While the Iron Was Hot

The first simulation began.

Jiang Chen chose to drop in at the place where he had left the Azure Mist Sect two days earlier, on the eastern edge of its mountain-protecting formation.

More precisely, at his Burial Ground.

His goal for this first simulation was to secure a modest baseline outcome. Then he could afford to take risks.

Jiang Chen arrived at the place where his body had been buried two days ago.

By daylight, birds sang, flowers bloomed, and orioles flitted through the tall grass. It was a fine place for murder and arson.

A careful inspection confirmed it: after he had left that night, Liu Ruyan had placed an illusion ward here.

She really had. Jiang Chen could have cried...

Before long, Tian Mingye began making her case to the Azure Mist Sect.

Jiang Chen sat cross-legged in meditation, waiting for his chance.

He waited until Tian Mingye entered the mountain-protecting formation, fell into Reverend Guiqi's ambush, and had her demonic power siphoned away by the Second-Stage Form-Returning Formation.

Jiang Chen immediately channeled his power and formed a hand seal, activating the Return-Form Formation in tandem.

He drove the Qi Sea Abyss within his dantian, quietly siphoning off the Heavenly Demon qi freshly drawn into the mountain-protecting formation, before it could be converted into spiritual energy.

Reverend Guiqi's soul was too weak to absorb this raw demonic qi directly. There was a vast amount of it, and Jiang Chen was secretly helping himself in the same way, all while hidden inside Liu Ruyan's illusion ward.

Thus, Reverend Guiqi never noticed someone absorbing demonic qi right under his nose.

Tian Mingye's Heavenly Demon qi trickled into the Qi Sea Abyss like a stream from hell...

For the first time, Jiang Chen tasted Heavenly Demon qi so pure and delicious that he felt as though his scalp were being peeled back, layer by layer, like an onion.

So that was why that old thief Gui Qi did not dare swallow demonic qi directly... He did not have three lives!

Jiang Chen anchored his transmigrator soul's attention on the system panel and gritted his teeth to stay conscious.

Then he swallowed every spirit stone and pill he had, trying to suppress the demonic qi.

Before long, Jiang Chen reached his limit. One more wisp of demonic qi would make him pass out.

He had no choice but to stop absorbing Tian Mingye's demonic qi through his dantian.

Instead, he took out the Demon Shrine he had claimed as spoils, dispersed the ordinary demonic qi inside it, and filled it with Heavenly Demon qi for later use.

Once the Demon Shrine was full, Jiang Chen withdrew his synchronized formation.

He waited until Chen Gongxing left the Azure Mist Sect before rising and flying straight to Tranquil Heart Peak on his sword to catch up with Liu Ruyan.

Outside her cave dwelling, where streams had once babbled among lush grasses, Chen Gongxing's sword strike had now severed the water's flow.

Jiang Chen was about to knock when a weak, gentle voice came from inside:

"You do have a conscience after all. Come in."

Jiang Chen carefully pushed open the stone door and entered.

In theory, this was his second time here.

In reality, it was his first.

Liu Ruyan's cave dwelling was drum-shaped, with a vinewood bed, a warm pool, an eight-immortals table, and a few little rabbits.

At its center lay a round mat over ten feet across, encircled by a spiraling cherry-pink formation.

Unlike in the images, however, Liu Ruyan was not sitting cross-legged on the mat.

Perhaps because she had known he was coming, Senior Sister Liu was recuperating in the warm pool.

Jiang Chen walked to the pool's edge.

With a wave of his hand, he dispersed the mist.

Senior Sister Liu held her arms across her chest. Her face was pale as snow, droplets clung to her long lashes, and her flowing black hair had turned silver-white, spilling over her shoulders.

She had grown even more beautiful, closer to the radiant, immortal beauty of a thousand-year-old fox demon...

"I didn't expect you to return to the Azure Mist Sect after everything that's happened," Liu Ruyan said.

Jiang Chen toyed with her soft white hair, his interest piqued. "I had a feeling you would die here, so I came to see you one last time."

Liu Ruyan gave him a reproachful look.

You didn't have the nerve to stay that night, but now that I'm dying, you've come to collect my body.

"You really are... a gentle man."

Jiang Chen smiled, then asked curiously, "What exactly are the people of Liyue?"

Liu Ruyan shot him a look. She had barely a few breaths left, and this man was asking about trivialities.

Or did he know her true identity?

"Liyue is a small elite organization that rose to prominence over the past few centuries. Its members include humans, demons, and devils. Its aims are unclear, but one thing is certain: they want to overturn the order of the cultivation world."

Villains wanting to change the world. A classic.

Jiang Chen sighed. "Who would have thought Deacon Chen from my peak was a Spirit Severing Realm agent of Liyue?"

Liu Ruyan frowned and asked, "Even you didn't foresee it?"

Jiang Chen said calmly, "A diviner can only foresee what he chooses to look for.

"I never paid Deacon Chen any attention. Why would I have divined anything about him in advance?

"The reason I could see your future was that you and I may have been fated to bring each other trouble from the day we were born."

Liu Ruyan's face grew paler still.

"What a pity. I'm about to die."

As she spoke, crimson blood spread through the pool...

Jiang Chen bent down.

While he still could, he pressed a kiss to her, gently catching her cold, soft earlobe between his teeth. "Even now, you won't tell me who you really are?"

Liu Ruyan had no strength left. In a low voice, she asked, "I'm about to die, and you still won't tell me who you really are, will you?"

Jiang Chen answered honestly, "What if I told you I've lived two lives and I'm not even thirty?"

Liu Ruyan mustered a faint smile. "And I... am not even three thousand..."

Jiang Chen nodded. "Then we're quite a match."

"I don't believe a man's sweet lies. If you truly are the chance I've been waiting for... you'll find me."

With that, white mist slowly veiled Liu Ruyan's pale face. Her form crumbled into dust and smoke, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

All that remained was a fold in space, which swept her Storage Ring into the Abyss.

I wasn't done kissing her! Jiang Chen thought.

Of course, he knew the Thousand-Faced Fox was mysterious beyond reckoning and could change into countless forms. No one knew where her true body was, and she would not die so easily.

And yet Senior Sister Liu had died just like that.

Though the Thousand-Faced Fox's true form was far more beautiful, it was probably Senior Sister Liu whom Jiang Chen missed more at that moment.

The claim that they were fated for each other was something Jiang Chen had made up.

He wondered whether the Thousand-Faced Fox would appear again under Butterfly Effect on the system panel.

"I hope we meet again..."

Just then, he spotted a red pill in the grass beside the warm pool.

He picked it up and examined it closely.

Just what he needed. It was a Demon Core radiating the demonic aura of a Foundation Establishment fox demon!

"She really knows what I need!"

Jiang Chen could not help sighing.

Moments from the past few days with Senior Sister Liu surfaced in his mind: their testing of each other in that simulation, what had been real and what had been illusion, and the way she had helped him reach Qi Refining...

He instinctively searched his heart.

"What is this faint sorrow?

"I finally have a system, a simulator this good, and I'm using it to fall in love?

"Shameful."

Then he searched the cave dwelling.

There was nothing else worth keeping as a memento, so he took Senior Sister's two rabbits to try braising them.

Finally, Jiang Chen used Earth-Element Spirit Control to destroy Liu Ruyan's cave dwelling, bringing the earth and stone down around it.

He could conveniently blame Chen Gongxing's sword strike. It destroyed plenty of evidence and kept the Discipline Hall deacons from rummaging through Senior Sister's private quarters.

As soon as he stepped outside, he ran straight into Wang Baolin.

"Oh, Junior Brother Jiang! I was just looking for you!"