Yu Furen’s heart shook upon hearing this. The demon who had recently caused great chaos in the martial world and killed countless people was actually Tang Lici’s master? Tang Lici withdrew his stance and put his hands behind his back with a smile. “Senior is truly extraordinary, able to discern my martial lineage in just one move.” By saying this, he acknowledged it. Yu Furen exhaled—Bai Nanzhu was at most only a few years older than Tang Lici, so how could he be his master?

The porcelain-faced man laughed heartily. “Even Bai Nanzhu might not have your level of martial arts! Since I couldn’t kill Bai Nanzhu back then, killing you now is the same. Watch carefully—second move!” His right fist gripped the air and struck swiftly, his right foot spinning in a kick. With a thunderous crack, it was actually a strike into empty air. He called out coldly, “Good Minister Assists Ten Thousand Affairs.”

Tang Lici spun to dodge. This kick seemed to strike air, but it carried countless sand, stones, grass blades, and twigs from the ground. If treated as an empty kick, one would surely be pierced through by those debris charged with strange power and die instantly! After dodging once, the porcelain-faced man drew his long sword with a ringing sound. “Great Enterprise Forever Prosperous—” The sword light was dazzling, with three points of cold radiance that captured hearts and souls. Yu Furen was shocked and his face changed color—this porcelain-faced man’s sword actually had three edges! Three sword blades were mounted on the same hilt. When the sword emerged like a flower, where an ordinary person could make two or three sword flowers with one sword, his one sword could make eight or nine sword flowers, concealing seventy or eighty follow-up moves!

Tang Lici was still in mid-air, not yet landed, when the porcelain-faced man’s sword could be called a sneak attack. But hearing the copper flute sweep through the air, with three “clang clang clang” sounds, Tang Lici had already exchanged one move with that three-flower sword, borrowing momentum to float away. He smiled slightly. “This is clearly the Thirteen Lines of Short Blades. Senior Wei giving it another name is indeed different from others.”

The porcelain-faced man paused. Tang Lici called him “Senior Wei.” Yu Furen cried out in shock, his face changing color slightly. “Wei Beiyin!”

This strange person wearing a porcelain mask, holding a long sword but using short blade techniques, was actually Wei Beiyin! It was said this person was injured by Rong Yin and Yu Xiu in the battle at Jiangnan Manor, then disappeared. It turned out he was hiding here as some Camellia Prison master—truly incomprehensible, there must be hidden circumstances. Wei Beiyin’s martial arts were world-famous. Back then, Rong Yin and Yu Xiu working together barely managed to seriously injure this person. Now with Tang Lici alone holding the pass, could he escape unharmed?

Wei Beiyin’s sword blade cut through wind. With his short blade techniques exposed, he stopped pretending. Swish, swish, swish—three swords thrust out. Tang Lici had seen through his identity within three moves—this person had to die! Just as Wei Beiyin’s three swords emerged, transforming into nine swords, three human figures leaped extremely quickly from the forest, completely surrounding Tang Lici. They were Yu Qifeng, Lin Shuangshuang, and that black-clothed man! Yu Furen’s face went deathly pale. Wei Beiyin plus these three—Tang Lici was absolutely no match. What to do? Even jumping into the Camellia Prison now would only give these four the chance to seal the exit and lock Tang Lici in the prison! Presumably Chi Yun had been besieged by these people and forced to jump down…

Seeing the four surrounding him, Tang Lici’s lips curved upward. “Come at me together!” Immediately three swords thrust toward him—two were Lin Shuangshuang’s twin swords, one was Wei Beiyin’s long sword. Three swords struck together with tremendous power. With a crisp “pop,” Tang Lici’s chest clothing tore, revealing a corner of red silk.

Yu Furen leaped up, Xiao Tao Hong’s flowing light flashing as it blocked one of Lin Shuangshuang’s swords. With a “crack,” Xiao Tao Hong was incomparably sharp—Lin Shuangshuang’s blue sword broke with the sound. Yu Furen also retreated two steps, breathing heavily.

In this brief moment, Tang Lici held his flute horizontally to his mouth. Yu Qifeng, quick-eyed and fast-handed, thrust a sword toward his wrist. The black-clothed man moved like a ghost, striking out with his palm. Yu Furen shouted loudly, sword light exploding as his sword-controlling technique soared skyward, blocking the combined strike of two people.

