This was a man with ordinary features, but his hair and eye color were crimson red. His gaze was indifferent, looking at Zanxing as if looking at an ant. Even without any expression, his entire being emanated a heart-palpitating chill.

He extended his hand, and a bloody curved saber immediately appeared in his grasp.

Zanxing focused her mind and drew the iron staff from her waist.

Outside the Clear Heart Mirror, Xuan Lingzi gasped.

“She encountered Mo Sha,” Li Danshu murmured: “What extraordinary luck…”

“Let’s not talk about luck first,” Cui Yufu frowned. “Mo Sha isn’t an ordinary Mo Xiu. Her little tricks won’t work on Mo Sha. If they fight, she’ll probably be severely injured.”

“Can’t she avoid fighting?” Xuan Lingzi was somewhat anxious: “What if she gets badly hurt?”

“It would be fine if she had an exit talisman—she could leave voluntarily before the fight started. But wasn’t her exit talisman destroyed by Hua Yue? From the current situation, she can only bite the bullet and fight.”

“Senior Brother!” Xuan Lingzi looked toward Yueguang Daoren: “No disciple has encountered Mo Sha in the Xumi Jiezi Map for nearly ten years. Those who encountered them before all exited voluntarily before fighting. Mo Sha are fierce and bloodthirsty—even if they’re fake… they’re not easy to deal with. She’s just a young girl after all. This kind of competition isn’t fair!”

Yueguang Daoren shook his head: “Junior Brother, if you’re so panicked, how can you be their master?”

“But…” Xuan Lingzi still wanted to argue when he heard Yueqin beside him exclaim in surprise: “What’s happening?”

Everyone followed Yueqin’s gaze and saw that in another part of the Clear Heart Mirror, in front of the young man carrying a long blade, a black-clothed figure was standing.

“How did Mu Cengxiao also encounter Mo Sha?!” Cui Yufu’s expression was strange.

The Xumi Jiezi Map was infinitely vast. For Zanxing to consecutively encounter fellow disciples twice in the examination ground was already a once-in-a-decade occurrence. And today, the only two Mo Sha originally on the map had simultaneously appeared before the examination disciples.

“Mu Cengxiao is currently only approaching Golden Core formation and is no match for Mo Sha.” Yueqin frowned: “But why isn’t he using his exit talisman either?”

Zanxing’s exit talisman was destroyed by someone, leaving her no choice but to fight. Mu Cengxiao’s exit talisman was perfectly intact, yet this young man only stared fixedly at the Mo Sha before him, raised his long blade, then charged toward the black-clothed Mo Sha!

He was also going to fight head-on!

Li Danshu closed his eyes and sighed deeply: “Although I admire young people’s courage, however… knowing the outcome but still charging forward, damaging one’s cultivation in the end would be a loss that doesn’t justify the gain.”

“These two encountering Mo Sha simultaneously can be considered bad luck.” Cui Yufu stood up. “It seems the outcome is already decided. Although they didn’t win first place, for their cultivation levels to charge this far isn’t too bad.”

As he was speaking, from among the distant peaks, the long cry of a blue crane echoed far away. This cry reverberated in the mountain valley, melodious and pleasing to the ear. Everyone turned to look. Yueqin said with surprise and joy: “It’s the Sect Master’s spirit beast… the Sect Master has come out of seclusion!”

Taiyan Sect’s Sect Master, Shaoyang Zhenren, had been in closed-door cultivation for a long time. Today, he happened to emerge, and everyone heard the blue crane’s cry, knowing that Shaoyang Zhenren must have achieved a breakthrough. They were all overjoyed. Just as they were watching the spirit beast drag its long tail across the azure sky, they suddenly heard a loud “dong” sound.

On the competition platform, a figure was thrown out.

Zi Luo cried out in alarm: “Junior Sister Zanxing!”

Zanxing, who had been thrown out of the Xumi Jiezi Map, fell onto the platform and didn’t move for a long while.

