Nangong Yu stood atop a flying sword.
Clouds streamed past her cheeks, ethereal and dreamlike, making her seem almost immortal.
She kept recalling Li Xiufen’s face—the tears in her eyes, her grievance and hatred, her helplessness and uncertainty, her timidity and retreat.
“Forget I said anything…”
Only moments before, she had been gnashing her teeth in hatred. Yet the instant she looked at the portrait on the paper, her face had gone pale and she had begun to tremble, already thinking of backing down.
Nangong Yu used her light-brain to take a picture of the portrait and said to her, “If one day I become really, really powerful, I’ll go find him.”
Li Xiufen no longer tried to stop her. She stood there in a daze, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing.
Even when her granddaughter called out to her after finding a double-yolk egg in the chicken coop, she did not respond.
That steaming-hot double-yolk egg ended up in Nangong Yu’s hands. Talking about this in front of the players was practically the same as giving them supplies for free.
“When we get back, don’t mention this yet.” Ling Xue’s voice came from ahead. “I’ll report it to Elder Lu.”
Nangong Yu nodded. “Yes, Senior Sister.”
After a while, Ling Xue spoke again. “The people who wiped out Xiaoyan Village may not have been disciples of the Ziyang Sect.”
Nangong Yu answered readily, “Mm!”
She agreed so readily that Ling Xue’s feelings grew complicated.
Did Junior Sister Little Yu really believe her? Ling Xue herself did not even believe what she had just said.
She suddenly understood Chen Zhi’s concern.
Nangong Yu’s appearance had been suspicious from the beginning. She acted with an almost sinister unpredictability and possessed countless methods. Now, she even seemed to bear a grudge stemming from the murder of her family. Her loyalties toward the Ziyang Sect were questionable.
If she had merely been an ordinary mortal, killing her would have been simple enough—root and branch alike.
But she had also encountered certain extraordinary opportunities, and she was capable of bringing opportunities to others, such as helping fellow disciples break through.
Because of that, she could no longer be treated casually.
Yet this was not what troubled Ling Xue most. What truly troubled her was whether the people who had wiped out half of Xiaoyan Village had really been disciples of the Ziyang Sect.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
By the time they returned to Luoxia City, the Ziyang Sect disciples were already gone.
Only Chen Zhi remained at the inn, waiting for them. “Elder Lu has already led the others back. He left me here to receive you.”
Nangong Yu was puzzled. “Receive us?”
“Mm.” Chen Zhi glanced at her and took out a spirit boat. “Take this back to the sect. It’ll be faster.”
The Ziyang Sect was a great distance away. Traveling by ordinary means would take more than two or three months. Aboard a spirit boat, however, the journey would be much shorter.
After setting a course and inserting spirit stones as fuel, cultivators could even devote themselves to cultivation while traveling.
After taking a brief rest at the inn, the three of them set off.
“Wow.” The moment Nangong Yu stepped aboard the spirit boat, she let out an exclamation of amazement.
The interior was enormous, resembling a mobile castle.
“It has a spatial formation nested inside it,” Ling Xue explained.
The interior was more than ten times larger than the outside suggested. It could carry many people and store a great deal of cargo.
It was even better than Nangong Yu’s spaceship.
She turned to Chen Zhi and asked, “Senior Brother Chen, does this spirit boat belong to you?”
Chen Zhi, who usually disliked joking around, actually smiled. “I couldn’t afford it. It belongs to Elder Lu.”
“Are they very expensive?” Nangong Yu asked Ling Xue.
Ling Xue smiled and sighed. “Extremely, extremely expensive. Otherwise, why would I have taken you here on a flying sword instead of using a spirit boat? Do you think it was because I didn’t want to?”
Nangong Yu understood, but she asked another question. “Is this an ordinary spirit boat or a high-grade one?”
Ling Xue found it amusing that the girl was so young yet so quick-witted. “A high-grade one.”
Then she added, “Even an ordinary spirit boat isn’t cheap. At the very least, it costs several million spirit stones.”
Since they had nothing else to do, she continued explaining.
