They were temporarily staying at an inn on the outskirts of Ningshui City. The inn was a reinforced bamboo building with only three floors, nestled against mountains and beside water. Opening the door revealed a unique charm reminiscent of being situated within the water towns of Jiangnan.

As the last Spirit Array collapsed and the Heavenly Grade Spirit Array Master’s opportunity was settled with dust, the crowds who had surrounded the mountain stream like an impenetrable wall to watch the excitement dispersed like a receding tide, leaving this mountain inn completely quiet.

In the small building, besides the innkeeper and his assistant, there were only a mother and daughter, several resting merchants, and an old lady who often squinted her eyes while sunbathing in a reclining chair.

Shan Shu, Xue Yu, and the others occupied the entire second floor. Days and nights passed leisurely, and in the blink of an eye, more than ten days had gone by.

During this half month, Su You was recuperating from his injuries within the barrier, never stepping outside. Xue Yu and Shan Shu would occasionally go out for a few days – one keeping watch for nearby spiritual wave fluctuations to see if there were any overlooked small barrier inheritances, the other focusing on spiritual plants and medicines to prepare antidotes for the Jade Green Pill.

As for Shen Jingshi, he sat at the small round table on the second-floor terrace, flipping through stacks upon stacks of books. After half a month, seeing densely packed words made his mouth taste bitter and his vision dizzy.

When Su You stepped out of his room, it was early morning. Mountain mist and dew were heavy, branches and leaves swayed, as if washed by rain. He turned at his feet and at the corner encountered Shen Jingshi, who was propping his elbow and buried in piles of books.

He approached and tapped his long fingers on the tabletop.

Shen Jingshi looked up, not surprised by his emergence from seclusion today. He took a deep breath, closed the thick book in his hands that was like a wall brick, gestured with his hand to the opposite seat, and said with a half-smile: “Come, Young Master Su You, please sit.”

As soon as he sat down, Shen Jingshi couldn’t help but erupt: “What did you tell me at that time? You said you wanted to use the Thousand Vine Lure to interrogate people, right?”

Su You’s injuries had mostly healed. When he deliberately curved his lips, he once again presented that bright moon and clear wind appearance that inspired trust. Even the apology in his eyes was flawlessly sincere.

“I’m sorry.” He pressed his hand against his brow, saying: “In my urgency, I had no choice but to use this excuse.”

After speaking, he took out a long whip radiating brilliant spiritual light from his storage ring, stood up, and handed it to Shen Jingshi, saying: “This item is called the Wandering Dragon Whip, from the Sinking Feather Pavilion. A small token of apology – I hope Young Master Shen will accept it.”

Both apologizing and giving gifts, his words were so comfortable they felt like a spring breeze, dissipating even the greatest anger.

Shen Jingshi wasn’t polite with him either. He placed the long whip in his palm and cracked it a few times, saying: “Your Wandering Dragon Whip is truly well-deserved. Because of your two carelessly spoken lies, I was chased and beaten by Shan Shu – and that’s not even mentioning this.”

Shen Jingshi patted the stacks of books piled in front and behind him, saying with particular resentment: “I’ve been reading these things for a full sixteen days.”

Su You smiled and apologized again, then reached out to flip through the topmost book, glancing at a few lines and raising his eyebrows: “Records of Ancient Events?”

“Yes.” Shen Jingshi pushed the tallest stack toward him, saying: “Since you’ve emerged from seclusion, you should read along too, see if you can find any useful clues.”

As if knowing what Su You was about to ask, he explained first: “When His Highness of Yedu subdued the Sentient Formation, he had an epiphany and asked that remnant soul what had happened in ancient times, but only received one sentence.”

After speaking, he picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote a character on plain paper, dotting beside the large character with his brush tip: “Here, this is it. He asked if we’d ever heard of ‘Mei’.”

Upon hearing this, Su You asked no more questions. He had just opened a volume when Shen Jingshi set down his ink brush on the inkstone, saying: “I’ve heard most of the causes and effects of this matter, though I don’t know why His Highness of Yedu suddenly became suspicious of you—”

His words took a turn as he suddenly pushed aside the barrier before him, his tone becoming meaningfully deep: “Do you know the inside story of the death of Yedu’s Prince Su?”

This matter was classified in Yedu. Xue Yu didn’t mention it, and others dared not ask.

Su You also closed his book, looked up with an attentive listening posture, and said frankly: “I don’t know.”

