Watching Him Build a Tall Building

No sooner had Mr. Luo finished speaking than a muffled thud came from downstairs.

The two vermilion doors closed by themselves, and the bolts slid down into the groove from the inside. The guests who were drinking and listening to music were stunned for a moment, and then some rushed to the door.

"Open the door!"

"My men are still out there, who dares to seal off the building?"

Several guards drew their swords and slashed at the door. The blades fell, but the wooden door was not damaged at all. Instead, their shadows suddenly lengthened and climbed up their trouser legs.

The guard froze instantly.

The next moment, it was as if they had been pushed from behind, their shoulders slamming hard against the red gate.

boom!

one more time.

The woman in the building was so frightened that she hid everywhere, her cries and curses mingling together.

Third floor.

Mr. Luo sat behind the wine table, speaking calmly.

"Your skill level must be quite high for daring to come here alone, and you act with such confidence. However, there are over a hundred lives in this building. If a fight breaks out, I might not be the one to die."

The bluish lights had climbed up to the third floor, and every lamp under the eaves was lit with a bluish glow. A human face was vaguely squeezed in the flames, opening its mouth and emitting a shrill laugh.

only...

The laughter stopped abruptly as soon as it began.

Shen Gui raised his index finger.

The next instant, the green flames throughout the building seemed to be blown by a gale, swaying wildly inside the lampshade.

Mr. Luo's expression changed slightly, and he clasped his fingers together in his sleeve, as if trying to regain control.

Then, for the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.

Looking up at Mount Tai is a threshold. When demons reach the Mount Tai realm, they can take human form. When ghosts reach the Mount Tai realm, they can gain intelligence. Moreover, there are hundreds of types of ghosts, and after gaining intelligence, they will all awaken innate supernatural powers.

Ghosts like Mr. Luo are known as "Xu" in folklore, and they are skilled at manipulating shadows to form formations.

Although he was only at the City Destruction Realm, he dared to challenge even the Cloud Breaking Realm as long as there were enough shadows around him. This was one of the reasons why he made his lair in the brothel.

But now...

The gray-clad figure in front of him made no movement at all, and there was no flow of energy around him. Mr. Luo had lost the ability to control the shadow!

"This is impossible! What level are you at?!"

The air of strategic planning on Mr. Luo's face vanished completely.

Shen Gui pointed his finger down another half inch.

All the green flames shrank and retreated back to the wick, leaving only a tiny speck the size of a grain of rice. With less light, the shadows were no longer as dense.

Those who were crashing into the doors and windows stopped, their shadows lying flat again, pressed tightly against the soles of their shoes, no longer daring to move.

Mr. Luo stood up, took two steps back, and placed his right foot on his own shadow.

Instead of retracting to his feet, the shadow transformed into a thin black line, darting rapidly outwards along the crack in the floor and instantly wrapping around the foot of a purple-robed merchant on the second floor.

The merchant had barely caught his breath when the shadow beneath his feet opened its massive mouth and swallowed him whole.

Mr. Luo's dark red robe faded as he prepared to abandon this human body and escape using the chaos of the crowd. Once the city patrol arrived, the entire building would become a wall blocking his way.

Shen Gui glanced at the second floor.

With just one glance, the shadowy figure was nailed to the wooden board.

Mr. Luo's body was bounced back halfway through his escape.

Immediately afterwards, a thin crack appeared on his face, the fissure spreading from the corner of his mouth all the way to behind his ear, and a slight cracking sound was heard from his chest.

"Click—"

Beneath the dark red robe lay no flesh and blood, only a layer of human skin stretched taut by ghostly energy.

The outer shell peeled off piece by piece, revealing a dark blue-green ghost body inside, with slender limbs and a ball of eerie green soul fire hanging in its chest cavity.

The soul fire had barely left the chest by half an inch when a grayish-white primordial energy fell from the void, pinning it in mid-air like a sharp sword.

"ah!!!"

Mr. Luo screamed, and his ghostly body was lifted off the ground, his feet kicking wildly in mid-air.

Shen Gui found a long bench and sat down.

Mr. Luo gritted his teeth, the composure in his eyes gone.

"Are you someone from the imperial court?"

"Now, I'll ask, and you'll answer."

"Will you let me go if I tell you?"

"Let's see what you say."

Shen Gui paused for a moment, then asked, "You're from Beichizhou? Which lineage are you from, Bai Qi, Ling Zhuo, or Yin Ling?"

Mr. Luo's pupils contracted; he hadn't expected the other party to have such a clear understanding of the ghost cultivator forces in Beichezhou.

He pondered for a moment longer, and suddenly his vital energy surged, followed by a hissing sound.

Mr. Luo's ghostly body was emitting white smoke wildly, and he was in so much pain that he couldn't even scream or curl up.

After ten breaths, his vital energy contracted, and Mr. Luo slumped down, looking listless.

"Speak," Shen Gui said.

The fear in Mr. Luo's eyes could no longer be suppressed, and he quickly replied:

"After the Holy King's death, none of the Northern Tribe clans submitted to the others. Those who were conservative wanted to uphold the rules he left behind, while others waited for a new ruler. Still others felt that the Holy King had been too lenient with the human race back then..."

