There was a silence that filled the room as they all looked down at the fragments of glass that were on the ground, waiting for anything to happen.
As they waited, it seemed like there was nothing that was going to happen as no signs came from the smashed glass bead.
Both Lin Fan and Mo Ze Chen had bad feelings since they could tell that it wasn't working and they had no idea what happened to the souls that had been trapped inside the glass bead. Could it be that they had all been destroyed along with the glass bead?
As for Wang Jian, he really didn't care since he didn't really understand what was going on, but it didn't seem like the right time for him to say anything, so he kept silent in the end.
After another period of silence where nothing changed, Mo Ze Chen finally couldn't help asking, "Boss, what do we do now?"
Lin Fan had a bitter smile on his face since he didn't know what to do, but he had been secretly planning to blame Wang Jian the entire time.
The only reason that he had listened to Wang Jian was because he believed that sometimes intelligent people tended to overthink things. He had thought that this was one of those situations where they had been overthinking it, so he decided to use the most simple method of shattering it.
But now it seemed like that wasn't the right solution, but he also really couldn't take this back since he had already shattered the glass bead.
What could they do?
What they didn't know was that during the silence between them, unbeknownst to them, there were wisps of energy that had been released from where the orb had been shattered and had flown out in all directions.
These wisps of energy were the souls that had been contained inside the glass bead and they were flying off back to their owners.
Souls were things that were inherently mysterious and not things that normal people could interact with, so they were things that normal people couldn't see without special methods.
Unless one had a special bloodline, a pair of special eyes, or practiced a special technique, there was no way for them to see the normally invisible souls. That was why even after smashing the bead and releasing these souls, they weren't able to see a single thing happening.
What they didn't know was that the entire ruins all around them were changing as the souls were returning to their rightful owners.
…
Out in the city outside of the giant glowing tree, there were still people who were running away from the ghosts and people who were locked in combat with the ghosts.
But at this moment, when those wisps of energy entered the bodies of the ghosts, they suddenly crumpled onto the ground.
All around, there were people who were asking, "What's going on here?"
But then their questions were answered by the ghosts that had just fallen. After a slight pause, the ghosts that had just fallen stood up once again, but they were no longer the same ghosts as before.
When they stood up again, they had completely turned into humans.
Some of them had clothes that were a bit tattered and showing some places that couldn't be shown, so they immediately squatted down again and covered themselves. However, most of the people were walking around in a confused manner.
When the examinees saw this, they couldn't help being surprised since they couldn't understand why these ghosts that they were hunting had turned into normal humans.
One of the ghosts that had turned back into humans noticed the examinee that was near them and he came over to ask, "Hello. Can I ask where we are right now?"
The examinee was confused by this question, but he didn't take it to heart since there was something else that he took notice of. As he looked at the ghost turned human in front of him, he paused for a second before suddenly stabbing out at this ghost.
The ghost turned human was surprised, but he was able to dodge in the end.
The ghost turned human turned to the examinee in shock and couldn't help asking, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?"
The examinee just looked at his own sword and at the ghost turned human before breaking out in laughter.
He was laughing because he couldn't believe his good luck.
Just a minute ago, this ghost had been torturing him by chasing after him, but now that it had suddenly changed into a human, it was finally time for him to take revenge. When the ghost had turned into a human, his cultivation had become much weaker and now he was only in the low Fragmented Soul Realm, which was easy for someone like him who was in the peak Fragmented Soul Realm to deal with.
As a young master, naturally he had his pride and being chased around by the ghost like this had damaged that pride.
Now it was time for him to pay this ghost back ten fold all the wrongs that he had suffered just now.
The examinee raised his sword again and was about to stab out at the ghost turned human one more time.
Seeing that the young man in front of him had raised his sword again, the ghost turned human immediately turned to run, but it wasn't necessary in the end.
Before the examinee could stab out with his sword, there was a flash of golden light that appeared in front of his face. At a speed that he couldn't react to at all, this ball of golden light had hit him right in the face and knocked him out.
Without even understanding what had just happened, the examinee lost his consciousness and collapsed onto the ground.
The ghost turned human had been running away, but seeing that no one was chasing him, he stopped and turned to look at the examinee that was on the ground.
He didn't know what had just happened, but in the end, the ghost turned human chose not to get closer to the young man that had attacked him, even though he was knocked out on the ground. Instead, the ghost turned human headed off in a different direction to find the answers that he was looking for.
As he left, he couldn't help muttering to himself, "Strange, what is going on here?"
All over the city, there were similar scenes happening.
There were young masters that all attacked the people who had reverted back into normal humans after regaining their souls since they were much weaker now.
When Huang Xiao Hou turned these people into ghosts, he had used a special technique to increase their power by stuffing yin energy into their bodies. Now that they had recovered their souls and had reverted back into living being, that yin energy that had been preserving their bodies had been pushed out. However, as the yin energy was pushed out, their cultivations decreased since they had lost the energy that had forced their cultivations to increase.
But even after the yin energy was pushed out, their cultivations were much stronger compared to before they were turned into ghosts. That was because the yin energy that had forcefully increased their cultivation had also helped to nurture their laws and increase their foundations, which brought them up to the level that they were currently at.
Still, that wasn't enough to bring them to the level they had been forced to reach, so they were still weaker than before.
It was just a good thing that there were these balls of golden light that appeared out of nowhere, knocking out all of these examinees that attacked the people that had turned back into humans.
Atop the giant golden tree in the middle, there were the commanders from before, but they had also turned back into humans. But even after they had turned back into humans, they were still on the edge of the top of this tree, standing on the branches.
In the center were five people, with one of them having their hands raised.
If Lin Fan could see these five people, he definitely would have recognized them because he had just met them not that long ago.
These five people were the elders of this village that had been sealed inside of the crypt, waiting for their time.
The moment that they had felt their souls return to them, they immediately jumped out of the crypt and flew to the very top of this tree. They had been watching the situation develop and as soon as one of the examinees made a move, the great elder immediately raised his hand to send out that ball of golden light.
Not only that one ball of golden light, he sent out multiple balls of golden light that flew across the city, hitting the various examinees in the face.
In an instant, the city became much more quiet.
After that, the great elder turned to look at the commanders who had been waiting while kneeling down around them and said, "Go, do what you need to do."
All the commanders cupped their hands before saying, "Yes, great elder!"
Then after that, they all flew off the tree, flying out in different directions.
Once all the commanders were gone, there were only the elders that were left at the very top of the tree.
When they were alone, the slightly chubby elder asked, "Weren't your moves too light? It would have been better just to kill them all."