“Few people know this matter.” Shen Jingshi reached over to the terrace edge and picked several green leaves, arranging them on the table, dipping his finger in water to demonstrate: “From ancient times to now, the Six Sacred Lands and the imperial court have stood unshakably, remaining constant, but the Demon Capital is different. They revere strength and only submit to the strong. Though they fight back and forth, the top twenty are just those familiar families, but the top five positions, except for the Nine Phoenix family, the other four have indeed been constantly changing.”

“More than two hundred years ago, the five great families of the Demon Capital were Nine Phoenix, Tiger Jiao, Qiong Qi, Black Turtle, and Shang Que.” Shen Jingshi explained simply and clearly: “The first four remain prosperous to this day, only Shang Que declined catastrophically, falling to nearly the bottom of the top twenty.”

“Take Tiger Jiao – the Wen family – they also fell from the top five, but their foundation remains. When the next opportunity comes, they still have the ambition to compete for the front ranks, unlike Shang Que, who seemed to have their foundation completely undermined and lost all power to resist before falling.”

After all, these were families with millions of years of history. Unless they encountered some major catastrophe, they wouldn’t decline to such an extent.

“This matter is related to Prince Su?” Su You asked.

“Yes.” Shen Jingshi nodded. He somehow knew all this and spoke as if he’d witnessed it himself, systematically and logically: “Prince Su’s first wife was the daughter of a Sacred Land family. After giving birth to their eldest son, she contracted a strange illness and passed away soon after.”

“Prince Su held both legitimate succession and seniority in Yedu, was outstanding in appearance, and won people’s hearts – he was the tacitly acknowledged, worthy Crown Prince. Once, while completing a Heavenly Mechanism Book mission in the mortal realm, coincidentally, that mission was drawn by two people simultaneously.”

“Prince Su encountered the second young lady of the Demon Capital’s Shang Que family.”

“A talented scholar and beautiful lady, equal in strength and vision. During a four-and-a-half-star mission, the two faced life and death several times together and quickly came together.”

This romantic beginning truly couldn’t be compared to marriages arranged by parental command. When a son of heaven falls in love, it’s like fire meeting oil – unstoppable once ignited.

“Because of Prince Su’s wife’s illness, their child was also affected, born with barely any breath. The former Yedu Lord expended his spiritual power daily to nurture the child, day after day, for decades. Finally, to completely cure the root cause, he used an extremely harsh forbidden technique to eliminate the child’s future troubles, but his vital energy was severely damaged, weakening day by day.”

Prince Su’s child – Su You remembered that Xue Rong, who was madly obsessed with dead ends.

Seeing him listening attentively, Shen Jingshi also became interested and sipped his tea water while continuing eloquently.

The high-spirited Prince Su had never known that heartfelt emotion was such a torturous, sweet taste. He couldn’t bear to wait another moment and wanted to bring his beloved back to Yedu.

After Xue Su returned to Yedu, he went straight to the study without another word, knelt before his father, and laid out the causes and effects, his heart’s desire, and plans honestly before the former Yedu Lord, unexpectedly provoking his father’s furious anger.

“This matter is impossible.” The Yedu Lord’s eyes and brows were full of rage. He flicked his sleeves, his chest heaving violently, saying sternly: “Xue Su, you are Yedu’s future pillar. You are already a husband and father, not a three-year-old child. You cannot act on every whim or say whatever comes to mind.”

“What have I done inadequately?” Xue Su seemed to have known he would face such questioning and accusations. His spine straight, he refused to compromise even slightly on this issue: “Yedu’s future ruler should be worthy of his ministers and people. How can marrying the woman he loves become a delusion?”

Each word struck like iron, piercing so deeply that the Yedu Lord couldn’t speak for a long while.

Yes, Yedu was prosperous with twin paragons in one family. The second son, Xue Lu, was habitually dissolute, and no matter how high his talent or strong his power, he wasn’t reliable – traveling mountains and waters, sleeping with flowers and willows. In any case, he wouldn’t do anything involving responsibility.

All burdens fell on the eldest son, Xue Su.

He was self-disciplined and courteous, gentle with subordinates, respectful to his father, and loving toward his younger brother – impeccably excellent in every way. Having tasted the flavor of love and affection, he too became an ordinary mortal, wanting harmonious music and eternal love.

The Yedu Lord looked at his eldest son kneeling before him. He had grown into a qualified ruler, standing taller than himself, with an even more unquestionable tone in his words.

“I don’t necessarily want to block you.” The Yedu Lord sighed wearily, saying quite tiredly: “The problem is, you’re no ordinary person, and neither is she. Sacred Lands and the Demon Capital are fire and water, mutually balancing and suspecting each other. How can such two families marry?”

