I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Deep within the desolate graveyard, miasma churned. A withered hand, emerging from the earth, held the "Book of Return to the Earth," its aged and deathly voice still echoing in the air.

Han Zhao didn't waste a single word on the pretentious voice.

His gaze was like a knife, instantly slicing through the battle before him, and three extremely cold and hard commands rang out:

"Seize the register."

"Burning the piles".

"Save people."

The moment the words fell, the once deathly silent mass grave erupted into chaos.

As if sensing the murderous intent of the living, a faint, earthen-yellow light emanated from the Book of Return to the Earth. Immediately afterward, the legs of all the people upside down on the entire hillside began to twitch violently.

From deep underground, a large-scale, extremely orderly military command resounded:

"Commander-in-Chief, heed my command: Return to your homeland!"

The sound was deep and resonant, carrying an irresistible, iron-willed power. It was not an ordinary wailing of ghosts, but rather the rule of the Guitu Society, viciously exploiting the soldiers' instinct to "obey orders," forcibly activating the ancestral registers to drag these three hundred elite soldiers completely into the underworld!

Upon hearing that familiar military order, Shen Yanqiu's eyes instantly turned red, and even blood vessels appeared at the corners of his eyes.

But he did not lose control. The Ironblood leader drew his demon-suppressing sword from his waist, took a step forward, and the sword energy slashed like a bolt of lightning at the tentacles of grave soil on the ground that were trying to entangle the group.

"My soldiers are none of your business, you wandering ghosts!" Shen Yanqiu roared through gritted teeth, his blade cleaving open the stinking grave soil.

At the same time, Xu Chenzhou's sword also moved.

His old iron sword didn't burst forth with dazzling light, but rather with extreme restraint and precision. In the surrounding grave soil, black lines were trying to connect the shadows of the group, attempting to trigger the "reversal" rule. Xu Chenzhou moved like lightning, his sword blade swiftly tracing along the ground, precisely severing each of the lines connecting the shadows that were trying to reverse.

Under the absolute suppression from the front, Xie Wujiu transformed into a pale afterimage, rushing straight towards the withered hand holding the old book.

The soil around the withered hand instantly boiled, and a large number of gray-black twisted characters emerged from the soil, like a swarm of bloodthirsty leeches, frantically climbing up Xie Wujiu's ankle, attempting to forcibly register this paper doll's avatar into the "Return to the Earth Book".

"The underworld hasn't appointed me yet, who dares to take me in?!"

Xie Wujiu let out an extremely hoarse, cold laugh. His broken left hand suddenly flipped over, and the pitch-black Yin Si seal slammed into the void.

The strict laws of the underworld descended in an instant, forcibly suppressing the tyrannical rules of the tomb for a moment.

Taking advantage of this brief moment of respite, Xie Wujiu grabbed the wet "Return to the Earth Book" and snatched it fiercely from the withered hand!

However, the price of forcibly seizing the core of the rules is extremely high.

The moment the "Return to Earth Book" left his hand, the backlash from the rules crashed down on Xie Wujiu like a tsunami. The right half of his paper doll body visibly withered and "earthed" at a rapid pace, turning into a deathly gray lump of mud. On his chest, a blurry yet profound mark of the character "grave" was forcibly formed!

"Keep him calm!" Han Zhao shouted sharply.

Fang Bai waved his hands wildly, and three "Earth-Sealing Talismans" were slapped onto the edge of Xie Wujiu's mud-like body, forcibly cutting off the spread of the mud-like transformation. Tang Qinghe bit her fingertip and used her pure yang essence blood as a guide to pierce several silver needles into the soul nodes of the paper doll's avatar, desperately protecting Xie Wujiu's soul light.

When the "Return to the Earth Book" was taken away, the huge black wooden stake immediately began to shake violently.

In mid-air, the three hundred military registration numbers written in cinnabar on the upside-down banner of the Demon Suppression Division simultaneously lit up with a dazzling blood-red light.

"Just seizing the registers isn't enough!" Lu Yan stared intently at the array plate spinning wildly in his hand. "The black wooden stakes and military flags are still the anchors to the 'Grave Register Main Line'! If we don't remove them, the people below will still be worn down!"

