Quanzhou

Xiao Wan'er led her team from Shendu and hurried southeast.

"Team Renjiu discovered something unusual when they were patrolling in Quanzhou. The captain of Team Renjiu believed that he could not solve the problem, so he sent his team members to report. You take Team A1 to Quanzhou." The Queen gave her this task in the Mingtang the day before yesterday.

Team A passed through the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River, and after passing several towns and large tracts of fertile farmland, they finally arrived in Fujian.

Entering Fujian, the landscape was suddenly different. The fertile fields were gone, replaced by hills and mountains, and the crops were no longer growing well. The crisscrossing paths and the sounds of chickens and dogs were gone. Villages were sparsely populated, their houses dilapidated and sparsely populated.

"Captain, there's death energy," Yuan Hui suddenly stopped and reported to Xiao Wan'er, "There's death energy everywhere, and I can't sense its source at all!"

"I understand. Everyone, be careful and keep moving forward." Xiao Wan'er naturally sensed it as well, but since the mission was here, everyone had no choice but to move forward.

The entire team spontaneously sped up their pace and rushed all the way, finally seeing the Renjiu team at the border of Quanzhou.

"You're finally here," the Renjiu team was incomplete, and all the members present were injured. "It's an evil cultivator. We can't defeat him. Some members have already died."

The captain of Team Renjiu was already seriously injured and unconscious. The deputy captain was now handing over to them. His expression was extremely grim. "That evil cultivator uses human souls as materials for cultivation and human resentment as nourishment. His strength far exceeds that of ordinary cultivators in the Entry Stage. Your team is mainly composed of monks. I hope you can help him be killed."

Team Renjiu, those still able to move, carried the restless ones away in a panic. Xiao Wan'er ordered the team to rest and recuperate, and afterward, they all headed for Quanzhou.

As soon as she entered Quanzhou, Xiao Wan'er realized that the deathly aura she had sensed earlier was merely the aftermath of the city's leakage. It was as if an invisible boundary enveloped Quanzhou, shrouding it in a thick mass of deathly aura and resentment, imperceptible to those outside the realm of Dao Entry.

Yuan Hui's face looked very ugly. As a monk, he knew better how bad the situation was.

"This is trouble," he said to Xiao Wan'er, "the aura of death has filled the entire Quanzhou. I'm afraid Quanzhou is now no different from hell."

"Let's go to Quanzhou City first." Xiao Wan'er made a decision after thinking for a moment.

On the way to Quanzhou City, the villages they passed through were nearly empty. Corpses and bones were scattered across the roadside and fields. The few remaining people were mostly emaciated, their bodies lingering with a deathly aura, their days numbered.

"This is ridiculous," a young monk in the team couldn't stand it any longer. "Quanzhou has become so tragic, and the local officials didn't report it? Officials in other prefectures and counties haven't noticed it either?"

Xiao Wan'er and Yuan Hui, two Dao-entry cultivators, immediately realized that Quanzhou had been artificially isolated from the other prefectures and counties. However, could only those at the Dao-entry level truly be capable of such magical powers?

The two exchanged glances, each seeing the solemnity in the other's eyes. But now that things had come to this, even sharing their speculation would only further undermine the team's morale. They could only suppress their speculation and shoulder the pressure.

The team entered Quanzhou. This large city in Fujian province appeared to be normal: citizens were going about their daily lives, merchants were conducting their business, and officials were on duty as normal. Even outsiders were freely entering and leaving Quanzhou, showing no reaction to the dire situation they should have.

Xiao Wan'er followed a stranger and while he was sleeping, she penetrated a wisp of her consciousness into his memory and saw Quanzhou in his eyes.

"Ordinary people can't see the true situation in Quanzhou today. In their eyes, Quanzhou is no different from the past," she exhaled. "Isolated from the world, deceiving the real with the fake, this must be a method used by those in the Transcendent Realm."

"I'll send someone back to Shendu for help right now," said Yuan Hui, who was sitting next to her.

Xiao Wan'er immediately stopped him: "If you were that evil cultivator, would you just sit there and wait for the enemy to leave your territory and bring in reinforcements capable of fighting you?"

Yuan Hui blurted out "How is this possible?" and immediately realized that they could not get out of Quanzhou.

"At this point, we can only rely on ourselves."

A group of people first walked to the vicinity of the government office. Xiao Wan'er attached her consciousness to a bird puppet created by a team member. The team member released the bird puppet into the government courtyard, and Xiao Wan'er's consciousness also infiltrated it.

The puppet bird blended into the flock, while Xiao Wan'er's consciousness secretly observed the entire government office. However, she had already followed the team into the inn. Sitting on the bed in the inn, she became more and more frightened.

"Throughout the government, officials have lost their souls. Those with higher rank still have some souls left, but the minor clerks, who are only responsible for carrying out orders, have completely lost their souls and are nothing more than breathing puppets."

Yuan Hui and her team gathered around Xiao Wan'er, listening to her observations. After she finished her observations and was about to order the team to retract the puppets, something unexpected happened, forcing her to withdraw her consciousness.

She said to the team member, "Someone has discovered your puppet and captured it."

The team member's expression turned grim. His puppets had always been incredibly lifelike, but now they'd been captured like this. After this incident, using his animal puppets to explore key areas of Quanzhou City would be even more difficult.

"Now that things have come to this, let's eat first." Seeing that it was already the afternoon, Xiao Wan'er said.

