Chapter 63

Xiao Yu, as usual, restrained his spiritual pressure. To others, it merely appeared as though he had just managed to step into the upper seven realms.

If anyone were to harbor any misunderstandings, they would only assume he was a dependent relying on her.

However—

Su Zhen wore a subtle expression. "Does Immortal Lord Gu think I would do such a thing?"

The head of the Gu family was stunned for a moment before realizing he might have misinterpreted the situation. He quickly said, "Your Excellency's posture and deportment are entirely disciplined, which shows you must come from a prominent noble lineage."

Among cultivators of ordinary birth, even those with immense abilities—so great that their very gestures contained subtle realms of the Dao—that was entirely different from having disciplined etiquette.

As a scion of a noble family himself, raised with such strict upbringing and requirements since childhood, he could naturally tell at a glance.

The head of the Gu family calmly said, "When my late mother and grandfather were alive, they both took secondary consorts, which is why I rashly guessed—"

There were quite a few noble clan heads who did this; some did so to refine fetuses, while others simply did it out of personal preference.

Su Zhen interrupted him. "I didn't mean that. It will be enough for the Immortal Lord to help me with a few matters."

The head of the Gu family immediately agreed, clearly adopting an indifferent attitude of it being neither here nor there.

When Su Zhen asked in detail about Mount Milu, he immediately instructed someone to fetch the case files, and very politely yielded the main hall to the two of them. Perhaps feeling somewhat awkward, he soon excused himself under a pretext.

The hall instantly grew quiet.

Su Zhen silently turned her head.

Xiao Yu was leaning against a chair in a lazy posture, his slender legs crossed, one hand supporting his chin as he also gazed at her earnestly.

Emotions churned and shifted within those blue eyes, ultimately transforming into helpless amusement.

For a fraction of a second, Su Zhen thought he would question her, or at least ask about what had just transpired.

"I'm sorry."

Xiao Yu slowly lowered his hand, let out a soft sigh, and apologized with a solemn expression. "You sent me several messages in a row, but I couldn't reply to any of them, because at that time I truly..."

As he spoke, he frowned, seeming unsure of how to explain.

Su Zhen already understood. "Is it something that will give me a headache once you say it out again?"

Xiao Yu helplessly nodded.

"Then you don't have to say it."

Su Zhen curved the corners of her lips. "Senior must be dying to be glued to me every waking moment, and certainly wouldn't leave without a reason. If one day Senior grows weary and no longer feels this way..."

Xiao Yu stopped, words failing him.

Su Zhen thought he might swear an oath that such a day would never come, but after repeated restraint, he still didn't interrupt her, instead signaling with his gaze for her to continue.

The smile on Su Zhen's lips grew deeper. "Then please tell me. Senior has never owed me anything; let's part on good terms. In this world, no one is inherently destined to treat another well forever."

Xiao Yu looked at her deeply. "Were these the words your late mother told you back then?"

Su Zhen nodded. "She had two dao companions—a primary wife and a secondary wife, both of whom perished—and she also had a few passing lovers, though she never took any secondary consorts. My uncle is the same; his first wife captured his heart at first sight, but after spending a few years together, their personalities clashed, so they parted ways. Then came his current one... In our family, regardless of whether our innate talent is strong or weak, we are all much the same in this regard. We don't view these matters with such heavy gravity: unite when compatible, part when incompatible. My mother instructed me the same way back then."

She was silent for a moment. "My mother believed that certain experiences are meant to broaden one's horizons, as long as they don't delay one's cultivation. Those who can push emotions to their absolute limit and thereby reach the ultimate Dao are, after all, a tiny minority."

Xiao Yu chuckled. "Sounds quite similar to what my relatives said when they urged me to go on matchmaking dates."

Su Zhen: "...So did you go?"

Xiao Yu shook his head very decisively. "No, I had no such intention. Why waste the time?"

He then resumed a serious expression and said, "What you said just now—I still must state that I won't do it, but I promise you, even though I won't be like that."

Su Zhen was extremely satisfied. "Even if such a thing truly happened, I might be furious, but... it would still be better than you continuing to lie to me."

Xiao Yu let out a long sigh. "Why does it sound as if we're about to break up? We haven't even started dating yet!"

Su Zhen cast a sidelong glance at him. "Indeed, we haven't even started dating. After all, the Immortal Venerable looks down upon me, is unwilling to confess his feelings, and merely wishes to toy with me."

