Godslayer: My Forbidden Ruins Master

As everyone squeezed through the narrow, suffocating gap in the bronze door, Cao Yuan was the first to sense the change.

A chilling gust of wind, as sharp as countless ice blades, suddenly poured in from the other side of the door crack!

That wasn't just ordinary cold wind.

The wind carried a decaying, stale, and slightly fishy smell, like the smell of an open coffin.

Its temperature was ridiculously low—not a low temperature in the physical sense, but a chill that went straight to the soul, as if the wind itself was formed from the sighs of the dead.

"hiss--!"

Cao Yuan's body jolted violently.

His malevolent aura began to operate automatically in the face of this yin wind, as if some kind of defensive instinct had been triggered—it was the Black King's Forbidden Ruins within his body autonomously resisting the erosion of this unknown death energy!

"This is……"

Cao Yuan's expression suddenly changed drastically.

He finally understood the true nature of this eerie wind.

"Ghosts—this place is full of wandering ghosts!!"

His voice rose several octaves involuntarily from shock.

As the successor of the Black King, he possesses an extraordinary sensitivity to malevolent and yin energies.

The instant that gust of cold wind swept in, his senses detected countless subtle, flickering, eerie auras—these auras were extremely weak, almost negligible individually, but when gathered together, they formed a terrifying torrent of death energy powerful enough to suppress the yang energy of the living!

"What do you mean? A ghost?!"

Baili Pangpang had just squeezed through the crack in the door when he heard Cao Yuan's words and almost stumbled and fell to the ground. "Old...Old Cao, don't scare me! You told enough ghost stories in the forest before, and now you're doing it again?!"

"Could this be the legendary land of the dead? I never imagined it actually existed! I can clearly feel the flow of energy within my body is somewhat sluggish... gurgle... this place... is deathly still..."

Li Deyang's expression also changed slightly. He glanced around and his voice trembled slightly.

His strength was the weakest among the three; if it were up to him, he wouldn't have made it this far.

Now that these eerie ghosts are getting closer, he feels an unprecedented sense of oppression.

I wasn't trying to scare you!

Cao Yuan, unusually, lost his usual composure; his voice was heavy and urgent.

"This is a gathering place for wandering ghosts! A large number of spirits have converged in this space, and their yin energy has formed a unique force. The yang energy of the living is greatly suppressed here—can't you feel it? Your body temperature is dropping! Your mental energy is being compressed! Even your breath is getting colder!"

Upon hearing this, Baili Pangpang subconsciously touched his face—

really.

His cheeks were as cold as if he had touched a piece of icy iron. Moreover, his breath was now condensing into white mist in the air, as if he were outdoors in the dead of winter.

but--

They were clearly underground!

The temperature here was quite hot in the anthill area due to geothermal activity. But after passing through that massive bronze gate, the temperature suddenly plummeted to a chilling level.

This temperature difference is not a natural phenomenon.

This is caused by a large accumulation of yin energy – an environmental anomaly!

"Will those ghosts harm us?"

Baili Pangpang had already started trembling. He desperately clenched the warm jade in his hand, but the soft warm light seemed weak and pitiful in the face of this yin energy.

"Under normal circumstances, wandering ghosts will not attack living people on their own initiative."

Cao Yuan helped Li Deyang up, his gaze warily scanning the surrounding darkness. "But something's not right here—so many ghosts gathered together means they're trapped here by some force, unable to leave. If they're trapped for too long, some of them might become irritable or even ferocious. If we accidentally anger them…"

He didn't finish speaking, but the meaning was already quite clear.

A single wandering ghost is insignificant to the Night's Watch. But the sight of thousands upon thousands of ghosts rioting at the same time is enough to send chills down one's spine.

"First, take a look at the surrounding environment."

Cao Yuan took out the tactical flashlight that had accompanied him through countless dark corners from his pocket and pressed the switch with a "click".

A powerful white beam of light instantly pierced the darkness ahead!

And when that light illuminated the scene before them—

The three of them were stunned at the same time.

"Where is this place...?"

Baili Pangpang's voice was almost squeezed out of his throat.

