Rong Huanxuan and Elder Liu Xiao stood on full alert, but when the figure drew near, it turned out to be a man — and from the look of his tattered Daoist robes, he was likely a Daoren from Qingyang Temple.

Though was Qingyang Temple truly so impoverished that they could not afford to replace a torn robe? Perhaps he was a wandering Daoist passing through who had taken up temporary lodging here.

Rong Huanxuan gave him a single glance and lost all interest, shifting her gaze away and tilting her head slightly to signal to Liu Xiao to send the man away.

Liu Xiao descended the pavilion steps and blocked Yice’s path, saying coolly, “My young master is resting here. Please, Fellow Daoist, come no closer.”

Yice blinked, looked toward Rong Huanxuan, and his eyes lit up. “Young master?” he exclaimed. “Surely that’s not the Rong Family’s young master — the one here to open the Ghost Gate?”

Rong Huanxuan’s gaze swept coldly across him. Were there any other Rong young masters?

The contempt and arrogance in her eyes were utterly unconcealed. The light smile on Yice’s lips dimmed a little, though his manner remained as nonchalant and breezy as ever. “I am a member of the Feng Family household, trained in the orthodox Maoshan sect, and my Daoist title is Yice. I wonder if I might have the honor of witnessing the young master open the Ghost Gate?”

A member of the Feng Family?

Liu Xiao was somewhat surprised. When Yice produced a clan insignia token unique to the Feng Family, Liu Xiao relaxed slightly and said, “So we are fellow practitioners from the same path. It happens to be an inopportune time — our young master has pressing matters at hand. Today’s ritual ceremony is one she will have no karmic connection to attend. I will pass word to the head of Qingyang Temple, and the fellow Daoist may go to the main hall to observe the ceremony and join in the occasion.”

“Not going to participate?” Yice feigned surprise. “Can it be that the rumors are true — that Rong Young Master has truly been overtaken by a heart demon and shattered her cultivation base?”

“Outrageous — how dare you affront me?” Rong Huanxuan could not bear to hear anyone speak of her shattered cultivation base or her qi deviation. She fixed her sharp gaze on Yice, and those eyes lingered on him for a moment, as though something within them had shifted.

Yice’s brow twitched slightly, and he stared fixedly at her, as if trying to see through to her very core.

This Rong young master — something was off.

Such beautiful eyes, yet they were cold and venomous as a serpent’s.

Liu Xiao stepped into his line of sight. “Fellow Daoist Yice, please be on your way.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll go,” Yice said, pursing his lips.

Rong Huanxuan kept her stare fixed on him, her hand tightening slightly as she considered calling out to Liu Xiao to hold him back — but all at once, a chill shot down her spine. Without a second thought, she spun and leaped aside, even invoking her instant-movement incantation.

Boom.

The pavilion where she had stood a moment before was blasted to rubble by a talisman. Shards of stone pelted her, and one of them grazed her cheek, slicing a thin line of blood across it.

Liu Xiao, who had been walking alongside Yice a few steps away, was struck with alarm. Leaving Yice behind entirely, he flashed back to Rong Huanxuan’s side, drew out the Golden Bell Ten-Thousand Talisman Canopy from his back, and raised it over both of them as he scanned the surroundings warily.

Rong Huanxuan touched the blood-red streak on her face, furious and outraged. She summoned her Thousand Mechanism Fan and shouted in fury, “What manner of demon dares to launch a sneak attack from the shadows — do you dare to face me in open battle!”

She swept the Thousand Mechanism Fan in a flowing arc, poured her spiritual power into it, and sent it sweeping toward the direction from which the talisman had come.

Winds churned and clouds shifted. Sand and stones flew. A tree as thick as a person’s embrace was sheared clean in two by the razor-sharp fierce energy.

Yet there was not a single figure in that direction.

Instead, a sound suddenly erupted from the forest — a roaring, thunderous growl.

Was that…

A flash flood?

Everyone was incredulous. It was only the fourth month, and this was the scenic hillside slope. The mountain ravine was still some distance away — even if a flash flood came, it would not arrive from that direction.

But the air carried the damp moisture of water, mingled with the thick, earthy smell of soil and the rotting stench of long-decayed leaves and undergrowth.

“Young Master, be careful!” Liu Xiao was horrified. He saw what appeared to be a turbid torrent bursting through the void, carrying mud, sand, and jagged rocks crashing toward them.

