This person had lurked within the Qinghe Sect for a thousand years, enduring in silence and lying low, never revealing a single flaw, all to await the maturity of the evil cult's grand scheme and the most opportune moment to steal the treasure.
Azure Water Pavilion had fought to the death, every member drenched in blood. Casualties had been grievous, and the entire sect was steeped in sorrow. Everyone believed its disciples had loyally died for the cause, yet no one knew that the deadliest blade had come from the deepest part of the sect itself.
Just as Cheng Heng sank into thought, sorting through every clue—
A gentle female voice, soft and tender, carrying a trace of sorrowful apology, quietly came from behind him.
"Dean Cheng."
Cheng Heng turned around.
A female cultivator in Azure Water Pavilion's plain white robes stood quietly beneath the moonlight. Her figure was slender, her features gentle, her bearing elegant. An inextinguishable weariness and grief lingered between her brows.
She was Su Xuanyi, elder of Azure Water Pavilion's Hidden Branch.
She was Azure Water Pavilion's most senior elder and the one most skilled in secret array-pattern arts. She had spent years in seclusion cultivating within the Spirit Spring Secret Realm and rarely concerned herself with worldly affairs. In everyone's eyes, she was an elegant senior who was detached by nature, devoted wholly to the Dao, and unconcerned with worldly strife.
Her eyes were slightly red at that moment, dust stained her robes, and guilt covered her face as she gave Cheng Heng a slight bow.
"Many thanks to Dean Cheng for escorting us across a thousand miles, for risking your life to protect the surviving embers of Azure Water Pavilion, slaying the evil fiends and traitors, and preserving our broken lives. Azure Water Pavilion