Just a single sentence contained a vast amount of information.

To Liou Yuan’s ears, it was like a thunderbolt on a clear day.

His eyes suddenly widened. He turned his head and met Old Mr. Ge’s terrified gaze. After confirming that he wasn’t just pretending, his expression instantly became solemn.

Because Old Mr. Ge was both disabled and elderly, his cultivation was too low.

So for this time’s Qinghe Division operation, he hadn’t been called upon.

But almost everyone else who could be mobilized, had been.

In the vast Qinghe Division, only Old Mr. Ge was left.

What Old Mr. Ge said was equivalent to telling Liou Yuan that Qinghe Division was gone.

Liou Yuan had heard from Old Mr. Ge before about Mr. Wei’s true strength—it was very likely he’d already reached the late stage of Qi Cultivation.

He was one of the top experts in Yanhe City.

Such a formidable character, with more than a dozen top hands from Qinghe Division assisting him.

And yet, they all died out there!

Even though Old Mr. Ge didn’t look like he was lying, Liou Yuan still played it safe and asked again, "Mr. Ge, did you see for yourself that their Life Mirrors shattered?"

Liou Yuan knew what the Life Mirror was. When Liou Zhen left years ago, he left a Life Mirror at home, which Bai Xin kept with her at all times.

It held a trace of Liou Zhen’s own spiritual power.

According to Liou Zhen, if it ever broke, there was a ninety-nine percent chance he’d met with misfortune.

Similarly, for official forces like the Yanhe Government Office that oversaw an area,

they would of course prepare Life Mirrors for recruited cultivators, to confirm whether they were alive or dead.

"Mr. Wei and the others’ Life Mirrors are in the Qinghe Division. That’s the rule. The cultivators there could see them right away—no faking it."

"Though I’m old, I haven’t reached the point of blindness. How could I be mistaken about something like this?"

Old Mr. Ge’s voice grew agitated—he almost swore to the heavens that he was telling the truth.

He was that certain.

Liou Yuan’s instinctive reaction was still one of disbelief.

He looked up at the stars in the night sky.

Right now it was the period of the Auspicious Star. Even if the Star Evil appeared, with the suppression from the stars, its ferocity should be greatly reduced.

How could a backwater place like Yanhe City possibly have something that terrifying?

Whether Liou Yuan believed it or not, the facts were right in front of him.

Liou Yuan gathered his composure, stepped aside from the door, and gestured for Old Mr. Ge to come in and speak.

"Please, Mr. Ge, explain everything about this operation in detail."

After the incident, Old Mr. Ge’s first reaction was to seek him out—clearly, he could find no one else trustworthy or strong enough.

It was proof—Yanhe City was now just an empty shell.

If a crisis struck, the entire city was at risk of collapse.

As Old Mr. Ge entered, Liou Yuan shut the door behind him and didn’t forget to bolt it, to prevent anyone else from coming in.

Gulp, gulp!

Right in the middle of the courtyard, Old Mr. Ge downed an entire pot of tea that Liou Yuan had poured for him.

It had just been brewed—the water was still piping hot—yet Old Mr. Ge drank it all in one go without so much as a frown.

Only then did some color return to his pale face.

"Do you still remember that Star Evil that has been hovering outside the city these last months?"

He even forgot to call Liou Yuan "nephew" and got straight to the point.

"The thing howling like a ghost outside the moat every night?" Of course Liou Yuan remembered it.

In fact, every resident of Yanhe City knew about its existence.

Hearing Old Mr. Ge bring up the Star Evil, Liou Yuan had a rough idea who Mr. Wei and the others had gone after.

"Mr. Wei and the others went to kill it?"

"Didn’t Dai Yao say Qinghe Division went out this time to deal with the source of the plague?"

"That thing is the source of the plague ravaging the whole city." These words were originally an internal secret of Qinghe Division, but now it was an empty shell, so Old Mr. Ge didn’t hide it and hurried to explain: "Every time it tries to break into the city, the array in the moat gets activated and drives it away."

"Over time, again and again, its power has seeped into the moat’s water."

"The moat is connected to the city’s underground water source. The entire water supply of Yanhe City has been polluted by it."

