I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Inside the quiet room, time remained absolutely still.

In mid-air, the purplish-black City God's official robes and the dark gold divine seal exuded an extremely sinister pressure that sent shivers down one's spine. It was pure law power, untouched by any worldly dust, as if touching it would drag one into an endless abyss.

Zhao Feng knelt on one knee on the cold stone bricks, raising his cloudy eyes and staring intently at the object in front of him that represented the divine authority of heaven and earth.

"City God..."

Zhao Feng's withered lips parted slightly, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping, "Principal Gu, do you mean, after I die, I'll have to deal with those unkillable ghosts?"

"It's not control, it's suppression, it's judgment."

Gu Qing looked down at him, his blue robe fluttering in the still air. In his eyes, which seemed to hold the Tai Chi symbol, there was no human warmth or pity, only extreme rationality and a vast coldness.

Gu Qing waved his sleeve.

In an instant, the scene before Zhao Feng changed. The cold stone chamber vanished, replaced by a massive underworld hierarchy chart with a solemn pyramid structure. At the bottom were millions of underworld soldiers, above them were the Black and White Impermanence, the Four Judges, and at the very top were the Ten Kings of Hell and the throne of the Emperor of Fengdu, radiating boundless heavenly might.

"The Netherworld is not a place to keep idle people. The City God is a fifth-rank deity." Gu Qing's voice echoed coldly in the void, "In the eyes of ordinary wandering ghosts, you are indeed a high and mighty god; but in the entire structure of the Netherworld, you are just a local garrison officer who has just stepped into the threshold."

"A normal City God can only reside in one city and govern the birth, aging, sickness, and death of that area. But now..."

Gu Qing paused slightly, his eyes, which seemed to see into the past and future, staring directly at Zhao Feng.

"The mortal realm is now riddled with holes, countless underworlds are taking shape, and four billion people worldwide tremble in fear under the shadow of ghosts. Meanwhile, the underworld has just been established, everything is in ruins, and the throne of Yama is vacant. The authority of a mere fifth-rank city god is simply not enough to suppress the evil spirits that fill the world, nor can it mobilize the underworld laws sufficient to suppress the entire globe."

Hearing this, Zhao Feng frowned slightly: "So you mean...?"

Gu Qing slowly raised her right hand.

"Buzz—"

With a resounding hum that shook the very air, the void cracked open once more beside the dark golden City God Seal. A token, entirely black, seemingly forged from the hardest cold iron from the deepest abyss, and engraved with countless ancient totems of punishment, slowly emerged.

The moment the token appeared, the extreme cold in the entire quiet room was forcibly repelled, replaced by an absolute domineering aura that made even one's soul kneel in submission!

"This is the decree of Yama, the King of Hell."

Gu Qing looked at Zhao Feng and said, word by word, "The vast virtue you accumulated in your lifetime is just enough to rebuild the golden body of the City God. If you want to directly sit on the throne of Yama, the laws of Heaven will absolutely not allow it, because you have not accumulated any merit. But I can grant you special privileges."

"I bestow upon you the golden statue of the City God, as the foundation upon which you will stand in the underworld. At the same time, I entrust you with the wielding of this 'Iron Decree of Yama'!"

"By this decree, although you are the City God, you can exercise the authority of Yama, the King of Hell! You have the right to arrest all evil spirits worldwide, the right to open the eighteen levels of hell to carry out judgments, and the right to promote underworld officials and establish branch temples of the City God in various places in the future!"

Gu Qing bent down, his voice like a devil's whisper, yet carrying the majesty of a god: "I want you to take this and go down there, to bring back those escaped 'trash' one by one. Until you've accumulated enough good karma to rightfully ascend the throne of the Ten Kings of Hell!"

"But the price is that there is no sunlight, no seasons, only endless slaughter and eternal darkness. You must be absolutely impartial, even if it means personally arresting your former comrades and sending them to hell for torture. This is a never-ending prison sentence. Zhao Feng, do you dare to accept?"

The room was deathly silent.

The sword spirit Hongzhuang, who had been hovering beside Zhao Feng, maintained her inherent aloofness and detachment. She did not cry or plead like an ordinary woman, nor did she shrink back even a step because of the terrifying pressure from the underworld.

She silently tightened her grip on the dark red longsword, her once translucent knuckles turning slightly white from the force. Her figure, like a cold, blood-red shadow, stood firmly behind Zhao Feng. Whether its master was human or ghost, this sword would forever fight only for him.

