Mu Yunjin walked around but saw no sign of Chu Li. By now it was late, and most villagers had gone home to rest. Not a soul could be seen on the streets.

Mu Yunjin crossed her arms, an ominous feeling rising in her heart. After thinking for a moment, she headed toward Yang Wanshan’s residence.

Yang Wanshan hadn’t expected Mu Yunjin to visit at night. Seeing her displeased expression as he opened the door, he bowed, “Greetings, Princess Ning.”

“Where has the Prince gone?” Mu Yunjin asked directly.

Yang Wanshan was startled. He naturally knew where Prince Ning had gone and was about to answer when he noticed Song Chun behind Mu Yunjin shaking his head.

So Yang Wanshan gathered his thoughts and replied, “This official doesn’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Mu Yunjin felt something was even more amiss. Biting her lip, she asked, “Then where is Qin Muyue?”

“Deputy Commander Qin departed for the border today,” Yang Wanshan said.

Mu Yunjin took a deep breath, turned, and left Yang Wanshan’s residence. Once outside, she looked around carefully.

…

…

“Song Chun, where exactly did Chu Li go?” Mu Yunjin looked at Song Chun, her tone growing impatient.

Song Chun knew he couldn’t handle Mu Yunjin, but remembering Chu Li’s instructions before leaving, he thought for a moment and fabricated, “His Highness went out to handle some matters. He’ll return in a couple of days.”

“Handle matters?” Mu Yunjin raised an eyebrow and sneered, “Did he leave with Qin Muyue?”

Hearing this, Song Chun’s face turned deathly still. After a while, he nodded.

On the way back, Mu Yunjin remained silent, not saying a word. The thought of Chu Li secretly leaving with Qin Muyue made her heart constrict.

Her mind suddenly recalled the scene in River Moon City when she found those two in the cave testing the black lotus. Qin Muyue’s Phoenix Maiden identity held some value for Chu Li.

At this thought, Mu Yunjin bit her lower lip and laughed mockingly, a trace of jealousy flashing through her heart.

Song Chun, seeing Mu Yunjin’s anger, hesitated about whether to tell her that Chu Li and Qin Muyue had gone to deal with the frontier tribes. But Chu Li was his true master. After careful consideration, Song Chun decided not to disobey Chu Li’s orders.

……

Back in her room, Mu Yunjin opened the wardrobe and saw that indeed, two or three of Chu Li’s garments were missing. Thinking about how she had slept until dusk, she was so angry that she slammed her hand down, shattering the wooden table in the room.

To meet secretly with Qin Muyue, he had even tampered with her body. Chu Li, really outdid yourself!

Outside the door, Xiao Ju heard the commotion in the room and anxiously knocked. After being shouted at by the angry Mu Yunjin, she dared not knock again.

Furious, Mu Yunjin returned to the wardrobe and began packing her clothes, preparing to leave. From the corner of her eye, she spotted the candlestick and paused.

Mu Yunjin put down the clothes in her hand and walked toward the candlestick. She picked up a fragment of the talisman paper beside it, looked at it calmly for a while, and frowned, as if realizing something.

The white-robed man had assertively said the talisman contained frontier text…

If she remembered correctly, hadn’t Qin Muyue also claimed she came to Qingzhou to deal with the frontier tribes?

What were these frontier tribes up to? Why did their text appear on the top of Qingfeng Mountain? What secret lay within?

Mu Yunjin thought for a moment, looking at the small corner of the talisman paper in her hand. She decided to make another trip to Qingfeng Mountain to find a complete talisman.

Things shouldn’t be this simple…

……

Mu Yunjin took her clothes to the bathing room. Seeing Song Chun still standing in the courtyard, she quietly opened the bathroom window while he wasn’t paying attention and flew away.

After leaving the residence, Mu Yunjin found the rain growing heavier. Braving the downpour, she sped toward Qingfeng Mountain.

On the way, her mind kept dwelling on Chu Li and Qin Muyue, causing another surge of anger. She thought that when Chu Li returned, she would part ways with him!

That damned Chu Li!

With the rain continuing, it took Mu Yunjin twice as long as before to reach the foot of Qingfeng Mountain. It hadn’t rained here, and now the night breeze blew gently, feeling incredibly refreshing.

Mu Yunjin stood at the mountain’s foot, looking toward the summit. Her eyes narrowed, gradually growing deeper.

At the highest point of the summit, through the moonlight, wisps of smoke could be seen drifting out. Seeing this, Mu Yunjin knew someone was likely up there. Her lips pressed into a line as she carefully made her way up.

Mu Yunjin climbed extremely slowly and carefully, fearing ambushes around every corner, taking one step at a time.

As she neared the summit, Mu Yunjin didn’t approach directly. She ducked into some tall grass, crawling forward until she finally leaned against a cliffside rock, secretly peering toward the direction of the smoke.

At the summit, an old Daoist in black robes was holding a wooden sword with a talisman paper inserted at its tip. At his feet, two incense burners were filled with incense and candles.

The Daoist wielded the wooden sword, his body moving with the sword as if dancing gracefully. Occasionally, very faint words escaped his lips.

Mu Yunjin frowned. From the old Daoist’s posture, he seemed to be performing some sort of magic, but after watching for some time, she couldn’t figure out what exactly.