Before them stood a city.

A vast, abandoned underground city filled with ancient architectural styles.

Wherever the beam of the flashlight shone, rows of gray-black brick and tile houses stood silently in the darkness.

The buildings are extremely ancient in style—with upturned eaves, carved beams and painted rafters, and streets paved with bluestone slabs—if you ignore the peeling paint and the broken bricks and tiles scattered all over the ground, this is clearly a town from the ancient Chinese dynasty!

But the existence of such a city in this abyss thousands of meters underground is simply an absurd miracle that defies common sense.

The faded signs still remain on the storefronts along the street—"Zhang's Coffin Shop," "Wang's Paper Money Shop," "Guide Station"—the characters on those signs are blurred, but still faintly discernible.

What was even more unsettling was that all the shops' doors and windows were tightly shut. The windows weren't covered with glass, but with layers of yellowed straw paper bearing some kind of runic pattern. The straw paper fluttered slightly in the unseen, eerie wind, making a rustling sound, like countless invisible hands gently tapping on the windowpanes.

The entire city was completely dark.

There was not a sound.

There was not a trace of life in it.

Like a dead city that was uprooted from the river of time and then forgotten in this eternal darkness.

"An ancient...ancient town?"

Baili Pangpang swallowed hard. The flashlight wobbled in his trembling hand, the beam of light dancing violently on the dark surfaces of the buildings, casting shadows that resembled a chaotic dance of demons, making the already eerie atmosphere even more terrifying.

"Who built this? How could it be in a place like this?"

"It wasn't built by humans."

Cao Yuan crouched down, running his fingers over the bluestone slab beneath his feet. The stone felt unusually cold, carrying an unsettling, gritty sensation, like the skin of a dead man. He carefully examined the faint patterns carved into the stone—

"These patterns... are soul-guiding patterns."

Cao Yuan's voice grew increasingly low, each word as heavy as a lead hammer.

"It is recorded in Taoist classics. Soul-guiding patterns are signposts used to guide the soul of the deceased to the underworld."

He stood up, his gaze slowly sweeping over the silent buildings, the tightly closed doors and windows, and the paper windows fluttering in the cold wind—

"This is not a place for the living."

"This is—the land of the dead."

His words were like a bomb, exploding in the minds of Baili Pangpang and Li Deyang!

"A...a land of the dead?!"

Baili Pangpang's voice cracked, "You mean... this entire city... is for the dead?!"

"Very likely."

This time, it was Li Deyang who spoke. Although he was extremely weak, with half of his right arm still in a strange paper-like state, his mind was surprisingly clear—perhaps the yin energy had stimulated his remaining spiritual power.

"I remember... there's a saying in the ancient texts of the Great Xia Dynasty."

Li Deyang's voice was hoarse and weak, like a string that might break at any moment.

"Deep underground lies a city of the underworld, symmetrical to the world of the living. It is the dwelling place of the departed souls, a temporary abode for the spirits of the dead."

"If this place truly is the legendary realm—then we have entered a forbidden area that no living person should tread."

"Could you please stop making it sound so scary..."

Baili Pangpang was on the verge of tears. "Old Cao, didn't you say you could sense ghosts? How many are there around here?"

"a lot of."

Cao Yuan said in a deep voice that his perception of malevolent energy was greatly amplified in this area—the concentration of yin energy here was too high, which made his perception of ghosts exceptionally sharp.

"A rough estimate suggests that there are at least several thousand wandering ghosts within the town's boundaries."

"Thousands?!"

Baili Pangpang almost fell to the ground.

“But they’re relatively quiet right now,” Cao Yuan added. “Most of them are inside those buildings and haven’t come out on their own. However—”

He paused, his gaze turning solemn as he looked at the dark streets and alleys in the distance.

“I said, this is an abnormal gathering. If we expose ourselves too obviously, or do anything to offend them…”

Baili Pangpang quickly covered the light from the warm sun jade with both hands: "I'll turn off the light! I'll turn off the light right now!"

