Everyone Had a Trick Up Their Sleeve

The giant collapsed, the demonic energy dispersed, and the mountain-protecting formation returned to its pale blue-green glow.

What had happened above the formation stunned everyone in the Azure Mist Sect.

Jiang Chen finally saw the pattern.

Everyone had a trick up their sleeve, but Reverend Guiqi was the only one getting beaten.

Even Chen Gongxing, a Spirit Severing Realm cultivator, had let down his guard for a moment and fallen for an illusion. That meant the Thousand-Faced Fox had made her move.

Could her illusions truly deceive even a Spirit Severing Realm powerhouse?

Jiang Chen paused the image, pulled the view back, sharpened the resolution of his five senses and spiritual perception, and searched everywhere.

Only then did he discover that Liu Ruyan's true body was inside her cave dwelling on Tranquil Heart Peak.

She had used restrictions placed in the clouds beforehand, together with Tian Mingye's Demonic Flame, to create the illusion.

It was no longer entirely an illusion, but a deception poised between illusion and reality. That was how it had fooled Chen Gongxing into mistakenly cutting down Reverend Guiqi, whom he had believed was still behind him.

The brief cooperation between Tian Mingye and Liu Ruyan made one thing clear: both demons and monsters wanted Reverend Guiqi gone.

Having already cultivated the Form-Returning Book, Jiang Chen felt no sympathy for him. He understood completely.

No wonder Reverend Guiqi had only dared hide inside the Azure Mist Sect's Scripture Pavilion. If he took a stroll outside with a cultivation art like that, the demons and monsters would beat him to death.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen cultivated only the solo version of the Demi-Immortal's Book. He absorbed only stray Demonic Aura; at most, he might cultivate jointly with a demoness or sorceress for mutual benefit. He knew no Second-Stage Form-Returning Formation that could devour people by force, bones and all.

Chen Gongxing had fallen for an illusion and crippled the man Liyue wanted with a single stroke. It was a blow to his pride.

He hummed that pleasant little tune again, then lowered his gaze toward Tranquil Heart Peak.

To think it had been his own disciple, Liu Ruyan...

"To think I never noticed a fox living on my Tranquil Heart Peak."

He said that, but his hand showed no mercy.

Across the formation, he swept his sword toward Tranquil Heart Peak.

A piercing, resonant sword cry rang out, carrying a faint scent of wheat...

Inside her cave dwelling, Liu Ruyan coughed up blood as her dantian split open.

Chen Gongxing did not strike again. Instead, he glanced at Reverend Guiqi before him.

A shattered dantian might be survivable, but there was no hope for his cultivation.

Chen Gongxing could not be bothered to take a cripple back. He looked up at the sky and sighed. "Forget it. What Liyue wants from you, Senior, isn't your power but your knowledge. Your head will do."

Reverend Guiqi's head hung limp. He was not dead yet, and he dimly heard Chen Gongxing's words. Terror snapped his head upright.

"Don't—"

Too late.

Chen Gongxing raised a hand and plucked off his head, drawing out a long string of vertebrae with it.

He then stuffed one end of the spine into a long tube resembling a vase for safekeeping.

His movements were so practiced that this was plainly not his first time.

Then his figure flashed and vanished beyond the horizon.

Not a crow cawed or a sparrow chirped.

Jiang Chen felt as though he had been watching a gripping movie through a screen, one twist following another.

He had known Chen Gongxing was no ordinary man, but never imagined he was a Spirit Severing Realm agent of Liyue!

How could Liyue offend the monsters, the demons, and the Daqian Dynasty—three major powers—and still survive?

He had to admit, that agent of Liyue could endure solitude, and when he finally acted, he did it with flair.

He had pulled out the man's head and spine like a sword, then slid them into a sheath prepared in advance.

Guiqi's Spinal Sword... exquisite.

After Chen Gongxing left, Sect Master Luo Qingzhou grew even more alarmed.

The demoness was still inside the formation. Why had Liyue's agent not killed her too?

Though Tian Mingye had lost her demonic power, no one in the Azure Mist Sect dared step forward to capture her.

