The Rise of a Family: Starting from Daily Intelligence - Chapter 411 (Patreon)

Chapter 411: Tallying the Spoils, Taiyi Immortal Sect, Heirloom

Night was as black as ink.

The array lines of the Four Elephants Black Tortoise Array flowed slowly across the control dais under Yu Qingru’s hands. She held her breath, spiritual sense spread like a web over the whole mountain—deep in the mine, the aura fluctuations suddenly grew chaotic, and a figure was racing toward the entrance.

“Here she comes!”

Yu Qingru let out a low cry and was about to activate the array, but Fu Changsheng stopped her.

“Wait until she puts away the Water Dragon Grand Array, then act.”

With that grand array in the mix,

the enemy would have something to turtle up behind.

Also—

two had gone in, yet the presence Fu Changsheng sensed now belonged to Ye Huanhuan alone.

Hum!

With a faint chime,

every array flag and plate on Thousand-Li Mountain whistled once and turned into streams of light that shot into Ye Huanhuan’s storage pouch.

But

from start to finish,

it was only her.

A crease of doubt flashed between Fu Changsheng’s brows.

According to the intel,

it had clearly been the couple Ye Huanhuan and Ren Ziming who entered Thousand-Li Mountain, and neither Changlei nor the others lying in wait had seen anyone leave.

“Could the other one have slipped away before Changlei arrived?”

By now,

Ye Huanhuan had already put away the entire Water Dragon Grand Array.

Fu Changsheng no longer hesitated and gave the order at once.

“Do it!”

“Yes!”

At his word, Yu Qingru’s fingers changed seals. The Four Elephants Black Tortoise Array started without a sound.

In the next instant—

Boom!

A pale-blue curtain of light rose around the mountain, and four phantoms—tortoises coiled with serpents—emerged from the ground, locking the Thousand-Li Mountain’s earth-veins in a death grip.

“This is—”

Ye Huanhuan’s face changed.

She’d stepped right into an ambush!

She made a snap decision, flicking three Boundary-Breaking Shuttles from her sleeve straight at the light curtain.

Hum!

The shuttles struck the curtain, but the four Black Tortoise phantoms within threw back their heads and roared as one. Concentric rings of array lines rippled out like worlds without end; the shuttles sank without a trace, not even a ripple left behind.

“Xuanxiao Sect’s little tricks can crack a common trapping array, but they can’t crack my Four Elephants Black Tortoise.”

Yu Qingru sneered. With a turn of the array plate, dozens of profound-ice chains burst from the earth-veins, whistling like lightning to coil around Ye Huanhuan’s ankles.

Ye Huanhuan had no intention of tangling. She had already sensed there were three Purple Mansion cultivators outside the array besides the one controlling it. Gritting her teeth, she crushed the jade pendant at her waist. A column of ashen corpse-qi shot skyward—Xuanxiao Sect’s secret “Corpse-Puppet Escape Technique”!

“Don’t even think about it!”

Fu Changlei strode through the air, the Bing-Fire Divine Thunder in his palm tugging at the heavens.

Rumble!

Nine bolts of purple lightning split the clouds and lanced precisely through the core of the corpse-qi.

Heavenly thunder counters fiends and corpse-miasma by nature. The Corpse-Puppet Escape was cut short. Ye Huanhuan screamed; her figure stumbled and re-formed.

But her reaction was swift.

She instantly drew her life-bound spirit instrument, the Bone-Eroding Pipa.

Ding ding dang dang—

As the strings thrummed, notes turned into a thousand skeletal ghost claws raking at Fu Changlei’s face. Waves of sound coiled about him; his body locked up in that instant, and the claws were about to fall on his crown.

“Changlei, back!”

Fu Changsheng shouted. He snatched at the air; the Three-Turn Treasure Lotus Lamp crashed down, its lamplight pouring like a waterfall and blocking the demonic sound outside.

“Petty tricks.”

Wind, thunder, clouds, and runes bloomed beneath Fu Changsheng’s feet as he stepped; his form split into nine afterimages, half real, half illusory. Each shadow carried a thread of thunder-intent. Within a square foot he shifted like lightning—more uncanny and harder to read than a straight-line thunder-escape—closing on Ye Huanhuan from different angles.

For a moment Ye Huanhuan couldn’t tell which was the real body. Her pupils tightened. Ten fingers blurred as she plucked the pipa, the music condensing into a wall around her. In the next heartbeat, a terrifying heat washed over her.

