The silent valley was jolted awake as if by a thunderclap.
Bai Yao stared in disbelief at the dazzling golden light erupting from within the gray clouds overhead.
Liu Linglin’s voice, filled with hatred toward her, instantly spread across nearly a thousand li around the outer perimeter of the secret realm.
“Liu Linglin?! That woman actually chased me all the way here…”
Since they were inside the Cave Heaven secret realm, those ridiculous outside rules about immortals not interfering with mortals naturally didn’t apply.
It made sense that Liu Linglin would use the Hehuan Sect’s extraordinary methods to put a bounty on Bai Yao.
“Little girl, seems like you’ve got no small amount of trouble. That many enemies outside?”
The mountain sparrow cave spirit turned to look at the golden light in the sky, then casually fluttered its wings.
“Not really that many.”
Bai Yao pursed her lips and quickly composed herself.
“Anyway, if I run into that woman, it’s only right that old grudges and new scores get settled together. But with her making a scene like this, I’ll probably have a lot more enemies waiting for me once I get out.”
The cave spirit responded only with an aged laugh and said nothing more.
Bai Yao’s face clearly showed not the slightest trace of panic or fear, and the cave spirit understood exactly what she meant by those words.
“Interesting. She carries Righteous Qi, yet she’s so decisive about life and death. Thought this young lady spared her fellow disciple out of overflowing compassion, but turns out she’s someone with principles, consistent inside and out.”
The sparrow didn’t say this out loud, only silently increasing its appreciation for Bai Yao.
Unlike the outside world, the climate within Cangjie Grotto-Heaven was like early autumn.
Among the five prefectures of the world, Southern Ridge Cloud Prefecture had a hot climate—with mountains draped in mist, one could neither witness days of heavy snowfall nor behold hills covered in red leaves.
For the young cultivators who entered the outer perimeter of Cangjie Grotto-Heaven, the secret realm’s beast kings were not the real threat—the dangerous ones were the strange beasts hidden within the mountain mist.
And just as people often worry about exactly what comes to pass, Bai Yao carelessly fell victim to this mountain mist’s treachery.
She had been traveling along the mountain stream, which naturally made her prone to encountering fog, and sure enough, a massive bank of mist suddenly rushed toward her from not far away.
The sparrow had been relaxed in its posture, but suddenly spoke in a grave tone: “Beware of strange beasts in the mist. This fog will…”
Bai Yao didn’t even have time to catch the second half of the sparrow’s sentence before she was swallowed by the dense fog.
Thick mist filled the mountain stream, and Bai Yao stood with her sword in hand, yet couldn’t see her own fingers.
“It seems I can’t hold anything back here…”
Bai Yao felt fine goosebumps rising across her skin—clearly some instinctive reaction to danger.
Even without much martial skill, the unparalleled faint golden Righteous Qi in her dantian could be released at will, just like a Hundred Refinements Realm expert.
A thin protective barrier of Righteous Qi formed tightly around Bai Yao’s body, instantly putting her somewhat at ease.
However…
“Senior Cave Spirit! Senior Cave Spirit?”
Bai Yao called out repeatedly, but received no response at all.
Just then, a small flying serpent—with a flat face, pure white body, crimson eyes, and wing-like membranes on its body—suddenly leaped out from the thick fog and lunged straight at Bai Yao’s face.
Bai Yao was slightly startled, but with her Ten Qi Realm, fourth layer cultivation, her reaction speed far exceeded an ordinary person’s.
She raised her sword and cleaved the ferocious flying serpent in two.
Flying serpents began appearing frequently from the surrounding mountain mist, attacking Bai Yao in waves like a coordinated pack hunt, with some even spraying venom at her mid-flight.
Fortunately, the flying serpents’ venom couldn’t penetrate the Righteous Qi barrier covering Bai Yao’s body.
But if this kept up, Bai Yao knew her true qi would eventually be drained dry by these serpents.
“I have to break through!” Bai Yao unhesitatingly looked at the ground, searching for the direction of the mountain stream’s water flow.
Even if she couldn’t tell directions in the fog, she had been following the stream all along.
As long as she found the river’s current, breaking out of this mist was only a matter of time.
However…
The flying serpents in Bai Yao’s eyes seemed to be gradually twisting into something more distorted, their attacks becoming less and less like beasts.
What was even more bizarre was that the venom, which had been green, was slowly turning blood-red… just like human blood.
“What’s going on!? Am I poisoned?”
Bai Yao immediately examined her internal body, then carefully cycled her energy through her meridians, yet found no signs of poisoning whatsoever.
“Not poison… Could this be an illusion?”
She suddenly recalled Senior Cave Spirit’s last words before disappearing: this mist… would cause hallucinations!
Just as Bai Yao thought this, she suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body, and an intense crisis of life and death rapidly engulfed her.
A pale arm, silent and without warning, landed on her shoulder and tightly gripped her left shoulder…
Bai Yao’s hairs stood on end.
Without even looking as she turned her head, she swung her sword with all her might!
