Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

After Shen Jue and Jian Zi tracked down the remaining evil spirits and wiped out some of them in New York.

Throughout the entire process, Shen Jue, who was using Maoshan Taoist magic to conceal himself, was completely transparent from the perspective of the evil spirits.

Only cultivators and humans can observe Shen Jue's existence.

Seeing that Zi skillfully and cautiously eliminated many evil spirits that were weak to her but insurmountable to ordinary people.

But the evil spirits in New York City are just minor players on the American continent.

Those terrifying demons and evil entities that are almost impossible to deal with are what keep the church and the American government struggling on the American continent.

Shen Jue and his companion dressed like cowboys from the 18th and 19th centuries in America and arrived at the outskirts of New York City.

The closer one gets to the edge of New York, the more a thick, malevolent darkness envelops Miko.

This is a terror that only those who have cultivated magical powers can perceive.

For ordinary people, everything outside New York City remains the same.

A large number of military and police personnel are stationed on the outskirts of major cities on a daily basis.

When Jianzi and Shen Jue arrived at the edge of New York City, they caused a certain degree of commotion.

After all, Shen Jue's information and data had already been circulated by the astute President of the United States to all continents and agencies of the U.S. government.

"Is that the Eastern Emperor from the records?" a young soldier with freckles on his face asked the old soldier next to him in a low voice.

"My God! He's so handsome."

"They look like people who stepped out of a church mural."

These soldiers were stationed on the outskirts of New York City, and their perceptions were not completely distorted; most of them were aware of the existence of evil.

However, they do not truly understand or know the specific messages of those evil spirits and evil.

The young soldier's fingers rested on the outside of the trigger guard of the M4 carbine, the muzzle pointing towards the ground, but his eyes never left Shen Jue.

The veteran did not answer.

His gaze swept back and forth between Shen Jue and Jian Zi twice before he finally lowered his head, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

Shen Jue sensed those gazes; the soldiers before him seemed to be living in fear.

The lieutenant at the outpost came out of the duty room.

He held a fax in his hand, which had Shen Jue's photo on it and the White House emergency notification number.

The lieutenant glanced at Shen Jue in the photo, put down the document, and walked to the barbed wire fence.

"Mr. Shen." The lieutenant's pronunciation was stiff, but his tone was very respectful.

"The Presidential Office has already updated your access permissions."

"The entire Americas, including the controlled areas."

Shen Jue took off his cowboy hat and nodded at him.

Jianzi had already reached the very edge of the defensive line.

She stopped and turned to look at the desolate area beyond the barbed wire fence, which appeared perfectly normal to ordinary people.

Jianzi's right hand unconsciously tightened its grip on the pistol at her waist.

Inside the New York City security perimeter, many vehicles were clustered together, with many people deep asleep in their seats.

Several church pastors and armed soldiers were guarding these people.

Seeing that Zi was looking in that direction with a questioning gaze.

Shen Jue did not share much information about the United States with Xiao Jianzi.

He worried that Jianzi might not be able to accept so many moral shocks that exceeded her imagination in a short time.

The lieutenant followed Miko's gaze and looked at the vehicles.

"Those people," the lieutenant began, his voice much lower than before, "they want to leave New York."

Seeing that Zi had turned his head to look at the lieutenant.

Her hand was still gripping the handle of the gun at her waist.

"The purpose of the defensive line is not to stop things from coming in from the wilderness," the lieutenant said.

"It's to prevent people from leaving the city."

A gust of wind blew in from outside the barbed wire fence, lifting the brim of Jianzi's cowboy hat.

"Any unmarked person attempting to leave the city boundary on foot will experience cognitive impairment within a distance of 400 to 600 meters as they approach the defensive line." The lieutenant slowed his speech, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth.

Symptoms include loss of time, disorientation, and blurred self-identity.

"Then they will stop, choose a comfortable position, and fall into a deep sleep."

He pointed to the vehicles.

"The patrol teams stationed here conduct a patrol along the outer edge of the defensive line every forty minutes."

"Those found will be brought back and placed in different locations."

"The pastor is responsible for watching over them and preventing them from being corrupted during their slumber."

"How long do they sleep?" Jianzi asked, her expression strange.

"It could take anywhere from a few hours to twelve hours," the lieutenant said.

"After waking up, no one remembered ever trying to leave."

"They will voluntarily return to the city along the same route."

"And then?" Miko asked.

"Then they'll go back to their old lives. They'll go to work, go to the supermarket, and greet their neighbors again." The lieutenant's Adam's apple bobbed once.

