The sun was about to set.

Sunset glow enveloped the entire mountain scenery. The day’s clamor faded away, and the night grew cool.

In the mountains at summer’s end, the night mist was heavy. As soon as the campfire was lit, the cold was dispelled somewhat.

The little maid with twin ring buns looked no more than thirteen or fourteen years old. Her eyes, swollen from crying during the day, still hadn’t reduced in size, making her look like a goldfish. However, at this moment, Miss Yang’s safe return was cause for great celebration. The little maid was only focused on her joy, handing Zanxing a roasted bird egg while saying: “Miss, if we start early tomorrow on our journey, we should be able to meet the Young City Lord in Pingyang Town.”

“Yes,” the carriage driver Lao Niu also chimed in, “The Young City Lord must be very worried about Miss.”

This topic would have been better left unmentioned. Once it was brought up, Zanxing didn’t even want to eat the roasted bird egg.

The Young City Lord was Wang Shao, the young city lord of Yue City. In “Nine Heaven Summit,” he was the fiancé of this female cannon fodder, “Miss Yang.” This person was vicious and lustful, tyrannical and arrogant. Throughout the original story, as the male protagonist’s first face-slapping target, he maintained stable hatred and was a villain’s tool character. The reason she remembered Wang Shao so clearly was probably because he was her namesake female supporting character’s fiancé.

Regardless of whatever grievances existed between Wang Shao and the male protagonist, Zanxing felt he should at least treat “Miss Yang” well. When the transformed male protagonist returned to the surface, the first thing he did was kill his fiancée in front of Wang Shao, thus forming a deadly enmity. For his dead fiancée, Wang Shao pursued the protagonist relentlessly, obstructing him at every turn. Though he was eventually counter-killed, he was still considered a devoted lover.

Unexpectedly, when Zanxing returned to the surface, she learned that this devoted lover had already fled with his carriage the very night Zanxing fell into the water.

Anyone with even a bit of friendship would think to try rescuing once more! And if he was going to leave, he could have at least left a few servants to wait here. In the end, besides the two Yang family servants who remained, he left nothing—even this carriage belonged to the Yang family. Was this something a human being could do?

Seeming to notice Zanxing’s anger, Hong Su carefully spoke up: “Actually… the Young City Lord also had his difficulties. He was afraid of implicating others. Miss, please don’t be sad.”

How many young ladies in Yue City wanted to marry Wang Shao? After all, Wang Shao had high cultivation, his father was the city lord, he looked decent, and he might even enter a sect. Miss Yang had fought her way through those young ladies purely through her beauty, finally managing to get engaged to Wang Shao with great difficulty. Hong Su worried that her miss would be heartbroken and never recover, so she clumsily tried to comfort her.

“I’m not in the mood to be sad about this.” Zanxing touched her face. There, the moment her fingers made contact, a burning sensation immediately arose. She had been hit in the right face by “Yu’s” black liquid underwater. Her right face was injured—she wondered if it would be dangerous.

Lao Niu said: “Our Yue City is a small place—we don’t usually see many demon beasts. But Pingyang Town is different. Pingyang Town is at the foot of Gufeng Mountain, where the Taiyan Sect is located. I hear the people of Pingyang Town are well-informed. Someone there must know how to deal with Miss’s facial injury.”

“Right,” Hong Su also encouraged, “And once we reach Pingyang Town, we can see the Young City Lord. When the Young City Lord enters the Taiyan Sect, there will be countless miraculous pills and medicines in the sect. They’ll surely find a way to heal Miss’s face.”

Zanxing: “…”

She couldn’t tell the poor little maid that the tool character Wang Shao would be eliminated in the very first round of the Taiyan Sect selection, never even touching the sect’s gates.

Lao Niu stirred the branches in the fire and suddenly thought of something, asking Zanxing: “By the way, Miss, how exactly did you escape from underwater?”

“I just,” Zanxing collected her thoughts and replied: “I fell into a cave, then found an exit, killed that demon beast, and came back.”

Silence fell all around.

The flames licked at the branches, making “sizzling” sounds.

After a long while, Lao Niu asked tremblingly: “Miss… killed that demon beast?”

“Yes,” Zanxing nodded. “This face was injured then.”

“But…” Hong Su swallowed hard. “This servant heard the Young City Lord say that the demon beast’s cultivation was equivalent to a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, while Miss, you just barely entered the Refining Qi Stage…”

And even this Refining Qi threshold was achieved through piling up pills and medicines—it couldn’t represent true strength.

“Really? Maybe I broke through.” Zanxing answered calmly.

Hong Su and Lao Niu exchanged glances, both somewhat confused. They felt… Miss had become quite different from before. The previous Miss Yang had only the Young City Lord in her heart. Rather than cultivation techniques, she preferred finding beauty and skincare remedies. Because she was born beautiful and had been the center of attention since childhood, her temperament was arrogant. Except for the favored Hong Su, she would scold and beat other servants at will. But after returning today, she had become much more peaceful and gentle. Even regarding Wang Shao’s desertion, she appeared very indifferent. If it were the past, Zanxing would probably be crying and cursing by now, condemning Wang Shao’s entire family for eighteen generations.

Could she have been possessed by an evil spirit? But there were no evil spirits this gentle and amiable in the world.

“This old servant has heard that some demon beasts that have cultivated for many years will form demon cores in their bodies. They’re equivalent to a cultivator’s Golden Core,” Lao Niu changed the subject.

“Demon core?” The young woman’s attention seemed drawn by this statement as she turned her head. Half her face was beautiful and bright, while the other half had several black marks crawling across it, appearing somewhat terrifying in the dancing firelight.

Lao Niu sighed inwardly. Such a good young woman, yet her appearance was ruined. Though the physicians in Pingyang Town were well-informed, if they couldn’t heal her, her entire life would be finished.

He contemplated his miss’s worrying future and absent-mindedly answered: “Yes, demon cores contain abundant vital energy. When cultivators absorb this vital energy, it greatly benefits their cultivation. Some say one demon core is equivalent to a third-grade spirit medicine.” After a pause, he added: “However, demon beasts with demon cores are very rare and hard to come by…”

As soon as he finished speaking, a pale hand extended before him. In the palm lay a glowing blood-red pill.

Zanxing asked: “Is this it?”