Realm of the Night God

The words spoken just now by Yang Haoran were sincere and straightforward, without exaggeration or falsehood.

After Duda sacrificed his soul to unleash the spirit summoning hundred ghosts devouring souls, he indeed discreetly left a seal on Duda's lifeless body. The main purpose of this seal was to trap the soul.

As a spirit master, Duda was well aware that after a person's death, the soul needed seven days to condense into a spirit. During this period, if someone forcibly condensed the soul and took it away, it meant that their fate would be controlled by others—either becoming a puppet, a supplement, or having the soul scattered into oblivion.

Given Duda's character, he would never allow such a thing to happen to himself. Therefore, he had already taken precautions, using a method to instantly condense his soul into a spirit upon the demise of his physical body, avoiding being controlled by others.

Yang Haoran had experienced Duda's cunning and deceit before. Despite the seemingly confident smile on Duda's face, Yang Haoran was internally vigilant.

So, when Duda sacrificed his soul to enhance the power of the spirit summoning hundred ghosts devouring souls, Yang Haoran initially believed it. However, he soon remembered Duda's previous feigned death.

Back then, Duda's tactics of feigning death to achieve his goals had fooled even Deng Feng and Zhong Siyu. It demonstrated the sophistication of his methods.

Coupled with Duda's ruthlessness, not only towards those around him but also towards himself, he willingly let Zhong Siyu devour his guardian yin spirit and endure the torment of the yin thunder array, all to play his part convincingly and deceive Deng Feng and Zhong Siyu.

Thinking about these events, Yang Haoran had an extra level of caution. He left a seal on Duda's body to prevent a repeat of the incident in the ghost building, ensuring he didn't fall into a trap.

To his surprise, Duda, the old fox, was indeed playing tricks on him. Shortly after placing the seal on Duda's body, Yang Haoran felt something trying to slip away secretly from the corpse. However, it was blocked by the seal, and realizing the anomaly, the elusive presence immediately concealed itself, escaping Yang Haoran's detection.

Even though Yang Haoran didn't show it at the time, his attention was fixed on the battle between his soul weapon, Moon Wheel, and Duda's spirit summoning hundred ghosts devouring souls. He knew that Duda's soul not only persisted but had also instantly condensed into a spirit within his body. However, he remained unaware of how this wily old man had evaded the senses of a Night Watch.

Despite not knowing the specifics of Duda's methods, Yang Haoran remained composed. As long as he knew Duda's soul was within him, he had a way to draw it out.

As Yang Haoran's words fell, Duda's body remained unresponsive. Yang Haoran chuckled, seemingly recalling something, and a hint of apology appeared on his face.

"Sorry, I forgot about the seal I left on your corpse. Even if you wanted to answer me, you wouldn't be able to. Your old tricks are endless. Once the seal is broken, you might escape from my sight using some other method. As a Night Watch, responsible for your soul, I think it's better to be safe."

With that, Yang Haoran pointed towards Duda's body from a distance. Although Duda no longer emitted Yin Qi, at this moment, a thick layer of Yin Qi reappeared on his body's surface.

However, this Yin Qi immediately merged into Duda's body, like small snakes seeking food, slithering into various parts of Duda's broken body.

After a moment, Duda's battered corpse trembled slightly. A black chain emerged from his chest, and Yang Haoran's smile deepened. He grabbed the chain and pulled it forcefully backward.

A loud clattering sound echoed as the chain was forcibly pulled out of Duda's body. At the end of the chain was an undead creature.

This undead was none other than the spirit master Duda!

However, Duda's soul body was weak at this moment, inferior to the soul body formed by an ordinary person's death. This condition resulted from the significant cost he paid to successfully deceive Yang Haoran in their previous act.

To fool Yang Haoran successfully, Duda had decisively separated a part of his soul body while performing the spirit summoning hundred ghosts devouring souls. He then wrapped it in spiritual energy at the fastest speed, integrating it into the black mist above.

The urgency stemmed from his fear that Yang Haoran would notice the flaw. After all, that part was not his true soul; it was merely a force separated from his soul body. With the Night Watch's sensitivity to souls, any carelessness could lead to the discovery of the problem.

He dared not be careless, which explained his haste. Moreover, he used all the remaining spiritual energy in his body as a cover, quickly enveloping and sending this force into the black mist.

His execution was flawless, but unfortunately, he underestimated Yang Haoran. Or rather, he underestimated himself, underestimating how ruthless and cunning he appeared in Yang Haoran's perception.

He had originally planned to slip away from his body while Yang Haoran dealt with his spirit summoning hundred ghosts devouring souls. As long as his soul persisted, he had a chance for a comeback. He could continue practicing the Dao of Ghosts from tonight onwards, making himself stronger and still live a prosperous life.

However, what he didn't anticipate was that the old fox Yang Haoran had surreptitiously left a seal on his physical body. When he attempted to slip away from his body, the moment his soul touched the seal, he realized he had been deceived. Yang Haoran likely sensed his presence.

Although he felt panicked at the time, he sensibly kept calm, refusing to react to anything Yang Haoran said.

His strategy was to wait, waiting for Yang Haoran to release the seal and extract his soul from his body.

Once Yang Haoran unlocked the seal, he planned to immediately separate a portion of his soul to confuse the situation and take the opportunity to escape.

However, what left him in despair was Yang Haoran's cunning. Judging from Yang Haoran's words, he had been wary of this from the beginning. Instead of releasing the seal, Yang Haoran sent Yin spirit power into his body, forcibly pulling his soul out from his flesh with the transformed chain!

The moment the soul, transformed into a chain by Yin spirit power, was forcibly pulled out of his body, Duda knew that the final act of his life was coming to an end. There was no future, no afterlife.

However, he did not give up. In his view, as long as his soul did not scatter, there was still a chance.

Just like... just like Yang Haoran, who now wore a seemingly kind smile.

So, he decided to use words to sway Yang Haoran. In the past, when Yang Haoran was implanted with the soul-scattering needle, he used the same method.

If he couldn't match strength and fell into the hands of the enemy, he could focus on manipulating words. Perhaps, this would give him a slim chance.

The former Yang Haoran, wasn't that how he survived?

The world is mysterious, and fate is unpredictable. Many times, the sins one commits unknowingly fall back on oneself, allowing one to experience it firsthand from the other's perspective.

However, when Duda initially sought to achieve his goals, he gave Yang Haoran a month to catch his breath and didn't kill him immediately. Yet, when the same situation unfolded with Duda, Yang Haoran showed no intention of giving him a chance.

Looking at Yang Haoran's seemingly friendly smile, Duda, though tightly bound by the chain transformed by Yin spirit power, feigned composure and spoke in a deep voice.

"I want to make a deal with you, and after it's done..."

"Smack!!!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Yang Haoran delivered a resounding slap to Duda's face. With the enhancement of Yin spirit power, this slap was powerful enough to scatter Duda's soul if Yang Haoran hadn't intentionally controlled the force.

"Don't talk to me about any deals; I'm not interested. Rest assured, I won't give you any opportunities. If I don't witness your soul scatter tonight, I won't stop."

Yang Haoran shook his hand, dispersing the Yin spirit power, and smiled at Duda. The smile was as kind and warm as ever.

But at this moment, Duda felt his entire soul body turning ice-cold, as if plunging into an icy abyss.