The banquet hall of the Liuyang River Restaurant was already pitch black.
The wealthy guests attending the banquet initially maintained a semblance of composure, quietly discussing whether it was a power outage.
Some complained about the banquet, deeming it a failure in terms of venue selection, guest list, and overall execution.
But the surroundings grew quieter.
Someone raised their phone's flashlight and began walking towards the exit.
Pushing open the temporarily constructed sliding door, these people were met with a scene of doomsday-like black fog.
They screamed.
Everyone started crowding towards the main entrance.
"Let's go out and see, it's just some fog!"
A few brave souls, holding their phone lights, stepped into the black fog. As their bodies neared the mist, a hissing sound erupted. Black flames surged, instantly consuming half of their bodies.
The black flames intensified, tearing through the fog and lunging towards the entrance.
"Close, close the door!"
The door was slammed shut. The black fire lingered at the entrance, nearly burning its way in.
Qin Yexuan stood before the door, coldly watching the group still trying to rush out. "The ritual is complete, the forbidden zone here has been opened. Next is the ancient ruins of Lutai. King Zhou died in fire back then, and the black fog surrounding us is his resentment manifested."
Everyone was stunned.
"What nonsense are you spouting!" an aged voice called out. "Zhang Shizun and I said earlier that this is just an accident. The black fog outside might be demonic energy, but the Daoist sect will surely find a solution. Now, we must unite around Zhang Shizun and await rescue from the Daoist sect."
The speaker was the representative of the Daoist sect, Elder Chairman Chen. Su Dan Fiction Network.
Qin Yexuan chuckled coldly. His disciples stood behind him, their phone lights now on, illuminating the surroundings.
The crowd clearly divided into two groups.
One group was with Zhang Tianguang and Elder Chairman Chen, the other with Qin Yexuan.
The two sides occupied the left and right of the hall, with the banquet guests in the middle.
Zhang Tianguang's face was stern. "Marshal Li Tianxing, your purpose in coming to Chaoge was to guard Lingmeng Mountain. Now that we are in danger, with demonic energy everywhere, you must be responsible for us!"
Li Tianxing frowned, about to speak, but Qin Yexuan raised his hand to stop him.
Zhang Tianguang strode forward aggressively, staring intently at Qin Yexuan. "So, you're their leader now? Heh, how laughable!"
Qin Yexuan surveyed the situation, then bent down to touch the ground.
Zhang Tianguang continued his sarcastic taunts. Qin Yexuan stood up and clapped his hands. "Everyone, turn off your phones and do not leave!"
Turn off their phones?
The crowd erupted in uproar.
"What do you mean?" Zhang Tianguang berated. "Anyone with common sense knows we must maintain communication with the outside world at this time..."
Qin Yexuan coldly interrupted him. "Idiot, we've already lost contact with the outside world!"
A clamor filled the hall as everyone stared at their phones, refusing to believe it.
Zhang Tianguang chuckled. "What? Cannot contact the outside? Are you kidding me? My phone has signal."
The crowd became increasingly agitated. The phone lights in the venue were turned off, revealing a sea of flickering screens.
The light from their phones cast pale shadows on everyone's faces.
However, they soon breathed a sigh of relief.
All their phone signals were full, and their network signals were also full bars.
Zhang Tianguang smugly dialed the Chaoge emergency department. Ring, ring, ring, the call was quickly connected.
Zhang Tianguang sneered at Qin Yexuan. "See? It's connected! What do you mean, no contact with the outside? How ridiculous."
He held up his phone, his voice authoritative. "Send people to the banquet venue immediately. There's a power outage here, fix the lines for me..."
From the phone, a hissing sound came, followed by a sudden, piercing scream.
Zhang Tianguang was startled.
He stared at his phone screen, dumbfounded for a moment.
The normal screensaver had turned completely blood red. The connected call was filled with hissing sounds, like a corpse being gnawed, and then a sharp, sandpaper-like voice spoke: "Zhang Tianguang, you became an official and forgot your original wife. When you were at your poorest, your wife nearly worked herself to death for you, and in the end, you abandoned her. Haha, now your wife is being torn apart by evil spirits in hell. Listen, listen, that's the sound of her being eaten."
Zhang Tianguang's body trembled violently, his face illuminated by the bloody screen.
Even this tough man was drenched in cold sweat.
Zhang Tianguang considered himself righteous and incorruptible, but the one person he had wronged in his life was his first wife.
That wife had been chosen for him by his poor mother before he left his mountain village. She was a kind woman seven years his senior.
With the greatest integrity and most selfless labor of a mountain villager, that woman ensured Zhang Tianguang could study and eventually achieve success.
In the most difficult times, when Zhang Tianguang couldn't even scrape together the tuition fees for his exams, that woman sold her blood to get him the money!
Zhang Tianguang could never forget these kindnesses, but he truly didn't love that woman.
Later, when Zhang Tianguang became a local lord, he constantly sent money home... He hoped to compensate for his neglect of his first wife with money.
This was his greatest secret, his inner demon, and now it had appeared on his phone.
Zhang Tianguang desperately restarted his phone and this time dialed the police department.
The phone number had changed, but the blood-red interface remained. The terrifying voice was already mocking him: "Zhang Tianguang, do you consider yourself a man? A woman who gave everything for you died alone in a mountain village, and you didn't even visit her before she died."
"I, I, I went to see her. I burned a lot of paper money for her, and I had a Daoist priest perform rituals for her. Her grave is in the best feng shui location, I paid a hundred thousand to have a Daoist master find it for me..."
Zhang Tianguang clutched his head and roared at the phone.
Everyone in the hall was stunned.
Zhang Tianguang gasped for breath, no longer daring to make any calls. He began to connect to the internet.
The network signal was full, but every page and every app he entered displayed the same blood-red interface.
On the blood-red screen, thin lines constantly appeared, twisting and merging, eventually forming the image of a woman's face, aged and distorted!
The distorted woman's face was made of wriggling lines, but she spoke with a mountain accent: "Tianguang, you are so heartless, so cruel. I suffered so much, so much..."
"Shufen..." Zhang Tianguang finally couldn't hold back, burying his head in his hands and weeping. He knelt before the phone, repeatedly kowtowing.
Zhang Tianguang had been consumed by his inner demons.
Qin Yexuan observed coldly. The reason he hadn't acted yet was because he was searching for lurking monsters at the scene.
Qin Yexuan was certain that Xu Chunyang was nearby. Now that the Daoist sect and the demon race had joined forces, and the forbidden zone of the Lutai ruins had been opened, the next step would be to open the tomb of the deceased King Zhou.
And to open the tomb of that ancient fierce king, buried in fire, would require a sacrifice of at least a hundred lives!