But in the end, I still followed the rules of Kunlun and the cultivation world—not killing those who slay evil spirits.

Xie Zhuo should thank me for stripping off his clothes and seeing his body covered in wounds. Otherwise, by this time next year, the grass on his grave would have grown taller than Meng Meng!

I hurriedly left my immortal residence and headed straight for the defense forces’ camp to find Wu Cheng.

But unexpectedly, as I approached the camp, several soldiers looked at me as if they’d seen a ghost, then turned and ran inside.

I was anxious to find Wu Cheng and didn’t think much of it. But when I stepped into the camp and was immediately bound by a huge golden net of spell energy, I realized what was happening!

Yesterday, Wu Cheng received a secret report, mistakenly believing that Xiaxia was practicing evil techniques. Xiaxia, in her hurry to leave, had only beaten Wu Cheng once before running off. This iron-headed fool! He must truly believe that Xiaxia had learned some terrible evil spirit technique and fallen into the path of demonic cultivation!

Today he had set up this formation in the military camp to capture Xiaxia! He just didn’t expect that I would be the one to fall into his trap!

“Let me out!” I shouted from inside the golden net. “Wu Cheng! You fool! You’ve been tricked! I haven’t practiced any evil spirit techniques! Let me out!”

“Boss!” Wu Cheng jumped out from the side, “Stop struggling and just confess!” He looked at me in the golden net with an expression of deep anguish. “Tell us why you’ve chosen this path. We understand that the cultivation path is arduous. You must have your unspeakable hardships that momentarily allowed evil spirits to blind your eyes!”

Behind Wu Cheng, many soldiers looked at me with both sympathy and caution. I had no idea how seriously this fool had described the situation to them.

I gritted my teeth, controlling my emotions to prevent the veins on my forehead from bursting. I took two deep breaths to appear calmer: “I’ll say it one last time: I… have… not… practiced… any… evil… spirit… techniques!”

I said, “There isn’t the slightest evil energy on me. Can’t you see that?!”

Wu Cheng frowned, looking me up and down: “No good. Some cultivators who enter the evil path can conceal their evil spirit aura. I can’t release you.”

He turned to the other soldiers behind him and said, “Go report to the high immortals. Ask them to send a duty high immortal to come take a look.”

Before my ascension to high immortality, the defense forces had no high immortals. The commanders took turns on duty, and for important matters, they would request other rotating high immortals to investigate. What Wu Cheng was doing was standard procedure.

But since I was now being framed by Xie Zhuo, I felt both annoyed and hateful toward Wu Cheng’s actions—annoyed that he was wasting my time, and hateful… naturally of Xie Zhuo!

That dog Zhuo is inhuman! Even when he’s not here, he’s still causing me trouble!

I suppressed my emotions, looked at Wu Cheng, and cursed him silently through gritted teeth: “If there’s no evil energy on me, will you cut open your belly in apology for me to see?”

Wu Cheng dragged the golden net with me inside across the ground: “If you truly haven’t entered the path of evil spirits, Boss, that would be great. But we can’t take this matter lightly. Boss, you need to understand.”

Understand my ass!

Wu Cheng dragged me into a tent and locked me up. To prevent my escape, he brought a small stool, sat down in front of me, folded his arms, and stared at me with wide eyes.

A two-hundred-pound strong man sitting on a small stool looked even more foolish.

I rubbed my temples, calming myself, thinking that without a high immortal coming to check on me, I probably wouldn’t be able to leave today.

Since I had to wait anyway…

“Let me ask you something,” I began. “Where did you receive this secret report from? Is the information reliable? Why do you believe it so easily? What if I’m on a secret mission, and that person is trying to harm me, to waste my time? What then?”

Hearing this, Wu Cheng’s serious expression instantly showed a hint of bewilderment.

His tiger-like eyes blinked twice: “Well…”

He scratched his head, “That can’t be right. When I received the message, I didn’t believe it either, but it clearly stated that early the next morning, you would appear in the Snow Bamboo Forest practicing evil techniques. I thought I’d go check it out. But I did see you there! You were muttering to yourself!”

I silently gnashed my teeth.

The Snow Bamboo Forest was vast, but if “Xiaxia” was going to meet Xie Xuanqing, she would go to the forest at that specific time on that day. Wu Cheng, carrying his commander’s token, would certainly be able to sense where Xiaxia was. Combining these two pieces of information, given this iron-headed fool’s temperament, even if he didn’t knock Xiaxia unconscious, he would delay her for quite some time.

Xie Zhuo had calculated it perfectly.

“If you weren’t going to the Snow Bamboo Forest to practice evil techniques, then what were you doing there?” Wu Cheng asked.

“Can’t I just go dig up some bamboo shoots to eat?”

“The bamboo shoots in your basket weren’t freshly dug! You were just carrying them for show. I could tell! Those shoots weren’t fresh!”

Now he decides to be smart!

I was furious but had no way to defend myself. I could only fidget restlessly in the net, shaking my legs, then advised him: “Quit being a soldier! Go back to farming early!”

My words had a reason behind them. I knew that three hundred years later, when Kunlun would be peaceful beyond belief, Wu Cheng would indeed quit being a soldier. He didn’t exactly retire with honors, but he did return to the countryside. Like me, he found a demon companion.

They bought a piece of land in northern Kunlun and grew excellent crops. Even the drought turtle demon next door, who had been farming for eight hundred years, didn’t have his farming talent…

Being a soldier was a waste of his talent.