A moment later, the Daoist before her stopped, stood firmly, and extended both hands. Channeling his inner force, flame-colored light emerged from his fingertips. Then the wooden sword split into three, each with a talisman paper on its tip.

“I command now, act with haste, let rain fall upon Qingzhou without delay. This is the Jade Emperor’s decree, those who refuse shall bear heavy guilt.”

“Urgently, as the law commands!”

After the Daoist finished the incantation, three beams of light shot up from the sword tips, flying directly toward Qingzhou.

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin covered her mouth in shock. She had thought she was overthinking things, but someone was indeed praying for rain here.

Heavens, this was too incredible.

The flooding rains in Qingzhou all this time were man-made. What background did this old Daoist have? How could he possess such great power to command wind and rain?

Mu Yunjin thought it unwise to linger. She shifted backward, preparing to leave.

As she retreated a step, she seemed to hit a small stone that fell from beside her foot down the cliff, making a significant noise.

“Who’s there?!” The Daoist sensed someone and squinted toward the source of the sound.

Mu Yunjin knew things had gone awry and prepared to flee.

Seeing there was indeed someone, the Daoist’s eyes darkened. He picked up a whisk beside him, channeling his true qi into his palm. The ordinary whisk suddenly extended, sweeping toward Mu Yunjin, wrapping around her waist and dragging her backward.

Trapped by the whisk, Mu Yunjin drew a dagger to cut it, but as she turned, the Daoist was already standing before her.

Upon seeing Mu Yunjin’s face, the Daoist’s eyes showed a strange glint. Then he laughed loudly, “Heaven has a road you refuse to take, yet you force your way into hell’s gateless realm.”

“Now that you’ve witnessed this scene, I cannot possibly let you live.”

With these words, the Daoist withdrew his whisk. His eyes revealed a bloodthirsty killing intent as he channeled his full power into a palm strike, sweeping heavily toward Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin dodged, but was still partially hit by the powerful true qi. Blood surged in her chest, and she couldn’t help but spit out several mouthfuls of bloody sweetness.

Such formidable martial arts.

Seeing she was no match for the old Daoist, Mu Yunjin prepared to escape. But the Daoist seemed prepared—he had already set up a formation around Mu Yunjin. Now she was trapped in a circle of dozens of gravel pieces, unable to escape the formation.

When she tried to leap upward, the stones followed her up. When she tried to crouch down, the stones likewise followed her, completely blocking her escape route.

Mu Yunjin frowned, narrowing her eyes, preparing to activate the Phoenix Pavilion’s spirit signal to summon help. The sharp-eyed Daoist noticed something amiss and lashed out with his whisk, tightly binding Mu Yunjin’s wrist.

“You’re no ordinary young woman. This old Daoist has long wanted to meet you.” The Daoist sneered, flinging his whisk to throw Mu Yunjin into the air, then slamming her heavily onto the ground.

For the first time, Mu Yunjin felt completely powerless. From the Daoist’s tone, he seemed to recognize her.

Having been thrown to the ground, Mu Yunjin felt as if several of her bones were broken. In the dead of night, unable to send out the Phoenix Pavilion’s spirit signal, she truly had nowhere to turn for help.

After a while, Mu Yunjin struggled to her feet, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes locked onto the Daoist, “The rain in Qingzhou—it was all your doing?”

“A dying person need not know so much.”

The Daoist seemed unwilling to engage further with Mu Yunjin. His lips curled disdainfully as he tapped his whisk, changed position, and wrapped it around Mu Yunjin’s fair neck, slowly applying pressure.

Mu Yunjin grasped the whisk, trying desperately to pry it open. A difficult sensation of suffocation came over her, as if she might pass out at any moment.

Seeing Mu Yunjin’s increasingly pale face, the Daoist felt delighted and increased the pressure on his whisk.

With the whisk tightly constricting her neck, Mu Yunjin could no longer exert any strength. Her pupils gradually dilated, her eyes half-closed, slowly losing strength. Just then, in the quiet darkness around them, a red light suddenly appeared.

With her face drooping, a fire-red phoenix suddenly emerged from Mu Yunjin’s back, bit by bit. The fire phoenix spread its red wings and flew up, spewing a stream of fierce flames that burned through the Daoist’s whisk. Then it used its massive wings to completely envelop Mu Yunjin’s body.

The Daoist stepped back, looking in astonishment at the burned whisk in his hand, then at the towering red light before him, and Mu Yunjin tightly enclosed by the fire phoenix.

“Phoenix Maiden!”

“She is a Phoenix Maiden!”

The Daoist seemed incredulous, but the fire phoenix before his eyes was real. He had seen it emerge from Mu Yunjin’s back.

Now, with the fire phoenix surrounding Mu Yunjin, it stretched its neck and let out a cry. Gradually, the red light grew dimmer and dimmer, eventually transforming back into a beam of light that reentered Mu Yunjin’s back.

Mu Yunjin lay unconscious, powerlessly collapsing to the ground. Seeing this, the Daoist prepared to finish her off when several flying daggers came from the side.

The Daoist turned to dodge, and when he looked back, a gray figure had already swiftly picked up Mu Yunjin. Before the Daoist could react, the figure had vanished into the night.