By the time Li Xun made it back to the study room, the sky had already dimmed. Inside, though, a pearl the size of a fist lit up the entire room like it was still broad daylight.
Under the glow of that pearl, Yin Wanderer's beauty seemed to radiate light. Her face was flawless, so striking it felt almost unreal.
Li Xun didn't dare look at her directly. Head down, he placed the written "confession" on the desk and dropped to his knees again without waiting for her to speak.
"Get up," she said lazily. Her voice gave away nothing—no anger, no emotion at all. Just like it had been right before she slapped him earlier.
A chill crawled up Li Xun's spine. He hesitated, tempted to just stay kneeling, but worried that might backfire too. In the end, he slowly stood and waited with his head bowed.
Yin Wanderer was flipping through the pages. Li Xun had been terrified he wouldn't write enough detail and would get punished for it, so he'd put everything down—every interaction he'd had with Blood Wanderer, even the most minor ones. Fortunately, his memory was freakishly good, or he'd never have managed such a complete account.
For a while, the only sound in the study was the soft rustle of turning pages. But to him, that faint sound was like a thousand bugs squirming in his chest.
Life or death—this was the moment it'd be decided.
Time crawled by. Outside, night had fully fallen. A maid came in to serve tea and snacks, but he didn't dare move a muscle.
Yin Wanderer read that whole stack from start to finish at least four or five times. Then she shut her eyes, thinking it all over. Half an hour passed in total silence.
Li Xun knew what she was doing—trying to figure out Blood Wanderer's angle in all this, and what would be the most effective way to deal with it.
At last, she moved. The wide sleeves of her robe stirred a breeze, and the temperature in the study room dropped noticeably.
"Enough. Come with me."
She stood and walked out of the room.
Li Xun's heart nearly stopped. He quickly followed, treading lightly, afraid to even breathe wrong. When they reached the courtyard, he finally gathered enough courage to whisper, "Master Aunt… where are we going?"
Yin Wanderer smiled faintly. "That 'Master Aunt' sounded just right. We're going to see your master."
"Master?" Li Xun blinked in confusion, then his knees gave out and he dropped back to the ground. "Master Aunt, please have mercy!"
Yin Wanderer paused, clearly amused. "Now when did I ever say I was going to hurt you?"
Looking into her eyes, Li Xun suddenly understood: to Yin Wanderer, he'd never been someone she viewed as her equal. He was just… a pet. Maybe fun to keep around, maybe not. Either way, his fate didn't really matter.
He was still useful—at least for entertainment. So long as he stayed amusing, she wouldn't kill him. Probably.
He hesitated, then finally voiced the fear in his heart: "If that person sees me leading you to him, he might activate the Blood Nightmare inside me out of rage… I'd be dead for sure!"
"You've still got the Lingxi Art on you, don't you? If he kills you, where's he gonna find another one?"
Her casual tone offered no comfort. Li Xun could only give a bitter smile. If Blood Wanderer really planned to let him live, he wouldn't have stayed lurking in the capital this long, let alone leave Li Xun hanging out to dry like this.
He opened his mouth to argue further, but Yin Wanderer suddenly leaned in and grabbed his collar. Her face was just inches away, and he could feel her breath.
He flinched, instinctively trying to pull back, but she held him fast. Then he heard her laugh softly: "You're supposed to be a genius, but you don't even know how to use the treasures you're carrying?"
"Huh?"
She tapped the jade pendant on his chest—the Jade Bixie—and said slowly, "Jade Bixie… Banishes all evil, protects against hundred evil forces. As long as you're wearing this, unless he's willing to burn away a century's worth of cultivation and take on the backlash, he can't kill you. Do you really think he'd go that far?"
Li Xun stared stupidly at his chest. He never imagined that little jade pendant had such power. And then, out of nowhere, his mind flashed back to that beautiful, strange woman on Zuowang Peak…
For a moment, He was dazed.
Yin Wanderer didn't say anything more. She flicked her whisk and kept walking. Li Xun hurried after her.
Though the Eastern City was home to royalty and high officials and thus heavily guarded, there were still carriages coming and going.
In the middle of all that traffic, two Daoists walking on foot stood out—especially when one of them was a woman as stunning as Yin Wanderer. They drew every eye they passed.
The street that had been orderly a moment ago was now in chaos.
Who among the officials would dare show disrespect to the living immortal who stood at the emperor's side? In no time at all, over a dozen high-ranking ministers halted their carriages and stepped down from their sedans to pay their respects to Yin Wanderer.