“Since you’ve thought of everything, tell me – if we marry into one of the Demon Capital’s five great families, what will the other five Sacred Lands think?”

Xue Su said: “The clear are naturally clear. I’ve never cared about outsiders’ opinions.”

The Yedu Lord finally compromised one step. He shook his head, saying: “This way – I’ll send word to the Shang Que family head to ask his opinion. If they agree, we’ll discuss what follows. If they refuse outright, I can’t help it, and you should abandon this idea early.”

Xue Su said solemnly: “Thank you, Father.”

Who knew that very night, the Shang Que family head burned a spiritual talisman, transmitted his voice across ten thousand li, and erupted in furious cursing.

Compared to the Sacred Lands’ comprehensive concerns, the Demon Capital people’s nature was much more straightforward. Anyway, turning it over and over, back and forth, it was all one meaning: impossible. Whether genuinely bewitched or premeditated pretense, it was impossible – don’t even think about it.

Soon, news came from the Demon Capital that the Shang Que family’s second young lady was engaged to the eldest son of the Ju Mang family, with the wedding date imminent, causing heated discussion.

At this point, Xue Su could no longer endure. He left his family a sincere letter saying he wanted to ask her personally, if she said this was her own will, from then on he would give up and never mention it again.

The Yedu Lord saw this and felt his heart skip a beat. After much consideration and unease, he pursued to the Demon Capital.

Xue Su indeed had an accident.

The Shang Que family was heavily guarded, not only deploying great demons from the clan to surround and guard, but deliberately having that second young lady’s brothers stay inseparably in the courtyard. When Xue Lu arrived, the three faced off directly, all looking at each other with angry eyes, quickly triggering an uncontrollable bloody battle.

Xue Lu’s strength was extraordinary – even among that generation, he was the most outstanding among the Six Sacred Lands’ inheritors. That great battle ended with the Shang Que family’s third son dead.

The other was critically wounded and dying.

A Sacred Land inheritor brazenly breaking into the Demon Capital and killing a great family’s legitimate son – this news spread throughout the entire Demon Capital within an hour.

The Shang Que family head was splitting with rage, completely losing his reason. He acted to capture Xue Su, then ordered the entire clan to intercept the hurriedly arriving Yedu Lord, surrounding father and son, attempting to take their lives.

The fighting reached heaven-shattering, earth-splitting proportions, dyeing the setting sun with blood, until it drew the other five Sacred Land rulers, plus the Nine Phoenix family’s intervention. They held closed-door discussions for an entire night before calming the situation.

Speaking to this point, Shen Jingshi spread his hands, saying: “Having reached this point, it couldn’t continue unchecked – both sides had to let the matter rest.”

“At that time, this matter concerned the face of both the Demon Capital and Sacred Lands. Both sides issued gag orders while simultaneously spreading various rumors to obscure the truth. Only the direct lines of the three territories knew the real inside story.”

“This was truly fortunate that Yedu had twin paragons then – losing one, the other could still bear great responsibility. Look at the Shang Que family – legitimate heirs dead and wounded, and when the family head fell, after hundreds of years, no one could shoulder the burden again. To this day, they’ve completely declined.”

“This is Yedu’s family affair, and Prince Su was Yedu Highness’s uncle. I think Yedu’s attitude might not be optimistic.” Shen Jingshi gave Su You a meaningful look, smiling: “I’m telling you the whole story in advance – think of countermeasures yourself. But next time, don’t ask to borrow things. I definitely won’t dare lend to you again.”

Having spoken to this extent, if Su You still didn’t understand, it would seem deliberately obtuse.

He took the hot tea and sipped, smiling: “Very obvious?”

This was tantamount to a frank admission.

Shen Jingshi immediately exclaimed: “Young Master Su You’s ability to remain unperturbed and act as if nothing happened is extremely superb – fooling everyone you meet. What’s there to fear?”

After speaking, seeing Su You sitting across from him with a thoughtful expression, he came around, picked up a book, and patted his shoulder, saying: “Don’t worry, Sacred Land inheritors aren’t sensitive to such emotions. As long as you want to, you can hide it for a long time.”

Just as his words fell, Su You pushed open the window. Outside was a winding, small path, wet and meandering into the mountain ravine. At the limit of vision, Xue Yu and Shan Shu were returning together, unknown flower petals falling scattered on their shoulders, gently covering a long path.

