Taizhou, Luoshan County.

Walking on the land of Luoshan County, Shen Yuan's eyes swept across the villages at the end of the plain.

There was no one in the huge village. The roads were covered with dust. The neatly built brick houses looked empty and dead with a somewhat shabby feel.

Along the way, he had seen countless such villages and even towns.

As early as when signs of ghost trouble appeared in Taizhou, the Great Xia court was the first to realize the dangers hidden in these small towns and villages.

There are no cultivators in these small towns and villages, and it only takes a wandering soul in the Essence Refining Realm to easily cause widespread panic and kill hundreds of people.

The imperial court officials arranged a large amount of manpower and material resources to evacuate residents from all over the country to the surrounding major cities.

There are practitioners from the Imperial Observatory stationed in big cities. Although they cannot guarantee 100% safety, they can ensure that there will be no large-scale disasters caused by demons and ghosts.

In the early stages of the evacuation, some ordinary people refused to accept the arrangements made by the Daxia authorities and stubbornly stayed in the village.

But when the ghost really appeared in front of everyone, those originally stubborn people ran faster than anyone else. In the face of the real threat of ghosts, the evacuation work became surprisingly smooth.

It has to be said that this move by the Great Xia court was indeed effective.

Shen Yuan walked all the way from Luozhou and could see that many ghosts were kept outside the densely populated cities.

A large number of formations and the protection of practitioners made many ghosts wander in the mountains and forests, and they dared not go deep into the city to kill.

Shen Yuan only needs to take a walk outside the city to kill a dozen evil spirits in the Qi Transformation Realm with ease.

All this seems to be moving in a good direction.

But it was not until Shen Yuan entered Luoshan County, where Fengdu City was located, that everything before him began to change dramatically.

In Shen Yuan's eyes, the entire Luoshan County seemed to be gradually being separated from the real world and was so incompatible with the surrounding counties.

Thick yin energy continued to rise from the earth, corroding everyone who set foot in Luoshan County.

Outside the heaven and earth, there seemed to be a huge ghost claw transformed from yin energy, gradually dragging the entire Luoshan County into the underworld.

"It's really a big deal to separate an entire county from the world!"

Shen Yuan couldn't help but let out a slight exclamation.

Before coming to Taizhou, he already knew that the underworld was taking action, but he never thought it would go this far.

If such means were to be used when the spiritual energy tide has not yet fully recovered, even the King of Hell would have to pay a huge price.

But correspondingly, such an environment is also of great help to the underworld's invasion of the world of the living.

The first is that they are in a netherworld environment, and as long as human beings die, ghosts will be born.

Luoshan County, as the core area of ​​the entire Taizhou, is an economically prosperous region with a population of nearly 10 million. Under normal circumstances, the number of natural deaths per day is as high as hundreds.

Under the catalysis of such a strong Yin energy, a large number of evil spirits will inevitably be born from the corpses of those dead humans.

In addition, evil spirits often cause a large number of casualties, and those dead humans will once again transform into evil spirits. The ghosts in Luoshan County are almost impossible to kill and eliminate.

The mere act of dragging Luoshan County into the underworld is enough to cause great anxiety to the Great Xia court.

What's more, the methods of the underworld are definitely not just that.

There was some emotion in Shen Yuan's eyes, and he glanced at the huge evil ghost wandering beside the empty road.

This evil ghost was surrounded by a thick yin aura, and its eyes were greedy as if it was searching for the breath of flesh and blood living creatures.

With a wave of his sleeves, the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth turned into shackles, dragging the huge evil spirit in front of Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan carefully looked at the frightened evil spirit in front of him, and gently tapped the evil spirit's forehead with his index finger. The next moment, a wisp of illusory Yin energy flew out from the evil spirit's head.

In the illusory yin energy, there seemed to be an illusory shadow of a city reflected, and above the city gate were written three large characters: "City of Wrongful Death".

"The Yin energy on this evil spirit is so thick that it doesn't seem like something that could be bred in the Xuanhuang Realm in just a few months.

Now it seems to be true. This evil ghost actually came from the City of the Dead in the underworld.

The sixth of the Ten Kings of Hell, King Biancheng, seems to be unwilling to lag behind the Rotating King and has chosen to directly intervene in the affairs of Luoshan County."

His eyes swept across the phantom of the City of the Dead, and as his thoughts moved slightly, the shackles transformed from the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth crushed the huge evil spirit to pieces.

Now, there are not only evil ghosts that are constantly born in Luoshan County, but also evil ghosts that have accumulated from the underworld for countless years.

Even though the current environment only allows low-level ghosts to enter the territory of Luoshan County, the threat to ordinary people is still deadly.

What's more, the characteristics of ghosts can make them immune to physical damage, and the gunfire and firepower that the Great Xia court relies on the most cannot pose any threat to ghosts.

