Fairy, I am truly a virtuous gentleman!

Hongluan stood in front of a small hill, her silk skirt transforming once again into a blood-stained garment exuding an ominous aura.

With a gentle wave of her hand, the earth cracked open.

Four ferocious-looking zombies carried a lightly draped carriage out of it.

Hongluan breathed a sigh of relief, bowed slightly to Ning Yuan behind her, and said, "Please get into the sedan chair, young master."

Ning Yuan, without hesitation, lifted the purple veil and stepped inside, with Hong Luan following closely behind.

After the two entered the sedan chair, the four walking corpses exhaled yin energy and rode away on a cloud of smoke.

The interior of the sedan chair was quite spacious, with a stone table and a soft couch placed in the center.

Ning Yuan looked around for a moment, then lay down naturally and said to Hong Luan, who had come in and was kneeling beside him, "You certainly know how to enjoy yourself."

Hongluan picked up a cup of hot tea from the table, lowered her eyes and moved closer to Ning Yuan, offering it to him with both hands.

"If you like it, young master, I have many more good things to offer."

Ning Yuan took the teacup, didn't examine it, took a sip, and glanced at Hong Luan with a half-smile.

"Oh, this spiritual tea tastes quite good. Where did you get it?"

Hongluan hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "It comes from cultivators like you who descended from beyond the Crimson Abyss."

Ning Yuan sneered, "Hmph, probably from a corpse, right?"

Hongluan was startled and quickly bent down, her snow-white, smooth forehead hitting the wooden board.

"Please forgive me, young master!"

Unexpectedly, Ning Yuan's expression changed, and he became calm and collected again. He grabbed Hong Luan's slender wrist and pulled her into his arms.

His hand gently stroked the female ghost's head, neck, and chest in his arms, his touch so delicate, as if he were treating a lover.

However, Hongluan was like a trembling little quail, her delicate body shaking slightly.

Countless deadly crises permeated the tent, as if sharp knives and blades were tracing across her skin. Born and raised in the Crimson Abyss, Hongluan learned for the first time the meaning of the phrase "serving a ruler is like serving a tiger," which she had read in an ancient book of cultivators.

The seemingly refined and otherworldly young man before her was actually a demon from the abyss who was even more terrifying than she was!

What kind of monster did I just encounter?

This must be the demonic son of some evil sect!

Looking at the beautiful female ghost trembling in his arms, Ning Yuan showed displeasure and said gently, "What are you afraid of? After all, I'm not a bad person, and those people have nothing to do with me. Just tell me everything you know and can say."

Hongluan looked up at Ning Yuan's peerless and handsome face, and her panicked heart calmed down a little. She tried her best to replace the terrifying true form of the other party with the human boy in front of her.

In this way, even if one's soul were to be scattered and dissipated into nothingness, being able to be in the arms of such a beauty and be close to her would not be a loss.

After a moment of hesitation, Hongluan finally spoke.

"Long ago, when the Great Li Kingdom was first established, the Great Li Holy Ancestor found the Crimson Abyss. The Holy Ancestor discovered that the ghosts born here would generate a Heavenly Soul Spring after they died. So he set up an array to seal and suppress the Crimson Abyss, and even went so far as to move the capital to Luoyang, making the capital the center of the array."

At this point, a blush rose on Hongluan's fair face. She said indignantly, "Because of this great formation, all the ghosts and spirits born in our Crimson Abyss that develop intelligence are annihilated by the formation's spirit, and are forever unable to advance in their cultivation, confined to this desolate, sunless land of death!"

All evil spirits and ghosts in the world can be roughly divided into three categories: monsters, spirits, and fools.

Of these three categories, ghosts and foolish spirits are inferior beings. Although they may be born fierce, they lack intelligence, cannot read or understand customs, and can only become the basis for the cycle of reincarnation for all living beings.

Conversely, if one can awaken spiritual intelligence, one can be called a spirit or ghost, and can learn to read, cultivate, and explore the underworld and ghostly realms.

If the opportunity is right, it is not impossible to become an immortal or ancestor, occupy a place in the underworld, and become a ghost or god who governs all ghosts, receives offerings from all spirits, and is praised by all the heavens.

Such beings are like cultivators in the mortal world—one in ten thousand.

However, Ning Yuan patted Hongluan's cheek and shook his head, saying, "Get to the point, I know all of this."

Hongluan quickly composed herself and adopted a docile demeanor.