“Sigh,” Li Danshu sighed upon seeing this: “I knew she couldn’t defeat Mo Sha. She must be severely injured. Quickly take her back and have Mendong examine her.”

Mendong responded and was about to go over when he suddenly remembered something. He tugged at Gu Baiying’s sleeve corner and transmitted his voice: “Martial Uncle, you quickly carry her back.”

Gu Baiying was baffled: “Why should I carry her?”

“Don’t forget, she still has the Qin Chong seed on her body. She’s weak right now—if some senior brother takes this opportunity to get close to her and they develop feelings for each other and secretly dual cultivate, wouldn’t we never get the Qin Chong seed back!” Mendong said urgently, “Go quickly, look, someone else is about to go!”

Gu Baiying glanced ahead and indeed saw a disciple about to walk onto the competition platform. His expression changed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth, stood up, quickly walked onto the platform, bent down to pick up Zanxing, and headed toward Miaokong Hall.

The others were immediately stunned.

Gu Baiying in Taiyan Sect truly wasn’t someone who liked meddling in others’ affairs. Terms like “warm-hearted” and “tender toward women” didn’t relate to him at all. This was the first time everyone had seen him voluntarily carry a woman, and their expressions became subtle.

“Seventh Junior Brother…” Xuan Lingzi hesitated for a while: “When did you become so close to Zanxing?”

Zhao Mayi tugged at his long beard, looking at Gu Baiying’s retreating figure thoughtfully.

“Being injured by Mo Sha isn’t so easy to recover from. Speaking of her…” Yueqin’s words suddenly cut off abruptly. Everyone was puzzled until they saw her pointing at the ranking stone, speaking with a stutter for the first time: “…look!”

On the ranking stone in front of the competition platform, the three characters “Yang Zanxing” had somehow run to the very front, glittering with golden light in a way that was hard to ignore.

“No way…” Li Danshu murmured.

Just moments ago, she was still hovering around thirtieth place, but now, in the blink of an eye, she had run to first place. Could it be… she defeated that Mo Sha?

How was that possible?

…

In Miaokong Hall, Gu Baiying and Mendong walked in.

Xuan Lingzi was quite the enjoyer of comfort—every soft couch in the hall was covered with soft, plush materials, like sleeping on clouds. Gu Baiying casually found a soft couch, loosened his hands, and Zanxing rolled from his arms onto the couch.

The young man looked down with disgust at his brocade clothes that had been soiled by the sticky fluid on Zanxing’s body, casually cast a cleaning technique on himself, and urged Mendong: “Quickly examine her.”

Mendong sat down beside the couch and carefully probed with spiritual power. As soon as he probed, he froze and said: “Strange.”

Gu Baiying asked: “What’s strange?”

“Yang Zanxing has no wounds on her body, at most just some superficial injuries.”

“Then why hasn’t she woken up?” Gu Baiying also sat down beside the soft couch, leaned closer to stare at Zanxing for a while, and said skeptically: “She’s not pretending to be dead, is she?”

“Not really.” Mendong looked at him: “Martial Uncle, I discovered that Yang Zanxing’s Yuanli circulation is somewhat strange.”

“How so?”

“Ordinary people’s Yuanli is like a small stream, flowing continuously and converging into spiritual meridians everywhere. But her Yuanli seems to have no movement—neither flowing nor dissipating. It’s as if… It’s naturally like this and won’t have any changes.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Baiying’s gaze froze. He pondered for a while before asking: “Is it because of the Qin Chong?”

Mendong shook his head: “I don’t know.”

The woman on the couch had a peaceful expression, as if sleeping sweetly. The wind from outside the hall blew in, causing a strand of her scattered hair to flutter slightly, revealing half a face marked with black traces.

The young man frowned as he stared at her face, not knowing what he was thinking. After a moment, he stood up and said, “Forget it, we’ll see.”