Spy Among Spies Among Spies

Accompanied by overlapping, demonic reverberations, the female voice drifted near and far, intoxicating and languid, unrestrained and dissolute, lingering in the night sky over the grasslands like a mirage.

"So dizzy!"

Muyu Feifei swayed unsteadily, stumbling forward and burying her tiger-headed mask into the snacks.

The guests clutched their foreheads, their expressions dazed as they rocked, on the verge of collapsing.

Even Ning Zhongzi felt the world spinning, as if she were falling toward the edge of a whirlpool in a sea of wine.

At the distant center of the wine vortex, a fragrance emanated that was intoxicating to the extreme.

The more one struggled, the more fragrant the stirred wine became; the more one sank into the intoxicating aroma, the more one was drawn step by step into the center of the vortex, until one finally collapsed.

But things did not progress to that point.

Inside their spatial rings, the cyan runes on the Protective Bamboo Slip flickered in response, dispelling the sensation of dizziness entirely.

Ning Zhongzi snapped into clarity.

The Protective Bamboo Slip crafted by Lu Ya was specifically designed to resist the Husband-Slaying Sword Intent of Liu Xuanye; she had not expected it to also provide defense against auditory illusions.

Not only Ning Zhongzi, but Muyu Feifei, the immortal citizens, and even the refugees all remained clear-headed.

If not for the Protective Bamboo Slip from Lu Ya, everyone would have already fallen to the ground in a deep slumber.

Senior Brother Lu is truly unfathomable...

Thinking this, Ning Zhongzi furrowed her willow brows and gazed beyond the mountains, saying:

"Stop playing these tricks. There are only mortals here. Show yourself!"

The sky fell silent abruptly.

Fiery red sunset clouds saturated the air, seemingly permeated with an unspoken awkwardness.

After a long while.

The intoxicating, languid female voice contained a trace of imperceptible surprise.

"Not a single one fell?"

Ning Zhongzi remained composed, speaking calmly:

"Since you have come, why not descend and sit for a while?"

"I only came to see because I heard there was good wine tonight. I even prepared stories, so where is your wine?"

As she spoke, the drunken spiritual pressure suddenly intensified!

Like a rapidly expanding whirlpool in a sea of wine, the dissolute and decadent sounds swallowed everyone.

The crowd was deathly silent.

They did not even move a muscle.

Under the influence of the Protective Bamboo Slip, still, no one collapsed.

The crowd looked on in bewilderment.

They all stared in unison at the fiery red sky.

The sky fell silent once more.

Ning Zhongzi kept a straight face.

"There will be wine once the wedding banquet begins, but I have no desire to hear your stories."

"You are still as hurtful with your words as ever..."

The woman's voice remained drunken, making it impossible to discern her distance or direction.

"If one were to say that little sister Liu Xuanye has no man because of her physical condition, you have no man because your tongue is too venomous. As a woman, you are far too fierce; you are not the type I like, oh."

The wet nurse is too fierce?

Muyu Feifei's eyes suddenly lit up.

She scrambled to shout at the sky at the top of her lungs.

"Great minds think alike!"

"Senior, you are absolutely right!"

"Senior, what should we call you?"

"Me?"

The blood-stained red clouds gathered in rolling waves, and a violent, Immortal Sect-level spiritual pressure pushed the drunken, illusory sounds to their limit.

The woman chanted leisurely:

"Riding a gourd, I come with the wind, purging the nether between heaven and earth... One drink drains the rivers and seas, another drink swallows the stars and galaxies... A thousand jars and I do not fall, only I... hiccup... only I what was it again?"

The illusion array within this voice possessed the strength of an Immortal Sect level.

Any immortal below the Immortal Sect level, immortal citizen, or even low-rank Immortal Sect practitioner would be unable to withstand it!

"Hmm?"

The entire venue fell into a deathly silence. Everyone remained motionless, staring at the burning sky as if watching a group of idiots.

Nothing is more terrifying than a sudden silence in the air.

Ning Zhongzi's voice was icy cold.

"Wine Fox Immortal, stop messing around."

The two little girls looked up with innocent faces, but upon hearing the word "fox," they suddenly grew excited.

"Wine Fox Immortal?"

