Yi Tianxing didn't have time to inspect the items. As long as something came from the monsters, he unceremoniously stuffed it into his backpack. Now was not the time for examination—he would check everything once he got home.
"Ahh! Help! There's a monster—someone save me! Where are the police, the army?"
"This is bad! Block the door! The monsters are coming in! Grab a kitchen knife—find the fire axe!"
"Somebody save us! Call for help—wait, why is there no signal? I can't get through! There's no reception at all—what do we do? The monsters are coming upstairs!"
From every floor came panicked screams and cries of fear. The chaos was overwhelming. People, unprepared for such catastrophe after a life of peace, were thrown into utter despair.
Terror and hopelessness gripped their hearts.
After slaughtering the people on the streets and in the alleys, the monsters began to charge into the buildings without hesitation. Each scene was soaked in blood—every image, horrifying and unforgettable.
Those who witnessed Yi Tianxing slaying monsters without hesitation began to call out to him for help.
But Yi Tianxing paid them no attention.
This was not the time to play hero. If he didn't use every second to grow stronger, saving someone now might mean his own death in the next moment. He had seen too many such stories. The human heart was unpredictable—especially in the face of apocalyptic disaster. The true danger was not just the monsters, but people themselves. Who knew what would happen next?
He wasn't a saint. He had spent years navigating society, especially in the business of dealing with the supernatural. He'd seen far too much filth hiding beneath the surface—beautiful facades concealing rottenness. In a world now ruled by catastrophe, people's hearts would only grow darker, more terrifying.
"Aren't we going to save them?" Chen Xuerou asked softly, struggling with her conscience.
"We can't. We won't." Yi Tianxing glanced at the people calling out to him through the window. His expression was firm as he spoke calmly.
His feet never stopped. He continued moving toward the place where he had seen the strange treasure fall.
And his pace was fast.
Along the way, he struck down every monster he encountered without hesitation, collecting one Willpower Pearl after another. These were treasures.
Though the monsters were terrifying, they weren't particularly strong—not yet. They came in great numbers, but in front of Yi Tianxing, they were no real threat. He plowed through them like a blade through grass.
Before long, they arrived at a crossroads.
"The ground cracked—is this from a meteor impact?" Chen Xuerou exclaimed as they approached. The ground was covered in spiderweb-like fractures, dense and jagged. The asphalt had caved in. The crossroads had partially collapsed.
At the center of the large pit, a glowing orb pulsed with light, radiating a powerful allure.
Howl! Howl!
Within the pit, countless monsters were locked in savage combat. It was a scene of pure bloodshed. Green-skinned beasts battled snarling, fang-baring dire wolves, each more vicious than the last. Even grotesquely enlarged insects joined the slaughter, many times their usual size.
The mere sight of it filled the soul with dread. These creatures were magnified hundreds, even thousands of times over.
Carnage reigned.
Bodies were strewn around the pit. Blood stained the earth.
"What do we do? There are too many monsters, and more are coming. The treasure is in the pit, with no cover to hide us. We can't get close," Chen Xuerou said, hesitating.
Monsters surrounded the pit. The strange treasure was clearly their goal as well.
Trying to approach quietly was nearly impossible.
"It won't be easy to get close. My arrows can't take out all the monsters," Yi Tianxing frowned. The situation was tricky. If he got caught in the melee, he could very well die. The chances of escaping alive were slim.
But to walk away from a treasure that was right in front of him—it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Then what should we do? Maybe we wait nearby and see if an opportunity comes up?" Chen Xuerou suggested.
"That's all we can do for now. Let's kill some monsters nearby and watch the situation," Yi Tianxing replied. He wasn't willing to give up just yet. He would observe and look for a chance to seize the treasure.
"Wait—look! What's that?" Chen Xuerou suddenly gasped.
Yi Tianxing turned sharply toward where she was pointing—and his heart lurched in shock.
"What heavy Yin energy…" he muttered instinctively, his pupils contracting.
His eyes narrowed.
In the massive pit, a haze of black mist suddenly emerged, gray and chillingly cold. The monsters within the pit shrieked in panic. The dire wolves tucked their tails and fled.
