At midnight, Bai Mengjin suddenly woke up.
She stared at the bed curtains for a moment, then slowly sat up.
The surrounding area was eerily quiet. The elderly maid sent by the family to take care of her usually snored like thunder when she fell asleep, but she heard nothing at all. This courtyard was located in a remote corner, and night winds would often howl past, but at this moment, it was completely dead silent.
She moved lightly, got out of bed, and threw on a robe. Reaching out to feel inside her sleeve, she found the spirit talisman prepared a few days prior safely tucked away, which brought her a slight sense of relief.
As she pushed open her bedroom door, that sense of impending danger finally materialized.
It was foggy.
An unknown thick fog completely obscured her vision, making it impossible to see anything clearly beyond a mere ten feet.
Bai Mengjin turned back, took an ornamental longsword off the wall, and pushed open the side room.
Sure enough, it was completely empty, devoid of both the maid and the servant girl.
She quickly reached a verdict. The Bai Family residence was still the Bai Family residence, but she had been pulled into another dimension.
There was no doubt about it; this must have been done by her grand-uncle. It seemed he already knew his secret had been discovered.
Bai Mengjin gave a soft sigh inward. Back when the Bai Family met its destruction in her early years, she had certainly pondered the reasons, but the clues were completely severed, leaving her unable to investigate anything. Never had she expected that the Samsara Mirror tracing back into the past would reveal the root of this catastrophe was hidden right within her own home.
That grand-uncle of hers likely saw no hope on the immortal path and resorted to unorthodox ways, actually utilizing an entire city of people to nurture demonic entities and aid his own cultivation.
Demonic creatures plundered everywhere, and evil spirits bewitched human hearts. These baleful entities gathered through the Yin-Yang Umbrella beneath the Yellow Springs Wood, becoming his nourishment.
In that real timeline, without her guidance, Huo Chongxiao would likely have stopped investigating once he reached the farmstead. Believing his mission accomplished, he would have returned to report. Qingyun City was not an important stronghold, so Danxia Palace certainly wouldn't have investigated thoroughly, and the matter would have simply ended there.
Thus, decades passed, finally brewing into a massive disaster.
Bai Mengjin stepped out of the courtyard, identified her bearings, and headed toward the Clear Lotus Courtyard.
This fog carried a heavy baleful qi that easily eroded the Divine Sense. Fortunately, she, the supreme demon lord, possessed her own secret techniques. Under the circulation of her magic power, she carved out a realm of her own within her inner dantian and stored the qi there.
Thus, far from being weakened, her cultivation actually increased by a fraction, making her feel even more at home.
Bai Mengjin exhaled a breath, feeling a sense of greater ease. Her foundational Dao arts had been destroyed when she defected from Danxia Palace, and she was later forced to switch to demonic cultivation. Returning abruptly to her youth, not to mention her shallow cultivation, the foundation clashed violently with her techniques, making them truly exhausting to use.
Now, with this demonic qi as a baseline, she could execute a few of her usual methods.
"Help! Help me!" A shrill cry rang out, carrying a hint of familiarity.
Bai Mengjin looked toward the source of the sound and saw someone stumbling out of a courtyard, chased by several balls of black flame.
"Dad! Mom! Save me!" Bai Mengxing scurried about wildly holding his head. Catching sight of someone in the corridor, he bolted frantically toward her. "Save me! Save me!"
Bai Mengjin glanced at him and raised her hand to draw her sword. With a crisp "clang," the longsword gathered a ball of spiritual light and cleaved the black fire in two.
The black flame dropped to the ground and quickly extinguished.
Bai Mengxing, still shaken to the core, turned his head and saw Bai Mengjin. He froze for a moment: "Why is it you?"
Bai Mengjin couldn't be bothered to put on an act any longer, and said coldly: "Why wouldn't it be me?"
Even a fool possessed the instinct to seek fortune and avoid disaster. Realizing he could only rely on her right now, Bai Mengxing immediately caved: "I was just asking."
