The Source

A flash of cyan and gold light flickered in Chen Ming's eyes and vanished, as he too transformed into the appearance of a young Daoist.

The two walked slowly, and as the sky darkened, they arrived in the city.

Qing Ling pointed the way, and before long, they reached the location of the Gao family, which had already been wiped out.

Ever since the Gao family was massacred, their mansion had fallen into complete desolation, shrouded in a faint, lingering Yin Resentment Qi that made people uneasy, causing everyone to steer clear of it.

"What was so special about the Gao family, or what secret did they hide? What connection do they have to the Mastermind?"

"Let's go and find out!"

Chen Ming stepped forward and gently pushed open the dust-covered gate.

A wave of Yin Cold Qi rushed straight toward his face.

If a Mortal were struck by this, they would surely fall ill or suffer misfortune.

But when it hit Chen Ming, it felt no different from an ordinary cool breeze.

As for Qing Ling, she didn't even need mentioning; she even felt the Yin Cold Qi lacked a certain edge, not cold enough for her taste.

Chen Ming relied on his Supernatural Ability, but he wasn't reckless.

The Mastermind lurked in the shadows, scheming against the Golden Light Divine Lord, secretly sending messages to the Chayi Sect disciples to lure them to Cuiping Mountain.

Though the plot was deep, it also revealed the man's strength—at most on par with the Golden Light Divine Lord and Ling Yangzi; otherwise, he wouldn't need to hide in the shadows and resort to such roundabout tricks.

Chen Ming swept his Spiritual Sense out and immediately detected the convergence point of the Yin Cold Qi.

That convergence point was a woman's boudoir.

The room was arranged as a bridal chamber, covered in bright red everywhere. On the dressing table sat a Golden Hairpin and Dangle, jade beads, a Dragon and Phoenix Hair Comb, and a Bronze Mirror.

Chen Ming entered the room, and the extinguished red candles reignited without flame, the Yin Cold Qi intensifying.

A Golden Light Divine Flame gathered in Chen Ming's hand, sizzling as it burned away the Yin Cold Qi in the room.

"Yinyin?"

"You shouldn't have come back!"

Suddenly, a crisp voice echoed faintly.

Immediately after, a surge of Yin Cold Qi poured out from the Bronze Mirror on the dressing table, coalescing before it into a woman with flowing hair, clad in a large red wedding dress.

This woman appeared abruptly and showed no fear of the Golden Light Divine Flame in Chen Ming's hand.

"The Golden Light Divine Lord died by your hand, didn't he!"

"Oh? Yinyin actually merged with that tree on Cuiping Mountain and became a demon."

"Well, it's fine. Back then, I used a Secret Method to refine your head, just hoping that you and your mother could take revenge. That you survived is also a stroke of fate!"

The Red-Clad Woman gently picked up the Dragon and Phoenix Hair Comb from the dressing table and slowly combed her hair.

Then, she slowly turned to the Bronze Mirror, tracing her brows and fixing her hairpin.

Chen Ming couldn't sense her strength at all for a moment and dared not act rashly.

"It was you who turned Yinyin into a demon, wasn't it? Ling Yangzi must have died by your hand too!" The woman inserted the last Golden Hairpin and Dangle into her hair.

She slowly turned around and asked abruptly, "Am I beautiful?"

Chen Ming was already on guard, so the woman's Soul-Hooking Technique failed to take effect at all.

The Golden Light Divine Flame flew from his hand, but before it reached the woman, it silently extinguished.

The woman sat quietly, then turned back, staring at the Bronze Mirror, and smiled faintly: "I am beautiful!"

Alarms blared in Chen Ming's heart; the room, under the influence of the Yin Cold Qi, had formed a layer of frost.

"Sister, I remember now—it was you who kept my head alive!"

Qing Ling suddenly spoke, and just after saying that, her eyes reddened.

The spreading frost in the room paused and stopped.

"But my mother is already dead, and Yinyin is dead too. In this vast world, I have no home left. Now, only Qing Ling lives!"

Qing Ling wiped away her Tears and looked at the Red-Clad Woman.

"Ah..."

The Red-Clad Woman sighed and withdrew the Yin Cold Qi from the room.

"This Fellow Daoist saved her, which shows your character. Please, sit and talk."

