I believe you all are here because, driven by a sense of justice upon hearing of the massacre, you've come as representatives of renowned and righteous sects.

A deathly silence enveloped everyone.

The once noisy crowd was now utterly mute, each face etched with an undeniable fear.

They stared at the empty city as if gazing into the gaping maw of a beast that devours its prey.

So...

The people of Anyang City—did they all perish like this?

Under this strange power, the city had become a ghost town overnight?

The burly man from the Blood Fiend Sect looked pale, cold sweat beading at his temples.

Behind him, his disciples’ calves trembled uncontrollably, their hands shaking as they gripped their magical instruments.

The gloomy male disciples from the Joyful Union Sect weren’t faring any better.

They huddled closely together, eyes scanning their surroundings warily, afraid the next to turn to ashes might be themselves.

“Heh.”

A cold laugh shattered the suffocating atmosphere.

A man from the Puppet Heaven Sanctuary wore a mocking smirk, his disdain clear and unhidden.

He glanced at the terrified scattered cultivators and sneered, “A bunch of fools, blinded by greed. They deserve to die.”

His words drained the scattered cultivators’ faces of color, but no one dared to retort.

After all, the truth was staring them in the face.

The man ignored them and turned his gaze toward the Blood Fiend Sect.

“Your turn.”

The leader of the Blood Fiend Sect trembled violently, forcing a smile more pitiful than tears.

After a moment’s hesitation, he imitated Su Ji’s sycophantic manner, “Se... Senior, this... this is far too strange. Our cultivation is too shallow; we’re afraid—”

“Hm?”

The man only emitted a faint snort.

Behind him, the enormous wooden box clicked softly once more.

The lifeless white jade puppet floated out silently again, its hollow eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Blood Fiend Sect’s group.

An invisible pressure instantly weighed down on their hearts.

Cold sweat streamed down the forehead of the pale-faced cultivator.

He knew there was no room for refusal.

Gritting his teeth, he forced the words out between clenched jaws: “We... we’ll go in.”

With that, he led a dozen disciples, step by heavy step, edging toward the city.

Their footsteps were as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

Each step felt like treading on their own lifelines.

“Senior Brother, they…”

“Shh.”

Su Ji made a silencing gesture again, signaling her to keep watching.

The Blood Fiend Sect’s group stopped at the nearest tavern’s doorway.

Unlike the scattered cultivators who had charged in recklessly, they cautiously extended a foot, crossing the threshold.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

Nothing happened.

The Joyful Union Sect’s members showed faint relief, as if surviving a disaster.

It seemed the strange death method wasn’t triggered for everyone entering the city.

Perhaps there was some special condition to activate it.

The burly man from the Blood Fiend Sect glanced back.

Seeing the man from Puppet Heaven Sanctuary staring coldly at them, he steeled himself and led the group inside the tavern.

This time, they remained unharmed.

The survivors among the scattered cultivators were stunned.

Why?

The scattered cultivators who went in before all perished, yet those from the Blood Fiend Sect entered unharmed?

Could it be that the ones who slaughtered the city were evil cultivators?

And the methods left behind were also those of evil cultivators?

For the Blood Fiend Sect, returning here felt as warm and familiar as coming home.

It was no different from acknowledging their ancestral roots.

Su Ji’s brow, however, subtly furrowed.

Could it really be that the massacre was carried out by the Blood Fiend Sect?

No.

Things weren’t that simple.

He had the nagging feeling that he had overlooked some crucial detail.

He carefully replayed every scene from just moments ago in his mind.

From the scattered cultivators rushing into the city, to their bodies turning into flying ashes.

The entire process seemed to have no warning signs, yet was riddled with oddities.

They...

A sudden flash of insight struck Su Ji’s mind.

He remembered!

Before those scattered cultivators charged into the shops, almost every one of them casually grabbed something.

But the Blood Fiend Sect members simply walked in, terrified to death, showing no desire to take anything.

Could it be that...

A bold hypothesis quietly surfaced in Su Ji’s heart.

He decided to test it.

He released Su Jiu’s hand.

“Senior Brother?”

Su Jiu was startled, instinctively trying to grab him back.

But Su Ji turned to her with a reassuring look before striding toward a trembling scattered cultivator cowering in a corner.

This cultivator was barely at the Qi Refining stage.

Seeing Su Ji approach, he shivered violently, nearly collapsing to the ground.

“What... what do you want?”

Su Ji wore a kindly smile and pulled out three high-grade spirit stones from his pocket, handing them over.

Three high-grade spirit stones equaled three hundred low-grade ones.

For a Qi Refining cultivator, this was no small sum.

Even within the Love-Longing Sect, completing assigned tasks diligently each month only yielded ten low-grade spirit stones.

At that rate, it would take two and a half years to accumulate this amount.

“Don’t be nervous, my friend.”

“I just want to bet my life with you.”

The scattered cultivator stared at the high-grade spirit stones, swallowing hard as the fear in his eyes was partially replaced by greed.

“How do we bet?”

Su Ji pointed to a pile of silver notes on the ground not far away—left behind by some unlucky soul earlier.

“See that pile of silver?”

“You go pick it up, and these three spirit stones are yours.”

The cultivator hesitated.

Just now, some cultivators who tried to grab those silver notes turned to ash on the spot...

He looked at Su Ji suspiciously. “Just... pick up a silver note?”

“Yes, just pick it up.”

“But you can only pick it up. You can’t take a single step forward beyond that, and you must not enter any shop.”

What kind of demand was that?

The scattered cultivator’s mind was struggling to process it.

But looking at the three high-grade spirit stones in Su Ji’s hand, in the end, he couldn’t resist the temptation.

Fortune favors the bold!

He bit his teeth, stomped his foot, and quickly strode toward the pile of silver notes.

All eyes were fixed on him.

He reached the silver notes, bent down carefully, and picked them up.

Then, he froze on the spot.

Not daring to move an inch.

Time passed, minute by minute.

The anticipated turning to ashes did not happen.

He was still alive!

A wild joy erupted across the cultivator’s face.

Su Ji nodded with satisfaction and tossed the three high-grade spirit stones to him.

This scene left all the surviving cultivators present deep in thought.

It turned out that the trigger for death wasn’t entering the city, nor touching anything inside it.

But rather… entering those shops?

Just as everyone was puzzling over this, the woman from Kaitian Holy Land, Li Xi, silently appeared behind Su Ji.

Her voice, flat and devoid of any emotion, sounded right in Su Ji’s ear.

“How did you figure it out?”

Before Su Ji could answer, another voice spoke even faster.

【Greedy souls—perish.】

【I believe everyone here came rushing to uncover the truth after hearing about the massacre, driven by a sense of justice and noble lineage.】