Both of them gathered their energy, touched their toes to the ground, and leaped upward — but the debris-filled water still shredded their robes. One sharp tree branch drove straight for the space between Rong Huanxuan’s brows before Liu Xiao’s canopy ground it to splinters.

“Damn it all!” Rong Huanxuan raged, her hands flying through seal after seal as her whole body seemed to be enveloped and sealed within a layer of energy.

Liu Xiao’s pupils contracted sharply. He reached out to grab her arm. “Young Master, we must not meet force with force — run!”

“Get away from me!” Rong Huanxuan shoved him off. Her phoenix eyes had turned bloodshot, a vision of a demon in full, savage fury.

Liu Xiao’s expression was as dark as iron.

The torrent surged past them on both sides and disappeared as abruptly as it had come. Then, without warning, a deep, heavy bell toll rang out — a single clang, its sound wave thrumming and resonating through the air, which rippled around it like the surface of a disturbed pool.

Drifting, haunting Buddhist chanting followed on the heels of the bell tone, as though eighteen golden arhats had manifested bearing various sacred implements and were reciting sutras over a single person.

Lay down the killing blade and become a Buddha where you stand?

Rong Huanxuan went rigid. That cold, imperious face cycled rapidly through shifting expressions as her features twisted and contorted against her will, as though she were enduring tremendous agony. Only she knew what she was seeing in her mind.

She saw a boundless, infinite hell. Countless wronged souls howled and screamed at her, crawling toward her, seeking to drag her down into shared ruination.

What is the purpose of the Dao?

If it serves no purpose — then let there be no Dao.

Pfft.

Rong Huanxuan spat a mouthful of blood. Her eyes shifted from bloodshot crimson to pure, absolute black. A howl tore from her throat. Liu Xiao’s expression was one of pure shock. He seized her hand and, not daring to engage whoever lurked in the shadows any further, pressed a seal with one hand, smashed a talisman, and amid a billow of green smoke, spirited Rong Huanxuan away.

The bell fell silent. The chanting dissipated.

If not for the destroyed pavilion and the hillside slope churned into chaos by the flash flood, no one would have believed that a sudden skirmish had just occurred here.

It arrived fast, and ended faster.

Yice pressed his lips together and abruptly spun around, his yin-yang sword fingers pointing at the space behind him.

A figure slowly emerged — and then stumbled and collapsed to the ground, raising her head with a wretched look, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

It was Lang Jiuchuan.

Only she was in far worse shape than she had been down at the foot of the mountain, and her face was even paler.

Someone was coming.

Yice quickly hoisted her onto his back and ran up the mountain. The fist that Lang Jiuchuan had been clenching slowly unclenched. She did not manage to exhale the breath she had been holding before she coughed up a mouthful of dark blood onto the side of Yice’s neck.

This entire skirmish had been a gamble — she had bet on Liu Xiao’s instinct to protect his precious charge. Had he and Rong Huanxuan joined forces to fight her directly, she might not have had the upper hand. After all, her vitality was severely depleted. She truly lacked the strength to take down these two people right now. Coming out of the shadows like this had been a bet with her very life.

Yes — she had seen Rong Huanxuan, and if she did not collect a little interest, she would have felt she was doing a disservice to the original owner of this body.

But an open, direct confrontation would not have worked. So she had resorted to trickery instead — and had used just this fraction of spiritual power, which had now left her completely spent.

She also owed this destitute Daoist friend a great debt of gratitude for cooperating.

Yice carried Lang Jiuchuan on his back, panting heavily as he made it to the midpoint of the mountain. He found a secluded cave and settled her inside, then looked at her face, pale as gold leaf, and said, “Are you all right?”

Lang Jiuchuan stared at him.

Yice frowned. “What kind of look is that?”

“I’m thinking about whether to kill you and silence you,” Lang Jiuchuan said with an eerie, unsettling calm. “You saw what I did. What if you go back and report it to the Rong Family — that would be the end of me.”

“That is NOT how a decent person behaves!” Yice leaped to his feet, his face flushing crimson with indignation.

But Lang Jiuchuan laughed. “Never mind — if you do report it, I’ll say you were my accomplice. That we were working together and that you helped me try to kill the Rong Family’s young master.”

Yice: “…”

So that was why, when she had caught up with him, she had smiled so radiantly and asked for his help.

Master had not been wrong. Once you go down the mountain, beware of women. Women are generally venomous — especially the beautiful ones.