Sect Master Duan Linshu told Su Zhuyi to take good care of her master, and that they would handle the rest.

Su Zhuyi agreed on the surface, but other thoughts stirred in her heart.

She wanted to destroy the Suyue Sect. Although Suyue Sect was like a grasshopper after autumn that wouldn’t last much longer, she truly couldn’t stand how Qu Ningsu had repeatedly bullied her. Wasn’t she most concerned about that face of hers? Hadn’t she once wanted to use the Beauty Withering technique on her? She would ruin her appearance and make her wish she were dead.

And that old undying fool from Dong Fushang Sect—in her previous life, when his qi deviation and cultivation of malicious techniques were exposed, it was probably around two hundred years later. She needed to find a way to advance the timeline.

Her eyes rolled as she thought. For this matter, she would probably need to join hands with that person from the Hehuan Sect.

In her previous life, Xun Huan, the sect master of Hehuan Sect, had some connection with Su Zhuyi. She also knew some of Xun Huan’s secrets.

Hehuan Sect was originally just a simple female cultivator sect. It seemed that because a female cultivator was deceived by her dao companion, in her heartbreak, she cut off her hair and established a sect that only accepted female disciples. Her strength was decent, and she searched the mortal realm for girls with talent, also rescuing women who were oppressed by men and had nowhere to turn. Later, the sect gradually developed, and other female cultivators were willing to join.

They didn’t participate in the affairs of the righteous or demonic paths—neither righteous nor evil. The sect had only a few hundred people, less than a thousand.

The women in the sect more or less harbored resentment toward men.

But some still yearned for mortal love. At that time, they weren’t so extreme and didn’t obstruct such feelings. This continued until the founding ancestor passed away and the position of sect master had been passed down for two generations. Then, a female cultivator fell in love with a man and invited her close sisters to attend some viewing of rare spiritual flowers. As a result, they fell into a trap—all six sisters who went together were used as cultivation cauldrons.

Her lover even said, “The Jade Void Heart Method that the Hehuan Sect lineage cultivates—isn’t it perfect for cauldrons? I didn’t lie to you, did I!”

That man was a rogue cultivator with no foundation. After tasting the benefits, he wanted to climb higher. Having no connections, he contacted a steward from the merchant alliance, planning to capture the female cultivators from Hehuan Sect and send them to those powerful figures who needed them. At that time, Hehuan Sect was still just a small sect with fewer than a thousand people. They hadn’t sought any backing, and their sect master’s strength wasn’t much to speak of. Even if the sect were destroyed, it wouldn’t cause much of a stir. So that steward directly approved it and brought several cultivators to capture people.

By chance, one of those six female cultivators had a special constitution and woke earlier after being poisoned. She didn’t care about her other sisters, but first returned to report to her sect. Then the other female disciples of Hehuan Sect entered the forbidden land left behind by their founding ancestor—something only successive sect masters knew about. They never expected to use it after only two generations. There were not many of them, just a few hundred, but staying in the forbidden land for ten or twenty years would be no problem.

They could see outside the forbidden land from within.

But those outside couldn’t see inside.

They watched as those men came to Hehuan Sect, found no one, and brutally tortured the five sisters. So even those who hadn’t previously resented men came to hate them.

“Don’t they want to use us as cauldrons, absorbing our cultivation and spiritual qi?”

“Then we can do the same.”

Thus, under the collective effort of many women, the technique of harvesting yang to supplement yin appeared. The female cultivator who had escaped was pregnant and gave birth to a male child. He was raised as a girl from childhood, so his bones carried a feminine, powdered air.

He was the current sect master of Hehuan Sect, Xun Huan.

He was both hated and loved by his mother. Because of his male body, he also suffered some rejection and abuse from childhood, so his personality became somewhat twisted as he grew up.

In short, it was a group of women who had stayed in the forbidden land for a long time, hating men, who raised a man with an equally twisted personality.

Su Zhuyi had dealt with him and knew what he wanted and where his thoughts lay.

Persuading Xun Huan to help shouldn’t be difficult. She knew his weaknesses, and similarly, this would be all benefit with no harm to him. Originally, all those affairs were his doing anyway. Suyue Sect’s downfall would benefit him the most—he had no reason to refuse.

Back then, Hehuan Sect had brought Dongfang Yaoyang of Dong Fushang Sect to complete ruin and disgrace. Although the Dong Fushang Sect tried their best to suppress it, many people knew that Dongfang Yaoyang captured young girls for cultivation and suffered qi deviation. One of them was even a female disciple from a famous righteous sect. When discovered, her naked body was covered in wounds, and her lower half was too horrible to look at. This exposure was so sudden that it was a carefully designed plan by the Hehuan Sect. He did this for revenge, right?

At that time, Su Zhuyi didn’t pay attention to these matters. Thinking about it now, could that Dongfang Yaoyang be the rogue cultivator from back then?

Was Xun Huan seeking revenge for his mother?

If that was the case, helping him advance his revenge plan would make Xun Huan even less likely to refuse.

But right now, she definitely couldn’t go to Hehuan Sect herself to negotiate terms with Xun Huan.

In her previous life, Xun Huan had wanted her to join Hehuan Sect, but he couldn’t force her. If she went now, without question, she absolutely couldn’t escape—she’d be forcibly bound to Hehuan Sect.

Su Zhuyi quickly took up her brush and wrote down a pill formula. She then took out a jade slip, infusing it with the pill formula’s usage method and the content of her desired cooperation with Xun Huan. After that, Su Zhuyi thought for a moment. She had originally planned to have Little Skull run the errand—after all, Xun Huan couldn’t catch it anyway. But she finally decided that having a child go to that place at Hehuan Sect wouldn’t be good for his development, so she planned to wait for Qinghe to return and have him deliver it.

