupting its echolocation."

Within her outward-extended divine sense, a dark, writhing mass was rapidly moving towards this place.

"Fire is too destructive, Tianwu, don't move yet."

Lin Du smiled and reassured Ni Jinxuan, who was itching to do something, "Using brute force is a waste of physical and spiritual energy. Let's use our brains, it'll be quick."

"Yan Qing, come with me."

It's just setting up a jammer on-site, they're amazing!