The sky gradually brightened. Human voices began to emerge in the courtyard as mortals bustled about noisily, coming and going.

Fucang sat in the privet tree before the embroidery tower with his eyes closed, resting and recuperating.

Last night’s events had made him think about many things. Zidu had said the stone filled with demonic malevolent energy had fallen from the divine realm three hundred years ago, which further confirmed his earlier premonition.

Heaven and earth were divided into clear and turbid energies. Clear energy generated divine power, while turbid energy generated demonic malevolence. Things infected by thick turbid energy for too long would slowly give birth to demonic malevolent energy.

Earlier, Zhuxuan Dijun had also said that the Sea of Severed Regret had been experiencing earth tremors for some years now. Its fall to the mortal realm was not sudden. As the saying goes, three feet of ice is not formed in a single day. These many years of tremors would always cause some fragments of divine realm soil contaminated by the Sea of Severed Regret’s turbid energy to fall. They were just too small and fragmented for anyone to notice. As for the demon clans who picked up these fragments—whether they fell into the demonic path depended entirely on a single thought.

If he could perceive these things, naturally the various emperors and great emperors in the upper realm would sooner or later discover it as well. Who knew how many fragments had fallen from the Sea of Severed Regret over these years, and consequently how many demons in the mortal realm had fallen into the demonic path. The divine realm had lived in comfort for too long. Now they should be more vigilant.

A delicate breeze brushed past. The privet tree’s leaves made rustling sounds. The little loach in his palm had already fallen fast asleep. The sound of wind together with her deep breathing created a strange sense of tranquility.

Fucang opened his eyes. A ray of sunlight was penetrating through the dense withered leaves, falling on her slender tail. Inside the courtyard, clear energy flowed freely and the sunlight appeared exceptionally clear and transparent. Her scales were like grains of golden dust. Her tail would bounce up every now and then, slapping against his palm both numb and itchy.

This appearance was truly extremely interesting. If only this loach were this quiet and well-behaved when she was a goddess—how much worry would that save?

The embroidery tower’s window opened with a creak. Xuan Yi startled awake and saw Yan Xia leaning against the window frame in a daze.

The young girl was harboring spring feelings in her heart, filled with innermost thoughts. Who knew what she was thinking about—at first she was endlessly affectionate, biting her lip and smiling secretly, but later her face turned pale and her eyes brimmed with tears.

Fucang was completely baffled by her ever-changing expressions. However, the loach in his palm sat bolt upright, her two small eyes quietly watching Yan Xia the entire time. After quite a while, the loach actually let out a sigh.

Fucang thought this pampered and willful princess would say “let’s go,” or at the very least complain about having nothing good to eat. Who knew she would actually sigh? He couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”

Xuan Yi coiled her body into a ball, her tone full of resentment. “There’s a brute who forces me to take dragon form every day, won’t give me food or drink or let me leave. Can’t I even sigh?”

Yan Xia’s low sobbing from the embroidery tower made her feel vexed and restless, tossing and turning. Back then, Mother had also cried like this every day. Later, what she saw most each day were her tears. How could she have so many tears that never ran dry? That low and suppressed sobbing made her want to hide ten thousand zhang underground.

“Knock her unconscious,” Xuan Yi said viciously. “Then she won’t cry anymore.”

Fucang bounced the loach in his hand a couple of times but said nothing.

—

The peaceful days ended on the third night. During these three mortal days, the patrol spirit officials didn’t come, the demon clans didn’t come either, but Yan Xia, who had been waiting for her lover for three days, could wait no longer.

At the third watch of the night, she climbed down from the embroidery tower. Her movements were quite agile. Xuan Yi blew out a breath in one go. Her earth prison spell shrouded the entire courtyard. Yan Xia ran around like a headless fly for quite a while but couldn’t get out no matter what. Both shocked and puzzled, she could only pace about anxiously in circles.

She was full of infatuated devotion, wanting to elope with her lover, completely unaware of the trouble her behavior would bring.

If they let Yan Xia run off to throw herself into a trap, wouldn’t their past few days of waiting be wasted? Zidu had also mentioned there was some Old Huai pulling strings behind the scenes. What if he was another fallen demon as formidable as the Wujiang Fairy? How troublesome that would be. She didn’t want her right leg to heal only to have her left leg injured.

Fucang quietly hid his body in the shadows of the branches and leaves with his eyes closed, resting. For some reason, he suddenly felt an ominous premonition. He opened his eyes and sensed that the courtyard, which had originally been filled with abundant clear energy, had suddenly become turbulent with turbid energy. A thin layer of mist slowly spread out, shrouding half the city.

He grabbed the little loach in one swift motion and gracefully descended to the ground. He heard from midair a clear sound of horse hooves echoing eerily. It was actually a somewhat old carriage coming leisurely along the top of the landowner’s compound wall, stopping outside the embroidery tower.