Boom!

The wall of sound was pierced clean through by a blossom of Nine-Yang Red Lotus Flame.

Fu Changsheng’s figure appeared before Ye Huanhuan.

“Courting death!”

Ye Huanhuan’s ten fingers raked fiercely across the strings.

Every string snapped,

turning into an arrow that shot at the nine shadows of Fu Changsheng. At such close range, there was no dodging.

Just as she thought her stratagem had succeeded—

Clang!

One of the pipa strings smashed head-on into a crackling Thunderstriking Sword.

Sparks flew.

The string shattered on the spot.

At some point a Shadow Gate Mask had settled over Fu Changsheng’s face. He looked like a god of slaughter descending. He pressed a palm down through the air at Ye Huanhuan.

“No—no, you can’t kill me, I—”

Ye Huanhuan coughed blood and shrieked.

But before the words left her mouth, her aura was cut off entirely.

Qiu Chan’s figure flickered. She formed the Soul-Tethering Technique; a lash of yin energy fell upon Ye Huanhuan’s corpse. As her soul was about to be hauled out, Ye Huanhuan’s soul-body suddenly flickered violently.

Fu Changsheng’s pupils narrowed.

“Careful!”

His will moved; he swept Qiu Chan into the temple at once.

Boom!

Agony twisted Ye Huanhuan’s spectral face—and in the next instant, her soul exploded.

Fu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Yu Qingru hurried forward.

“Husband, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

With a sweep of his sleeve, Fu Changsheng pocketed the two storage pouches on Ye Huanhuan. Her soul had clearly been under someone’s control—or bound by some taboo—set to self-destruct the instant anyone tried a Soul-Searching Technique.

He couldn’t tell

whether this was Xuanxiao Sect’s handiwork,

or whether someone stood behind Ye Huanhuan.

Fortunately,

he had donned the Shadow Gate Mask while delivering the killing blow. Whoever it was, they wouldn’t trace it back to him.

“Qingru, reset the array at once. Changlei, Yi-ge’er, head into the mountain and check the vein.”

“Yes!”

The three split up.

Ye Huanhuan was dead.

Her Soul Lamp back in Xuanxiao Sect would certainly go out.

They had to be gone before Xuanxiao Sect’s people arrived.

Fu Changsheng swept his sense through Ye Huanhuan’s storage pouch and found it packed with brand-new caskets. A hand seal sank into one; the restriction opened, revealing a Heavenly Sound Stone within. His eyes lit up and he snapped the lid shut.

With these Heavenly Sound Stones,

as long as they found the construction diagrams for a Transmission Array,

the Fu Clan’s bases could travel back and forth at will in the days to come.

Just then,

that familiar mechanical chime sounded in his mind.

“Ding.”

“You slew a Purple Mansion elder of Xuanxiao Sect and added a batch of Heavenly Sound Stones to the clan. The impact on the clan’s growth is profound. You gain five thousand Family Contribution Points.”

At once,

the number on his panel jumped to eight thousand.

Knowing now wasn’t the time to catalogue a pouch, Fu Changsheng tossed it straight into the Five Elements Space. At that moment, he noticed a faint, new rune appearing on the Mountain-River Ancestral Cauldron within that space.

“What’s this…”

He froze for a second.

The panel flared with yellow light,

and a line of text emerged:

[Mountain-River Ancestral Cauldron: Tier One (10/100)]

Huh?

This was the first change since refining the cauldron.

“Could it be—the cauldron advances by absorbing the momentum of development and fortune?”

If so,

then once they entered the Kunlun Minor World, the cauldron might leap to Tier Three in one stroke—maybe even Tier Four. When that happened its functions would unfold one by one. Fu Changsheng couldn’t help looking forward to it.

…

In a deep, gloomy cave-dwelling,

a bronze lamp burned with ghostly green phosphorescence.

A Purple Mansion female cultivator crept to the depths, raised Ye Huanhuan’s soul-tablet—already crazed with cracks—high before a closed stone gate, and kowtowed respectfully.

“Reporting to Master: Junior Sister Huanhuan’s Soul Lamp has gone out.”

Kneeling, she kept her head bowed, voice trembling.

No sooner had she spoken

than a terrifying aura roared from within. The vast pressure sank half her body into the floor, but she didn’t dare make a sound. She still held her hands up with utmost reverence.

“Trash!”

