What Lord Can originally intended to do was to diligently follow everything written on these remnant pages, slowly and patiently arranging things, bit by bit transforming the text of these life-and-death remnant pages into reality.

Initially, things proceeded quite smoothly, but somehow, at some point, everything in reality began to diverge greatly from what was described on these remnant pages.

Lord Can struggled to control the situation, attempting to salvage the chaos, but the text on these remnant pages kept jumping and changing, making the sentences unreadable.

And today, when Lord Can looked again at this dragon-skin paper soaked in exotic beast blood, the originally densely packed text was gradually disappearing.

Lord Can’s expression changed abruptly, and he almost couldn’t help but reach into the vat to fish out those remnant pages. But just then, on the now blank paper, a new line of large characters appeared.

“One who is not bound by heavenly fate appears in the wrong era, destiny severed and discontinuous, even Heaven cannot know…”

After displaying this sentence, that piece of dragon-skin remnant page slowly sank to the bottom of the vat, bubbled a few blood bubbles, then became completely still.

Lord Can slowly narrowed his eyes, his hand gripping the edge of the vat, still unwilling to give up as he continued to shout: “One who is not bound by heavenly fate? Appearing in the wrong era? What exactly does this mean?”

But the remnant pages in that blood vat never floated up again.

Lord Can slowly straightened his body. Although the meaning of these dragon-skin remnant pages was unclear, that “one who is not bound by heavenly fate” had disrupted what should have been his smooth path to immortality.

Lord Can closed his eyes, carefully recalling all the various situations along this journey, and felt that the greatest variable was that Talismonger Sect’s Cui Xiaoxiao!

In the original destiny, he had never seen Cui Xiaoxiao’s name!

Lord Can was certain of this point. After all, the original path to ascending to immortality was truly too perfect, so much so that every time Lord Can looked at it, his blood would surge with excitement, wishing he could ascend to immortality in one step, and he had memorized every detail by heart.

But now, the perfect path to immortality had been destroyed like a plate of leftover scraps that couldn’t be swallowed.

However, everything could still be remedied. Lord Can knew he needed to pull the derailed events back to their original trajectory, bit by bit, not tolerating even the slightest error!

Although the remnant pages’ story had already undergone subtle changes long ago, the truly major changes began with the female demon Siling’s escape.

Perhaps only by pulling everything back on track would the dormant life-and-death remnant pages be awakened again. However, right now, how to face the denunciation from the four major sects was the first issue that needed to be resolved.

Lord Can slowly wiped the blood from his hands, his face once again resuming its usual gentle and warm expression, and slowly walked out of the secret chamber…

Now speaking of Cui Xiaoxiao, Wei Jie, and their group, they waited briefly outside the city, confirming that there were no traces of the female demon Siling in the vicinity, before beginning to scale the walls and enter the city.

The time they had been delayed in the phantom city was much longer than they had thought, quite like the feeling of “one day in heaven, one year on earth.”

So much so that after leaving the city, Yu Ling’er, who had just eaten a barbecued chicken leg, was already starving again.

However, this wasn’t the time to look for food, so Xiaoxiao could only tell her to endure it for now.

It was currently deep into the night, and the high city walls couldn’t stop them at all. The city guards only felt their eyes dazzled as shadows and cold wind seemed to sweep past.

Those city guards did want to look more carefully, but the speed was too fast – in the blink of an eye, all was quiet again.

Cui Xiaoxiao and their group had a clear target, heading straight for Lord Can’s palace in Luoyi City.

This palace was said to have been built when the Late Emperor of Great Qi was still alive.

Although Lord Can was born of the same mother as His Majesty, they had different fates despite sharing the same lineage.

When the Late Emperor abdicated and ascended to become Grand Emperor, the current His Majesty’s ascension to the throne was confirmed. At that time, the teenage Lord Can bid farewell to the Empress Dowager and came to this fiefdom, where he had lived for over twenty years.

However, Lord Can later seemed to have ordered major renovations to the palace, with many pavilions and towers having their positions drastically changed.

Now Wei Jie brought Cui Xiaoxiao to jump onto a large tree diagonally across from the palace, while Tang Youshu also climbed the tree with Yu Ling’er’s help.

When they looked out from their vantage point, most of the palace was visible.

