"If you really feel something uneasy, then we will sleep by the road today!" Tang Peng has no reason not to trust Liu Sheng. His killer intent had shown to Tang Peng the wealth of experience that he had accrued during his journey as a martial artist. He did not want to take any risks for now, especially after suddenly recovering from his injuries.
"Uhhh... I'm not sure about this. It's always better to sleep in a town than at the side of the road." Liu Sheng licked his lips nervously. Even though he could stay awake for 36 hours continuously, he could not say the same about the carriage driver, who needed plenty of rest. If this was a false alarm, their speed of travel would likely slow down.
"Fine. We will stay in this town for the night. If there are any unusual events, we will set off immediately." Liu Sheng decided to give the town the benefit of the doubt.
It could have been that he was too high-strung today, after he had made that reckless Tang Peng grow up. That kid had really needed a knock to the head, thinking that he was truly invincible.
He did not want to lose his treasure trove too quickly, so he decided to try the trick that his elder martial brother had personally tested on him. The gamble had worked, and the kid had become more cautious and indebted to him. It was a win-win situation!
As Tang Peng heard Liu Sheng's opinion, he did not stop the carriage from going inside Razing Town. The entrance was an arch that was between two stone walls. Clearly, this town wasn't as prosperous as Wei Town. There were no gates or guards to hinder their path as the horses trotted inside the Razing Town.
"Whew... luckily, nothing happened. Now, we just need to find a place to sleep." Liu Sheng felt strangely calm as the carriage entered the town. He dropped off the carriage and started walking along it. There were no imminent threats or anything of that sort that were targeting them. As he looked around the surroundings, his impression of the town slowly became better.
It was as if this town had become his hometown. He could see the familiar waving from his friends, and his martial brothers executing combat arts on the street... He could feel that there was something wrong, but he just couldn't be bothered to care about it. He walked towards his fellow martial brothers, wanting to discuss the martial world with them.
"Liu Sheng! Liu Sheng!" Tang Peng had no idea why Liu Sheng had suddenly abandoned the carriage. He had simply jumped off suddenly, and that was this look of excitement in his eyes.
After looking outside of the carriage, he realised that there was no one controlling the horses. The only one left on the carriage was him alone. Not only that, the streets were void of life, as the moon shone above all, reflecting glimpses of unknown creatures.
Tang Peng stayed in the carriage, letting the horses continue. He did not want to encounter a being that could kill him on the spot. Speaking of which, he needed to cultivate and gather more Yin Qi to use. He still could not access the Hatred Form, so he could only rely on his own abilities now.
Tang Peng used his soul to feel around for sources of Yin Qi. He was surprised to find that there were potent sources of Yin Qi that was hiding around him. Even though his reach was only limited to a few meters, he could draw in a lot of Yin Qi all at once. Tang Peng sat cross-legged, breathing in deep.
Closing his eyes, he began to direct the Yin Qi towards his body, absorbing it for his own purposes. After he accumulated enough Yin Qi, he would use it to craft his own Ghost Refinement Underworld. He already had a vague idea of how to complete it, since his soul had naturally created cages to imprison ghosts before.
As Tang Peng continued to absorb the Yin Qi around him through his orifices, a voluminous amount of black smoke started to form faces of various shapes and sizes. Similar smokes formed around Tang Peng, to the point that his whole body had been encircled by them.
***
"There's hope! There's hope!" A man wearing silver armour suddenly awakened, and banged on the walls of the inn he was in as fast as possible. He could clearly feel that the evil aura of this place had been shifted. Only a righteous monk capable of nullifying this evil formation could shift the evil aura.
This man's name was Xiang Yu. He was a general of the Qin Empire, and he had been investigating the demonic beasts in this town, when he had encountered two immortals fighting each other.
One had looked like a ragged old man, and the other was a hot-blooded young youth who used mysterious methods to fight. Eventually, the youth had won, but Xiang Yu had thought that he was a righteous immortal, but who knew that he was a practitioner of the corrupt path?
In the end, the youth created a bloodbath out of the population of the town, and turned the town into a place that would lure people into his deadly embrace. Xiang Yu was the only one who had survived the bloodbath, as he was deemed as "too much trouble", according to the words of that monster.
Xiang Yu stayed far away from the mayor's house at the center of the town, as it was where all the prey of the monster was heading. He lived in the uninhabited inn, where there were food supplies.
At night, the victims of the monster resurrected as his thralls, and sometimes even attacked him. Luckily, he practiced the Mental Toad's body tempering to the Steeled Veins level, which increased his magical resistance against these thralls. Even though he could defend against them, he was slowly wearing down, as they were invulnerable.
That was until the monk arrived. Xiang Yu could feel the dreadfulness in this place being eroded, and he just hoped that the monk would not die to the thralls. As he wished that the monk would save him, a dark fog suddenly covered the entirety of the town!