“……”

Give it a try?

Pei Qian’s gaze fell upon Jian Chou, upon the flawless battle disc that measured one zhang six or seven chi, upon this axe!

His voice became incredibly strained, as if someone was grinding a file against his throat.

Where was this “Wuchóu” (Without Sorrow)? This was Jian Chou (Seeing Sorrow)!

“Yashan Jian Chou!”

Standing before him was a female cultivator in azure robes, standing on the cliff edge. The fierce wind from the valley below lifted her robes and stirred her full head of black hair.

“I should have guessed, I should have guessed long ago!”

To be able to leave the phrase “Now I have come” on that hundred-foot cliff wall—what kind of extraordinarily talented person must that be?

“Hahaha! Ha…”

After a moment of stunned silence, Pei Qian couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.

The fierce wind from the valley bottom stirred the clouds and mist, carrying his wild laughter to every corner of Medicine Gathering Peak, to the distant mountains and valleys, echoing endlessly as if shaking heaven and earth.

How fascinating! The Central Domain truly lived up to its reputation as a place where stars shine brilliantly and geniuses emerge!

Just stepping into the Central Domain’s territory, he had heard that Kunwu produced an unprecedented genius who had successfully established his foundation in merely ten days—a process that would take ordinary people years to complete.

And when he arrived at the Nine Heavens Tablet, he witnessed this person’s name being inscribed on the Second Heaven Tablet!

Dragon Gate’s Zhou Chengjiang had been defeated by Xie Buchen, who had only established his foundation three days prior!

The Nine Heavens Tablet was generally ranked by cultivation level, but when there were actual battles, it would set aside minor realm differences and rank by combat strength.

Therefore, regardless of which Foundation Establishment stage Xie Buchen was in, having defeated Zhou Chengjiang in that battle, he would become first on the Second Heaven Tablet.

Only three days after the foundation establishment, fighting against Zhou Chengjiang, who had been in the Foundation Establishment for ten years, yet winning without suspense!

All of Pei Qian’s understanding of cultivation progress formed in the Northern Domain was shattered in that moment.

And the appearance of the second name turned this already broken understanding into complete fragments!

This person was Yashan Jian Chou.

Heaven discs truly existed in this world, and he had seen one himself.

He had originally thought that being in the Yang Sect while secretly learning from the Yin Sect, walking the path of that ancient genius predecessor, unifying yin and yang, communicating between two realms, would make him the foremost cultivator of his generation.

But he never expected—there are mountains beyond mountains, people beyond people!

Coming here for this journey was truly worthwhile.

The last time, Jian Chou might have been able to understand what he was laughing about, but this time would be difficult.

She had to speak, with a trace of casual confusion: “Why does Fellow Daoist Pei laugh?”

“I laugh that there are countless talented people in this world, yet you and I are but grains of sand in the long river of the universe!”

Pei Qian’s voice carried a desolate sigh.

“I know that if I don’t kill you today, you’ll surely become a great threat in the future.” He stopped laughing and looked at Jian Chou. “But I cannot kill you.”

This statement immediately made Jian Chou frown.

She had no intention of killing anyone.

Having embarked on the path of seeking immortality and asking about the Dao in the Nineteen Continents for several months, Jian Chou had never stained her hands with human blood.

Even regarding the female cultivator from the Jianzhu Sect earlier, she didn’t believe the woman had truly died at her hand.

Toward Pei Qian, it was merely curious probing.

Jian Chou spoke lightly, her voice full of certainty: “Just now in the Black Wind Cave, because you were anxious to save someone and prepared to act, I discovered your true nature, indicating that your heart is at least not evil. You don’t want to kill me, and I don’t want to kill you. We’re just mutually probing each other—why speak of great threats?”

“Not today, but who knows about the future? Small matters can be done for goodness, great matters should be done for benefit.”

This was Pei Qian’s principle.

What a pity…

He simply couldn’t kill her.

Pei Qian’s gaze fell upon Jian Chou’s axe—crude lines, fierce patterns, old and damaged marks—it was indeed that one.

His eyes suddenly carried a hint of amusement: “By rights, this is your Central Domain’s Left Three Thousand territory, and Yashan is the backbone of the Central Domain. Normally, I dare not kill you, but it’s different if you kill me. Yet you cannot kill me either. Does Fairy Jian Chou know the reason why?”

“I’m willing to hear the details.”

Jian Chou wasn’t interested; she just knew that Pei Qian simply wanted to speak.

She didn’t show any curiosity or desire to “hear the details.”

Pei Qian suddenly couldn’t quite fathom the depth of this most outstanding person among Yashan’s newest generation.

He raised his hand, and a white light suddenly coiled around his fingers, moving as if alive.

With a gentle pinch of his fingers!

“Crack!”

A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, landing between his fingers!

Thunder message!

