The city lord raised his eyes to meet Yin Ming's, then looked away, his gaze falling on the rust spots in the training ground, as if piercing through time and peering into everything that had happened in the past.

The city lord's name is Yin Sha, and he was originally a member of a collateral branch of the Demon Sect.

Although his cultivation level was not high, he and the male protagonist's father, the Demon Sect Master, were childhood sweethearts, so their relationship was very good.

Yin Sha also knew about the relationship between the family head and the family head of the Divine Realm. He had advised the family head that the union of gods and demons was unprecedented and this relationship was destined not to be blessed.

The head of the family, however, remained resolute in his decision.

That day, he suddenly received a message from the head of the family who had been missing for many days. Based on what was said in the message, he rushed to Wangduhai.

The patriarch handed him an infant sealed by an array and instructed him to take the infant back to the Demon Sect.

The patriarch said he had asked the elders to save the baby's life, and that the formation could only last for a month, so he must escort the baby back before the formation dissipates.

Although Yin Sha was curious about what had happened to the baby, he didn't dare to ask any more questions when he saw the family head's melancholy look.

He asked the patriarch about his future plans, and the patriarch only said that this world was just a plaything, and that he was going to explore the truth of the world with the patriarch of the Divine Realm. The future was uncertain, and he could not take the child with him on the risk. He asked Yin Sha to take good care of the baby after the elder healed him, and then he disappeared.

Yin Sha was preparing to take the baby back to the Demon Sect, but was ambushed on the way by a group of bandits.

The bandits witnessed his meeting with the head of the household and, wanting to seize the valuables the head of the household had left for the infant, they came to rob him.

These bandits were all heinous criminals who committed heinous crimes and were wanted by the demon race. They had no choice but to hide in the Wangdu Sea to avoid capture. The highest level of their cultivation was the sixth realm.

Because this group of people only operated around the Wangdu Sea and did not cause much of a commotion after being driven away, and because their hiding place was well-hidden, the Demon Sect did not send anyone to completely wipe them out.

The other demon sects thought that since the Demon Sect, as the capital of the demon race, didn't care about this matter, they had no need to get involved, which is why these bandits had been able to roam free.

At that time, Yin Sha was only at the mid-stage of the fifth realm. Fortunately, the bandits did not come out in full force, and the person at the high-stage of the sixth realm was not there.

The highest-ranking bandit in front of him was only at the mid-stage of the fifth realm, so Yin Sha fled all the way, looking for an opportunity to entrust the baby to a trusted guard to take back to the Demon Sect.

He then drew the bandits' fire as he fled, since the bandits' target was only the valuables and they didn't pursue the baby relentlessly.

Yin Sha fled for two days, but still couldn't shake off the bandits.

The bandits, unaware of his identity, were convinced that his valuables were priceless and refused to let him go no matter what.

Yin Sha had considered revealing his identity to deter the bandits, since they wouldn't dare to provoke the Demonic Sect. However, Yin Sha was also afraid that the bandits would deduce that the baby was the young sect leader of the Demonic Sect.

Although the Demon Clan is led by the Demon Sect, other sects are always eyeing them covetously, intending to take their place.

If they learn of the young sect leader's existence, they might abduct and assassinate him on the way, using this as an opportunity to severely damage the Demon Sect. He needs to ensure that the news doesn't leak out and that the young sect leader can safely return to the Demon Sect.

Yin Sha had already reached his limit by running away for three consecutive days without sleep, and he was still being caught by the bandits from time to time, inflicting many new wounds on his body. By then, he had exhausted all his strength and resentment, and lay half-dead at the gate of Xucheng.

I thought my life would end there, but thinking that I had not disappointed the family head's high expectations, I felt that I had no regrets in this life.

Unexpectedly, the two guards of Xucheng discovered him and took him back to the city for treatment.

The people of Xucheng are warm and hospitable. During Yin Sha's recovery, almost all the city's residents came to visit him. The mischievous children often came to his bedside to play and frolic with him, treating his external injuries and healing his heart.

Yin Sha immediately decided to live in seclusion there.

Just when everyone thought things would turn out well, on the tenth day after Yin Sha fled to Xucheng, the bandits broke in through the city gate.

It turned out that the bandits had not left, but had instead surrounded Xucheng.

They spent ten days exploring the city. After confirming that the highest level of cultivation among the people in the city was only the fourth realm, the bandit, who was at the sixth realm, finally showed up and forced Yin Sha to hand over all his belongings.

Yin Sha was of course not going to compromise. In order not to implicate Xucheng, he wanted to leave, but the city lord at the time gave him a sleeping pill and transferred him to a secret room in the mountains.

The city lord thought that if they lied and said that Yin Sha had escaped through the other city gate, the bandits would leave, but they still underestimated the ruthlessness of these desperate men.

After an unknown amount of time, Yin Sha awoke in the ancestral hall.

He knew very well what had happened in Xucheng.

When he emerged from the secret room and staggered back into the city, the scene before him was far more horrific than he had imagined.

The entire city was eerily quiet, and the streets, alleys, and training grounds were ablaze with blood.

Every household was in a mess, with furniture overturned and scattered everywhere. In some places, fires had even broken out, with flames leaping and engulfing everything amidst the swirling smoke.

Those who were laughing and talking with him just moments before are now lying in pools of blood.

There were even scattered severed limbs, making it impossible to tell whose they originally came from.

Yin Sha searched the entire city, but no one escaped.

Yin Sha remained silent.

Silence remained.

He dragged his still-wounded body back to the ancestral hall, and painstakingly dug open the mountain behind the hall, then carried the bodies one by one and placed them in the newly constructed secret chamber.

He sent a message back to the Demon Sect, informing them of the entire incident and his current situation. After learning that the baby had safely arrived at the Demon Sect, Yin Sha was finally relieved. He requested that the Demon Sect assign him the task of eliminating the bandits, which was granted.

Then Yin Sha began to cultivate quietly, and then cultivate some more.

With the added resentment from the massacre, the previous bottleneck was easily broken through. Yin Sha only took half a year to break through from the middle stage of the fifth realm to the early stage of the seventh realm.

Yin Sha followed the coastline of Wangdu to find the bandits' hideout and successfully avenged the people of Xucheng.

Those wicked people, not one will be spared.

But how can these mere few dozen corpses avenge the blood feud that wiped out an entire city?

He still resents, he still hates, he feels guilty, and he grieves.

He explored the myriad laws of the world and finally mastered a kind of illusion magic.

This illusion can create phantoms of the city's inhabitants. These phantoms have memories and act freely according to their own memories. They can speak and listen, and respond appropriately to people and things, just like real people.

But phantoms are not living people; they only repeat the actions and habits they had in life.

They have no five senses, and they don't know the tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, joyful, angry, sad, or happy, so no matter what they do, their facial expressions are always blank.

But that was enough for Yin Sha. Even if it was just a dream he had created, as long as he could see them and live with them, why should he care whether the world he was in was a dream or reality?

To prevent his sweet dreams from being disturbed, Yin Sha set up a barrier around the entire city, isolating it from the world ever since.

Until yesterday, when Lingyao broke through the barrier, Yin Ming and his group broke in.