I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

The desperate video of the "midnight bus" was like an unstoppable plague, completely destroying the psychological defenses that humanity had just built up in just a few hours.

People finally understood that this world not only had man-eating monsters, but also unkillable mysteries.

To curb the further spread of panic, the authorities had to retaliate. A direct order was issued from the top: at all costs, the morgue of the Third People's Hospital of Jiangnan City, designated an "extremely dangerous zone," was to be removed, giving a strong boost to the morale of people and monks worldwide.

Under the cover of night, outside the Third People's Hospital of Jiangnan City.

Dozens of heavy armored vehicles surrounded the hospital building, and searchlights tore through the night sky. Bureau 749 dispatched thirty of the most elite cultivators from the Jiangnan region, along with a fully armed special infantry battalion, to carry out a thorough "physical purification" of this area shrouded in yin energy.

"Everyone, we've all seen what happened to Chen Yan."

Zhao Changhe, the frontline commander and a sword cultivator in the early Foundation Establishment stage, had a grim expression. Looking at the fully equipped cultivators and soldiers before him, he spoke in a loud voice:

"The bus incident was so tragic because it was an enclosed vehicle, and Chen Yan was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining, lacking sufficient spiritual energy reserves. But today we have thirty high-level cultivators, and the most advanced incendiary bombs and high-voltage electric fences!"

"Ghosts aren't invincible! They're essentially energy entities too. With high-intensity spiritual power and extreme physical heat, we can vaporize them along with their hiding places!"

"Let's go! Let's perform a ritual to help them find peace!"

With a command given, the assault team, like a sharp knife, plunged straight into the morgue on the second basement floor of the hospital ward.

As they descended deeper into the elevator shaft, the surrounding temperature began to plummet. The walls were covered in black frost, and the air was thick with the stench of a mixture of formaldehyde and rotting corpses.

"Bang!"

The heavy iron door of the morgue was blasted away by two psionic armor-piercing bullets.

The moment the door opened, a series of extremely mournful wails and howls rushed out. Inside the spacious underground space, hundreds of grayish-white phantoms floated densely. These were the remnant souls of those who had died of illness or violent death in the hospital, unable to dissipate due to the resurgence of spiritual energy.

"Fire!"

Without hesitation, the soldiers pulled the triggers, unleashing a barrage of specially made incendiary and tracer rounds that instantly turned the entire morgue into a sea of ​​fire.

At the same time, Zhao Changhe and the other thirty cultivators roared in unison, and the flying swords and talismans in their hands burst forth with extremely dazzling spiritual light.

"Blazing Sun Sword Qi!"

"Five Thunder Orthodox Method, broken!"

Under this overwhelming barrage, a miracle seemed to have truly occurred.

As Zhao Changhe said, the pure Yang energy of the cultivation civilization has an absolute restraining effect on these Yin spirits. Those menacing ghosts are as fragile as a thin sheet of paper the moment they come into contact with the high-temperature flames and pure Yang sword energy.

Amidst screams of agony, ghosts disintegrated in the flames. Before they could even unleash their mental corruption, they were crushed into a cloud of gray dust by the violent force.

Less than ten minutes.

The once eerie and terrifying morgue had been completely cleaned up. Apart from the charred metal freezers and ashes scattered all over the floor, not a single ghost could be seen.

"It's a success!"

"Director Zhao, thermal imaging and spiritual energy detectors show that the abnormal spiritual activity in this area has been eliminated!"

"Well done! It seems the so-called 'underworld' is nothing special after all; with enough firepower, we can still physically exorcise them!"

The commandos erupted in cheers, as if the gloom that had been weighing on their hearts had been swept away.

However, Zhao Changhe, standing in the center of the ruins, did not put away his flying sword. He frowned slightly, sensing the air around him.

Something's not right...

Zhao Changhe's voice trembled slightly: "We clearly dispersed all the ghosts, so why... is the temperature here not only not rising, but even colder?"

Everyone was taken aback and looked at the instrument in their hands.

That's right, the spiritual response has indeed dropped to zero. However, the indicator representing the "concentration of Yin energy" is skyrocketing at an alarming rate!

"Look at the ground!" a young monk exclaimed in horror, pointing to the charred floor tiles.

Everyone gasped.

The ghosts that had just been shattered by the sword energy and flames turned into countless extremely fine gray dust particles. Normally, they should have dispersed with the wind or been completely purified by the high temperature.

However, under the rules of spiritual energy revival, these remnants representing extreme yin energy have nowhere to be released!

They were like living liquid mercury, frantically gathering, writhing, and devouring each other on the cold floor of the morgue.

Pools of dark gray yin energy gathered together like streams, first reforming into even more solidified evil spirits. They let out piercing shrieks, and, carrying an even stronger venom, pounced forward once more!

"There's a second wave! Form ranks!" Zhao Changhe shouted sharply.

The commando team had no choice but to bite the bullet and open fire again.

Incendiary bombs roared, sword energy crisscrossed, and the newly reconstituted evil spirits were scattered once again. But this time, the scum left behind after their collapse did not decrease. Instead, because dozens of cultivators attacked simultaneously, they tore it even finer, spreading it into a more uniform and difficult-to-handle gray-black mist.

