The steward was naturally overjoyed to see these several handsome men and women agree to work and board the ship.

As if fearing they would change their minds, the steward hastily called over the other outsiders they had recruited and began hoisting sails to prepare for departure.

Once aboard, Cui Xiaoxiao’s group finally met the ship owner.

This ship owner was in his thirties and truly looked like a merchant, but the several house servants beside him had fierce, brutish faces with strong martial world auras – they didn’t look like ordinary merchants’ servants at all.

When the sails were raised and they set off, Xiaoxiao gazed into the distance and noticed another ship following them at a moderate distance behind.

Her eyesight was excellent – she immediately saw that the Qin father and son from Lingyun Pavilion were on that ship.

When she whispered this to Wei Jie, Wei Jie’s handsome face grew taut: “Those dogs, not daring to fight head-on but trailing behind all the way. The Four Great Sects have truly declined beyond recognition… Such trash became the world’s number one sword sect two hundred years later? Were there no decent talents in your time?”

Xiaoxiao was now quite skilled at soothing the irritable demon lord. She quickly flattered him: “Didn’t that wretch steal your cultivation? Without your power as foundation, how could he have competed for first in the world?”

This flattery hit exactly the right spot. Wei Jie’s expression softened somewhat, though thinking of how this wretch had stolen his cultivation and still dared to propose to Xiaoxiao in human form made Wei Jie disgusted all over again.

If not for his promise to Xiaoxiao to control his demonic nature and not kill indiscriminately, he would jump onto Qin Lingxiao’s ship right now and kill that traitorous bastard!

Xiaoxiao also felt it was too inauspicious to have such a person following them, so she casually recited a wind incantation. Soon, strong winds rose in the sky, filling their sails and accelerating their progress, quickly leaving the Qin father and son’s ship far behind.

The several burly servant thugs on the ship initially shouted orders at Tang Youshu and the fox clan people to handle sails and oars, but then discovered that strong winds had risen, making their ship glide forward lightly as if pushed by someone.

They were quite puzzled, feeling today’s departure was remarkably smooth. Throughout the following time, the wind was also remarkably cooperative, always blowing in their direction of travel.

Seeing this, the thugs stopped worrying about sailing and turned their attention to sizing up the two young ladies on board.

However, Yu Ling’er and the fox clan people suffered quite a bit. The fox clan had always lived in the mountains and wilderness, never having boarded ships or gone to sea.

With the rolling waves, their fox heads became dizzy, and Yu Ling’er and all the fox clan people began rushing to the deck to vomit violently into the sea.

Seeing this scene, Ship Owner Jia merely gave a cold laugh and whispered to his steward: “These people look sturdy enough, yet they’re so useless. But to be safe, we’ll need to drug their food later to avoid complications. When we reach the destination, just dump them on the island.”

Though Yu Ling’er was vomiting, fox ears are sharp – she immediately heard the ship owner’s words.

It seemed Young Master Tang was right – this ship was black!

The steward, hearing his master’s instructions, turned his gaze toward the two lovely young ladies, Cui Xiaoxiao and Yu Ling’er, then whispered something to the thugs behind him.

Such fine women were rare – to get two at once today! Such tender young things you could squeeze water from – if they didn’t have some fun, wouldn’t boarding his ship be a waste?

Seeing how those who had boarded were vomiting their guts out, they were soft goods. So the steward couldn’t even wait to drag their food and was prepared to bring Cui Xiaoxiao to his room first.

Playing with women was naturally more interesting when they were conscious! The thugs the ship owner had hired were all bandits from the green forests, each one a killer and robber who stopped at nothing evil. While they hadn’t reached their destination, finding some entertainment would let everyone have a good time…

So after the steward and several burly men exchanged knowing smiles and whispered, they came over to Cui Xiaoxiao and Yu Ling’er: “Young ladies, would you like to rest in the steward’s room? His bed is big and soft. Chat with us and do some interesting things – guaranteed to distract you so you won’t be seasick anymore!”

When they said this, their faces were full of lewdness – anyone could see what evil they intended with just the two girls.

Before Wei Jie could explode in fury, Yu Ling’er, who had just recovered, eagerly said: “They make sense. If I don’t find something to distract myself, I’ll vomit up my gall bladder! No, I need to go to that room first!”

After saying this, without waiting for anyone to drag her, she lifted her skirts and hurried toward the steward’s room.

Those thugs had never seen such a proactive woman offering herself – they were so excited they forgot themselves, no longer bothering to drag Cui Xiaoxiao as they all crowded around the steward’s door to watch something arousing.

But in the next moment, earth-shaking ghostly wails and wolf howls came from the steward’s room.

Immediately after, they saw the fat steward, who hadn’t even had time to pull up his pants, burst out with rolling white eyes, screaming: “Demon… demon! There’s a demon!”

