“Senior Sister!” The junior brothers and sisters knew that if these two went to fight now, it would be tantamount to suicide. The youngest disciple had already lost control of their emotions and began crying uncontrollably. Fear, frustration, sorrow—all kinds of emotions entangled them, leaving them panicked and at a loss.

“Senior Brother and Senior Sister are right—we must leave here immediately.” Among the remaining disciples, the oldest female cultivator wiped the tears from her face. “Little Junior Brother, you go into the city and see if there are any high-level cultivators who can help us. If there aren’t… if there aren’t, then go notify the City Lord to raise his vigilance and do his utmost to ensure the safety of the city’s common people.” The female cultivator leaped onto her flying sword, her eyes gradually becoming resolute. “Everyone else follow me. Remember to make your movements obvious—at least… at least let those evil cultivators know which direction we went.”

After Senior Brother and Senior Sister could no longer hold them off, the evil cultivators would come chasing after them, and the common people in this city could escape disaster. She was very afraid of death, but if so many people in the city were implicated because of them, her conscience would find no peace for the rest of her life. Better to fight desperately—at least she would be at peace with her heart.

Hearing the timid junior brothers and sisters following behind her, secretly sobbing but not fleeing on their own, the female cultivator said, “If we can make it back alive this time…” She watched as Senior Brother was impaled through the chest by an evil cultivator who’d caught up, and choked out, “I’ll share my treasured gemstones with you all.”

“Go!”

In the inn, Kong Hou finished washing up, changed into clean clothes, and went downstairs. Huan Zong and Lin Hu sat at the table waiting for her, the dishes that had just been set out still steaming. She quickly walked to sit beside Huan Zong and flashed him a smile.

Huan Zong smelled the fresh fragrance of bathing on Kong Hou. He turned his head and saw the jade-red earrings swaying gently at her fair neck. Blinking, he hastily withdrew his gaze.

“These are all wild vegetables gathered from the mountains—they taste better than regular vegetables. Please enjoy your meal, honored guests.” The waiter brought up several more plates of dishes. Kong Hou hadn’t left her room for the past few days, so now finally seeing her figure, he couldn’t help stealing a glance. But thinking this young lady might be the noble gentleman’s companion, he didn’t dare look more and withdrew after bowing.

“The waiter seems especially enthusiastic today.” The day they booked rooms at the inn, the waiter had been enthusiastic because he wanted to keep them as guests. Today’s enthusiasm was different from that day—there was more sincerity in it.

“Is that so?” He couldn’t detect what kinds of enthusiasm there were. Using his chopsticks to pick up some of the wild vegetables the waiter had introduced, he tried them. Though they didn’t have the spiritual energy of vegetables grown in spirit soil gardens, they excelled in freshness and tenderness.

Kong Hou hadn’t eaten for several days, so her appetite was better than usual. She quickly yet elegantly ate two bowls of rice. As she was about to add a third bowl, she heard a male voice with a sobbing tone outside calling for help.

She put down her chopsticks and prepared to get up and go see, but Huan Zong grasped her wrist. “Stay seated. Let Lin Hu go look.”

As he spoke, Lin Hu had already flashed to the doorway. The several diners in the hall heard “help” being called outside. Without thinking, they put down their chopsticks and hid back in their rooms. The entire hall was left with only Huan Zong and Kong Hou still sitting, and the innkeeper trembling behind the counter.

“This kind of thing has happened before in the cultivation world. In the middle of the night, someone calls for help, and kind-hearted people go out, only to come to harm.” Huan Zong released Kong Hou’s wrist. “Some evil cultivators take advantage of righteous cultivators’ kindness to ambush them. You’re young and don’t know how sinister people’s hearts can be outside.”

Kong Hou was shocked. So when evil cultivators turned bad, they had this many methods?

“There are also evil cultivators who take the appearance of children, falling into water or crying helplessly. When cultivators approach, they seize the opportunity to destroy the cultivators’ spiritual platforms and absorb the spiritual power from their bodies.” Seeing Kong Hou’s surprised expression, Huan Zong recounted some cultivation world cases he’d heard about. “In short, you must guard against others. Understand?”