Early spring’s scenery was so vivid and alive it was irresistibly captivating.

He rubbed the raised patterns on the outside of his teacup with his fingertips, leaned back slightly, and sighed softly: “It’s already this obvious.”

How could she still seem to have a heart like still water, no other thoughts?

Soon after, Xue Yu walked upstairs. Seeing Su You, her eyebrows moved slightly, her body paused, and she naturally leaned against one side of the staircase, asking: “Are your injuries healed?”

Su You curved his lips and nodded gently.

Xue Yu walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat beside him, saying: “Extend your hand, let me see.”

Su You lowered his eyes and extended his palm before her. She glanced twice, seeing all the chaotic bruises and rope marks had completely disappeared without a trace. Satisfied, she lifted the corners of her mouth and was about to speak when they simultaneously heard four crisp “pa-da” sounds.

This sound was too familiar, almost instinctively carved into the bones of everyone present.

Several people looked up simultaneously.

Sure enough, the Heavenly Mechanism Book’s small scroll unfolded, four lines of clear small characters appearing in unison.

—The Secret Realm Abyss opens.

Shan Shu looked toward Xue Yu, frowning: “It’s ahead of schedule again.”

Yes, ahead of schedule again.

“Feiyun Peak is personally controlled by the Fusang Tree and represents its will.” Xue Yu pressed her fingertip on the tabletop, her transparent nails showing a heavy blue-white color. She stood up, glancing over the books stacked like mountains on the table: “Let’s go first. There’s no need to continue investigating these. I think once we’re inside, whatever should surface will naturally let us know.”

Because of Xue Yu’s foreknowledge from her previous life, their location in Ningshui City wasn’t far from the Secret Realm Abyss – just over two hours at full speed.

They paid for their lodging and headed south. Halfway there, they saw the sky suddenly become lively.

The qualified young people to enter the Secret Realm Abyss numbered over a thousand. Having received the Heavenly Mechanism Book’s reminder, they each displayed their abilities. Those far away didn’t hesitate to expend spiritual marrow to activate spiritual treasures. Above the clouds, brilliant lights shone with their characteristics.

All wanted to be first into the Secret Realm Abyss to gain an advantage and take the lead.

Nine Phoenix’s flamboyant ghost carriage was particularly eye-catching, recognizable at a glance.

Xue Yu stepped forward, placing the herbs collected these past days together with those found earlier. Nine Phoenix stroked her eye corners, smiling with considerable satisfaction: “This time, the Heavenly Mechanism Book still has some conscience. For such matters, it still notified us demon clan, simultaneously – not biased to an unseeable degree.”

“Give me a break.” Xue Yu glanced at her, saying unhurriedly, “The demon clan didn’t do missions first. Even if truly biased, there’s nothing to complain about.”

Nine Phoenix didn’t argue either. She said, “Problems that can be solved with money – who wants to fight? Truly speaking, we didn’t break rules either. The money we should pay was all delivered in full under so many watching eyes at your Yedu gates.”

Just then, the transparent flowing light that had always shrouded the Secret Realm Abyss entrance suddenly dimmed. The invisible barrier withdrew, and a huge opening appeared before everyone.

“It’s open.”

“This is the Secret Realm Abyss?”

“How does it seem different from what my father told me?”

Hesitation and amazement lasted only one breath. Soon, someone took the lead, stepping into the opening and disappearing.

Nine Phoenix became serious, walking alongside Xue Yu, Shan Shu, and others as they entered the Secret Realm Abyss.

When their feet truly touched the ground, before they could observe this most mysterious small world that had always been praised, the scene before their eyes darkened, and Xue Yu and the others’ feet seemed rooted to the spot.

“What does this mean?” Nine Phoenix lifted her feet, finding she couldn’t move, and asked Xue Yu beside her: “Did we come to the wrong place?”

“No.” Xue Yu looked around, discovering the area before them was gradually brightening, and said concisely: “Look around, don’t talk.”

“…” Nine Phoenix suddenly said: “We came in as six people total, right?”

“Yes.” Shan Shu answered her softly.

Nine Phoenix blinked, after confirming she took a breath: “Then why do I also see Lu Qin and Ji Tingxi?”

Shan Shu paused: “I see them too.”

Xue Yu seemed to sense something and looked up, seeing several familiar figures gradually appearing around Nine Phoenix, silently remaining quiet for a long while.

Sure enough.

The next moment, the Heavenly Mechanism Book’s small scroll lit up again in the mission column, each word falling before everyone’s eyes.

【Five-Star Mission—Mei】