"Which side are you on?"

"The one who advocates war."

After Mr. Luo finished speaking, he immediately added, "I'm just a side branch member. I didn't actually want to come, but I was forcibly conscripted..."

Why choose Yan Country?

"This... Yan Kingdom has a vast territory. Back then, Yan Ancestor plundered all kinds of treasures from all over the world. Now that Yan Kingdom is in decline, anyone would want to try it first."

He stared at Shen Gui's face, trying to glean something from those words.

Shen Gui continued to ask:

"How is an evil realm created?"

"It can't be made."

Mr. Luo answered decisively this time.

"The Fiend Realm cannot be created by setting up an array. There must first be corpses and thoughts that cannot be let go before death. These thoughts also need to be on a certain scale. The Three Fiends Incense-Reversing Array can only serve as a catalyst to bring these things out from underground."

He paused to catch his breath, then added, "The molding process is very unstable; we're still testing it..."

This was similar to Shen Gui's assessment, so he asked again:

"Within the territory of Yan, who is unifying things? You?"

"It wasn't me! It was..."

Mr. Luo opened his mouth to speak again, when suddenly a black line rose from the depths of his soul core, then shrank back and plunged into his ghostly soul.

Shen Gui reached out and grabbed.

He pulled half of the black thread from the soul core, and it twisted and turned between his fingers like a hair that had been burned.

The remaining black lines all stopped.

Mr. Luo stood frozen in mid-air.

"What is being integrated is..."

Mr. Luo stared, a layer of black mist rising from his forehead. "I don't know, I can't remember..."

He panicked himself: "Impossible, I've seen it... I clearly..."

His soul core had long been protected by a contingency plan. If Shen Gui hadn't been replaced by anyone else at the scene, this ghost would have been reduced to ashes by now.

Shen Gui snapped his two fingers together and crushed the black line.

The restriction itself isn't difficult to break; it's just that once something has been erased, bringing it back will only leave a blank space.

Mr. Luo looked down at his soul core, and after a long while, he raised his face again. Driven by his survival instinct, he said:

"Even setting aside the most crucial intelligence, the other information I possess is also very useful..."

He spoke much faster, "We still have contact points in Yan Kingdom, trading companies, sects, and people in the court to pass messages for us. I'll write them all down, and you'll spare my life."

Shen Gui didn't want to ask anymore; he didn't care how Yan Kingdom was doing.

In Shen Gui's view, if the Yan Kingdom could still be destroyed after he left behind such a vast foundation, then it truly deserved to be destroyed.

Since there was nothing more he wanted to know, Shen Gui stood up.

Mr. Luo seemed to sense something and exclaimed in surprise, "I've said so much, why won't you let me go!"

He struggled violently, causing the air nails that held the soul fire in place to whimper.

Ignoring his pain, Mr. Luo shouted to the guests outside the door, "Help me! He killed me, you're next! Break down the door! Break down the door now!"

He sealed the door shut, but at that moment he most wanted to open it.

The guests huddled around the tables, the courtesans supported each other, and the girl who had warmed his wine earlier stood at the corner on the second floor, her face pale, but she didn't dare to take a step forward.

Shen Gui finally arrived in front of Mr. Luo, who exclaimed in surprise:

"Wait! I can't say who the unifier is, but I can take you to him. If you kill me, they'll move on immediately. I'm more useful alive than dead!"

The fire within the soul core flickered.

Mr. Luo's voice immediately went quiet.

"Please...let me go...please..."

Shen Gui pointed his finger half an inch forward: "You shouldn't have disturbed the soldiers' rest."

The pillar of energy suddenly exploded.

As if exposed to the blazing sun, Mr. Luo's ghostly form first emitted white smoke, and a moment later, not even ashes fell. The ghostly figure downstairs also vanished at that moment.

Shen Gui lightly waved his sleeve, and a spark passed through the railing and fell into the green lamp, reigniting its wick.

This time, the fire was white.

The shadow of the living person returned to his feet.

Someone lifted their foot to try it out, and the shadow obediently followed suit.

The front door finally opened, and the people by the door were stunned at first, then rushed out in a swarm.

Some people even lost a shoe, while others were still clutching the copper coins they hadn't finished collecting. Several courtesans helped each other out, and the last one looked back at the third floor as he left.

But the fire did not stop.

It burned the lanterns, burned the beams and pillars, burned the entire building.

The firelight turned the entire night into day, and the rising of the fire resembled the dissipation of the Seventh Battalion soldiers.

Under the blazing flames, Zhaoyue followed Shen Gui out of the city.

Zhaoyue heard orderly footsteps approaching from afar:

"Caw, the soldiers are here."

"Let's go."

"Young master, shall we continue searching for the people behind us?"

"Don't worry about it too much."

"Where do we go?"

"Go see an old friend."

Shen Gui gazed into the distance and spoke softly.

Zhaoyue didn't ask any more questions. It turned back to look at the burning building again before looking away.

People rushed out of their houses and looked toward the fire, watching as the spring moon, a place only the rich dared to visit, vanished. Few said it was a pity; most were gloating.

Seeing him rising from a tall building, seeing his banquet guests, seeing his building collapsed.