Li Xun saw this and felt something wasn't right. He leaned in during a lull and asked, "Master Aunt… how exactly are we getting there?"
"To see your master? Openly, of course. What, you thought we'd sneak in?"
Li Xun almost choked. He grabbed her sleeve in panic. "Master Aunt, he's in Prince Fu's manor—we're just going to barge in like this?"
Yin Wanderer didn't shake him off. She just smiled lightly. "And why wouldn't I go into Prince Fu's manor?"
Her words were calm, but they carried a weight that shut him up immediately. This was Yin Wanderer—forget the mortal realm, even among the Thirty-Three Sects of the Tongxuan Realm, there weren't many places she couldn't go if she wanted to.
In that moment, something she'd said earlier suddenly made sense to Li Xun: You're not yet a true cultivator at heart."
To someone like Yin Wanderer, mortal power and authority were meaningless—like watching ants build nests. They weren't in the same world, literally, so why would she bother to care?
And though their cultivation level was worlds apart, in essence, Li Xun was still from the same realm as Yin Wanderer. No wonder she'd said that to him. From her point of view, he must truly seem like a strange cultivator.
It was clear now—Li Xun wasn't ready to live above the crowd.
And just like that, he found himself standing with Yin Wanderer outside the gates of Prince Fu's manor.
Yin Wanderer, as if entering her own home, gave her horsetail whisk a casual flick and stepped through the gate of Prince Fu Manor."
One inattentive guard moved to stop her—but the moment she glanced his way, his limbs went stiff, and he nearly dropped dead on the spot.
She paid no more heed to the other stunned mortals. With Li Xun in tow, she moved like flowing clouds and water, gliding through the manor's corridors. In just a few breaths, they were deep inside the estate.
Though she appeared calm and unhurried on the surface, her speed was astonishing. One quick-witted gatekeeper gave them a chase, only to find himself falling farther and farther behind.
From the moment they had stepped through the gate, Li Xun felt like he couldn't breathe—like he'd plunged into water far too deep. His eardrums ached from the pressure, and a low hum filled his mind.
Is the air inside Prince Fu's manor thicker than outside?
The thought floated vaguely through his foggy mind. He didn't notice that Yin Wanderer had suddenly come to a stop—and stumbled right into her from behind.
But before he could make contact, the tip of her whisk pressed gently against his throat. "Useless," she muttered.
Though she didn't turn her head, there was a strange trace of affection in her scolding tone. Stunned, Li Xun stared at her, only to see her tilt her head upward and softly murmur, "Well done. What a clever setup."
Li Xun followed her gaze. At first, he didn't notice anything unusual. But the longer he stared at the sky, the more off it seemed. The night above wasn't naturally dark—it was layered, like thick blood-red clouds stacked upon each other, red so deep it was nearly purple, purple shading into black.
Realization dawned. That wasn't nightfall.
It was like the sky itself was being scrubbed by waves of blood-red light. Suddenly, his senses were overwhelmed with the stench of blood, of slaughter. Just looking at it made his soul tremble.
Yin Wanderer smiled and turned her head slightly. "I knew you were coming."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Li Xun felt his chest tighten. A low, cold laugh echoed—not from outside, but from inside him. It slithered up from the pit of his soul, winding its way through his veins.
Li Xun's face went white with horror.
At that very instant, the Jade Pixie at his chest emitted a resonant chime—a sound unlike any he'd heard before. Clear yet subtle, piercing yet soft, it rose from the depths of his being and reverberated through every fiber of his body.
His mind blurred. In a daze, he felt like he was transported back to Zuowang Peak. Back to the misty hot spring. He could hear the faint sound of ornaments clinking, see that serene and graceful woman stepping lightly out of the fog.
Then—a single, pure note rang out.
Everything shattered. The vision exploded into countless shards of light, scattering like broken glass, until nothing was left.
He cried out and jolted awake.
In front of him now was a woman whose beauty rivaled the one from his vision, though her aura was entirely different. She studied the play of emotions across his face with rapt fascination.
Li Xun felt like he'd fallen straight from a celestial dream into the depths of the underworld. Cold sweat soaked his entire body—in that single moment of trance, his robes were soaked through as if he'd been plunged into water!
Still trembling, he asked, "What… what was that?"
Yin Wanderer tapped her whisk lightly with her palm and smiled. "Your master was just saying hello. That's all."
"Hello?" Li Xun choked.