I Am Your Natural Enemy

Yan Zhikong finished speaking and didn’t say anything more.

He had personally seen those lost souls and was determined to keep observing without intervening, no matter how chaotic things became.

In short, they deserved it.

If asked, the answer would be that poor Tao has shallow cultivation and is powerless.

The few people beside him also remained silent, feeling a bit of conscience in their hearts, but they were also just going through the motions, as work was work.

The army of lost souls entered the large island, and shortly after, more than 200 additional lost souls joined the ranks.

The momentum of the entire group began to gradually strengthen, with the Yin Qi becoming heavier and grievances growing denser.

After walking for two hours, when the number of lost souls in the army finally reached over ten thousand.

Such a massive accumulation of grievances finally began to visibly affect the weather, concealing the bright moon in the sky.As the Yin Qi rose and merged with the abundant moisture here, it transformed into dark clouds that obscured the sky.

As they continued walking, Wen Yan’s steps suddenly halted as the road ahead flickered in his eyes.

The road suddenly became very familiar to him.

The feeling was like the Underworld Road.

Wen Yan carefully sensed again and confirmed that it was indeed the Nether Path.

He stopped his steps and gestured for the lost souls to halt.

Over ten thousand lost souls stopped in their tracks simultaneously and waited silently.

Wen Yan took one step forward, stepping onto the road surface, and in the next moment, he indeed found himself on the Nether Path, a feeling so familiar.

Even if this road surface was somewhat different from his usual walks, like a simple village path.

He stepped back, and everything around him transformed into a boundless wilderness, losing all reference points.

This confirmed it; it was the Underworld Road.

Wen Yan closed his eyes, retraced a step, and returned to the original place.

Looking at the road ahead, he thought, "Indeed, Nanyang still has talents. I don’t know whose handiwork this is."

They dare not directly confront these lost souls, but they have laid down methods here, using the massive power brought by the gathering of lost souls and their overly dense grievances to trigger the methods laid here, directly activating the Nether Path.

If these lost souls were to step onto the Nether Path, naturally, they wouldn’t be able to return.

And if the number of lost souls was insufficient, the Nether Path wouldn’t blink.

Only they probably didn’t expect that Wen Yan travels the Nether Path more frequently than commuting by car to work.

Even with eyes closed, just sensing the aura, one could determine this is the Nether Path.

And more unfortunately, this method of entering a domain-like place is something Wen Yan, a living person, can easily access.

Upon entering, he need not fear getting lost and can directly exit.

Wen Yan looked at the road ahead and found no signs of construction.

He then bypassed the road, moving along the side of the highway, and naturally, the lost souls all followed his lead.

After walking a distance of only a few hundred meters, when passing a crossroads, he noticed obvious traces of recent repairs at the intersection.

Wen Yan looked at the surrounding mist and carefully confirmed outside the highway that the other three directions at the crossroads wouldn’t trigger the Nether Path.

He stepped over the guardrail from the side and entered the crossroads, digging up the recently repaired section at the center and inside found a green copper coin shaped as a standard round with a square hole, bearing two characters that seemed to read "Banliang."

Wen Yan unearthed the coin and covered the dug-out section back up.

He took out his phone, snapped a photo, and directly sent it to the Black Box.

The Black Box instantly provided an answer.

"Qin Banliang.

After the Qin unified the six states, it was the first truly unified circulating currency."

"Is there anything else?"

After a few seconds of pause, the Black Box replied.

"All related answers originate from the Qin Banliang."

Wen Yan pondered for a moment, holding the copper coin, and turned to find Yan Zhikong trailing far behind.

"Yan little brother, Daoist Yan, can you take a look and see if you recognize this?"

"I dare not call myself Daoist." Yan Zhikong shook his head repeatedly, then took the Qin Banliang and examined it carefully.

"I’m not skilled with antiques, but this should be a Qin Banliang. Judging by its divine essence, it seems to be genuine."

"Can you discern anything else? I dug this out at the crossroads, and just now saw the Nether Path blink, nearly stepped onto the Nether Path."

"Hmm..." Yan Zhikong pondered over the Qin Banliang for a while and said, "Speaking of this, I’ve remembered an anecdote my master once told me."

"Please go ahead."

"My master once said that during the Qin’s campaign against Chu, a large army was advancing when some Chu troops saw the flags of Lord Wu’an and fled in fear.

During the pursuit, they encountered Mountain Essence road monsters blocking their way, and fought to their death without retreating.

After capturing the Mountain Essence road monster, they learned that it was worshipped by the people of Chu, grateful and loyal, and didn’t want Lord Wu’an’s army to proceed.

Even though the Chu troops had already fled in fear, they wanted to try, even if they died, it counted as honoring their worship.

Lord Wu’an, moved by the loyalty of the Mountain Essence road monster, did not kill them.

He promised them that if they broke through the city, they wouldn’t harm the local people.

At that time, he even gave them two Qin Dollars as testimony.

In the later days, that region became part of Qin, still with no roads in the mountains.

Whenever the Qin army passed, they only needed to give one Qin Banliang, and a road would appear.

Since then, a roadside payment folklore has emerged.

Only later, this roadside payment evolved into other meanings."

"Hmm, roadside payment means actually buying a road?" Wen Yan was quite surprised; is that how it’s understood?