"Name."
"Li San... If I voluntarily tell you everything, you'll let me leave, right?"
"Where are the other Green Deer Mountain disciples now?"
"On Ox Horn Mountain, less than ten miles from here... A promise once made must be kept. You'll definitely spare my life, right?"
Li San, a Green Deer Mountain Disciple, knelt on the ground with his knees pressed together and both hands clasped over his head. He looked up uneasily at Chen Xuan, who was interrogating him.
Chen Xuan folded his arms across his chest. His eyes were filled with an oppressive force as he asked curtly:
"How many are there, and how strong are they?"
"There are six more. Senior Brother Shen Lingfeng is the strongest. He's a direct disciple of Green Deer Mountain and has undergone Second Ascension. He came to the Southern Wilderness this time to seek the opportunity for a third ascension... Junior Brother Wang Chan is a Yellow Millet Dream, a peerless genius. He's advanced rapidly recently..."
Li San spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube, selling out his fellow disciples without holding anything back. He showed no psychological burden whatsoever.
He had taken a kick earlier and had no idea how many bones he had broken. Once captured, he could not escape at all, so he could only hope that his opponent would show mercy and let him off.
Li San knew perfectly well that this hope was exceedingly faint, but with death standing before him, it was hard not to feel a trace of relief.
As long as I don't die, who cares if someone else does? Green Deer Mountain betraying its own disciples is only natural!
"Shen Lingfeng, Second Ascension..."
Chen Xuan's heart sank. These people from Green Deer Mountain were actually this powerful. Things had become troublesome.
According to Li San, the strongest, Senior Brother Shen Lingfeng, had extraordinary talent and a deep background. He had been raised with Green Deer Mountain's full support since childhood. During his first ascension, his physical strength had already reached over six thousand pounds. Now, after his Second Ascension, his strength exceeded ten thousand pounds. His battle prowess was formidable, no weaker than some of the sect's administrative elders.
He was the leading figure among the younger generation in the Red Crow City region and could not be underestimated.
Seeing Chen Xuan lost in thought, Li San muttered softly, "I trusted that you were a man of your word, so I disregarded my fellow disciples' ties and told you all this information..."
"You may leave..."
Chen Xuan waved his hand, indicating that Li San could go.
"...Huh?"
Li San's eyes widened at once. He stood rooted to the spot. This man had actually released a tiger back into the mountains—wasn't he afraid Li San would return and warn the others?
"Why are you still standing there?"
Chen Xuan frowned and barked.
"I'm leaving right now! Don't worry, I'm the tightest-lipped person there is. Once I get back, I absolutely won't reveal anything about you!"
Li San shouted excitedly. He rolled across the ground, wriggling like a worm until he reached the edge of the forest. Only then did he scramble up, ecstatic, and flee desperately into the woods.
"The people of Green Deer Mountain really are all talents..."
Chuckling, Chen Xuan climbed a large tree and gazed in the direction Li San had gone. He then turned and stared at the devastated battlefield and the Qi Refiner's corpse below, confusion filling his heart.
Why hadn't the Small Underworld and Mystic Cat Goddess come?
Senior Brother Chu of Green Deer Mountain had a spell on him...
Something major must be happening somewhere beneath the night sky. Chen Xuan gazed into the distance and thought.
Beneath a scarlet canopy of sky, a temple stood in solemn austerity.
Its upturned eaves stabbed toward the heavens. A black cat with a jade pendant hanging around its neck leaned over the eaves and peered down at what was happening inside the temple.
She furrowed her feline face tightly, then looked toward the Southern Wilderness Mountains to the south. A trace of anxiety swept through her heart.
Hurry!
Faster!!
"Six six six six six six—"
A human voice suddenly erupted from the grim, frigid temple. It sounded as though it were stuck in someone's throat. Its frequency grew faster and faster until it became a shrill, ear-piercing scream.
"Desire desire desire desire desire desire—"
"Bang!"
After a muffled sound like a neck being twisted apart, a square object the size of a washbasin flew out of the temple.
A monk's head landed on the ground.
Its scalp gleamed, marked by twelve ordination scars. Its straight-edged, square shape looked as though it had been carved with a knife. The Ascetic Monk's eyes were empty and lifeless. Golden-white blood gushed from his zipper-like mouth as a thunderous voice shrieked:
"Heaven heaven heaven heaven heaven heaven—"
It was finally almost over!
A flash of delight crossed Mystic Cat Goddess's eyes. Once this place was dealt with, the dead ghosts in the Southern Wilderness Mountains would still be waiting for her!
"Heaven your mother's head..."