"I was wrong."

Xiao Yu instantly couldn't sit still anymore. He strode over to her, squatted down, and took her hand. "I'll tell you..."

A conflicted expression appeared on his face. He bit his teeth and finally said in a deep voice, "Due to various reasons, I might suddenly disappear from your side, and whether I can return next time is entirely uncertain."

Su Zhen gave a light, mocking scoff. "And that's the reason?"

Xiao Yu raised his head to look at her, those watery blue eyes filled to the brim with grievance. "I know that although you aren't exactly a saint, you are extremely trustworthy. If we had that kind of relationship, what if you foolishly waited for me..."

Su Zhen slapped him on the head. "Senior is the one being foolish!"

She felt as though she was about to be angered to death.

Su Zhen took a deep breath. "If we put it that way, no one should ever fall in love or form a soul contract, seeing as cultivators might die at the hands of the demons any day, or perish during a realm breakthrough."

Xiao Yu sighed again. "I might not die, but..."

Before he could finish, the door of the hall was knocked upon.

Su Zhen gave a light cough and reached out to pull Xiao Yu up, but the latter remained motionless, as if he didn't care in the slightest.

"...Please enter."

The head of the Gu family walked in carrying a stack of scrolls, quietly placed them on the desk by the door, and didn't spare the room a single extra glance.

Even so, out of the corner of his eye, he managed to catch the postures of the two people.

Although he hadn't heard their conversation because there was a barrier surrounding them, he had originally thought that since he had spoken out of turn earlier, she might need to coax the other person. Now, however, it seemed to be the exact reverse; it looked as if the man was the one apologizing to her.

The head of the Gu family couldn't figure it out, so he simply gave up thinking and quietly backed out.

The door closed without a sound.

"Let me finish speaking first."

Xiao Yu gripped her hand and said word by word, "I may not die, and I'm not certain what will happen to me. I hope to stay by your side for a long time, but I cannot guarantee that I can accomplish it. I promise I won't lie to you, not even with a well-intentioned falsehood..."

"Senior."

Su Zhen interrupted him. "There's no need. I guessed long ago that you were certainly considering things for me, which is why you were dithering about so much. Right now, my anger outweighs my touching moment; I want to beat you up far more than I want to hug you."

"Mn, I know, I was wrong."

Xiao Yu opened his arms and said with a righteous air, "Come on, how does that saying go? Whether it's thunder or dew, it's all grace from the heavens. As long as it's you, you can do anything to me."

"What kind of nonsense is that."

Su Zhen pulled him up, speechless. "Let's get down to business first."

This time, Xiao Yu stood up quite obediently. "I haven't asked you yet—what did you see in that trial? I'm guessing it was different from Liu Yunyao's?"

Su Zhen had just picked up the scrolls given by the head of the Gu family and had barely opened them when her movements paused at his words. She then briefly recounted it to him.

Xiao Yu mused, "Summarize it yourself: what was the fundamental reason for your two awakenings?"

Su Zhen had originally thought that the focal point of his concern would be the identity of the memory's owner. Hearing this, she was slightly startled. "...Anger?"

"You aren't a fresh newcomer just starting out; you know very well that the cultivation world is a mixed bag of good and bad, with all sorts of people. Therefore, the first time, you were angry at your own inability to resist. What about the second time? How much of your pain arose for the sake of those three birds?"

She was not that child from the fishing village.

Demons devouring and slaughtering one another and viewing each other as food were commonplace in the demon realm, to say nothing of conflicts between different races.

Su Zhen silently nodded. "The first person knew she had no power to resist, so initially she had no intention of fighting back either; she only felt aggrieved and indignant, whereas I—"

"You are not like that. Even if you calculate your strength and determine you are bound to fail, you refuse to accept humiliation. Furthermore, within a sect, they could not possibly kill you, hence you dared to—and wanted to—fight them to the death."

Xiao Yu paused for a moment and continued, "Look, during the first few hours, that person was practicing punches, over and over again, dry and dull, but to you, it was merely your own past daily routine. Although her fist techniques were crude, to a master of your realm, even simple cultivation methods yield insights and comprehension, so you could endure it."

"...Indeed, I awoke at the exact moment when I could find no common ground whatsoever with that person."

