The empty city was destroyed (29)
Zhan Yan was slightly taken aback, somewhat confused: "If it's not human, then what is it?"
“They’re lions,” Ye Yingying replied. “Haven’t you seen them? Those lions kept in cages.”
This answer clearly surprised Zhan Yan. He stared blankly ahead, his lips slightly parted, his eyes wide with astonishment.
Ye Yingying found his reaction strange and asked as if she wanted to confirm, "You don't know?"
Zhan Yan seemed not to hear her, frozen in place, and after a long while, he murmured to himself, "So that's how it is..."
He turned his head sharply and suddenly saw Yun Yanqiu. This man had silently approached the sleeping shopkeeper without anyone noticing.
Zhan Yan immediately understood the two men's cooperation. He narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "No need for that."
Immediately, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers in the air, waking the shopkeeper up: "Zhao Huai Ren, you're right."
Zhao Huai Ren? Zhao Yuxiao, standing to the side, was shocked. How could he have the same name as his grandfather?!
He looked at the shopkeeper in shock, only to see the man whose name had been called slowly raise his head from the table. The silly smile on his face was gone, and his eyes were clear.
Zhao Yuxiao quickly recalled the portrait his grandfather had left in the alliance. He clearly remembered that his grandfather in the portrait was in his prime, handsome and extraordinary. It didn't match the bearded uncle with a weathered face in front of him at all.
No, maybe it's just a coincidence of names? Zhao Yuxiao thought about it and suddenly it made a lot of sense.
Ye Yingying was also quite surprised. She only knew that the shopkeeper was Yun Yanqiu's old friend, but Yun Yanqiu had never said that his old friend was Zhao Huai Ren!
For a moment, the way the group looked at the shopkeeper became complicated.
Zhao Huai Ren himself responded to Zhan Yan with a calm expression: "I told you long ago that you have already fallen into demonic possession."
This news was even more shocking than knowing that the shopkeeper was Zhao Huai Ren. Everyone became vigilant, and Zhao Yuxiao even shielded Wu Yue behind him.
Instead of being angry at such a guarded attitude, Zhan Yan smiled and said, "It seems you have indeed succeeded."
After saying this, he put his hands behind his back, closed his eyes quietly, and let out a long, sorrowful sigh, as if he were mourning for himself.
"Don't be nervous, I'm willing to accept the consequences of my bet."
What's going on? Ye Yingying was a little confused by their remarks.
Before she could figure out what was going on, Zhan Yan suddenly sat down on the ground, crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and muttered a series of incomprehensible incantations.
"Hey, are you really going to destroy your own soul?!" Wu Yue was the first to react, and she rushed forward to try to stop her.
But before she could get close, Zhao Huai-ren stepped between her and Zhan Yan.
Enraged, Wu Yue roared at him, "If he's gone, what will happen to this illusion? Do you want us all to perish here with him?!"
“It’s alright, I made an agreement with him.” Zhao Huai-ren reassured him with a determined look. “I won this time, and he will keep his promise.”
"What promise are you keeping? Do you know what tricks he'll pull?!" Wu Yue's anger flared up. If the other person hadn't been so tall and strong, she would have liked to punch him twice.
"If he wanted to do something funny, he wouldn't have woken me up."
"Pah! Who knows if you're in cahoots with him!"
Zhao Yuxiao stood to the side, unsure whether to intervene or not. He hadn't figured out if the shopkeeper was actually his maternal grandfather, so he didn't dare to step forward to break up the fight and could only anxiously watch.
Seeing that she couldn't break through Zhao Huai Ren's defenses, Wu Yue yelled at Yun Yan Qiu, "Hey, Yun Yan Qiu, go and stop him!"
When called by name, Yun Yanqiu replied calmly, "It's alright, he's trustworthy."
This "he" could not possibly refer to Zhan Yan. Wu Yue realized that Yun Yanqiu had chosen to believe Zhao Huai Ren at this moment.
"Tsk." Wu Yue sighed helplessly and could only take a step back impatiently. She looked at Ye Yingying again and saw that the woman was staring intently at Zhan Yan, her eyes full of curiosity.
Following Ye Yingying's gaze, she noticed that Zhan Yan's body was gradually becoming transparent.
A question arose in Wu Yue's mind, and she asked, "Zhan Yan, since you've persisted for so long, why give up now?"
Zhan Yan did not answer. He remained silent, maintaining the same posture, only his lips moving as he continuously recited obscure and difficult-to-understand words.
But Zhao Huai-ren answered the question for him: "Because he can't accept having developed inner demons, even more than the cycle of reincarnation."
Zhan Yan continued chanting his incantation, seemingly acknowledging the answer. Whether worshipped as a god or transformed into a lion beast, this illusion had clearly lost its original form with each repetition.
Zhao Huai-ren discovered this, which is why he made this bet with Zhan Yan back then: "If you fall into demonic possession, then destroy your own soul and hand over the power to deal with the illusion to me."
At that time, Zhan Yan thought Zhao Huai Ren was joking. If he were to fall into demonic possession, wouldn't he become a shameless scoundrel like Shi Xuan? Everything he did was for the greater good of Yue Li, so how could he make such a simplistic mistake?
But as time went by, after hearing Ye Yingying's words, Zhan Yan suddenly realized that he had fallen into the abyss woven by his inner demons while he was in a daze.
But it's all for the best; it was all meant to end long ago...