“The material used to build spirit boats is star sand, which is both extraordinarily hard and highly malleable. The material itself is rare, and forging it is difficult, so the high cost goes without saying.”
“To withstand hurricanes, thunder and lightning, and the impact of a cultivator’s spiritual power, a spirit boat must possess basic defensive capabilities. That requires additional defensive materials.”
“It also needs an energy formation. It can’t be too bulky, and it must have a spatial formation nested inside.”
“Whether you’re talking about the materials, the craftsmanship, or the effort involved, every aspect has to be first-rate.”
Nangong Yu nodded. “I understand now.”
Ordinary cultivators rode flying swords. Wealthy cultivators traveled in spirit boats. The especially wealthy rode high-grade spirit boats.
As they spoke, Ling Xue finished communicating with Chen Zhi through their spiritual senses.
She had been ordered to take Nangong Yu back to Xiaoyan Village and investigate her background and origins, so naturally she had to give a report.
“Is that so?” Chen Zhi mused, nodding.
Ling Xue gave him a detailed account of everything that had happened after they arrived at Xiaoyan Village.
She had left nothing out, including Nangong Yu’s conversations with Li Xiufen, the village chief, and the villagers.
“She said earlier that the village had encountered cultivators, and that her parents and half the villagers had died.” Chen Zhi brought up the matter. “Is that true?”
Ling Xue hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yes.”
“Did you find out what kind of cultivators they were?” Chen Zhi asked again.
Cultivators fighting one another over resources was nothing unusual. But if mortals lost their lives as a result, that was a grave sin.
If such a thing had happened within Taihua Prefecture, the Ziyang Sect bore some responsibility, whether it liked it or not.
This time, Ling Xue hesitated even longer. “They said… the two people were wearing robes that were white and purple…”
Chen Zhi’s entire body trembled when he heard that.
It was as though a hurricane had swept through his mind, accompanied by lightning and thunder. One thought after another surged through him like flashes of light, and the final missing piece fell into place.
“Senior Brother Chen? Senior Brother Chen?” Seeing that something was wrong, Ling Xue hurriedly called out to him.
Chen Zhi slowly turned his head, his gaze sharp as lightning. “Do you know that Zhao You is dead?!”
Ling Xue froze. “What?”
When she had left Luoxia City, news of Zhao You’s disappearance had not yet come to light.
“He’s dead.” Chen Zhi spoke slowly. This time, he called out to Nangong Yu as well. “Junior Sister Little Yu.”
Nangong Yu had been wandering around the spirit boat, touching this and examining that. At his words, she looked over. “Senior Brother Chen, were you calling me?”
“Zhao You is dead,” Chen Zhi said. “Do you know how he died?”
Nangong Yu was startled. “What? Senior Brother Zhao You is dead? I had no idea! Why are you asking me, Senior Brother Chen?”
“Because you were the last person he saw.”
That day, Zhao You had returned and spoken with everyone. Nangong Yu had said she had something to ask him and called him upstairs.
After that, Zhao You disappeared. No one ever saw him again.
When word came from the sect, ordering everyone to return ahead of schedule, they were unable to contact Zhao You when they assembled. Remembering what had happened that night, Chen Zhi borrowed a retrospection mirror from Elder Lu.
The retrospection mirror had shown Zhao You in Nangong Yu’s room, replaying their conversation from that night.
“Some time ago, when you fought someone, did you accidentally injure a lot of mortals?”
“Half the villagers in Xiaoyan Village died. They asked me to find out what they had done wrong to deserve it, Immortal Master.”
“You and Senior Brother Zhou Yun fought and knocked over a box of my self-heating hot pot.”
“You destroyed something I loved. In return, I’ll take something you love.”
“Senior Brother Zhou Yun had something for me to give you. I’ll be waiting at the Lin Family ruins at one quarter past midnight.”
“If you don’t come, I’ll hand it over to the sect.”
Chen Zhi recreated those conversations with a water mirror, projecting them into the air.
Nangong Yu had no way to deny them.
“You killed Junior Brother Zhao You!” Chen Zhi shouted.
“Don’t pin this on me!” Nangong Yu said indignantly. “He’s a grown man with two hands and two feet. Who knows where he ran off to? You couldn’t find him, so you’re claiming he’s dead—and that I killed him? Is that reasonable?”
