Ming Zhu was a man of his word. He immediately went on a spending spree through the night market, leaving Ye Weiai to pay the bills in a cold sweat until his coin purse was nearly empty.
Ming Zhu still hadn't had his fill, so Ye Weiai had to whisper a reminder: "Senior, we still need to buy the Xingyuan Jade Tokens tomorrow. If we keep buying things, we’ll have to run all the way back to Shishen."
Ming Zhu looked disappointed, though he didn't let it show too much. His slender, fair fingers were covered in oil. He nodded and said, "Fine, no more buying. Let’s head back."
Ye Weiai hurriedly held the umbrella for him, and the two soon returned to the inn where they were staying.
The original room had been turned into a mess by Ming Zhu and was uninhabitable. The proprietress was extremely attentive, providing them with a new room. Meanwhile, the corpses and bloodstains had been cleared away by someone unknown; there was no trace left of the fierce battle that had occurred earlier.
Ye Weiai was somewhat surprised, but Ming Zhu didn't think much of it. He stretched lazily and strolled into the room.
Outside the window, the rain pattered rhythmically like a beautiful melody. After lying on the bed for a while, Ye Weiai began to feel drowsy. Just as he was about to fall into a deep sleep, a world-shaking roar suddenly erupted from outside, booming like a thunderclap.
Ye Weiai immediately flipped out of bed, threw open the door, and looked outside.
In the distance, the pitch-black sky, heavy with dark clouds, looked as if it had been torn open. A brilliant white light shot out from the rift, nearly illuminating half the sky. From within that crack, silver bolts of terrifying lightning struck down one after another toward the earth. Judging by that earth-shattering momentum, wherever those bolts landed would surely be left with a charred, massive crater.
Watching the falling lightning, Ye Weiai felt an increasing sense of foreboding. He threw on his clothes and ran next door, pounding on the door.
"Senior! Senior, are you asleep?"
He knocked for a long time before Ming Zhu finally opened the door. He was scratching his messy hair, his inner robes rumpled, which made him look a bit more human than usual.
"Weiai, what is it?"
Ye Weiai said, "A crack has opened in the sky, and white lightning is falling from it!"
With such a celestial anomaly occurring, others outside had already been awakened, all of them pointing and discussing it incessantly.
Ming Zhu looked dazed. He let out a confused "Ah?" and walked barefoot to the window. He pushed it open, scanned the horizon, and his pupils constricted slightly.
Ye Weiai followed him. "Senior!"
Ming Zhu said, "A triple alignment of the Heart Mansion, the collision of Yin and Yang... a celestial omen of great chaos. My prediction came true."
Ye Weiai was still bewildered. He asked tentatively, "Does that mean a disaster is coming to the Five Continents?"
Ming Zhu covered his mouth and yawned. A tear clung to his long lashes, carrying a hint of charm he wasn't even aware of. He said lazily, "Disaster? Mmh, you could say that. Shou’an City might be invaded soon. We should leave early to avoid getting caught in the crossfire."
Ye Weiai gasped. "What?"
Seeing his bewildered expression, Ming Zhu chuckled. He reached out and tapped Ye Weiai’s forehead, saying softly, "Children shouldn't worry about so much. Go back to sleep. We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning to catch the Xingyuan. Whatever happens in Shou’an has nothing to do with us. Be good and listen to me."
Ming Zhu’s manner was so familiar and natural that Ye Weiai was stunned for a moment. He couldn't quite put his finger on what felt off, so he simply rubbed his head and allowed himself to be shooed back to his room.
The lightning fell throughout the entire night. The thunderous roars crackled and boomed until the horizon began to pale, only then gradually subsiding.
At the same time, far away at the horizon, Gui Ning suddenly snapped his eyes open. He spread his palm and looked at it. A cold wind brushed past, lifting his ink-black hair to reveal patches of jarring grey-white.
He murmured under his breath, "The array... has actually broken."
Years ago, the sacrifice of demon cultivators' corpses had been used to seal the barrier of Biri Cliff. Originally, it should have lasted at least fifty years. During those fifty years, Gui Ning, Ye Weiyang, and Zhou Mingzhong had done everything possible to layer multiple arrays upon the barrier. With those additions, the barrier should have held for seventy years at most.
Yet, before the fifty years were even up, it had unexpectedly broken on this day.
Gui Ning’s face was cold and indifferent. He pushed open his door and sent a message for Shang Yanfeng to come.
Shang Yanfeng had risen early, intending to head to the Long Night Villa in the Shishen Kingdom with Yan Xueyu. Upon receiving the message, he quickly arrived at the Great Hall of Rizhao.
Gui Ning said, "Do not go to Shishen for now. You and Xueyu must go directly to Shou’an City."
Shang Yanfeng frowned. "Shou’an City?"
***
Thousands of miles away in Shou’an City, all was silent. White mist swirled around the treetops, and the pear blossom branches were drenched with water.
Just past the Hour of the Rabbit, Ming Zhu was dragged out of bed by Ye Weiai and stumbled out of the inn in a daze.
The sun had not yet risen. The lanterns that had burned all night on the main street had flickered out, leaving only a few emitting a faint, ghostly glow. Surprisingly, the main street was currently teeming with people, all of whom seemed to be heading toward the city gate.
Ming Zhu’s eyes were half-closed, and he nearly got shoved into a wall by the crowd. He mumbled, "What’s going on?"
