The night in Pingyang Town was as peaceful as ever. In the vast plains of Duzhou, clear skies and rain varied with the four seasons. In the pitch-black forest, rain drizzled endlessly. In a cave where lamplight flickered, someone in golden robes sat on a high seat, their face hidden in the shadows of the stone wall, blurred and unclear.

“Demon Lord,” someone walked in, their voice respectful yet fearful: “The small sects have been mostly cleared out. The major sects will begin their sect conference in ten-plus days. At that time…”

“No rush,” the man interrupted his subordinate’s words. His voice carried a strange ambiguity, like the clarity of youth mixed with the hoarseness of age, hazy and mesmerizing. He spoke: “There’s a place we need to visit first.”

His subordinate was surprised.

“The Taiyan Sect,” he said slowly.

……

After Zanxing’s birthday night, Gu Baiying took the third pill refined from the Sacred Tree Fruit and began his seclusion.

With this seclusion, no one knew when he would emerge. Duzhou became increasingly unsettled. Those small sects had been almost destroyed by the Mo Sha, and for the past few days, no more news of the Mo Sha causing trouble had come. Those Mo Sha seemed to have vanished from the Duzhou continent overnight, but no one felt relaxed because of this. The demon clan was surely brewing an even larger conspiracy. For a time, the formations at the foot of the mountain were reinforced again and again.

Previously, the Mo Sha had harassed major sects like Chihua Gate and Yinfeng Sect, but had never climbed Gufeng Mountain. With the sect conference approaching, the major sects sent disciples to the Taiyan Sect to discuss the demon-extermination army in advance. The sect masters gathered here, making Gufeng Mountain livelier than New Year’s.

With more people came more problems. The Yinfeng Sect disciples constantly showed off their wealth, the Chihua Gate disciples walked around wishing their eyes were on top of their heads, and while the senior sisters from Xiangling Sect were reasonable, unfortunately, the previous incident between Aunt Rongshuang and Shaoyang Zhenren made meetings somewhat awkward. Wherever Zanxing went, she could see people arguing. Even Chuhong Terrace wasn’t peaceful, so she simply spent her days hiding in the Scripture Pavilion for some quiet.

Of course, going to the Scripture Pavilion wasn’t just to hide from the chaos. She wanted to find fragments about the great war between the cultivation world and the demon clan twenty years ago, trying to discover some secrets related to her background. Unfortunately, though the Scripture Pavilion had many books, there were very few about the demon clan. After several days, she had little to show for her efforts.

This night, Zanxing again stayed in the Scripture Pavilion until late.

The moon rose in the sky, and a sliver of moonlight crept through the window crack onto her book pages. Only then did Zanxing realize it was already quite late. Feeling somewhat hungry, she stood up, placed the scroll in her hand back on the wooden shelf, went downstairs, and walked out of the Scripture Pavilion.

The Chihua Gate people constantly caused trouble. Tian Fangfang and Mu Cengxiao, as representatives of the Taiyan Sect’s newly accepted disciples, were challenged every few days. Sometimes Zanxing wouldn’t see them for an entire day. Meng Ying was kept by Yueqin’s side daily, discussing demon clan matters with the various sect masters—the future head of the Taiyan Sect should gradually begin attending such occasions.

Mendong was busy helping Li Danshu prepare pill-refining materials. The demon clan might attack Gufeng Mountain any day, so they should prepare more pills beforehand for emergencies. Her companions were each busy with their affairs, and Gu Baiying had already entered seclusion. Though Gufeng Mountain seemed livelier than usual, Zanxing felt lonelier than on ordinary days.

She followed the small path in the night, slowly returning toward Miaokong Hall. The mountain fog was thick, and clouds gradually wrapped the moonlight, leaving only the stillness of the mountain wind.

Someone walked toward her, carrying two wooden boxes in their arms. The boxes were stacked on top of each other, making the person’s walk somewhat strained.

Zanxing was startled: “Senior Sister Zi Luo?”

“Junior Sister,” Zi Luo poked her head out from behind the boxes, smiling: “I’m going to deliver some things to the Chihua Gate disciples. Come with me.”

Zanxing walked over and took one of the wooden boxes from her hands. The box was quite heavy—she didn’t know what was inside. Walking alongside her, she asked: “It’s so late—you’re not going to deliver food to those Chihua Gate people, are you?”

“How could that be?” Zi Luo laughed: “Now all the sects are on Gufeng Mountain, and the demon-extermination army matter is urgent. At this time, we can’t let relationships become too strained.”

“They’re so impressive,” Zanxing shrugged. “The best courtyards on all of Gufeng Mountain were given to the Yinfeng Sect and Chihua Gate people. The sect master is generous.”

When these sect disciples first arrived, they were quite picky about the Taiyan Sect’s accommodations in their words. Yueqin later became thoroughly annoyed and gave them the courtyards with the best scenery on all of Gufeng Mountain, which were also the most distant places.

After crossing a long stretch of the lake, a small courtyard appeared at the mountain peak’s end. This courtyard was situated high up, so it naturally commanded a full view of the surrounding peaks. It was just too far from the great halls, making it seem somewhat desolate at night.

However, the Taiyan Sect disciples weren’t afraid of desolation. From far away, they could see the small courtyard brightly lit, apparently using all available illumination talismans.

“Look at them,” Zanxing said to Zi Luo, “They don’t hesitate at all when using other people’s things. It’s so late—who lights so many lamps when sleeping?”