The voice from behind the gate was honey-sweet and coquettish, yet tinged with a maiden’s innocence.

“Speak. What happened?”

“Reporting to Master—Junior Sister Huanhuan was slain by the Shadow Gate.”

As she spoke,

the woman flicked her sleeve; a Skyshadow Pearl appeared. A seal sank in, and the pearl projected the scene of Ye Huanhuan crushing the jade pendant and triggering the Corpse-Puppet Escape—ending with a masked member of the Shadow Gate striking her down.

At the words “Shadow Gate,” the person within clearly cooled.

The woman weighed her words, then mustered her courage.

“Master, do you wish us to send people to investigate the murderer who killed Junior Sister Huanhuan?”

“Investigate what? She was a chess piece—replaceable. Tell Mo Wuya the plan needs a new piece.”

With that,

the stone gate fell silent again.

The woman backed out of the sinister cave-dwelling. Only when she had flown a few hundred li away did she turn to look in its direction. Clutching Ye Huanhuan’s soul-tablet tight, she muttered,

“In the end… are we all just disposable pieces to be cast aside at any time?”

…

In Xuanxiao Sect’s Soul Hall, blue-ghost Soul Lamps hung on a bronze stand like stars. Each flickering wick reflected a faint, indistinct face—this was the soul-image manifestation reserved for Xuanxiao Sect cultivators at Purple Mansion and above.

“Crack—”

A brittle, glassy snap shattered the hush. The duty disciple dropped the “Record of Yin Souls” with a slap.

On the west stand, Ye Huanhuan’s Soul Lamp—the one carved with hehuan blossoms—shook violently. The coquettish face inside its flame twisted in pain—then the whole lamp exploded into drifting phosphorus.

“Not good!”

The duty disciple pinched a seal to trigger the alarm talisman.

At that instant he saw the neighboring Ren Ziming Soul Lamp had already turned to smoke—snuffed out half a stick of incense earlier—its burning illusion maintained by a high-grade glamor.

Within a few breaths,

three black figures flickered into being before the lamps.

The gaunt elder at their head—the Xuanxiao Sect Grand Elder—hooked a claw of a hand and pinched a wisp of remnant soul from the phosphorescence. In his palm the soul-fire became Ye Huanhuan’s final moments.

When the Shadow Gate Mask appeared,

his pupils tightened.

“When did Junior Sister Huanhuan offend the Shadow Gate?!”

The Shadow Gate was a name that inspired dread. Even the Ten Great Sects of the Extreme West shied from speaking of that ancient order whose origins were lost to time.

If it was the Shadow Gate,

they could only swallow the loss.

The Ten Great Sects dared not offend them; how could a mere Purple Mansion-level sect kick up a fuss? The pair, Ye Huanhuan and her husband, had been the younger generation they’d painstakingly raised—and both were on the verge of condensing Golden Core. Now—

The Grand Elder let out a weary sigh.

On his left, the beautiful Second Elder wound a thread of soul silk from Ren Ziming’s lamp around her fingertip—only to find his last moments were a blank void.

“Could a high-ranking member of the Shadow Gate have acted?!”

In a flash,

the Second Elder thought of a possibility and ground out, “Grand Elder, do you think Junior Sister Huanhuan and her husband might have been killed by the Fu Clan?”

Not long ago,

the Joyous Sect had ordered them to strike Huizhou Prefecture while the Fu Clan was entering the Kunlun Minor World. And now, two Purple Mansion elites of their sect lay dead at the hands of the Hidden Ones.

If the couple had truly offended the Shadow Gate, with the Gate’s methods they wouldn’t merely kill two people; they would erase the entire sect in a single night.

The Grand Elder’s brow twitched.

“Second Junior Sister, you mean the Fu Clan bought a Shadow Gate contract?”

“Highly likely!”

But Shadow Gate bounties were not easy to acquire. The Grand Elder frowned, then mused aloud.

“Back then our Senior Sister was devoted to Junior Brother Ren Ziming. She poured resources into him—only for him to fall for the stray he brought home, Ye Huanhuan. Senior Sister severed her passions, withdrew from the sect, and joined Autumn Moon Nunnery, but word is that heart-knot never truly unraveled—she’s been stalled at the False Core Realm ever since.”

“Grand Elder, you mean our Senior Sister did this herself, for the sake of her Dao?”

