Chapter 138: The Ash-Gray Street

"Jiang Fucheng, this little trick cannot trap me. Your strength far exceeds mine; why not come out and fight me openly with true skill?" Fang Yue stood in the middle of the street and shouted into the distance.

"Oh my, what an abrasive person you are. It's our very first meeting, and you already want to get hands-on and real with me. What a pity that my physical body is long gone, so how am I supposed to fight you with true skill?"

A charming and seductive voice echoed from afar, deliberately twisting the meaning of Fang Yue's words, filled with allure and coquetting undertones. However, considering that the physical vessel she currently possessed belonged to a grown man, such coy enticement could only make one's skin crawl.

After delivering this remark, "Jiang Fucheng" fell silent and made no further sound, keeping her true intentions obscure.

Fang Yue shook his head and continued walking along the bustling, ash-gray street, determined to see what other tricks she had up her sleeve.

The street was extraordinarily long. Although the roof of the county magistrate's office was clearly visible not far ahead at the end of the road, no matter how far he walked, he could never reach it.

Once he walked a certain distance, the scenery of the next section of the street would simply repeat what had come before. Of course, it was not a mere, simple repetition. With each recurrence, time seemed to be pushed back by a full year.

For instance, the first time Fang Yue walked past, there was a newly opened lantern shop by the roadside with various novel lanterns hanging outside to attract pedestrians. The second time he passed by, the shop was vacant. The third time he passed by, the shop was selling tea leaves instead... By the fifth time he passed by, that very same location was in the midst of newly constructing a shop.

In other words, as Fang Yue kept moving forward, the history of the street was constantly rolling backward year by year without end.

"This must be a fragment of the Netherworld. Rumors say that the Netherworld is vastly different from the mortal realm, where time and space can become blurred and tangled. Aside from Youming, the core destination for wandering ghosts, there are vast stretches of miraculous nether soil that exist as the counterpart to the mortal realm."

As Fang Yue walked along the street, he observed all the shifting changes around him.

On this grand avenue, the only thing that had remained completely unchanged throughout was probably that two-story tavern. Ever since Fang Yue had struck down the customer who sat drinking by the second-floor window all along, the tavern's proprietor, waiters, patrons, and even the dishes had completely vanished. The entire tavern stood vacant, teetering on the verge of collapse and falling into utter ruin.

Yet as Fang Yue moved forward and the history of the entire street rolled backward in time, only this tavern maintained its empty, dilapidated state without any alteration.

"Big brother, won't you buy a flower?"

When he walked down the street for the sixth time, a little girl wearing her hair in horns and dressed in a cloth jacket stepped forward to block Fang Yue's path, holding a flower basket. There was only a single, ash-gray flower inside the basket, as this place possessed only ash-gray without any other colors.

Curiously, right on the petals of this flower was a palm-sized human face, contorted entirely in agony. This flower looked remarkably similar to the one Jiang Fucheng had been holding earlier.

"How much for a flower?" Fang Yue stopped in his tracks and asked the little girl.

"It's free."

The flower-selling little girl flashed a sweet smile, took the flower out of the basket, shoved it directly into Fang Yue's hand, and then turned to dash away quickly with her basket.

"Wait." Fang Yue called out behind the flower-selling little girl.

The girl paid him no heed and continued running forward.

Executing his lightness skill, Fang Yue caught up to the little girl in just a few strides and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Unexpectedly, with a fierce struggle, the little girl ripped her entire arm right off her body and kept running forward, ash-gray blood dripping onto the ground.

"And here I thought we could have a conversation."

Fang Yue shook his head, channeled his Flame Strike technique into his right hand, and with a flash of his figure, reappeared right behind the little girl, striking down toward the back of her head with a single palm.

Like fresh snow tossed into a roaring bonfire, the moment the little girl was struck by Fang Yue's palm, the scorching flames instantly melted and decomposed her entire body, turning her into an ash-gray vapor that drifted away into the air.

"Merit points +3,712."