A soft, crisp voice, as clear as wind chimes, drifted out from the temple. "Monks of Hanging Temple, I'm your mother..."
Mystic Cat Goddess leaped down from the eaves. The jade pendant around her neck swayed gently as she prepared to begin the cleanup.
Within her field of vision, a swaying figure walked out of the temple on bare jade feet.
A lustrous, pale, delicate woman's hand reached down and picked up the Ascetic Monk's head...
Six Desires Heaven!
The vast mountain wilderness lay beneath the shroud of pitch-black night.
Escape!
Li San ran swiftly through the mountains and forests like a wounded beast, glancing back from time to time as his delight grew more and more unrestrained.
"He really let me leave Small Stone Lake!"
"There are actually such foolish people in this world!"
"Haha... Green Deer Mountain always repays a grudge. Once I report this to Senior Brother Shen, we'll come kill you together. You won't live past tonight!"
Li San's body trembled as he broke into uncontrollable laughter.
In the distance, orange-yellow campfire glowed atop a small hill beneath the night sky, and several familiar figures appeared.
He had seen Senior Brother Shen and Junior Brother Wang Chan!
Moreover, amid the flickering firelight, he seemed to see the exhilarating scene of that arrogant man kneeling on the ground and kowtowing as he begged for mercy.
The tension in Li San's body finally relaxed. Just then, a chill suddenly rose from behind him, raising gooseflesh along the back of his neck.
"Crack!"
A large hand reached out from the darkness and twisted Li San's neck apart.
"You..."
Li San's eyes bulged. Blood froth spilled from his mouth as he made an indistinct murmur. Then his spine was twisted completely through, and his head drooped limply.
Chen Xuan released him. "Sorry, you were caught by me again..."
He had followed Li San the entire way, moving stealthily for more than ten miles until he reached the place where Green Deer Mountain had stopped to regroup.
Although Li San had sold out his fellow disciples completely and revealed a great deal of information, Chen Xuan could not possibly believe him outright. He had to follow him and verify everything.
Chen Xuan stood beside the corpse and lifted his head, gazing toward the mountain several hundred meters away.
"Junior Brother Wang Chan, it's time for us to meet."
"Senior Brother, he's come looking for me..."
The campfire swayed, illuminating several figures in green robes.
A handsome youth of sixteen or seventeen, with a slender build and long hair draped over his shoulders, still carried a trace of childishness. His ethereal bearing resembled that of an immortal. With both hands behind his back, he gazed toward some place below the mountain shrouded in darkness, a strange smile curling at the corners of his mouth.
Wang Chan!
"Junior Brother Wang Chan, what are you looking at?"
A young man named Shen Lingfeng approached and asked. He had swordlike brows, bright starry eyes, and extraordinary looks.
Wang Chan turned around, his face changing into an innocent, pure, and youthful smile. "Senior Brother Shen."
"Ah, haha, Junior Brother Wang."
Shen Lingfeng inexplicably shuddered and thought, You're an old monster who's lived for several hundred years in a dream. In the real world, you've put on the skin of a young man—why are you pretending to be tender?
Wang Chan took a sheet of paper covered in tiny writing from his sleeve and handed it over with a smile. "Senior Brother Shen, I've written a new spell. Would you care to study it?"
Shen Lingfeng only glanced at it before drawing a sharp breath.
This casually written spell was actually even more profound than Green Deer Mountain's inheritance. He became utterly absorbed, savoring it as he read for a while. In the end, he painfully tossed the paper into the campfire.
"Fsssh..."
The flames engulfed the paper like a burning butterfly before reducing it to ashes.
"Junior Brother Wang Chan, why did you show me this? In the end, it was all just flowers in a mirror and the moon's reflection in water."
Shen Lingfeng gave a bitter laugh, then continued asking, "What were you looking at just now? Could some rare heavenly treasure be about to emerge again?"
When one man attained the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascended to Heaven. We've benefited far too much lately!
Wang Chan stared at Shen Lingfeng's eager face. Then he pointed toward a corner below the mountain and said softly:
"At this very moment, there should be someone who fears neither Heaven nor Earth standing there, watching us coldly..."
Shen Lingfeng looked over in confusion. It was already dark, and the moonlight was faint. The mountain forest was shrouded in gloom, and nothing could be seen.
"Who? Has he got a death wish, daring to provoke us?"
Wang Chan looked at Shen Lingfeng. His eyes revealed extreme pity and contempt, as though a lofty Celestial Being were looking down upon a pitiful ant on the ground.
His hair fluttered in the wind. Ethereal and untainted by the mortal world, he spoke in a detached tone.
"Senior Brother Shen, you will die at this person's hands shortly..."
Before you continue