The disciples of Gengchen Immortal Mansion waited at the foot of Three Saints Mountain for half a day with various feelings of confusion. Liao Ting Yan’s initial terror had already dissipated, returning her to a state of resignation.
Even if the principal were to shout from the stage, “Once these results come out, you’ll all die!” a poor student like her would feel indifferent after the initial fear—after all, everyone was in the same boat, so there was nothing to be afraid of. Now she wasn’t thinking about distant death, but about her aching legs, somewhat wanting to sit down and rest.
Looking across the entire scene, she was probably the only one with the lowest cultivation level. Earlier, the ancestor’s aftershock had affected her like a fish caught in a disaster, causing her nosebleed—how could she endure this? She shifted her weight from her left foot to her right, then back to her left. Finally, the Sect Leader, who had entered the tiger’s den alone, emerged from the principal’s office.
He looked as if he had been beaten, appearing extremely disheveled. The jade crown he wore on his head was broken, looking as if it might fall at any moment. His handsome and elegant face was now a dramatic mixture of red and white. With a weak voice, he instructed, “The ancestral master has emerged from seclusion. He dislikes being disturbed. You may all disperse.”
“You, go in and serve the ancestral master well.” This sentence was directed at the hundred-woman group.
The leading female disciple was reportedly a relative of the Sect Leader, the predetermined leader. Now, with a demeanor of facing death unflinchingly, she exchanged a glance with the Sect Leader and, with the bearing of a revolutionary martyr, resolutely led her sisters, step by step, into Three Saints Mountain.
Everyone’s footsteps were heavy, devoid of their initial excitement and anticipation. During this time, they had calmed down and realized that something was amiss, so they were filled with apprehension. Liao Ting Yan’s footsteps were also heavy, but that was because her legs genuinely ached. Three Saints Mountain was vast, and although the jade-paved ground looked beautiful, it was damn expansive. Walking on it made them look like ants—it seemed endless.
As the saying goes, “looking at a mountain can tire a horse to death.” This place also had a strange pressure for some unknown reason. By the time the hundred-woman suicide squad reached the massive central building complex, not only Liao Ting Yan but even the other girls with higher cultivation levels could hardly bear it.
“It seems we can’t freely use spiritual energy here. What’s going on?” someone couldn’t help but ask quietly.
Others looked at the towering black iron pillars and chains nearby, feeling uneasy. “What about these chains? What’s going on with them?”
“These flowers seem to be… seem to be Sun-Moon Dark Peony. Why are there so many Sun-Moon Dark Peonies here?” After passing the outermost blood-red high wall, another girl discovered something unusual—before them was a flowerbed that seemed to grow around the entire circular building.
Liao Ting Yan looked at those flowers. They were shaped like peonies, snow-white in color, with black pistils and equally black stems and leaves. They looked strangely beautiful. Since she wasn’t a native and lacked experience, she didn’t know the background of these flowers called Sun-Moon Dark Peony which frightened the group of girls as if they had seen ghosts.
She wanted to ask, but everyone’s faces were as white as the flowers, looking quite frightening, so she closed her mouth.
Having arrived here, the surroundings were completely silent, without even a breeze. They didn’t know which way to go.
“Should we continue forward?”
“Of course, we must go pay our respects to the ancestral master.” The leader feigned composure.
“But which way should we go?”
Liao Ting Yan heard a strange sound, a kind of hiss—hiss—like the sound of a snake flicking its tongue. She felt a cool breeze above her head and looked up to see a gigantic black snake coiled around a pillar, its crimson vertical pupils coldly observing them.
The snake was absurdly large. How large? Liao Ting Yan estimated that to devour all of them, it would only need about ten bites, swallowing ten people per bite. And after eating them all, it probably wouldn’t even be full, given the thickness of its waist.
Liao Ting Yan’s legs went weak, and she grabbed the arm of some unknown senior sister beside her. The senior sister’s legs also went weak, and she grabbed the arm of a senior aunt next to her.
Liao Ting Yan: …So we weren’t brought here to be killed for the ancestor’s amusement, but to be delivered as meat dishes for his snake.
While she was covered in goosebumps and terrified, she still found time to wonder whether, if the snake swallowed them, it could digest the accessories and clothes they were wearing.
Eventually, the brave leader stepped forward and respectfully addressed the great snake: “Esteemed One, we disciples have come to pay our respects to the ancestral master. The Sect Leader has ordered us to serve the ancestral master’s daily needs.”
The giant black snake slithered down from the high pillar, silently approaching the ground. Its enormous body circled them once. Liao Ting Yan, standing on the outer rim, felt those shiny black scales almost passing by her hand, and her heart nearly stopped.
How bitter! Such a large snake—the first time she’d ever seen one in her life—and they had to have such intimate contact.
Fortunately, the snake didn’t seem inclined to eat them. It only scanned them with its searchlight-like eyes before moving past them.
Hiss, hiss—
The giant black snake crawled forward, passing through those Sun-Moon Dark Peonies.
“Quick, follow the Esteemed One,” the leader whispered, and everyone hurriedly followed.
The guide snake led them through many maze-like palaces until they reached the base of the central tower. From a distance at the foot of the mountain, Three Saints Mountain had appeared brightly luminous, radiant, and sacred. But when they arrived at the central tower, they discovered that the sky above this area looked completely different from the outside. A gloomy sky shrouded this realm, casting a somber atmosphere over the brilliant gold-tiled, red-walled buildings. Combined with the black chains binding the central tower, it was even more spine-chilling.
Upon arriving here, the great snake climbed up the giant pillar of the high tower, but the group couldn’t climb the pillar—there were stairs before them.