The next moment, the carriage door was slowly opened. Zidu, who had disappeared for three days, stood on the carriage holding a lantern, calling out with a smile, “A’Xia, I’ve come to fetch you.”

He wore a ginger-yellow jacket. Those hands that had been severed by Pure Jun were now perfectly restored to his arms. A fire-red pearl hung between his brows, making him appear even more like jade-faced royalty, extraordinarily handsome.

Fucang’s heart was shocked. He lightly flicked his fingertip and Pure Jun was about to whistle forth immediately when suddenly a pair of slender black hands shot out rapidly from inside the carriage, pressing down on the sword. Immediately a pained cry came from inside the carriage, “It hurts! It’s a heavenly treasure sword!”

Those black hands immediately retracted. Unexpectedly, Fucang gently tossed Pure Jun out. This azure-blue heavenly treasure sword drew a circle in the air and suddenly transformed into tens of thousands of cold lights. Swift as lightning, in just an instant it had shredded the carriage to pieces. A brief, miserable scream suddenly rang out, then suddenly ended. All around was deathly silent.

As expected, more than one demon had come. Fucang reached back to catch Yan Xia, but unexpectedly grasped only empty air. Looking back again, she had already vanished, leaving only rolling turbid energy swaying in the night wind.

The shattered carriage was still in its original place. Among the fragments lay a mangled monkey demon, long since dead.

Fucang’s heart was even more shocked. From releasing Pure Jun to this moment was but an instant—in such a short time, he hadn’t clearly seen at all how Yan Xia and Zidu had disappeared. Had Zidu’s cultivation level increased? Or was that Old Huai causing trouble behind the scenes?

Xuan Yi hopped from his sleeve onto his shoulder, stretched her body straight, and looked around in all directions. She also hadn’t seen clearly how Yan Xia had disappeared. This was bad. By the looks of it, that Old Huai must be a fallen demon as impressive and formidable as the Wujiang Fairy.

She immediately thought of retreating. Her tail had just moved when she heard Zhi Xi’s surprised exclamation from overhead, “Junior Martial Brother Fucang?”

Following that, a majestic and imposing xiezhi descended into the courtyard. On the xiezhi’s back sat two celestial deities one in front of the other. Besides Zhi Xi, even Shao Yi was there.

Xuan Yi immediately transformed back to human form with a “poof” as if meeting saviors, hopping on one foot toward Zhi Xi. “Senior Martial Sister! Senior Martial Sister!”

Zhi Xi was startled by her sudden appearance and quickly opened her arms to steady her, asking curiously, “How are you here too? You’re both all right, aren’t you? Did you fall here?”

Before Xuan Yi could speak, Shao Yi suddenly asked, “Where’s Yan Xia? What happened to that shattered carriage on the wall?”

Well… Xuan Yi sighed.

Zhi Xi was busy giving Fucang a brief explanation while inquiring about the situation. “I fell near the Yi River. Later I encountered Junior Martial Brother Shao Yi. His crimson phoenix was torn apart by the air currents, so the two of us traveled together. Earlier we heard that Yan Xia was reborn here, and we thought to come take a look. Has something happened to Yan Xia?”

If only they had come a moment earlier. Fucang nodded. “Senior Martial Sister Yan Xia was captured by a demon clan, just now.”

Zhi Xi was greatly shocked. Celestial deities who descended to the mortal realm were often coveted by demon clans, either for their flesh and blood or in attempts to deceive them into dual cultivating yin and yang. Yan Xia’s fate would surely be more ill than fortunate. If her life was endangered, not only would this trip to the mortal realm be wasted, but her spiritual essence would suffer great loss instead.

“That locust tree demon has fragments of divine realm soil contaminated with turbid energy?” Her voice trembled slightly. She immediately thought of the Wujiang Fairy. “Then… they fell during the Sea of Severed Regret’s tremors? Does this mean the mortal realm has countless fallen demons we don’t know about?”

That’s right, how terrifying. Xuan Yi nodded repeatedly. “That locust tree demon seems very powerful. Why don’t we hurry back to the Southern Heavenly Gate to report this?”

Zhi Xi sighed. “How could we make it in time? Last time with Gu Ting, we were lucky—we just happened to encounter Leize Shenjun coming to take over. Right now with the Sea of Severed Regret matter, everything must be a complete mess. Who has time to pay attention to us? By the time the Southern Heavenly Gate’s troops and generals assemble their forces and descend to the mortal realm, whatever calamity might occur will have long since passed.”

Xuan Yi let out a long sigh. Then what should they do? Would the four of them go to their deaths? If Yan Xia died in this life, she could still return to the upper realm. But if they perished, they would truly perish.