Ling Luo hung steadily on the stone wall, exchanging blows with Qing Shun through the iron door. Her techniques were skillful and refined, causing a flash of surprise in Qing Shun’s eyes.

“Interesting,” Qing Shun stopped fighting and narrowed his eyes to study Ling Luo. “Which master’s disciple are you in Tian Yun Sect?”

Ling Luo snorted, ignoring him, and instead looked toward Yue Liang Ze who was wiping the iron door: “Get up, stop wiping.”

Yue Liang Ze said: “Are you done fighting?”

Ling Luo couldn’t help wanting to strangle him.

Qing Shun offered his hand again to Yue Liang Ze, letting him clean the blood stains while saying: “Your junior sister has quite a temper.”

Yue Liang Ze didn’t answer, focused on wiping.

Ling Luo continued asking: “When did you two meet?”

Seeing her persistence, Qing Shun raised an eyebrow and asked: “Why does it matter to you?”

Ling Luo lied blatantly: “Of course, I’m worried that a great demon like you might deceive my pure and kind-hearted senior brother!”

Qing Shun: “…”

Yue Liang Ze’s expression remained unchanged, knowing she was lying, completely unaffected.

“Then you don’t know your senior brother well enough,” Qing Shun said in a playful tone. “Your senior brother may be kind-hearted but he’s not naive, just a bit slow-witted.”

Ling Luo thought he made a good point.

“Still, I need to prevent you from corrupting him,” Ling Luo said.

Qing Shun laughed: “What good is his kindness? He still gets bullied and beaten by those inner sect disciples, forced to come to this wretched place to be punished.”

Though his lips were curved, there wasn’t a trace of humor in his eyes, and his tone carried a certain coldness: “The kind-hearted are always taken advantage of.”

Ling Luo understood this meaning clearly, having experienced it personally.

But she glanced at Yue Liang Ze and said: “He’s not bullied because he’s kind-hearted, but because he’s too weak right now.”

Just wait until he pulls out the Immortal-Subduing Jade and becomes the number one sword cultivator in the immortal sects—who would dare bully him then?

This unexpected response made Qing Shun pause.

Yue Liang Ze, the subject of their conversation, remained silent, indifferent, and uninterested.

After a moment, Qing Shun asked: “What’s your name?”

Ling Luo placed her luminous jade-like finger against her lips, not answering, silently responding with a meaningful smile.

She turned sideways, grabbing the iron chain to climb higher.

Qing Shun turned to look at Yue Liang Ze, who said: “I don’t know.”

Qing Shun narrowed his eyes: “Are you messing with me?”

Yue Liang Ze wrung out the wet cloth and said: “All cleaned. Rest well.”

Qing Shun withdrew his hand from outside the iron door without forcing the issue, saying lightly: “She doesn’t have good intentions toward you. Don’t be foolish and let yourself be used.”

Yue Liang Ze thought for a moment and said: “I’ve noticed.”

“Oh?” Qing Shun looked at him sideways. “Noticed what?”

Yue Liang Ze said: “She just wants to compare swordsmanship with me.”

After hearing this, Qing Shun was speechless.

After Yue Liang Ze had left for a while, Qing Shun let out a sneer.

Fool.

What sword comparison? With that little spiritual power of yours? She just wants to bully you.

Flames burned his skin, the scalding sensation spreading throughout his body. Qing Shun lowered his gaze, looking at his burned, festering, and suppurating skin, laughing softly with contempt in his eyes.

The compartment imprisoning Qing Shun was positioned relatively in the middle. Ling Luo and Yue Liang Ze climbed higher and higher.

Ling Luo glanced at Yue Liang Ze who had caught up beside her. Still angry, she ignored him and focused on cleaning.

It was Yue Liang Ze who spoke first: “I’ve been coming to the Saha Realm to clean since last year, so I know him.”

Hearing this, Ling Luo couldn’t help turning to look at him. “You seem to have a good relationship with him.”

Yue Liang Ze fell silent again.

“Do you know about the things he’s done?” Ling Luo asked further.

Yue Liang Ze said: “Yes.”

His expression was calm, his tone level.

It seemed that knowing was just knowing, without any particular opinion.

Yue Liang Ze had even prepared himself to hear Ling Luo harshly criticize Qing Shun’s dirty deeds, cursing him for disgracing his sect and killing his elders, saying he deserved to die a thousand times over.

But Ling Luo said nothing.

After a long silence, Yue Liang Ze couldn’t help glancing toward Ling Luo. She was casually wiping an iron door as if she had already put the topic of Qing Shun behind her.

What position did Ling Luo have to curse Qing Shun?

The things she did later were far worse than what Qing Shun had done.

Common Fei and Xu Shen closed the distance between them, able to hear each other’s conversations.

“I see it’s almost dark outside,” Common Fei looked up toward the top, which was already pitch black with little light. “Are there lamps in here? What if we can’t see when it gets dark?”

Yue Liang Ze said: “Yes, there are.”

“Where?” Common Fei looked around curiously when suddenly the compartment door opened and a screaming man flew out, crashing against the iron door and falling unconscious.

Common Fei was so frightened that he cursed crudely, hugging the iron chain tightly, nearly falling off.

Yue Liang Ze said: “There are fire spells in the valley that will activate when the time comes.”

Just as he finished speaking, the last ray of light sank into darkness, and fires lit up in the vast valley, gradually converging into a large expanse of light.

