Inside Luofeng City, the strange and dazzling prosperity continued as before.
Liu Wu gripped the cold soul banner in his hand, his mind racing with countless thoughts. The middle-aged man's words were difficult to understand, but the one thing Liu Wu did comprehend was their cultivation method.
These cultivators seemed to have abandoned their physical bodies, residing instead within their soul banners, cultivating through the spirit-gathering array the banner naturally carried!
Under the illusion of the soul banner, it was as if they were living inside a grand mansion—living seemingly ordinary lives, while in truth cultivating ceaselessly at every moment!
The cultivation methods of the cultivators in Luofeng City were far too bizarre.
And yet, Liu Wu had to admit, this kind of "lying down and cultivating" was extremely tempting.
The only drawback was that one had to give up one's physical body.
That was unacceptable. He had to deliver this soul banner to Liu Meng's cave-dwelling as quickly as possible. That meant he needed to leave this place.
With a thought, Liu Wu attempted to put the soul banner away.
The vast mansion formed by the banner instantly dissolved back into a single flag, returning to Liu Wu's grasp.
After bidding farewell to the middle-aged cultivator, he returned to his starting point and patiently waited.
He did not know how long it had been when the false moon in the night sky finally reached its zenith. At that moment, he suddenly discovered that he could once again see the long-dead locust tree!
The old locust tree, its twisted branches resembling ghostly claws, stood silently upon a desolate ruin. It clashed with the bustling scenery around it, yet blended into the illusion in an eerie manner.
Without hesitation, Liu Wu strode toward the locust tree.
As he drew closer, the lively sounds of chatter and the blazing lights quickly receded, as though a tide pulling back.
The world before his eyes twisted and blurred once more, finally dissolving into a blinding whiteness that consumed him whole.
It was the exact same feeling as when he had first arrived.
But this time, he realized something clearly—he was in his soul form!
At some point without his awareness, he had already left his physical body behind.
Now was the time to return to it!
After what seemed like an eternity, the whiteness finally faded.
Liu Wu opened his eyes—only to realize with shock that he was not beneath the locust tree at all.
Instead… he was inside a pile of corpses!
A suffocating stench of rot, mixed with the iron tang of blood and damp earth, assaulted his senses so violently that his stomach churned.
He tried to stand, but countless bodies pinned him down. Only after struggling for a long while did he manage to crawl free, finding himself atop a mountain of corpses.
Severed limbs, decaying organs, and countless rotting faces formed the very ground beneath his feet.
Liu Wu's brows furrowed tightly, and even Liu Meng and Liu Ming, observing through their connection back in the cave, could not suppress their nausea.
Suddenly, a rushing sound swept across the air above. Liu Wu instinctively looked up—his pupils contracted sharply!
The night sky was filled with countless soul banners of every size.
They floated in silence, drifting endlessly in the cold wind, overlapping one another until they covered the heavens, stretching wide enough to shroud the entire city!
At that moment, Liu Wu finally understood.
This was the true face of Luofeng City!
A false city constructed from innumerable soul banners, combined with a land of corpses beneath—it was only when the two were united that Luofeng City truly existed.
Suppressing his shock and dread, Liu Wu chose not to dwell on it further. What mattered most was that the soul banner he had obtained was still firmly clutched in his hand.
The fat man had been right: everything seen in Luofeng City was false, born from the illusions of the banners. Only the ghosts were real—because they were either cultivators who had abandoned their bodies, or souls trapped within the banners.
And since soul banners were vessels that carried such ghosts, they too were absolutely real.
Soul banners and ghosts were inseparably bound.
Thus, the banner in his hand could not possibly be fake.
Right now, his most urgent task was to deliver this soul banner back to the cave. Only then would Liu Meng, who was guarding the cave, have even the most basic means of protecting herself.
But just as he was preparing to depart, a sudden disturbance erupted within the distant cave.
Inside the cave, Liu Meng frowned deeply, still troubled over the new cultivation method she was studying.
All at once, a chilling and violent aura surged from the prison chamber.
"Ahhh—!"
A shrill, inhuman scream shattered the stillness of the cave.
Liu Meng's expression shifted, and her figure vanished instantly. In the next heartbeat, she reappeared at the prison entrance.
There, she saw a ghostly beast: its body like a jet-black hound, yet its face grotesquely human, twisted beyond recognition. It crouched atop a man's corpse, savagely tearing at his fading soul.
The other men huddled in the corners, trembling in terror. None dared approach, and with the cell sealed, none could escape.
As for the maidservants, they had already fled, some rushing toward the main hall to raise the alarm.
But there was no need—Liu Meng had already sensed the anomaly.
"Courting death!"
With a furious cry, Liu Meng's spiritual power at the peak of the third stage of Qi Refining burst forth. Her fingers sharpened like swords, her speed ghostlike, as she thrust a deadly strike toward the ghost beast's back.
She held nothing back—this strike carried the full force of her cultivation, enough to pierce solid stone.
Yet the creature twisted unnaturally, evading the attack as though it had eyes on its back.
Her strike merely brushed against it, leaving only a wisp of black smoke.
The ghost shrieked sharply, then lunged forward instead of retreating, jaws wide, snapping at her throat!
Calm under pressure, Liu Meng pushed off with her toes, retreating swiftly. Her palms lashed out in unison, striking hard against the creature's skull.
Boom!
The ghost was flung across the cell, crashing into the stone wall with a mournful cry.
But in the next moment, it rose again as if nothing had happened—its only change being the thinning of its black miasma.
Liu Meng's heart sank.
Though her cultivation was far stronger than when she had first entered the path of Qi Refining, she had never practiced any true offensive techniques.
Her strikes, relying only on raw spiritual power, were proving ineffective against this incorporeal foe.
Then, from the other corners of the cell, two more identical ghost beasts appeared.
Liu Meng's brows tightened. Facing one was troublesome, but manageable. Facing three, however, she was at real risk of being overwhelmed.
This was no accident—this was a deliberate plot!
These seemingly ownerless ghost creatures were almost certainly being controlled by someone in secret, their true aim to kill her.
But who was targeting her?
Several possibilities crossed her mind, yet none could be confirmed. Worse still, without finding the mastermind's presence, she could not even prove it was a deliberate attack.
As long as the enemy refused to show themselves, she was powerless.
Taking a deep breath, Liu Meng unleashed her spiritual energy, her voice reverberating through the entire cave:
"All maidservants above Qi Refining—assemble here at once!"