Before Qinghua met Gu Caiyu, she was always alone.

In the Taiyan Sect, she and Shaoyang Zhenren had the highest cultivation levels. Unfortunately, the two disciples whom Yushan Shengren had taken both had increasingly cold temperaments. Qinghua didn’t like getting close to people. When in the sect, she was mostly in closed-door cultivation, and when going down the mountain for training, she was also alone most of the time. Anyway, her cultivation was high – most of the time, she could solve all difficulties and problems by herself.

But after meeting Gu Caiyu, everything changed.

What she had thought would be a brief encounter like ships passing in the night, never to meet again, somehow led to repeated coincidental meetings. Although Gu Caiyu was unreliable in his speech, he wasn’t a bad person after all. They had at least spent some time together in the Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm, so when Qinghua received Gu Caiyu’s distress message from Heishi City, she went alone to kill her way into the Demon Realm to fish this person out.

Who knew she would discover Gu Caiyu’s true cultivation level?

This person’s cultivation was no less than hers, yet he had pretended to be weak all along, making her protect him, even making her kill her way into the Demon Realm to save him. He could have defeated those demons by himself… wasn’t this just making fun of her?

Qinghua Xianzi had always been cold. People in the cultivation world evaluated her and Shaoyang Zhenren as “two stones, wasting such good appearances.” She rarely had emotional fluctuations, but this time, Gu Caiyu made her furious.

She was extremely angry and wanted to cut ties with this bastard rogue cultivator, but this person was like a sticky candy – once attached, he couldn’t be shaken off. When Qinghua went down the mountain for training to seek opportunities, he would sneakily follow at a distance, neither too far nor too close. If it weren’t for his handsome appearance, there really wouldn’t be much difference between him and a pervert.

Qinghua stopped, suppressing the anger in her heart, and looked at the man following behind her: “What exactly do you want by following me?”

Gu Caiyu touched his nose with an innocent expression: “I’m not following you. Xianzi, let’s be reasonable – this road doesn’t belong to your family. You can’t forbid others from walking just because you’re walking on it. Besides,” he said in a small voice, “we’re all cultivators. When away from home, we should help each other. I’m following you so that if you encounter any danger, I can protect you.”

Qinghua sneered: “Who wants your protection?” This person’s face was too thick – why wasn’t he pretending to have low cultivation now?

However, Gu Caiyu had a face that women liked, and he was particularly skilled at acting innocent and pitiful. When passersby saw the two of them arguing, they couldn’t help but come over to speak up for Gu Caiyu: “Yes, Xianzi, this road doesn’t belong to your family. How can you not let this immortal master walk on it?”

“This Xianzi is so beautiful, but too fierce.”

“The immortal master is so pitiful…”

Qinghua glared at him fiercely and turned to leave. Gu Caiyu wasn’t annoyed either. He smiled at the onlookers and followed after her again.

Qinghua felt that Gu Caiyu was just a scoundrel. He had previously deceived her, made her go to the demon realm, and was now following her all the way. With such scheming intentions, perhaps he was after something on her. She was, after all, Yushan Shengren’s disciple, a member of Taiyan Sect. She didn’t care about the intrigue within sects, but that didn’t mean she didn’t understand it.

However, before coming down the mountain this time, she hadn’t brought anything valuable with her. This person was destined to come up empty-handed.

Qinghua Xianzi was going to investigate a case. Recently, in Duzhou, many innocent children had mysteriously disappeared. The people were in panic, and families with children locked their doors day and night, not daring to go out. Yet children continued to disappear.

These cases occurred in different cities and locations, but the methods were identical – it should be the work of the same person. To be able to abduct so many children in such a short time without being traced, ordinary people couldn’t accomplish this. The perpetrator was most likely a cultivator.

Initially, they had also suspected it was the work of demons, but the Demon Lord had long ago ordered that children not be harmed. Moreover, this style of operation, which erased all traces cleanly, was very different from the demons’ usual high-profile style of wanting to announce to the whole world when they killed someone. It was more like the methods of sect cultivators.

Qinghua had come to investigate this matter.

Her cultivation was high. While she was somewhat dull in human relationships, she had always had amazing intuition and observation skills when it came to serious matters. In just a few days, she had uncovered the truth behind this case.

The culprit of this case was the sect master of a Duzhou sect. This person was eager for quick success and instant benefits, finding his cultivation speed too slow with no breakthrough in sight. He had somehow learned evil arts from somewhere. He used children’s souls to cultivate, committing many sins, and had now captured many children and hidden them in the sect’s secret chambers.

A dignified, righteous sect’s leader, who appeared noble and upright, was doing such unconscionable and unforgivable evil deeds. Without hesitation, Qinghua went directly to attack the other party’s sect.

This was just a small sect, naturally incomparable to the Taiyan Sect. Qinghua Xianzi alone could kill that sect master.

But she hadn’t expected that in this sect, from top to bottom, everyone had practiced such evil arts. All the disciples in the sect had become puppets of the sect master. The news hadn’t yet reached Taiyan Sect, but she couldn’t wait any longer. Every moment of delay might mean another child dying at the hands of evil cultivators. Qinghua broke into the sect alone, and when she was surrounded by the sect, Gu Caiyu arrived belatedly.

This person held a long purple flute, his robes clean, his smile friendly, as if he hadn’t come to fight but to visit as a guest. He said, “Xianzi, why didn’t you tell me you were coming here? You made me search for you for so long.”

He spoke as if they were very familiar.

Qinghua ignored him and rushed toward the man with blood-red eyes who had lost all humanity, sword in hand.

The process was somewhat troublesome.

It wasn’t that the sect master’s strength was particularly high after practicing evil arts, but that this person was cunning and crafty, constantly using innocent children as human shields. These young children didn’t understand anything yet and cried in terror. Qinghua couldn’t harm these children while also having to deal with the puppet disciples from the sect surging toward her – it was indeed quite troublesome.

Fortunately, Gu Caiyu was there.

Regardless of this person’s cultivation level, just his ability to provoke opponents’ anger was unmatched. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made that demon beauty so angry that she forgot her good manners and wanted to kill him. With just a few sarcastic remarks, he provoked that sect master into directing all his attacks solely at Gu Caiyu, relieving a lot of pressure on Qinghua’s side.

In the end, Qinghua and Gu Caiyu joined forces to eliminate all the evil cultivators in this sect.

The news would take some time to reach the sect. After all, this was a well-known sect in the cultivation world, and how to handle the aftermath would need to be discussed with other sect leaders. With such evil deeds, a Five Thunder Platform heavenly punishment would surely be unavoidable. As for the other disciples in this sect who practiced evil arts, they would certainly not escape punishment either.

However…

The panicked cries of dozens of children drifted from the courtyard to Qinghua’s ears, and she couldn’t help but frown slightly.

What should be done with these children?