Faintly, a woman's voice could be heard: "There was a sound just now, why has it stopped?"

The old gentleman was startled, then continued playing. Henry Thompson and Samuel Thompson also realized that outsiders had arrived nearby, and joyfully waved their torches.

That woman's voice seemed to be calling to her companions: "Over here!"

After a while, the sound of many footsteps drew closer and closer. Henry Thompson also shouted, "Here! Over here!"

There was the sound of weapons slicing through the air, the thud of bodies colliding, and the remaining dozen or so living corpses fled. The group parted the bushes and came through from outside the barrier—it turned out the barrier only blocked demons and evil spirits, not living people.

Evan Carter looked up and saw that the newcomers were seven or eight young women dressed in neat, short outfits, each carrying a sword. Their posture was upright and valiant, clearly people who had practiced martial arts for many years.

The leader sheathed her sword with a crisp "clang" and asked, "Who are you people?"

Henry Thompson answered honestly, "We're villagers."

Samuel Thompson stepped forward obsequiously, "Fairy sister, are you here to save us?"

She spat, drew her sword, and pointed it at Samuel Thompson's neck: "Shameless scoundrel! Are you human or ghost?"

Just calling her "sister" had earned him the label of shameless. This young woman was beautiful, but unexpectedly fierce, which gave Samuel Thompson quite a fright.

"Not a ghost, not a ghost," he said, "Heroine, we are human."

"Nonsense, how could there still be mortals here?"

She exchanged glances with the others behind her, her hand resting on her sword hilt, all of them looking extremely wary.

Henry Thompson said, "Heroine, we've been trapped here for ten years. If you don't save us, we really will become ghosts."

The leading young woman stepped forward, carefully scrutinized him, then looked over at the trembling Samuel Thompson nearby. Perhaps she had never seen such a cowardly evil spirit before, and finally relaxed her guard a little.

"There really aren't such living ghosts. We were too hasty. It's hard to believe you've survived here for ten years," she asked, "We came in to look for someone. In the past three days, has anyone else come here?"

"Well..." Henry Thompson said, "Heroine, we haven't seen any outsiders in ten years."

He looked honest and sincere, and his tone was earnest, not at all like he was lying. As soon as he said this, several of the girls behind the sword-wielding young woman became anxious: "No one here either, and no one there—where on earth has the young lady gone?"

Worry showed on the young woman's face as well, but she forced herself to remain calm and asked, "Ten years ago, what exactly happened here?"

Samuel Thompson: "Ten years ago, I don't know how, but suddenly, there were all those things..."

The other villagers chimed in, each adding their own words. What they said was much the same as what they'd told Evan Carter before: disaster struck overnight, an immortal saved them, and since then the village had been cut off from the world, with no one ever leaving.

Henry Thompson cautiously said, "Heroine, you have great skills and aren't afraid of those things. Could you take us to Minzhou City?"

—At this point, no one was paying attention to Evan Carter anymore; these young women had become the new saviors in everyone's eyes.

"Minzhou City?" She shook her head and said, "No one has gone to Minzhou City in ten years! Anyone who goes even thirty li outside Minzhou City never returns!"

Everyone was stunned.

They had thought only their village had suffered disaster, and that the city must be fine. But hearing this, they realized the situation in Minzhou City was probably ten thousand times worse than outside the village.

Once the girls had finally calmed down and talked with the villagers for a while, everyone finally understood the whole story.

The hot-tempered leader was named Brian Cooper, from a place called "Phoenix Manor." They had traveled with their young lady to the area near Minzhou, and upon hearing that Minzhou City had become a lifeless ghost city over the past ten years, they decided to venture in and investigate.

And speaking of Minzhou City, another matter came up.

When this was mentioned, Brian Cooper began to boast about her young lady's beauty, almost making her out to be the most stunning woman in the world.

In the martial world, any beauty would have many admirers, and the young lady was no exception. But she had been engaged since childhood, with all the proper matchmakers and formalities, and the marriage contract written by her parents and elders themselves. So, besides being more beautiful than other women, she was also special in another way—a beauty to be admired from afar but not to be touched, to be loved but not to be married.

—And the young lady's fiancé was from Minzhou City. For the past ten years, both he and his master had disappeared without a trace, coinciding with the time Minzhou City became a ghost city.

This gave the young lady even more reason to enter Minzhou City and investigate. Whether she would become a widow or not was, after all, a major matter.

They entered the ghost city, encountering countless living corpses, evil spirits, and zombies along the way. Thanks to their martial prowess, they were not injured and pressed on deeper.

"The young lady said from the start that what was happening in the city was definitely not simple. Later, we encountered a corpse king with incredibly high cultivation. After a fierce battle, several of us were injured. The young lady told us to stay put while she lured the corpse king away. She hasn't returned for a whole day and night, so we had no choice but to search everywhere."

—In the thick fog, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Even with torches lit, you couldn't tell directions. As we wandered, we lost our way, and upon hearing the sound of the erhu, we were drawn here.