Kong Hou obediently nodded, gaining a new understanding of how dangerous the cultivation world was. No wonder the storage ring Master gave her included a handbook for traveling through the cultivation world—it wasn’t that Master was overly worried about her, but that evil cultivators had all sorts of strange and varied methods for doing evil.

“Is there any fellow daoist? Help!” The injured disciple had run all this way, his voice already hoarse, the strength in his body completely exhausted. Yet when passersby heard his cries for help and saw the still-wet bloodstains on him, they all frantically avoided him. No one extended a helping hand.

Now he was supported only by a single breath, numbly calling for help, walking forward in confusion. Though the snow underfoot was thick, it wasn’t as cold as his heart. He knew he shouldn’t blame these people for not saving him, but thinking of his senior brother and sister whose fates were unknown, his dry eyes could shed no more tears, and his heart ached until it had almost lost all sensation.

Could it be they were destined to die today? Was that why there wasn’t a single high-cultivation cultivator in the entire city? At this thought, he sat powerlessly in the snow, looking around in bewilderment.

Who could go save his senior brother and senior sister?

Lin Hu stood at the inn watching for a while, then turned his head to say inside, “Young Master, the one calling for help is a Foundation Establishment second stage cultivator. From the clothes he’s wearing, he looks like a disciple of Qingfeng Sect.”

“Qingfeng Sect?” Huan Zong had an impression of this sect. This was a sword cultivation sect that, despite being named Clear Breeze, had an acting style that was… hard to describe in one glance. Over two hundred years ago, Qingfeng Sect had nearly become a subsidiary sect of Liuguang Sect. At that time, Qingfeng Sect had been willing to affiliate, and the sect had also been somewhat moved. In the end, however, the matter came to nothing.

It wasn’t because Qingfeng Sect had produced any great villains, but rather because, as sword cultivators, Qingfeng Sect disciples actually liked to embed various precious gems on their life-bound swords, and played all sorts of tricks with their sword tassels. This frivolous style of not comparing sword techniques but only comparing swords was completely contrary to Liuguang Sect’s way of the sword. And those up and down Qingfeng Sect also felt that life-bound treasure swords should be made beautiful and magnificent. In the end, both sides very tacitly stopped mentioning the matter.

Though this matter hadn’t come to pass, from then on, Huan Zong remembered this sect. He felt the people of this sect were anomalies among sword cultivators. Now learning it was a Qingfeng Sect disciple calling for help, he rose and walked to the doorway. Kong Hou quickly followed behind him.

The disciple sitting in the snow didn’t look very old. His clothes were disheveled, his body injured—he looked extremely bedraggled. Kong Hou looked at this person, then turned to look at Huan Zong, not speaking.

“It’s fine—he’s not an evil cultivator in disguise.” Huan Zong, who didn’t like speculating about people’s hearts, nevertheless understood Kong Hou’s thoughts.

Only after receiving Huan Zong’s confirmation did Kong Hou speak. “Fellow Daoist, what happened?”

The Qingfeng Sect disciple thought he wanted so badly for someone to save his senior brother and sister that he was hallucinating. He stared blankly up at the three people standing at the inn entrance, rubbed his eyes hard—those three people were still there.

Seeing that two of them had higher cultivation than him, he straightened his kneeling body and kowtowed heavily to the three of them. “I am Feng Qi, a disciple of Qingfeng Sect. I beg you fellow daoists to save my senior brother and senior sister.”

Huan Zong glanced toward the city gate. With a wave of his sleeve, a jade vessel appeared floating in the air. He grabbed Kong Hou’s hand and leaped onto the flying vessel, casually using spiritual energy to drag the dazed Qingfeng Sect disciple into the jade vessel, saying coldly, “Lin Hu, follow.”

