Everything's a Mess

Three strands of fate intertwined like a twisted rope, gnawing and coiling until they whipped up a vortex, whistling away in another direction.

Chehou Yan's head hissed as a wisp of green smoke rose, his hair standing bolt upright as if he had been struck by lightning. He trembled violently, his eyes rolled back, and his mouth hung wide open.

The next instant, he bolted upright from the bed like a marionette, his eyes bloodshot as he charged toward the door.

At the same time, he shrieked at the top of his lungs, "My lady! I am coming to save you!"

Black Longyu stood by the bedside, a look of bewilderment crossing her ugly face.

Her thick lips parted slightly, her buckteeth gleaming with an oily luster in the candlelight, and she stared blankly into the distance, muttering incoherently:

"My husband... I am coming!"

Meanwhile, a sudden change gripped Fallen Leaf Valley.

A pitch-black light barrier crashed down from the sky, sealing the entire valley tight.

Dark red veins pulsed across the surface of the barrier like writhing blood vessels, and a thick, pungent stench of blood filled the air.

Immediately after, a voice echoed throughout the valley.

"Congratulations, you have been chosen by the Blood Fiend Sect as subjects for our trial."

"From this moment on, this valley is the Blood Fiend Sect's trial ground."

"Kill! Carve a path of blood and prove your Dao through slaughter—the [Blood Slaughter Dao Foundation] lies right before you!"

After a brief, deathly silence, the cultivators in the valley finally reacted.

Blood Fiend Sect! Trial ground! Dao Foundation!

"Blood Fiend Sect! Have you all gone mad? I am Zhao Wudi of the Zhao family in Green Wood Immortal City! If you dare touch a hair on my head, my family will slaughter every last one of you!"

A cultivator in brocade robes drew his sword and roared.

Bang!

A pale, bony hand burst through his chest, clutching a beating heart between its five fingers.

Li Wuyou wore a sinister smile, his tongue licking the blood from his hand as his eyes glowed with a scarlet light.

"The Zhao family? Never heard of them."

All around, shadowy figures flickered into view, each exuding an evil aura with faces like demonic masks.

Wails erupted throughout the valley as the cultivators scattered in a desperate flight.

Shen Yue's expression shifted.

The Blood Fiend Sect intended to use every cultivator in Fallen Leaf Valley to help their disciples forge a Dao Foundation!

The cultivation system of Ancient Wei was bizarre; here, a Dao Foundation was not achieved through Foundation Establishment Pills or by perfecting one's essence, energy, and spirit as in Chusheng Market. Instead, it required fulfilling specific conditions or performing an extreme act to forge the foundation.

For the path of slaughter, there was the method of "proving the Dao through killing"—one had to kill a certain number of people or slay enough peers to forge the [Blood Slaughter Dao Foundation].

At this moment, Fallen Leaf Valley was nothing more than a forge for the Blood Fiend Sect's disciples.

The old woman had not lied; a great catastrophe had indeed befallen Fallen Leaf Valley.

Shen Yue looked at the old woman again.

He had clearly sensed her casting some secret technique on him earlier.

But that technique had merely curved before him, inexplicably veering off as if something had pulled it to collide elsewhere.

While he pondered, Granny Withered Grass, who had been incredibly cautious until now, suddenly swaggered out from the shadows.

She cupped her face with both hands, her withered, bony fingers tracing her shriveled skin, and let out a girlish, coquettish sound:

"Where is my natural embellishment? Where are my precious black buckteeth?"

As she spoke, she pulled a bronze mirror from her sleeve and held it up to her face.

"Ah!"

A shriek pierced the sky.

Granny Withered Grass flew into a rage, smashing the mirror onto the ground. "I am a favored daughter of heaven, the greatest beauty of Black Soil Fortress! How did I end up looking like this ghost?!"

She looked down at the tattered, grass-woven rags on her body, her eyes erupting with immense disgust.

"What is this trashy grass clothing? Does this befit my status?!"

She gave a violent tug, tearing the grass robe from her body and throwing it far away.

"Garbage! Garbage!"

But then, Granny Withered Grass's body shuddered, and a flicker of clarity flashed through her cloudy, aged eyes.

She watched the Feather Cloak fly away, stunned at first, before her expression shifted violently.

"What... have I done?!"

She reached out in a panic to grab the cloak.