"I'll disrupt its energy flow!"

Fang Bai grabbed a handful of yellow talismans, unleashing his true essence without reservation. Dozens of "Feign Death Talismans" and "Empty Registration Talismans" flew like snowflakes towards the four corners of the upside-down military flag. The moment the talismans burned, the underlying logic of the rules briefly created the illusion that "these three hundred people have already been buried."

The blood-red light on the military flag dimmed for a moment due to this sudden logical conflict.

"Now!"

Lu Yan formed intricate hand seals, and several array needles shot out like shooting stars, precisely cutting into the connection point between the military flag and the illusory seal of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

"Commander Shen!" Han Zhao roared.

Shen Yanqiu was already poised to strike. His eyes were bloodshot, and he suddenly exerted force with his legs, soaring into the air like an enraged lion.

He gripped the demon-suppressing sword tightly with both hands, pouring all the sword intent and grief of his life into it, and slashed down at the upside-down military flag that had been completely defiled by the enemy!

"Cut it off right now!"

This is not about destroying the glory of the Demon Suppression Division, but about severing the corrupt military orders that have been exploited by evil spirits!

"Rip—"

A piercing tearing sound echoed through the desolate graveyard. The upside-down military flag was cleaved in two by Shen Yanqiu's blade, and the illusory image of the official seal in the void also collapsed with a deafening roar.

The instant the military flag snapped, the suffocating drag across the entire mass grave suddenly eased. The twitching of the legs slumped in the ground noticeably subsided.

Han Zhao calmly surveyed the overall situation, not letting the initial victory cloud his judgment. "Prioritize saving the twelve 'eyes of the formation' and the flag officer! They are key nodes in the main line of events; eliminating them will prevent the rest from being immediately overwhelmed!"

The team immediately demonstrated terrifying execution capabilities.

Xu Chenzhou, Shen Yanqiu, and several demon-suppressing envoys who accompanied them attacked simultaneously, firmly grasping the ankles of the thirteen key points where the people were upside down.

Lu Yan laid down thirteen empty shells of feigned death with effortless grace.

Xie Wujiu, with his half-crippled body, opened the "Return to the Earth Register" that he had just snatched. Using the sharp edge of the underworld seal, he brutally crossed out thirteen lines of grave records representing their birth dates and times.

"pull!"

With a dozen or so muffled thuds as the flag officer and twelve elite formation leaders were simultaneously pulled from the grave.

Tang Qinghe, along with the medical practitioners, immediately rushed forward, unleashing a dazzling array of pure yang medicine and first-aid techniques, forcefully snatching the person from the King of Hell in this underworld.

When the flag officer was pulled out, he looked as if he had been soaking in mud for months, and the word "grave" was deeply etched on his chest, almost imprinted on the edge of his heart.

Under Tang Qinghe's acupuncture, the flag officer managed to open his eyes a crack with great difficulty. He recognized Shen Yanqiu before him, and a hissing sound like a broken bellows escaped his throat:

"Commander... in the prefectural city..."

Shen Yanqiu immediately leaned closer to listen.

"Someone...opened the door for it..."

Shen Yanqiu leaned forward, her voice trembling: "Who?"

The flag officer's lips trembled a few times, and with almost the last of his strength, he squeezed out two words:

"Treasurer..."

After saying that, his head lolled to the side and he fainted again.

Shen Yanqiu was struck dumb.

The treasurer was in charge of storing old cases, forbidden items, damaged official seals, and the entire army's roster of the Qingzhou Demon Suppression Division. If the treasurer had problems, it meant the Demon Suppression Division wasn't just rotten on the outside, but that something filthy had seeped into its very core.

The Book of Returning to the Land was stolen, the military flag was broken, and the key point of the formation was breached.

The aged voice from beneath the mass grave finally erupted into rage.

"Boom!"

The soil beneath the black wooden stake exploded with a deafening roar, and a half-body phantom dressed in a tattered burial master's robe slowly rose from the earth. Its face appeared to be covered in thick layers of corpse mud, with only an exaggeratedly large gash at the mouth, filled with wriggling black maggots.