"Although there are always ghosts that are generated from who knows where, the Crimson Abyss is not the Underworld Abyss after all, and the ghosts are not endless. Therefore, the Great Ancestor of Dali set an ancestral rule to open the great formation once every five years and send people to harvest a batch."

Even if we successfully awaken our spiritual powers, what can we achieve in just a few years without profound skills and supernatural abilities? Often, as soon as cultivators arrive, more than 90% of them are slaughtered, with only a few lucky ones surviving by sheer chance.

Ning Yuan looked at Hong Luan and asked with great interest, "Then what about you? I can see that your Yin energy is very strong, indicating that you have cultivated for a thousand years. You are not far from the realm of the Fiend Ghost."

There are two paths to the Underworld.

Ghost cultivators, one of the orthodox sects of immortality, are often riddled with ailments and nearing the end of their lifespan. Unable to continue their lives and lacking the means to reincarnate, they can only actively cleanse their souls with spiritual energy, detach themselves from their physical bodies, and exist solely as yin spirits.

Among the many systems, ghost cultivation is not well-regarded, only slightly better than unorthodox sects, but it can still be considered a path to heaven.

Another type is the spirit ghost, like the Red Phoenix, which is naturally formed by heaven and earth.

When a living being dies, its attachment is too deep, and it is unwilling to enter the cycle of reincarnation for a long time. It lingers in the graveyard, and over time, it accumulates resentment and is born as a wandering soul.

Then, it gained spiritual intelligence, consumed vital essence and yin energy, clarified its obsessions, and greatly increased its cultivation, thus becoming a vengeful ghost.

Above vengeful ghosts are fierce ghosts and malevolent spirits...

Once a person becomes a vengeful ghost, they are already comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Some of the more powerful spirit ghosts can even compete with Spirit Platform Feathered Warriors and Divine Palace Refiners!

Hongluan's cultivation was genuine; her Yin energy was profound, at least a thousand years old, and she was only one step away from becoming a Fiend Ghost comparable to a Golden Core cultivator.

The reason she hesitated to take this step was perhaps because she was afraid of being killed by the spirit of the Seven Luminaries Dragon Spirit Array.

"this……"

Hongluan hesitated, her delicate body trembling, and said aggrievedly, "I can't say..."

Ning Yuan raised an eyebrow and sighed, "How about this, I'll ask, and you just answer yes or no, okay?"

Hongluan nodded immediately.

Ning Yuan mentally processed the information and voiced his conjecture: "When you developed sentience, a mysterious being intervened to help you. It taught you cultivation, helped you evade the slaughter of us outsiders, and gathered you all together to establish what is known as... Ghost City?"

Hongluan gently bit her red lips with her pearly teeth and nodded delicately.

"Yes."

Ning Yuan immediately asked again, "You don't know His origins?"

"Yes."

"He rarely shows himself and cannot directly interfere in the affairs of the Crimson Abyss. Therefore, he can only pretend to take over your tasks, such as ambushing and attacking lone cultivators like myself?"

"……yes."

Hongluan was secretly alarmed, because Ning Yuan was too perceptive. She had only accidentally revealed a little bit of her experience, and he had already deduced those unknown details and reasons. It was simply terrifying!

Ning Yuan stopped asking questions and muttered to himself, "Interesting, interesting. Another force has emerged. Heh, let's see who the ultimate winner will be..."

Seeing Ning Yuan's appearance, Hong Luan was puzzled and felt extremely uneasy.

"Young master..."

Ning Yuan stretched and placed his right hand on the back of her head.

Hongluan was slightly taken aback, but then heard the young man in front of her say leisurely, "The journey is still long and the boat trip is tiring. Didn't you say that your body is pure Yin and that you are an excellent vessel for a furnace? Let me test your quality..."

Seeing Ning Yuan's imposing figure approaching, Hong Luan felt no panic, but rather her heart fluttered with delight and surprise.

She lowered her beautiful face shyly and reproachfully. Without Ning Yuan's prompting, she took the initiative to open her blood-stained clothes, revealing her slender and beautiful figure, with skin as smooth as jade and a graceful, undulating body that was no less stunning than that of a mortal beauty.

The intense yang energy emanating from Ning Yuan made Hong Luan unable to suppress her feelings.

As she said, as a female ghost who was experiencing the beauty of this place for the first time, she was even easier to deal with than Xiao Lingjiang. With just a few movements, her eyes became glazed, and she let the young man do as he pleased.

But what Hongluan didn't notice was the deep darkness in Ning Yuan's eyes...