"That is the source of the plague."

"And remember the Star Evil at Xuanhu Clinic? That thing was likely awakened by the ghostly thing outside the city."

"So that’s how it is!" Liou Yuan understood.

Now it all made sense.

Why a plague would suddenly break out in Yanhe City, and why that Star Evil would keep haunting the city outskirts every night, even though it knew the moat would stop it from getting in.

It simply wanted Yanhe City to know no peace.

But another problem came up.

"Just how powerful is that Star Evil?" Liou Yuan asked cautiously.

Right now, what he most feared was that ghostly thing having the power to break through the moat.

No doubt, if things really reached that point, not a single citizen—including himself and his family—would survive.

In these chaotic times, there were countless cities like Yanhe City.

Every year, cities turned to scorched earth when Star Evil broke through their defenses.

And Yanhe City’s moat was not impossible to penetrate. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Mr. Wei even took the magical treasure from the Qinghe Government Office, but didn’t come back."

"I estimate, that Star Evil is likely a Calamity-level Star Evil."

After saying those words, Old Mr. Ge’s body trembled a few times.

Maybe afraid Liou Yuan didn’t know what ’Calamity-level’ meant, Old Mr. Ge hurried to explain:

"Those Star Evils we dealt with recently, at best could be counted as ’human-level’."

"Human-level Star Evils are still manageable for cultivators at our Qi Cultivation Realm."

"Calamity-level is above human-level. Once they appear, disaster follows. It’s no longer something we can handle locally—a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator is needed to suppress it."

"Nearly all the cities destroyed by Star Evil in popular tales were ruined by Star Evils of this level."

This was precisely why Old Mr. Ge had come panic-stricken to find Liou Yuan.

He had truly been frightened by what he inferred.

A Calamity-level Star Evil outside Yanhe City meant the city was at risk of being breached at any moment.

It meant Mr. Wei and the others’ deaths might only be the beginning, and what’s to come could doom all of Yanhe City.

Old Mr. Ge wasn’t the only one terrified—Liou Yuan felt a chill up his spine from what he’d just heard.

A Star Evil capable of butchering an entire city was on the outskirts. Who wouldn’t be rattled?

Suppressing his anxiety, Liou Yuan asked in a low voice, "Doesn’t the government have any way to deal with such a Star Evil?"

Yanhe City was administered by Qingyou Prefecture, and Qingyou Prefecture was one of the twelve prefectures of the Jin Dynasty.

If Yanhe City couldn’t handle it, surely Qingyou Prefecture could?

If Qingyou Prefecture couldn’t, could the mighty Jin Dynasty just stand by and do nothing?

If a single Calamity-level Star Evil could not be dealt with, how could the Jin Dynasty have survived for a thousand years?

"Of course there are ways, but it takes time," Old Mr. Ge hurriedly explained. "For a Star Evil like this, it’s no use asking the neighboring counties for help. Only Qingyou Prefecture can help."

"The City Lord has already asked for help, but it’s tens of thousands of miles away. Even a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator would take half a month to get here."

"The city is empty now. Once the period of the Auspicious Star passes, all the Star Evil will emerge."

"Let’s not even talk about whether the moat can hold—the Star Evils already in the city will be enough to plunge Yanhe City into chaos."

Now Liou Yuan fully understood why Mr. Ge was so frantic.

First, because the fall of Qinghe Division and the deaths of his colleagues had thrown him into panic.

And then came the likely truth—a Calamity-level Star Evil was at the heart of it.

This was a city-destroying crisis.

Second, with the destruction of Qinghe Division, Yanhe City was hollowed out.

Qinghe Division had been the backbone of Yanhe City. Only with the cultivators they recruited clearing out the scattered Star Evils could the city enjoy its surface calm.

Now, with Mr. Wei and the others gone, Yanhe City in its current state would hardly survive the Star Evils emerging under the shadow of the Evil Star.

"Right now, Yanhe City is wracked by both internal and external threats—a storm barely holding together." Liou Yuan thought of this and his head throbbed.

He wasn’t as noble as Bai Xin, who cared for all the people.

But he himself lived here, in Yanhe City.

When the nest is destroyed, how can any eggs remain whole?