But they weren't fast enough.
The black mist swept over them in an instant.
Each monster caught in it thrashed before collapsing. Their bodies turned a sickly purple hue and died on the spot.
"That's Yin energy? What is Yin energy?" Chen Xuerou whispered.
"It's what you're thinking. The world is divided into Yin and Yang. The living dwell in the Yang realm; the dead in the Yin. If a living person is touched by Yin energy, even if they survive, they'll fall severely ill. Yin energy breeds ghostly beings. Vengeful spirits radiate ghost qi, which is bone-chilling. When the Yin becomes too heavy, the area becomes uninhabitable. Living people must stay away. The Yin here is so strong, even those monsters couldn't withstand it. Its source must be extraordinary."
Yi Tianxing took a deep breath and quickly explained.
He had spent years among supernatural beings, hunting ghosts, resolving hauntings. He knew many secrets of the world. He had long suspected that there was a cycle of reincarnation—evident in the existence of souls.
But the underworld seemed abandoned. No ghost officials, no judges, no King Yama. It operated automatically, seemingly guided only by the will of Heaven. That's why deities and spirits no longer showed themselves. No one could enter the underworld anymore—certainly not Yi Tianxing.
But reincarnation still existed.
Swish swish swish!
The black mist poured from the pit, cloaking the entire area and isolating it from the rest of the world. It felt like a pocket dimension.
Then something emerged that made Yi Tianxing's hair stand on end.
From the mist came ranks upon ranks of ghostly soldiers, dressed in black armor, holding ancient weapons. They poured out by the thousands, a formidable army. Among them were grim ghost officials in dark robes, their expressions cold and impassive, their faces hidden.
They marched forward without stopping in the pit. Ghost officials dispersed in all directions.
From their soul-binding ropes trailed countless ghostly figures, the spirits of the dead dragged behind them. Carts arrived, loaded with twisted, mutilated souls—missing limbs, even heads. Many bore the marks of having been eaten alive. Their spirits were heaped like corpses, carted away by the dozens.
"Those are the souls of people killed by the monsters… Where are they being taken?" Chen Xuerou nearly screamed, clamping a hand over her mouth, her body trembling.
A normal person would be scared to death just seeing this. If not for the cataclysm already numbing her senses, she might have lost her mind on the spot.
"This must be the legendary 'Yin Soldiers Crossing the Mortal Realm.' The souls are being taken to the underworld. To pass on after death—perhaps that's not such a bad thing," Yi Tianxing said solemnly.
The event was exactly as described in ancient tales.
It was said that Yin soldiers normally did not enter the world of the living—unless something major occurred. Either a great war in the underworld required them to pass through the human realm, or a massive calamity had caused mass deaths. Only then would the Yin army march across the living world.
The ghost officials were clearly here to collect the souls of the recently dead.
Yin Soldiers Borrow the Path. The Living Must Not Interfere!
"Don't move. Don't make a sound. We mustn't alert them. Wait until they leave," Yi Tianxing warned, his eyes flashing.
He stared at the endless procession of ghostly soldiers marching from the pit. In the mist, it was impossible to tell how many there were—only that they were innumerable, and moving quickly.
After a short while, the Yin army faded from view.
The dense mist began to slowly dissipate.
"Are they gone?" Chen Xuerou's pale face was full of lingering fear.
She was, after all, a woman—and to witness such a scene without losing her mind was a testament to her courage.
"Yin soldiers don't usually harm the living. As long as we don't interfere, we'll be fine. But the Yin energy is too heavy. When we get back, you need to rest—drink ginger tea to drive out the cold. If you have ginseng, even better. Weak constitutions will fall ill. Strong ones will still feel discomfort from the Yin invading the body."
Yi Tianxing glanced at Chen Xuerou's pale face.
He was fine. This amount of Yin energy was nothing to him. The moment it neared him, it was absorbed by his innate Yin-Yang Eyes.
Swish.
Chen Xuerou had clearly been affected. Even the residual Yin energy in the air had left a mark. But with Yi Tianxing by her side, it wouldn't be a problem.