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“Mmm. The Fu Clan has been busy with the Myriad Phoenix Mountain Range clan tournament; they could hardly spare hands. And only you and I knew of Joyous Sect’s order—it couldn’t have leaked. The Fu Clan hadn’t even met Junior Sister Huanhuan before; if they wanted to hire the Shadow Gate, I’d be the first they’d target.”

The Yin-Yang-eyed Third Elder, who had been silent, spoke in a sibilant tone.

“Most likely just as the Grand Elder guesses. I didn’t expect Senior Sister to be so heartless, though—she braved death for Junior Brother Ren more than once in those days…”

He paused,

then shifted tack.

“Grand Elder, I’ve heard that at the seventh-rank clan competition in Wuzhou, the Fu Clan’s Fu Changsheng won a fourth-tier demon core. He looks the weakest, but he’s the biggest dark horse—no easy prey. Now that we’ve lost two Purple Mansions, how do you view the order to attack the Fu Clan’s Huizhou Prefecture?”

The beautiful Second Elder snorted,

glared in the direction of the Joyous Sect, and said with bitter loathing:

“All these years Joyous Sect has been a vampire, draining our female disciples, yet we’ve seen nary a benefit. If they say fight, we’ll fight—but how we fight and how many we send, that’s for us to decide.”

The Third Elder cackled.

“Second Senior Sister still thinks the quickest.”

After the two left,

the Grand Elder’s gaze fell upon Ren Ziming’s Soul Lamp, eyes deep.

Junior Brother Ren Ziming was a descendant of the founding sect master of Xuanxiao Sect. That founder had come from the Taiyi Immortal Sect—one of the Ten Great Sects of the Extreme West. The tale went that while guarding Taiyi’s Treasure Hall, a certain treasure took wing and vanished. They searched the sect high and low but found not a thread. If not for the protection of the founder’s forebear, he would have been executed on the spot. As it was, he was expelled.

Even after all these years,

the Taiyi Immortal Sect still sent people now and then to search Xuanxiao Sect—especially the founder’s line. And Ren Ziming was the sole surviving descendant.

“I wonder… did that treasure end up in Junior Brother Ren’s hands?”

If so,

the Shadow Gate’s purpose might not have been a vendetta at all, but the Taiyi Immortal Sect’s treasure. Regret flickered in the Grand Elder’s eyes, but in the end he sighed faintly.

“So be it.

“Without that thing, perhaps Xuanxiao Sect will know some peace.”

…

Thousand-Li Mountain.

Yu Qingru had just finished resetting the Four Elephants Black Tortoise Array when Fu Yongyi and Fu Changlei returned from the tunnels carrying a corpse. They cupped fists to Fu Changsheng.

“Father, I used the Treasure-Seeking Instrument to sweep the mine. All the Heavenly Sound Stones below have been fully extracted. We also found a body that died not long ago.”

Fu Changsheng glanced once.

The intel had said two people; only Ye Huanhuan had come out. So Ren Ziming had long since been murdered by his own Dao companion. In the eyes of such folk, compared to great profit, the bonds of husband and wife were worth less than nothing.

Fu Changsheng shook his head.

Cultivate like that, and even if you stand above ten thousand, with not a single warm soul at your side—what meaning is there?

He made a show of tossing the corpse into a storage pouch, but in truth he threw it into the Five Elements Space. He meant to have Qiu Chan draw the ghost out later and see if there was any useful information. Qiu Chan was also a single step from a quasi-third-tier breakthrough; devouring and refining this ghost should about do it.

“This place is no good to linger. We’re leaving!”

After erasing their tracks,

the four took to the air on the azure flood dragon and headed straight back to Demon-Subduing City.

Halfway,

Fu Changsheng arranged his words and said to Yu Qingru,

“Qingru, would you be willing to marry into the Fu Clan?”

She blinked.

Back then, when they had first been together, she had volunteered that she wouldn’t cling and didn’t need Fu Changsheng to formally wed her into the clan. Because of that, all these years, though she grew close with the Fu Clan, she never had a name.

To say she didn’t care

would be lying to herself.

“Husband, this… this—does Sister Liu agree?”

Though she hadn’t spent long with Liu Meizhen,

she truly admired the woman for carving out a place alone in Jingzhou. When Changsheng went into seclusion, Meizhen handled most major affairs; Yu Qingru’s own skills were far inferior.

If the other party disliked it,

there was no need to enter the gate and sour relations—worse, it could implicate the Yu Clan’s future.