At this moment, a flute sound broke through the air, its tone exceptionally clear and bright. As soon as this sound emerged, Wei Beiyin quickly retreated, covering his ears with both hands, channeling his power to resist Tang Lici’s sonic killing. The black-clothed man withdrew and retreated, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Yu Qifeng covered one ear with his hand, gave a fierce laugh, and still thrust his sword forward. Only Lin Shuangshuang, whose power was restricted, wasn’t greatly affected. Swish, swish, swish—three consecutive sword strikes that were as fierce as usual.

Yu Furen blocked two moves with all his strength, his energy exhausted. Tang Lici’s sonic killing couldn’t distinguish between enemy and friend. He felt the world spinning and fell backward, quickly losing consciousness. He could still hear the sounds of sword whistling by his ear, and the flute sound seemed to have several leaps…

After that was complete darkness.

Not knowing how much time had passed, his true energy suddenly flowed smoothly. A warm and gentle stream of true force penetrated from his chest, pushing his blood and energy to circulate, slowly cycling through his body. Yu Furen coughed several times, feeling his mouth full of a fishy taste—he had vomited blood at some unknown time. Opening his eyes, that stream of true energy had already disappeared. Before him was still darkness. After a long while, he realized he was in a natural cave. A faint, dim ray of light shot down from overhead at a great distance. After another long while, he suddenly realized this was the bottom of the Camellia Prison. He sat up abruptly and saw beside him a corpse covered in blood, quite terrifying—it was Lin Shuangshuang.

“How do you feel?” Someone nearby asked gently. Yu Furen turned back suddenly and saw Tang Lici sitting to one side, his white robes damaged, the Floating Red Silkworm Silk draped over him. In the darkness, only his silver hair was visible.

“What happened after I fell? Where are they?” he asked in shock.

Tang Lici’s hair was slightly disheveled, with three or five silver strands falling along his cheek. His face was very pale, his lips curved slightly. “They… one is dead, one is seriously injured, and two ran away.”

Yu Furen’s heart pounded. “Who… who is seriously injured?”

Tang Lici smiled lightly. “Your father.”

Yu Furen’s face went pale and he fell silent. After a while, he asked, “Just you alone?”

Tang Lici nodded.

Yu Furen exhaled deeply. Just Tang Lici alone had killed Lin Shuangshuang, seriously injured Yu Qifeng, and scared away Wei Beiyin and that black-clothed man. It was simply… simply a myth. “How did you do it?”

“They forced me to—if I couldn’t do it, wouldn’t you and I already be dead?” Tang Lici said gently. “When people are forced to desperation, they can do anything.”

Yu Furen smiled bitterly. “You… sigh… you…” He really didn’t know what to say.

Tang Lici stood up. “Since you’re awake and there are no ambushes outside, we don’t need to fear being caught like fish in a barrel. Get up and let’s move forward.”

Yu Furen struggled to stand, still feeling dizzy and hearing ringing in his ears. “Your sonic killing… really is…”

Tang Lici laughed lightly. “Really is too terrifying?”

Yu Furen said, “Even Wei Beiyin fled at the first sign—isn’t that invincible under heaven?”

Tang Lici still laughed lightly. “Invincible under heaven… haha… let’s go.”

He walked ahead with steady steps. Below the entrance to the Camellia Prison was a naturally formed cave. After walking just a few steps forward, the faint light disappeared and they were completely plunged into darkness.

A ray of firelight slowly brightened. Tang Lici lit his Bi Xiao fire. Yu Furen quickened his pace and the two walked side by side. After penetrating the cave only seven or eight zhang, white bones began appearing on the ground. At first they were just scattered fragments, but after going another ten zhang deeper, there were piles and clusters of white skeletons. Looking at the death states of these skeletons, all were twisted and convulsed, showing they had died in great pain. Some bones were fractured, obviously dying from serious injuries. The two exchanged glances. Yu Furen said in a low voice, “Poisoned!”

Tang Lici nodded. These white bones had strange death postures—half were injured by swords and blades, half had no wounds at all. Those without wounds who died twisted should have been poisoned. But what exactly had happened in this Camellia Prison to cause so many deaths? Where were the numerous martial world criminals supposedly imprisoned here? Had they all turned to white bones?

