279: False World

Just as Xiao Shi was about to pick up the dropped items.

"You... how could you kill our townspeople!!!"

Town Chief Fang's aged voice suddenly rang out behind Xiao Shi.

Xiao Shi turned around.

He saw Town Chief Fang's flustered expression.

"We invited you to protect our safety, not to kill people!!!"

What does that mean?

Xiao Shi frowned.

The reason he had rushed out immediately upon hearing the commotion outside was entirely due to the compulsion he was under.

This indicated that the appearing corpse would bring harm to the people of the town, and he had to deal with it.

But now that he had dealt with the corpse.

The Town Chief was blaming him for killing their townspeople?

This made Xiao Shi a bit confused about the situation.

Fortunately, the compulsion he was under did not require him to ponder how to respond.

His mouth directly spoke.

"Sorry."

"I was too heavy-handed this time, couldn't hold back. It won't happen again."

Town Chief Fang snorted.

And left with a displeased look.

Hiss!

A puff of black smoke suddenly rose from Xiao Shi's body.

The clarity of his entire vision significantly decreased.

At the same time, his entire body became ethereal.

Especially his left hand.

It had already taken on a translucent state.

Xiao Shi's heart sank.

He realized that his previous actions had resulted in severe punishment for himself!

His actions here were not as he pleased.

There were restrictions.

He had to conform to his current identity and persona.

"My mission here is to protect the safety of this small town. Once I commit the act of killing a townsman, I will be punished..."

"And this punishment... I can only endure it three times at most!"

"After three times, I will directly dissipate into nothingness!"

Xiao Shi took a deep breath.

He felt a huge crisis.

This punishment was something he could not resist.

Even the Myriad Treasure Pagoda Spirit deep within his soul, and the black coffin inside his body, could not help him resolve this punishment.

This punishment... was a rule!

Unavoidable!

Once he received three punishments, he would surely die!

"Not only will I be punished for killing people in the town, but if I fail to protect the people in the town, causing their deaths, I may also be punished!"

Xiao Shi's brows were deeply furrowed.

If he could move freely here... he wouldn't be so worried.

But the compulsion he was under left him no opportunity to act freely here.

Just like when a crisis that would threaten the townspeople appeared earlier.

He would uncontrollably rush towards the appearing crisis.

The only choice he had.

Was what means to use to face the enemy in battle.

Through the punishment he suffered this time, he realized... even when facing such a corpse that would bring danger to the townspeople, he could not kill it!

Instead, he had to adopt other methods.

"This corpse, itself, is a townsman from this town."

"He must have lost control..."

"Without being able to kill him, what I need to do is suppress him to prevent him from harming other townspeople when he loses control."

Xiao Shi understood in his heart.

However, judging by the strength of that townsman's corpse just now.

Suppressing it was not an easy task.

Firstly, Soul Consciousness and soul power attacks were ineffective against it.

Xiao Shi felt that this was likely due to the system.

This world was an ancient ruin.

Before coming, Xiao Shi had already learned from Xiang Zizhen that so-called ancient ruins often dated back to dynasties before the Great Wu Dynasty.

It was probably at least hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years ago.

In such a distant era.

Its cultivation system was definitely different from today's cultivation system.

Perhaps there was no Martial Soul Realm at that time.

Therefore, when he used the power of the Martial Soul Realm to attack the opponent, his power immediately became ineffective.

He had to use the power that existed in that era.

Only then could he shake the opponent.

Now Xiao Shi was certain.

Body refinement was a system that had been passed down from ancient times!

"Fortunately, I entered here with my main body..."

"If I had come in with a clone, I wouldn't have been able to do anything against this corpse alone."

Xiao Shi lamented in his heart.

Here, only the physical strength from body refinement was effective!

Other powers were useless.

While thinking.

Xiao Shi picked up the item that had fallen to the ground, and relevant item information immediately appeared in his vision.