Shen Yue was quick-witted and fast as lightning; he lunged forward, snatched up the Feather Cloak, and retreated.

Though the cloak appeared to be woven from withered grass, it pulsed with spiritual energy—it was an absolute treasure!

"You're courting death!"

Granny Withered Grass flew into a rage, her eyes instantly bloodshot. "How dare you snatch my treasure!"

She raised her hand to cast a spell, but halfway through, her body stiffened. Her eyes clouded over with confusion as she muttered, "Treasure? It's trash, unworthy of me!"

Before the words had even faded, her gaze shifted back, and she shrieked in terror, "Give me back my treasure!"

In the blink of an eye, the expressions on her face cycled four or five times, shifting between a maiden's coquettishness and an old crone's panic.

Finally, her eyes widened in fury.

"How dare you steal from me! Die!"

Granny Withered Grass shook her arms, and a dozen withered vines erupted from her body, instantly transforming into a dozen pitch-black crows.

Each one had glowing red eyes and hooked, razor-sharp beaks.

"Go!"

The crows dove at Shen Yue like arrows, their screeching piercing and shrill, the flapping of their wings releasing an aura of decay.

Shen Yue felt a jolt of alarm and stepped back rapidly, not daring to take the attack head-on.

The crows slammed into the spot where he had just been standing, instantly corroding the bluestone floor into deep, smoking pits before turning to dive at him once more.

"Miss Long Ying! I'm here to save you!"

At that moment, a figure charged over with incredible speed.

Chehou Yan's eyes burned with fervor as he opened his arms, wrapped them around Granny Withered Grass, and shielded her behind him.

The screeching crows froze in mid-air, their cries cut short.

"Miss Long Ying!" Chehou Yan looked at that face, etched with deep ravines, and his eyes brimmed with infinite pity. "Who harmed you to this extent?!"

He then swept his gaze toward the hovering crows, his heart aching. "To think you are forced to use such inferior trinkets... Miss Long Ying, you have suffered!"

With a wave of his hand, he produced two treasures that shimmered with brilliant light.

One was a feathered cloak, the other a golden crown encrusted with jewels; both radiated intense, astonishing spiritual power.

"Miss Long Ying's peerless beauty deserves peerless treasures!" Chehou Yan shoved the items into the old woman's hands without hesitation.

Granny Withered Grass froze.

"Trash!"

She suddenly erupted, hurling the cloak and crown more than ten meters away.

"I am the Saintess of the Black Fortress! Why would I use such ugly things!" Granny Withered Grass laughed with her hands on her hips, revealing a mouthful of jagged, yellow teeth.

"Does Miss Long Ying not like them? Then I shall seek out better ones..."

"You are trash too! Hideous and wretched!"

Granny Withered Grass spread her arms, and the withered vines surged from her body, instantly forming a giant sphere of vines several zhang high. It swallowed both her and Chehou Yan, continuing to expand rapidly outward.

Shen Yue flashed forward, snatched up the colorful cloak and the golden crown, and retreated.

By the time he had fled two streets away, the withered vines behind him were already blotting out the sky, a suffocating mass of black.

By now, the entire Fallen Leaf Valley was in complete chaos; cultivators were fleeing everywhere, spiritual artifacts danced in the air, and talismans exploded in flashes of light.

Shen Yue did not linger, heading straight for the marketplace.

The more chaotic it was, the easier it would be to fish in troubled waters.

At the market entrance.

Black Longyu, with her prominent buckteeth, stood out sharply in the crowd.

Her gait was unsteady, her eyes unfocused, and she muttered to herself.

A young male cultivator rushed past her in a panic.

"Fellow Daoist, stay a moment!" Black Longyu lunged forward, her thick palm clamping onto the man's wrist. "I have something to say."

The cultivator looked back, only to be met with a pair of large, protruding teeth, and his face turned deathly pale. "Let go!"

"Young man, come taste my skills." Black Longyu licked her buckteeth, a sinister light flickering in her eyes.

The cultivator was thoroughly disgusted. "I practice the Joyous Union Arts—I'm a woman!"

"Shut up! Being drained by me is your good fortune!" Black Longyu snapped, her face darkening.

It was too chaotic.

It was truly too much to look at.

Shen Yue bypassed the two and slipped into the marketplace.

"Young Master Shen, Long Ying has finally found you." A soft, sweet voice suddenly rang out.