Before everyone could catch their breath, the scum gathered towards the center once again.

the third time.

the fourth time.

the fifth time.

Each time they are scattered, they fall silent for a moment; each time they reassemble, the resulting form is larger, more twisted, and more stable than the last.

Initially, there were dozens of ferocious evil spirits, then they turned into seven or eight bloated, combined yin creatures, and later, only three terrifying monsters remained that could almost withstand the sword energy of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The temperature in the morgue continued to drop with each cleaning, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were all covered in black frost. The air seemed to have solidified into viscous bodily fluid, and every breath felt like swallowing ice crystals.

At this moment, everyone truly realized that they were not "eliminating" these ghosts, but rather purifying, filtering, and compressing them time and time again.

Low-level resentment is constantly eliminated, but the truly stubborn, truly malicious, and truly indelible part is preserved in the repeated disintegration and reassembly.

"Click click click..."

The sickening sound of bones grinding together echoed through the empty morgue.

After being broken up and reassembled several times, under the firelight, the remaining scum finally stopped splitting and slowly collapsed towards the same core.

A terrifying silhouette, so enormous it almost reached the ceiling, finally began to take shape little by little within the thick black mist.

It has no fixed shape; it is like a "mountain of flesh" forcibly kneaded together from countless severed limbs and countless twisted, wailing faces.

Because it has incorporated too many lingering obsessions and yin energy left over from the shattered cycles, its resurrection and formation are extremely slow, like a huge, stuck gear turning little by little.

But the mere pressure it exuded was enough to suffocate everyone present!

"It...it wasn't created by fusing together all at once..." a cultivator's voice trembled, his face deathly pale. "It was forged through repeated battles..."

Zhao Changhe's eyes were bloodshot, and defiantly unleashing his strongest pure Yang sword energy once more: "Die!"

"when!"

The sword energy, which could have easily shattered low-level ghosts, instead produced a dull thud as it struck the slowly forming "mountain of flesh." The sword light left only a faint white mark on its surface before being instantly corroded and swallowed up by the extremely dense Yin energy surrounding it.

Zhao Changhe's worldview collapsed at that moment.

He finally understood a despairing truth.

In this world, you can indeed destroy ghosts. But as long as the extreme yin energy of heaven and earth cannot be released, every so-called "kill" you perform is merely helping these remnants undergo a deeper "reshuffling and fusion"!

If you shatter ten little devils, they will merge into a stronger evil spirit; if you blast a thousand evil spirits, they will slowly gestate in the ruins into an unparalleled ferocious spirit that even high-level cultivators cannot match!

The more powerful they are, the slower they resurrect, but as long as they exist, this area will be permanently forbidden to the living.

"Retreat... Everyone retreat! Seal off the second basement level!"

Zhao Changhe let out a hoarse roar. He knew that with humanity's current methods, it was utterly impossible to deal with this monster that grew stronger the more it was fought. Unless there was a place specifically for collecting Yin energy, any struggle they made here would only be feeding the monster.

The assault team fled the hospital in a disheveled state, the heavy blast door locked tight.

At the very last moment before the gate closed, they saw the massive, slowly writhing mountain of flesh finally open its hundreds and thousands of empty eyes.

……

The raid on the Third Hospital of Jiangnan City ultimately ended in a desperate retreat by the authorities.

When the top-secret reports and images of the "Frankenstein's monster" were transmitted back to various command centers, the global leadership and the cultivation world fell into a true deathly silence.

Humans can defeat powerful monsters because once a monster dies, it is just a corpse.

But humans cannot overcome a "mechanism".

As long as people die and yin energy continues to accumulate, these unkillable remnants will eventually coalesce into a terrifying, world-destroying entity. Humanity's prized cultivation techniques and modern technology are utterly inadequate when it comes to dealing with the rules of death—they're less effective than a garbage can.

The internet has completely lost its former hustle and bustle.

Instead, there was a deep-seated despair and pleading.

"We can't win... It's not a matter of power, it's that the world is broken."

"We need a place where people can be completely controlled..."

Where is the legendary underworld? Where are the Ten Kings of Hell?

For the first time in their subconscious, they so desperately longed for that legendary, gloomy, and terrifying hell to actually exist.

Compared to the monsters in reality that grow stronger with each battle and endlessly regenerate, the underworld, with its strict rules and clear distinction between good and evil, is simply humanity's last refuge!

……

Gu Qing listened quietly to the desperate prayers that came from all over the earth, a vast expanse of galaxies.

On his retina, the red warning sign instantly turned into a pleasing light blue.

[The rendering progress of "Netherworld" is 99.9%...100%!]

[Ding—The main structure of Fengdu Ghost City has been fully materialized!]

With that crisp system notification, the massive underground world model on Gu Qing's retina instantly burst forth with an extremely dazzling dark blue light, transforming from a stream of ethereal data into a real, existing space of laws.

The massive machine that was on the verge of collapse, Earth, finally had a "super hard drive" that could hold all the excess Yin energy and had a perfect recycling mechanism.

Gu Qing slowly raised his hands, and in his eyes, devoid of human emotion, shone an absolute majesty like that of a creator.

"Since all beings suffer, they yearn for hell."

"Then I will grant your wish."