Qin Xueyan left Wuni Alley and strolled casually along the street.
Her spiritual perception expanded, revealing two auras following her from a distance. As expected, the Demon Sect scoundrels were cunning and cautious; even now, they still had people watching her. It seemed that if she wanted to truly convince the Demon Sect that she had submitted, she would have to put on an even more convincing performance. A look of resolve flickered across her face beneath her veil. To eradicate the demons and uphold justice, to protect the world, and for the sake of the many junior brothers and sisters who had already perished—even if she had to sacrifice her purity, she would endure it!
However, the leader of the Tianhuan Sect was in Tianhuan City. To assassinate him, she would have to go there. The injury on her face had been caused during the forced wedding night. She was Qin Xueyan, the number one fairy of the righteous path. At eighteen, she had reached the peak of the Golden Core stage and slain the young master of the Demon-Sovereign Sect; at twenty, she had entered the Nascent Soul stage and killed the Right Protector of the Tianhuan Sect single-handedly. She was a genius without peer.
She pretended to be ignorant and bewildered, walking with a faltering gait while listening to the conversations of the Demon Sect members around her. She was somewhat surprised; this town established by the Demon Sect was just as bustling and filled with the noise of mortal prosperity as the villages at the foot of Qingtang Mountain.
Qin Xueyan arrived at a rather prosperous main street, crowded with people and lined with shops. She wondered, did the Demon Sect scoundrels actually use spirit stones to buy things, rather than relying on looting and killing? She had ventured out, risking exposure, precisely to find a way to reach Tianhuan City. But how could she—alone—slaughter her way from Yunyu Town all the way to Tianhuan City?
After listening for a long while, she had only gathered one thing: Yunyu Town was on the edge of the Tianhuan Sect’s territory, very far from the core of Tianhuan City.
As she pondered, she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure ahead. The woman, dressed in the white Bailin Cloud Silk gown of the Qingtang Sword Sect, turned around. Upon seeing Qin Xueyan, her eyes turned red.
"Senior Sister Mo!"
Qin Xueyan hurried forward and called out softly, "Junior Sister Ning."
This woman was Ning Miaomiao, also a disciple of the Qingtang Sword Sect and an acquaintance of Mo Yurou. Seeing the misery and grief on her junior sister’s face, Qin Xueyan felt a sharp pain in her heart. She steadied her emotions and asked, "Junior Sister, were you... violated by that scoundrel?"
Ning Miaomiao burst into tears, sobbing as she recounted what happened last night. She had been chosen by a Demon Sect disciple, forced into marriage, and the scoundrel, having drunk wine, could not wait to consummate the marriage. Ning Miaomiao had naturally resisted, but with her cultivation sealed, she was overpowered.
Qin Xueyan stepped forward, took her hands, and looked her up and down. She saw bruises on Ning Miaomiao’s pretty face and dark circles under her eyes, and she exclaimed in anger, "Junior Sister, do not give up."
Ning Miaomiao looked up at her, wiped the tears from her face, and nodded fiercely. "Senior Sister is right. Only by staying alive is there hope."
Qin Xueyan brushed a lock of hair from the girl's forehead. "Junior Sister, do you know what has become of the other three?"
Ning Miaomiao gave a bitter smile. "The scoundrel who chose Junior Sister Chen Wanrou is right next door to me. I heard them all through the night; I don't know where Zhang Suqin and Wang Yujiao are, but I imagine their fate is similar to ours."
Qin Xueyan slightly frowned. If she could not get to Tianhuan City quickly, even if she recovered her cultivation in half a year, she wouldn't know how to act. As for the dark circles under her own eyes, they were the result of that Demon Sect scoundrel’s relentless energy; he had tossed her about all night, leaving her without rest.
"Junior Sister, you and I share the same plight. However, that man has not used force on me."
Ning Miaomiao hesitated, then gripped Qin Xueyan’s hand. "Senior Sister, were you... done to, as well, last night?"
Qin Xueyan thought back to last night, lost in a momentary trance, then said, "That little scoundrel spent the whole night in bed with me, yet he treated me with the utmost respect."
Ning Miaomiao nodded. "That’s good then. Senior Sister, I’ve thought it through. Since we’ve reached this point, we might as well submit to them for now to avoid suffering."
"I understand, Senior Sister. I’m going to buy groceries; I still have to go back and cook for my husband." Ning Miaomiao spoke the word "husband" with great difficulty, a sense of self-abandonment in her tone, before turning to leave.
Watching that figure walk away with a slight stagger, Qin Xueyan clenched her white fists.
Back at Panhuan Courtyard, Fang Yang opened his eyes, feeling rather frustrated. He had followed Zhang Chunjiu’s instructions to cultivate for two hours, but neither his spiritual energy nor his cultivation level had increased at all. Whether it was the slow rate of absorption or the fact that this guy was hiding secrets, he didn't know.
If he wanted to progress quickly, he had to use spirit marrow. Otherwise, he could only absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which was an incredibly slow process.
Fang Yang felt anxious. He had no way to make money, no path for cultivation, and in his home, there was the number one fairy of the righteous path, ready to kill him at any moment.
"I must find a way to get to Tianhuan City as soon as possible, kill the Tianhuan Sect leader, and wipe out the Demon Sect!"
Wait! A thought struck him. He had such a genius wife at home—why couldn't he ask her to help him improve the Black Jade Formula and have her teach him how to cultivate?
A smile appeared on Fang Yang’s face.
It was just a matter of using his mouth, right? He was quite experienced in that!
However, he had to handle the nuance carefully. He couldn't let Qin Xueyan know that he had seen through her identity, yet he had to make her willing to teach him. He felt that following Zhang Chunjiu’s guidance, even if he practiced for another year or a half, his cultivation would be limited, and he would be nowhere near breaking through to the second layer of Qi Refinement. But even so, it shouldn't be that he gained absolutely nothing after two hours.
Was he really just that incompetent? Or was it that the lower-level disciples were nothing more than cannon fodder to begin with? It was no wonder that among so many junior disciples in the Tianhuan Sect, those who could become Huang-grade Disciples were one in a thousand.
Fang Yang thought of the innocent-looking, delicate face he had encountered. He wondered, how were the other four junior sisters being treated by the scoundrels they were paired with?
He realized that according to the rules of the Tianhuan Sect, unless his superior Huang-grade Disciple died, he had no authority to switch to another master. Regardless of the reason, it was impossible for him to gain any improvement under Zhang Chunjiu.
He had to get her to teach him. He had to!