Zhao Feng looked at the City God's seal and the Yama's Iron Decree, which represented the highest authority, and suddenly smiled.

He laughed softly, but there was no trace of desolation or hesitation in his laughter; instead, it conveyed a sense of battle and boundless heroism.

"Principal Gu, you underestimate me, Zhao Feng."

Zhao Feng struggled to straighten his hunched back. Even though his body was on the verge of death, the brilliant golden light of merit in his soul burst forth with a sharpness that was too dazzling to look at directly.

"I joined the army at fifteen, crawled out of piles of corpses on the border, and spent most of my life dealing with all sorts of beasts. In my life, I have never cared about high-ranking positions or generous salaries, nor about sunshine or the four seasons. My only wish is to see that the bones of the Chinese people are not broken, and to see that the people can sleep peacefully."

"If I were in the mortal realm, my sword would be dull, unable to cut down those unkillable ghosts."

Zhao Feng suddenly stretched out his withered hand and grabbed the dark golden [City God Seal] and [Yama Decree] in mid-air!

"Then I'll go to the underworld! I'll become a ghost or god! I don't care about eternal damnation, as long as I can vanquish evil spirits, I, Zhao Feng, will protect this world for thousands and thousands of years!"

"boom!"

The moment Zhao Feng's finger touched the power, a vast, purplish-black beam of light erupted, piercing directly through the top of the quiet room on Snowfall Cliff and soaring into the sky!

Looking at the old man with an unyielding will, Gu Qing finally smiled with extreme satisfaction.

This is the knife he wanted.

A ruler of the underworld with extremely high autonomy, capable of stabilizing the overall situation, and never swayed by personal feelings.

"Since that's the case," Gu Qing straightened up, his blue robe fluttering in the purplish-black light, "As you wish."

He snapped his fingers.

"Smack."

The frozen time instantly resumed its flow. The wind and snow outside the door howled and pounded against the broken stone once more.

And in the same second that the flow resumes.

Zhao Feng's already exhausted body trembled violently. His cloudy eyes slowly closed, and his last breath turned into a very faint white mist in the cold air, completely dissipating.

A generation of military heroes, the sharpest blade of the former 749th Bureau of China, Zhao Feng of Kunlun, passed away peacefully today.

……

Outside the cave.

A blizzard raged. Chu Tian, ​​who had just left, was walking down the stone steps. His hands, gripping his sword, were behind his back, his knuckles slightly white from the force of his grip.

The precious box of "Nine-Turn Longevity Pills" still lay quietly in his storage bag, but he felt as if it weighed a ton. As a comrade-in-arms who had fought alongside Zhao Feng in the East China Sea, he knew Zhao Feng's stubbornness all too well.

Suddenly, Chu Tian froze, his steps halting abruptly halfway up the mountain.

As one of the top sword cultivators in Kunlun, his divine sense was incredibly sharp. Just a moment ago, he clearly sensed that the faint but persistent life force belonging to Zhao Feng, emanating from the direction of the Snowfall Cliff on the back mountain, had been completely extinguished, like a candle flickering in the wind.

"Zhao Feng..."

Chu Tian's pupils contracted sharply, and his mind went blank with a "buzz".

He didn't roar or cry; instead, he instantly transformed into an extremely violent and fierce sword light that tore through the wind and snow, recklessly turning back the way he came and rushing backward like a madman.

"Boom!"

Chu Tian landed heavily in front of the cave entrance. Without the slightest hesitation, he placed both palms on the mechanism and forcefully pushed open the heavy Dragon-Slaying Stone.

He rushed into the quiet room, only to be completely stunned by the scene before him.

The quiet room was not the desolate and deathly silence he had imagined, a scene of someone dying and lights going out. On the contrary, an immense, suffocating, and terrifying pressure, imbued with the power of laws, filled the entire space!

On the white jade prayer mat, Zhao Feng's withered body sat quietly cross-legged, devoid of any life.

However, three feet above the physical body's head, a towering phantom, over ten feet tall, radiating endless purplish-black light and pure golden merit power, was quietly suspended in mid-air.

The face of that phantom was none other than Zhao Feng!

However, Zhao Feng at this moment was no longer the frail and aged patient tormented by the Five Signs of Decay. He had regained the towering, imposing physique of his prime, his face as cold and stern as a knife. He wore a set of purple-black City God's official robes embroidered with intricate divine and demonic totems, a flat-topped crown, and held the City God's seal in his left hand. Hanging at his waist was the jet-black Yama's Decree!

