CHAPTER 1

"Yue Xianshi has promised to explain everything to our Laoye. He will find out who killed Miss, even if it means probing into Fu Gongzi's soul."

A rustling conversation could be heard coming from outside the door; it was muffled and hardly audible, like the voice was underwater.

Who is speaking? Fu Changling was quite confused. Slowly opening his eyes, he heard the person outside continued, "Laoye should have had Miss Yuemin under control long ago because she was always haughty and stubborn. Perhaps this wouldn't have happened if Miss Yuemin hadn't made fun of Fu Gongzi for being mute."

Yuemin? Upon hearing this name, Fu Changling felt it was somewhat familiar. He shook his head and propped himself into a sitting position.

He felt that he had most likely been beaten.

His whole body hurt, including his head and face.

He huffed and raised his hand to examine the wound, feeling a little enraged and on the verge of cursing when he realised that something wasn't right as soon as his lips parted.

He couldn't make a sound.

This feeling of being unable to speak was one he was all too familiar with. A Mute Spell was cast on them all prior to Jindan since their Fu Clan was endowed with the spiritual power of speech, and it was intended to stop them from speaking indiscriminately and causing trouble. They weren't able to speak until after Jindan, when they had mastered the art of word-transforming to break this Mute Spell.

But he was eighteen when he formed his Jindan and lifted the Mute Spell, so how come... This isn't right!

All of a sudden, the fact that he was still awake struck Fu Changling. He had clearly died at the Reincarnation Bridge.

Thinking of this, he quickly glanced around, only to find that this was a ramshackle wing room, without even a quilt in it. He had been enjoying years of comfort and luxury as the leader of the Immortal Alliance and had never stayed in such a room before.

Fortunately, there was a bronze mirror in the room, despite its poor condition. He frantically rushed to the mirror and saw himself in it.

In the mirror, he still looked like a teenager, with modestly defined facial features and some adorable baby fat. He was very good-looking, with a smile that seemed to embody the radiance of spring in the third month.

Then he heard whispers outside, "But isn't Yue Xianshi a servant of Fu Gongzi's clan? Does he really dare to probe into Fu Gongzi's soul?"

"You don't know this," the person outside said with a lowered voice, "but this Yue Xianshi is Madame Fu's dowry immortal servant, and Fu Da Gongzi is Fu ZhenJun's illegitimate son. Before Madame Fu joined the household, he was brought back home to be raised by Fu ZhenJun, and Madame Fu is eagerly anticipating his death."

Yue Xianshi, Yuemin, Mute Spell... This string of words reached Fu Changling's ears. He slowly pieced together the origin of these words from his distant memory, and he finally realised—this was forty years ago!

At the age of seventeen, forty years ago, under the arrangement of his stepmother, Yue Sihua, he followed Yue Mingsi, Yue Sihua's immortal servant, to Baishui Town to exorcise evil spirits.

Baishui Town was the domain of the Fu Clan, and nearly a hundred people had gone missing in the past two years. Such issues rarely had been of concern to the Immortal Sects, until one of the Fu Clan's collateral branch juniors also went missing here, and only then was the Fu Clan alarmed.

This shouldn't have been a matter for Fu Changling to handle, but Yue Sihua took advantage of his father's absence to compel Fu Changling to go under the pretence of training. Fu Changling didn't realise that the training was a ruse and that the harm to him was real until he arrived.

The Shangguan family of the local cultivation clan hosted them while they were in Baishui Town. This Shangguan Clan once had a Jindan cultivator by the name of Shangguan Hong, but his cultivation had gone awry and his Spiritual Root was damaged. He therefore had no chance of advancing to the next level and was now doomed to die at home.

Fu Changling got into a verbal argument with Shangguan Yuemin, the Shangguan family's eldest daughter, on the day they arrived at the clan. As Shangguan Yuemin was discovered dead next to him early the following morning, Yue Mingsi decided to hold a trial and publicly conduct a soul-probing of him without further delay.

