Mount Zhongnan, Celestial Master Sect.
The morning sunlight pierced the layers of cloud and mist, spilling over the ancient sect gates and stone steps.
The moisture lingering in the woods had yet to fully disperse.
A few tits perched on the upturned eaves of Main Peak Hall, occasionally letting out clear chirps that brought a trace of life to this Taoist sect, quiet for so many years.
Today, the Celestial Master Sect remained particularly deserted.
Dugu Linglong was still in the Imperial Capital.
After bringing Chu Xuan back to Mount Zhongnan last night, Elder Feng had left with the Liu Family's people.
Now, Chu Xuan was the only living person left in the vast sect grounds.
Inside Main Peak Hall.
Clad in his tattered Azure Taoist Robe, Chu Xuan knelt dejectedly on a meditation cushion.
After a night of regulating his breathing, his internal injuries had stabilized somewhat.
But his face remained pale, and a wound that had yet to fully heal lingered at the corner of his mouth.
On the altar at the front of the hall, three sticks of incense burned slowly.
Wisps of smoke curled upward.
They finally dispersed before a portrait of an old man dressed in purple Taoist robes.
The old man in the painting had white hair and a white beard, held a fly whisk, and had deep, tranquil eyes.
He was Xuan Chenzi—Dugu Linglong's master, who had passed away in meditation years ago, and Chu Xuan's grandmaster, whom he had never actually met.
After returning to Mount Zhongnan last night, Chu Xuan had been in no mood to rest.
Whenever he closed his eyes, the absurd scenes at the Liu Family Ancestral Grave surfaced in his mind.
The stunned, dumbfounded looks on the faces of the Liu Family members.
Liu Ruyan's icy expression,