"But in their memory, they never even considered leaving New York."

"That gap was filled with other things: I went to see a movie, took a walk in Central Park, and visited relatives in Brooklyn—it was all fake."

Seeing that Zisong had loosened the gun handle and let his hand hang down at his side.

She looked at the figures of people leaning against the back seats in those vehicles.

A middle-aged woman, with disheveled hair and her mouth slightly open.

A young boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old, was carrying a canvas backpack.

Seeing that the boy did not ask any further questions.

Shen Jue stood behind her and nodded calmly.

He had seen those documents, all the classified briefings that the White House had forwarded through the consulate.

He knew the lieutenant hadn't even gotten to the worst of it.

"Then how do we leave the city?" Jianzi asked.

"You said the president gave you permission to leave, so you can't walk out."

"The train," the lieutenant said.

"There are dedicated armored trains that travel between major cities."

He paused.

"The train is the only safe passageway within the Americas."

"Driving into the wilderness is suicide."

"The city has become a series of isolated islands connected by trains."

"The more people know the truth, the more easily they are driven crazy by pressure."

The lieutenant took off his hat and held it in his hand.

"This is the New York defense line, miss."

Jianzi looked at him, then turned his gaze to the vehicles.

The soldiers with guns stood still, while the pale-faced priests bowed their heads, the crosses in their hands reflecting a pale light.

Their expressions were resolute, carrying a determination that even Shen Jue found remarkable.

These priests are spiritual practitioners, and the magical power within them is the church's unique system of holy light.

In Shen Jue's eyes, these priests, who appeared to be ascetics, were radiating a warm holy light that enveloped the New York defense line and the people within it.

The Great Sun Magic Power within Shen Jue's body transformed into a circle of pale golden light that spread from his fingertips to the soles of Jianzi's feet.

"Let's go," Shen Jue said.

This great sun magic power also has a concealment effect.

Seeing that Zi only had time to take a deep breath, her body suddenly lost its weight, and the concrete ground beneath her feet flew away rapidly.

The barbed wire, military vehicles, sentry posts, and the crosses in the hands of the priests all shrank into a flat image in an instant.

One layer, which Jianzi couldn't understand, was Shen Jue's Great Sun Magic Power, which isolated Jianzi from the wind pressure outside.

The lieutenant looked up, his military cap slipped from his hand, and rolled half a circle on the ground.

His mouth was open, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, but he couldn't make a sound.

Even though they already knew about Shen Jue's power from the information, seeing Shen Jue for the first time was like seeing a superhero from a comic book carrying people into the sky.

The lieutenant was deeply shocked.

He saw the two figures in denim outfits ascend at an incredible speed, heading straight into the thick darkness deep in the wilderness.

The freckled young soldier dropped his M4 carbine, his legs buckled, and he knelt on the asphalt road.

An older pastor was the first to react.

The holy light emanating from him fluctuated violently the moment Shen Jue took flight, before stabilizing.

He knelt on one knee, grasped the cross in front of his chest with both hands, and closed his eyes.

"Our Father in heaven," the pastor began, his voice hoarse but firm, "may all hallow your name."

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Shen Jue heard the sound coming from the ground hundreds of meters in the air.

The Phantom Breath Technique and Gravity Manipulation kept the two of them levitating.

The New York defense line shrank into a thin strip of light behind Miko, who gripped the gun handle at her waist so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Teacher." Her voice was somewhat low.

Shen Jue turned her head to the side.

"Will they be alright?" Jianzi asked.

Shen Jue remained silent for a moment.

"Those priests," he said.

"His magical power is weak, and his cultivation level is shallow."

"Decades of arduous cultivation have yielded a holy light that is not even half as pure as your meager Great Sun power."

"But they are indeed fighting on the front lines against evil."

"They are responsible for intercepting and relaying intelligence should any evil entity attempt to enter New York City."

He turned his head and looked again into the darkness of the wilderness.

"See, they are the ones guarding the isolated island."

"If that thing awakens, then we don't need to worry about whether they will sacrifice themselves."

"The Americas should be the first continent to be completely occupied."

The darkness of the wilderness rushed in, and the thick malice was like a wall.

Shen Jue raised his hand, and a ray of Dharma Sun power spread out in front of the two of them.

The darkness was split open, rolling and receding to both sides.

The two flew in the darkness for several minutes.

Seeing that Zi kept his eyes fixed on the front, the malice surging outside the Great Sun Magic Barrier seemed to recede and then converge again, like seawater that had been split open.