Zhan Yan suddenly felt a great sense of relief. He clearly felt his consciousness fading away little by little. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at several blurry figures in front of him.
Perfect timing, everyone who's supposed to come has arrived, and these people will complete the final ritual for me.
With that thought, Zhan Yan stopped lingering and closed his eyes again, disappearing completely from everyone's sight.
He left decisively, just as Zhao Huai-ren said, he was a man of his word.
A silence fell over them. Zhan Yan's soul was extinguished, tantamount to death. The illusion hadn't vanished either, but the remaining mystery could only be solved by Zhao Huai Ren…
"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" Zhao Huai-ren shrugged, a bitter smile playing on his lips. "I was also forced to have my memories erased, and I've been stuck in prison with that guy in this place where there's no future."
Everyone remained silent until Zhao Yuxiao finally couldn't hold back any longer and stepped forward to question, "Are you really called Zhao Huai Ren? The first leader of the Lingyun Alliance?"
"That's right." Zhao Huai Ren nodded in satisfaction when he asked this question. "It seems that Yun'er and Xiao Meng did mention me to you."
Zhao Yuxiao was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped to the ground.
Zhao Huai Ren chuckled at his appearance and patted him on the shoulder: "Not bad, you've grown so much. But what are you doing in a place like this with Yun Yanqiu?"
"Did he force you to come?"
"Huh?" Zhao Yuxiao blinked blankly, then immediately shook his head. Usually, he was the one who had to be shameless, but as for Senior Yun forcing him to take an adventure with him—wow, he wouldn't even dare to dream of it.
"No?" Zhao Huai-ren tilted his chin back in surprise, then turned his gaze to Yun Yanqiu and asked suspiciously, "What are you doing bringing my grandson to this place?"
“He insisted on coming along,” Yun Yanqiu said expressionlessly. “Meng Sinian agreed as well.”
"What?!" Zhao Huai-ren's eyes widened in disbelief. "What about Yun'er? She agreed too?"
Yun Yanqiu was stunned for a moment, but still managed to say with difficulty, "She has passed away."
Zhao Huai Ren fell silent instantly, and even the hand that was gripping Zhao Yu Xiao's shoulder suddenly lost its strength.
Zhao Yuxiao noticed his disappointment and quickly comforted him, "After you lost contact, my mother still lived for more than fifty years before passing away, so don't be too sad..."
"Is that so..." Zhao Huai-ren was also a cultivator, so how could he not know whether fifty years was a long time or a short time?
"Well, I expected this outcome."
Ye Yingying stood in the middle, silently observing the expressions of the group. When she caught a glimpse of the shame on Yun Yanqiu's face, she couldn't help but wonder what his relationship was with this "Yun'er".
"Sigh, let's not talk about that." Zhao Huai Ren wiped his face and said seriously again, "Although I have taken over this place, I do not intend to continue it."
"This illusion is very unstable. It won't be long before you are driven away and returned to reality."
"Before that, listen to two things I want to tell you."
Zhao Huai Ren stood with his hands on his hips, his expression serious, and raised one finger: "Go straight to the main hall of the palace when you get back. It's the building with the highest spire in the city. There's a treasure inside called the Soul-Suppressing Stone. Destroy it."
"Soul-Suppressing Stone?" Ye Yingying was slightly taken aback. "You mean..."
"It seems you know a lot about this?" Zhao Huai Ren glanced at Ye Ying Ying, his eyes thoughtful. "The Soul-Suppressing Stone is a magical artifact that suppresses the 100,000 souls in the illusion. Only by destroying it can the souls here be completely freed."
"But having been trapped here for so many years, once they are released, they will all become vengeful spirits scattered everywhere."
“That’s my second point,” Zhao Huai-ren said, raising his second finger. “Use your Azure Netherfire to burn all the souls here to ashes.”
Upon hearing this, Ye Yingying was suddenly taken aback: "How do you know I possess the Azure Nether True Fire?"
“I don’t know, Zhan Yan told me,” Zhao Huai-ren explained.
As he spoke, he turned his gaze to Yun Yanqiu and teased, "What a coincidence! You've really found an interesting Daoist partner."
Yun Yanqiu was stunned, not understanding what he meant.
Ye Yingying was also confused, so she angrily said to him, "I'm asking you a question, don't give me this nonsense!"
"Alright, alright." Zhao Huai Ren turned around, coughed twice, and continued, "Actually, when I came here with another person, we had hope of ending all of this. But the person who was with me ran away in the end."
"At that time, I had already made my first bet with Zhan Yan. If he came back to save me, Zhan Yan would tell us the method."
"Later, that person did not return. Zhan Yan won the first bet, and I stayed here as agreed. But Zhan Yan did not kill me; instead, he asked me to keep him company and chat."
"During this period, we made a second bet, which was whether he would become possessed by a demon."
At this point, Zhao Huai Ren shrugged: "As you all just saw, I won this time. Zhan Yan handed over everything here to me as promised, including the method to eliminate it."
“And the most indispensable element here is a true fire of Yin.” Zhao Huai Ren paused, his gaze towards Ye Yingying revealing a hint of emotion. “The true fire on your body is of Yin nature, capable of burning away the souls of gods and spirits. I just never expected that its current master would be you.”
Ye Yingying asked, puzzled, "What do you mean by that?"
“What I mean is, I’ve seen this true fire on the person who abandoned me and ran away back then.” Zhao Huai-ren stroked his chin. “That guy’s name was Duan Yougan.”
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