The cultivator’s family expelled him from the clan, fellow townspeople spoke behind his back, friends who had been close before were ashamed to associate with him, and everyone called him disgusting and perverted behind his back. Not only that, some people deliberately tormented him, forcing him to wear women’s clothing during the day for people’s amusement. Finally, somehow, they even ruined the cultivator’s face.
The disfigured cultivator was filled with resentment. Eventually, in his desperate straits, he failed to drown himself in a lake and by some twist of fate fell into the demonic path, becoming a demon cultivator.
Because this cultivator’s obsession before falling into demonhood was about having two faces, after becoming a demon, he also grew two faces. One was green-faced with fangs, looking like an evil ghost; the other was beautiful and gentle, beloved by all who saw it. He used the beautiful face to bewitch people and the evil ghost face to harm them.
When Zanxing read this page at the time, she thought it was probably something the book’s author had made up randomly—how could it be so melodramatic? But now, seeing this demon cultivator carefully treasure a flower at his heart, she suddenly felt that what was recorded in the book might not be entirely false.
Legend said that before that cultivator fell into the demonic path, he was also gentle and polite, refined in his conduct. Though sometimes people thought some of his behaviors were too feminine, like loving flowers and beauty, they only considered him particular. Until the moment he was discovered to enjoy wearing women’s clothing.
Zanxing had originally been very wary of this demon cultivator, but looking at him now, she felt a trace of sympathy.
This cultivator’s situation was, putting it mildly, just a personal preference, or at most a transgender individual—this wasn’t wrong, so why was he driven to such extremes? Sometimes human malice came inexplicably and was truly infuriating.
“Big brother,” she said while dodging the Double-Headed Asura’s attacks, “I support you being yourself, but you shouldn’t harm innocent people.”
After the Double-Headed Asura’s “face” was exposed, he no longer disguised himself. The more gentle and touching his beautiful face appeared, the fiercer and terrifying the expression on his evil ghost face became. His gauze robe was torn by the wind during combat, revealing his original body—different from ordinary humans, it was a beast-like, bluish body with veins protruding on the skin’s surface, as if about to burst at any moment.
Zanxing secretly exerted force in her hands, and the flowers blooming from her iron staff quickly formed into a flower garland in her hands. She called out loudly: “I think this would suit you perfectly!” With that, she used force with her wrist, and that string of flower garland flew into the air under the dark sky like a brilliant, brief rainbow, immediately attracting the Double-Headed Asura’s gaze.
The demon cultivator’s eyes followed that rainbow. His claws unconsciously caught the flower garland, as if he couldn’t control himself and wanted to place the garland on his head.
And he indeed did so.
That pink flower garland was gently placed on the man’s head. In an instant, whether it was Zanxing’s imagination or not, that evil ghost face softened. And that man’s face suddenly seemed to melt like water, becoming blurry and unclear, then gradually becoming clear again. A strange face emerged—neither excessively handsome nor terrifyingly heart-stopping—a gentle, refined young man’s face.
He seemed very satisfied with this flower garland, his lips slowly curving upward. Unlike the mask-like false shell from before, this smile seemed like the contentment of having a small wish fulfilled.
Immediately after, the flower garland on his head suddenly burst with intense golden light, engulfing this demon cultivator.
At the same time, a stream of yuanli flowed into Zanxing’s body. On the ranking stone in front of the competition stage, Zanxing’s name shot to the front like riding a spirit boat.
Xuan Lingzi rubbed his eyes: “What did she do? How was the Double-Headed Asura defeated?”
Gu Baiying raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at the person in the Clear Heart Mirror and snorting: “Hmph, opportunistic tricks again.”
The jungle was empty, with nothing there. On the bloody-colored earth, only that solitary, excessively brilliant flower garland remained. Zanxing walked over, bent down, and picked up the garland.
She had hidden the Evil-Slaying Formula in the flower garland. The Evil-Slaying Formula had powerful spiritual energy—if placed on a demon cultivator’s head, it would certainly slay the evil demon. But few people could directly imprint the Evil-Slaying Formula on a demon cultivator’s head.
Zanxing was just taking a gamble—betting that this cultivator who had fallen into the demonic path due to people’s words would still, like many years ago, be moved by a flower.
He was indeed moved, placing that flower garland on his head. Zanxing had indeed defeated him, but… looking at the flower garland in her hands, she didn’t feel much joy in her heart, but rather an inexplicable heaviness.
Layer upon layer of wind blew through the dense forest. The flowers that had originally bloomed due to “Jing Hua Shui Yue” quickly dispersed into smoke. Zanxing watched for a while, shouldered her iron staff, and continued walking forward.
…
After the first day passed, more than half the disciples had crushed their departure talismans and left the Xumi Jiezi Map early. The rankings on the green stone slab changed again and again.
Disciples with bad luck encountered high-level demon cultivators right after entering and left before even fighting, obtaining zero yuanli and naturally ranking at the bottom. Those with better luck kept encountering low and mid-level demon cultivators, though accumulating yuanli was slower, and little by little added up.
Of course, there was also Zanxing’s type, who leisurely competed using a Torch Eye Talisman and could even select her opponents. Though it seemed unfair, people were helpless about it.
New disciples participating in the inner sect assessment for the first time who performed outstandingly naturally received much attention. Among them, Tian Fangfang and Mu Cengxiao were two dark horses. Both seemed not to come from great clans, but naturally had exceptional bones suitable for cultivation. Tian Fangfang had immense strength and profound yuanli. Mu Cengxiao manipulated the power of the five elements with ease, seemingly having completed an incomplete manual on his own—truly a genius.
These two had also encountered many mid-level demon cultivators and defeated one or two high-level ones. Though the process was somewhat arduous, they ultimately prevailed. Their names were now on the first row of the ranking stone. Looking at Xuan Lingzi’s meaning, for the three direct disciple positions, these two might have a place.
Among the new disciples, the highest-ranked was still Hua Yue.
For Hua Yue, low-level demon cultivators weren’t worthy opponents at all, and he fought mid-level ones with ease. High-level demon cultivators were his prey—by defeating mid and high-level demon cultivators, he firmly grasped first place.
Honestly, Hua Yue’s potential would rank highly even among older disciples. Yueqin and Zhao Mayi both thought that if Xuan Lingzi wanted to select direct disciples, Hua Yue was the best choice. However, Cui Yufu didn’t think so. He was very optimistic about Zanxing, probably because she had read his niche books and even practiced a Torch Eye Talisman. Cui Yufu said to Xuan Lingzi, “If you don’t want her, I’ll take her! Make her my direct disciple—I like her!”
“Oh, what a coincidence, I want her too.” Li Danshu said with a smile: “So good at pill-making—if we put her in our pill-making workshop, how many spiritual herbs could we save! This girl is good, much better than those young people who don’t know how to manage households. I like her too.”
Gu Baiying glanced at them and was too lazy to speak.
“Eh,” Zi Luo on the side said, “The direction Junior Sister Zanxing is going seems like… Hua Yue is ahead.”