Jian Chou immediately narrowed her eyes.

Pei Qian’s smile grew wider: “Since Fairy Jian Chou knows of this ghost axe’s connection to the Yin and Yang Sects, has anyone told the fairy that after this ghost axe disappeared, the Yin and Yang Sects have spent great effort secretly dispatching people to search for hundreds of years, yet still have no news?”

“……”

Momentarily speechless.

Jian Chou looked at the thunder message in Pei Qian’s hand that hadn’t yet been sent, frost gathering in her eyes.

“Is Fellow Daoist forcing me to kill to silence you?”

“Not so.”

Pei Qian shook his head, appearing confident.

He gently waved his finger, and the white light immediately dispersed from between his fingers, along with the lightning.

Seemingly casually glancing at Jian Chou’s right shoulder, Pei Qian slightly narrowed his eyes but made no move.

“Fairy Jian Chou comes from Yashan and has a kind heart—how could she be one to kill innocents indiscriminately? The fairy holds my weakness, while I grasp the fairy’s handle. How about we both pretend not to know?”

The ghost axe in Jian Chou’s hand remained motionless, but the battle disc beneath her feet, slowly rotating, flickered with light, seemingly following its master’s will.

A golden Dao seal, extremely pale in color, was obscured by the surrounding radiance, appearing somewhat blurred.

A trace of flowing light slowly passed over the Dao seal, silent and soundless.

In that instant, an inexplicable sense of danger rose from around Jian Chou’s body, even more heart-trembling than the moment she had revealed her ghost axe!

Pei Qian’s body immediately tensed.

Yet Jian Chou smiled: “It seems Fellow Daoist Pei has decided to give it a try after all.”

“……”

Originally, he felt there was no need to become enemies with Yashan over such a matter, but now…

Pei Qian’s gaze remained fixed on Jian Chou’s right shoulder, always feeling that behind this seemingly delicate female cultivator’s shoulder lurked a terrifying beast!

Fighting wasn’t impossible, but he would pay a terrible price!

“Testing won’t be necessary. How about a three-point agreement? What does the fairy think?”

At the crucial moment, Pei Qian was exceptionally decisive and spoke directly.

Jian Chou was somewhat surprised. Didn’t he want to kill to silence her at first?

Seeming to sense Jian Chou’s confusion, Pei Qian pulled at the corner of his mouth, appearing to grit his teeth while speaking with seeming nonchalance: “This Pei doesn’t wish to seek his death!”

Who knows what monster might jump out from behind her!

He actually couldn’t fight.

Jian Chou couldn’t help but sigh, revealing an almost disappointed expression.

“I thought this time I could spar with Fellow Daoist Pei and experience the style of the Yin and Yang Sects…”

She turned her wrist, and the ghost axe that had been pointing diagonally at the ground without moving was casually planted by her on the ground covered by the battle disc.

“Clang!” The ghost axe hit the ground, and a circle of light formed ripples that spread out with the sound.

Jian Chou had already assumed a posture of not preparing to fight.

However…

Pei Qian hadn’t missed the still-rotating battle disc beneath her feet.

This meant she was ready to continue fighting over any disagreement!

Looking up, Pei Qian’s eyes met Jian Chou’s pair of eyes that held a strange smile.

He wasn’t afraid either, speaking calmly: “This Pei knows nothing of Fairy Jian Chou’s ghost axe matter—even if returning to the sect, I won’t inform my masters. If the fairy doesn’t mention my practice of both sects’ techniques, even if the sect learns of it in the future, Pei will never suspect the fairy. Let’s treat today’s events as if they never happened.”

“So Fellow Daoist Pei does practice both sects’ techniques.”

Jian Chou looked enlightened and nodded.

“…You!”

In that instant, Pei Qian couldn’t help but widen his eyes, staring at Jian Chou.

The implication beneath those words—

“You tricked me?!”

Seeing that he had only now realized, Jian Chou finally couldn’t help but laugh loudly: “The three-point agreement—Jian Chou has no objections. Fellow Daoist Pei, have a safe journey—I won’t see you off.”

Have a safe journey, won’t see you off!

Such Yashan, such Jian Chou—what an eye-opener!

Upon hearing this, Pei Qian’s face was quite a sight, changing expressions repeatedly. Finally, he swept his sleeve, turned, and left, transforming into a blazing white light that disappeared into the sky.

“Until we meet again!”

Until we meet again?

Jian Chou watched his figure and couldn’t help but touch her nose.

Did she have the potential to become “everyone’s enemy”?

However…

It was good that they didn’t fight.

Breathing a slight sigh of relief, the battle disc beneath Jian Chou’s feet gradually disappeared, and the Dijiang Thunder Wings dormant on her right shoulder blade finally fell back into slumber.

The terrifying and dangerous aura vanished without a trace.

Rustle.