However, even though the iron sword was wrapped in released Righteous Qi, enough to cut through iron armor, it struck as if hitting absolutely indestructible metal, producing a clanging sound of metal striking stone.
Then, in the sparks flying around her, Bai Yao saw a shocking scene she could scarcely believe.
“Xiao… Xiao Yi!?”
The face of this humanoid monster was almost identical to Xiao Yi’s.
His pallid face was streaked with blood, and a bloody sword wound on his chest was clearly visible.
Bai Yao’s iron sword had indeed wounded him, but that sword wound was utterly insignificant compared to the one Ye Tingyu had thrust into Xiao Yi.
“Bai Yao! I, the Young Prince of Xia Manor, died for you… and you really just walked away like that! All that talk about unity of knowledge and action, all that Righteous Qi… you’re nothing but a hypocrite! You… don’t deserve it!”
Xiao Yi let out a sound like sharp fingernails desperately scraping against a glass window, jarring Bai Yao’s eardrums with pain.
Yet every single word of that piercing voice reached Bai Yao with crystal clarity, thundering in her ears.
“No… that’s not it! I know I’m the one who harmed you… but I couldn’t beat Ye Tingyu! Those people all wanted to kill me… I was just too weak! I…”
This speech directly stirred up intense internal conflict within Bai Yao.
She didn’t want Xiao Yi to die for her, and she even less wanted to abandon the dying Xiao Yi and escape alone.
But she was too weak, weak as an ant, crushed with a single squeeze by those stronger than her.
Weakness had become Bai Yao’s original sin in this moment, a shadow she couldn’t shake no matter what.
Bai Yao completely lost control, swinging the iron sword wildly with Righteous Qi blades in utter chaos.
As if swinging the sword, slashing and cutting, could vent the regret in her heart.
“Why… why am I so weak!”
The surrounding mist gradually thinned, and silence fell once more.
Corpses of flying serpents lay strewn across the ground, but what lay limp on the earth were not only these mist-born beasts.
“Little girl! Wake up! Little girl!” The urgent voice belonged to the cave spirit in sparrow form.
In an instant, Bai Yao abruptly woke from this nightmare-like illusion.
When she came to her senses, she first looked in bewilderment at the gray sparrow on a branch not far away, then quickly scanned her surroundings.
“This is… I killed them?” Bai Yao’s pupils contracted, for four human corpses lay strewn along the path.
Some had been run through the heart by Bai Yao’s sword, some had their throats slit, and one was even cut clean in half…
And one of the corpses she had killed with a slit throat was positioned exactly where she had seen the Xiao Yi illusion.
“Indeed, you killed them all. They were trying to ambush you while the mountain mist was thick.”
The sparrow slowly flew onto Bai Yao’s shoulder at this point.
“The highest cultivation among them was only ordinary early Hundred Refinements Realm—nothing but chicken and dog. Useless.
Even if you’re only Ten Qi Realm, fourth layer, your Righteous Qi has been greatly amplified by me within Cangjie Grotto-Heaven, so these people were no match for you. However, in my view, the cultivation method you practice seems to hold extremely strict adherence to principles. This caused signs of a heart demon emerging within you during the illusion. Am I right?”
“Senior, you are correct. However…”
Bai Yao panted heavily, but her mind was rapidly calming down.
“I don’t care about killing these people. Those who kill others will be killed in turn. Nothing I did was in the least unjust or unrighteous. Since these people sought death, I naturally cut them all down.”
The sparrow cave spirit cast an admiring glance once more.
Bai Yao’s cultivation was still shallow, so having a heart demon wasn’t terrifying.
As long as she found a way to overcome it, the heart demon would instead become the catalyst for her cultivation to soar.
What was even more remarkable was that this young lady had perhaps killed for the first time, yet such decisiveness in killing was extremely rare for a newly ascended cultivator.
The sparrow cave spirit grew increasingly certain that the person it had chosen this time was the right one.
“Let’s go. We need to hurry. Watch out for those patches of mist.”
The sparrow quickly flew ahead to land on a branch, continuing to guide Bai Yao forward.
Until a day later, the pair—one human, one bird—arrived at the depths of the outer perimeter of the Cangjie secret realm, at the end of the stream, beneath a black stone cliff where a red mulberry tree grew.
Bai Yao looked up, and her pupils abruptly contracted.
On the hundred-zhang cliff face stood a strikingly conspicuous tree with leaves as vividly red as deep-autumn maple, looking utterly out of place among the surrounding green pines.
And at the base of the cliff where the red mulberry tree stood out from the forest, a dark stone path was faintly visible, winding all the way up to where the red mulberry tree perched atop the mountain.
But Bai Yao’s Righteous Qi could sense that the path was densely packed with ominous, hidden Sword Qi.
Anyone below the Hundred Refinements Realm who touched it would surely die.
However, after looking around, Bai Yao found that no one else had arrived here yet.
Her mind turned, as if she had thought of some mischievous, wicked idea.
Then, a smile instantly appeared on Bai Yao’s cold, delicate, and still youthful face.
That smile was a little less than proper.