Beside him, the sword spirit Hongzhuang, dressed in a red dress, held her original longsword, which was burning with ghostly flames. She remained aloof and silent, like a ruthless underworld general, loyally guarding him.

"Zhao Feng?!"

Chu Tian stared in disbelief at the illusory figure radiating divine majesty in mid-air, and the imperial edict that had been proclaimed to the world not long ago flashed through his mind.

Those who are truly selfless and impartial may serve as judges of the City God, acting on behalf of Heaven to patrol and inspect the land!

"You...became a god?!" Chu Tian's heart pounded wildly. The immense grief and extreme shock intertwined, causing even this usually calm sword cultivator to tremble in his voice.

Zhao Feng's City God image lowered its head slightly. In those eyes, which were like abysses, the turbidity of mortals was gone, replaced by a coldness and majesty that saw through life and death.

But the look in his eyes when he looked at Chu Tian still carried a hint of familiarity as an old comrade-in-arms.

"This exaggerated expression doesn't seem like you, Chu Tian."

Zhao Feng spoke, and his voice was no longer the hoarse sound of flesh, but a grand Daoist voice mixed with supreme heavenly might, which made the entire Snowfall Cliff tremble.

"Birth, aging, sickness, and death are the cycle of heaven and earth. I've merely changed my clothes and gone to another battlefield to continue fighting. Cultivators defy the heavens; if we meet again in the underworld, I won't accept your horse piss."

This joke, with its familiar formula and iron-blooded flavor, instantly dispelled most of the grief in Chu Tian's eyes.

Chu Tian straightened his back abruptly, took a deep breath, suppressed all his emotions, and then solemnly performed the most standard Kunlun sword salute.

"Respectfully bidding farewell to our comrades! Respectfully welcoming... the City God!"

Looking at the man standing before him like a javelin, Zhao Feng felt a surge of relief deep in his eyes.

"Chu Tian, ​​you're in charge of the mess in the mortal realm. I'll clean up the filth in the underworld!"

"Tell all soldiers and cultivators in the world that the gates of the Netherworld will forever remain open for the heroic souls who died protecting China! I, Zhao Feng, will be waiting for them below to come and obey my commands!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Feng suddenly swung his wide, purplish-black robe sleeves.

"Hongzhuang, let's go. Let's check out our new defense zone!"

"Zheng—!"

Hongzhuang remained silent, only gripping her longsword tightly, the blade emitting a deafening, ghostly wail in response.

Zhao Feng's City God image and the phantom of the woman in red rapidly faded in the purple-gold light. Immediately afterward, a bottomless, dark blue crack suddenly appeared in the floor of the quiet room, and an extremely pure Yin energy rushed out.

One man and one sword transformed into a streak of light, disappearing directly into the crevice.

The gap closed instantly, and the quiet chamber of Falling Snow Cliff returned to its tranquility. Only Zhao Feng's lifeless body remained, and Chu Tian's lingering shock remained.

……

over nine days.

Gu Qing watched quietly as Zhao Feng's soul, adorned in red, sank into the depths of the underworld, a cold smile curving her lips.

[System Notification: The first City God of the Underworld has returned to his post and has been granted "Supreme Acting Authority".]

[The underworld's automatic soul-collecting mechanism is preparing to activate.]

[Warning: The number of evil spirits currently lingering in the mortal realm is extremely large. City God Zhao Feng is currently a lone commander and unable to independently complete the global task of capturing souls and assessing the underworld. We urgently need to recruit lower-ranking underworld soldiers and officials.]

"A lone commander?"

Looking at the densely packed Yin Domain markings on the holographic star map, Gu Qing said calmly, "Don't worry, he's humanity's best commander. He'll soon build an iron army that can sweep across Yin and Yang."

"System, activate the 'Heroic Soul Reception' protocol. Manifest all the souls of eligible Chinese martyrs who died during the spiritual energy revival in front of the Command Platform in Fengdu Ghost City."

Gu Qing's voice was completely flat, as if he were issuing a cold, coded command.

"Give Zhao Feng half a day to prepare for battle. Tonight at midnight, I want to see the soul-binding ropes of the underworld and the smog of the human world swept away."

[Command confirmed. The Ghost Soldier Recruitment Agreement is officially activated.]

As Gu Qing gave the order, a silent storm was brewing at the boundary between life and death. Those evil spirits who ravaged the mortal world, thinking themselves lawless, had no idea that a war machine ten thousand times more terrifying than themselves had already revealed its chilling fangs deep underground.