"No, don't turn it off," Cao Yuan stopped him. "The yin energy is too heavy. Your Warm Sun Jade is the only thing that can prevent the yang energy in our bodies from being suppressed. If you turn it off, Captain Li's condition will worsen."

"Then what do we do?" Baili Pangpang was on the verge of tears. "What if those ghosts get out—"

“I have a way to confirm.”

Baili Pangpang was taken aback: "What method?"

Cao Yuan did not answer, but looked at Baili Pangpang—or more accurately, at Baili Pangpang's pocket.

"Among the forbidden items you looted from the fasting place, was there anything called something?"

"Ghost Eyes?" Baili Pangpang tilted his head and thought for a moment, then slapped his thigh. "Yes! You mean that monocle? The one with the black frame and red lenses?"

"Yes! Take it out!"

Baili Pangpang hurriedly rummaged through his seemingly bottomless space for a while, and finally pulled out a rather strangely shaped monocle.

The glasses had only one lens, and the frame was made of black bone material, engraved with intricate runes. The lens itself was an extremely strange color—a deep, dark red, like congealed blood.

"This thing is a special reconnaissance item from the forbidden item sequence—the [Ghost Eye]."

Cao Yuan took the glasses and explained with a serious expression.

"After wearing it, you can directly see spirits that are invisible to the naked eye. In normal environments, this thing is basically useless, but in places with extremely dense yin energy—it can make us appear as ghosts."

"Does this stuff... have any side effects?" Baili Pangpang asked cautiously.

“Yes.” Cao Yuan’s tone was extremely solemn. “Wearing it for too long can cause mental pollution. Moreover… the more you see, the greater the psychological pressure. If your willpower isn’t strong enough, you might be scared insane.”

Are you sure you want to wear it?

"Assessing the enemy situation is the first step." Without hesitation, Cao Yuan slowly placed the dark red monocle over his right eye.

however--

next second.

Cao Yuan's body stiffened abruptly.

His face, which was usually as cold and hard as iron, suddenly changed color.

Baili Pangpang had never seen Cao Yuan show such an expression before.

This cold-faced swordsman who faced countless criminals without flinching in the Great Battle of the Fasting Grounds, this inheritor of the [Black King] who didn't even blink when facing the overwhelming pressure of the Queen of the Sea Realm—at this moment, his face was deathly pale.

"Old...Old Cao? What's wrong?"

Baili Pangpang was startled by Cao Yuan's reaction, and he reached out to pull Cao Yuan's sleeve.

Cao Yuan suddenly grabbed Baili Pangpang's hand.

His hands were ice cold.

It was as cold as holding a piece of ancient, frozen iron.

"No...don't wear these glasses."

Cao Yuan's voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like it came from a human throat, "Baili Pangpang...you absolutely...don't wear these glasses."

"Why? What did you see?!"

Cao Yuan did not answer.

He simply raised his left hand slowly and pointed around—to the seemingly empty, silent streets, buildings, eaves, and corners—

Then, in a squeezed voice, as if something was choking him, he said:

"All of them are..."

"All of them are..."

"Ghosts are everywhere."

At that moment, Baili Pangpang felt as if all the blood in his body had frozen.

The world Cao Yuan saw through that dark red ghost eye—

It was completely different from what they could see with their own eyes.

To the naked eye, this is an empty, abandoned ancient city.

But within the Ghost Eyes—

Behind the windows of every building, there were countless pale faces.

In every corner of the street, there crouches a translucent figure of various shapes.

On each wall, countless dark blue hands were slowly climbing.

On the rooftops, beside the thresholds, in the cracks between the stone bricks—everywhere, everywhere, everywhere—densely packed, layer upon layer, covering everything—

They're all ghosts!!

Their numbers far exceeded Cao Yuan's previous estimate of "several thousand"—

There are at least tens of thousands of ghosts here!!!

They floated silently in every corner of this dead city, their empty eye sockets devoid of eyeballs, only wisps of eerie blue flames flickering slowly. Their faces were distorted and mutilated; some were missing half a face, others had their mouths gaping wide, as if emitting silent screams.

And at this moment—

All of them—

Everyone was watching Cao Yuan and his group.