North Region, Jihan Gate
After Han Lian returned ahead of the others, she met the Divine Transformation elder guarding the sect, Han Mu Zūnzhě.
Han Mu Zūnzhě wore snow-white robes. White hair, white brows, white beard, a childlike face. He truly looked the image of Ethereal Grace.
Sensing the pressure rolling off Han Lian, he smiled and cupped his hands. "Han Mu welcomes Han Lian Zūnzhě back to the sect."
Han Lian's mouth twitched. She stepped forward and lifted him up with her own hands, then scolded lightly, "Ancestor, do not tease me."
Stroking his beard, Han Mu laughed. "Your cultivation has already surpassed mine. An old man should show some respect."
Han Lian was speechless, but still pinched a fold of Han Mu's robe and hauled him into his cave residence. Once the warding fell, she poured out the true crisis facing Weiyu Realm like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.
The smile on Han Mu's face vanished at once. Startled, he even yanked out a strand of long beard. Then, heavy-voiced, he said, "If this news is accurate, the Central Region war was only a beginning."
Han Lian nodded. "That is how the four of us see it. The trouble is that we have no clue where the evil god's body is sealed. The four of us agreed to return to our sects to search for leads. If we find anything, we act together."
"I understand. Since you are back, go to the Jihan Gate Archive Pavilion. It stores everything our sect has collected through the generations. You might find something."
"Alright, I will check now."
Han Lian then buried herself in the archives, combing through records.
South Region, Kunmo Sect
After returning, Xun Kun likewise met the most senior Divine Transformation cultivator of Kunmo Sect, hoping for clues to the seal site of the evil god's body. Unfortunately, the trails were pitifully thin, with no clear direction.
Unwilling to give up, Xun Kun went to the sect library to hunt for scraps of a trail.
By the time Lin Lang and Zhu Yue led their squads back from the Central Region, Xun Kun was still searching.
East Region, Yunmen Temple
The return of Yun Chen Fózǐ was a tonic for Eastern Buddhist cultivators, further firming their hearts toward the Buddha.
After greeting the sect elders, Yun Chen also began seeking clues concerning the evil god. In the Sutra Repository he found some information, but only about the evil god itself, with nothing on the seal's location.
He shared what he had with Yunxi and the other two.
The four continued suppressing their cultivation while chasing leads, all hoping to solve this hidden danger within the limited time.
———
The sky was overcast. At the summit hall of Lingxue Peak, Yunxi was arranging a game board to play against herself. Lately she had been guiding Wei Zonghao, Ye Yirui, and Ye Yuchen in refining medice. Only after the three made breakthroughs did she return to Lingxue Peak.
Ancestor Hao Yi had urged her twice to move to the back mountain, but she delayed both times with the excuse of teaching pharmaceutics. Finally with a bit of free time today, she finished carving suppression sigils onto her robe and planned to relax. She had not even finished setting the endgame when she sensed someone in Haoran Sect facing a Divine Transformation tribulation.
Reflexively releasing her divine sense, she saw it was Wei Yunqing. Her eyes narrowed, and she flashed to Tribulation Peak, arriving even before Wei Yunqing.
When Wei Yunqing appeared on Tribulation Peak, she saw Wei Yunxi standing in the air. For an instant, her expression soured. The next breath, she realized she was locked not only by the Heavenly Dao but also by Wei Yunxi.
Yunxi saw the deep-buried unwillingness in Wei Yunqing's eyes. Yet the moment Yunxi's sense locked her, that unwillingness shrank to fear. Wei Yunqing turned and leapt onto Tribulation Peak at once, as if afraid that if she were a step slower, Yunxi would erase her.
Yunxi simply watched Wei Yunqing undergo her tribulation. When the final Heart Demon strike fell, Yunxi's lips curled, for she sensed another force sneaking in to pack smuggled extras into Wei Yunqing's tribulation.
"Interesting."
She murmured to herself.
Yu Ling Zūnzhě appeared at her side. "You sensed it too."
Though he said nothing specific, Yunxi understood and nodded. "Master, very interesting. Seems the Heavenly Dao can forge a false front."
Yu Ling's expression did not change. "The true Heavenly Dao does not falsify. It merely created an opportunity. The forger is not the true Heavenly Dao."
A thunderclap blasted overhead, drowning their voices.
Yunxi rolled her eyes inwardly. "Caught red-handed and it warns us with thunder?" If it were truly capable, it would not have let others exploit a loophole and slip in smuggled extras.
Yu Ling glanced up once, then calmly lowered his gaze to the tribulating Wei Yunqing. "The Hive has kept people on her. There is no need to worry. She cannot kick up waves."
"Perhaps not before. Now, I would not be so sure."
Her gaze fell on Wei Yunqing's face, which was already twisting with strain. Yunxi shaped her divine sense into a bow, transformed a wisp of sense into an arrow, drew and loosed. The arrow shot straight for Wei Yunqing's brow.
Yunxi's strike was swift and precise, and it bit at once. Wei Yunqing's divine sense shuddered under the blow. Her eyes flew open, the vicious light inside too late to hide. Blood spurted from her mouth, and her aura sagged.
"Ran Xi, you are being reckless."
Yunxi tipped her face toward the sky. No rumble answered this time. Her apricot eyes narrowed."Rest easy, Master. I am acting on Heaven's behalf."
"Mind your measure."
With that, Yu Ling's figure flickered and left Tribulation Peak. He had come because he sensed Ran Xi's aura and feared an incident, so he sent an avatar. Confirming there was no problem, he withdrew it.
Spiritual rain fell from the sky, but to Yunxi it looked perfunctory, a thin drizzle with no quality to it.
Wei Yunqing did not even muster a decent celestial omen. Only a few immortal cranes circled twice above her head before dissipating, leaving the impression that her breakthrough to Divine Transformation was forced.
Wei Yunqing's head throbbed as if splitting. Images from the Heart Demon Trial refused to disperse, and shards of old memory mixed in, leaving her mind muddled.
Though she barely absorbed the spiritual rain to repair meridians scorched by thunder, she still needed time to stabilize and to comb the extra scenes crowding her mind.
Yet as soon as she opened her eyes, she looked toward Wei Yunxi by instinct. For a heartbeat she forgot to dodge, as if that person should not exist, as if she herself should not be as she was now. Her thoughts tangled.
Seeing the look in Wei Yunqing's eyes, Yunxi smiled faintly. That gaze was exactly as the book described when the female supporting role stole a Golden Core and spiritual root. Smug and naive in its malice.
Yunxi lifted a hand. The next instant she dragged Wei Yunqing before her. Her slender fingers closed easily around that snow-white throat.