Suddenly remembering something, Fang Yue raised his left hand—which was holding the flower—and reached to untie the purple jade gourd hanging at his waist, only to find that his left hand had grown numb and stiff, completely unresponsive.

Glancing down, he saw that his left hand had somehow been enveloped by a layer of ash-gray matter, silently beginning to petrify without any sensation whatsoever.

That ash-gray color was emanating from the mouth of the tormented human face upon the bizarre flower he held in his left hand.

Frowning slightly, Fang Yue directed his innate Qi from his spiritual Dantian down into his left hand.

*Crack.*

The ash-gray stony substance peeled away from his left hand and dropped off, restoring the flesh and blood of his hand once more.

However, because of this brief delay, the ash-gray vapor into which the little girl had transformed had already dissipated into the air, making it impossible to capture it with the purple jade gourd.

Ever since the little girl had vaporized, a section of the street on the right spanning several zhang had become completely desolate—pedestrians vanished, shops decayed, leaving behind an empty void.

Fang Yue glanced at it briefly, lowered his gaze once more, and fixed his attention on the face-bearing flower in his left hand.

"Is the petrification ability derived from this kind of face-flower?"

Unfamiliar with this type of flower, Fang Yue could not determine its exact nature and could only hazard a rough guess.

As he channeled his Flame Strike technique into his left hand, the flower in his palm actually began to struggle, the human face letting out a silent, soundless shriek as it tried to escape. The scorching heat of the Flame Strike was harming this face-flower.

Having been ambushed by it, Fang Yue had no intention of letting it escape. He clenched his fist tightly, trapping the face-flower firmly within his palm.

Before long, under the blazing heat of the Flame Strike, the face-flower melted into an ash-gray vapor.

"Merit points +2,036."

With the purple jade gourd already in his right hand, Fang Yue sucked the ash-gray vapor left by the face-flower into the gourd. Then, plugging the stopper tightly, he hung the purple jade gourd back at his waist.

Instead of continuing forward, Fang Yue turned around and headed back toward the city gate from which he had come.

Yet after walking for a short while, he found himself back in the familiar scenery.

"No matter which direction I choose, time still flows backward instead of moving forward."

Fang Yue frowned. His top priority right now was to unearth the true body of "Jiang Fucheng" from within this ash-gray ancient city.

This wandering-yin female ghostly entity had actually been lurking inside this ash-gray ancient city all along. Even "Jiang Fucheng" was nothing more than a superficial illusion, merely a vessel attached with a wisp of her divine consciousness.

This explained why Fang Yue had instantly seen through "Jiang Fucheng's" identity back outside the village of Bridge-Rear Village, yet chose not to strike immediately, waiting until this very moment instead.

However, operating within someone else's territory made tracking down the true body of the wandering-yin female within this ash-gray ancient city no easy task.

If he simply kept walking forward, playing right into her schemes while the history of the ancient city rolled backward, adverse and ominous events would inevitably occur.

Of course, he could also choose to unleash his trump card—a major ultimate technique designed to directly shatter the domain enveloping this ash-gray ancient city.

The only issue was that such powerful techniques were meant to deal with the wandering-yin female herself. If he unleashed his ultimate move before even locating her true body, it would be terribly awkward if she revealed her actual self right after he had exhausted his formidable strength.

"Back outside, when I utilized the Insight divine ability, I could only peer into her avatar Jiang Fucheng and this ash-gray ancient city. Now that I have entered the ancient city itself without any barriers between the two realms, I wonder if I can spy upon the true body that the wandering-yin female has hidden within this ancient city?"

Fang Yue pondered inwardly. The might of the divine abilities he possessed was tied to his own realm of cultivation.

Although the Insight divine ability claimed to be capable of peering into the past, present, and future across the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Man, given Fang Yue's current level of cultivation, he could not yet unleash its full might.

When the two realms were separated by a barrier, he was basically unable to peer through it at all. But now, standing directly inside the ancient city with no separation in between...

"Insight."

Fang Yue chanted silently in his heart, and an ancient, unadorned brass mirror materialized within his palm.