Xiaoxiao stared intently for a while, then murmured to herself: “Strange…”

“Indeed, quite strange. This palace’s layout is closely related to the Five Elements feng shui, but what it seeks doesn’t seem to be glory, wealth, or household peace and health – it looks more like evil harvesting techniques!”

The one saying this was Tang Youshu, who had been helped up the tree by Yu Ling’er. He was currently clinging tightly to the tree fork, murmuring as he stared at the palace layout in the distance.

Although his cultivation wasn’t advanced, he had loved studying feng shui and similar subjects since childhood, having read many books. Now seeing such an elaborate mansion, he couldn’t help but compare it with things he had studied before.

Xiaoxiao’s bit of feng shui knowledge was also learned from the elderly Tang Youshu, so she naturally knew her master’s abilities and quickly said: “If you understand, say more – what is he trying to accomplish with this arrangement?”

Tang Youshu, hearing his grand-master’s encouragement, immediately became spirited and explained: “Grand-master, look! Generally, wealthy families place their wells in the back courtyard or near the kitchen. But this palace’s well is deliberately dug in the main courtyard. Moreover, with steep surroundings and a low center, this is a gathering formation, meant to draw in good fortune from all directions! This is very unethical – if some wealthy household in a village or town did this, they’d have their courtyard smashed and be cursed by neighbors!”

Yu Ling’er felt Tang Youshu’s explanation was somewhat unreliable and quietly asked: “But it’s just digging a well – can there be so many intricacies?”

Tang Youshu nodded solemnly: “This kind of courtyard design has every single aspect carefully arranged, even the planting of trees has particular significance. I only saw this occasionally in a rare copy of ‘Jiang Taigong’s Water Fortune.’ However, this kind of layout was originally used to extend the lives of those who were short-lived and frail. Could it be that someone in this palace has an incurable disease and can only try these unorthodox methods to see if they can change their fate?”

Cui Xiaoxiao had met Lord Can, and although he didn’t have the robust strength of a warrior, he appeared ruddy-faced with excellent spirit and bearing.

Moreover, in the original trajectory, Lord Can not only maintained eternal youth but later seemed to have achieved enlightenment and ascended to immortality, with extremely good fortune.

Would such a healthy person, at the prime age of thirty, be scheming to arrange feng shui to extend his lifespan? Shouldn’t this be something only those entering their twilight years would worry about?

Of course, the indulgent thoughts of these wealthy nobles weren’t something ordinary people could understand.

Just then, Wei Jie also said in a deep voice, “After entering the city, I also made many inquiries among the locals. Although this Lord Can came to the Luoyi fiefdom twenty years ago, he remained deeply secluded for the first ten years, never showing himself. Only in recent years has he gradually appeared before his subjects.”

Hearing this, Cui Xiaoxiao felt that Lord Can seemed to have many mysteries, but for the moment, she didn’t know where to start investigating.

She asked Wei Jie if they should go down, but Wei Jie said: “The night wind is just right now, we might as well stay here and observe…”

Xiaoxiao thought this made sense, and it was a good opportunity to let everyone test whether the invisibility talismans she had recently drawn worked well.

Since being transported two hundred years into the past, Xiaoxiao had hardly had a moment’s peace. Only during those few days with Qin Lingxiao could she peacefully study the secret texts in the carriage and draw some talismans she hadn’t tried before.

Previously, she had always heard her master, Tang Youshu, deprecatingly say he wasn’t a person of spiritual talent, which was why the Talismonger Sect had never flourished.

Xiaoxiao seemed to have had a smoother start than Tang Youshu, quickly mastering water control and water summoning skills.

But thinking about it now, if she hadn’t opened her spiritual apertures using blood as a catalyst, her entry might not have been better than the current physician, Tang Youshu.

If Tang Youshu had initially gained inspiration from those human-skin talismans and founded the Lingshan Talismonger Sect, then afterward, he had completely abandoned the evil of human-skin talismans, adding some peace and auspiciousness to the talisman arts.

But Cui Xiaoxiao had initially used her own extremely yin blood for talismans, inadvertently returning to the original tradition of those evil talismans, so the talismans she drew naturally displayed greater effectiveness.

After realizing this point, Xiaoxiao had once secretly and solemnly bowed to the young Tang Youshu: This disciple was foolish and failed to live up to the master’s original painstaking efforts in establishing the sect.

If blood must be used as a catalyst, then no wonder others called the Talismonger Sect a low-class sect.

