Deep within the forest, a figure cloaked in dark robes moved like a shadow among the massive trees. The chilly night air clung to him, but he passed through it soundlessly, his steps featherlight, his movements fluid.
He ran through the undergrowth, his speed so great he seemed to dissolve into the darkness. His eyes, sharp behind the cloth covering his face, scanned the terrain. To the beasts around him, he was nothing but a fleeting blur, a sudden, silent chill.
Minutes later, he halted before a cave opening. His gaze swept the ground, taking in the signs of battle: scattered rubble, snapped branches, trees scarred by scorch marks and sword cuts.
Days had passed since the disciples had clashed with the striped buffalo, yet the faint, metallic scent of dried blood still lingered in the air. "Good," he thought. "The spy's information was correct."
He extended his spiritual scan, sweeping the clearing and the surrounding trees. Finding no immediate danger, he turned toward the dark cave entrance, but halted as a familiar aura brushed against his awareness from inside.
Instead of entering, he withdrew. For nearly a dozen minutes, he circled the area like a wraith, his path a tightening spiral around the cave. Occasionally, he would stop and flare his spiritual scan, scouring three hundred meters in all directions, ensuring the stillness was no trap or illusion.
Only when certain did he settle into a concealed vantage point.
That was when he sensed two more familiar auras approaching. They did not linger or scout. Moving with purpose, they slipped straight into the cave after confirming the presence waiting inside.
He remained motionless on the high branch, blending into the night. After watching for several minutes, he finally descended, returning to the cave entrance only when his spiritual scan confirmed the forest held no hidden eyes.
This time, a faint orange glow flickered from within. Sensing the three familiar auras inside, he slipped in without hesitation.
Three torches embedded in the stone walls cast a dim, wavering light. Three cloaked figures sat in a loose circle around an herb, a frail, dimly purple orchid. Compared to a week ago, its glow was far stronger, now tinged with a faint blue light that mingled with the torchlight in the gloom.
They looked up as his footsteps echoed softly on the stone. "You're late," rasped Mo Li, the bulky figure, rising to his feet.
Mei Xu, the slender figure, spoke next, her voice gentle but edged. "Is anyone following you?"
"No," Wudi replied. His gaze swept the scattered bones and decomposing calf carcasses near the walls before he settled beside the orchid. "But you three must be more cautious."
He lowered himself into a cross-legged position in front of the herb and examined it. "About seventy hours until it matures. It seems we'll be waiting in the lion's mouth."
Mo Li followed his gaze, his eyes burning with undisguised greed beneath his cloth mask. Yet even as he stared at the glowing Sevenfold Chalice Orchid, his posture remained tense, as if the herb were as dangerous as it was precious—especially here, especially now.
"Good. We will wait, then," Mo Li said, settling back down. He shifted his focus to the third figure, the swordsman with three blades strapped to his back. "And the plans for the Twin Sword Elders? How do they proceed?"
Wudi and Mei Xu turned as well. Jiang Yi let out a weary sigh, heavy with frustration. "A complete failure," he answered. "We lost a valuable pawn. I don't know why, but he overreached. Too eager to prove the father's madness, too hungry for reward."
"A pity," Mo Li grunted. "He had the potential to reach Outer Courtyard Elder. Now, put down like a dog. What a waste. We'll need to train the next one more thoroughly."
Mei Xu's voice, soft and mellifluous, filled the silence. "Is there truly no way to sway their minds before they step into Core Formation? Before they become a significant hindrance, or worse, a threat to our entire plan?"
The other two exchanged a glance, unnerved by her abrupt shift from the cunning crone of moments before to this gentle maiden. Their eyes flicked to Wudi, and understanding dawned.
"She's performing for him." They dismissed her antics and returned their attention to the cold matter at hand.
"The direct approach is too risky," Jiang Yi admitted, frustration clear in his tone. "Killing the father they abandoned for their ruthless path would only strengthen their resolve. It could become a catalyst, refining their Dao Hearts through tribulation." He paused, a grimace evident beneath his mask. "I've also heard the array projections from that incident have given them new insights. Their talent for this path is… excessive, to say the least."
