Yuanchen bent down and picked up this kasaya, hanging it on his arm. The bright red kasaya fluttered on his arm, making rustling sounds.

“Martial Uncle.” Hearing that something had happened here, monks rushed over. Seeing their martial uncle standing on the steps, his monk’s robe stained with blood, the kasaya hanging loosely on his arm, liable to be blown away by the wind at any moment.

Hearing their calls, Yuanchen looked at them silently for a moment. To the monk with the highest cultivation level, he said: “Stay here to guard the dharma.”

“Yes.” The monk pressed his palms together and sat down cross-legged in the west position.

Suddenly wind arose, blowing away the kasaya on Yuanchen’s arm. It flew over the courtyard wall and disappeared into the dark night.

“Martial Uncle, I’ll go retrieve it for you.”

“No need.” Yuanchen slowly pressed his palms together, raised his head to look at the tribulation clouds in the sky, and repeated again: “No need.”

The monk stared blankly at Yuanchen. Only after a moment did he nod: “Y-yes.”

Yuanchen said nothing more. He turned and walked into the dark night. His slightly plump figure seemed to have been swallowed by the darkness. The monk looked at his retreating back, wanting to chase after him, but seeing the rolling tribulation clouds in the sky, he still sat down cross-legged to guard the dharma for the cultivator undergoing tribulation.

As monks who had left the secular world, they embraced compassionate hearts. Seeing others fall into difficulty, it was hard to feel at ease pretending nothing had happened.

The tribulation clouds gradually increased. The entire sky seemed about to collapse.

Huan Zong opened his eyes. He was so anxious and restless he couldn’t sit calmly. Qiushuang stood quietly nearby, observing his every movement. Seeing his usually calm and steady face reveal panic, a smile appeared on Qiushuang’s face. Yunhua Sect disciples didn’t necessarily need a flawless dao companion, but those who became dao companions of Yunhua Sect disciples—even if perfect and flawless but heartless—couldn’t be considered a good choice.

When the first tribulation lightning struck her body, Kong Hou looked up at the sky in puzzlement. Was tribulation lightning this gentle? This was much gentler compared to when those general puppets beat her in the illusion tower.

However, as lightning after lightning fell in succession, Kong Hou understood this wasn’t gentleness but courtesy before force. Using her sword to block several tribulation lightnings, she touched the disheveled hair draped across her forehead. Generally tribulation lightning only had nine strikes—why had she already been struck over a dozen times?

Looking up at the lightning like a giant dragon, Kong Hou gasped. This was trying to strike her to death. Not daring to use the Shuishuang Sword to block anymore, Kong Hou threw out the phoenix hairpin in her hand. The phoenix hairpin flew into the air, transforming into a beautiful seven-colored phoenix. It raised its head, called out heartily once, and headed straight up to meet the giant lightning.

“Phoenix…” The people of Liuguang Sect looked at the phoenix colliding with the tribulation lightning in the air, stunned for a long time, almost unable to believe their eyes. Whether in the cultivation world or the mortal realm, dragons and phoenixes both had very special meanings. Even if most cultivators’ life-bound magical artifacts developed spiritual intelligence, they mostly existed as qi or invisible consciousness. Artifacts that condensed into phantoms like this weren’t common.

First there was Zhongxi Zhenren. Now this one… who was it?

Yunhua Sect disciples sat in a row on the roof eaves, looking at the distant dancing phoenix and enormous lightning, all silent together.

“I feel… this kind of tribulation lightning looks somewhat familiar.” Linghui said quietly. “Senior Martial Brother Wuchuan, what do you think?”

Wuchuan stared at the gradually disappearing phoenix phantom: “Kong Hou hasn’t yet reached the Great Circle of Heart Movement Stage.” How could she possibly undergo tribulation?

Linghui fell silent again. This kind of thing happening to others might be quite uncommon. But if it was Junior Martial Sister Kong Hou, she surprisingly didn’t feel surprised at all.

