The earth seemed to slumber, the desolate streets hushed and still, save for the occasional cool breeze. The night, a heavy, oppressive black, was smeared across the sky like boundless, thick ink, not even allowing the faintest starlight to pierce through.
“This is more like it.”
As Lin Xuan gazed at the gloomy town, rendered even more ominous by the surrounding weather and encroaching night, a thrill of excitement stirred within her.
Exploring the mysterious and uncovering the truth was, after all, human nature. As a staunch materialist who disbelieved in ghosts and gods, Lin Xuan’s greatest pleasure lay in investigating those seemingly inexplicable “haunted incidents.”
Initially, she hadn’t been a materialist. Given her peculiar constitution, it seemed more fitting to attribute it to spirits than to some mutated gene theory.
However, after numerous investigations, it became painstakingly clear that there were no ghosts or gods in this world whatsoever!
All those tales of female specters in parks or water ghouls in rivers, each more fantastical than the last, had proven utterly baseless. She had spent countless nights sitting on park benches and wandering riverbanks, yet hadn’t seen a single wisp of anything supernatural. Only snoring homeless people.
Thus, in Lin Xuan’s eyes, so-called spiritualism was nothing more than fabrications concocted by bored individuals to scare others. If ghosts truly existed, they were merely people in disguise.
Perhaps due to the prolonged absence of residents, the town’s ground was littered with withered branches and decaying leaves. Lin Xuan stepped on something with a crunch almost every two paces.
Yet, since it didn’t impede her progress, she paid it no mind.
*Crunch, crunch!*
Subtle cracking sounds continuously echoed in her ears. Lin Xuan, while setting her camera to a 180-degree wide-angle mode, lowered her head to consult the electronic map displayed on her phone.
“Does this main road in town lead to the cultural square in the center? The square looks quite large!”
Her finger glided across the screen, quickly locating a red marker at the innermost part of the town.
“The Mayor’s Office. If I’m not mistaken, that grand armchair was said to be in the office lobby!”
Her mind swiftly formulated her next route and the content for her broadcast. Lin Xuan reopened her microphone and quickened her pace, soon traversing the main road.
Perhaps due to its proximity to the mountains, several mosquitoes often buzzed by her ears. Lin Xuan casually waved her hands twice, and the pests quickly dispersed.
“Is this the open-air square that supposedly spouts blood?”
Looking at the empty square before her and the long-dry fountain in its center, Lin Xuan felt a pang of disappointment.
What had been hyped online as the “cursed fountain that drives all who enter mad” was, in reality, nothing more than a long-abandoned, desolate public square.
“I really shouldn’t have held such high hopes…”
She muttered, letting out a long sigh, and brought the microphone hanging by her side back to her mouth.
“Hello, everyone! This is the legendary Death Fountain. As tonight’s special program, I’ll be performing a dance right here!”
****
Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier, just as Lin Xuan had stepped through the town’s entrance…
Before the Divine Mirror in the Heavenly Mountain Sacred Realm, several members of the Immortal Alliance, led by the Vice Alliance Leader, and including two generals from the Shadow Guard, watched with eyes wide open in disbelief.
They had temporarily stopped questioning why an ancient demonic formation was hidden within a town that should have been peaceful. What was unfolding before them was simply too mind-boggling.
On the electronic screen, the once normal scene began to warp and distort, even flickering with static.
In the Divine Mirror, however, these seemingly normal scenes were already utterly unrecognizable.
“Can we zoom in further?”
Daoist Qingcheng swallowed hard as they asked.
“Zooming in further might displease the Shangxian, but I can try to adjust the view from other angles as much as possible.”
With the Vice Alliance Leader’s practiced movements, the surveillance formations hidden beneath the ground and within the mountains surrounding Fengmen Town were activated.
Since the demonic formation had cracks and was incomplete, blurry video feeds soon appeared on different facets of the rhomboid mirror.
As everyone watched with wide eyes, they saw, along Her path, one terrifying ghost head after another emerge from beneath the ground. Their crimson eyes billowed with thick, black smoke, as if these demons had crawled straight from hell.
They shrieked and roared, seemingly intent on tearing apart the figure before them.
And then…
She stepped directly onto the nearest green-faced, fanged ghost head.
The ghost head was crushed beneath Her foot with startling ease, offering no resistance whatsoever.
She didn’t even spare it a glance, as if merely having stepped on an insignificant ant, remaining focused on her phone screen with her head still bowed.
One step, two steps…
Wherever Her foot landed, an invisible ripple seemed to spread. Within all visible areas, the earth cracked inch by inch, and wisps of smoke curled upwards from the ground.
Not to mention their corpses, not even a speck of those roaring evil spirits remained.
Those monsters, which would typically require at least a lieutenant colonel to handle, were not even worthy of being a stepping stone before Her.
Then, a horrifying scene unfolded: the surrounding houses, seemingly provoked, began to writhe and gradually demonize.
In the blurred images of the Divine Mirror, the houses, once rooted to the ground, transformed one by one into monstrous, colossal lumps of flesh. They roared like living beings, emitting shrill, ear-splitting cries akin to a baby’s wail.
The ivy and moss that had covered the houses also turned into nauseating pus. This pus coalesced into tentacles that surged like a tidal wave towards the figure in the center.
And then…
She gently waved a hand.
Though no sound was produced, in that instant, a nuclear explosion seemed to erupt in everyone’s minds.
The grotesque houses, twisted flesh, and repulsive pus—everything vanished into thin air in that single moment.
Only a dark, deep, empty expanse remained, as if a terrifying abyssal beast had taken a bite out of it.
The vengeful spirits, who had been desperately clawing their way out of the ground, now shrieked in terror, frantically trying to burrow back underground.
She continued forward, holding a small lantern in one hand and activating the flashlight on her phone with the other, sweeping it around.
Under the phone’s flashlight, the hideous evil spirits scattering everywhere instantly dissipated into smoke. From the surrounding earth and houses, wisps of green smoke also rose, and blood-like pus seeped from the foundations.
The entire main road of the town let out a mournful wail in that instant!
Before the Divine Mirror, everyone was dumbfounded. General Sima stiffly lowered their head to look at the smartphone in their hand, their face etched with profound doubt about life itself.
*This thing can be forged into a magical artifact???*
“It’s about to begin. If it’s the Ancient Third Killing Formation, then the next part should be the crucial moment!”
Old Ma Yi, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
“The ‘Demon God’s Advent’ is about to begin!”
As their words fell, She had already arrived at the town’s central square.
The pure black demonic formation above the town slowly began to churn. One after another, eerie creatures that made everyone present wary descended from the center of the formation like rain. The colossal fountain in the center began to flow with black-red blood, and all the surrounding houses started to undergo grotesque transformations.
Innumerable monsters converged towards the center.
The once peaceful square instantly transformed into a living hell. Yet, She unhurriedly took off her small camera, adjusted its angle, and placed it on the ground.
Then, She opened her phone and started playing music.
“Hello, everyone! This is the legendary Death Fountain. As tonight’s special program, I’ll be performing a dance right here!”
To the endless, frantic shrieks that echoed around her like a scene from hell, She seemed utterly oblivious. No, even if they were screaming ants, they wouldn’t be ignored to this extent.
Her demeanor suggested she was merely facing a pile of inconsequential dust.
Then, the music of “Gokuraku Jodo” began to play.
A far more terrifying scene unfolded…