[Name: Moon Sealing Dagger (Black Moon)]

[Type: Dagger]

[Grade: Unknown]

[Status: Emptiness]

[Introduction: During the Youyue Dynasty, a renowned artifact smith, for some reason, defected from the Youyue Dynasty. To contend with the powerful Youyue Dynasty, he exhausted his life's efforts to forge three powerful daggers used to seal Moon Marks. These three daggers can each seal three different stages of Moon Marks.]

[Note 1: Inserting the dagger into a Moon Mark will seal it.]

[Note 2: Only pure body refiners can use the Moon Sealing Dagger.]

[Note 3: When holding the Moon Sealing Dagger, you will be viewed with hostility by the Nether Moon.]

[Note 4: This item belongs to a illusory world and is not truly real.]

...Xiao Shi looked at the Moon Sealing Dagger in his hand.

His eyes flickered.

From the item information of this Moon Sealing Dagger, he gained a deeper understanding of this world.

He realized that this world was the Youyue Dynasty from many years ago.

However, he did not know whether the Youyue Dynasty was the dynasty preceding the Great Wu Dynasty, or an even more ancient and distant dynasty.

This made him think of the three patterns he had faced earlier: sun, moon, and stars.

"These three patterns..."

"Perhaps they represent three different dynasties!"

"If I had chosen the sun or the stars at that time, then the world I would have entered would have been those other two dynasties!"

"These three dynasties..."

"Have long since been annihilated in the river of time!"

"But now they appear in this ancient ruin in such an incredibly real state. This state is what is called... Emptiness!"

Through the item information.

Xiao Shi analyzed all this.

This illusory world... he had never heard of it before.

It was his first time encountering the term "Emptiness."

But through what he saw and felt, Xiao Shi felt that this illusory world was a world between reality and illusion.

It was both truly real, yet contained some illusory components.

However, one thing was certain: if he died here... it would undoubtedly be a true death!

"Man Gui didn't mention the existence of a illusory world within the ancient ruin when he told me about it earlier..."

"Presumably, he also didn't know that there would be three different Worlds of Emptiness inside the ancient ruin."

"If I'm not mistaken."

"This ancient ruin should be divided into two parts: front and back."

"The front part contains many rare treasures and powerful soul bodies."

"And the back part is the three different Worlds of Emptiness."

"The two entrances to the ancient ruin correspond to the front and back parts respectively."

"Just like a front door and a back door."

"Since Man Gui hadn't opened this back entrance before, all the information he knew was from when he entered the ancient ruin through the front."

"He thought that entering through the back entrance would be the same as the front, not knowing that this back entrance corresponds to three different Worlds of Emptiness."

Xiao Shi understood in his heart.

If others had entered these three Worlds of Emptiness.

Once they lacked the physical strength of body refinement.

It would undoubtedly be a dead end.

After all, the power system of the current Great Wu Dynasty would not have any effect in these three ancient dynasties.

These three ancient dynasties.

Each had their own dynastic power systems.

The only commonality was body refinement, which spanned across ancient and modern times!

"The power system under the Youyue Dynasty should be the so-called Moon Marks..."

Xiao Shi reached out and touched the crescent moon mark on his brow.

After he chose the Youyue Dynasty, this crescent moon mark condensed on his brow.

However, there was no power within this crescent moon mark.

It was more like a symbol.

At the same time, whether it was the Town Chief of this town or the townsman's corpse he had just dealt with, they all had a crescent moon mark on their brows.

Clearly, the Moon Mark on the brow was the source of all power.

At the same time, these Moon Marks also had different levels of classification.

For example, the Moon Sealing Dagger in his hand could seal Moon Marks of the "Black Moon" level.

"I need to find an opportunity to understand the Moon Mark grade of the Youyue Dynasty..."

Xiao Shi thought to himself.

However, he also knew that he couldn't obtain information by asking the people here.

Or rather... he couldn't even converse with the people of the Youyue Dynasty.

This illusory world.

Although it seemed to transport him back to an incredibly distant ancient era, immersing him in it, he couldn't interact with the people of this era.

His every move.

Followed a fixed trajectory.

Unchangeable!