Feng Qi was swept into the jade vessel, his mind still completely blank. Could it be that this nobleman who appeared to have no cultivation was actually the one who could make decisions? Thinking of his senior brother and sister whose fates were uncertain, he quickly scrambled up and leaned over the vessel’s edge to look down. He hadn’t expected that in the blink of an eye, the vessel had already flown out of the city. Not far away in the sky above, a dense mass of black birds circled.

“Fellow Daoist, please be careful. These birds are driven by evil cultivators. Their beaks and claws are extremely sharp, their speed very fast—they often launch sneak attacks when people aren’t paying attention.” Feng Qi had suffered at the hands of these black birds and quickly warned this young master who looked somewhat sickly.

“Huan Zong, what kind of birds are these?” Kong Hou listened to the bird calls that sounded like fierce ghosts wailing and couldn’t help rubbing the goosebumps that had risen on her arms.

“These aren’t birds.” Huan Zong stood with his hands behind his back. “They’re called Bone-Eating Beasts. They not only eat human flesh but won’t even spare human bones.”

Several Bone-Eating Beasts attacked toward Huan Zong. He extended his palm and clenched it in the air. The Bone-Eating Beasts approaching the jade vessel didn’t even have time to cry out before they were already separated from their bodies, falling from the clouds.

The jade vessel rapidly swept through the flock of Bone-Eating Beasts. The Bone-Eating Beasts fell one after another like dumplings being dropped into boiling water. Feng Qi stared blankly at this scene, truly unable to believe that the Bone-Eating Beasts that had sent them fleeing in disarray were weaker than mosquitos and flies before this sickly young master.

“Big Brother, this woman has some looks—don’t kill her.” The gray-robed cultivator with a goatee, small eyes, and large mouth stood suspended in the air. Looking at the female cultivator in tattered clothes covered in wounds who could barely hold on, his laughter carried lewd intent. “Why not capture her to be a cauldron? Simply killing her like this would be such a waste.”

“At a time like this, you’re still thinking about women!” The oldest evil cultivator pointed at the male cultivator on the ground whose life or death was unknown. “You go first and extract the spiritual power from his spiritual platform.”

“Stop!” The female cultivator shouted sternly, “You beasts, don’t you dare touch my senior brother.”

“Oh my, little lady has quite a temper. I’m not only going to touch your senior brother, I’m going to touch you too.” The goateed evil cultivator laughed lecherously as he manipulated a Bone-Eating Beast to snatch away a piece of the female cultivator’s clothing. “Tsk tsk tsk, such white skin.”

“Hurry up and extract the spiritual power!” The older evil cultivator struck the goatee with his palm. “Haven’t you seen a woman before?”

Seeing Big Brother had become angry, though the goatee was reluctant to give up the beauty, he didn’t dare disobey Big Brother’s command. He took out a gourd and flew toward the male cultivator.

“Senior Brother!” In her urgency, the female cultivator flew to block in front of the male cultivator, pulling out all the talismans on her body and throwing them at the goatee. The goatee was prepared—he took out a magical artifact and blocked all the talismans outside, saying with a gloomy expression, “I prefer obedient women. Little beauty, if you step aside now, I can spare your life.”

“Get lost!” The female cultivator raised her sword in a flourish and became entangled in combat with the goatee. But she was heavily injured—within a few breaths, she was already showing weakness.

“Senior Sister!” Seeing the female cultivator fighting with the evil cultivator on the ground, Feng Qi was about to jump from the jade vessel but was grabbed by Huan Zong and thrown back onto it.

“Don’t get in the way.” His tone was unhurried, his face expressionless—he was merely stating a fact.

But Feng Qi couldn’t care about any of this. He said urgently, “Even if I die, I can’t watch helplessly as Senior Sister is violated by an evil cultivator.”

Huan Zong paid him no attention, turning to Kong Hou instead. “Have you ever fought with evil cultivators?”

Kong Hou shook her head.

“Go ahead.” Huan Zong pointed at the ground. “Only by actually fighting will you know where you’re lacking.”