“Let’s go up,” the leader said, walking up with her head held high. She had become their class monitor, and everyone followed her lead. Liao Ting Yan trailed at the end of the queue, dragging her tired body up the stairs.
With such a tall tower, wasn’t there an elevator?
She had thought they would climb to the top, but after climbing only about five or six floors, they stopped because there were no stairs leading to the next level.
This floor was very spacious. Upon arrival, they saw a corridor and a door. The corridor walls were painted with scenes of immortals playing music and dancing, along with some large, colorful murals of ascending immortals—magnificent and mysterious. However, these beautiful paintings had red bloodstains, as if someone had dragged something bleeding from one end to the other. Even more terrifying was that these bloodstains were very fresh.
Liao Ting Yan began to recall if the Sect Leader they had seen before entering had any bleeding wounds. She probably wasn’t the only one thinking this, as she felt the senior sister beside her begin to tremble.
Their footsteps sounded unusually distinct here, as did their heartbeats. When they reached the door, it suddenly opened a crack. After the last person in line, Liao Ting Yan walked in, the door silently closed behind her.
Here, Liao Ting Yan saw the giant black snake again. It was coiled around a pillar in the room. Besides the snake and themselves, there was one other person in this vast space.
That person sat on a chair at the front and said to them: “Come forward.”
Liao Ting Yan discovered for the first time that someone could make two simple words sound so gloomy and ominous.
The class monitor led her comrades forward to pay respects to the ancestor. “Greetings, Ancestral Master.”
Liao Ting Yan followed the crowd and curiously glanced forward, only catching sight of a foot that was so white it was almost frightening.
This person was barefoot on the deep black floor, with faint blue veins visible beneath the skin. Beside the bare foot trailed the wide hem of a black-patterned robe. When the hem moved slightly, it revealed the other foot. Liao Ting Yan noticed a red string tied around his left ankle, threaded with a wooden Buddhist bead.
Somehow, that thin red string gave her a breathtaking sensation, and as she stared at it, she almost couldn’t breathe.
Suddenly, the ancestral master above stood up. Liao Ting Yan saw him coming toward her, those feet appearing and disappearing beneath the black hem, finally stopping in front of the senior sister next to her.
“Such great audacity.”
After this sentence, Liao Ting Yan felt some liquid splatter onto her. Bright red, thick blood spread across the smooth black floor, soaking the white skirt of Liao Ting Yan’s dress that was spread out beside her.
Liao Ting Yan, struggling to remain kneeling nearby: “…” Ugh!
I can’t take it.
I really can’t.
Someone’s dead!
I’m so scared! Someone’s dead! Ah!
She felt like vomiting, but her mind was also very clear that if she vomited now, it might lead to some terrible consequences, so she instinctively swallowed it back.
…Damn, that made it feel even more nauseating!
The senior sister’s corpse fell limply, landing beside Liao Ting Yan’s hand. She watched as the senior sister’s face slowly changed, becoming another person in the blink of an eye. Huh? Face-changing??
Nearby, someone exclaimed in surprise: “This isn’t Junior Sister Wan Ling. Who is this?”
Others were panicking. “How did this person sneak in? How did no one notice?”
The ancestor, who had just killed someone, moved again. He stepped through the blood and over the corpse, stopping in front of Liao Ting Yan.
Liao Ting Yan: “…” Is he looking at me? No, Ancestral Master, don’t look at me!
“Such audacity.”
Hearing these words, Liao Ting Yan felt half her body go cold. Just before the unknown sister beside her had been killed, the ancestor had said the same thing.
But how was she being audacious? She hadn’t done anything at all! Granddaughter is being wronged!
Just like before getting an injection, when you know the needle is about to pierce your skin, your entire body becomes very sensitive. She was in such a state now, her attention highly focused, her heart suspended, waiting for pain to come from somewhere.
After a moment, a hand came. That hand pinched her chin, lifting her face.
When that pale and cold hand touched her chin, Liao Ting Yan felt her hair stand on end all over her body. Cold sweat instantly broke out on her back, just like when the giant black snake had slithered past her earlier.
Forced to raise her head stiffly, she finally saw the ancestor’s appearance.
All her earlier guesses had been wrong. He was a pretty boy.
Skin as white as snow, hair as black as ink, lips as red as blood—this description sounded just like Snow White herself.
Liao Ting Yan looked into his eyes. It seemed like only a moment passed, or perhaps a very long time. Suddenly, the ancestor released his hand and sat back down. He had appeared fine just now, but now his face showed pain and irritability, with a trace of red at the corners of his eyes.
“Get out, all of you get out!”
His sudden outburst frightened everyone. The girls, their faces drained of color, hastily retreated. Even the giant black snake seemed to tuck its tail in fear, biting onto the corpse that hadn’t completely cooled yet and rolled out with the main group.
Becoming enraged without warning—was this ancestor perhaps mentally ill? Liao Ting Yan left with an empty head. Not until she had descended the stairs and stood at the base of the tower did she fully come back to her senses.
Huh? She hadn’t died?
She raised her hand to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead and saw red on her palm when she lowered it.
It was blood that had splattered from the girl beside her when she died.
Speaking of which, she looked at the large snake nearby. The giant black snake had been driven out with them by the ancestor and was now hesitantly holding a corpse in its mouth. But it didn’t hesitate for long—it quickly opened its mouth and swallowed the corpse.
Liao Ting Yan: “…!”
She now reasonably suspected that the reason the ancestor hadn’t killed her just now was because he wanted to keep her fresh to feed the big snake tomorrow.