Beyond the Central Continent.
Happy Old Man stroked his beard and looked at Baili across from him.
"The matter is done. I have not forgotten what I promised you."
No joy showed on Baili's face.
Happy Old Man raised a brow. "What? Can't bear to do it?"
"I simply never expected him to truly shake the Demon Suppressing Pagoda for me, and in the end... come to such a fate."
"I did not send you to have a romance with him!"
Baili shook her head and said nothing more.
Happy Old Man stroked his beard. "Still... before Xue Yun died, he seemed to comprehend something... It is perplexing."
"Even you could not foresee it?"
Happy Old Man snorted. "How can Xue Yun be judged by common sense! Enough. Since the man is already dead, let us not speak of it further. You have another task next."
"What is it?"
"A strand of divine consciousness I left inside Xue Yun caught this: before he died, he gave his natal flying sword to his junior brother.
"Though that man's cultivation is mediocre, I am still somewhat uneasy. Go."
"I do not need to personally handle killing people, do I?" Baili said.
"Who told you to kill him? Make him become obsessed with you. That natal sword is the key to opening the Demon Suppressing Pagoda!"
"...I am a little tired now." Baili seemed not to have emerged from Xue Yun's death yet.
Happy Old Man said leisurely, "People like us are hardly worthy of saying we are tired."
Baili's phantom vanished before Happy Old Man's eyes.
Central Continent.
In an inn somewhere, a woman faced her dressing mirror and sighed softly.
"A junior brother? That would make him my brother-in-law? It sounds... rather morally transgressive. A little exciting."
"..."
The competition among