The greater the gap between their attitudes and approaches toward a matter, the higher the probability that she would wake up during the process.

"Correct, the second person was the same. The preceding days were difficult, but you used to frequently suffer near-fatal wounds in the demon realm yourself; your condition was no better than that fisherman's."

That was why she was able to hold on.

Su Zhen pondered for a moment. "...In short, both awakenings happened because I refused to be slaughtered at will, because they humiliated me and stirred my killing intent, yet neither of the original owners possessed any killing intent at those times. Even when they were angry and resentful, they never thought of killing anyone."

Naturally, the first person went without saying. As for the second person's personality, even if he had truly been driven to extremes, he probably wouldn't have thought of killing; at the time, he was mostly just in pain.

Su Zhen furrowed her brows again. "What does this imply?"

Xiao Yu gave her a deep look. "To be honest, I don't know either."

Su Zhen hit him on the head with a bamboo slip. "This matter must be important, otherwise Senior wouldn't have spent so much breath analyzing it and insisted on making me agree."

Xiao Yu rubbed his head, feigning pain. "I hoped you could figure it out. This answer might relate to your future..."

His voice trailed off. He slowly lowered his hand and didn't continue.

Su Zhen's heart hammered like a drum. "Future what?"

Xiao Yu reached out and made a zipping motion across his lips. "I can't say it directly."

Countless thoughts had already churned through Su Zhen's mind. "Does Senior know who that Huishan Sect cultivator and that fisherman were?"

Xiao Yu exchanged a glance with her. "You have your own guesses, too, don't you?"

Su Zhen lowered her gaze to the scroll in her hand, which recorded the earthquakes around Mount Milu. Those were details the Gu family's ancestors had obtained from nearby rogue cultivators when they first migrated there.

Aside from that, there were also records of demonic creatures haunting the vicinity over a thousand years ago.

As for what had actually happened there, the scrolls bore no precise description.

However, the deeds related to the burned fishing village a hundred-odd miles away had been passed down by word of mouth among the residents of nearby villages and towns, as well as cultivators from a few third-rate immortal sects, for two to three thousand years, ultimately reaching the ears of the Gu family's ancestors.

"... 'Like Kaiyang plunging to earth, scorching brilliance eclipsing the clouds, all things entering the smelting furnace, crops scorched, vegetation reduced to ash.'"

Su Zhen read softly, "This was what the fishermen a dozen miles away saw. When they went over to inspect it later, the entire village was reduced to mere ruins, and they had no idea why."

She raised her head. "At a glance, it looked like a fire-attribute spell, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't. They specifically wrote down that it was extremely bright back then—so bright that people within a radius of a hundred miles could see it."

If it were a fire-attribute spell of immense destructiveness and higher depth, with a momentum as grand as that, probably not even broken walls and remnants would have been left in the fishing village.

Therefore, comparatively speaking, rather than ordinary five-element spells—

Su Zhen recalled her experiences fighting Xie Changfeng. "I didn't see a contract seal on the fishing village boy, but looking at it this way, it rather resembles the power of the Demon God of Flowing Brilliance."

"So, your conclusion?"

"I always thought demon gods were a kind of evil spirit born in malignant miasma, so every time I thought in that direction, I felt I was overthinking."

Su Zhen sighed softly. "So they were actually human once as well? That Huishan Sect cultivator is the Demon God of Blood Sacrifice herself; she was gladdened by slaughter, pain, and battle. And the fishing village boy is the Demon God of Flowing Brilliance; he felt pity for those tortured by suffering and plunged into despair—like Xie Changfeng's father, right?"

Regarding the origins of demon gods, the cultivation world held a myriad of conflicting views.

What Su Zhen brought up was the most widely accepted theory.

Demon gods also underwent cycles of life and death; the current four demon gods had all manifested within the past five thousand years, and before them were other demon gods, all of whom had vanished for various reasons.

Thus, there was a saying—

Deep within the demon realm, in several locations where the miasma was densest, when certain conditions were met, new demon gods would be born.

As for what those exact conditions were, or where those places were, the theories multiplied endlessly. Nearly every treatise on demons and the demon realm possessed its own set of doctrines.

Of course, some also believed that demon gods were cultivated by demons themselves, much like human cultivators achieving the realm of Immortal Venerable.

