The girl nodded, as if finding some special comfort in Qin Ruqing’s casual, almost joking demeanor.

Confidently, Qin Ruqing prepared for her fifth trial, hoping to end her trials at this number.

If not… well, that was a concern for another time.

Entering the desolate city, Qin Ruqing wasted no time, heading straight for the ancient temple.

This time, she hoped to explore inside the temple and learn more about it.

Hiding near a ruined building, Qin Ruqing’s spiritual sense scanned the area around the temple.

This was the farthest her spiritual sense could reach.

“This temple seems to hold significance for those hungry ghosts. They linger around it as if in worship or guarding it.”

“There are too many of them. Rushing in blindly would get me swarmed. I need to be cautious, restore more of my strength, and then take action.”

Given that each trial lasted about three or four days, Qin Ruqing spent a day restoring her Dao Physique and used the remaining time to explore the temple.

Standing on a crumbling wall, Qin Ruqing summoned a golden flame with her hand, then quickly extinguished it, glancing toward the temple.

She murmured, “Finally managed to summon the fire, but it took all my effort.”

“It’s time to act.”

“The temple, or perhaps the Beast Arena.”

With a sudden leap, Qin Ruqing vanished from the wall, her red clothing fluttering as she disappeared.

As she moved, the hungry ghosts wandering around the temple were alerted.

They looked up, seeing an intruder enter the grand hall, and let out low, guttural growls.

They quickly began to gather towards her, aiming to block her path.

However, the strength of these ordinary hungry ghosts was not very strong.

Qin Ruqing could handle them even before her strength was fully restored, and now, with her power nearly back, they were no match for her.

It didn’t take long for her to reach the interior of the hall.

She took a quick look around, noting the most striking feature was the murals on the walls.

She wanted to examine them closely, but the hungry ghosts’ interference prevented her from doing so.

In the chaos, she only managed to see the shadows of people and beasts on the murals.

Forced to look elsewhere, Qin Ruqing explored the rest of the desolate hall, finding it mostly empty except for the murals on the main hall’s walls.

Returning to examine the murals more closely, she was suddenly surrounded by snarling hungry ghosts.

Taking a moment to collect herself, Qin Ruqing threw an exploding golden lotus into the swarm.

The golden lotus exploded with immense force, creating a shockwave that cleared all the hungry ghosts around her.

The power of the explosion startled Qin Ruqing herself.

She blinked, looked at her hand, and said, “Has my strength recovered to this extent?” After carefully sensing, she realized that the barrier blocking her was still there. “No, how come the power of the Golden Flame is stronger than I thought… Wait a minute!”

Her Golden Flame only had extra damage against evil spirits or soul entities.

Seeing the hungry ghosts now, could it be that their essence is not a living creature but an evil spirit?

She took another look at the hungry ghosts and nodded, “Well, they do look quite ugly and not like ordinary creatures. It makes sense they could be evil spirits.”

Clearing the disturbances around her, she could finally focus on the murals.

She discovered that the scenes depicted in the murals were all about wars.

Wars between humans and beasts.

The humans in the murals wore ancient robes and seemed to have the power to move mountains and fill seas.

The beasts varied in appearance; some were pitch black with eyes like the sun and moon, and their mouths were so wide they could cover the entire sky.

The beasts caused chaos on Earth, triggering floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis.

The powerful human cultivators of the time fought to suppress these beasts.

After looking around, she understood that these murals were meant to highlight the victories and grandeur of the human cultivators.

It made sense to record wars this way; they wouldn’t depict defeats.

Nodding, she leaned in to touch the murals.

Her intention was to observe the details of the beasts and human cultivators.

The murals recorded ancient events, precious historical data for the present world.

But as soon as her hand touched the mural, she felt a strange sensation.

It felt like there was a sealing barrier on the mural—not an ordinary seal but something like the entire ancient city’s seal, which isolated her perception of the Dao.

During her recovery, she had gained some experience and understanding of this ancient city.

When she entered the Beast Arena from the Sin City, she was placed into this special space.

This space had a rule power that restricted the cultivator’s strength.

This rule was somewhat like, “As long as you don’t know me, I can completely alter your perception”—which is why she initially felt her Dao body was sealed.

This was a form of cognitive dissonance.

As Qin Ruqing began to perceive the restriction, the rule’s effect lessened, and she gradually regained her strength.

Now, the mural’s seal was somewhat similar to this rule.

It used a fabricated illusion to block the reality.

“Let me see what good stuff you’re hiding under this mural.” Qin Ruqing placed her hand on the mural, closed her eyes, and began to use her recovery method to break the seal.

Soon, the mural began to ripple like water.

As the illusion was dispelled, the mural changed its appearance.