She shouldn’t disappoint her late master’s original aspirations!

Now that she was the sect leader of the Talismonger Sect, she naturally had to learn to use her powerful spiritual force to imbue spiritual talismans.

Now was the time to test the effectiveness of the spiritual talismans.

When she placed the spiritual talismans on her own and Wei Jie’s necks, she closed her eyes and silently recited the incantation. When she opened her eyes, Wei Jie’s handsome face was still clearly visible before her.

Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but feel greatly disappointed, but Wei Jie’s gaze suddenly tightened, and he suddenly reached out to touch her, only stopping when he touched her tender, smooth cheek.

His large palm, slightly calloused, created a tingling sensation when it touched Xiaoxiao’s face.

Xiaoxiao blushed and couldn’t help slapping his misbehaving hand, glaring at him in a low voice: “What are you trying to do?”

Tang Youshu quietly said from the side: “Grand-master, you… have truly become invisible.”

It turned out Wei Jie had suddenly been unable to see Xiaoxiao, which was why he had reached out to confirm.

However, Wei Jie seemed to want to confirm more thoroughly – although his large palm had touched his master’s tender face, he was slow to withdraw it, even rubbing that tofu-soft cheek a little.

Xiaoxiao forcefully slapped that presumptuous large palm once, and only then did Wei Jie seem to come to his senses and slowly withdraw his hand.

At this point, Xiaoxiao quickly pulled out a small bronze mirror from her cloth pouch. When she looked in the mirror, indeed, the mirror was empty!

Xiaoxiao could barely contain her joy: It seemed that while learning to control “Yu Tiandou,” the improvement in her spiritual power was not only greatly beneficial for sword control, but equally effective for talisman control.

As a result of this moment of pride and carelessness, Xiaoxiao’s figure appeared again in the mirror.

Xiaoxiao quickly steadied her mind, silently recited the formula, and finally brought the invisibility talisman to its maximum effectiveness.

Under her guidance, Wei Jie quickly grasped the technique of projecting spiritual power onto talisman characters, learning to silently recite the talisman text like Xiaoxiao, and immediately concealed his form in the night.

In comparison, Tang Youshu was somewhat more laborious – although he had applied the talisman, he couldn’t achieve invisibility for a long time, while Yu Ling’er was even more at a loss.

Xiaoxiao again silently sighed in her heart – Wei Jie’s inner depth was more unfathomable than what he showed.

You must know that Xiaoxiao had also practiced hard for a long time before grasping the key points, while Wei Jie had only heard her explain once before easily mastering it.

Such a worry-free disciple truly left Xiaoxiao, as his master, with no sense of achievement whatsoever.

Just as the two of them had hidden their forms, the sound of swift wind suddenly came from the distant emptiness, with many powerful beings gathering from all directions of the city, riding the wind.

Yu Ling’er and Tang Youshu couldn’t conceal their auras well, and would likely be discovered soon, so they first climbed down from the tree to wait for Xiaoxiao and the others in the back alleys.

Xiaoxiao and Wei Jie, having hidden their auras and forms, remained in the large tree.

Speaking of those powerful beings who came riding the wind, judging by their clothing and appearance, they should be people from the four major sects.

It turned out that after receiving assistance from the Wei family members at the forest by Autumn Water Pool, once they had the parasites removed, they headed toward Luoyi City. Two days ago, when they were about to reach the city gates, their vision was always filled with mist, and they couldn’t get out no matter what.

Only after Xiaoxiao and the others broke the phantom city did that mist disperse. So the four major sects’ people arrived even later than Xiaoxiao’s group.

Qin Lingxiao was standing beside a white-robed middle-aged man who was half-sitting in a sedan chair.

Looking at their similar features, anyone could guess that this was a pair of blood-related father and son.

It seemed that the white-robed middle-aged man was Qin Lingxiao’s father, Lingyun Pavilion’s pavilion lord Qinhe.

Xiaoxiao focused her gaze on that man. Although it was already deep into the night, her eyesight was remarkable and completely unaffected.

This time, she could be certain that the person she had seen in the mirror was indeed this dignified Lingyun Pavilion lord Qinhe!

For a moment, even though Xiaoxiao had vaguely guessed it, she still felt extremely shocked inside. After all, the Lingyun Pavilion lord and an idle prince should be two people who had nothing to do with each other!

