The Four Great Taboos of the Cultivation World

The contrast was far too stark.

Li Zi stood properly, but her eyes kept drifting toward the people from the Hall of Samsara.

Everyone else, though pretending to chat, was doing the same.

Because of its remote location, the Hall of Samsara was an extremely mysterious presence in their eyes.

The entire Sect consisted of assassins, its methods of assassination passed down from generation to generation.

The Hall of Samsara controlled the most comprehensive intelligence network on the continent.

One of its ancestors had entered the path as an assassin and, in a flash of enlightenment, devised a vicious and ruthless assassination technique. In the end, he had survived his tribulation and become an immortal.

The disciples of the Hall of Samsara cultivated the Assassin's Way.

Could an organization this mysterious have gossip worth hearing?

[Of course. Host, look at the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master. He looks exactly like a cold-blooded, merciless killer, but he's actually a hopeless romantic.]

Dozens of burning gazes fell on the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master.

His face was hidden beneath a black veil, so no one could make out his expression, but his body trembled.

He had already begun wondering whether he should flee right now.

He was sweating bullets.

The black veil over his face felt like the only thing concealing his shame. He could barely hold himself together.

[The Hall of Samsara's Sect Master has a

childhood sweetheart,

a junior martial sister. They grew up together and pledged themselves to each other for life. But one day, she went to the mortal world, fell in love with a prince, and insisted on breaking their promise to marry him.]

Li Zi glanced at the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master again and blurted out, [Did he kill the prince?]

Everyone else was secretly guessing too.

Perhaps the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master had wiped out the entire country?

[Of course not. Though it pained him, the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master let them be together. Later, the prince became emperor and his junior martial sister became empress. Then things changed. The emperor took concubines, and his junior martial sister was miserable. She got back in touch with the Sect Master and poured out her troubles to him every day. He felt sorry for her and even used the Sect's power to kill the people she wanted dead and obtain the intelligence she wanted.]

The Hall of Samsara's Sect Master slowly placed a hand on the hilt at his waist.

Killing intent rose within him.

If someone knew his past in such detail, it was no different from exposing his most vulnerable spot to them.

The Hall of Samsara's Sect Master was a god among assassins. His killing intent made no sound; even the Spirit Sword Sect Master failed to notice it.

His gaze settled on Li Zi.

One move was all it would take to kill her on the spot.

[But the truth is, his junior martial sister has been using him all along.]

The Hall of Samsara's Sect Master froze.

His hand tightened slowly around the hilt, but he stopped short of drawing his blade.

Using me?

Confusion flashed in his eyes.

[That country's court was in turmoil, and the emperor's hold on the throne was shaky. So he and the junior martial sister decided to exploit the Sect Master's feelings for her and turn the entire Sect into their tool for killing people. Their plan worked beautifully. The Sect Master adored her and did whatever she asked, helping them out of all sorts of trouble.]

Li Zi frowned. [Isn't that just taking advantage of an honest man?]

[That's not all. The emperor fell gravely ill and supposedly needed a drop of blood from the heart to treat him. At his junior martial sister's pleading, the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master immediately drew his blade and wounded himself. But in fact, they intended to use that drop of blood to put a gu curse on him. They said it would make him easier to control and turn him into their puppet.]

Li Zi was stunned. [Is she his junior martial sister or his mortal enemy? Even an enemy wouldn't go that far!]

The Hall of Samsara's Sect Master trembled again.

It was true!

Every detail matched!

Just yesterday, his junior martial sister had come to the Sect and asked him for a drop of blood from his heart to treat her husband.

He had not doubted her for a moment. He had drawn the blood at once.

The wound in his chest would take at least two years to heal completely.

His junior martial sister meant to put a gu curse on him?

Li Zi sighed. [Being a hopeless romantic really is dangerous. Doesn't the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master wonder why the emperor's illness needs his blood from the heart specifically? Why doesn't that junior martial sister give her own? Why does she insist on taking someone else's? Does someone else's blood smell sweeter? If you ever meet someone who only takes and takes, run. People like that are selfish.]

The system said, [Actually, if the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master goes to the palace now, he might still catch them preparing the gu curse.]

The next instant, the Hall of Samsara's Sect Master and his disciples vanished on the spot.

The Four Great Taboos of the Cultivation World

Li Zi stared blankly at the place where the people from the Hall of Samsara had stood.

She had to admit, those people truly did come and go without a trace.

Her martial uncle, the Sect Master, had even smiled at them, only for them to run off without a word.

The system kept chattering, flipping through its book at great speed. [Speaking of hopeless romantics, we have to talk about the Master of Flame Hall. She was a legendary woman, but because she was a hopeless romantic, she was misunderstood in all sorts of ways and ended up branded a demoness who brought chaos wherever she went.]

The Master of Flame Hall?

Everyone's gaze converged on Flame Hall.

The disciples of Flame Hall all had the same fiery red hair.

Every disciple in the Sect had a fire-element Spiritual Root and cultivated the "Blazing Sun Technique," the purest yang technique in the world. At a sufficiently high level, they could even draw the sun's heart-fire into their bodies and use it as their own.

Those with abundant yang energy were usually men. Yet this Sect had produced a demoness who threw the world into chaos.

Huo Fei.

With her formidable talent, she had stood out among the male disciples. In her tenth year after joining the Sect, she had even defeated her master and claimed the position of Flame Hall's Master.

Everyone in the Cultivation World had envied Flame Hall for having such a heaven-favored prodigy, one who could keep it firmly seated as the greatest Sect in the Cultivation World.

No one had expected her to become the Cultivation World's greatest scourge.

Back then, it was because of Huo Fei that more than ten thousand people had died in the war against demonic cultivators.

Ever since, Flame Hall had been shunned by the other Sects.