Qin Ruqing endured intense pain in her eyes and was shocked to see the bright red blood on her fingertips.

“Wow, I’m bleeding!” she thought.

The mural’s strange phenomena hadn’t disappeared, and the largest light orb on it now exuded an intimidating pressure that was hard to look at directly.

Qin Ruqing quickly realized she might have violated some taboo and bowed deeply, lowering her head and speaking loudly:

“I apologize for my disrespect. I hope you can forgive me!”

After a moment of silence, the pressure seemed to vanish.

Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the ground shook violently, and tiles and debris fell from the top of the ancient hall.

Qin Ruqing stared in disbelief at the changes.

Was this really happening just because she had looked at the mural a bit too much?

Was this some kind of punishment?

Unsure whether she should run or stay and accept the consequences, Qin Ruqing hesitated.

Normally, she would have fled quickly in such a situation.

But as she tried to leave, her reason told her that if this was truly a punishment from a great figure, she couldn’t escape and might only anger them more.

Besides, she hadn’t done anything wrong!

In a moment of indecision, Qin Ruqing decided to stay and observe.

The shaking eventually stopped, but before she could relax, lines of light appeared on the jade floor of the hall.

These lines quickly formed a complex and massive array pattern that covered the entire hall, far more intricate than anything Qin Ruqing had ever seen.

It turned out that beneath the seemingly ordinary ancient hall lay a huge array!

In front of the hall, the wall originally carved with a giant beast’s head now seemed to come alive.

A tremendous and vengeful pressure emanated from the beast statue.

The pressure was so overwhelming that Qin Ruqing couldn’t move; she could only watch as thick, dark red mist emerged from the beast statue, forming a massive beast shape as if the wall’s carving had come to life.

Feeling her body taut with fear, Qin Ruqing finally managed to break free from the pressure just before the beast shape fully formed.

Without hesitation, her first instinct was to run out of the hall.

She realized that if her bleeding eyes were due to the mural’s backlash, then this current situation was likely unrelated.

It seemed that a defensive mechanism in the ancient hall had been triggered!

Recalling the mural’s contents—the great figure slaying the beast emperor, extracting crystal cores, establishing the City of Sin, and sealing resentment—Qin Ruqing feared that the dark red beast shape in the hall might be the beast emperor’s resentment.

This was serious!

She needed to escape quickly, or she might lose her life here!

The City of Sin was not an ordinary trial ground but a place where ancient figures had sealed the resentment of demon beasts.

Qin Ruqing suspected that even the Fifth Family might not know the true nature of the City of Sin.

With such a critical place’s defense mechanism activated, she was in imminent danger and feared she might die instantly if she wasn’t careful.

Qin Ruqing’s mind raced as she reached the door of the hall, just a step away from exiting, but she was blocked by an invisible barrier.

She was stunned for a moment, then turned back and saw that the fog beast had fully formed.

She felt a wave of despair: “I’m trapped here! This cursed place won’t let me out!”

The fog beast didn’t give her any time to think. With its massive, glowing red eyes, it roared and lunged at her.

At the same time, golden flames erupted around Qin Ruqing.

The Lotus Fire Form was instantly activated!

Without holding back, Qin Ruqing used all her strength to dodge the attack at top speed.

Things just kept going wrong.

She was not only trapped inside the hall but also her strength was restricted by unknown rules of the ancient city!

Even with her recovery over the past few days, she could only use half of her power.

This fog beast, likely a remnant of the beast emperor’s resentment, was beyond her current ability to handle.

As Qin Ruqing’s mind raced, she quickly summoned her innate magic artifact, the Little Lotus, and used its speed boost to evade the beast’s attacks.

After a while, she noticed something.

The fog beast seemed to only attack with straightforward lunges and couldn’t use other spells.

It was probably just a remnant of resentment, worn down over countless years.

If the actual beast emperor were here, Qin Ruqing wouldn’t have had time to summon anything; she’d have been destroyed instantly.