"Is Senior also a Beast Immortal?"

"We are Tiger Immortal!"

In the air, the woman's Whirlpool Wine Illusion Sound had reached its limit; if she pushed any harder, she would collapse herself.

Yet, the group of mortals below remained completely unmoved...

Could you at least give me some reaction?

Do I have no face to save?

At this moment, she suddenly understood why Black Stone had invited her to the Bamboo Spring Sect.

All these bizarre occurrences must be related to some new man who had arrived.

And yet, she could not sense any abnormality in spiritual power.

This gave her an inexplicable sense of frustration.

A gust of wind blew, the spiritual pressure dissipated, and the female voice lingering in the sky came to an abrupt halt.

Before Ning Zhongzi.

A young woman sat cross-legged on a giant, low-hanging gourd, swaying a small wine gourd in her hand. Amidst the swirling afterglow of the sunset, her graceful figure gradually became clear.

The woman had an exquisite round face and short hair that exuded a bold air. Though she wasn't tall, her figure was shapely, and her attire was extremely casual, even somewhat slovenly.

A fox-orange coarse cloth robe was draped loosely over her, failing to highlight a woman's slender beauty; it was even missing sleeves and a collar, revealing a large expanse of white at her chest.

It made the sheltered Immortal Realm commoners stare wide-eyed, thinking they had encountered a delinquent rogue immortal.

However, the silver Sword Cloud Court Emblem of the Immortal Court was engraved on the left lapel of her coarse robe, signaling her status—

An Immortal Court Deacon.

This was the first time the commoners present had seen an Immortal Court Deacon not wearing a uniform.

Muyu Feifei was stunned...

If their Sect Master dared to dress like that, the men of the Immortal Realm would go extinct.

Sitting on her large gourd and shaking her small one, the Wine Fox Immortal scanned her surroundings. Tilting her bold, round face, she brushed off her previous embarrassment and teased Ning Zhongzi:

"Your wedding ceremony is quite shabby."

Ning Zhongzi darkened her face and retorted:

"With an Immortal Court official like you gracing us with your presence, can it still be considered shabby?"

The Wine Fox Immortal gave an awkward laugh and tossed a scroll toward Ning Zhongzi.

This was a congratulatory gift sent by Black Stone on behalf of the Immortal Court—a Phoenix Luan Ink Treasure painted and inscribed by his own hand. It was said to have high artistic value, but in the Immortal Realm, such things were considered worthless trinkets.

"This is Black Stone's gift."

"Deacon Black Stone is very thoughtful."

Ning Zhongzi accepted the gift respectfully, then suddenly asked:

"What about yours?"

Taking a deep gulp of immortal nectar and wiping the wine stains from her lips, the Wine Fox Immortal threw her robe open and said generously:

"Isn't it enough that I'm gifting myself to your Bamboo Spring Sect?"

Ning Zhongzi shook her head.

"I never imagined Deacon Black Stone would send a woman as unreliable as you to serve as the Sect Resident Envoy."

"Is the Bamboo Spring Sect very reliable, then?"

In Ning Zhongzi's eyes, this woman was not only unreliable but also extremely dangerous.

A Sect Resident Envoy was an Immortal Court Deacon dispatched to reside within a sect to assist in its development, help commoners reclaim land, and simultaneously supervise the immortal ranks.

The Bamboo Spring Sect had once had a Sect Resident Envoy, but after the sect declined, the Immortal Court had withdrawn the position.

Black Stone had replied that he would send a Sect Resident Envoy.

Ning Zhongzi had assumed Black Stone would just send some random Immortal Lord Deacon to go through the motions; she never expected it to be this woman, the Wine Fox Immortal—she was even worse than an Immortal Lord!

Ning Zhongzi was no stranger to the Wine Fox Immortal.

She was a big name in the Colored Cloud Immortal Domain.

The Wine Fox Immortal was a half-fox immortal; her father was a fox immortal and her mother was human. Two thousand years ago, she had been a classmate of Liu Xuanye at the Immortal Academy in East Floating City.

Immortal Academy is a place specifically for training Immortal Court deacons, with students hailing from talented youths of nearby sects. Liu Xuanye comes from the Bamboo Spring Sect, while Wine Fox Immortal comes from the White Lotus Sect.

