Suixian City.

After the rain, the weather had cleared, but autumn had arrived after all. Once the sky darkened and night deepened, it naturally grew cold.

When Bai Yin stepped out from Qiushi Pavilion, he felt a cool breeze blowing toward him.

He couldn’t help but scrunch his neck, his gaze naturally looking toward the Lan River, because the wind carried some moisture from the river.

This gave him a very intimate sense of familiarity.

He still remembered that the cool breeze on Yashan’s path had this same flavor…

However, unlike the Lan River, standing on Yashan’s high suspended cable bridge, one could not only feel the river’s breath but also hear its roaring torrent—far more fierce and surging than the Lan River.

Thinking of this, a faint smile naturally appeared at the corners of Bai Yin’s lips.

The wind passing through the street lifted the corners of his snow-white robe, making the ink-wash landscape patterns painted on it appear to flutter. His left hand, missing a little finger, was tucked in his sleeve, with a jade slip faintly visible inside.

—This was the entirety of his “harvest” for the day.

After the Silver Tower battle, the female cultivator Hong Die from Qu Zhengfeng’s side had actually invited Jian Chou to Jiexing Mountain Manor, which somewhat surprised him.

But since Jian Chou seemed to know this person, Bai Yin couldn’t ask too many questions.

Moreover, with matters just concluded and strange occurrences at the night sailing ship, the most important thing for him now was to communicate with Yashan and incidentally gather the latest intelligence.

As a precaution, he hadn’t directly used the most convenient wind messages or thunder messages to communicate with his sect.

Although such methods were convenient, if detected by intentional great cultivators, they had the complete ability to intercept and modify wind, rain, thunder, and lightning messages.

In such special times as these, Bai Yin dared not take risks.

With a light touch of his finger, the jade slip disappeared.

He looked at the street ahead, confirmed his direction, and walked straight through, feeling the unique worldly atmosphere of Mingri Xinghai along the way. He could see the brilliant lights of tall buildings on both sides, hear the clinking of cups and the sounds of people’s animated discussions inside…

“This time the night sailing ship really suffered a huge loss.”

“Yes, tell me, even if someone gave me a hundred times the courage, I wouldn’t have dared imagine today’s situation!”

“Thinking about it, it’s really damn strange—they probably never imagined even in death.”

“They thought they caught some nobody without backing to bully casually, who knew they’d simply stirred up a damn hornet’s nest and attracted Yashan!”

“Sigh, comparing people will anger you to death…”

“This Yashan eldest senior sister is strange too—isn’t her cultivation a bit too high? Do you remember the old rumors about the Nine Heavens Tablet…”

“Really opened our eyes. That was the evil monk Shanxing and evil woman Liang Tingyu—they couldn’t even beat her.”

“If you ask me, isn’t that person the most terrifying?”

“Shh…”

“Don’t dare speak, do you want to die!”

…

Though the events had passed, the aftershocks hadn’t subsided.

Those out drinking late at night were mostly idle people, inevitably commenting on the previous day’s events.

Yashan eldest senior sister Jian Chou’s unexpectedly brilliant performance that day had rapidly spread throughout the Star Sea, undoubtedly gaining enormous attention.

Though her reputation was considerable before, it was mainly in the central domain, relatively isolated, so most people in Mingri Xinghai didn’t know of her.

But now…

“Sixty years, one sword, famous throughout the world…”

At the top of a building, setting down a blue lotus wine cup, Wang Que in his ash-colored robe listened to the voices carrying from near and far, finally couldn’t help reciting this line.

People say ten years to forge one sword.

This Yashan eldest senior sister had disappeared for sixty years, then suddenly appeared to “gain fame throughout the world.” Whether her own cultivation, her overall bearing, or even the strategic mind that had only shown its tip of the iceberg…

Everything gave him a strange feeling.

Perhaps it was meeting a worthy opponent?

He hadn’t felt this restless sensation for far too long.

Even when Master brought back that peerless genius Xie Buchen, it hadn’t stirred such feelings in his heart…

Wang Que cultivated the “Hermit Sword,” following the path of “detachment” and “withdrawal from the world.” What he most taboo were jealousy, belligerence, and competing for victory.

But now…

“Yashan, Jian Chou.”

He sighed gently and silently rose from his seat, floating down the nearby stairs. But after just two steps, his pace suddenly stopped.

In the street, Bai Yin’s steps also halted.

He looked up at Wang Que still standing on the stairs, feeling quite subtle. When the Silver Tower was posting its price, he had seen Wang Que. When Zuoliu was in danger, the other seemed to want to help, only to be refused by Elder Sister Jian Chou.