Without any extra movement, she brushed her hand over the Bronze Mirror, and the scenery in the room flipped, transporting them to the courtyard.

The moonlight was clear, and in the courtyard stood a stone table and stone stools, with a tea cup set on the table.

"Fellow Daoist, please sit!"

The woman sat down first and invited Chen Ming.

Though the woman's methods were hard to gauge, when she made her move, Chen Ming sensed it—she hadn't stepped beyond the Contemplation Realm.

Chen Ming hadn't revealed his full hand either and wasn't afraid of her, so he sat down calmly.

"Fellow Daoist, are you a Ghost Cultivator?"

Chen Ming noticed that the woman's body was illusory, entirely condensed from Yin Cold Qi, and thus asked.

The woman lifted the teacup, shielded it with her sleeve, took a sip, and set it back on the table. "Yes and no."

"Since we're sitting down to talk, I won't hide it from you."

"I was originally a Spirit Condensation Realm Cultivator. I was injured in a fight with someone, lost my body, and had to take this form temporarily, hiding here."

It turned out the woman was named Situ Yuelan, once a Spirit Condensation Realm Cultivator. Now fallen on hard times, she had, by a twist of fate, taken refuge within that bronze mirror.

Originally, she had been sleeping inside the bronze mirror, never expecting that the Gao Family, in order to curry favor with the powerful, would marry off their daughter.

But the Gao Family's daughter refused and fled in the night.

The Gao Family then found a woman who looked similar to replace her, and to avoid future trouble, they silenced all of that woman's relatives.

Controlled by the Gao Family's poison, the woman had resigned herself to her fate, only hoping to exchange some silver to ease her family's hardship.

In the end, when she heard the news that her entire family had been killed, she steeled her heart and, carrying immense resentment, hanged herself in her room.

That surge of resentment awakened Situ Yuelan, who had been sleeping in the bronze mirror.

Borrowing that Yin Cold Resentment Qi, Situ Yuelan recovered somewhat and then hid within the bronze mirror to slowly recuperate.

She secretly spread a flawed method of using Incense and Fire to refine the spirit and break through to the Spirit Condensation Realm, hooking both the Golden Light Divine Lord and Ling Yangzi.

However, to settle the karmic debt of the woman who had awakened her, Situ Yuelan promised to wipe out the entire Gao Family.

Later, pressed for time, the Gao Family could no longer find a substitute bride, and they paid a heavy price to appease the anger of the powerful family they had been trying to ingratiate themselves with.

But that powerful family gave the Gao Family a formula, instructing them to find suitable young girls to refine Evil Pills.

The Evil Pill's only effect was to allow ordinary mortals to sense the Heaven and Earth Origin Energy and cultivate a thread of magical power.

But that was the limit; it didn't even count as the Qi Gathering Realm.

When Yinyin was harmed, Situ Yuelan happened to calculate that the Golden Light Divine Lord and the Spirit Tree on Cuiping Mountain had reached their prime.

So she acted, using Yin Cold Qi to refine the skull, and through Yinyin and her mother's hands, annihilated the entire Gao Family.

By doing this, she settled the previous karmic debt, and Yinyin also avenged herself. It should have been a win-win, with neither owing the other anything.

But unexpectedly, after the Gao Family was wiped out, Situ Yuelan sensed that the karmic ties had not dissipated.

After careful calculation, she realized that Gao Yuzhu, the Gao Family daughter who had fled the marriage, had been missed.

That Gao Yuzhu had found an opportunity and had already joined the Chayi Sect.

Situ Yuelan, being cunning and calculating, thought to kill multiple birds with one stone. She lured Yinyin and her mother to Cuiping Mountain and used her methods to secretly draw the Chayi Sect members there.

When the fight broke out, Situ Yuelan would profit from the chaos, devouring the Golden Light Divine Lord and the Spirit God refined from the mountain's Spirit Tree to restore her own strength.

Once her strength was restored, she would follow the tangled karmic threads to lure out Gao Yuzhu, who had joined the Chayi Sect, kill her to settle the matter, and then slip away cleanly.

Extra chapter! Begging for Follow-up Reading, Favorites, and Recommendation Tickets! Fellow Daoists, lend me your strength, that I may become a demon soon!