Because soul-probing involves touching the Sea of Consciousness, even the slightest carelessness could result in the other person's Sea of Consciousness being damaged, which would put an end to their cultivation means. It was obvious that Yue Mingsi was looking for a chance to eliminate him by wanting to probe into his soul for such a matter.

However, Yue Mingsi was unable to take advantage of this chance. The Shangguan Clan was haunted by an evil spirit that night, and Fu Changling had intended to use the opportunity to flee, but he ended up entering the Xuanji Secret Realm just as he was about to leave the gate. He learned that the Shangguan Clan, the Fu clansmen who had visited as guests, a total of two Jindan and thirty Zhuji cultivators, plus hundreds of common people, had perished that night when he came out of the secret realm.

For a while, this case remained unsolved. Fu Changling began looking into the origins of the demon cultivators of the Karma Prison when he later rose to become the leader of the Immortal Alliance and a cultivator who had overcome the heavenly tribulations. He visited the Shangguan Clan ruins.

The Shangguan Clan was identified as one of the first locations where demon cultivators appeared, and there, he found traces of the Zhenxue Sword.

The Zhenxue Sword was Qin Yan's weapon; he later defected to the demon cultivators of Karma Prison.

Therefore, it was most likely that Qin Yan was responsible for the extermination of the Shangguan Clan.

Fu Changling couldn't help but feel a little anxious when he thought about this.

Qin Yan was Fu Changling's worst nightmare throughout his entire life.

The chief disciple of the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace and a paragon for youth engaged in cultivation, Qin Yan was a young man of his own age. Due to Qin Yan being so outstanding, Fu Changling's father would frequently point at his nose and reprimand him, "Take a look at Qin Yan, and take a look at you." He had nightmares every night as a result of this, constantly dreaming of Qin Yan winning the cultivation assessment yet again.

Later, Qin Yan defected to the Karma Prison, killed his master and betrayed his sect, and became Sui Yan MoJun of the Immaculate Palace. He killed the entire Fu Clan with his own hands and nearly killed Fu Changling as well, leaving him with nightmares and making it impossible for him to close his eyes without seeing Qin Yan holding a bloody sword in his hand.

Finally, Fu Changling killed Qin Yan to exact his vengeance, believing that this would end their dispute once and for all. However, it turned out that just before he died, Qin Yan actually tore out a love thread from his heart and crushed it in front of Fu Changling, scaring Fu Changling into dreaming of him every night from that point forward. Fu Changling even had the presence of mind to head straight for the Reincarnation Bridge and die in the only place where they had any connection to one another before he finally died.

Fu Changling experienced a headache, distress, and physical pain all over at the mere mention of this person.

He didn't want to remember Qin Yan, but right now, his life was at stake, and he had no choice but to remember.

He now had to face Qin Yan; would he be able to prevail in battle?

Fu Changling gave it some serious thought.

He recalled that when he was seventeen, Qin Yan was known as the number one cultivator below YuanYing level. However, Qin Yan always maintained a low profile. If the outside world appreciated the fact that Qin Yan was below YuanYing, his strength would most likely be superior to that of a YuanYing.

Fu Changling is only at Zhuji level right now. Judging by Qin Yan's ability, despite having a comparable level of cultivation, he had never been able to prevail before, but given how far behind his current cultivation level was, if the two of them met... he would undoubtedly perish.

Fu Changling immediately jumped to his feet in shock after these words came to his mind and started packing his things.

He was lucky enough to enter the Xuanji Secret Realm early in his previous life, but would he still be as lucky in this one?

Having to confront Qin Yan, who was on his way to kill, he was unconcerned about the lives of Yunze's common people or the Karma Prison's energy channels. Right now, escaping was the most crucial thing he needed to do.

While Yue Mingsi hadn't yet conducted the trial and Qin Yan hadn't yet arrived at the Shangguan Clan, he needed to flee right away, as soon as possible, as soon as he could.