Then they saw a large fox with three tails burst out of the room.

Because of her previous attachment to the spirit stone, Yu Ling’er’s two fox tails had now split into three, and her size had grown much larger than before. Her snarling appearance immediately intimidated those thugs.

Just then, Ship Owner Jia, who had come out hearing the commotion, was also scared senseless and quickly shouted: “Hurry up and get knives! Chop up this beast!”

The thugs, jolted by this shout, came to their senses and drew their knives to attack the three-tailed white fox.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the new Fox King, these people weren’t even worth a plate of chicken breast.

The weakness from seasickness indeed diminished greatly when the beast’s hunting instincts awakened. The three-tailed demon fox howled “Aowu” once, then fiercely clawed at those thugs’ chests and faces. In an instant, those people were clawed bloody and howled in pain.

The white fox contentedly licked the blood from her claws and suddenly exclaimed with delight: “Oh my, it turns out human blood has anti-nausea effects! Everyone should try it!”

Immediately after, the steward and thugs watched in horror as those men who had been vomiting and unable to straighten up suddenly leaped up one by one, transforming into various colored foxes and fiercely attacking them!

Holy shit! What kind of filthy creatures had they brought aboard this time?

Before those people could even get into a fighting stance, they were madly torn and bitten by the large foxes, quickly becoming bloody messes.

Cui Xiaoxiao sat leisurely on a box on the ship’s deck, while Wei Jie sat comfortably beside her, lifting his thick cloak to shield her from the sea wind and harsh sunlight.

Xiaoxiao watched the spectacle of the pack of foxes chasing and biting people while casually taking a bag of liquor that Tang Youshu brought her. With one leg propped on the wooden box and her long hair flowing, she completely had the bearing of a female pirate captain.

Looking at Ship Owner Jia being dragged over by a black fox, she said leisurely: “You choose – either tell me properly about this ship’s secrets, or go back to continue feeding the foxes?”

Master Jia, bitten all over with wounds and his face covered in dirty blood, cried and wailed in terror: “Great King, spare my life! I’ll talk, I’ll tell you everything!”

It turned out that this merchant surnamed Jia was a legitimate porcelain trader.

Once, he was invited by a long-unseen friend to go to sea for pleasure and inadvertently landed on an island.

That island was like a paradise – pavilions and towers were plentiful, with beautiful servant girls and singing courtesans performing in the buildings, and there was even a gambling house for visitors to the island to enjoy.

Initially, he just watched his friend and others play, but helplessly, watching gradually aroused his gambling addiction, so he joined the table.

In the first few hands, his luck was excellent – he drew good pai gow tiles every time. In just one night, the money he earned was more than what he made selling porcelain for a year.

This immediately aroused his greater gambling addiction.

But fortune turns in cycles. After a day and night, his luck suddenly turned bad, and he couldn’t draw good pai gow tiles no matter what. Like this, he not only gradually lost all his previous winnings but also lost all his business capital.

Once “gambling” becomes addictive, it always makes people crazy and overconfident, feeling they’re lucky ones who can turn the tables, that the next hand will win back some capital.

Without silver, he simply began betting his jade pendants and gold rings, but in the end, he lost everything.

When he was at his wits’ end, the house suggested that without gold or silver, he could also gamble with his life.

At that time, several gamblers at the table were dumbfounded, thinking that gambling with life meant suicide if you lost.

Unexpectedly, the house chuckled and explained that people’s lifespans varied – some could live to ninety, some could even reach a hundred.

But living too long, the years one could truly enjoy were only a few decades. Rather than struggling in poverty, why not use some wasted lifespan to gain present glory?

They only needed to write the length of lifespan they wished to mortgage on an IOU to receive a corresponding substantial gambling stake.

When the gamblers heard this, they thought it was absurd nonsense – mortgage lifespan? Could this thing be mortgaged just by writing it on paper? Unheard of!

But if someone was willing to be taken advantage of, why not go along with it?

The gambling house’s operator even kindly brought out a paper list filled with their names and lifespans, letting them fill in their mortgage amounts according to their lifespans.

One thin gambler saw that only thirty years was written next to his name and burst into wild laughter, saying he was already twenty-nine this year, healthy and disease-free – how could he possibly die so early?

Not believing in such nonsense and wanting to borrow more money, he mortgaged his remaining one year of life completely. The others also didn’t take it seriously and mortgaged as much lifespan as possible to get capital.

The ship owner was also non-believing in ghosts and gods. Seeing he had seventy years of life while being under thirty, he also mortgaged twenty years in one go.

As a result, they received large sums of money. That thin gambler even used this capital to win a round and immediately doubled his money back.

But just as he was laughing and collecting his winnings, he suddenly rolled his eyes and collapsed stiffly, dying on the spot. Now the others were dumbfounded – only then did they realize the lifespans mortgaged on paper were all real.