"Actually, saying demon gods are evil spirits, or formed from countless souls gathering and coalescing out of malice—"

Xiao Yu paused. "Isn't entirely wrong either; this doesn't conflict with the fact that they were once human. The endings of those two memories you mentioned—both of them came into contact with miasma, right?"

Su Zhen nodded thoughtfully.

That must have been the direct cause of their transformation, while their previous experiences and personalities naturally influenced the final outcome.

However, the vast majority of humans infected by malignant miasma would simply end up turning into demonic beasts—and extremely low-grade ones at that.

At that point, they would lose their personality and intelligence, retaining only a sliver of predatory instinct, no longer remembering who they were or seeking the answer to that question.

So, how was it that ordinary people turning into demonic beasts could instead transform into demon gods?

"The two memories I saw were both about humans in the human realm."

Su Zhen murmured, "So, perhaps they didn't immediately become demon gods, but instead turned into demonic beasts first, and then went to the demon realm to level up and slowly evolve?"

Xiao Yu couldn't help laughing. "What kind of demonic treasure is this... Cough, I'm starting to think I've corrupted you."

Su Zhen stared at him expressionlessly.

Xiao Yu raised his hands in surrender. "Liu Yunyao's memory belonged to the Demon God of Illusory Birth; she is one of that deity's kin, and their personalities are relatively similar. As for why it started from inside the demon realm, it's probably because she was more familiar with the demon realm. If she had to experience that person's ordeal in the human realm, she would have woken up in a matter of minutes."

As a half-breed demon, Liu Yunyao was familiar with the demon realm; some experiences that might seem quite bizarre to outsiders wouldn't necessarily strike her that way.

But if she were given a mortal memory, even if that memory weren't particularly painful, the sense of discord for her would likely be very strong.

That would have ended up reducing the difficulty for her instead.

Su Zhen frowned deeply upon hearing this. "Is someone manipulating that secret realm from behind the scenes? Making the contents of the trials change according to the participants' personalities and experiences?"

Xiao Yu was noncommittal. "Do you remember the concepts of programs and artificial intelligence I told you about?"

Su Zhen was stunned. "There's a similar artificial spiritual intelligence hidden inside that pool of water?"

Xiao Yu pointed toward the ceiling. "The rules of this world—or what some people like to call the Heavenly Dao—are things similar to that."

Su Zhen was shocked. "The trials are controlled by it?"

Xiao Yu spread his hands. "You can fill in the rest of the blanks yourself. If I say too much, you might get a headache again, and once the headache passes, you'll forget what I was talking about."

This was already quite enough.

Even though a multitude of further questions and guesses arose in her heart, Su Zhen knew she shouldn't ask too much more. Moreover, if her calculations were correct, she would soon obtain the answers anyway.

After passing all those trials.

"Four demon gods, four memories, right?"

Su Zhen's eyes shone brightly. "I rather want to see my Lord—"

Xiao Yu coughed.

Su Zhen looked up at the sky. "You're jealous of this too?"

Xiao Yu said in a low voice, "But you are no longer His follower."

He then paused. "Wait, the tense seems a bit off. You're *not* yet? And won't be in the future either? Past, future, past-future-imperfect?"

Suspecting that he could agonize over this until tomorrow without an answer, Su Zhen quickly interrupted him. "Not my Lord, alright? I don't even have a contract seal now, and I wasn't one to begin with. It was just a slip of the tongue."

"There are many people who aren't qualified to receive a contract seal yet still yearn for it in their hearts, and address them that way..."

"Xiao Yu!"

"Sorry, my mistake, I was just joking."

Su Zhen glanced at him. "Senior isn't wrong either. He knew a vast ocean of things, far stronger than the two of us combined. It's only natural for me to yearn for Him."

Xiao Yu was clearly just putting on an act of jealousy. Hearing this, he immediately shook his head. "I know, but have you ever considered that before His death, He was most likely someone who thirsted for knowledge, studying or cultivating unceasingly? The better your affinity with Him, the higher the probability that you'll crash and fail in the trials."

Su Zhen: "..."

Indeed.

"What will you do if you fail to wake up within the time limit, or if the memory given to you lacks anything that specifically triggers your killing intent?"

"Will Senior please enlighten me?"

Xiao Yu waved his hand. "I'm not skilled in this domain; I'm far worse than you. If those two instances had been me going through them, I'd likely have failed both. I won't offer random ideas—figure it out yourself."