The two accompanying peak masters thought more deeply. The tribulation lightning struck eighteen times consecutively—this wasn’t ordinary cultivation advancement tribulation lightning. Elder Qiushuang still hadn’t returned. They didn’t know what the situation was at the dungeon. Had the Evil Cultivator Venerable actually appeared?

“You all wait here for a while. I’ll go take a look.” Qingyuan was worried about Qiushuang and Kong Hou. To his fellow peak master Pei Huai, he said: “Martial Brother Pei, you… be very careful.”

The commotion several hours ago had made disciples with low cultivation levels directly faint. The evil cultivator’s cultivation level had already reached this degree. No matter how free-spirited his personality, he couldn’t help feeling worried.

Pei Huai nodded: “You must also be extra vigilant.”

From the expressions on the two peak masters’ faces, the other Yunhua Sect disciples guessed the situation was somewhat serious and immediately lost their mood to watch the excitement. Wuchuan glanced at his junior martial brothers and sisters and sighed: “All follow me down.”

The disciples obediently nodded and followed behind Wuchuan, jumping down from the roof.

Qingyuan flew all the way over. Halfway there, he encountered Master Yuanchen and flew down from the air: “Master Yuanchen, how is the situation at the dungeon?”

“Please don’t worry, Immortal Qingyuan. Demon Venerable Jiu Su was severely injured and fled. He won’t dare harass the cultivation world for a short time.” Yuanchen stared blankly at Qingyuan for a moment, as if only then recognizing who he was. He pressed his palms together. “Miss Kong Hou is currently advancing in cultivation level.”

“Thank you for informing me, Master.” Qingyuan faintly sensed something was off about Yuanchen and looked at him a few more times, discovering his monk’s robe was stained with blood and his sleeves were also torn, as if he had gone through an intense battle.

“Are the Master’s injuries serious?” Qingyuan took out a bottle of pills and held them before Master Yuanchen. “Master, please take two pills first to ease things.”

“Thank you, Immortal Qingyuan. This poor monk is fine.” Yuanchen didn’t take the pills. After reciting a Buddhist prayer, he turned to walk forward. The Buddhist prayer beads on his chest made soft sounds.

Qingyuan frowned tightly. What happened to this master from Pure Clarity Temple?

After the last lightning struck, Kong Hou only felt her entire body tingling and numb. Her internal organs had all been shattered by the strike. The qi mass at her spiritual platform condensed into a golden core. Soon this golden core, under the surging spiritual energy’s impact, crumbled into pieces—one fragment after another.

Kong Hou felt every part of her body was in pain. The meridians and bones in her body were forcibly bent back and forth, and spiritual energy continuously poured into her body, wishing to stuff her entire body without leaving a single gap.

If it were the past, she fundamentally couldn’t endure such suffering. But ever since being thrown through the Star Constellation Gate by Hongyan Zhenren and experiencing various trials, Kong Hou discovered that not only had her hand speed increased, even her ability to endure pain had strengthened.

The golden core fragments became more and more broken, even turning into golden powder. Kong Hou lay down on the ground. Well then, even her inner core had been struck into dregs.

However, after the golden core became powder, it condensed together again, slowly transforming into a curled-up human form. Kong Hou’s divine consciousness connected with this human-shaped inner core. She saw the human-shaped inner core open its eyes. These eyes… were her own eyes.

Suddenly opening her eyes, a drop of rain fell on her face. She reached out to touch her cheek. This was… spiritual rain? Had her cultivation level successfully advanced?

Looking up at the sky, she could see clearly the trajectory of every single raindrop, even able to determine where they would fall. The entire world had become much clearer. She could even use her divine consciousness to determine how many living things were imprisoned in Liuguang Sect’s dungeon.

Patting her clothes that had already been struck ragged by lightning, Kong Hou used several cleaning spells on herself and took out a set of clean dress and skirt from her storage ring to change into. Rising to walk to the corner, looking at the fox demon Hong Mian whose entire body was pitch black, she found the fox demon’s body too dirty and poked it with a stick. The fox’s tail shook once but didn’t dare flee.