However, Qinhe seemed to be seriously injured, his face waxen yellow, very weak with qi deficiency, only able to sit powerlessly in the sedan chair, carried by his sect disciples as they rode the wind forward.

It was said he had returned to Luoyi City slowly in a sealed carriage, because even a little wind would make him cough incessantly, so he hadn’t gotten out of the carriage the entire journey…

The four major sects had been badly tricked by Lord Can. Except for the sect master of Wonderful Immortal Mountain, who was too severely injured and unfortunately died, the other sect masters and elders, after leaving Autumn Water Pool and with the Wei family’s help, removing the parasites and recuperating for a long time, finally caught their breath.

Now, with pent-up anger, the four major sects only wanted to storm into the palace, seize that treacherous king, and avenge their dead disciples!

But just now, when several disciples from the major sects tried to leap over the palace’s high walls, they discovered that the barrier of spiritual energy around the palace was powerful, immediately bouncing them back.

With no other choice, they could only pound on the doors and curse loudly in the middle of the night.

This midnight shouting and cursing naturally attracted countless city guards from all directions, surrounding the four major sects’ people.

Originally thinking that the treacherous king would cower in his palace, not daring to come out and see people, who would have thought that just then, the large gates creaked open.

A middle-aged man who looked like a palace steward walked out.

This steward appeared to be about forty years old. Although there were some wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, his skin was still relatively smooth and young, but his hair was completely white. On the right side of his mouth was a black mole that looked extremely conspicuous.

He looked unhurriedly at the four major sects’ people: “My lord’s birthday banquet three days ago was supposed to be a joyous occasion, but who knew he was frightened at Autumn Water Pool. When he returned to the palace, he came down with acute symptoms and a high fever. The palace physicians are currently treating him. You people making such a commotion – are you trying to rebel?”

Qinhe, leading the four major sects and seriously injured this time, struggled to stand with his son Qin Lingxiao’s support, saying hatefully: “He can be frightened into illness? When he ordered his subordinates to use evil arts to harm our four major sects, his courage was quite large! No matter what, today he must stand out and give our four major sects an explanation for our dead disciples and elders!”

At these words, the four major sects again became a clamorous mass.

Several Wonderful Immortal Mountain disciples, unable to suppress their anger, wanted to charge in first.

They had suffered the most severe losses this time. Although the Wei family had timely assistance, their sect master still died from parasites piercing his heart, along with an elder from their sect.

If they didn’t personally slay the prince, how could these people face their fellow sect members?

That steward, seeing the Wonderful Immortal Mountain disciples charging in, didn’t obstruct them, even gesturing for the surrounding officials to remain calm, while he stepped back, acting as if he would let them do as they pleased.

The moment the Wonderful Immortal Mountain disciples charged through the main gate with ice blades in hand, there came the clear sizzling sound of roasting meat, then those disciples cried out and were bounced back.

Their exposed arms and faces all had burn marks.

The steward coldly laughed, pointing to the rooftop of the palace’s highest tower. There, in the night, something seemed to be flashing with faint light.

Xiaoxiao, with her good eyesight, immediately saw that embedded at the highest point of that tower was a statue of a Xiezhi divine beast.

This kind of protective beast was usually embedded in imperial palace halls. This sheep-like but not quite sheep divine beast was said to have eyes like torches, most capable of distinguishing loyalty from treachery! If encountering good people, they would naturally be safe and sound, but when meeting bad people, they could be swallowed whole.

At this moment, this protective beast, carved from who knows what material, was emitting a dazzling light from its body, as if its fierce nature was aroused, preventing anyone with hostile intentions toward the palace from entering.

The steward coldly snorted: “This Xiezhi is a divine being from the three realms, a divine object once bestowed upon the Great Qi royal ancestors. This sacred statue can discern killing intent and block all those who intend harm to the royal family. Later, when it passed to the Late Emperor, he gave this divine object to our lord to protect Lord Can’s well-being. Gentlemen, if you insist on forcing your way in, this humble one cannot guarantee your safety!”

Regarding this divine statue, the four major sects had also heard rumors. It was said to be from a fateful good deed by Great Qi’s ancestors, when they helped upper realm gods prevent the collapse of the three realms and formed an alliance oath with the three realms’ gods, thus obtaining this divine object.

So what should have been guarding in the heavenly realm, preventing evil things from invading the divine halls, had now become the treacherous king’s household guardian.

