Chapter 166: Tearing Down the City, Casually

The instant they stepped inside the city, it was as if an invisible veil had been ripped away. The royal city before them transformed completely — the once orderly streets were now a wasteland of rubble and shattered walls. It looked as though a great battle had just taken place. Except for the city gates, everything else had collapsed into ruins. Even worse, there wasn’t a single ghostly soul in sight.

“Look up there!” the old man suddenly shouted, pointing to the sky.

They lifted their heads and saw faint silhouettes flickering in the air — wispy shapes that appeared for mere moments before vanishing again.

“Those are remnants of souls—after the spirit’s complete destruction,” Yuan Jiang said grimly. Only when a soul was torn apart completely would such lingering fragments appear.

When they realized just how many of those ghostly traces hung above the city, all of them drew in a sharp breath.

“What… happened here?” the old man murmured, stunned.

Yuan Jiang’s face darkened like the bottom of a cauldron. “Someone slaughtered the entire city.” His voice was cold and heavy. “And not just any city — a royal capital of the ghost realm.”

The old man’s eyes widened in horror. “But the souls here were already dead! To slaughter them means… complete annihilation—soul and spirit both gone!”

“Then what about the Yama of this realm?” he asked anxiously.

“He should still be alive,” Yuan Jiang reasoned. “If a Yama perishes, the Yama’s Seal will reappear in the underworld and seek a new master. The other Yamas would sense it immediately. Since we’ve heard no such news — and Bai Shizhi is still the newest Yama — that means the one here is still present, somewhere within this domain.”

“Then let’s hurry and search,” Yun Jiao urged. “Maybe Senior Brother Xi is trapped somewhere in the city.”

The others nodded. The old man quickly took out a communication talisman and called Xi Teng’s name several times — no response. Yuan Jiang formed seals and began searching for traces of spiritual energy within the city, but after a moment, his frown deepened.

“No use. The fragments of shattered souls are everywhere. The yin energy is too chaotic for any tracking spell to work.” He shook his head, frustrated. “The city is too large. If my golden body were fully restored, I could use my divine sense to cover the area — but right now…” He sighed. “Unless someone’s spirit is strong enough to sweep through the whole city at once, it’s impossible.”

He instinctively glanced at the person standing silently behind Yun Jiao — expression cold and eyes half-lidded.

No, no, no. His Master had no interest in meddling with worldly affairs. The fact that he’d even opened the domain gate for them was already a miracle. There was no way he’d—

“Ancestor, could you help us find him?” Yun Jiao suddenly turned and asked calmly. “Even if we can’t locate Senior Brother Xi, maybe you could find a soul that’s still intact? We could question it.”

“…Alright.” Ye Yuan nodded without hesitation.

Yuan Jiang: “…”

Wait—what happened to not interfering?!

No. This wasn’t his Master. It couldn’t be!

Σ(°△°|||)︴

Ye Yuan lifted a hand. A faint ripple passed through the air — a breeze without sound, touch, or trace. Within a heartbeat, it swept through the entire city.

A second later, he looked ahead and said plainly, “There’s one remaining soul. Underground, about five hundred paces ahead.”

“Underground?” Yun Jiao blinked.

“Roughly a few hundred zhang deep,” he added.

The others exchanged glances, then quickly moved in that direction. They soon reached an open area in the city center. The ground was barren except for an old well in the middle, from which thick streams of yin energy rose, carrying the faint sound of flowing water below.

“Could this well lead underground?” Yuan Jiang asked.

“It should.” Yun Jiao instinctively stretched out her hand to sense the area — and immediately felt the pulse of formation energy. “There are many arrays below. Killing formations, most of them. Probably several layers deep.”

“How many?” Yuan Jiang pressed.

“Tens… maybe hundreds. Or even more.” She frowned. “I can only sense what’s near the surface. Below that is the dark river. I can’t see what’s further down.”

“Then they’ve clearly set a trap,” Yuan Jiang said darkly. “They’re waiting for us to walk into it.”

“So what do we do now?” the old man asked, peering nervously into the well. “With so many formations, it’ll take forever to undo them all.”

“We can only—” Yuan Jiang began, but a quiet voice cut him off.

“No need.”

Ye Yuan didn’t wait for discussion. His fingers moved once — a single seal.

In an instant, golden light burst forth. A massive formation flared above their heads, expanding until it covered half the city. The dense brilliance illuminated the underworld city as bright as day.

Then the ground shook.

A thunderous crack split the air as the earth itself groaned and tore open before them.

Yuan Jiang barely managed to keep his footing, but the old man and Yun Jiao staggered, nearly falling backward — until a steady hand caught Yun Jiao and steadied her.

The old man, on the other hand, went down with a painful thump.

“…”

“Ow! My old bones!”

(;Д')

Before he could finish complaining, the crack widened further, the rumble deepening. Yuan Jiang grabbed him by the arm just in time to stop him from sliding into the crevasse.

The fissure now spanned more than two meters wide. And then—

Ye Yuan moved again.

With a simple twist of his hand, half the royal city rose straight into the air — as if the earth itself had been lifted up by some invisible power. Rocks and debris tumbled down like rain, crashing all around. The half-city rose tens of meters high before Ye Yuan’s fingers shifted slightly, and the entire mass swung sideways — rotating a full one hundred and eighty degrees — and floated neatly behind them.

Then he flicked his wrist again, as if tossing away trash.

BOOM!

The suspended half of the city crashed down, collapsing the rest of what remained.

The impact sent dust and rubble surging skyward like a storm. Waves of yin energy rolled forward with the shockwave. But before the debris could touch them, Ye Yuan’s golden array shrank swiftly, condensing into a glowing dome that covered the group and shielded them from the chaos.

“Done.”

The man who had just demolished half a city with one hand spoke as if he had merely dusted off a table. He pointed to the enormous pit now yawning before them — a crater hundreds of feet deep and as wide as half the city. “You can go down now.”

Yuan Jiang: “…”

The old man: “…”

Yun Jiao: “…”

(￣△￣；)

They all looked wordlessly at the massive hole before them — not even a shadow of the old well remained. The ground’s foundation was gone, along with every single “trap” that had been hidden below.

At that moment, they fully understood the saying: In the face of absolute power, all schemes are meaningless.

And somehow… they felt sorry for the poor soul who had spent who-knew-how-long setting all those traps, waiting for them to fall in.

Also—

When the Yama of the Realm of Spiritual Restoration came back and saw this…

He was definitely going to cry.

(End of Chapter)