He looked up. For some reason, the sky above the city gate was glowing like daylight, standing out starkly against the darkness. People were moving in groups, chattering incessantly, their faces full of curiosity as they walked toward the gate.
Ming Zhu found it strange. He grabbed a random passerby and asked, "Sir, has something strange happened at the city gate? Why is everyone heading there?"
The person he caught seemed to be in a hurry to watch the spectacle and simply tossed back a sentence: "It seems demon cultivators have emerged from Biri Cliff. And not just one or two—a whole horde of them."
Ming Zhu let out a soft "Whoa."
Ye Weiai whispered, "Senior, should we go take a look too?"
Ming Zhu said, "What’s there to see? Come on, we have to catch the Xingyuan. If we’re late, then..."
Before he could finish, his peripheral vision caught a figure dressed in a black robe among the crowd nearby. His voice cut off abruptly, and his eyes fixed on the person whose face was half-hidden by a hood. He seemed to freeze on the spot.
Ye Weiai asked, "Senior?"
Ming Zhu murmured, "Thirteen?"
He remained frozen for a moment until someone bumped into him, snapping him out of his trance. Without looking back, he said to Ye Weiai, "Go to the Xingyuan platform outside the city and wait for me. I think I saw an old friend. I’ll be back soon."
Having said that, he didn't wait for Ye Weiai’s reaction and dove into the crowd, chasing after the receding black-robed figure.
Ye Weiai seemed to want to go watch the commotion as well, but with so many people around, it was inevitable that someone might be looking to hunt him down. He pouted, pulled the hood of his cloak over his head, and walked in the opposite direction.
***
Zhou Fuxue had rushed to the Xingyuan platform outside Shou’an City during the night to wait for the morning departure at the Hour of the Dragon.
Over the past fifty years of searching for Ming Zhu, he had grown accustomed to sleeping in the wild. He had leaned against a random rock and fallen into a heavy sleep. In his half-awake state, he heard a burst of booming thunder, which blurred together with the nightmare that had tormented him for fifty years.
In the nightmare, bolts of lightning fell from the sky. Ming Zhu, dressed in white, stood far off at the edge of the horizon, smiling brightly at him.
Zhou Fuxue only remembered struggling to run toward him, as if he had run ten thousand miles, yet he could never catch up. He could only watch helplessly as Ming Zhu drifted further away amidst the falling lightning, eventually vanishing.
The despair of searching without end nearly swallowed him whole.
Zhou Fuxue felt as if he had stepped into a void; his body trembled, and he suddenly jolted awake.
The deafening roar of the lightning from his nightmare did not vanish upon waking. Zhou Fuxue sat on the ground for a long time before staring blankly at the rift that had opened in the distant sky.
That was... the direction of Biri Cliff.
In an instant, Zhou Fuxue didn't know what connection he had made, but he ignored the Xingyuan entirely. He grabbed the Wuxin Sword and sprinted toward Shou’an City.
By the time he reached the city, many people were already streaming through the main street, rushing toward the city gate to see the spectacle. Zhou Fuxue hid himself in the crowd, pressing a hand against his inexplicably racing heart as he moved forward quickly.
Shou’an City was not large. Soon, Zhou Fuxue pushed through the crowd and leaped onto the high city wall.
At that moment, a deafening sound suddenly erupted from the wilderness outside the city. It sounded like thousands of giant beasts stampeding, a roar even louder than the previous thunder.
A moment later, a cloud of dust rose from the horizon. As they drew closer, the crowd huddled at the city gate realized that it was indeed countless massive demon beasts, baring claws and fangs as they thundered toward the entrance.
The crowd was stunned for a heartbeat, and then screams of terror rose one after another. For a time, the city gate was a chaotic mess of noise; however excited they had been to arrive, they were just as panicked as they scrambled to flee.
However, to everyone's surprise, those murderous demon beasts did not sweep directly into Shou’an City. Instead, they stopped with disciplined precision a hundred yards from the gate.
The herd split in two, and a slender human figure stepped elegantly from their midst. Compared to the massive beasts surrounding him, he looked like a tiny ant, yet all the demon beasts bowed their heads in submission to him, showing both reverence and longing.
Though the people in Shou’an City had not reached the pinnacle of cultivation, those at the Golden Core stage could see things a hundred yards away clearly. Naturally, they saw the strange man who had appeared among the demon beasts.
The man wore moon-white ceremonial robes that trailed on the ground. His face was handsome yet eerie; just looking at him from afar felt as if one might lose their soul.
Even more startling were the nine massive, illusory fox tails swaying gently behind him. The early spring wind still carried a hint of chill, blowing the ink-black hair that hung down his back, which drifted slowly along with the fox tails.
Shou’an City fell silent for a heartbeat. Suddenly, someone recognized him, their voice sharp and terrified.
"—Na Lian!"
"It’s Na Lian! He’s actually not dead?!"
Even though the Ghostly Fragrance, Na Lian, had been dead for hundreds of years, the entire Five Continents still remembered the name that had once struck terror into their hearts.
The moment that name was called out, the previously silent crowd instantly boiled over with terror, agitation, and above all, confusion.
Zhou Fuxue had met Xi Chu before and was very familiar with the aura of demon cultivators. When he saw the nine-tailed phantom swaying behind Na Lian—exactly like Xi Chu’s—he recognized his identity instantly.
Na Lian’s lips were deep red, and a streak of red shadow hooked the corners of his eyes. He lifted his gaze slightly, a smile filling those eerie, fox-like pupils.
A man whose single glance could make one lose their mind.
***