"What a waste," Mei Xu chimed in, her reverence sounding more genuine now. "In the hands of the righteous, such gifts are shackled by hypocritical morals. Had they been born to the Demonic faction, they would have flourished."
"Indeed," Jiang Yi agreed. "By now, they'd likely be at Peak Core Formation, perhaps even touching the Golden Corerefining realm."
Mo Li grunted, the sound echoing in the cave. He turned his sharp, impatient gaze on Wudi. "So, what is our move? Do we sit and watch the righteous gain not one, but two powerful swords? Each has the potential to reach Nascent Soul."
"We can't just wait," Mei Xu added softly.
All eyes settled on Wudi. He remained silent for a long moment, his thoughts churning. When he finally spoke, his voice was a low, calculated rumble.
"Their breakthrough cannot be stopped by us. That much is clear. Using their father is ineffective, and assassination is a fool's gambit—it would only provoke their so-called supreme ancestor."
His gaze swept over the three of them before settling on the orchid's ethereal glow. "The potential gain does not yet justify the catastrophic loss."
"Then our focus should shift," Mei Xu said, her earlier affectation gone, replaced by a sharper, strategic tone. "They are not the only key to the treasury vaults. There are other candidates."
"Exactly," grunted Mo Li, a fierce light in his eyes. "The Twin Sword Elders will be a problem when the Secret Realm opens. But we have twenty years to prepare and position our other pawns. That's enough time to secure the map to the…" He paused, his voice dropping to a hushed, reverent whisper. "…the rumored fragment of the Celestial Fiend Scripture."
Silence fell. The very name seemed to thicken the air, stifling their breath and igniting a primal, trembling greed within them.
It was said that a single Celestial Fiend Scripture could drive even a Holy Land to madness. That alone made the rumor unsettling to Mo Li. The secret realm in question was minor, perhaps too minor for anything complete. At most, it would be a fragment, maybe a single layer torn from one of the 108.
"If… if I could obtain even that one layer… "The thought was so vast and terrifying that Mo Li's mind shied away, unable to hold it. He settled his gaze instead on the tangible treasure before them.
The others nodded, sharing an eager, if shallower, understanding. They could not fathom the scripture's profound depths as Mo Li did, but they recognized the scent of ultimate power, and the more immediate power glowing right before their eyes.
The conversation turned pragmatic. Each reported their progress infiltrating the various sects of the Heaven's Fall Region, their gazes never truly leaving the purple orchid.
For three days, their conspiracy festered in the cave beneath the Heavens' Fall Sword Sect. As they laid the final threads of their plan, the orchid reached its zenith.
Its potent, herbaceous scent began to diffuse, a beacon that would draw beasts, or worse, spirit beasts, from miles around. Their concern, however, was not the beasts, but uninvited attention from the sect.
Before the first tendril of fragrance could escape, Mei Xu's hands danced through the air. She retrieved an array plate from her spatial pouch and deployed a Grade Two stealth array with practiced efficiency, weaving in her own unique schemes to perfectly seal the cave and its aroma from the outside world.
Her eyes narrowed to slits as she slid her gaze over the other three.
"Good. Now it's just us. Those righteous fools couldn't recognize a treasure growing in their own backyard," Mo Li laughed, but his grating chuckle died in the sudden, heavy silence.
The mood in the cavern shifted, thickening with a tangible, predatory tension.
All six eyes locked onto the purple orchid, its glow now fierce and captivating. The camaraderie of conspiracy evaporated, replaced by the raw, silent currency of greed.
In the presence of a spirit herb, this rare one that could refine the very quality of a cultivator's golden core after one's limit—alliances were parchment before a flame.
It was a treasure born of a rare twist of fate, hidden among countless common orchids by nature's own whim.
With a soft, lethal shing, the swordsman drew one of his blades. It glowed with swordforce, a cold energy that cut through the darkness and illuminated half his grim face.
Three tendrils of spiritual scans lashed out immediately, probing his intent. They recoiled just as swiftly, stung as if by needles. The unspoken assessment among them was instantaneous and straightforward: he wasn't just ready to fight. He was prepared to kill, well, not that they were any less determined.
Whoosh!