The wind came, and golden-yellow leaves throughout the mountain forest swayed.

On Sacrifice Cliff, apart from Jian Chou, there was no one else.

Jian Chou lifted the axe and shouldered it.

Little Marten was so frightened it squeaked twice, quickly jumping up and standing entirely on the axe head, angrily waving its paws at Jian Chou: “Aouu!”

This is my territory!

Take your broken axe away!

Jian Chou glanced sideways and saw the small marten crouching on the massive axe blade, its soft paws stepping on the fierce demon patterns, actually creating a delicate feeling.

She couldn’t help but smile: “You do look quite good standing on this axe.”

“……”

Little Marten’s angrily waving paws suddenly stopped.

Am I good-looking, or is the axe good-looking?

“Meow?”

“Meow your head!”

After hearing this cat-like sound from the marten’s mouth, Jian Chou sighed helplessly, slapped Little Marten down with one palm, and directly put away the axe.

Sometimes, she wondered just how many strange things lived inside this marten’s body.

Meow?

What was meow?

A hundred li to the east.

Pei Qian had been flying forward for quite a while. Seeing Flying Heaven Town ahead, he finally couldn’t help but stop with a hand seal, turning to look back.

The shadow of the old man carrying a medicine basket on Medicine Gathering Peak had long since blurred into the mountain contours, becoming a small dot among the vast green mountains.

The scenes from earlier played like a revolving lantern in his mind.

A battle disc measuring one zhang six chi, serving as a heaven disc; carrying a ghost axe…

Moreover, the other party had also revealed his greatest secret in one breath, while holding that ghost axe!

The Yin Sect, Yang Sect—something that the Northern Domain’s two sect masters and many elders had coveted for so long yet couldn’t find despite bitter searching, was actually in the hands of the most talented person among Yashan’s newest generation…

Tsk.

“What a pity…”

Pei Qian slightly narrowed his eyes, standing in the void with his hands behind his back, sighing softly.

To encounter but not be able to kill, and to even be tricked into revealing the truth, though he wasn’t any world-shaking genius, he had never been so embarrassed before.

Yashan Jian Chou…

A great enemy indeed.

Pei Qian swept his sleeves, turned around, and was about to fly directly over Flying Heaven Town ahead, but unexpectedly, a blue light flashed faintly below, moving extremely fast and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Startled, Pei Qian frowned: “Zhao Yunbin?”

Zhao Yunbin’s internal energy was currently chaotic, her sleeves billowing in the wind, her eyes red with a kind of panicked helplessness.

Having exhausted her strength halfway, and finally stopped to rest briefly earlier.

But she couldn’t stop for too long.

With such a major incident occurring, what should she do?

Flying Heaven Town was right before her eyes. She dove straight in without hesitation, arriving at the lodging courtyard she had previously arranged, pushed open the door, entered, and immediately turned back to close it, simultaneously using her limited spiritual power to set up a warning sound-isolation array.

“Bang.”

Light flashed in her palm, and a person was suddenly thrown out of her Qiankun Bag.

What could be stored in a Qiankun Bag was already a corpse.

This body fell to the ground, its originally plump cheeks now sunken, large eyes open with unwillingness and disbelief, as if not having anticipated what happened in the moment before death.

The terrifying appearance made even Zhao Yunbin, who had seen much of the world, feel somewhat afraid.

Her heartbeat quickened, breathing became rapid. She walked over, bent down, and turned the dead fellow disciple face down.

Now she finally couldn’t see that horrible face.

Zhao Yunbin collapsed to the ground.

After a long time, she finally gritted her teeth and took out a jade slip, infusing it with spiritual power.

“Senior Sister Xu, this is Yunbin…”

The jade slip lit up, transmitting Xu Lan’er’s elegant voice.

“Junior Sister Yunbin? Has the Eastern Wind Candle been obtained?”

Zhao Yunbin immediately felt as if someone had slapped her. Thinking of Junior Brother Sun who had died for no reason, thinking of the disobedient Shang Liufan, thinking of…

The corpse was lying beside her.

Her heart was filled with panic, and her voice finally carried a trembling sob: “No… Senior Sister Xu, I… I killed Junior Sister Zheng…”

The jade slip suddenly fell silent on the other end.

Zhao Yunbin, afraid that Xu Lan’er wouldn’t stand by her side either, hurriedly spoke: “I didn’t mean to attack Junior Sister Zheng. We encountered Senior Sister’s mortal enemy in the Black Wind Cave—Yashan Jian Chou. It’s all because Yunbin didn’t recognize her at first, which ruined Senior Sister’s important matter…”

“Yashan… Jian Chou?”

Xu Lan’er, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, raised her tone at the end and finally spoke.

That voice carried an indescribable coldness.

Then Xu Lan’er laughed: “Stop crying. Don’t you and I know each other well? Speak—have you already framed Yashan for this?”