Zi Luo giggled: “Maybe they haven’t gone to bed yet.”

Zanxing was noncommittal and walked with Zi Luo toward the small courtyard.

The courtyard gate wasn’t closed, and inside it was completely quiet. The surroundings had been cleaned very neatly. Zi Luo knocked on the courtyard gate: “Fellow cultivators?”

After a long moment with no response, Zanxing and Zi Luo exchanged glances. Zi Luo said, “Let’s go in and take a look.”

As soon as they entered the small courtyard, Zanxing immediately felt something unusual. The courtyard was surrounded by flowering trees and plants. It was summer, so at night there should be endless cicada calls and bird songs, but today it was completely silent. A breeze blew out from the hall, carrying a faint fishy smell.

Just as Zanxing was about to tell Zi Luo, she turned around to see that Zi Luo had already walked into the hall. Immediately after, a sharp scream rang out.

“Senior Sister!” Zanxing rushed in.

At the entrance lay a dead person wearing Chihua Gate disciple robes. Their chest was a bloody mess, and their eyes were wide open—who knew what terrifying scene they had witnessed before death? On their forehead, a pitch-black begonia bloomed brilliantly, as if it wanted to break through the skull and emerge from the ground, eerie and sinister.

“Demon Lord’s Mark…” Zi Luo looked into the hall and spoke in a trembling voice.

Zanxing followed her gaze and looked inside, her heart sinking.

The entire hall was full of dead people.

The bright lamplight illuminated the tragic scene throughout the hall. All the Chihua Gate disciples lay dead in the hall with horrible deaths. The entire hall was splattered with blood, and the walls were covered layer upon layer with bloody handprints, as if one could see these disciples trapped here suffering a massacre—a hellish scene of desperate straits.

“What happened?” Zanxing’s throat felt tight. She had been here for so long and thought she would no longer be as timid and panicked as when she first arrived, but seeing this scene still made her feel chilled to the bone.

“It’s the Demon Lord’s Mark,” Zi Luo said. “They all have the Demon Lord’s Mark on them!”

On the foreheads of these dead disciples were pitch-black begonia flower marks. These marks were lifelike, eerie, and beautiful, as if they had absorbed the essence and souls of the dead and bloomed brilliantly and luxuriantly.

Zanxing even saw Tan Tianxin. That Chihua Gate disciple who had opposed her in the gambling den in Li’er Kingdom had his neck seemingly bitten through by something, his entire head tilted to one side on his shoulder.

Zanxing couldn’t help but step back.

“Where’s the Chihua Gate sect master?” she looked at Zi Luo.

Zi Luo shook her head: “The sect masters are all cultivating in the Spirit Pool… If the Chihua Gate sect master had been here, perhaps they wouldn’t have had any survivors.”

The disciples who came to Gufeng Mountain this time were all Chihua Gate’s young talents, yet they died here. Even though this place was somewhat distant from the great halls, if they encountered danger, they shouldn’t have been unable to hear Chihua Gate’s cries for help. Not one of these disciples escaped—were the demon clan so terrifying… And now the demon clan had already infiltrated the mountain, so all the disciples on the mountain would be in danger!

“Junior Sister, you stay here. I’ll go call people over!” Zi Luo stood up to leave.

“Senior Sister!” Zanxing called out to her: “I’m scared.”

“It’s fine,” Zi Luo comforted, “The demon clan has probably already left this place. I’ll go inform the master uncles about this matter. You wait here for me.”

“Senior Sister,” Zanxing said urgently, “I’m still scared. Let’s go together!”

Zi Luo turned to look at Zanxing. Zanxing stared at her, her gaze full of panic and helplessness.

In the hall, the lamplight flickered, and large patches of blood were slightly frozen by the night.

After a moment, the gentle, patient expression on the woman’s face gradually disappeared. After a long while, she looked at Zanxing with a half-smile and said, “Junior Sister is quite clever.”

Zanxing’s expression became calm again: “Who are you?”

“Oh?” Zi Luo smiled: “Am I not your senior sister?”

“Senior Sister is careful and steady. With Mo Sha having infiltrated the mountain, she naturally wouldn’t leave me alone here and go off by herself,” Zanxing’s fingers curled slightly. When she first saw the tragic scene in the hall, her first instinct was to use a transmission talisman to inform Xuan Lingzi about this matter. But when she reached into her robes, she discovered that the transmission talisman she carried with her had vanished without a trace.

She had used this talisman at the Scripture Pavilion to tell Hong Su not to wait for her for dinner. From the Scripture Pavilion to here, she had only encountered Zi Luo. Yet when Zi Luo saw this scene, her first reaction was actually to have her stay here rather than use a talisman to transmit the message—the flaw was far too obvious.

Legend said that those demon clan members could change their appearance to infiltrate sects without being discovered by others. The person before her should be exactly like this. But Zanxing still didn’t understand one thing—even if they could change their appearance, there were formations at the foot of the mountain, and a demon clan invasion would immediately be known. How exactly had she infiltrated the Taiyan Sect?

Zanxing gripped the Wuyou Stick tightly in her hand. If she hadn’t guessed wrong, the sounds here couldn’t reach the great halls—this place had been isolated. Since this demon clan member could slaughter all of Chihua Gate, her cruelty and ruthlessness could be seen at a glance.

Seeing Zanxing’s movements, Zi Luo giggled: “Why are you so nervous? Are you afraid I’ll kill you?”

Her face was all smiles, but in the next moment, a snow-bright sword edge rushed straight toward Zanxing.