Liu Xu's Discovery

The blacksmith raised his head and looked at the Ghost-Head Saber whistling toward him.

The icy blade gleamed with a cold light beneath the moon, sending chills through one's heart.

The man holding the saber wore an equally frigid expression. His gaze was like ice that had never melted for ten thousand years; one could not help looking away after a single glance.

He had never imagined he would die this way.

Having roamed the martial world for years, the blacksmith had considered many ways he might die. After all, few who walked the roads of the martial world met a good end.

But he had never imagined he would be burned alive.

The reason was perhaps that he had truly never expected his opponent to be more than just a martial artist.

He and the proprietress had discussed it. Even if their opponent was an Eighth Rank martial artist, even within a martial artist's striking range, they had been absolutely certain of victory.

His hidden weapons and saber could not break through the blacksmith's iron armor. That was no different from tying up his hands.

They could win.

They had been very confident.

Yet the result was that this man was not merely a martial artist—or rather, he was more than merely a martial artist.

At the brink of life and death, the blacksmith recalled the time he and the proprietress had slaughtered an entire village.

Back then, they had snatched away every child in that village, except for one held in a village woman's arms.

When the proprietress approached to take it, the village woman—who had already died—opened her eyes and used the kitchen knife in her arms to leave a wound on the proprietress's abdomen.

Perhaps they should have been more cautious. After all, this man carried more than a dozen lives on his back.

Or perhaps they should never have given rise to greed.

But it was all too late. How could there be so many "perhapses" in this world? The blacksmith only felt his vision blur. He seemed to hear something hit the ground, and after that, he heard nothing else.

—His head struck the ground, his eyes still wide in death.

Xu Bai held the Ghost-Head Saber without even sparing the blacksmith's corpse a glance, then lightly stamped his foot.

A golden Eight Trigrams formation reappeared beneath his feet, and flames engulfed the blacksmith.

In the glow of the fire, Xu Bai's expression looked somewhat sinister.

Before long, the blacksmith had become a charred corpse.

"They're both old hands in the martial world. How could they still not know the balance of gains and losses? Greed takes lives."

Using the Ghost-Head Saber as a hoe, Xu Bai dug a large pit in the ground and buried the two charred corpses.

The bodies had already been burned black. Before burying them, he had poked around everywhere with the Ghost-Head Saber, but found nothing useful.

And now that the flames had burned the corpses beyond recognition, Xu Bai was finally at ease.

After thinking it over, he carried the Wooden Box on his back and walked several miles. Then he dug another pit, poured the Iron Beads from the Wooden Box into it, left a mark, and only then returned to Sheng County with the empty box.

By then, the night was already deep.

Xu Bai arrived at the Blacksmith Shop, kicked open the door, took several farming tools from inside, and quietly returned home.

"The Iron Beads can't be used again, but I need new hidden weapons. Looks like I'll have to think of another way."

Sitting on his bed, Xu Bai pondered.

While he was mulling it over, a figure in white was walking through the streets in the dead of night.

Liu Xu felt that something was very wrong.

Especially after returning home, the more she thought about it, the more wrong it seemed.

Paper Crane Tracking had led directly to the Blacksmith Shop. How could there be no clues at all? Could Paper Crane Tracking be fake?—Impossible.

There could not be a problem with Paper Crane Tracking. Even if there had been some deviation, it still proved that the Blacksmith Shop was connected to it.

Since that possibility did not hold, only one other possibility remained.

—The proprietress of the Blacksmith Shop had lied!

Liu Xu could think of no other explanation. In a shop that specialized in making farming tools, if someone had commissioned strange and unusual items, they would definitely remember it.

That left only one path: lying.

The more she thought about it, the stronger that conviction grew in her heart.

So, under cover of night, Liu Xu returned to the Blacksmith Shop.

As soon as she reached the entrance, she raised her hand and gently knocked on the door, while taking a writing brush from her sleeve.

The brush had never touched ink and looked brand-new. The words "Soaring Ascent" were written on its shaft.

Her other hand was not empty either. A book abruptly appeared, cradled in her palm.

"Creak—"

No one opened the door. The instant Liu Xu knocked, the door swung open under the force of her knock.

"No one's here?"

Through the opening, Liu Xu saw only darkness within.

At this hour, they should have been asleep. Why had they not barred the door? Liu Xu wondered.

Even if no one was home, they should have locked it, shouldn't they? Could someone really have forgotten to lock the door?

With that thought in mind, she raised her right hand, and light flickered around the brush.

The tip of the brush danced lightly, writing a hazy character in the air.

The character shone with a vast white radiance and shot into the house.

The light instantly illuminated the room, revealing that it was completely empty.

"Really no one?" Liu Xu was slightly stunned. Her willow-leaf brows furrowed, and her red lips parted beneath the white veil.

Inside the room, apart from the glowing character, there was not a single person.

"How strange."

After a brief moment of thought, Liu Xu opened the book in her left hand.

The book was filled with dense lines of writing.

Once it opened, its pages began to fall free, drifting up and down around Liu Xu.

Already possessed of an otherworldly air, Liu Xu looked, with those pages framing her, like an immortal maiden stepping out of a book—elegant and serene.

Scholars used Divine Essence as their foundation, and most of their methods were connected to books.

The essays they wrote in their daily lives formed books, capable of both attack and defense.

The writing brush was the core, and books were the vessel.

Of course, scholars' methods were not limited to this.

It was said that within academies were true transcendent figures who could not only form books in midair, but whose writings piled as high as their bodies. Any one of their works, falling into a scholar's hands, could unleash boundless wonders.

But with Liu Xu's Eighth Rank strength, she still needed to rely on paper.

"It's starting."

Liu Xu did not enter. She remained where she was and silently spoke in her heart.

After she finished speaking, those pages began to change.

The pages, originally floating with immortal grace, gradually yellowed, while streams of black qi spread from them.

In the blink of an eye, Liu Xu transformed from a fairy in flowing white into a demoness who ensnared souls and stole spirits.

"Ah, the side effects of Paper Crafting Essentials." Liu Xu sighed, her expression troubled.

What woman in the world did not love beauty?

Naturally, she was no exception.

This aura did not suit her at all.

Of course, in the eyes of certain men, being a soul-stealing enchantress was actually preferable to being a fairy in flowing white.

The situation was unusual now, so Liu Xu merely lamented it where she stood before walking straight inside.

The pages seemed to possess spirits of their own, guarding Liu Xu in their midst.

She began searching the room. After searching it once, she found nothing.

There was no one there—not even a single living creature.

Liu Xu was not anxious. She continued searching patiently, not overlooking even a single piece of wood.

After a while, she stopped before a wall and began knocking on it with her hand.

"Knock, knock, knock?"

The sound was dull, with an echo.

"Hollow?" Liu Xu froze for a moment, then understood.

Judging from the sound, the wall was hollow, with a hidden compartment inside.

Why would an ordinary household have a hidden compartment?—There was definitely something wrong!

After thinking for a moment, she used the writing brush to guide her power.

Righteous Qi surged forth, directing one of the pages toward the wall.

Boom!

The wall collapsed outright, revealing what lay behind it.

A cold wind swept past...

Corpses filled her vision, a sight too ghastly to behold.