He shrank back behind Bai Mengjin: "What on earth happened? How come I woke up and everyone is gone?"
Just a quarter of an hour ago, he had woken up half-asleep to relieve himself. Who would have thought that the moment he pulled down his pants, he would catch sight of a ghost face right across from him? He frantically hauled up his pants and yelled for people, but not a single person answered, and then he had been chased out by black flames.
Without a word, Bai Mengjin reached out to grab his wrist.
Startled, Bai Mengxing cried out: "What are you doing?"
"Shut up!"
Bai Mengxing shrank his neck: "Oh."
Bai Mengjin went to feel his pulse. This cousin of hers was idle and incompetent; after achieving Qi Condensation, he hardly ever cultivated, and the magic power in his body was pitifully thin.
Yet precisely because of that, his body was clean and uncontaminated by the baleful demonic qi.
"Are First Uncle and First Aunt not around?" she asked.
Bai Mengxing answered honestly: "Um, I didn't see them when I woke up."
Bai Mengjin frowned.
Both she and her eldest brother had been pulled in, which meant this space targeted those with cultivation. Her First Uncle was at the Foundation Establishment stage, and First Aunt had also taken medicinal pills to achieve Qi Condensation—how could they possibly be absent?
"Is, is something wrong?" Bai Mengxing asked fearfully. "Where did my dad and mom go?"
"I don't know."
Too lazy to entertain him, Bai Mengjin continued walking toward the Clear Lotus Courtyard.
Daring not to stray even half a step from her now, Bai Mengxing hurried to follow.
"Where are you going?"
"None of your business!"
"Hey! You..." He wanted to flare up, but taking in the surrounding fog, he swallowed it back down. "Is someone trying to target our family? Shouldn't we go find Grand-uncle then?"
He wasn't completely stupid after all. Bai Mengjin lifted her eyelids and said: "This is a maze array, and I'm going to find someone to break it. You can stay in a room; at most, minor demons and monsters will come looking for trouble. As long as you guard the doors well, it shouldn't be a big problem."
Bai Mengxing shook his head like a rattle-drum and flatly refused: "No! I want to follow you!"
"Following me will be very dangerous." After all, they were blood relatives, and this eldest brother wasn't so rotten that he deserved to be killed off; Bai Mengjin offered a patient word of advice.
Yet Bai Mengxing had his own calculations: "Are the minor demons and monsters you mentioned those monsters from just now? I can't handle them!"
"..." Bai Mengjin was speechless.
Fine. Useless to this degree, she had nothing more to say—if he wanted to follow, he could follow.
The brother and sister walked all the way along the corridor, any occasional minor monsters being picked off effortlessly by Bai Mengjin with a single sword strike.
Passing through a moon gate, a figure suddenly appeared ahead. A surge of joy welled up in Bai Mengxing's heart, and he shouted: "Guard! Come protect us quickly!"
The man wore soft guard armor and looked as though he were on patrol.
Bai Mengjin, however, felt a tight squeeze in her chest and secretly gripped the spirit talisman with her other hand.
Sure enough, upon hearing the sound, that guard walked toward them. As he drew close, a flash of black light crossed his eyes, and he slashed down with his saber.
"Ah!" Bai Mengxing let out a great shriek and covered his head.
Yet this strike did not hit its mark. At the critical moment of life and death, Bai Mengjin flicked her fingertips, and the spirit talisman transformed into a streak of spiritual light, lunging at the guard.
His figure stiffened, and Bai Mengjin's sword was already there.
With a light, deft slice and a soft "thud," fresh blood spurted out, and a head went rolling onto the ground.
Bai Mengxing let out yet another shriek, pointing at Bai Mengjin and shaking uncontrollably.
She, she, she—she actually dared to kill someone!
Thinking of how he used to bully her in the past, Bai Mengxing felt his own neck grow cold.
"Shut up!" Having no mood to deal with him, Bai Mengjin scolded him and stepped forward to examine the guard's corpse.
The blood was black; this guard had completely transformed into a demonic creature.
Her heart sank further.