Once the ghost army is formed, the practitioners of the Imperial Observatory stationed in Luoshan County will be unable to resist it, and they can easily annex the entire Luoshan County at that time.

When all the human beings in Luoshan County are slaughtered and transformed into millions of evil spirits, the entire Taizhou will be overturned by this army of ghosts.

Thinking of this, Shen Yuan's eyes became more solemn.

He looked toward the east at the huge mountain that stretched across the end of the plain, and his sight fell on an ancient city at the foot of the mountain.

Although Luoshan County City is an important springboard for the Ten Kings of Hell to intervene in the world of the living, the purpose of Shen Yuan's trip is not this county city with a population of over ten million.

In this chaos in the underworld, there has only been one real core from beginning to end, and that is the underworld law domain, Fengdu City!

Just as Shen Yuan was heading for Fengdu City, inside Luoshan County City, Shen Yuan's old acquaintance, Marquis Zhennan, was sitting in the Luoshan Army Camp with a worried look on his face.

In front of him stood a young man wearing armor and a white tiger skin and a beautiful girl in a scarlet dress.

These two people were none other than the White Tiger and Vermillion Bird, the two envoys of the Imperial Observatory.

"Your Majesty and the Supervisor only sent you here?"

Marquis Zhennan spoke with some uneasiness.

White Tiger folded his arms and spoke with a bit of dissatisfaction:

"It seems that we are underestimated by the Marquis of Zhennan."

The Suzaku Envoy standing by said calmly:

“Please rest assured, Marquis Zhennan, His Majesty and the Supervisor have bestowed upon us two treasures specifically for the underworld gods, which are sufficient to intimidate them.

What's more, the purpose of our trip is not to go to war with the underworld, but to use the treasure to intimidate those underworld gods whose hearts are unsettled.

As long as we can stabilize the situation and dispel their idea of ​​co-ruling between humans and gods, we can make some concessions appropriately."

Deterrence and peace talks, this is the decision made by Emperor Xia. Emperor Xia was naturally aware of the conspiracy of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight in the blessed land, but he also thought of countermeasures at the first time.

Daxia inherited part of the heritage of past dynasties and passed down many treasures related to the underworld. As long as these treasures are used to intimidate some of the Yin generals first, and then some interests are ceded to win over some of the Yin generals, the unrest can be quelled at the lowest cost.

This choice was also supported by the Imperial Observatory, who was far away in the imperial capital, so two envoys from the Imperial Observatory were sent to Luoshan County in person.

Looking at the two emissaries' confident looks, Marquis Zhennan's face showed no joy at all, but was filled with worry instead.

A few months ago, the Marquis of Zhennan, who was in charge of the southern region, successively pacified the flood in Dongting Lake and the rebellion of the monsters in Yunfu. Finally, he used the Taoist Conference to suppress the Jidu Dragon Palace in Cangzhou in one fell swoop.

Because of these outstanding achievements, Marquis Zhennan was transferred from the remote southern region to Taizhou to take charge of Fengdu City.

People from all walks of life in the court and the country praised the Marquis of Zhennan as a genius of the royal family that only appears once in a hundred years, and he would definitely be crowned king in the future.

Marquis Zhennan still felt insecure about all this flattery.

Only he himself knows his own business. Except for the war against the Yunfu monsters, these so-called achievements have little to do with him. At best, he just helped to clean up the mess.

Even the battle outside the Yunfu Mountains was just a brief test. The real mountain god and demon was attracted by the turmoil inside the Yunfu Mountains before he could take action.

Precisely because he knew that he was not a genius of the royal family, the Marquis of Zhennan had maintained a cautious attitude since he took office in Fengdu City.

In fact, a few months ago, being in charge of Fengdu City was indeed a good job.

Because the tide of spiritual energy gradually recovered, the underworld gradually showed signs of returning. Fengdu City, as the city of the underworld, represented the supreme authority of the underworld's city god system.

In the countless years of the past, the underworld ruled the underworld, and the human dynasty governed the world of the living. This was an iron law.

Because the underworld is subject to the belief in incense and worship, the Humane Dynasty maintains a huge advantage when facing the underworld.

The Marquis of Zhennan is stationed in Fengdu City, representing the will of the Great Xia court on the affairs of the underworld.

If the system of City Gods in the underworld is opened, Marquis Zhennan will even be qualified to decide the candidates for the City Gods, and his influence will be second only to Taichang, the head of the Nine Ministers who is in charge of the affairs of the underworld.

Originally everything was moving in a good direction, but just two months ago, discordant voices began to emerge within the gradually recovering underworld.

First, two of the ten Yin Marshals, the Day-wandering God and the Night-wandering God, began to reject the interference of the Great Xia court. They forcibly blocked the city of Fengdu with the power of the Yin Marshals and expelled the Marquis of Zhennan and the newly appointed Xu Yankuan and Xu Taichang from the city of Fengdu.

