Night lay heavy over the border of Jiangyang. Fine rain drizzled from the sky, soaking the mountains and wilderness.
Yin Yuanchen watched the dark figure ahead with a complicated gaze. Blood rain swirled around her, and he could still vaguely make out a woman's silhouette.
The mountain path was muddy. He followed close behind, the bone-piercing chill around him obstructing his magical power and leaving his face ashen.
The figure ahead abruptly stopped and looked back. The black vapor roiling over her face slowly dissipated, revealing half of a delicate, lovely countenance. When it cleared completely, the woman's right cheek appeared, covered in emerald-blue feathers. Her eyes were dark blue, like those of a bird.
A savage, murderous aura slowly rose, bringing cold sweat to Yin Yuanchen's back and sending his heart racing. He feared that this senior sister, who was also his kinswoman, had completely lost her reason and transformed into a Shangyang.
"Senior Sister Luze."
His voice was exceedingly soft and low. Even when the Shen Household had surrounded him to kill him, those leopard-like eyes had never shown fear. Now, however, they were filled with an expression halfway between sorrow and worry, unable to look directly at the person before him.
"You used a secret art to fuse with the remnant husk and finally formed your immortal foundation, only to lose your human form and become like this."
Yin Yuanchen did not know what his senior sister had suffered. When the Shen Household attacked the Listening Rain Gate, the fighting on Yin Luze's peak had been the fiercest, staining the entire mountain with blood.
She shook her head slightly, as though she had not understood him. Her blue robe was already soaked in blood and grime, her skin deathly pale, like an evil ghost that had crawled