Both are the cream of the crop among their peers in terms of talent and appearance, known together as the Peerless Duo of East Floating Academy.

They are the fiercest of rivals, yet also the closest of friends... at least, that is what Wine Fox Immortal believes.

Later, Liu Xuanye was forcibly expelled from Immortal Academy due to issues with her constitution. Wine Fox Immortal drank herself into a stupor, caused a scene at Xingtian Pavilion, and was expelled right along with her.

Liu Xuanye returned to the Bamboo Spring Sect to succeed as Sect Master.

Wine Fox Immortal, meanwhile, was secretly groomed as a spy by Li Wuxie, the Chief of East Floating, and sent deep into the Beast Tide Forest, where she became a renowned thief mingling among various immortal bandit organizations.

She was later cultivated as a double agent by a certain bandit organization, returned to East Floating City by earning merit through suppressing other bandits, re-enrolled in Immortal Academy for further study, and ultimately took a roundabout path to success, grandly becoming an Immortal Court deacon.

There are even rumors in the streets that she is an informant for the former White Lotus Sect leader, Yun Zhonghe.

Now, she has been invited by Black Stone to serve as the Sect Resident Envoy for the Bamboo Spring Sect...

She is truly a spy among spies among spies!

Perhaps even she herself has become confused...

Whose spy am I, exactly?

Her danger lies not only in being a spy—

When she served as an informant for East Floating Immortal Court Chief Li Wuxie, Li Wuxie was demoted to herding sheep a few years later.

When she served as an informant for former White Lotus Sect leader Yun Zhonghe, Yun Zhonghe was soon injured and forced into seclusion.

When she served as an informant for the immortal bandit organizations in the Beast Nest Forest, those organizations collapsed one after another.

Some time ago, it was rumored she was going to take over Black Lotus.

And then...

There was no then.

Now it is the Bamboo Spring Sect's turn.

Ning Zhongzi has a bad feeling about this, yet she cannot refuse the personnel arrangements of the Immortal Court, so she simply asks:

"Although your current status is that of an Immortal Court deacon, I want to know: the Immortal Court, the White Lotus Sect, the Beast Nest Forest—which side are you actually representing here at the Bamboo Spring Sect?"

"Huh?"

Wine Fox Immortal is suddenly a bit dazed. She gulps down a mouthful of immortal nectar and says in a trance:

"Is such a thing really that important?"

Ning Zhongzi shakes her head, too weary to ask further.

"You are too drunk."

Wine Fox Immortal shakes the wine gourd in her hand meaningfully, a trace of melancholy flashing through her fox-like eyes.

"I haven't been drunk in two thousand years."

At this moment, Muyu Feifei gazes at the Wine Fox Immortal before her with eyes full of admiration.

Wow!

This uninhibited style, this melancholy gaze, this wistful tone...

This is the true bearing a Beast Immortal should have!

Who would dare order such a Beast Immortal around?

Does Lu Ya dare order her around?

He does not!

The sorrow in her eyes vanishes in an instant, and Wine Fox Immortal shifts her pretty face to say:

"I am just curious, what kind of low-down, dirty tricks did this mortal named Lu Ya use to actually conquer my little sister Xuanye?"

Ning Zhongzi says with a straight face:

"Senior Brother Lu is no mortal; do not mess around."

"You have already prepared the wine, yet you tell me not to mess around?"

Wine Fox Immortal says meaningfully, then abruptly changes the subject.

"Unless you give me a Green Bamboo Slip like the ones in their pockets."

Ning Zhongzi eyes her askance, feigning surprise:

"These are protective talismans to prevent accidental injury by the Sect Master. You are a woman with a cultivation base higher than the Sect Master's; are you afraid too?"

"Hic—"

Wine Fox Immortal chokes on her wine, tongue-tied and unable to speak.

Ning Zhongzi turns to leave.

"The wedding banquet is about to begin; you are expected to go on stage as well."

Watching the steep silhouette of Ning Zhongzi as she turns in the intoxicating sunset, Wine Fox Immortal reaches a conclusion that coincides with the hero of a certain health-conscious man—

This woman is not brainless.

Yet, she was still conquered.

Lu Ya, you truly have opened my eyes!