Fu Changsheng nodded.

“Meizhen has no objection. She even asked if we should return to the ancestral lands for a grand wedding. Qingru, what do you think?”

“Husband, with the Kunlun Minor World about to open, let’s dispense with the grand wedding. A simple ceremony will do.”

Too much pomp

might sour Liu Meizhen’s feelings and make future relations awkward. Such display was unnecessary.

When Fu Changsheng spoke of arranging the betrothal rites,

Yu Qingru shook her head again and again.

“Husband, being able to enter the Kunlun Minor World is already the greatest bride-price for me.”

She was content by nature.

Fu Yongyi and Fu Changlei were both there while they spoke. Yongyi offered congratulations first. Changlei, who had known Yu Qingru quite a while and approved of her character—and knowing she still hadn’t recovered from Ningning’s death—smiled as well.

“Fellow Daoist Yu, we’ll be family from now on.”

Seeing the easy mood, Fu Changsheng was very satisfied.

Fu Yongyi’s gaze drifted to the storage pouches at Fu Changsheng’s waist.

“Father, have you tallied the Heavenly Sound Stones?”

With those stones,

constructing Transmission Arrays would be possible.

Fu Changlei and Yu Qingru looked on, equally curious.

Fu Changsheng shook his head.

“The Heavenly Sound Stones are sealed in caskets. We’ll check them back in the fief.”

At that, the three grew even more curious. At last they made it back to the clan lord’s residence in Demon-Subduing City. No sooner had they closed the warding formation than Fu Yongyi blurted,

“Father, can we count them now?”

Fu Changsheng was curious himself.

He patted a pouch.

A flash of radiance—

and caskets appeared one after another, piling up like a small hill. Each bore Xuanxiao Sect’s distinctive sealing sigils and a faint spiritual pulse—clearly meant to block outside probing.

“These restrictions aren’t hard to crack.” Fu Changsheng gathered a thread of lightning on his fingertip and tapped a casket.

Crack—

The lid popped. A clean, refreshing aura spread at once. They peered inside.

A fist-sized crystal lay within, jade-white and lustrous, faint sound-patterns flowing across its surface as if countless tiny notes were dancing within. This was the legendary Heavenly Sound Stone—one of the core materials for refining Transmission Arrays!

“It really is a Heavenly Sound Stone!” Delight flashed in Fu Yongyi’s eyes. “Father, if all these caskets are full, the number won’t be small!”

Fu Changlei couldn’t wait; he took another casket, edged his fingertip with essence, and slid it across. The seal fell away.

“Another one!”

Yu Qingru joined in as well. With four people working, soon only one casket with the same seal remained unopened.

Fu Changsheng sank a seal into it.

Hum!

The lid lifted.

Inside lay a crystal of purer color, almost free of impurities, faint array lines seeming to surface within.

“This is… a supreme-grade Heavenly Sound Stone?!”

Fu Yongyi’s jaw dropped.

A supreme-grade Heavenly Sound Stone could match the worth of hundreds of lower-grade stones, and it was indispensable for ultra-long-distance transmission—harder to find than phoenix feathers.

In other words,

this one stone outweighed all the low-grade stones they’d opened so far.

“Father, our luck is incredible! With this Heavenly Sound Stone, once Eldest Brother gets his footing in the capital, we can build a Transmission Array straight to him.”

Fu Changsheng was surprised as well; even his brows loosened. Yu Qingru—already counted as one of the clan—couldn’t help smiling broadly.

Besides that,

among the remaining loot,

they found Xuanxiao Sect’s “Corpse-Puppet Escape Technique.” It required someone who could absorb corpse-qi to cultivate—just right for Shou-ge’er.

The most valuable piece among the seized spirit tools was the “Boundary-Breaking Shuttle.” Fu Changsheng said,

“This Boundary-Breaking Shuttle—Yiyao, you three—who wants it?”

Fu Changlei and Yu Qingru shook their heads in unison. As a talisman master and an array master respectively, they could break formations on their own; the shuttle wasn’t very useful. Fu Changsheng himself could refine No-Boundary Talismans.

“In that case, Yi-ge’er, take it. It’ll be useful when you prospect veins.”

The Spirit-Seeking Stones went into the clan treasury.

At the same time,

the familiar mechanical chime sounded in Fu Changsheng’s sea of consciousness.

“Ding.”