Some who had mortgaged too much were immediately too scared to continue gambling, clamoring to return the money. But the house said mortgaged items couldn’t be returned – since they had mortgaged their lifespans, they should enjoy their remaining time to the fullest.

At that time, everyone wanted to fight desperately, but in the blink of an eye, the entire island disappeared, and they all fell into the water. A voice came from the horizon, saying if they wanted to redeem their lifespans, they could mortgage others’ lives – life for life.

Only then did the ship owner understand why his friend, who had brought him to the island, had disappeared shortly after landing.

It turned out his friend had tricked him into coming to repay the gambling debt with his lifespan.

On the return journey, they encountered storms and were delayed. When they finally reached shore, several more people collapsed and died without warning as their mortgaged lifespans expired.

The ship owner was now scared out of his wits. Though he had cautiously left himself ten years of life, going from seventy years to just ten remaining – how could he accept this?

So he learned from his friend, tricking poor sailors onto ships to transport them to that island.

But that gambling debt was like a loan shark – the lifespan that needed to be repaid daily rolled over like compound interest, layer upon layer.

He had tricked two ships of sailors, but only redeemed two years of his own life. Helplessly, he could only hire thieves at high prices to deal with those on shore looking for their relatives, while continuing to deceive people onto ships.

When it came to the third ship, he had tricked aboard a ship full of man-eating foxes.

After hearing this story, Xiaoxiao suddenly had a thought and said to Tang Youshu: “I remember the secret manual mentioned that Wei Jie won that Zhu Jiuyin statue by gambling with someone at Zhangwei Mountain, right? Do you think that the gambling island might have some connection to Zhangwei Mountain?”

Tang Youshu said: “I didn’t accompany Master there at the time – I only heard about it afterward. Master spoke little then and didn’t mention the details.”

Xiaoxiao nodded in understanding, because Wei Jie was the same way now – he only talked more with Xiaoxiao, but was indifferent to everyone else.

Yu Ling’er had now returned to human form and had exhaustedly collapsed against Tang Youshu.

Seeing Ling’er covered in sweat, Tang Youshu felt somewhat sorry for her and wiped her sweat: “Those people had thick, rough skin – do your teeth hurt?”

The little fox had always been delicate about food, only eating chicken breast meat. Having bitten so many people, her teeth should hurt soon!

Old Master Tang thought of himself as a grandfather caring warmly for a puppy.

But Yu Ling’er felt Young Master Tang still had her in his heart, so she naturally became much more delicate, covering her cheeks and crying about tooth pain, weakly saying: “That island sounds very sinister. Let’s not go there – I’m so scared!”

Cui Xiaoxiao didn’t notice the little fox’s thoughts and only gazed ahead intently, pointing: “Too late, we’ve already arrived…”

Yu Ling’er, supported by Tang Youshu, held onto the ship’s rail and looked forward. On the originally vast sea surface, a sea island had suddenly appeared amidst dark clouds.

The ship had slowly docked at the island’s pier, where countless beautifully dressed servant girls smiled welcomingly at the new guests coming ashore.

The leading woman appeared slightly older and smiled charmingly as she approached everyone, but not seeing the ship owner, she asked: “Where might Master Jia be?”

Xiaoxiao smiled: “Master Jia is seasick and needs to sleep before he can get out of bed. He told us to go ashore and play first. How should we address you?”

This woman looked the Talisman Sect group up and down and slowly smiled: “This humble woman is the island master’s steward. You may call me Lady Fu. In that case, please come ashore to relax and enjoy yourselves.”

Just as Master Jia had said, the island was like a fairyland with pavilions and towers, artificial mountains and gardens everywhere. The island master was generous, having lightly-dressed servant girls bring various delicacies for the island guests to enjoy.

However, their group was already on guard and absolutely wouldn’t touch the island’s food. Even the usually gluttonous Yu Ling’er repeatedly waved her hands, refusing the exquisite pastries the servant girls offered.

But they weren’t the only ones to land on the island – several more ships arrived shortly after.

Sharp-eyed Xiaoxiao immediately spotted Qin Lingxiao and his father disembarking from one ship.

Qin He looked much weaker, aged beyond measure, barely able to disembark with Qin Lingxiao’s support.

Qin Lingxiao had been following Cui Xiaoxiao’s group all along.

He had no choice – he still couldn’t find Lord Can’s whereabouts and could only pin his hopes on the Demon Pearl.

There were now two Demon Pearls – one with Cui Xiaoxiao, another with Tang Youshu. He had to find a way to get one to keep his father alive.

But with Wei Jie present, he didn’t dare approach. That Wei Jie’s demonic nature was growing stronger daily, and his cultivation was rising accordingly.

Qin Lingxiao could only trail them, looking for opportunities.