Understanding this calmed her slightly.

Even though her strength was limited, it gave her a chance to catch her breath.

While the beast emperor’s residual resentment was still formidable, the situation had shifted from certain death to a near-death struggle.

Qin Ruqing reassured herself like this.

Used to surviving near death, she skillfully dodged the fog beast’s attacks while focusing on regaining control of her Dao body.

Ideally, she would fully restore her strength and then find a way to escape.

But reality was harsh—multi-tasking was too difficult, and Qin Ruqing struggled.

The resentment began to erode her sanity.

The longer she fought the dark red resentment, the more agitated she became, even feeling a murderous impulse.

She couldn’t focus, let alone recover her strength while dodging attacks.

Her survival instinct drove her to use her innate fire to protect her dantian and spiritual core, to prevent losing her sanity completely.

Qin Ruqing knew that her flames were very effective against resentful spirits and evil beings.

The mist beast before her fell within the range her flames could control.

Although the effectiveness would be significantly reduced due to the difference in strength, she should still be able to preserve her sanity.

To fend off the encroaching resentment, Qin Ruqing deliberately shouted loudly, trying to maintain her rationality with absurd remarks:

“Seriously, I just realized how much I value my life today! Heaven, don’t you dare make me die now!

I survived the Nine Turns Thunder Tribulation!

They say disasters last a thousand years, but I’ve only been alive for a dozen years—still in my prime, the biggest troublemaker in Nanling Village!”

Amid her cheerful words, Qin Ruqing’s temples throbbed, veins popped on her forehead, and she kept shouting: “My brain feels like it’s being pricked with needles; I want to smash my head against the wall in madness! If anyone messes with me now, I’ll knock them out!”

“……”

Her attempts to distract herself did help her resist some of the resentment’s influence, but in the long run, it was only a temporary fix.

In the extreme crisis and tension, Qin Ruqing surprisingly became calm.

Besides resisting the resentment, she found some capacity for thought.

It seemed that her frequent experiences with danger were not for nothing; her familiarity with living on the edge enabled her to tap into her potential.

With a strong will to survive, Qin Ruqing seemed to grasp a faint inspiration.

The key to survival lay in the rules imposed by the ancient city!

She had previously thought her Dao Body was sealed, and she couldn’t sense its presence or summon her innate fire.

But she realized later that it was the rules of this space guiding her consciousness, which allowed her to sense her Dao Body again and gradually regain her strength.

Looking at it now, she might not have fully understood the nature of these rules.

The unique aspect of these rules was that they could guide your consciousness and turn false perceptions into part of reality.

With that in mind, she wondered if she could reverse the process: Instead of letting the rules brainwash her, could she brainwash herself and have the rules make her self-brainwashing become reality?

Though this idea might sound absurd to others, Qin Ruqing felt it was worth a try!

Without hesitation, she began to fiercely brainwash herself in her mind:

“I am strong, I am powerful, I am the strongest in the world! I’m so strong I can defeat the beast emperor’s resentment easily and send the Fifth Lingyu flying… My control over my Dao Physique is at a perfect level, and my Dao Physique has evolved to the third stage…”

In this critical moment, Qin Ruqing didn’t hesitate to boast about herself.

She wasn’t merely reciting these thoughts internally but was also sensing the rules of the ancient city as she did so.

To be honest, she had always had only a vague understanding of rules, knowing they were incredibly important and seemed to be something only beyond the Nascent Soul stage could touch.

The closest she came to truly understanding a rule(intent) was during her battle with Dan Qing.

At that time, Dan Qing seemed to grasp a certain rule, but she didn’t.

Later, in the Four Prisons Hall, the rewards from the first two prisons could be seen as primitive forms of rules.

But a primitive form is different from the true essence of a rule.

Qin Ruqing was now trying to manipulate the power of the rules in this ancient city to enhance her own strength.

She had no idea how difficult this task was.

And perhaps it was fortunate that she didn’t know.