“These white bones all have corrosion marks—not naturally formed. Someone should have used flesh-corroding drugs to turn the corpses into white bones.” Yu Furen bent down and picked up a section of white bone. “That means after these people died, there were survivors in the Camellia Prison.”

Tang Lici stared fixedly at the piles of white bones covering the ground. Where was Chi Yun? Was Chi Yun among these white bones, or…

“Poison that can kill so many people is either pervasive poison that spreads in the wind or contagious poison.” Yu Furen said in a low voice. “Be careful.”

“It’s fine, I’m immune to all poisons.” Tang Lici laughed quietly. “Step aside and follow me.”

He walked ahead with hands behind his back, using his feet to push aside the white bones and corpses on the ground, clearing a path for Yu Furen. The two walked one after the other, slowly going deeper.

Corpses everywhere, unexplained deaths—what exactly had happened in the Camellia Prison that imprisoned countless martial world criminals? The deeper Yu Furen walked, the more puzzled and horrified he became. Roughly calculating the white bones on the ground, there were probably around five hundred. Who wanted to kill people? Who wanted to kill so many people? Who were the survivors in the Camellia Prison? What kind of terrifying deadly poison had killed everyone? Tang Lici’s figure ahead was unusually calm. There was no wind in the cave, and the Bi Xiao fire’s light was steady, illuminating everything around them clearly.

Walking past the piles of white bones, before them was an open space covered with yellow earth. Many centipedes, cockroaches, earthworms and such commonly found in caves couldn’t be seen at all. There were no bloodstains on the ground either, only a long knife mark. The surroundings were very empty, as if those white bones had fled in panic from the depths of the cave, not daring to stay in this clearing for a moment, thus dying at the entrance.

“There are people ahead.” Yu Furen said in a low voice. When he first learned swordsmanship, he learned the way of assassins and had extraordinary sensitivity to sounds and breathing.

Tang Lici smiled slightly. Not only were there people ahead, but more than one person.

Where the firelight shone, the yellow earth stretched endlessly. The two seemed to have walked for a very long time when spider webs suddenly appeared before their eyes. There were no mosquitoes underground, so no one knew what these many spiders ate. Starting from where the webs appeared, there were many small caves on both sides of the cave, with steel bars at the cave entrances—these should have been where martial world criminals were originally imprisoned. But the steel bars were all shattered on the ground, broken and ruined, obviously destroyed by someone, and not just destroyed—they should have been destroyed long ago.

“It looks like the Camellia Prison was destroyed quite some time ago. Those imprisoned in the Camellia Prison later were probably not all so-called ‘martial world criminals.'” Yu Furen said. “But without supreme lightness skills, probably no one could get up that cave entrance outside. After the prison doors were broken, dragons and snakes were mixed together inside, hundreds of people all crowded together, then all died together.”

Tang Lici said gently, “Correct… you’re very clever.”

Hearing this, Yu Furen was startled instead and felt embarrassed to continue speaking. He heard Tang Lici ask, “How are your injuries?”

“After walking this distance, my true energy has calmed. Though not completely healed, it doesn’t matter.” Yu Furen remembered something and asked back, “Are you injured?”

Fighting four top martial world masters alone, yet he seemed completely unharmed.

Tang Lici smiled slightly. “No.”

Yu Furen was sincerely impressed. As for seriously injuring Yu Qifeng, he no longer cared about it at all.

The two walked past the section of caves that had held prisoners. The path was vaguely coming to an end. At the end was an uneven black stone wall with faint golden light—traces of some kind of mineral. The cave turned upward here, leading to unknown places, but the depths of the Camellia Prison ended here.

“No one.” Yu Furen murmured, looking up at the dark cave overhead. “Or… people are hiding in there.”

But the cave overhead could barely accommodate one person’s passage. Hiding in there would be extremely uncomfortable. The human voices heard earlier disappeared here. Tang Lici raised his right knee, stepped on a rock, and looked up.

Several points of flowing light flashed faintly at the cave opening overhead. Yu Furen’s heart stirred—that was spider silk. Looking at the black stone wall before them, the golden glittering mineral veins on the wall were covered everywhere with spider silk. Under the firelight, this spider silk shimmered with extraordinary brilliance, seeming somehow different.

“Ha…” Tang Lici suddenly laughed quietly. This tone made Yu Furen’s whole body jump. Looking up in the direction Tang Lici was gazing, he saw the spider silk glittering, slowly descending. From that dark cave, a huge spider web slowly sank down. At first only wisps of golden spider silk were visible, then… slowly the web revealed two shoes.