The silent standoff shattered into frantic motion. The woman's fingers flew over her array plate as she channeled a torrent of qi. The stealth array's hum intensified, and she placed a second plate atop the first, weaving an illusion array to obscure the coming battle.
Not that it would matter if she lost, by then, she was prepared to alert Heaven's Fall Sect itself. She stored that thought away, a final move for an extreme situation she hoped would not come to pass.
Mo Li took a heavy step back; the ground vibrated with a low tremor. Dark tattoos—the mark of his peak-tier, profound-grade body-forging art—snaked up his forearms and ignited with an ominous inner light.
His stance was no longer defensive, but that of a coiled spring, ready to shatter stone and bone for a fleeting advantage to snatch the herb and flee.
The cavern, once a chamber of whispered plots, had become a silent arena. The only sound was the soft, rhythmic pulse of the orchid's radiant aura, beating like the heart of the conflict to come.
Wudi's voice cut through the thickening malice, calm and cold: "This idiocy ends now. We cannot afford to fight over a single herb, no matter its quality."
His words were met with instant, derisive scorn.
"Look who speaks," Mei Xu sneered, her earlier gentleness stripped away. "The privileged disciple of a Peak Golden Core refining master, for whom such a treasure might be a mere commendation."
"For the rest of us," Jiang Yi added, his sword held at that deadly, patient angle, "this is the path. Do you truly believe any of us will turn and walk away empty-handed?"
Like the others, his gaze remained locked on the orchid, a prize worth more than their fragile pact, and held by no force in this moment.
Wudi's expression didn't change. "I care nothing for your desperation. But I will offer one warning. If your squabbling alerts the sect, especially now, when they are coming for the seedlings, you will experience my master's true displeasure."
A chill descended at the mention of his master. For a tense minute, hostile gazes darted between them in a silent battle of wills.
Then, violence erupted without a sound.
A blade of condensed swordforce and a searing lance of fire qi materialized simultaneously before Jiang Yi and Wudi, then lashed toward Mo Li.
"Fuck!" he cursed, his body stiffening as he was caught completely off guard by the sudden betrayal, especially by Wudi.
Ugh!
The impacts threw him backward with brutal force. He slammed into the cavern wall, cracking the stone behind him.
Dazed, he shook his head and saw the three of them standing exactly as they were, untouched, watching as if they had never moved. But as an early Core Formation cultivator, his senses were sharp. He saw through the illusion in an instant.
"Damned tricks!" he roared, his forearm tattoos blazing with furious power as he charged toward Mei Xu, fist aimed to crush her skull.
Whoosh!
His blow passed through her body as if it were mist. She reappeared several paces to his right, her face etched with icy contempt.
He lunged again, intent on eliminating the most troublesome member of the group.
Whoosh!
Another illusion. Disoriented, he was struck from behind by a brutal barrage: fire spears and searing projectiles from Wudi, and a slicing blade of swordforce from Jiang Yi.
The impact launched him across the cavern like a rag doll. He slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening crunch. Dust and stone fragments rained down around his slumped form.
"They chose to eliminate me first," he spat, blood flecking the ground. He forced his breathing to steady and glared at them with burning anger. "I expected betrayal the moment I pledged to the Demonic Faction—but not from comrades I've known for decades. No wonder the righteous call us scum."
The bitter thought sent a corrosive pang of doubt through him, cracking his resolve. Instantly, a searing agony clenched his heart. The Gu worm, embedded deep within his heart, constricted like a heated chain, punishing his wavering loyalty.
Seeing his momentary paralysis, the others struck as one. Mo Li roared, pushing the agony aside to muster a final, desperate counterattack, but he was too slow, his movements clumsy with inner torment.
Arcs of sword energy flashed, cleanly severing both his hands at the forearms. A spear of condensed fire punched through his chest with a sickening hiss, leaving a smoldering crater where his heart had been.
As his vision darkened at the edges, hellish visions flooded in. It was not just blood, but also the woman's illusions invading his mind, twisting his pain into a paralyzing nightmare.
She stifled any final self-destructive impulse or spiritual alarm he might have sent.
Thud.
His body collapsed to the floor. The only sound left was the soft, indifferent pulse of the orchid, its glow now shining upon the freshly spilled blood.