“So you’re still alive…” Kong Hou threw away the small stick and clapped her hands. “Your fiancé abandoned you and fled alone.”

The fox demon who hadn’t reacted just now suddenly turned her head to bare her teeth at her viciously.

“You were already ugly. Without fur and making that kind of motion, you’re even uglier.” Kong Hou confined the fox in a specially made cage, rose and walked to the courtyard entrance. Her gaze met Huan Zong’s raised eyes.

Huan Zong’s pupils trembled slightly. He rose and held her hand, not mentioning matters of cultivation level: “As long as you’re unharmed, that’s good.”

“Kong Hou formed an infant?” Qingyuan, who had hurried over, saw the unharmed Kong Hou and breathed a sigh of relief. But after sensing the abundant spiritual energy on Kong Hou’s body, he couldn’t help saying in surprise: “What’s going on?”

Qiushuang shook her head. She glanced at the Pure Clarity Temple disciple nearby helping to guard the dharma: “We’ll talk after returning.”

Seeing this, Qingyuan nodded. Even Kong Hou forming an infant couldn’t improve Martial Uncle Qiushuang’s mood—it seemed something significant had happened.

Hong Mian lay in the cage, so quiet as if she were an ordinary fox and not a fox spirit. She looked at these cultivators at the courtyard entrance. Her eyes were somewhat dim.

As the Venerable’s fiancée, the number one beauty in the evil cultivator realm, Hong Mian never imagined she would be abandoned. The Venerable left so decisively—no hesitation, no difficulty, didn’t even glance at her once.

His previous indulgence seemed to have turned into bubbles. She finally understood why the Venerable liked calling her name and said her mouth was the most petite and lovely. It turned out Hong Mian and Hong Yan’s pronunciations were similar, and she also had lips similar to Hongyan Zhenren’s.

He had never liked her. What he liked was her name and this mouth of hers.

But how deep could the Venerable’s affection really be? When fleeing for his life, he could use the woman he once loved as a weapon. Speaking of love with every word, at the critical moment of life and death, what he loved most was still himself.

So those of them who mixed in the evil cultivator realm, whether people or demons, never easily believed in romantic love. The love and affection spoken of ordinarily were all poisoned honey. If anyone believed it, they were hopelessly foolish.

She swished her tail and buried her head down.

Because of the fall of Yuexing Sect’s Sect Leader Hongyan, the exchange meeting didn’t continue. The news of Kong Hou forming an infant was also temporarily concealed. To cover up this news, Yunhua Sect even released information saying Kong Hou had some problems in cultivation and needed to temporarily enter closed-door cultivation.

As for the person who advanced in cultivation level that night, naturally it was a certain Liuguang Sect disciple.

Three days later, another sect leader of Yuexing Sect, Wang Su, arrived at Liuguang Sect.

He had already learned of Hongyan’s death. His face showed neither sorrow nor joy, but he wore entirely plain white, even the hair crown binding his hair was the simplest plain silver crown. Following behind him were two young sect leaders of Yuexing Sect. They followed behind Wang Su, just like another Wang Su and Hongyan—their entire bodies carried lifeless coldness.

Most of Liuguang Sect’s guests had already left. Remaining here were only disciples from four sects: Yunhua Sect, Jiufeng Sect, Zhaohan Sect, and Pure Clarity Temple. When welcoming Wang Su, they all came.

Looking at the Yuexing Sect people entirely in plain white, the cultivators silently bowed to Wang Su.

“Please accept our condolences, Daoist Wang Su.” Jinyue felt somewhat guilty. Hongyan Zhenren had died at Liuguang Sect—he had no face to meet Wang Su.

“Death is the beginning of life. Sect Master Jin, don’t worry. I understand.” Wang Su returned a grand bow to everyone. “This one has come today to bring martial sister home.”

“Please.” Jinyue stepped aside to welcome Wang Su into the main hall.

“Where is she?” Wang Su didn’t move but instead looked at Jinyue. “This one wishes to see her.”

Jinyue knew that the “she” in Wang Su’s mouth didn’t refer to Hongyan Zhenren.