As soon as he entered the secluded city, Guo Yi really didn't know how to get to the lord's manor, so he had no choice but to let this dead fatty lead the way.

  Hua Er Lou was overjoyed and hastily called for a house-sized white jade chariot, which was pulled by a nine-headed lion-tiger beast at an incredibly fast speed, able to run 3,000 miles in just one hour.

  The city of Yu Jing was so vast that it took nine lion-tiger beasts nearly half an hour to slowly come to a stop.

  Two people walked out of the carriage, and in front of them appeared a vast expanse of ancient castles. The castles were majestic and towering, with no one knowing how many years they had existed. Many had become desolate, their owners having died hundreds of years ago. However, some castles still looked new, with faint lights shining brightly in the darkness of night, as if someone was still living there.

  Along a granite avenue, heading deep into the building complex, strange sounds are often heard around, and some desolate ancient castles seem to have white shadows fluttering, making eerie wailing sounds, which is quite frightening.

  Guo Yi glared at Hua Er Lou and said in a low voice, "What kind of road did you bring me on? What is this ghostly place? Why do I feel like we're step by step walking into the underworld?"

  Hua Er Lou's face turned pale with fright, his eyes rolling incessantly as he said, "I also heard from the seniors in my family that the City Master's mansion is deep within this group of ancient castles, built on top of a secluded and cold pond."

  "The lord of this prison-like city really has a heavy taste, building the lord's mansion in such a ghostly place, and not being afraid of being scared to death."

  The two continued on their way, and the ancient castles began to thin out. Before them appeared palace after palace with red walls and green tiles, each one enormous, like an imperial palace.

  Some palaces have fallen into disrepair, becoming a pile of rubble, while others are brightly lit and bustling with activity, with the joyful sounds of laughter and conversation emanating from within.

  "Who lives in these palaces and ancient castles?" Guo Yao asked.

  Hua Er Lou bowed his head, his body covered in goosebumps, and said: "I've never heard that anyone lives here. It's said that a shocking disaster once occurred inside, and everyone died."

  Guo Yi suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, as if there was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind. He swallowed hard and said in a low voice, "What about these people..."

  Hua Er Lou and Guo Yi exchanged a glance, then looked at those palaces and ancient castles, both feeling cold sweat on the soles of their feet, their bodies not listening to commands.

  "If I had known this place was so eerie, I would have come back during the day."

  Kwok Yat very much wanted to turn around and leave, but just then he saw a black figure leap out of an abandoned palace, like a fierce ghost rushing straight into the depths of the palace complex.

  "I've really seen a ghost!"

  Hua turned around and ran back, but was caught by Guo Yi, who said in a low voice: "Why do I feel like that figure is somewhat familiar?"

  "No way, you're even friends with ghosts? You go and socialize with the ghosts yourself, I won't join in. I'm not going to the City Lord's Manor either, I'll just head home and sleep."

  Hua Er Lou wanted to run again, but as he turned around, he saw that there was no road behind him. A brightly lit palace had completely blocked his way back. The palace walls were like refined copper, hard and unyielding.

  "Could these palaces still move on their own?" Guo Yi's mind also started to feel a little dizzy.

  Hua's face turned liver-colored, and he almost cried out in despair: "This is someone's killing formation, it's very likely the ghost of those deceased Xian cultivators."

  Now we can only move forward, going to the city master's mansion is the only way to survive.

  Hua walked along the second floor, muttering to himself: "The legend is true. Every generation of the castle's master was born to suppress the terrifying existence here. There must be a huge secret hidden inside."

  The two of them walked for nearly ten more miles, still without seeing any cold springs. The palaces in front of them became even fewer and farther between, with only one broken temple sitting atop a desolate mountain.

  In the ruined temple, a divine lamp was lit, and its light cast nine circles of halo, illuminating the surroundings.

  This is a temple built with ancient stones, the walls on all four sides are cracked and worn out, the tiles on top have almost fallen off, only the mud statue in front of the god lamp remains spotless.

  Through the broken temple door and window, looking inside, I found that the mud-plastered god statue had a green face with fangs, spitting out a one-foot-long red tongue, its body covered with black hair, like a fierce ghost, extremely terrifying.