A beam of light appeared in the darkness below.

That is the holy light unique to church practitioners.

A faint, steady warmth, carrying a certain stubbornness, burns continuously in the boundless darkness.

He saw that Zi had lowered his head to look.

An armored train is traveling through the wilderness.

The train body is covered with thick steel plates, and the top of each carriage is inlaid with the church's cross symbol.

Those crosses were not painted decorations, but genuine religious implements, emitting a pale light in the darkness.

Metal guardrails engraved with prayers hung on both sides of the train, and there were burn marks on the guardrails from some kind of black substance.

"That's the train that connects the various cities," Shen Jue's voice reached Jianzi's ears.

Shen Jue lowered the altitude, and the two of them hovered about thirty meters above the train, moving forward with it.

From this distance, Jianzi can see more details.

At the junction of each carriage stood a priest, holding a cross, whose holy light radiated outwards at a visible speed.

Holy light formed a thin film of light on the surface of the carriages, enveloping the entire train.

But Zi also saw something else.

The priests had pale faces, sunken eyes, prominent cheekbones, and chapped lips.

A person stood at the connection point of the third carriage, holding a cross in both hands, his body trembling slightly.

His holy light flickered, and each time it dimmed, he would grit his teeth and rekindle it.

"They..." Jianzi said, unable to bear it any longer, "Are they burning away their own life force?"

"Yes." Shen Jue's voice was flat.

"Practitioners of the Holy Light system can transform their life force into holy light and inject it into the train's protective array."

"A trip that crosses two cities usually requires ten to twelve pastors to take turns maintaining protection."

"The holy light gained through cultivation alone is not enough to prevent the train from being attacked by evil spirits and wickedness in the wilderness."

"The holy light that the priests obtain by burning their life force can only sustain them for a period of time." Shen Jue's gaze fell on the last carriage at the rear of the train.

That carriage had no windows, no signs, only a tightly closed iron door.

"That carriage wasn't filled with people."

"What is it?"

"The soul," Shen Jue continued, sighing.

"The ascetics who died in battle in cities and wilderness."

"The monks of Holy Light who died fighting against evil."

"Their souls were sealed away by the church in a special ceremony and placed in that carriage."

"As the train travels, the magic circle draws the remaining holy light from their souls as additional power for the train."

A look of terror appeared on Jianzi's face.

"Most of them did it voluntarily," Shen Jue continued.

"To continue burning after death so that trains can travel between cities."

"So that humanity on the Americas will not lose its last hope."

The train whistle sounded, a long blast piercing the darkness and echoing through the wilderness, the sound deep and lingering.

"At the end of each journey, a portion of the soul is completely exhausted," Shen Jue said.

"The last ray of holy light was used up, and the soul dissipated."

"Their names are engraved on a stone monument underground in Washington, D.C."

"That's why trains can run in the dark."

"Burning life, turning practitioners into firewood to light up the darkness."

Seeing this, Zi thought of the barrier that covered the entire New York City area and the nearby sea.

She asked anxiously, "Teacher Shen Jue!"

"If even the trains are consuming the lives of these priests and the souls of those who died in battle!"

"What about those barriers?!"

"So, little Jianzi." A rare look of regret appeared on Shen Jue's face.

Shen Jue looked at Jianzi.

"Those barriers," he said softly, "are also consuming souls."

"Humans possessing the purest form of kindness."

"He never harmed anyone in his life, and even in despair, he chose to help others. When he was hungry, he shared his food with strangers, and when he was cold, he draped his clothes over others."

"That kind of person," Shen Jue continued.

"After they died, their souls were guided by the church pastors in a ritual. Instead of entering the train, they were sent into a protective barrier."

He raised his hand and pointed in the direction of New York.

In that direction, the Statue of Liberty stands quietly.

"The barrier around the Statue of Liberty in New York."

"Its core magic circle requires burning the best qualities that remain in those souls."

"Kindness, compassion, selflessness, courage."

"These qualities are transformed into light that protects the entire city within the magic circle."

"Most of the souls of spiritual practitioners have entered the train."

"And those ordinary people who live their lives of kindness, who have never taken up arms, who have never practiced the Holy Light, who simply live purely and treat others with kindness."

"Their souls were used to maintain the last refuge for human survival on the American continent."

Seeing that Zi's face had turned pale.

"That Statue of Liberty holding the torch," she whispered.

"Yes, she burns with the human soul, sustaining hope," Shen Jue sighed.