Giving up on asking for guidance, Su Zhen lowered her head to read the scrolls again.

For thousands of years, demonic creatures had continuously appeared around Mount Milu, alongside many gates to the demon realm. Successive Immortal Venerables had stepped forward to forcefully destroy these portal gates, and most of those demonic beasts possessed formidable strength, without exception all belonging to the kin of the Brilliant God—presumably because the lingering aura of that deity still remained here.

In even older records, there were descriptions regarding the believers of the Demon God of Gluttony.

They had maintained a secret stronghold around Qinglu City. Later, during the disaster that burned the fishing village to the ground, a large batch of demonic cultivators perished, almost leaving behind no bones. Later cultivators who picked up magical treasures from their corpses used spells to trace their identities, thereby uncovering the truth.

Decades later, the God of Gluttony fell, devoured by a newly risen demon god. The moniker of the Demon God of Flowing Brilliance resounded across the nine realms, and the Moon-Worship Cult rose in the demon realm as well.

Su Zhen read with a complex mood. "He took revenge. I thought that after becoming a demon god, He wouldn't care about those matters from back then anymore."

"... You do know that He isn't entirely equivalent to the Brilliant God Himself, right?"

Su Zhen was startled for a moment. "Oh, I know. Demon gods are all... a collection of countless souls. That fishing village boy was probably just the first soul?"

Xiao Yu nodded slightly. "Later on, He absorbed even more souls. Some demon gods managed to retain their original selves, while others gradually sank into chaos."

Su Zhen pondered for a moment and was about to speak when he suddenly asked again, "What was the reward for successfully passing the second trial?"

Hearing this, she smiled bitterly. "There was no physical object; it just felt as though I had grown stronger."

Su Zhen only felt that she was stronger than in her past life.

However, back then, she still carried the contract seal, enabling her not only to execute various special secret arts but also to borrow the power of the demon gods. Logically speaking, she should have been stronger than cultivators of the same realm.

If she now felt that she had surpassed her former self, she might truly have reached the peak of the Golden Immortal realm.

Xiao Yu nodded slightly, his expression a mix of joy and uncertainty, as if he wanted to be happy yet was worried about something. "What do you want that fellow surnamed Gu to do?"

Su Zhen raised an eyebrow.

Xiao Yu gave a light, mocking scoff. "... You most likely have a plan to make him willingly work for you; otherwise, you would have controlled him long ago. And what you want shouldn't stop at these, right?"

Having said this, he pointed at the scrolls before them.

Su Zhen directly projected her divine sense, waking the head of the Gu family back up. She gave a simple bow and said, "That Immortal Lord Wang from earlier is bound to die."

The head of the Gu family was dumbfounded. "Ah?"

Seeing his reaction, Su Zhen realized, "You didn't expect him to die?"

The head of the Gu family's eyes were full of bewilderment. "... Your Excellency said earlier that someone else would be sent next time. I simply assumed you knew people in the Shangji Sect and would surely punish him?"

Su Zhen shook her head. "He must die. Even if Yao Wan doesn't kill him, I will, and Yao Wan will definitely kill him anyway. After he dies, the Shangji Sect will most likely send people to investigate this matter."

The head of the Gu family looked at her in confusion, seeming not to fully understand, and having no idea who Yao Wan even was.

Su Zhen couldn't be bothered to explain so much. "When the time comes, you will just say that you want to make a personal trip to offer apologies to the Grand Elder. In any case, it means sending them a little gift. I'll prepare this gift for you, and by then I'll go with you, playing the role of your niece or cousin."

The head of the Gu family finally dawned on him. "Your Excellency wishes to enter Kunxu with me?"

Not just Kunxu.

If it were merely stepping into the territory of the Shangji Sect, it wouldn't actually be all that troublesome.

The outer periphery of Kunxu harbored countless visiting cultivators—those doing business, those delivering gifts, and those who had formally submitted visiting cards for sightseeing—yet none of them could enter the inner gates.

The outer periphery of Kunxu consisted of plains and hills, with the immortal mountains situated in the center, and the seven main peaks occupying the innermost area. Su Zhen wished to enter Sword-Questing Peak among them.

Inside the sword tomb on the back mountain of Sword-Questing Peak, there was an immortal sword named Chasing Shadow, and its sword spirit was one of the sword spirit fragments of the holy sword World-Extinguishing.

