Night fell, a pitch-black canopy hanging high over the starry sky. Countless stars, large and small, glimmered like fireflies, spreading a layer of silver sand over the earth.
In a secluded alley in northeastern Spirit City stood a Courtyard House covering four or five hundred square meters, with two imposing stone lions outside its gate.
The rear courtyard was filled with flowers and plants, peaceful and serene. Yet within this tranquil setting, an entirely different scene unfolded in the bathing pool.
A girl in a thin pink robe carried a flower basket. With light, graceful steps, she slowly scattered blood-red, rose-like petals from the basket into the spring. Soon, red rose petals floated across the water, giving off an intoxicating floral fragrance amid the curling steam.
Within a few minutes, the blood-red petals gradually dissolved into the spring. The once clear, colorless warm water began to boil, turning into something resembling slightly viscous blood. Crimson mist rose into the air, dreamlike and illusory.
Several minutes later, seeing that the spring water had cooled considerably, the girl gently laid her slender, fair hand on her sash. With a casual tug, the sash fell away, her robe opened, and the thin gauze slipped off.
She covered her towering snowy peaks with her hands and walked toward the steaming hot spring. The scalding water rose over her long, fair thighs, while her proud curves appeared and disappeared within the blood-red mist.
The girl's body slowly relaxed, and her thoughts gradually drifted.
Four years earlier, because of her talent, Spirit Hall's reigning Pope, Qian Xunji, had publicly announced that he would take her, Bibi Dong, as his disciple. The following year, he named her Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden.
But this was merely a front. The one who had actually taken her as his disciple