An echo from another mountain

Su Mo sat on the ground, his arms still held in an embrace, but there was no longer anyone in them.

The wind and rain continued, but all other sound had ceased...

In the desolate rain, wreckage lay everywhere.

Nearby, the monk Zhixuan and the Daoist Mude exchanged wordless looks. They could neither see little Tongtong nor hear her voice. Naturally, they could not understand what had happened or why.

All they had seen was Su Mo dancing, and then three black-robed Foundation Establishment Late Stage experts dying in a bizarre fashion.

Then Su Mo had sat on the ground and sung a song they had never heard before.

From the moment Su Mo appeared tonight, everything about him had been shrouded in mystery. They had never seen such a strange person, or such strange events.

First, he had killed a Foundation Establishment Late Stage expert with the Power of Man. Then he had entered the underground palace and become entangled with a Great Calamity. Finally, he had bizarrely killed three more Foundation Establishment Late Stage experts...

Although Su Mo was now merely sitting blankly on the ground, they still dared not make a move.

The deaths of those three black-robed men had been far too uncanny!

The courtyard fell silent all at once, with only the sound of rain... sparse and scattered...

Su Mo sat on the ground for a very, very long time before rising in a daze... The Great Calamity's control over him had vanished.

In silence, Su Mo pulled the hood of his cloak up from his back and staggered toward the courtyard exit.

He was far too tired tonight.

He had thought he could settle his heart, only to stir up waves and ripples that made it harder still to find peace...

He could not face the departed souls passing before him, could not regard death with equanimity.

He had deceived one soul after another as they were about to dissipate...

He had lied to them that reincarnation awaited,

He had lied to them that there would be another life,

He had lied to them that he would bring them wine next time,

He had lied to them that the Unseen had ordained it all,

And he had even lied to little Tongtong that the other world was beautiful...

A kindly lie was still a lie!

Entangled with ghosts, bound by karma, doomed to an ill end.

The presence of that uncanny figure in his mind had vanished without a trace as well. He was Su Mo again, the scholar, Provincial Graduate Su.

But the events of this night were etched into his soul, carved deep into his bones.

He hated this world. Hated it utterly...

This dogshit world...

Su Mo walked out, one step at a time. He wanted to leave this place. Too much here weighed upon his thoughts.

I'm only a passing traveler... What does any of this have to do with me?

He pushed open the courtyard gate. Outside, everything was still pitch-black.

A cold breeze blew against him, and a sweet taste rose in his throat.

"Pfft..."

Su Mo spat out a mouthful of blood. His vision went black, and he collapsed unconscious.

He was far too tired...

A fragrant breeze drifted over, and the Red-Clad One Gu Yu floated down into the courtyard.

Frowning, Gu Yu surveyed the corpses strewn across the courtyard, along with the Daoist and monk hiding inside the Golden Alms Bowl's protective barrier.

The Dean told me to bring back my Little Junior Brother, but he never said it would be like this...

And what's with all these corpses?

Don't tell me my Little Junior Brother died before he even joined us?

Which one in this pile of bodies is my Little Junior Brother?

Gu Yu stood disheveled in the wind... Countless questions crawled into his head.

"Hey, you two... Yes, you. Come out of that turtle shell and talk." Gu Yu pointed at the Golden Alms Bowl's barrier and called out.

Zhixuan withdrew the Golden Alms Bowl!

They had recognized the newcomer!

This was the Academy's third disciple, the sword cultivator Gu Yu.

The commotion here had finally drawn someone over, and someone from the Academy at that... Tears of excitement streamed down the monk Zhixuan's face... His life was saved!

To cultivators like them, the Academy was an object of absolute faith.

The Academy's legacy spanned thousands of years. Though it had only a handful of members, it had always been the embodiment of justice.

"Senior Sister Gu, this isn't a turtle shell. It's a Buddhist Sect Golden Alms Bowl." Though grateful that Gu Yu had come to save his life, he still wanted to explain.

After all, there was nothing wrong with hiding in a Golden Alms Bowl, but hiding in a turtle shell did not sound nearly as respectable.

The moment the Daoist Mude saw Gu Yu, he too "came alive" from his half-dead state. Dissatisfied with Zhixuan's objection, he said, "Whatever Senior Sister Gu says goes. If Senior Sister Gu says it's a turtle shell, then it's a turtle shell."

It was not his Golden Alms Bowl, anyway...

Zhixuan stared wide-eyed, unable to believe Mude had stabbed him in the back.

He was just about to speak when Gu Yu cut him off, forcing him to swallow his words.