“You have added one ‘Corpse-Puppet Escape Technique’ and a ‘Boundary-Breaking Shuttle’ to the clan. You gain five hundred Family Contribution Points.”

At once,

his Family Contribution rose to eight thousand five hundred.

“Huh, there’s one more casket here.”

While tidying the Heavenly Sound Stones, Fu Changlei found a pitch-black casket hidden amid the pile. Its surface was covered in intricate sigils that glimmered faintly red. At a glance the restriction made his blood churn; he staggered back in shock.

“This casket… what an uncanny seal!”

Frowning, Fu Changlei gathered a wisp of lightning on his fingertip and brushed the lid.

Zzlaa—

The moment lightning touched, the sigils flared and writhed like living things—swallowing the lightning whole.

“A backlash seal?” His eyes sharpened. “This isn’t a common storage restriction—it’s some kind of high-grade sealing art!”

Fu Yongyi came over and cautiously extended a thread of spiritual sense to probe within—

Bang!

The sigils erupted with a frigid, baleful aura that traced his sense back to bite!

“Careful!” Fu Changsheng flicked his sleeve. A screen of lightning sprang up before Fu Yongyi and shattered the baleful aura.

“That was close!” Cold sweat beaded Fu Yongyi’s brow. “This casket devours spiritual sense—definitely no ordinary thing!”

Yu Qingru pondered, then offered, “Husband, let me try. I have a ‘Ban-Breaking Spirit Pupil’—perhaps I can glean something.”

Fu Changsheng nodded. “All right—but be careful.”

Yu Qingru closed her eyes; when she opened them again, her pupils were pale gold. Threads of spiritual light streamed from her gaze, draping gently over the casket.

But—

Crack!

The moment her eye-light touched, the sigils twisted into a snarling ghost face and lunged!

“Back!” Fu Changsheng yanked Yu Qingru clear as lightning burst from his palm and blasted the ghost face apart.

“No…” Yu Qingru’s face had gone slightly pale. “This seal not only backlashes against essence, it forms evil phantasms. This wasn’t set by an ordinary cultivator!”

Fu Changsheng thought a moment, then sealed the casket again.

“This thing’s origin is unknown. Forcing it open could bring calamity. We’ll wait until we find some information.”

He slipped the casket into a pouch—but in truth threw it into the Five Elements Space. A thing this eerie would only invite prying eyes; better to leave it where nothing could stir.

After Fu Changlei and Fu Yongyi withdrew, Fu Changsheng said, “Qingru, after we’re wed we’ll need to file with the Realm-Pacification Division. No day like today—let’s set it for the fifteenth of this month. How about it?”

He hadn’t expected the Heavenly Sound Stone mine at Thousand-Li Mountain to go so smoothly.

Seeing Yu Qingru had no objection, he said, “Then go make your preparations.”

There were only a few days until the wedding.

After they left, Fu Changsheng entered the secret room, shut the formations, and slipped into the Heavenly Dragon Temple within the Five Elements Space.

He set Ren Ziming’s corpse down.

“Qiu Chan, this one died not long ago. His soul hasn’t fully dissipated. See if you can draw out his memories.”

“Yes, Master.”

Qiu Chan’s figure surfaced. Yin energy gathered at her fingertip, unraveling into threads of soul-locks that coiled around the corpse.

“Soul Extraction!”

In a blink, a hazy soul was forced out. Ren Ziming’s soul struggled, a trace of his final terror still clinging.

However—

Boom!

Just as Qiu Chan was about to probe his memories, Ren Ziming’s soul convulsed violently—and exploded!

“As expected.” Fu Changsheng’s eyes chilled. “Same as Ye Huanhuan—the soul bound with a seal to self-destruct upon soul-searching.”

Qiu Chan frowned faintly. “Master, though the soul is gone, the remaining yin energy can still help me break through.”

Fu Changsheng inclined his head. “Then refine it.”

Qiu Chan sat cross-legged. Yin qi billowed as she devoured the remnants completely.

Hum—

A wave of powerful baleful yin erupted. Qiu Chan’s aura rose, step by step.

Thanks for reading! That ambush snapped shut so cleanly—and now we’ve got mystery boxes and a wedding on the calendar. If you’re enjoying the ride, please consider supporting me on Patreon; even a small pledge helps me keep chapters coming and the tea hot. And if you have a moment, dropping a rating or quick review on NovelUpdates really boosts visibility—thank you for helping more readers find this series!

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