There was a person stuck to the spider web.

This extraordinarily large spider web slowly descended from the cave. First two shoes were revealed, then legs… then the waist… a sword at the waist…

The person stuck to the spider web wore white clothes and carried a sword, and was very young.

Tang Lici slowly withdrew his right foot from the rock. The person descending with the web was Chi Yun.

But also not Chi Yun.

Chi Yun descended with the spider web, slowly landed, turned around, and faced Tang Lici.

His face was expressionless. His clothing and appearance hadn’t changed much, as if he hadn’t encountered any mishaps after entering the prison. But his eyes, usually cheerful and open-minded, had changed… The black pupils were extraordinarily black—black and lifeless. The whites were full of bloodshot veins, and some places had blood clots from burst blood vessels, making the whites completely blood red.

A pair of blood-red eyes.

There was no trace of self in the eyes, only emptiness.

Yu Furen’s face changed slightly. “Chi—” He immediately stopped. Tang Lici hadn’t called out. This person was Chi Yun, yet also not Chi Yun.

Something stirred in the cave overhead—a spider the size of a human head with a strange shape that was definitely not a good thing. It kept poking its head out to look at Chi Yun, then withdrawing slightly, then hissing and spitting twice before poking its head out again.

Chi Yun held a knife in his right hand and gripped a golden-green medicine bottle in his left. The bottle opening had a yellowish-green tint and emitted a pungent smell.

“The five hundred eighty-six lives in this cave—did you kill them all?” Tang Lici faced Chi Yun, his eyelashes slightly lowered, lips curved upward in an expression that couldn’t be called caring or smiling, containing cold killing intent. “Are you the king of this prison? The strongest one left after mutual slaughter?”

Chi Yun didn’t speak, only stared ahead with sinister eyes. He stared widely—you could vaguely see his usual carefree openness, but he stared ruthlessly with indescribable eeriness and terror.

“This is the so-called best candidate to kill Tang Lici…” Tang Lici really smiled. “Truly a vicious scheme and cruel heart.”

He blocked Yu Furen with his sleeve as both slowly retreated. While retreating, he said gently, “Do you see the faint red spots on his face?” Yu Furen looked intently. The light in the cave was dim and the firelight was in Tang Lici’s hand, making it really hard to distinguish. At such a distance, to discern whether there were red spots on Chi Yun’s face required excellent eyesight. After looking for a long time, he nodded.

Tang Lici said softly, “The poison that killed those five hundred eighty-six people outside is the Scarlet Ghost Nine Hearts Pill, and the liquid that dissolved the corpses is held in Chi Yun’s left hand.”

Yu Furen was shocked. “What… Could it be that Chi Yun also was poisoned by the Scarlet Ghost Nine Hearts Pill? What can be done?”

Tang Lici’s beautiful face still looked charming in the firelight. He said, “I guess he was forced to jump into the Camellia Prison, not expecting that the prison below was already in chaos. Someone had poisoned everyone in the prison, they infected each other, and the poison entered their bones. After Chi Yun jumped down, he faced the Scarlet Ghost Nine Hearts Pill poison.”

Yu Furen nodded. Thinking of the situation then, he couldn’t help feeling sad. Chi Yun was such a fine hero with martial arts skills and ambitions, yet was trapped in this Camellia Prison and forced to contract this incurable deadly poison.

“To seek a way to survive—” Tang Lici said in a low voice, very gentle, but it sounded extremely cold to Yu Furen. The gentle voice contained no emotion. Even speaking such cruel and tragic words, no trace of sympathy could be heard. “Chi Yun went on a killing spree, once drawing a circle around himself like a prison, forcing everyone to stay far away from him, gathering at the Camellia Prison entrance, while he avoided everyone and went deep into the cave, hoping that mutual isolation could prevent harm. However—” His tone became somewhat strange, as if appreciating this designed conspiracy while harboring extremely compassionate feelings. “However, in the depths of this cave was something more terrible than the Scarlet Ghost Nine Hearts Pill…”

Yu Furen felt bitterness in his throat. “This kind of spider?”

Tang Lici smiled lightly. “According to the ‘Reincarnation Manual,’ this is a type of poison spider. Poison spiders don’t grow here, so such a huge poison spider must have been brought in from outside by someone.”

