The sky over Blackwater Town abruptly darkened.
Vast swaths of scarlet flower shadows spread across the heavens, like a length of blood-red silk slowly unfurling from the edge of the firmament.
If the Heavenly Dao wanted you dead at the third watch...
Millions of petals fluttered down. Their fragrance was so cloyingly sweet it turned bitter, seeping into the nostrils and leaving the divine soul dizzy.
"Hehehehe..."
A woman's laughter rippled through the void in waves, soft, seductive, and uncanny, like a venomous insect coated in honey slowly crawling up the spine.
"Blackwater Town."
"This True Person has hidden in this wretched place for so many years, I nearly forgot all this fine material lying ready at hand."
At the far end of the flower shadows, a figure came walking through the air.
The woman was draped in red gauze, her lips blood-red, her beauty dazzling. Her crimson skirts billowed in the wind. From afar, she looked like a demonic flower blooming in a sea of blood.
Her bare feet trod on the flower shadows. With every step, the ground of Blackwater Town trembled faintly.
Hua Luoqi.
That name had hung on the Purple Dusk Empire's wanted list for forty years, infamous for its cruelty.
Hua Luoqi gently raised her hand. A blood-red flower landed on her fingertip, and she casually crushed it into fine scarlet powder that sifted down between her fingers.
"Mortal blood, cultivator bones, vengeful souls for the fire, spirit essences for the catalyst."
"Perfect. This True Person's Thousand-Bone Flower Banner needs just one final batch of expendable material."
She smiled, three parts languor and seven parts cruelty.
"Today, your entire town will make up the shortfall."
As her words fell, countless flowering vines burst from the earth on all four sides of Blackwater Town, covering its