  Guo and Yi only took a glimpse, but then they didn't dare to look inside again. However, in that brief moment, Guo saw the black figure again, seemingly kneeling in front of the eerie statue, worshiping it.

  "Do you see that black figure? It looks really familiar." Guo Yi stopped in his tracks, wanting to climb up the desolate mountain and check who was inside the broken temple.

  Hua Er Lou's heart was still racing, and he also nodded: "I have a familiar feeling too, as if I've seen it somewhere before."

  The two hearts skipped a beat at the same time, and they looked at each other in unison, exclaiming in surprise.

  "A little smoke."

  Little Cigarette Girl

  "Impossible! This place makes even us big men nervous, how could a little girl like her dare to be here alone?"

  "This isn't necessarily true, when I first saw Little Smoke Girl, she was floating in mid-air like a female ghost, at that time I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, but now it seems I wasn't wrong at all." said Hua Er Lou.

  Even a high-level martial saint who has opened the door to immortality cannot float in mid-air, so how did Xiao Yan do it? Is she still hiding her true strength from me? Or is she really a female ghost?

  "Let's go, we'll climb up and take a look." Guo Yi dragged the unwilling Hua Er Lou to start climbing the desolate mountain.

  Desolate mountains, withered ancient trees, and eerie shadows at night, as if walking through a dark and mysterious forest.

  A cold wind howled, and from the grass thicket came a series of strange noises like something was gnawing.

  All the way, Hua Er Lou wanted to turn back and run several times, but was caught by Guo Yi, who held one of his legs and dragged him up the mountain like a dead pig.

  "I'm telling you, this is a death trap, it's clearly a haunted mountain."

  "Guishan also has to be explored, I promised Li Yuan to take good care of his sister, and absolutely cannot let her go unattended." Guo Yi said.

  Hua Er Lou was dragged on the ground by Guo Yi, seemingly still enjoying himself, and laughed: "So who was it that night who let go and didn't care, and even helped me open the door?"

  Kuo Yeh tossed Hua Er Lou to the ground and cursed: "Who knew this dead fatty already had eighteen wives, yet he still puts on a lovesick face." Then he was about to pinch out several catties of fat from his body.

  Hua Er Lou was like a wild boar, rolling and crawling as he ran quickly to avoid Guo Yi, saying: "Based on my many years of emotional experience, you little devil have taken a liking to Xiao Yan's daughter, that's why you're acting so extremely, you're testing her. If I had really stepped into the door that night, I guarantee you would have played with your life."

  "You stupid fatty, stop yelling, who would be interested in a little girl with messed up thinking logic? I have high standards, at least someone like Yan Honglei's level, that's the only one I'd consider."

  He looked like an old scholar, saying: "Don't deny it, men are always like this, when a woman likes him, he subconsciously pretends to be cool and tests the woman's bottom line with various methods. This is a losing strategy, and the final result will not be good."

  "As a rookie in love like you, you'll always make this kind of mistake. I won't. If there's a woman who likes me, I'll just take her as my wife directly." Hua Er Lou spoke with emphasis and seriousness, as if he was teaching an apprentice.

  "I don't even know what you're talking about." Guo Yi lowered his head and walked away, his pace towards the mountain top's broken temple getting faster and faster, until he was sprinting at full speed, like a shadow flying down the mountain path.

  "Still saying you don't care, men!"

  Hua Er Lou gazed at Guo Yao's back, letting out a long sigh. Suddenly, the surrounding air turned gloomy and a chill ran down his spine, as if countless dark soldiers were rushing towards him with a whooshing sound. Startled, Hua Er Lou shuddered all over and hastily chased after Guo Yao, shouting: "Damn it, I really saw a ghost! Wait for me!"

  This desolate mountain has not been visited by anyone for many years, and the mountain road is almost gone. On the top of the mountain stands an ancient tree that looks like a person, with four limbs, head, and nine orifices almost intact, like a giant standing on the mountain peak. Several crows perch on the tree, making mournful cries at night.