As a disciple of Fudao Shanren, he naturally knew Wang Que’s identity.

However, he couldn’t determine the other’s purpose for appearing at Silver Tower. Or rather, the currently turbulent relationship between Yashan and Kunwu made Bai Yin unable to view a Kunwu disciple with complete goodwill.

Across a moderate distance of five zhang, the two silently looked at each other.

Finally, Wang Que smiled slightly but didn’t speak, only standing on those stairs, nodding and bowing to Bai Yin in a friendly yet distant manner.

Bai Yin also cupped his hands and bowed, exchanging courtesies.

Neither spoke.

One came down the stairs and walked along the street toward the southeast direction to his lodging at Tiandi Nilü Inn; the other resumed his pace, still following the original route. After passing the bustling area, he transformed into a black and white mixed radiance, disappearing into the layered clouds, soon landing within Jiexing Mountain Manor.

Night had already deepened.

In the sky perpetually covered with heavy gloom, still not half a bright star could be found. In the manor, pavilions and towers stood scattered, having fallen into the deep night’s silence.

In Jian Chou’s room, not a single lamp was lit—a darkness so thick it couldn’t be dissolved.

She no longer remembered how she had walked back from the courtyard.

On the three-chi long table, that dark gold leaf book brought by Fu Chaosheng lay quietly. The somewhat aged five seal characters on its back appeared so clear even in the darkness.

“This path, I do not submit…”

To submit means to surrender, to yield.

Not to submit means…

The whitened marks on Jian Chou’s knuckles pressed against the table edge deepened several degrees. She had to close her eyes to calm herself slightly.

For ordinary people, these two words “do not submit” held nothing particularly special.

But for her, who knew Xie Buchen, these two words too easily touched her deepest perceptions and triggered a series of possibly completely unrelated speculations.

What kind of heart-stopping feeling was this?

Like her entire being had been split open by a blade hanging overhead!

Chilling to the soul!

Jian Chou recalled far too many things.

From the Human Isolated Island to the Nineteen Continents, from Qingfeng Nunnery’s hidden realm to the Extreme Domain’s City of Wrongful Deaths, chaotic thoughts like tangled silk threads, intricate and complex…

The meaning of those five characters on the back of this leaf book was actually quite clear—

Unwilling to submit to this path.

But Jian Chou had specifically recognized the source of this handwriting.

It was the first of the nine handwriting styles—or rather, nine lifetime handwritings—of the old mansion’s master in the Extreme Domain, the first lifetime’s handwriting.

All the details matched like this.

That old mansion’s master, with exceptional talent and painstaking schemes, even calculating the Eight Yama Kings within his plans, concealing truth from heaven, living nine lifetimes as human!

From the fragments he left behind, Jian Chou could clearly sense his questioning of the reincarnation path.

Fu Chaosheng said this leaf book was discovered in the Wheel-Turning King’s hall within reincarnation records. The Wheel-Turning King governed precisely the final stage of reincarnation—rebirth!

So what “this path” referred to was already self-evident.

This person was unwilling to submit to the path of “reincarnation”!

However…

While reaching this conclusion, what surfaced in Jian Chou’s mind was the experience Xie Buchen had shared with her sixty years ago in Qingfeng Nunnery’s hidden realm, during their battle atop the Buddha.

“Pigs and sheep sit on the kang, six relatives cook in the pot…”

Though his words weren’t entirely clear, she could guess that when Hengxu True Person took him as a disciple, he should have shown him matters of reincarnation.

“Is it coincidence, or is there some hidden connection in the unseen?”

Jian Chou thought of the incense stick she should have lit but was mysteriously interrupted, the inexplicable sentence that appeared outside the window, and the half-character left at the end.

“Kill Xie Buchen, sever seven soul fragments!”

“卩…”

Truly one layer of doubt unresolved, now another layer added.

Why did that mysterious existence hint for her to kill Xie Buchen? What were the seven soul fragments? And that sentence with only half the character “卩” remaining—what was it…

“Tap, tap, tap.”

Her fingers lightly knocked on the table, making regular, subtle sounds. Jian Chou considered whether she was being too suspicious, too sensitive, while also trying to untangle these chaotic threads in her mind, hoping to find some breakthrough.

But a qi suddenly descending outside interrupted her.

It was Bai Yin arriving.

When he landed, he didn’t conceal his qi, so when he entered her extended spiritual awareness range, Jian Chou had already easily sensed him.

With a wave of her hand across the table, that damaged leaf book disappeared.

“Elder Sister, it’s me.”

Bai Yin had reached the door.