Chen Zhi gave her an assessing look. “The sect lit his soul lamp.”
Nangong Yu looked utterly baffled. “What does that have to do with me? I was just annoyed by how stingy he was, so I told him to go to the Lin estate and enjoy the cold wind. Maybe even run into a ghost or two. If he died because of that, you can’t blame me, can you?”
There was a formation over the Lin family ruins that could block the Retrospection Mirror. That was precisely why Nangong Yu had lured Zhao You there.
She hated letting tasks pile up. Zhao You had to die, and the Lin family ruins were the perfect place to carry it out—a quest instance practically tailor-made for the job.
“It has nothing to do with me!” She turned her head away and continued poking and prodding at the spirit boat. “You blame me for everything. I think you’re just jealous of me…”
Chen Zhi stared deeply at her.
Ling Xue also wore a solemn expression, though only her expression was solemn. Her eyes were filled with confusion.
At that moment, she sent Chen Zhi a voice transmission. “Senior Brother Chen, could there have been a mistake?”
Zhao You was an outer-sect disciple. Outer-sect disciples were not qualified to have soul lamps lit for them, so there was actually no way to verify whether Zhao You was alive or dead.
Chen Zhi said, “But Zhou Yun’s soul lamp went out.”
Ling Xue froze, her eyes widening involuntarily. “What? Then—then…”
Chen Zhi nodded lightly. “Zhao You should be dead as well.”
Not far away, the girl was hopping about, treating the spirit boat like an amusing toy. She tapped here and measured there, her face full of curiosity. She looked utterly innocent.
“It probably wasn’t Junior Sister Little Yu,” Ling Xue said, lowering her head. “If she were capable of that, how could Zhou Yun and Zhao You have destroyed Xiaoyan Village?”
After a long silence, Chen Zhi shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Zhou Yun and Zhao You had been the ones to bring disaster down upon Xiaoyan Village. In their eyes, ordinary mortals were beneath notice, and they had made no effort to conceal their tracks. Besides, Zhao You had admitted it himself.
Nangong Yu had seen the two of them. One was dead, and the other had vanished…
When Chen Zhi returned the Retrospection Mirror, Elder Lu had said only one thing:
“She is fated to have ties with the Ziyang Sect.”
The spirit boat shot through the clouds, leaving Luoxia City far behind.
Somewhere in Luoxia City, a shrill cry rang out from the darkness. It sounded at once like a human voice and the howl of a beast.
“Ah—!”
It was a pitch-black space, without the light of the sun or moon, without the glow of the stars. Only a faint red radiance descended from above, lending the darkness an eerie, sinister hue.
A dim white light began to shine from somewhere, outlining the shape of a human rib cage.
The rib cage seemed to be alive. It jerked up and down as though trying to break free of its restraints, and with every movement, the anguished screams grew more intense.
The cries continued for the span of half an hour before finally coming to a stop.
“The rejection period is getting shorter,” a woman said in a low voice.
She held a jade bottle to the man’s lips and fed him the liquid inside.
The Head of the Lin Family was dizzy with pain. He managed to swallow the jade dew and said through gritted teeth, “Damn it! After all this time, I still can’t fuse with it!”
“Ha!” A girl’s clear, mocking laugh came from nearby. “That’s a Mirage Bird, with the bloodline of a phoenix from a hundred thousand years ago. What exactly were you expecting?”
A mere cultivator—a lowly Golden Core cultivator—actually wanted to completely fuse with the bones of a Mirage Bird?
“You’re going to make this old man laugh himself to death!” the girl said with a light snort.
The Head of the Lin Family gave a bitter smile. “I was only complaining.”
The girl stopped mocking him and changed the subject. “The people from the Ziyang Sect should be leaving soon. When the time comes, go out first, arrange the route, and take me to the Wuwang Sect.”
The Head of the Lin Family respectfully replied, “Yes, Senior.”
The girl said nothing more.
In the darkness, faint sounds of water came from behind her. There was something thick and sticky about them, as though the liquid were molten rock.