Ironically, Xie Changfeng himself was a cultivator of Sword-Questing Peak, but he didn't know that the Chasing Shadow sword spirit originated from the holy sword; it was only after Liu Yunyao acquired Fragrant Cold that she was informed by the sword spirit within Fragrant Cold.

Now that the thing that had usurped the nest inside Fragrant Cold was gone, the two of them would never know about this matter.

In the book, obtaining that sword had cost them quite a bit of effort, and Su Zhen happened to retain some impression of it.

She didn't specify what she was actually going to do. "... Immortal Lord Gu need not worry either; I will handle it very cleanly without letting them suspect you."

They wouldn't even know the sword was missing.

The head of the Gu family slowly nodded, and then shook his head frantically. "I cannot approach Tiandu, nor can I go to Kunxu."

Su Zhen was somewhat surprised. "I swear you won't be in any danger. Both the Cangming Immortal Venerable and the Jiangxiao Immortal Venerable are currently in secluded cultivation, and the remaining quasi-saints are nothing to fear."

The head of the Gu family was practically covered in cold sweat. "No, no, that's not it. I believe in Your Excellency's abilities, but it's not that..."

Realizing he was genuinely terrified, Su Zhen said, "Is this any harder than becoming my concubine?"

He still believed she was a demonic cultivator, or perhaps a divine attendant by the side of a demon god. If he had to go with her, wouldn't that mean accompanying her into the demon realm? That was far too dangerous.

The head of the Gu family grew extremely anxious, pacing back and forth twice before finally stamping his foot. "Your Excellency, I'll speak the plain truth. My ancestors once offended those two Immortal Venerables. My mother told me very early on that our family members are forbidden from stepping within a hundred miles of Kunxu and Tiandu, regardless of the reason, and must stay far away to prevent those Immortal Venerables from taking it into their heads to retaliate."

Su Zhen: "?"

"Actually, we also knew that if they intended to exact revenge, they would have acted long ago and wouldn't have waited until today; by now they likely don't even regard us as anything. But our ancestors established a blood oath..."

"Your ancestors offended those two brothers? And you share blood ties with them as well?"

Su Zhen asked, "How did they offend them?"

The head of the Gu family gave a bitter smile. "As for the specifics, I don't know either. My mother only said that back then, those two brothers committed a grave crime, and the clan wanted to execute them..."

"And then?"

"However, their cultivation realms broke through, and the entire clan could find no one capable of subduing them, so the execution was dropped and left unsettled."

The head of the Gu family said nervously, "From then on, they broke away from the clan, and our family also moved away from Tiandu, scattering our branches across the Central Region. It is said that a few branches refused to submit and went looking for trouble, and they were all slaughtered."

His cultivation realm was too low; he simply couldn't lie in front of her. Su Zhen knew he had spilled everything without holding back or fabricating a single half-sentence.

Su Zhen suddenly felt a surge of curiosity.

The Gu brothers possessed extraordinarily high innate talent. What kind of heinous crime must they have committed to warrant their own clan sentencing them to execution?

One had to know that noble clans extremely fiercely sheltered such talented scions. Even if they committed wanton murder outside, as long as the deceased weren't important figures, the clans wouldn't care at all.

If they truly offended some powerful expert—for instance, killing someone else's disciple or relative—it still wouldn't fall to the clan itself to execute them.

This was different from her own situation in her past life. Within noble clans, such prodigies were deeply cherished, and they would avoid killing them at all costs unless forced.

... Was the execution a death penalty?"

"I don't know, and my late mother didn't know either."

Such secrets had likely broken generation lines long ago; perhaps the ancestors felt that letting descendants know the dark history of the Immortal Venerables held no benefits.

Just as Su Zhen wanted to look toward Xiao Yu, she discovered that this fellow had vanished once again.

A bizarre feeling welled up in her heart once more, making her feel as though some massive change was about to occur.

However, having now reached a higher tier of strength, Su Zhen wasn't particularly panicked. She merely told the head of the Gu family to shelve the matter for the time being. The latter breathed a heavy sigh of relief and offered to find a way to help her sneak into Kunxu.

Neither accepting nor refusing, Su Zhen temporarily wiped his memories and departed the Gu family's estate.