Huayang Jun had superb mobility. He gathered his magic tools and quickly checked his entire body with his spiritual energy running. After confirming that there were only a few flesh wounds, he placed the bottom of the golden fan he was holding upside down against his forehead and started to recite a long, silent incantation from memory. He immediately felt some sort of invisible shackles being lifted off of his body after the incantation and coughed a few times in a low voice, clearing his throat. After confirming that the word-transforming incantation had taken effect and he could speak, he then went to the door, held the golden fan to his lips, and whispered, "Sleep!"

The two people guarding the outside suddenly stopped talking, and a brief moment later, the sound of them collapsing to the ground could be heard. When Fu Changling reached out to touch the door, he sensed a spiritual power securing it from the outside.

Yue Mingsi must have been the one who put the barrier on the door from the outside. Once Fu Changling broke the barrier, Yue Mingsi would probably know right away.

He was now up against Yue Mingsi, a Jindan level, and despite the fact that it was also somewhat of a hassle, he would still rather fight Yue Mingsi than take on Qin Yan.

As soon as Fu Changling thought of Qin Yan, he immediately felt slightly more courageous to flee. He quickly mapped out his route, bit his fingers, tore off his own sleeve, and drew several formations on the cloth. Then, after tucking the formations away, he kicked open the door and dashed straight out.

Just as he rushed to the corridor, the Courtyard Guard Formation of the Shangguan Mansion lit up. It was undoubtedly activated by Yue Mingsi upon detecting that he had broken through his barrier. A Zhuji cultivator flew into mid-air and yelled loudly, "Fu Changling has escaped. Find him!"

Following the utterance of these words, everyone started searching for Fu Changling. Fu Changling couldn't have possibly been seen by the hundreds of Shangguan clansmen; the only way they could have identified him was from the typical Fu Clan attire he was sporting.

This is bad, thought Fu Changling. He hastily leapt onto the beam as soon as he heard sounds of people coming from both the front and back of the corridor. A group of guards hurried past a moment later, followed by a lone boy servant. Fu Changling looked around when he saw the boy servant approaching. He hung upside down from the beam and patted the boy servant's head with his hands as he passed beneath the beam where he was and lifted the boy, who had passed out, onto the beam.

There wasn't much space on the beam, but fortunately, he had been chased quite a lot in his previous life and had gotten very good at changing clothes with people extremely quickly in this narrow space. He changed the boy servant's clothes with his own and let the boy lie on the beam. He took a quick look around before jumping down.

He cast a spell to conceal his spiritual energy before picking up a stick, lowering his head, and mingling with the crowd, trailing the other manservants and hurriedly chasing them outside the estate.

The estate was already in a state of chaos as Zhuji cultivators circled in the air on their swords. Fu Changling clenched his stick tightly and noticed that he was about to head out of the estate when suddenly, a shrill bellow could be heard in the air. "All stop!"

Everyone stopped moving, and Fu Changling looked up slightly to see a man suspended in mid-air. The man was wearing a blue tunic and black robe, with a dark blue tall hat on his head, and a powder-coated youngster was sitting on his shoulder. The youngster had the stature of a five- or six-year-old and was wearing a light blue tall hat. He had the face of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old, was painted dreadfully pale with white powder, and had a bright red blush on both cheeks, which looked extremely bizarre.

A closer look revealed that the youngster's back was covered in extremely fine silk threads, and as he moved with his mouth open, it also became apparent that his body was pieced together out of wood, much like a puppet.

The one who showed up was none other than Yue Mingsi.

For many generations, the Yue Clan's puppetcraft was well known. Yue Mingsi could make his puppets resemble humans by as much as eighty percent, even if he was just a servant.

As Yue Mingsi surveyed around, the puppet sitting on his shoulder commanded in a sing-song voice, "Everyone, raise your heads."