Jian Chou rose to open the door and saw his smiling face, stepping aside: “Come in. I’ve been waiting for you all day—I suppose you’ve discovered quite a bit of useful information?”

“It’s all here.”

Bai Yin entered and sat across from Jian Chou at opposite sides of the table, taking out the jade slip and pushing it toward her.

“Elder Sister, you haven’t been out, so you don’t know the storms outside. This time, Mingri Xinghai has attracted the attention of the entire Nineteen Continents.”

“Oh?”

The entire Nineteen Continents?

Great cultivators’ perceptions were all terrifying and acute, but Jian Chou had thought that though the battle between Fu Chaosheng and that strange existence from the night sailing ship was tumultuous, it wouldn’t cause such a great disturbance.

Her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly as she immersed her consciousness to examine the jade slip.

Zuoliu’s matter naturally became a topic of great interest among Star Sea people.

As the person who had fought prominently and gained fame that day, Jian Chou naturally attracted considerable attention, but compared to the bombshell news of the night sailing ship’s complete annihilation, this was nothing.

Everyone knew Qu Zhengfeng had issued a kill order that day.

The subsequent bloody slaughter proved to all the horror and reality of various rumors about this new Sword Emperor.

Said to leave none, truly left none!

From Silver Tower to the night sailing ship’s lair, to the night sailing ship’s scattered agents and cultivators in various places, even the black ships moored on the Lan River…

None survived!

From surface to core, the entire night sailing ship had been uprooted!

How many years since the former Buyu Shangren had there been such a bloody massacre?

It could even be said that even the formerly notorious Buyu Shangren’s methods weren’t as vicious.

Because Buyu Shangren’s killings were mostly personal vendettas. Even when killing, most situations wouldn’t exceed two handfuls of people.

But Qu Zhengfeng, though not acting personally, already had many serving under him. With a movement of his tongue, thousands of cultivators’ souls scattered!

Even if the night sailing ship was deeply sinful, such bloody and cruel methods had already made the entire Star Sea tremble.

The “Sword Emperor His Majesty” who could originally be quietly discussed had in a blink made people silent as cicadas in winter.

Just mentioning him required gasping in shock.

“Outsiders all say that when he… when he did this, it probably had some connection to involving Yashan. Some even say it was revenge for Yashan…”

Bai Yin estimated Jian Chou had read to this point and spoke carefully.

But Jian Chou slowly raised her eyes to look at him.

She had met Bai Yin several times before, fought together at Silver Tower to save Zuoliu, and had their sect connection. Even if they weren’t very familiar, interacting didn’t feel as strange as typical first meetings.

However, she didn’t understand Bai Yin enough yet.

Qu Zhengfeng had entered the sect earliest and had once been their eldest senior brother.

It was said Bai Yin had cultivated for about five hundred years and should be very familiar with Qu Zhengfeng.

“What does Junior Brother Bai Yin think?”

She didn’t state her own view, only asked Bai Yin.

Bai Yin was silent for a moment, couldn’t help lowering his head and sighing: “If it were the past, he would indeed punish such sinister people for Yashan, but his methods wouldn’t be so ruthlessly killing. Now, he’s no longer under Yashan…”

This voice carried a trace of barely visible sorrow.

Jian Chou could hear it but couldn’t comment, because she harbored the same sorrow, only unable to voice it.

“Regardless of the reason, his purpose has been achieved. Killing the chicken to warn the monkey, beating the mountain to frighten the tiger. From now on, in Mingri Xinghai, who would dare challenge the Sword Emperor’s authority?”

Bai Yin was speechless.

Jian Chou said nothing more either, but followed the jade slip’s content downward: “That battle at the night sailing ship…”

Her brow suddenly arched. Though Bai Yin’s earlier statement about “attracting the entire Nineteen Continents’ attention” preceded this, she truly hadn’t expected such a level of attention!

Mingri Xinghai was located in the central domain, within the Right Three Thousand’s range.

Once the incident occurred, it was immediately perceived by great powers from all directions. Small sects had little reaction, but sects with deep foundations, each with old monsters and great powers maintaining them and channels for transmitting information between them, had various wind messages, thunder messages, and communication spirit pearls almost immediately shuttling through the skies above the entire Nineteen Continents.

Yashan, Kunwu, Wangjiang Tower, Wanghai Tower, Chan Sect, Yin Sect, Yang Sect, even several branches among the southwestern aristocratic families with connections to various sects…

All cast their attention!

Kunwu’s head Hengxu True Person’s thunder message arrived at Yashan immediately.