He understood Tang Youshu’s character – kind-hearted at bottom and relatively reasonable. If he appealed to emotion and reason, Tang Youshu might soften and give up that Demon Pearl.

With this mindset, he had followed Cui Xiaoxiao’s group all the way.

However, after entering the sea, he had briefly lost track of their ship and thought he couldn’t find them, but his sail was blown by the wind all the way and inexplicably arrived at this sea island.

When he helped his father disembark, he discovered Cui Xiaoxiao’s group had already landed first.

Seeing Cui Xiaoxiao with Wei Jie’s arm around her shoulder in a “she belongs to me” posture, Qin Lingxiao felt a slight sourness in his teeth.

He didn’t know why these two had ended up together again after all their twists and turns.

What made Qin Lingxiao even more alarmed was that Wei Jie’s purple eyes were gradually turning black, and his aura showed increasingly deep demonic possession.

Why wouldn’t Xiaoxiao leave him? Didn’t he know how terrifying Wei Jie would become after full demonic possession?

Xiaoxiao’s group sat leaning against the corridor, looking at Qin Lingxiao and his hunched father beside him. No one greeted the Qin surname, not even Yu Ling’er.

Qin Lingxiao gritted his teeth, looked at his frail father, and said quietly to Xiaoxiao and Tang Youshu: “You should know why I’m here. My father won’t last much longer. If you can save his life, even if it means trading my life, I’m willing… Senior Brother, you wouldn’t refuse to save a life, would you?”

Hearing this, Tang Youshu’s brow furrowed tightly, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything harsh.

Though Wei Jie had suffered various false accusations initially, when his demonic nature later erupted uncontrollably, he had indeed committed massacres.

So when Qin Lingxiao killed his master, he won praise throughout the world. Even he, the senior brother, couldn’t openly condemn his master-killing junior brother.

After that, their relationship grew distant. That Qin Lingxiao had never called him Senior Brother in public before.

Tang Youshu wasn’t good at being harsh, but Cui Xiaoxiao couldn’t stand Qin Lingxiao pressuring Tang Youshu like this.

Though her relationship with Tang Youshu was now awkward, she wouldn’t let others bully her former master as if he were a fool!

So she gave a cold laugh: “The first half of what you said still sounds human, but where does this ‘Senior Brother’ in the second half come from? You should know that in this lifetime, you never entered Wei Jie’s sect – they have nothing to do with you! Besides, your father’s current situation is entirely his own deserved fate. When he joined the Ghost Sect to become Lord Can’s lackey, he should have expected this day. Whether he lives or dies – what does it have to do with us?”

Qin Lingxiao was struck speechless. Cui Xiaoxiao was right – in this reborn life, he was no longer Wei Jie’s disciple, so naturally couldn’t be Tang Youshu’s junior brother. Even trying to claim kinship was impossible.

He had been proud all his life, only enduring humiliation when he became Wei Jie’s disciple. Who would have thought that starting over, his situation would be even worse than his previous life?

Thinking this, Qin Lingxiao fell to his knees before Tang Youshu with a thud: “Senior Brother, I know that thing is with you. It’s useless to you anyway – why not give it to me to save my father’s life!”

In his previous life, he had knelt before Wei Jie to avenge his father. Never did he expect that in this life, to save his father, he would still have to kneel in humiliation and beg – was this inescapable fate?

Before Tang Youshu could speak, the steward called Lady Fu appeared silently with several servant girls, smiling charmingly at Qin Lingxiao: “Young master, if you urgently desire something, why suffer begging others like this? Don’t you know that on this island, as long as your gambling skills are superb, you can obtain everything you want?”

Qin Lingxiao felt this woman was boasting wildly, completely ignorant of the true situation, and said coldly: “What I seek is beyond your knowledge.”

Lady Fu smiled brilliantly, extending her slender fingers painted with bright red nail polish. With a slight turn in her palm, a pearl appeared.

The pearl showed a strange purple color with flowing light around it – a Demon Pearl.

“Young hero, is what I hold in my hand what you desire?”

Qin Lingxiao was shocked. In his previous exchange with Cui Xiaoxiao, he hadn’t directly mentioned what he wanted.

Why could Lady Fu immediately guess he wanted the Demon Pearl?

Moreover, this Lady Fu had no cultivation aura at all – she looked like a charming middle-aged woman. What was her background that she could hold a Demon Pearl without any discomfort?

Just then, Lady Fu continued smiling: “This Demon Pearl is from five hundred years ago, when the divine Weifeng Divine Lord led armies to massacre Demon City. It was contained within the Demon City Lord’s body. Before the City Lord was killed, he watched his wife, daughters, and all demon clan in the city, including women and children, being slaughtered completely. Now, refined by years, this pearl’s demonic nature hasn’t diminished but has grown daily due to concentrated resentment. Whoever obtains this pearl will surely gain tremendous power and greatly increased abilities.”