The fire spells were carved on the compartment doors. Now visible, they illuminated the mountain walls, allowing them to see their surroundings.

Ling Luo looked back at the fire spell light on both sides of the mountain wall and exclaimed in surprise.

Xu Shen, below her, followed her gaze and saw a black sacred spirit bird flying from above the valley, followed by a second, a third—a total of five, each flying to one of the Tian Ji disciples present.

On the ground, Song Yuan Yuan also exclaimed in surprise when he saw the black sacred spirit bird flying toward him. He reached out his hand, letting it land on his palm. The sacred spirit bird looked at Song Yuan Yuan, conveyed its message, and then dispersed into fireflies.

Yu Ting was only available to inner sect disciples. When there were important matters to be communicated to all Tian Ji disciples, black sacred spirit birds would be sent out, hence they were also called messenger birds.

Now all five of them received the messenger bird’s message:

【The Wondrous Realm of the Heaven-Devouring Tower has triggered the Chaotic Myriad of Demons, which will randomly select a manifestation point. Please be careful.】

The Heaven-Devouring Tower was one of the special features of Tian Ji on the Eastern Island.

It was a training ground left by the sect’s founding ancestor for future disciples. Inside the Heaven-Devouring Tower, the scenery was both illusory and real, with myriad demons and thousands of monsters imprisoned by the ancestor for disciples to train against, as well as ever-changing wondrous opportunities.

The tower was eight thousand floors high.

To date, no one has completely conquered it.

“What floor is the Wondrous Realm?” Common Fei asked, feeling somewhat dazed.

Xu Shen answered: “Between the three hundredth and six hundredth floors.”

“Which senior brother or sister is climbing the tower?” Common Fei muttered. “They even triggered the Chaotic Myriad of Demons. If powerful demons come out and drop a divine weapon after being defeated, I’ll be so jealous.”

The demons in the Chaotic Myriad were completely different from those used as level bosses: defeating the former would drop divine weapons or rare medicinal materials, while the latter would at most increase one’s cultivation and spiritual power a little.

Thinking of this, Ling Luo couldn’t help but glance at Yue Liang Ze.

If he went to climb the Heaven-Devouring Tower, perhaps he could increase his spiritual power and cultivation.

Or maybe the explosive growth in his spiritual power later was because he went to the Heaven-Devouring Tower?

No, no, he wouldn’t even be at Tian Ji on the Eastern Island by then.

Ling Luo’s focus had completely diverged from the group’s conversation. She only heard Xu Shen saying: “The triggering of the Chaotic Myriad of Demons actually follows a pattern—it happens once every half-year, concentrated in the last seven days. Many people go to climb the tower at that time, including hall masters and elders.”

Common Fei looked at him in surprise: “How do you know this pattern?”

Except for Yue Liang Ze, these people had joined Tian Ji on the Eastern Island for about half a year.

Xu Shen said: “If you gather information from fellow disciples and senior brothers, you’ll know too.”

Common Fei rolled his eyes and asked: “So where did the last Chaotic Myriad of Demons manifest?”

“In the Listening Water Garden of the outer sect,” Xu Shen said. “Since the manifestation point of the Chaotic Myriad of Demons is unpredictable, but the range only involves the territory of Tian Ji on Eastern Island, both inner and outer sects receive the message.”

Ling Luo didn’t care much about this matter. In her previous life, she had climbed to over six thousand floors without triggering the Chaotic Myriad of Demons even once, so she had mentally blacklisted the Heaven-Devouring Tower.

When she was destroying Tian Ji on the Eastern Island, she had considered the Heaven-Devouring Tower. But true to the ancestor’s meticulous construction, destroying it would take time. The situation at that time didn’t allow her to get bogged down with the Heaven-Devouring Tower, so she went elsewhere.

“I only know that defeating demons from the Chaotic Myriad of Demons will yield divine weapons,” Common Fei sighed. “Divine weapons! They can sell for tens of thousands of gold!”

Xu Shen was speechless, never expecting that Common Fei wouldn’t covet the divine weapons themselves, but rather their price.

You shouldn’t be cultivating immortality; you should be studying business!

Yue Liang Ze said: “Divine weapons are expensive. Even those with auxiliary functions sold for at least sixteen million at the Hai Na Pavilion last year.”

Ling Luo: “…”

She looked down at Yue Liang Ze: “How do you know that?”

Yue Liang Ze said: “I pay attention to prices.”

Ling Luo: “Why do you pay attention to divine weapon prices?”

Yue Liang Ze blinked, looking at Ling Luo: “I pay attention to prices of common vegetables and various sauces. I just happened to overhear about divine weapons while passing by.”

Ling Luo was momentarily at a loss for words.

Common Fei, however, felt he had found someone with common interests and began to engage in an in-depth discussion with Yue Liang Ze about market prices and how to make money.

Until a piercing cry came from above, echoing throughout the valley, frightening Common Fei into immediate silence, his eyes widening as he looked around.

The others also stopped what they were doing, concentrating and holding their breath.

The cry was shrill, like a wildcat’s wail or a jackal’s howl, making one’s hair stand on end.

The valley carried the cry far away. Below, Song Yuan Yuan was so startled that he trembled, crying out as he fell from the chain that was half a person’s height.

“W-what is that?” Common Fei’s voice trembled as he looked around. “It couldn’t be that the Chaotic Myriad of Demons is manifesting here, could it?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ling Luo shouted: “Above!”

The remaining three immediately looked up to see a huge black shadow diving toward them.