Chapter 462: This Monk Is Impressive! Blood Moon in the Sky! A Mysterious Town! The Dreamscape Realm!

In that distorted scene, a patch of blank whiteness appeared.

Master Zhiqing was now enveloped in Buddhist radiance. Despite his young age, he actually looked like a high monk who had attained enlightenment. He had truly, with his own power alone, forcibly opened the entrance to the ghost domain hidden within the Liu ancestral hall.

This monk’s got some skill,

Li Yanchu muttered inwardly.

Master Zhiqing strode directly into that blank patch of space, his figure vanishing instantly.

Li Yanchu hesitated for only a moment before following him. After all, this was a deadly place where yin and yang clashed. Seeing this, Zhang Wei’s expression turned serious.

“Senior, wait for me!” he called as he rushed in.

After the three entered, the blank space slowly returned to normal. The twisted scenery around them smoothed out as well, as if nothing that had happened earlier was real at all.

***

The sky was pitch black, and a blood-red moon hung overhead. Its glaring crimson light made one’s skin crawl.

Just then, Li Yanchu froze as he realized the world around him had become an entirely different space. He now stood in what appeared to be an ordinary town.

Looking around, he saw only pitch-black mountains and dense forests surrounding the town on all sides. It was silent and oppressive, as if hiding terrifying beasts waiting to devour whoever approached.

The buildings around him were simple, ordinary homes, nothing strange. It looked like a completely normal small town.

Then, a thoughtful expression flickered across Li Yanchu’s eyes as countless possibilities flashed through his mind. The moment he stepped into this town, he had been reduced to an ordinary human. His once-mighty blood-qi and abundant power, they were all gone. His peak Yin Spirit cultivation had vanished, leaving his soul no different from any average person.

This place is pretty interesting

, Li Yanchu thought to himself.

His mind raced, and he quickly concluded that this was likely something akin to a dreamscape realm, a unique space governed by its own laws. Anyone who entered would be bound by its rules.

He tried to connect with the purple-gold qi within his primordial spirit, the mysterious

Fire Official’s Sacred Edict

, and was surprised to find the connection still there!

Not only that, although he carried no physical items, and his Jiaoslayer, Eight Trigrams Mirror, as well as everything else had vanished, when he looked into his sea of consciousness, he discovered all those treasures floating quietly within it.

The sleek, Tang-Saber-shaped Jiaoslayer, the Eight Trigrams Mirror shimmering with white light, the Dao Dust Bead, along with an imposing set of armor, a simple ancient seal, and an Apricot-Yellow Banner were all floating quietly there.

With just a thought, he felt he could use these powerful treasures at any moment, and doing so would shatter the restrictions on him and allow him to leave this place.

The limitations here aren’t that strict,

Li Yanchu mused.

But he had no intention of using such powerful artifacts. He faintly sensed that although using them would free him, he might never be able to reenter this strange realm again.

Since he had such overwhelming trump cards and could leave whenever he wanted, he wasn’t worried. He picked a blacksmith shop and stepped inside.

At this time, the empty street was deserted, eerily silent. Calmly, Li Yanchu pushed open the blacksmith shop door and entered slowly.

His deductions were mostly correct: this really wasn’t a typical ghost domain but a dreamscape realm. Anyone who entered could not easily leave, nor could they use their abilities, let alone magical artifacts.

But... Li Yanchu carried too many high-grade artifacts.

The Lord of Mount Tai's Seal needed no explanation, while the Apricot-Yellow Banner was an immortal artifact. The Jiaoslayer, Eight Trigrams Mirror, Dao Dust Bead, and talismanic armor were all ten-thousand-merit-points treasures with their own consciousness. As for the purple-gold qi and the Fire Official’s Sacred Edict, those were immortal inheritances.

The level of these items was simply too high, and this dreamscape realm couldn’t suppress them. And so this strange situation occurred: it looked dangerous, but he could leave at any moment...

Inside the blacksmith shop, the forge was still lit, yet no one was around. He wanted to pick a forged weapon, since his current body was only slightly stronger than an ordinary human’s. Picking up a couple weapons for self-defense would greatly improve his survival chances in this dreamscape realm.

But to his surprise, the blacksmith shop had no completed weapons at all; it only had hoes, sickles, kitchen knives, and pots... He looked around, and most were half-finished.

In the end, Li Yanchu selected a sharp kitchen knife and tucked it into his waistband.

“This dreamscape realm actually follows logic? A blacksmith shop with no forged weapons...” he couldn’t help complaining.

A kitchen knife wasn’t nearly enough, so he hoisted the blacksmith’s giant hammer onto his shoulder. The thing was heavy; its sheer weight alone would boost his attack power.

And so, under the blood moon’s glow, a young Daoist walked down the empty street of the small town, carrying a massive iron hammer on his shoulder...

The look was honestly a bit ridiculous, but still, Li Yanchu was handsome. His features were sharply defined, his lines clean and firm, and he had broad shoulders with narrow waist. He was tall and exceptionally good-looking.

Striding down the street on those long legs of his, taking in the cold, eerie atmosphere around him, Li Yanchu actually found it somewhat refreshing.

He wandered through the streets, hoping to find others who had entered this dreamscape realm, such as that burly Master Zhiqing, and Zhang Wei from a cultivation clan. How were they faring now?

Suddenly, Li Yanchu stopped walking. He had arrived before a shop selling spirit money and funeral incense, and his gaze was drawn to it involuntarily.

“This place is definitely haunted. A shop like this should have something that deals with ghosts, right?”

With that thought, he strode right in.

A normal person, faced with a situation like this, a haunted ancestral hall, a dreamscape realm, and now a funeral goods shop, would be nervous. This shop seemed more likely to have ghosts than anything else!

But since Li Yanchu had the ability to leave anytime he wanted, he had no intention of acting timidly and decided to take bold action.

The moment he stepped inside, a surge of cold air washed over him. His neck felt icy, as if someone were leaning over his shoulder and breathing on him. The shop sold paper money, incense, white lanterns with the word “Offering” on them, paper effigies, paper horses, paper sedan chairs...

However, they were all crudely made, especially the paper boy and girl. Compared to the ones he’d encountered before, these were far inferior. Still, their bright red cheeks and odd expressions were unsettling.

For some reason, though, Li Yanchu didn’t feel fear when he saw these paper figurines. In fact, he felt... a little familiar with them.

“This thing again.” He chuckled softly and continued searching the shop for anything useful. Shrouds for the elderly, paper money, bright red candles, white candles were neatly arranged; everything here was related to the dead.

A timid person would have been terrified by now. But Li Yanchu had nerves of steel. He rummaged around casually, flipping through things left and right.

When he reached the back of the shop, his pupils contracted sharply. There was a coffin placed there, complete with inked measuring lines.

That style usually meant only one thing: there was a

jiangshi

inside.

Having grown up watching Uncle Nine’s movies, Li Yanchu knew the signs well. He circled the coffin slowly, examining it carefully.