Afterwards, the yin and yang in the entire Taizhou began to become unbalanced, and evil spirits appeared all over the land of Taizhou.

Although Zhennanhou evacuated residents from villages and towns in remote areas as soon as possible, a large number of people were still killed and injured.

The Marquis of Zhennan and Xu Taichang tried to question the underworld, but were always turned away and could not even enter the gate of Fengdu City.

In the following time, the environment in Luoshan County became more and more strange. Even with the protection of the practitioners from the Imperial Observatory, the situation could not be stabilized.

If it weren't for the humanitarian will of the Great Xia court protecting Luoshan County, the evil spirits rampant in the outside world would have already invaded the county.

Finally, a few days ago, Luoshan County began to gradually fall into the underworld. When the news spread, the entire Daxia court was shocked.

And from within Fengdu City, the response of the Ten Great Yin Marshals was finally heard. They wanted to restart the co-governance of humans and gods in ancient times.

If the Great Xia court refuses, the entire Luoshan County will completely fall into the underworld, and tens of millions of people in Luoshan County will become part of the underworld.

Marquis Zhennan reported the matter, hoping to get assistance from the court and the paradise.

However, the ghosts were able to ignore modern firepower, almost destroying the most core means of the Great Xia court.

The entire land of Taizhou was infested with ghosts and monsters. Most of the practitioners of the Great Xia court had already been stationed in various places in Taizhou, and they could not spare much to support Luoshan County.

At present, the two envoys of the Imperial Observatory, White Tiger and Vermillion Bird, have brought the treasure to suppress the underworld. It seems that this has brought an opportunity to save Luoshan County, but the intuition of Zhennan Hou tells him that this matter is not that simple.

The Great Xia court has treasures that can suppress the underworld. How could the ten underworld generals who have lived for tens of thousands of years not know about it?

But they still decided to stir up unrest, which means they have sufficient confidence and courage.

Moreover, having been in charge of Luoshan County for such a long time and having witnessed with his own eyes the entire Luoshan County being gradually dragged into the underworld, the Marquis of Zhennan always felt that there must be other means behind the Ten Underworld Marshals.

With his mouth slightly open, the Marquis of Zhennan was ready to explain the situation in detail to the two envoys from the Imperial Observatory in front of him, and ask them to contact the Imperial Observatory to renegotiate.

But when the words came to his lips, a barely perceptible grey mist suddenly flashed in the eyes of Zhennan Hou.

His expression was slightly startled, and the words that Zhennan Hou originally wanted to say were suddenly forgotten completely.

Seeing the appearance of the Zhennan Marquis, the Suzaku Envoy could not help but urge him:

"Please ask His Highness the Marquis of Zhennan to arrange for us to enter Fengdu City as soon as possible to discuss important matters with the gods of the underworld."

Marquis Zhennan immediately recovered from his previous daze and completely ignored the slight abnormality before.

With a bitter smile on his face, the Marquis of Zhennan said helplessly to the Suzaku Envoy:

"You may not know, but Xu Taichang and I have tried to enter Fengdu City many times, but were always rejected by the ghosts and gods of the underworld. There is really nothing we can do about this matter."

The White Tiger beside him frowned and spoke in a somewhat cold voice:

"Then please ask the Marquis of Zhennan to arrange a large army to escort us to the outskirts of Fengdu City. We will have our own way to enter the city."

Upon hearing this, Marquis Zhennan nodded, and then began to summon the soldiers of the Luoshan Army.

At the same time, in the center of Fengdu City, inside a majestic temple that was heavily guarded.

The ten great underworld generals were half-kneeling in the center of the temple, and in front of the temple there were more than ten statues of gods.

There are three steps around the statue. On the lowest step sits the ruler of the underworld, the King of Hell, who commands billions of ghosts and gods.

On the second step, five emperors wearing imperial robes and with strange looks stood here. They were the common leaders of the evil ghosts in the underworld, and their rank was far above the Ten Kings of Hell.

On the top step, there is only a gray statue. You can see the statue clearly when you look at it, but you will completely forget it in the next second.

At this moment, among the ten Yama statues at the bottom, the light of six statues was looming, and voices full of vicissitudes of time slowly came out from them.

"I feel the approach of the aura of the Lord of Mount Tai."

"Those idiots of the Great Xia Dynasty really asked for the decree of the Lord of Mount Tai in order to suppress the underworld!"

"It's almost done, everything is almost done! As long as we get that thing from the Lord of Beimang Mountain, we can descend into the Xuanhuang Realm and take a step further."

Several Yin Marshals immediately showed joy on their faces and spoke loudly:

"Congratulations Yan Luo, there is hope for the future!"

No one noticed that amid the congratulations, a hint of sarcasm flashed in the depths of Niutou Yinshuai's eyes.