Fu Changling didn't dare not to look up, but he could only tilt his head slightly before secretly casting a Disguise Spell.

When blending in with the crowd, this Disguise Spell would go undetected, but if one got close, they would be able to sense the fluctuations of spiritual power.

Yue Mingsi had obviously thought of this as well, so he raised his hand as his divine sense swept through the crowd, and then the youngster on his shoulder flew off. The youngster flew towards Fu Changling and examined each of the clan's manservants standing at the entrance one by one. Fu Changling couldn't help but clutch the formation in his hand as he noticed that the puppet was flying towards him.

He feared he would have no chance of escape once the puppet got close.

As this battle with Yue Mingsi was inevitable, Fu Changling pondered that it needed to be fought swiftly and effectively.

With this in mind, he chose the Kun Fire Formation from the many spell formations stashed in his sleeve. Fu Changling hurled the spell formation in his hand directly at the puppet as soon as it came closer, and then sprinted erratically outside without stopping!

The spell struck the puppet head-on, and it immediately burst into flames and screamed. Meanwhile, Yue Mingsi cast a water-control tactic onto the puppet and led dozens of cultivators to lunge straight at Fu Changling.

The golden Qinggu fan slid down from Fu Changling's sleeve as he hurled the spell formation in his hand. The Qinggu fan was able to block Yue Mingsi's sword as it was coming straight at him, and Fu Changling then took a step back. As a dozen cultivators attacked, the fan's tip sliced through his palm as quickly as a knife blade, spattering blood. Fu Changling glided like a feather through the crowd, and despite his movements appearing to be extremely slow, they were precisely timed as the tip of the blade slashed past him, seemingly unable to touch him in any way.

Seeing this, Yue Mingsi became enraged and raised his right hand. The puppet that had previously been scorched by Fu Changling's raging fire shrieked, lunged, and bit at him.

The puppet moved fast—extremely fast. As soon as Fu Changling sensed that the time was almost right, his divine sense swept to one side. After confirming where his blood had spilled, he clasped his palm in the air and then darted towards the puppet.

One human and one puppet came towards each other. Fu Changling's hand was clenched into a fist at his side, as if ready to strike at any moment, and the puppet opened its mouth wide, revealing its beast-like fangs.

The puppet was about to bite Fu Changling's neck as the two drew closer and closer to each other at an accelerated pace—that was the moment!

A long sword with an exquisite glow to it descended from the sky and stabbed the puppet with a clang. The sword carried a sword Qi that Fu Changling was very familiar with, and it made a loud crash impact on its surroundings as soon as it landed in the centre of the circle.

Everyone present was sent flying by the sword Qi. Fu Changling was the one who was in closest proximity to the sword and suffered the most severe impact. He knocked down two walls as he flew all the way backwards before hitting the ground hard.

A sudden, piercing pain shot up to his head, and he felt like he must have broken a rib. In a trance, with his consciousness somewhat hazy, he felt as if everything had slowed down.

A familiar figure was revealed as the dust gradually cleared. That person was donning a jade guan and a white robe with wide sleeves and crane embroidery. As the sun slowly dipped behind the hills, the afterglow enveloped him in a delicate, exquisite radiance.

Each step he took was clearly audible, making it seem as though he were treading on the path of reincarnation. Slowly, step by step, he approached the white jade long sword that had landed in the centre of the formation and came to a stop in front of it.

His wide-sleeved, white robe with crane embroidery flowed with his movements as he withdrew the sword in a stance Fu Changling was familiar with. A sparkling stream of afterglow formed on the surface of the unique Hongmeng Heavenly Palace's annular jade pendant as it gently swayed around his waist.

The person then turned his face sideways and looked over at him. His brush-painted-like features gave off a slightly juvenile vibe, and his phoenix eyes were as joyless and devoid of sorrow as he had remembered them to be.

Qin Yan!

Fu Changling's eyes widened as he finally confirmed—Qin Yan has arrived!

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