After all, only when you have a full meal can you have the energy to continue working on the case.

Xiao Wan'er led a few of the Taoists to a restaurant, while Yuan Hui led the other monks to beg for alms. The restaurant wasn't crowded, mostly from out of town, but the food was quite good. During the meal, the puppet-making Taoist released a puppet fly. Xiao Wan'er imbued it with a bit of her consciousness, and the fly buzzed away.

After Xiao Wan'er and her group of Taoists had eaten and drunk their fill, they returned to the inn. However, Yuan Hui and the other monks were having a difficult time collecting alms. It wasn't until the evening hour that the monks finally returned with their food.

As soon as Xiao Wan'er saw their expressions, she knew something was wrong. Sure enough, Yuan Hui's next words made her heart sink to the bottom.

"There's no way to get food from ordinary people. They've already stopped eating."

What kind of people don't eat? Besides the so-called immortals, of course only the dead.

"There are only diners from other places in the restaurant," a young Taoist priest in the team blurted out his inner speculation, "Is there anyone alive in Quanzhou?"

The puppet fly continued its slow flight. Learning from the lesson of the puppet bird, this time it had no clear destination. Xiao Wan'er would follow it wherever it flew. No one cared about a tiny fly. After spending an entire night, Xiao Wan'er finally had a complete view of Quanzhou City.

"In the entire city of Quanzhou, regardless of official or civilian status, rich or poor, there are no locals left alive. Everywhere I look, there are only dead souls and bones." Xiao Wan'er didn't dare separate the team members into separate rooms at the inn; the entire team stayed together. "No wonder Team Renjiu couldn't handle it. My divination just now indicated that their captain was already dead."

Xiao Wan'er took the tortoise shell and divined again. A moment later, she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. The team members beside her immediately supported her and saw that her face was as pale as gold paper.

"Captain!" The team members were very panicked. At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Sir, open the door!"

The waiter's voice creaked like wood that had been forgotten to be oiled, which made people feel uneasy.

"Go!" Xiao Wan'er forced herself to give the order, "Run out through the window!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she spat out another mouthful of blood. Yuan Hui carried her on his back and led the team members to escape from the inn through the window and over the wall.

The pedestrians on the street were like puppets, their steps stiff. When they saw Team A, they all turned around and said word by word, just like the waiter, "Sir, please stay a moment."

"Run! Run out of the city!" Yuan Hui followed Xiao Wan'er's instructions and led the team members to run out of Quanzhou City, not stopping until they reached an uninhabited mountain forest. Xiao Wan'er took out a formation disk, and when the disk landed, a protective formation enveloped the entire A-1 team.

"Captain, how are you now?" Yuan Hui put Xiao Wan'er on the ground. Her face looked better than before.

"I've rested a bit, just take it easy," Xiao Wan'er waved her hand, took a few deep breaths, and continued, "This evil cultivator is still in the Nascent Dao Realm, but this formation is indeed equivalent to the evil formation of a powerful person in the Transcendent Realm. It will absorb existing dead energy and resentment, transforming it into energy to support the formation's operation. It will then gradually absorb the souls of all living people within the formation who have not embarked on the path of cultivation, and refine their bodies into puppets. Once all the souls of these living people are absorbed, this evil cultivator will fully ascend to the Transcendent Realm, and the formation flags in the formation will be refined into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner."

"How can there be such a powerful formation? This is no weaker than Commander Liuyun, right?"

Xiao Wan'er closed her eyes upon hearing this, and opened them after a few breaths. "This formation must be a relic of the previous dynasty. This evil cultivator is very clever, and has placed the escape route of the formation on himself. We can only break it by force."

She forced herself to expand her consciousness to its maximum, searching for the formation flag bit by bit. Sensing her consciousness, the evil cultivator counterattacked through the formation, a powerful soul impact hammering at her brain like a giant hammer. Xiao Wan'er soon began bleeding from her mouth and nose, but she continued searching until she had located the formation flag's location, only withdrawing her consciousness.

"Go quickly!" She transmitted the location of the battle flag to Yuan Hui's mind and ordered the team to act immediately.

A member of Team A very consciously carried Xiao Wan'er on his back. Xiao Wan'er used up her last bit of strength to put away the formation plate, and the whole team rushed to the formation flag as fast as possible. When they arrived near the formation flag, they saw the army guarding it.

"Damn it!" Yuan Hui cursed angrily when she saw the soldiers rushing towards her with weapons.

Xiao Wan'er pulled out a handful of thunder talismans and threw them at the army. The thunder talismans triggered thunder to strike them, and they indeed stopped in their tracks under the impact of the thunder.

Seeing that the lightning strike was indeed effective on them, Xiao Wan'er threw another handful of lightning talismans at them, and this time their figures collapsed under the thunder.

Many souls had gathered on the formation flag, which was filled with death and resentment. Seeing this, Yuan Hui immediately ordered the monks to form a formation and sit around the flag. Taoist priests, led by Xiao Wan'er, stood guard outside them to protect them.

Amidst the resounding Buddhist chants, the deathly aura and resentment within the formation flags were finally purged. With a resounding roar, Yuan Hui uprooted the flags. The spirits affixed to the flags lost their vessels and flew towards their respective masters. Freed from the formation, the flags instantly crumbled to dust, and even the less advanced monks began to spit blood from their mouths.

Although they had made progress, they had also paid a considerable price, and up to this point, they had not even seen the shadow of the evil cultivator.