She flew toward Mount Milu, wanting to inspect the reinforced barrier. Who would have thought that just as she reached the foot of the mountain, she suddenly sensed an unfamiliar spiritual pressure.

The newcomer approached rapidly with a menacing momentum, not slowing down in the slightest as they headed straight for her location.

—Clang!

A clear, resonant sword hum rang out from high in the sky.

Immediately following, a continuous series of melodious chimes echoed, the lingering sound reverberating through the valley while spiritual power fluctuations surged forth like a tide.

In the warm and pleasant ravine of early summer, a biting, bone-chilling wind abruptly whipped up, accompanied by shooting sword qi, swirling frost, and fluttering snowflakes.

Su Zhen slowly turned around, and the Azure Shock descended into her palm. A green radiance rippled along the blade, those threads of light swirling and tumbling across the edge, growing increasingly bright.

Invisible sword qi surged around her body as well, completely blocking the oncoming chill.

The newcomer hung high in the air, cast a single glance downward, and without a second word, directly roared and slashed down with their sword. Thousands of strands of sword qi burst forth simultaneously, whipping up a frantic tempest.

The next moment, stones twisted and soil churned among the surrounding cliffs, abruptly sprouting thousands of branches that wove into a dense, massive net in midair.

Those interlocking nets were quickly torn apart by the sword qi, yet the figure below had already vanished.

Standing in midair, the person lost the target's aura and wandered around looking bewildered for a moment.

"..."

Su Zhen watched him from afar, feeling a baffling sense of incongruity.

She swore she didn't know this person, and judging by his spiritual pressure and sword moves, he was likely just a passing rogue cultivator who had also attained the Golden Immortal realm.

To kill him, she would need to fight hard for at least a few hours.

She wouldn't mind doing so, but why?

Even if someone was seeking revenge on behalf of another, there was rarely anyone who would slash directly without uttering a single word.

The person's state didn't quite seem right either; it looked as though he were being controlled by someone, and upon losing his target, he didn't go berserk, but instead continued searching for her.

... Controlled by someone?

If anyone had the ability to control a Golden Immortal expert like this, it would be far more efficient to simply come and kill her personally.

Su Zhen was utterly baffled.

Suddenly, the person seemed to faintly recapture her spiritual pressure, turning his head to look toward her location.

Knowing that such illusionary concealment wouldn't hold for much longer since their realms were roughly comparable, Su Zhen simply turned around, formed incantation hand seals, and teleported back to the demon realm.

Lacking the ability to pursue her directly, the person could only give up.

Su Zhen walked through the dense forest, where spiritual pressures flickered near and far, and she constantly felt familiar auras belonging to tree and flower spirits.

Her teleportation landing point was close to where she had killed Shen Du earlier. Having walked only a short distance, she once again sensed approaching spiritual pressure.

It was the lord of this forest.

This one's cultivation was inferior to hers—inferior even to that cultivator from just a moment ago—

Yet just as this thought arose, Su Zhen sensed several more strands of spiritual pressure.

Though they were all very far away, their divine senses had locked onto her, and it was evident they were all charging toward her, murderous intent filling the air.

... What on earth is going on?!

It wasn't strange for demons to slaughter one another, but this situation was by no means ordinary.

The ominous premonition in her heart, along with the accompanying sense of crisis, grew increasingly intense; she even vaguely felt as though the entire world was rejecting her.

This feeling had appeared ever since she left the illusory realm, and as time passed, it grew sharper.

Suddenly, Su Zhen recalled what Xiao Yu had once said: once she reached the Golden Immortal realm, there would be other troubles.

Could he have been referring to this matter?

The Golden Immortal realm.

An ominous omen.

Everyone nearby wanted to kill her.

An answer abruptly leaped into Su Zhen's mind.

In the blink of an eye, the number of spiritual pressures—both unfamiliar and familiar—grew greater and greater. Coming from cultivators and demons alike, they emerged from all directions, gradually blurring the distinction between near and far.

These individuals varied in strength; if they banded together, they truly could kill her right here, right now.

At this very moment, there was only one direction through which she could break out of the encirclement without being entangled.

Su Zhen looked back into the distance: distant mountains towering into the clouds, shadows of trees stretching endlessly, and all the way to the end of the rolling river, where towering peaks could faintly be seen standing proudly and loftily.

Biyao Mountain.

The slumbering place of the Demon King.