Tian Mingye slowly rose.

Her face was pale and she looked somewhat weak, but she still carried the commanding presence of a Heavenly Demon sovereign. She ordered Luo Qingzhou, "Take down the mountain-protecting formation. Otherwise, don't blame me when the Azure Mist Sect becomes a sea of blood."

By rights, with Tian Mingye's true body drained of demonic power and Chen Gongxing having exhausted the demonic energy outside the formation, this was the best chance to capture the demon sovereign.

But Luo Qingzhou exchanged glances with the surviving elders. None dared take the risk.

Who knew whether she had another move in reserve?

Could there be pills in her demonic ring that would rapidly replenish her demonic energy?

Might a Demon Sect army accompanying her still be lying in ambush around the Azure Mist Sect?

In the end, Luo Qingzhou obediently took down the mountain-protecting formation and let Tian Mingye leave.

Tian Mingye rose into the sky and joined the timekeeper. "How long has it been?" she asked coldly.

From beginning to end, the young demon girl had not shown the slightest trace of panic.

"Exactly one incense stick."

Tian Mingye frowned. Rather than hurry to restore her demonic energy, she shook her head and sighed. "To think an agent of Liyue would appear in a backwater like the Fireburn Kingdom. I was careless."

The young demon girl asked with a smile, "What if you can't kill that thief?"

Tian Mingye answered calmly, "Then I'll raise my cultivation to the Spirit Severing Realm and kill that agent of Liyue along with him."

That single sentence left everyone in the Azure Mist Sect trembling as they prayed for this walking plague to leave.

Tian Mingye glanced down at Tranquil Heart Peak. Without another word, she flicked her sleeve and departed.

Jiang Chen could not tell whether the demoness was bluffing or telling the truth.

Either way, she was outrageously brazen...

Only after Tian Mingye left did the Azure Mist Sect's people breathe a sigh of relief. They hurried to tend the wounded and bury the two elders who had fallen.

"To think Elder Guiqi from all those years ago survived until today..."

Luo Qingzhou decided to investigate the matter thoroughly.

Jiang Chen moved his view to Tranquil Heart Peak.

Liu Ruyan's dantian had split open. Her demonic aura was leaking away, and there was no hope of healing her.

Her face was pale. Her clear eyes, deep as pools, seemed to pierce through the image and stare straight into the center of Jiang Chen's view.

She suddenly smiled softly, as though she had been waiting for Jiang Chen to see her one last time.

"If you truly are my destined opportunity, you'll be able to deduce this scene. We'll meet again."

With that, Liu Ruyan's figure slowly crumbled into dust and smoke, then vanished entirely.

Only a fold of collapsing space remained, drawing her Storage Ring into the Abyss.

A chill ran down Jiang Chen's spine.

It was as though she had waited for him to look at her one last time before she fell.

Was Liu Ruyan really dead, just like that?

The Thousand-Faced Fox seemed to be alive, though.

Could she be an old... an old granny hiding inside Liu Ruyan's ring?

Had the Thousand-Faced Fox possessed Liu Ruyan, or had Liu Ruyan been her avatar all along?

On the night of the third simulation of the main storyline, who had been the woman who helped him cultivate Qi Refining—the Thousand-Faced Fox or Liu Ruyan?

Jiang Chen found himself asking the same question as Linghu Chong.

Whatever the truth, after all the time they had spent together, Senior Sister Liu had vanished before his eyes. Jiang Chen could not help feeling a little bereft.

Should he go save Senior Sister Liu?

That was the question.

When the viewing ended, Jiang Chen felt this storyline was far more complicated than any before it!

A Spirit Severing Realm powerhouse had even appeared...

This was a stage for the strong. As a lowly Qi Refining cultivator, he had no chance to interfere.

But that was precisely why the reward for successfully intervening would be so rich, so tempting.

So far, the system had only provided him with a platform. It had given him no rewards.

Fortune was sought in the jaws of danger. Every opportunity he had gained had come from a risk he had chosen to take.

Since this was the main storyline, he could not back down.

[First simulation begins. Please choose your arrival location!]