"Hey, enough, enough. You're from the Boundless Measure Temple?" Gu Yu asked, pointing at Zhixuan.

Zhixuan nodded.

"And you're from Clear Wind Mountain?" Gu Yu then asked Mude.

Mude nodded as well.

Gu Yu continued, "Have either of you seen my Little Junior Brother?"

Zhixuan and Mude exchanged looks, both utterly bewildered. "Which Little Junior Brother of yours?"

"Seventh Senior Brother!" Gu Yu said.

Since when did the Academy have a seventh disciple? Once again, the question stumped them...

"Who is Seventh Senior Brother?" Mude asked cautiously. He truly had never heard of a seventh disciple of the Academy, and feared he had been out of touch with society for too long to know current affairs.

"Oh..." Gu Yu thought for a moment. "I don't know either..."

"..."

Gu Yu tried a different approach. "Was there anyone here besides you two?"

Mude glanced at the corpses littering the ground.

"Do these... still count?"

Gu Yu's head throbbed. He realized he had no idea how to ask... It was all that Old Yin Bi's fault... Always speaking in riddles!

Turning to look at the corpses strewn across the ground, Gu Yu asked, "What happened here?"

"Someone was refining blood pills!" Zhixuan and Mude said solemnly.

"What?" Gu Yu's gaze sharpened.

"When we passed this place, we noticed something abnormal about the blood aura here. We came in to investigate and discovered someone refining blood pills. These black-robed men belonged to the faction refining them."

Zhixuan looked at the corpses, a wave of lingering fear washing over him.

Gu Yu examined the bodies and detected residual spiritual power fluctuations from several Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivators.

"Did you two kill all these people?" Gu Yu asked doubtfully.

The monk Zhixuan shook his head.

"There was a Great Calamity underground. It came up and killed them."

"How is there a Great Calamity here too?" Gu Yu's expression changed, his head aching.

The monk Zhixuan and the Daoist Mude shrugged in turn, indicating that they did not know.

Just then, another fragrant breeze swept into the courtyard...

Her white dress fluttering, her figure graceful and her beauty enough to topple cities and kingdoms, Luo Yin floated down beside Gu Yu.

Luo Yin anxiously scanned her surroundings, her gaze moving from the corpses on the ground to Gu Yu's face...

After hearing what the Little Girl said, she had immediately set out for the west of the city. She had never been there before, and the district was so large that it naturally took her some time to find this courtyard with its red walls and white tiles.

From far away, she had seen the blood aura surging skyward here. For some reason, her heart had involuntarily clenched.

In frantic haste, she had rushed headlong into the courtyard.

But among the corpses strewn across the ground, she did not see that familiar white robe...

Then she saw Gu Yu, his red robes fluttering.

As for Mude and Zhixuan... she automatically ignored them!

There was little she cared about, and fewer people she knew... If she did not know someone, there was no need to get to know them...

"Gu Yu?"

"Luo Yin?"

Gu Yu and Luo Yin exclaimed in surprise.

"Greetings, Fairy Luo!" Mude and Zhixuan had recognized Luo Yin.

Both found it strange. Why had even Fairy Luo come here?

Luo Yin merely gave Mude and Zhixuan a slight nod in acknowledgment of their greeting.

"Why are you here?" Luo Yin asked Gu Yu.

"The Dean ordered me to fetch my Little Junior Brother." Gu Yu asked in turn, "Why have you come too?"

"I'm here to find Jing Yan." Luo Yin scanned the bodies on the ground, searching for that young man in flowing white robes.

Jing Yan... Such an intimate way to address him!

Before jealousy could even stir, Gu Yu caught on. "What? You're saying Jing Yan is here too? Why would he come here?"

"I'll explain later, but he definitely came." Luo Yin said anxiously, "I can see signs of cultivators here. He may be in danger. Find him first!"

Gu Yu made a connection... Earlier, the Dean had told him to buy a painting, and it had been Su Mo's. This time, he had sent him to fetch his Little Junior Brother, and Su Mo was here too.

In that instant, Gu Yu became certain that the Little Junior Brother the Dean had sent him to fetch was Su Mo!

"Have you seen a scholar surnamed Su?" Gu Yu asked the Daoist and monk.

"Dressed all in white!" Luo Yin added.

Mude hesitated for a moment, then spoke cautiously.

"We haven't seen a scholar surnamed Su dressed all in white... But Benefactor Su, dressed all in black, is lying over there!"

Mude pointed toward the courtyard entrance, right behind Luo Yin and Gu Yu.

"If you'd come through the front gate instead of flying over the wall... you probably would have seen him straightaway..."

"..."