When she clearly saw the image on the mural, her gaze fixed.

Before the seal was lifted, the mural depicted the grand and righteous victory of the human race over the beasts.

After the seal was lifted, the mural showed the tragic aftermath of the war on Earth.

In the scene, humans have suppressed the demon beasts, but this hasn’t ended the chaos in the human world.

On the contrary, the dead demon beasts are scattered everywhere, and the situation looks no better for humans.

The blood of the demon beasts has turned the land red, and the townspeople haven’t found peace.

After the demon beasts’ deaths, their accumulated resentment starts to erode the people’s minds.

The mural depicts this growing resentment of the demon beasts, with dark red clouds gathering above the towns.

The humans are mentally oppressed and appear to be going mad.

Qin Ruqing furrows her brow, realizing this is completely different from what she had initially thought.

She starts looking at other murals and, sensing the same kind of energy, begins to unseal them one by one.

Before they were unsealed, the murals showed the positive side of the war, but once unsealed, they revealed the negative side of the conflict.

The war itself was a torment for both humans and demon beasts.

Qin Ruqing sees that the resentment of the demon beasts in the human world has reached a level that must be dealt with.

So, a great human figure steps forward to deal with it: they kill the beast emperor, extract the crystal cores, inscribe arrays, and seal the resentment.

But resentment is a kind of hatred that needs a target.

Simply relying on arrays for sealing is not a long-term solution.

After thinking, the great figure created a unique space.

This space is isolated from the world, operating under its own logic.

Inside, there is the demon beasts’ hatred and also criminals.

The great figure chose the worst traitors of the time and threw them into the city as targets for the resentment to be projected onto.

The city then developed an eternal judgment mechanism, creating a cycle.

This eternal cycle, like a circle, achieved a kind of relative stillness and finally sealed the resentment completely.

Later, someone asked the great figure what the city would be called in the future.

The great figure pondered and named it: the City of Sin.

Thus, the name City of Sin was established.

After seeing these murals, Qin Ruqing feels as though her heart is gripped by a large hand, making it hard to breathe and speak.

She realizes the true nature of the City of Sin.

The pain of the war feels like a heavy stone on her chest.

Upon learning the truth, she experiences an intense and painful conflict.

She feels the need to direct this emotion toward someone or something to alleviate it.

However, after thinking for a long time, she can’t find a suitable target to blame.

She can’t evaluate the situation.

She wants to say that the current residents of the City of Sin are innocent, but she knows that the creation of the City of Sin by the great figure of that era was an act of desperation.

The resentment of the demon beasts had to be dealt with to prevent the suffering of countless people, so the great figure selected the most vicious traitors of the time to be the targets of that resentment.

Perhaps they were guilty.

But did that mean their descendants should suffer the cycle of resentment and curses for generations?

This might be another ethical dilemma.

Qin Ruqing pondered deeply but found no answer, so she shifted her gaze to the last mural.

There were twelve murals in total, but only nine depicted the Sin City incident, while the remaining three were unrelated.

She turned her attention to the first of the three.

It seemed to depict a higher-level battlefield, as if the world’s top forces were fighting.

Humans and beasts were in a standoff; the beasts were aggressive, and the human cultivators looked grim.

In the mural, the beast army was positioned above, indicating they had the upper hand at the time.

The humans had gathered a hundred cultivators, who stood in front of a vast and intricate array star map.

The cultivators were in the array, looking resolute and determined, as if they were prepared for a sacrificial act.

Qin Ruqing clenched her fists, realizing that these hundred human experts seemed to be preparing for a sacrifice.

What era of war was this?

The situation was so dire that the humans needed to use such sacrificial methods to end the conflict.

She shifted her gaze to the second mural.

This one seemed to record a meeting, with half the table occupied by humans and the other half by beasts, clearly a negotiation between the two sides.

This mural was the most straightforward, but it provided limited information as it had no text explaining what was discussed in the meeting.

Qin Ruqing then looked at the final mural.

It was the most unusual of the three.

It didn’t depict any grand scenes but rather three light orbs that vaguely resembled human shapes, giving a sense of being human yet not.

Clearly, this was an abstract representation.

The three orbs were positioned as follows: two smaller ones, one on the left and one on the right.

The left orb appeared gentle and bright, while the right one seemed turbulent and blood-red.

The central orb was large, encompassing, and elevated, as if a deity was overlooking the world.

Qin Ruqing was inexplicably drawn to the central orb.

She stepped closer for a better look.

Suddenly, the mural shook, and the central orb’s light intensified.

Qin Ruqing felt a sharp pain in her eyes, her mind buzzing.

Something wet trickled down her cheek.

Instinctively, she wiped her face and looked at her hand.

It was covered in fresh blood.