After fidgeting with my legs for a while, I suddenly thought of a new lie!

“Let me tell you, Wu Cheng, I’m currently on a secret mission. What you’re doing now is aiding the villain, do you understand?”

Having been a high immortal for five hundred years, I could appear much more authoritative than Xiaxia when I wanted to.

Wu Cheng did seem somewhat intimidated by me. He thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth, “No, we still need to wait for a high immortal to come check. I can’t release you on my own! Boss, it’s just a short delay, surely you’re not in that much of a hurry!”

“Fine,” I also folded my arms. “I won’t leave. I’ll wait for someone to come check, but you must answer a few of my questions.”

“Oh, that’s fine.” He nodded honestly. “As long as you don’t leave, there’s no problem.”

“First, you just said you received a secret report the day before the incident. Think carefully—were there any details, such as which direction the letter came from, which direction the person walked away in, what material was the paper made of?”

Wu Cheng pondered for a moment, then shook his head repeatedly: “I don’t know any of that. The letter seemed to fall from the sky, and after I finished reading it, the paper burned to ashes.”

Well done, Xie Zhuo! As expected of the demon who fake-married me! His work was truly flawless!

“Second question: Has there been any abnormal spiritual energy fluctuation in Kunlun recently?”

“Yes, there has!”

Wu Cheng’s prompt response immediately brightened my eyes: “Where?!”

“Xi Wang Mu made a major advancement in her cultivation technique! She just emerged from seclusion the day before yesterday! The spiritual energy throughout Kunlun surged tremendously. For an entire day, from inside to outside, everyone felt it! Don’t you remember?”

I: “…”

Damn, after five hundred years, I’d forgotten about that…

“Also, the day before yesterday, the high immortal in charge of Kunlun’s flora—the one in Meng Meng’s department—ascended. The tribulation lightning struck all night, and by sunrise, that plant deity Jing Nanshou successfully ascended, becoming the Wisteria High Immortal. Don’t you remember that either?”

No, I didn’t remember…

“And then yesterday,” Wu Cheng continued, “while we were in the Snow Bamboo Forest, there was quite a commotion outside Kunlun’s southern entrance! Two great immortals from the Southern Wilderness and the Western Sea, touring the world, happened to meet outside our Kunlun and engaged in a friendly duel at the gate! The spiritual energy fluctuations were so intense that they even made the Pangu Fu barrier shake!”

Three consecutive days… like a continuous celebration, with huge spiritual energy fluctuations every day…

I held my forehead and sighed.

No wonder. I was puzzled.

Having lived in the past five hundred years and also served in the defense forces, if there had been massive abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations, how could I have no memory of them?

It turned out that during these three days, major events occurred daily. With so many abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations mixing, who could distinguish them?

“What about evil energy?” I asked, grasping at the last possibility. “Has anyone detected any evil spirit energy?”

Wu Cheng shook his head: “That I don’t know…”

“Evil spirit energy?”

A slightly deep voice came from behind me. I turned to see a thin figure lifting the tent flap, silhouetted against the light as he entered. The newcomer’s face had an unnatural grayish-blue tint. Looking at him, my eyes widened slightly. A chill immediately ran up my spine.

It was him! This face, this high immortal, was the only one ever executed by Xi Wang Mu! The Man-Eating High Immortal!

—Jing Nanshou!

He was the high immortal who had just ascended two days ago, in charge of Kunlun’s seasonal flora. He was Meng Meng’s direct superior and also the one who caused Xie Zhuo to be wrongfully accused after our marriage!

He was known as the highest immortal with the shortest tenure since Kunlun’s establishment.

In just over a year, Xi Wang Mu discovered that he had been consuming immortals to absorb their spiritual energy. When he was about to fall into the path of demonic cultivation, he was executed by Xi Wang Mu.

“Wisteria High Immortal,” Wu Cheng respectfully bowed to Jing Nanshou. “You’ve just ascended, and already we trouble you.” Wu Cheng pointed at me, “This is our defense force commander, Fu Jiuxia. Please check if there is any evil energy in her body.”

Is he serious? Having him check if I have evil energy?! He’s probably the closest to becoming an evil spirit among all cultivators in Kunlun!

“It’s no trouble,” Jing Nanshou replied politely. His voice was deep and even somewhat weak.

But when he stood before me, silhouetted against the light, looking at me in the golden net, I felt his eyes were completely devoid of emotion, as if he were examining a corpse.

Although I hadn’t had much interaction with him before, I had met him twice. Back then, perhaps because I didn’t know what he would later do, I had no particular impression of him, only thinking he seemed somewhat frail. I had assumed it was because his ascension had been too strenuous…

Thinking about it now, his condition must be a symptom of spiritual energy conflicting with evil energy. With such symptoms, it was enough to prove that he had already…

Eaten human flesh…

He had just ascended two days ago, and he had already consumed human flesh?!

As I was pondering this, Jing Nanshou had already bent down. His hair hung before me, and his entire being carried a damp, cold, moisture-laden aura. His withered, pale fingertips passed through the golden net and touched my wrist.

I immediately shuddered, wanting to pull my wrist away.

But in that brief moment of contact, Jing Nanshou’s gaze seemed to be ignited by something. Those lifeless eyes suddenly lifted, fixing on my face with a chilling gleam like the cold light in the night.

He opened his mouth.

I saw his stark white teeth…