However, since Fudao Shanren remained in closed-door cultivation, only Sect Leader Zheng Yao could come forward to communicate with Hengxu about this matter.

“Hengxu True Person said that among the battling parties, one had an aura matching the supremely demonic and evil qi he had sensed in the past, guessing it was demon chaos. But what exactly these two existences were, even they weren’t clear…”

When Bai Yin received this news, he also found it hard to believe.

But this point was already within Jian Chou’s expectations.

If Hengxu True Person could clearly perceive Fu Chaosheng’s presence, the other wouldn’t wander so freely through various places, even daring to come to Jiexing Mountain Manor to find her.

Logically, Fu Chaosheng was indeed demonic, so Jian Chou should inform the central domain of this matter.

But…

Fu Chaosheng was demonic—weren’t Hengxu and Kunwu as well?

A mocking smile flashed through her eyes. Jian Chou nonchalantly pressed down the jade slip and inquired: “So the sect should already know I’m safe. Junior Brother Bai Yin should also be returning to Yashan next?”

“Everyone knows, but several fellows keep mentioning you, Elder Sister.”

Bai Yin naturally thought of today’s communication through the transmission array with the sect, when Senior Brother Sect Leader couldn’t go three sentences without mentioning Jian Chou’s annoying persistence, and couldn’t help but smile.

“If Elder Sister’s matters here are concluded, I think it’s best to return quickly.”

Several fellows.

Without Bai Yin specifying, Jian Chou knew who he meant, especially Fourth Junior Brother Shen Jiu’s boisterous appearance, which seemed almost before her eyes.

However…

“Indeed it’s better to return early, but I still have one matter unfinished, one wish unfulfilled.”

“One matter, one wish?” Bai Yin was startled.

But Jian Chou slowly narrowed her eyes, looking up at the half-closed window toward the gloomy night outside, remembering the scene when she first encountered Wang Que at Tiandi Nilü Inn that day.

“During Junior Brother Bai’s information gathering this time, did you hear anything about how Kunwu’s Xie Buchen is doing now?”

“…No.”

For some reason, seeing Jian Chou like this, Bai Yin felt alarmed.

“It seems outsiders don’t know, but that’s fine too.”

If outsiders didn’t know, then she might as well directly ask Kunwu people. A smile touched her lips, but Jian Chou’s eyes flickered with faint light in the darkness.

“That day at Silver Tower, Wang Que also tried to help rescue. How is this person’s situation?”

“Wang Que?”

Bai Yin was still confused, but mentioning Wang Que, he happened to know.

“When I was returning just now, I encountered Wang Que on the road. He walked toward the southwest of Suixian City. Does Elder Sister have business with him?”

“He helped with a sword in the night sailing ship’s prison, and intended to help at Silver Tower. Regardless, he did help.”

Jian Chou’s tone was calm, her warm fingertips silently pressing across the cold table surface.

“Tomorrow morning, please take Zuoliu back to Yashan first, Junior Brother Bai. I’ll first seek Fellow Daoist Wang Que to express my thanks.”

Express thanks…

If she truly wanted to thank him, wouldn’t sending a thunder message to Kunwu suffice? He didn’t lack marks for reaching Kunwu.

Bai Yin wasn’t stupid, and knew Jian Chou wasn’t either—she couldn’t possibly not think of this.

So he thought briefly, his gaze penetrating the darkness, circling this unfamiliar Elder Sister’s calm face, and finally nodded.

“Then tomorrow I’ll take them and leave first. Elder Sister, please be careful in all things.”

“Don’t worry.”

Jian Chou had her own plans.

After the two finished talking, she saw Bai Yin out. When she returned to the room and walked to the table, she suddenly laughed.

With a turn of her wrist, the Human Emperor Sword that had long been hidden in her qiankun bag quietly appeared.

In this darkness without any light, its black scabbard branded with mountains and rivers seemed to have merged with the darkness itself.

As long as she didn’t draw the sword, no one would know what captivating radiance was hidden beneath this scabbard.

Human Emperor Sword, Xie Buchen.

She still remembered when she first stepped onto the Nineteen Continents after being reborn, looking up to see his name hanging high on the Nine Heavens Tablet in Western Sea Plaza, while she remained unknown.

Now, his name was no longer on the Nine Heavens Tablet.

“Wang Que…”

Jian Chou turned the Human Emperor Sword in her hand, examining the ancient seal marks on it, contemplating Xie Buchen’s reincarnation and that old mansion master’s reincarnation. Deep in her heart, raging flames rekindled.

“Fourth Heaven Tablet, first place.”

It was time to meet this Hermit Sword.