It is not a real living person, but an extremely evil "burial thought" left behind by the funeral master of the Guitu Hui after his death, relying on this corpse-nurturing land.

Zang Nian let out a non-human shriek, transforming into a gray-black whirlwind that recklessly lunged at the "Return to Earth Book" in Xie Wujiu's hand.

Xu Chenzhou took a step forward, and the old iron sword in his hand emitted a clear dragon's roar. He instantly raised the true essence suppressed to the limit in his body to the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and a highly condensed crescent-shaped sword aura met the raging wind of burial head-on.

"laugh!"

The sword energy sliced ​​through rotten flesh with extreme brutality, splitting the illusory figure of the Burial Master in two.

Shen Yanqiu followed closely behind, his anger transforming into a thunderous strike that completely shredded the half-body afterimage that was trying to reassemble.

"receive!"

Xie Wujiu seized the opportunity and slammed the Yin Si seal heavily onto the cover of the "Return to Earth Book." A tremendous suction force erupted, forcibly drawing the shattered burial thoughts back into the book.

"Fang Bai, burn the first three pages!" Han Zhao shouted. "Keep the rest of the register of names!"

Fang Bai picked up a Pure Yang Burning Talisman with two fingers and precisely slapped it onto the cover of the "Return to Earth Book".

"call--"

The pure Yang fire instantly ignited the old booklet. Fang Bai controlled the fire with extreme precision, burning the core array patterns used to manipulate the "Upside-Down Rules" pages, and then immediately extinguished the fire with his true essence.

As the core control page turned to ashes, the massive black wooden stake let out a mournful wail, its surface covered with cracks.

The entire mass grave finally fell silent at that moment.

Those legs, tucked upside down in the ground, stopped twitching completely. The grave soil lost its ability to devour the living, turning into ordinary, lifeless mud. Some of the people caught in the blast even fell from the soft soil due to gravity, gasping for breath of fresh air.

Although only a dozen or so of the three hundred elite soldiers were rescued so far, the remaining people have changed from a state of certain death to a stable state of being "salvageable, but their graves need to be dealt with slowly."

As the largest lesion in the north of the city was severely damaged, Han Zhao and the others clearly felt the oppressive force of heaven and earth pressing down on their souls suddenly tremble.

After the invisible roar subsided, the surroundings became clear.

The shackles of rules that bound cultivation seemed to have been forcibly torn off. The previously stagnant spiritual energy barrier within the body loosened, finally crossing the critical threshold.

......

The light of dawn struggled to penetrate the miasma of the desolate graveyard.

Shen Yanqiu looked at the rescued flag officer, then at his comrade-in-arms who was still upside down in the ground but had finally escaped his predicament, and solemnly clasped his hands in a salute to Han Zhao.

"From this day forward, the remnants of the Qingzhou Demon Suppression Division will acknowledge your path."

Han Zhao didn't stand on ceremony, but just looked at him and asked:

"Where is the treasurer?"

Shen Yanqiu's face was frighteningly cold.

……

Deep within the headquarters of the Demon Suppression Division of Qingzhou Prefecture.

Inside an underground armory, which is perpetually shrouded in darkness and heavily guarded, a strong smell of preservatives permeates the air.

Before an antique mahogany desk sat a middle-aged man dressed in an impeccably clean, wrinkle-free official robe. His hair was neatly combed, and his face was fair, exuding the refined elegance of someone who had long resided in a study.

He was slowly turning the pages of another moldy old book on the table.

On the cover of the booklet, several large characters were written in ancient seal script: "Complete Record of Old Cases of Evil Spirits in Qingzhou".

The middle-aged clerk picked up a wolf-hair brush and gently dipped it into the dark red cinnabar in the inkstone.

He turned to one of the pages and looked at the three words "Gui Tu Hui" (Return to Earth Society). As if sensing the change in the energy of the northern part of the city, a faint, cold smile appeared on his lips.

As he put down his pen, he casually drew a bright red cross next to the name "Gui Tu Hui" (Return to Earth Society).

"You're really useless."

The middle-aged clerk murmured softly. Then, with remarkable elegance, he moved the brush, dripping with cinnabar, to the next name in the old case file:

"The Skinning Opera Troupe"