  Under the old tree is a dilapidated ancient temple, like an old man who has been through the vicissitudes of life, with a thousand wounds and a hundred holes, time has almost erased it.

  The temple's tiles are almost all gone, and the earth walls are rotten with holes, as if they would collapse at a slight touch.

  In the ancient temple, a faint oil lamp is lit, and the distant Buddhist scriptures can be vaguely heard coming from the ancient temple. Waves of chanting voices rise up from the ground outside the ancient temple. Under the ancient temple, it seems that thousands of monks are buried, their eyes wide open as they recite ancient scriptures in unison.

  Bodhi Temple.

  On a stone tablet in front of the temple gate of an ancient temple, which was almost completely weathered away, were carved these three ancient characters.

  Hua Er Lou's face turned even paler after seeing the stone tablet, and she was so scared that she fell backwards in a straight line, almost suffocating to death from holding her breath.

  Kuo Yi hastily picked him up and asked: "What secrets does this Bodhi Temple have?"

  Hua's body went limp, and he fell to the ground several times before finally lying down, saying: "This is a taboo of the Sealed City. Legend has it that 5,000 years ago, the Sealed City was not called the Sealed City, but 'Secluded City'. Secluded City was the first great cultivation holy city in the Secluded Mountain Range, where strong cultivators emerged one after another and masters were as numerous as clouds. An old monk named Bodhi came to this place to preach, and his cultivation was extremely profound. With just one sentence of Buddhist truth, he defeated all the powerful cultivators in the city."

  "Buddhist truth was passed down in the city of Yu, and the Bodhi Temple was built at that time. There were thousands of Buddhist disciples, prosperous and magnificent. At this moment when everything seemed to be going well, no one expected that the old monk Bodhi would go mad overnight and transform into a terrifying demon covered in black fur, almost wiping out the entire city of Yu. Even those Buddhist disciples were not spared. That night, blood flowed like rivers, corpses piled up like mountains, and the city of Yu became a purgatory."

  Guo Yi gazed at the temple in front of him, which was almost reduced to dust, and didn't dare to breathe out, unable to imagine the splendor here 5,000 years ago.

  "What happened after that?"

  Hua Er Lou continued: "Just as the city of Yu was about to turn into dust, the first master of Youjin City appeared! The first master of Youjin City was male or female is unknown, only knowing that he (she) and the Bodhi old monk who turned into a mad devil had an earth-shaking battle, shaking mountains and rivers, making the sun and moon tremble. In the end, the first master of Youjin City suppressed the mad devil and never left the city of Yu again. And in the city of Yu, he added a 'prohibition' character, changing 'Yu City' to 'Youjin City'.

  Why would a highly enlightened monk suddenly go mad one night and turn into a hideous monster that kills without blinking? What hidden circumstances are at play here?

  What about the palace and ancient castle outside this old temple? Are the figures in the palace and the lights in the ancient castle what people call, or are they the vengeful spirits of ghosts?

  Suddenly, Guo Yi recalled the scene he saw on the mountain top outside the city that night. An old man was imprisoned in a divine tower and even smiled at Guo Yi. Later, Li Xiaoyan also came to the top of the mountain. Was it really just a coincidence?

  "This is a forbidden place, let's not go in."

  Kuo Yi looked towards the Bodhi Temple, and finally decided to go in and investigate. However, before he could step onto the first stone step, the entire desolate mountain began to violently tremble, and the old trees' crows let out a blood-curdling screech, like the wail of a dying person, extremely terrifying.

  One wave after another of cold wind swept across my face, like a knife cutting through. Looking through the cracks in the ancient temple door, the statue had transformed into a **Buddha**, benevolent and universal salvation. The Buddha's image was radiant with countless lights, as if it could purify all the impurities in the world.

  What was most astonishing was that the black figure originally kneeling in front of the statue had vanished into thin air, leaving the ancient temple empty and quiet.

  "Why did the ferocious ghost suddenly turn into a Buddha, and where did the black human shadow go?"

  The mountain is not high, and the trees are very sparse. Everything in the ancient temple can be seen from the foot of the mountain. Guo Yi climbed up the mountain all the way, but did not see anyone coming out of the ancient temple. Where did the black figure go?