“Poison spider?” Yu Furen asked quietly.

“Catalyst of the five poisons.” Tang Lici said. “Correct. Ancient people practiced poison cultivation by putting five poisons in a jar, waiting for them to kill each other, then taking the victor. Poison spider venom is precisely the catalyst that makes the five poisons kill each other. Someone deliberately put the poison spider in the Camellia Prison, then forced Chi Yun down. This entire underground is filled with poison spider qi. After Chi Yun was poisoned by the poison spider, he came out of the cave and wildly attacked the people huddled together. This is the origin of those broken bones. Over five hundred people in the prison killed each other, deadly poisons mutually infected. After everyone else died, the final victor became the poison person.”

He said in a low voice, “This is the method of using people to cultivate poison.”

Yu Furen broke out in cold sweat. Every person Chi Yun killed here strengthened his poison arts by one degree. Every person who died outside increased his murderous qi by one degree. At this moment, the Chi Yun they faced had long lost his true nature, completely becoming a killing machine, and—a Chi Yun whose power had doubled after being poisoned by the Scarlet Ghost Nine Hearts Pill and who had become mysterious and unpredictable after being cultivated into a poison person!

“Very cruel, isn’t it?” Tang Lici asked gently, not knowing if he was asking Yu Furen or the Chi Yun who had lost his sanity.

Yu Furen looked at Chi Yun, thinking of his usual romantic elegance and carefree openness. His heart ached! No matter who could devise such a scheme to harm Chi Yun into this state, even cutting them into a thousand pieces later couldn’t offset the damage done to Chi Yun! How could there be people so cruel and vicious in the world? How could there be people so sinister and terrifying? Were they… were they still human?

“Very cruel…” Tang Lici’s gaze slowly turned to Chi Yun’s eyes. “For people who have rarely suffered hardship, it really is very cruel…”

The strange smell of the poison spider in the cave grew stronger. The giant spider overhead kept spraying qi. Chi Yun’s eyes became more and more crazed. Tang Lici swept his arm, shaking Yu Furen back several steps. He stepped forward several paces, directly facing Chi Yun, showing a light smile. “What do you want to do?”

Chi Yun slowly raised his “Single Ring Crossing Moon,” the blade tip pointing directly between Tang Lici’s eyes. Tang Lici took another step forward and smiled. “You want to split me in half with one blade? Strike then.”

With a whoosh of blade cutting wind, Chi Yun struck faster than lightning. He was originally fast, and after being poisoned became even faster, dazzling to watch. This blade, just as the wind sound was heard, had suddenly reached between his eyebrows. Tang Lici leaned back and spun gracefully to avoid it, his silver hair floating up, the Floating Red Silkworm Silk on his body rising with it, sweeping long across the ground.

Chi Yun ignored the fluttering red silk, gripping Single Ring Crossing Moon tightly, blade after blade pressing close. The blade light flashed brighter and brighter, the wind-breaking sounds grew stronger, echoing in the deep cave like demon cries.

Amazing blade technique. Chi Yun’s long sleeves stirred the wind. When his blade struck out, the blade momentum was guided by the sleeve wind, drifting unpredictably and extremely hard to anticipate. Yu Furen watched the battle from the side. Tang Lici’s body technique was elusive, avoiding every blade, but Chi Yun fought more and more wildly. Once he threw his flying blade, in such a narrow cave space, with Chi Yun’s domineering flying blade momentum, it would be almost impossible to avoid completely. And in the cave, if sonic killing techniques were used, he himself would probably die under the sonic killing first. Yu Furen smiled bitterly—why had he come along? Tang Lici telling him to go back was indeed correct. Following behind him only got in the way.

Just as Yu Furen was blaming himself, he heard a strange whistling sound by his ear. Chi Yun’s “Single Ring Crossing Moon” was indeed thrown! The blade light kept flashing, carried by the sleeve wind, slowly floating toward Tang Lici.

“Cross Fate—” Chi Yun’s stiff lips suddenly awkwardly spat out two words. The blade light floating toward Tang Lici flashed more and more brilliantly, indicating the blade body was shaking very violently.

Tang Lici stood with sleeves behind his back, still smiling lightly. “Do you remember what I said?”

Chi Yun remained silent, not knowing if he heard. Tang Lici said gently, “I am number one under heaven.”