No matter what method he used, as long as Xun Huan saw it and agreed, that would be fine.

…

Afterward, Su Zhuyi learned that the sect master had dispatched more than ten Gujian Sect disciples to openly go to the northwestern region where Sufang City was located to subdue demons and eliminate evil.

The Gujian Sect disciples—the men handsome and upright like pines, the women beautiful with flower-like smiles—traveled along the way not like other cultivators who were nobly cold and unapproachable, but rather gentle and amiable. Not only did they subdue demons and eliminate evil, but they even performed blessings and rain prayers. As fellow righteous sect members, how could the difference be so great?

“That, that immortal sister who wore a veil, the one, the one who carried an immortal sword—that was Hero Su?” Old Zhang from Fuquan Town was stunned. He had no idea that the female immortal he had knelt and begged that day was Su Zhuyi of Gujian Sect, who had recently obtained the immortal sword Songfeng Sword.

“The people of Yongan Town were nearly harmed by a demonic cultivator. Hero Su single-handedly broke into the demon’s den to eliminate zombies, and ended up poisoned by corpse toxin!”

“Right, she went there alone at that time.” Old Zhang’s eyes filled with tears as he spoke. “Truly worthy of being a disciple taught by Immortal Luo…”

“Those people from the Suyue Sect said they captured the flying corpse and even made us erect longevity tablets!”

In this world, cultivators lived long lives, but growing up was very difficult. One careless moment could cost their lives. Even if cultivators formed partnerships and had dual cultivation companions, it was very hard to have offspring. The higher one’s cultivation, the thinner their connection to descendants became.

So they still valued the mortal realm greatly. Although mortals had short lives, they had strong reproductive abilities. A young couple having three to five children was completely normal. Out of hundreds or thousands, there would always be a few with an immortal fate. Many cultivators weren’t born into famous families—their ancestors were just mortals, too.

A recent example was Qin Chuan of the Yunxiao Sect, who was found in the mortal realm. It was said his village had no spiritual qi and not a single cultivator.

Su Zhuyi of Gujian Sect also seemed to have been picked up from a mountain valley. Why did those great powers always love wandering the mortal realm? Wasn’t it partly because they wanted to find someone with good talent—what if they encountered one?

A sect’s status in the mortal realm also determined, to some degree, whether their future disciple recruitment would go smoothly. For instance, if the same exceptionally talented female disciple was desired by two righteous sects, both being righteous, they couldn’t tear their faces apart to fight over her. They’d have to maintain their dignity and see what the disciple herself thought.

Which would she choose?

Naturally, the one with the better reputation had better odds. Just like now, if they encountered a child with excellent talent and asked whether she’d like to join Gujian Sect or Suyue Sect—in the past, she might have thought Suyue Sect was good, with all the beautiful sisters, close to home, and the sect providing so many spirit beasts and cultivation resources monthly. Although the Gujian Sect had quite a reputation, it was so far away that she might not even consider it and directly answer the Suyue Sect.

Now, she would definitely prefer to go to Gujian Sect. Ten years without dealing with demonic cultivators, yet claiming credit for eliminating zombies—naturally, such a sect would be disliked by common people. Not only disliked, but probably resented in their hearts, since they had lived in fear all these years, with relatives killed by zombies.

When a group of Gujian Sect disciples traveled this area, they actually discovered two children with decent talent. They took it upon themselves to bring them back to their sect, and even sent the children’s relatives to towns near Gujian Sect. What could Suyue Sect do about it?

Qu Ningsu gritted her teeth in anger, but she couldn’t interfere with anything now. She was completely like a mute eating bitter herbs, suffering without being able to speak.

…

When Su Zhuyi went to the Treasure Peak to collect her monthly resources, she happened to hear disciples discussing this matter. She thought to herself that the righteous path loved face, even competing for honor involved so many twists and turns. Her idea was to ruin Qu Ningsu’s face and destroy her sect, but the sect master and others used this method instead…

But listening to them talk about it was quite satisfying.

“Previously, that Qu Ningsu tricked people into building some Fairy Temple, with her golden statue inside, receiving constant incense daily…”

“She even gave out many portraits for those common people to take home.”

“Guess what happened this time?”

“The golden statue was smashed?”

“Not quite. Those people didn’t have that much courage—after all, she’s a sect master. But someone did smash a dent in the golden statue, and a wild dog even pissed on it.”

No one dared destroy the Fairy Temple, but they could simply not go worship there. As for the portraits at home, they didn’t have to hang them up for worship—using them to prop up table legs was fine, right?

If they were going to hang anything, they’d hang Goddess Luo—to ward off evil!

That Gujian Sect disciple was speaking happily when he turned and saw Su Zhuyi. He continued, “Or we could hang little junior sister. Someone even painted your portrait—I brought one back.” The disciple spoke while pulling out a scroll painting from his storage treasure. With a swoosh, he opened it to reveal a woman with her face veiled, only her eyes showing, holding a sword in her hand—probably what they imagined the Songfeng Sword looked like.

The corner of Su Zhuyi’s eye twitched strangely.

She couldn’t describe her feelings, nor could she imagine herself being remembered, worshipped, and sought for protection.

How could the mortal world’s smoke and fire wash clean the blood on her hands? How could it influence her heart that was black through and through?

Su Zhuyi smiled helplessly and returned to Luoxue Peak.