He took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and Kong Hou to less than ten inches. Reaching out, he lightly patted Kong Hou’s temples—this motion was so light it had almost no force. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll be watching from right beside you.”

Seeing the female cultivator could barely hold on any longer, Kong Hou took a deep breath and nodded. “All right.” As soon as her words fell, she leaped from the jade vessel, flying straight toward the female cultivator’s side.

Huan Zong watched Kong Hou’s figure, making the jade vessel fly lower but showing no intention of taking action himself. Lin Hu, following behind them, went wordlessly to deal with the other evil cultivator, his first strike beating the older evil cultivator until he had no power to fight back.

Feng Qi was secretly astonished. Just who were these three people?!

The goateed evil cultivator still didn’t know Big Brother was being beaten without any power to fight back, not even having a chance to call for help. He knocked the sword from the female cultivator’s hand and sneered, “Since you want to die so badly, I’ll grant your wish.”

His five fingers became claws, reaching to gouge at the female cultivator’s throat. This was a fatal move—the female cultivator had no way to avoid it.

However, his hand had no opportunity to approach the female cultivator, because someone blocked him. It was a female cultivator dressed in gorgeous clothes, holding a sharp sword, with exquisite grooming.

“Another beauty here to die?” The goatee licked his dry, cracked lips. A Foundation Establishment ninth stage cultivator actually fantasized about saving someone from his hands—a Core Formation fifth stage beast-taming cultivator. How absurd.

Powerful beast-taming cultivators had the ability to communicate with beasts across heaven and earth. Though the goatee wasn’t yet that powerful, he had no problem manipulating some powerful demon beasts. He gave a loud shout, and densely packed Bone-Eating Beasts flew in from all directions.

“Fellow Daoist, you must leave quickly!” The female cultivator didn’t want to implicate this young lady who’d suddenly appeared. “This person is an evil beast-taming cultivator—you’re no match for him.”

Kong Hou looked up at the sky filled with Bone-Eating Beasts as dense as moths, pulled out a handful of talismans and threw them to the female cultivator. “Protect yourself.” The dharma robe on her body could withstand several attacks from Nascent Soul cultivators. This evil cultivator before her was only at Core Formation stage—she could barely hold out for a while.

If she couldn’t hold out…

She looked up at the man standing on the jade vessel. As a woman, how could she easily say she couldn’t do it?

Beast-taming cultivators were most skilled at controlling demon beasts, but their close combat abilities were mediocre. With her half-baked sword techniques, Kong Hou could actually match the goatee for several moves. The goatee wasn’t skilled at close combat, but his cultivation was high. Her cultivation was low, but she had plenty of talismans and magical treasures on her. For a moment they fought evenly matched, with no sign of decline.

Seeing he couldn’t deal with Kong Hou in a short time, the goatee didn’t continue the fight. Flashing away, he put over ten zhang of distance between himself and her. The Bone-Eating Beasts that had long been circling above them received the goatee’s command and dove down ferociously. Covering heaven and earth like dark clouds pressing down, the entire sky above darkened.

“Miss!” The female cultivator wished she could immediately block in front of Kong Hou, but she’d only walked forward two steps before collapsing on the ground, vomiting blood in great mouthfuls.

“Hey, I told you not to move.” Kong Hou looked up at the sky and reached to grasp the phoenix hairpin in her hair.

“Go save her!” Seeing this scene, Feng Qi on the jade vessel roared, “With so many Bone-Eating Beasts, she’ll die!”

Huan Zong raised his arm, preparing to intervene, when he saw Kong Hou remove the phoenix hairpin from her hair. His eyebrows moved slightly, and he slowly withdrew his hand.

“Hey!” Feng Qi couldn’t care how much he’d feared Huan Zong just now. In his agitation, he spoke incoherently, “Are you a man or not? If you’re a man, you can’t just watch your woman go into danger!”

“Shut up!” Huan Zong looked at Feng Qi coldly. Even after two hundred years, Qingfeng Sect’s sword cultivators were still so unsteady.

Nonsense! Absurd!