But what excited Xiao Shi was that he could also drop items by killing here.

And the dropped items were very special!

As long as he could drop important items, he was confident he could rewrite his fate in this illusory world.

Towards the latter half of the night.

Boom!!

Another house roof in the town exploded.

From it flew out a black coffin.

Xiao Shi had arrived before the coffin flew out.

Creak!

As the coffin lid fell.

The corpse in the coffin immediately rushed out at an astonishing speed, directly attacking Xiao Shi.

Xiao Shi, however, entered Crimson Tiger Form the moment the corpse lunged.

His body swayed.

Transforming into a streak of blood-red light.

With a flash.

He appeared directly behind the corpse.

When the corpse noticed and turned to attack.

Xiao Shi had already raised the Moon Sealing Dagger in his hand.

He directly plunged the entire dagger.

Into the Moon Mark on the corpse's brow.

Chirp!

The tip of the dagger pierced into the Moon Mark.

Xiao Shi clearly saw the Moon Mark on the opponent's brow vibrate.

At the same time, the power within its body immediately weakened.

However, to completely seal the Moon Mark, the entire blade had to be fully embedded into its brow to thoroughly seal it.

And in pushing the blade, Xiao Shi found that it required powerful physical strength to do so.

If physical strength was insufficient.

Even if the dagger tip pierced the opponent's brow, it would not be able to complete the entire seal, at most only bringing a certain degree of weakening.

Fortunately, with Xiao Shi's physical strength... this posed no difficulty for him.

Puff!

He directly pushed the Moon Sealing Dagger.

Plunging the entire blade fully into the opponent's brow Moon Mark.

Crack!

Xiao Shi heard a sound like breaking glass.

He directly used the Moon Sealing Dagger to seal the opponent's Moon Mark.

The corpse's body stiffened.

Its raised arm fell limply, all the power in its body drained and dissipated, leaving it without any combat ability.

Xiao Shi kicked the corpse back into the coffin.

Allowing the compulsion on his body under the rules of this place to bring the coffin back into the house.

"So this is how it needs to be handled..."

Xiao Shi suddenly understood.

When he entered the house where the opponent lived.

He found two more coffins in the opponent's house.

One large, one small.

It seemed like a family of three.

However, the other two coffins showed no abnormalities.

"If I didn't have the Moon Sealing Dagger, it really wouldn't be easy to seal and suppress him without killing him..."

Xiao Shi lamented in his heart.

If he could use the power of their era, that would be fine.

But being unable to use the power of this era made it very difficult to seal and suppress him.

After all, in terms of body refinement power, there were no methods for sealing and suppressing.

Only violent killing!

"The crisis this town faces shouldn't be as simple as just the townspeople losing control..."

"There must be other, greater crises."

Xiao Shi knew.

Since he had to stay here for three days.

Then the crises he would face during these three days would definitely grow larger day by day.

He could not kill these townspeople.

But if it was a crisis from other aspects, there should not be such restrictions.

"That's good too."

"If I can't kill anyone, then I won't be able to continue dropping items."

Xiao Shi was now very much looking forward to the items that would drop here.

The items dropped here would be items from this dynasty!

Perhaps there would be some items that could bring him a huge improvement.

The sky gradually brightened.

This night, apart from the two out-of-control townspeople, no other abnormal situations occurred.

As dawn broke.

The entire small town immediately became lively.

Xiao Shi came to the door of the courtyard and looked out.

He saw the townspeople sequentially emerging from their houses.

They were not the corpses Xiao Shi had seen at night, but normal in appearance.

Xiao Shi even saw the townsman he had personally sealed last night.

The other party was also not a corpse!

But a normal, living human.

The only difference from others was that the Moon Mark on his brow was sealed, causing him to appear very weak overall.

Xiao Shi's gaze narrowed slightly at this.

"This small town... is strange!"

He realized that the reason this small town was so quiet at night, with no one to be seen, was because after nightfall, these townspeople would enter their coffins and turn into corpses!

During the day, they would return to normal.