The four major sects knew that the sacred object was powerful. If Lord Can didn’t come out, even if they forced their way in, they couldn’t get through.

For a moment, the cursing and shouting began to shake the heavens again.

Just then, another team of silver-armored people came riding the wind, landing in front of the palace gates.

Leading them was precisely the Wei family head, Wei Jingfeng. He looked up at Xiezhi and asked coldly: “Does Lord Can plan to rely on the protective blessing of the royal ancestors and never leave his home again? I have already investigated that a Wei family traitor is hiding in the palace. This person harbors evil intentions – what exactly does the prince intend by sheltering such a person?”

The steward was quite polite to the Wei family, cupping his hands toward them: “Speaking of which, our lord, like all of you, is a victim deceived by treacherous people. Ten years ago, the lord, being kind-hearted, took in a pair claiming to be a refugee father and daughter. This person, called Wei Di, had some supernatural abilities and cured the lord’s chronic illness. The lord, grateful for Wei Di’s life-saving grace, treated him with great courtesy. Wei Di said he wanted to continue cultivating for immortality, and relying on this favor, requested rare medicines and exotic beasts from the lord. The lord, mindful of this kindness, spent silver to satisfy his requests as much as possible. But they plotted against you, immortal masters like this, and Pearl even secretly manipulated parasitic evil arts, committing these murders – this truly was beyond the lord’s expectations! Now the extraordinary masters in the residence have, under the lord’s orders, executed Wei Di. The lord is willing to hand over the traitor’s corpse to give those tragically dead immortal masters an explanation!”

Just as the steward finished speaking, palace guards were seen carrying out a stretcher.

Lying on that stretcher was Wei Di, whose chest had been pierced through and who had been dead for some time.

Wei Jingfeng squinted at his brother’s former right-hand man, while several Wei family members with deeper seniority also walked over to examine whether the corpse on the stretcher was Wei Di.

After confirming it was correct, those clan members nodded to Wei Jingfeng.

But Wei Jingfeng couldn’t help frowning.

He could see at a glance that Wei Di had died from a pierced heart. The edges of the wound were clean without any tearing marks – it should have been a fatal blow, with Wei Di not even having time to struggle or resist.

Wei Di’s skills were not weak; he was one of the top masters in the Wei family. Either he was caught completely off guard by a sneak attack, or the person who killed him had cultivation far superior to his.

Wei Jingfeng couldn’t help being somewhat curious: What kind of capable person was kept in that palace to kill Wei Di with one strike?

But with Wei Di dead, the remaining matters became thorny!

The Wei family had been searching everywhere for this traitor over the years, but unfortunately, he had hidden too well, remaining completely untraceable.

If the Wei family hadn’t followed the trail of corpse-eating beasts and puppet parasites to Luoyi City, they wouldn’t have been able to find Wei Di.

Wei Jingfeng had hoped to capture Wei Di alive. After all, the forbidden objects Wei Di had stolen years ago were still missing.

If they couldn’t be returned, this would be the Wei family’s dereliction of duty, ultimately burying the hidden dangers of heavenly punishment. The Wei family had been covering up this matter, also hoping to make amends at the last moment.

Now that both father and daughter were dead, where should he go to find the whereabouts of those remnant pages?

However, the matter of the lost Life and Death Record remnant pages was a Wei family secret. If it were to spread, it would certainly cause changes, so he hadn’t even told that child, Wei Jie.

The Wei family had rarely ventured into the world. If not for someone secretly using parasites this time, attempting to poach corpse-eating beasts, they wouldn’t have become involved in worldly affairs.

Now the Wei family’s traitorous father and daughter had both been executed, but the lost items hadn’t been returned. They must personally meet with Lord Can and question him thoroughly.

The steward seemed somewhat more polite to the Wei family, his black mole twitching slightly as he smiled: “I will certainly convey this on behalf of the Wei family head. However, today I’m afraid it won’t be possible. Although the Wei family is are demon-hunter, when you were sealed and appointed by the upper gods a hundred years ago, you were also subordinate generals under Great Qi’s founding ancestors. I believe the Wei family head should understand proper etiquette better than those… mountain rustics?”

This black-moored steward was making pointed remarks, while admonishing the Wei family, he also used sharp words to secretly curse the other four major sects as all being mountain rustics.