“Soak this medicine in the pool. It will keep wounds from healing for a hundred days, prevent blood from clotting, and save us the trouble of making extra incisions.”
“Drawing blood once every hundred days isn’t enough. Starting today, draw blood once every seven days.”
“Who’d have thought the Blood of Evil Jade could have such an effect…!”
“No wonder even the Demons and Devils are looking for him. In my opinion, we can draw some every day. There’s nothing to fear. This Malice can’t die anyway.”
Blades capable of harming the soul cut open his flesh. Blood containing the power of Demons and Devils flowed from his body, falling into white jade vessels, taken away by others.
A hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times…
Chains forged from Devil-Binding Divine Iron pierced through his shoulder blades, hands, and feet. Several major acupoints of his Soul Spirit were also locked down.
He opened his pale, icy eyes amidst the blood-red hue. Although his body had long been riddled with a thousand holes, the killing intent in his eyes still made the blood-drawing cultivators tremble with fear.
Sooner or later, he would make those cultivators wish they were dead.
He would overturn these magnificent, hypocritical halls, sever these cold, merciless chains, tear apart those greedy, ugly…
The entire medicine pool began to boil.
Following his frenzied thoughts, a terrifying layer of Devil Qi spread around the young Demon, threatening to explode. If it did, everything around would be crushed into dust!
Creak—
The door sounded, pushed open. A sneaky figure slipped inside.
“Ah, shh! I snuck you in here to soak, keep it down! If Uncle Song finds out, your debt will be even harder to repay!”
Fu Mingxia? Why is she here?
This place isn’t…
His chaotic mind cleared slightly.
The Devil Qi instantly dissipated.
This place is not there. This is Fuxi Mountain.
The medicine in the pool wasn’t meant to tear open his wounds and force out his demonic blood. On the contrary, it was continuously repairing his broken body and soul.
So that was it. He had mixed up past and present memories.
Fu Mingxia even tossed in a glowing, gold immortal-grade Lingzhi mushroom.
“Oh no, grabbed the wrong one. This doesn’t look like a low-grade Lingzhi; the light’s color is off? …Whatever, Uncle Song has such a huge stockpile, missing one stalk, he won’t even notice.”
Duan Nanyun surfaced from the pool, half his face visible. One could see his handsome, pale face flushed red. The crimson spread from his cheeks to his ears. Those usually cold, narrow phoenix eyes opened; his light-colored pupils were beautiful and soft, yet the corners of his eyes were tinged with red.
His voice was normally cold, but now, heard within the hot spring, it sounded hoarse: “Where are my clothes?”
Fu Mingxia: “You vomited blood all over them, they’re unwearable. As for where I put them… let me think.”
Fu Mingxia: “Ah.”
Duan Nanyun: “Remembered?”
Fu Mingxia: “I think I forgot where I put them.”
Duan Nanyun: “…”
Fu Mingxia, sounding like she was coaxing a child: “I’ll go buy you a new set. You stay here and soak obediently. Don’t wander off.”
Before leaving, she turned back and warned: “Uncle Song went to visit other sects, won’t be back for a day or two. But don’t cause too much commotion. Since we snuck in, we need the self-awareness of sneaking in, we must be low-key.”
Meaning, don’t go on a rampage like just now.
The flush on his face was purely a medicinal effect, but it looked like shyness. Probably Fu Mingxia thought so too.
And Duan Nanyun, at that time, only thought this was his most failed attempt at going berserk.
Going berserk halfway, only to be dumped into a pool by someone.
She moved naturally, just like when she sneaked in—tiptoeing, lifting her skirt, and sneaking out the main door again.
Qin Jinghan stood outside with his saber crossed, his face black enough to grind ink.
Qin Jinghan: “Why do I have to stand guard here?”
Fu Mingxia: “Shh! The patient is inside. Don’t disturb him. Where are his clothes?”
Qin Jinghan: “Threw them out.”
Fu Mingxia sighed: “I should have guessed.”
Qin Jinghan looked up at the sign of the Healing Arts Sect in the distance: “Uncle Song’s medical skills have declined.”
Before, no patient leaving through that gate ever had their old injuries flare up.
The ginkgo trees in the courtyard had dropped their leaves, the sun gentle. Looking out, the ground seemed covered in gold and silver.
Fu Mingxia, however, said: “Maybe he was just hurt too badly.”
Qin Jinghan: “How badly could a mortal be hurt?”
“Who knows.”
After all, a soul full of holes and leaking all over—she was seeing it for the first time too.
So pitiful.
~
Malevolent Will acted up every month. Duan Nanyun had originally no intention of holding back.
Even the Number One Immortal Sect was a mixed bag.
Fuxi had tens of thousands of outer sect cultivators. Many still had worldly desires. Those drifting in and out were countless. One missing living person wouldn’t be discovered, as long as there wasn’t an extra corpse.
The next month, he randomly tailed a person, intending to make his move. Unexpectedly, that person was also tailing another cultivator, planning misdeeds. Being a repeat offender, Fu Mingxia had been watching him for a long time and killed him right before Duan Nanyun could act.
After killing, Fu Mingxia turned back, stunned: “What are you doing here?”
The next moment, she understood, but was even more astonished. “With your body, you came to do a heroic deed?”
That night, footsteps sounded in the distance, drawing near. Probably nearby disciples heard the commotion.
Her lightness skill was superb, and she left even faster than she came.
“The Sect Leader can’t know I’ve been in a fight to the death with mortals. Keep it a secret for me! Dispose of the body!”
He couldn’t kill a living person, but tearing up a corpse could also ease the killing intent in his heart.
He picked up a sword and started cutting.
Thus, the arriving disciples, carrying a lantern, witnessed Duan Nanyun beheading the villain.
The next day, the sect rumored that the newcomer mortal, with a crippled body, had overcome a Spiritual Light cultivator, killed a villain under the moon, and rid the sect of a menace!
Duan Nanyun: “…”
A mortal killing a Spiritual Light cultivator—you people actually believed it.
Living people were hard to kill, but living creatures were easier prey.
That night, after scouting and confirming there was no one within three miles, hearing a cry overhead, he casually flicked a wisp of Devil Qi to shoot down an immortal crane.
Duan Nanyun stepped forward, raising his hand, ready to finish off the creature wailing on the ground, when Fu Mingxia suddenly appeared with Song Ya.
The girl even managed to praise him: “How did you know Uncle Song has been chasing this crane for ages!”
Duan Nanyun: “…?”
Song Ya rushed over, trying to pry open the crane’s beak: “My supreme-grade Huaguang Grass!”
The night wind billowed Duan Nanyun’s white robes. His thin lips moved slightly.
His gentle, cold face was utterly expressionless, except for a streak of scarlet dyeing the corners of his eyes.
Duan Nanyun: “…There was no one within three miles.”
Fu Mingxia smiled: “Did you forget I can control the wind?”
Song Ya was still going crazy beside them: “AAAAAH MY HERB AAAAH!”
Duan Nanyun: “…”
Shouldn’t I be the one going crazy?
Fu Mingxia, seeing the young man silent, turned and asked: “What are you thinking about?”
Strange. He was so frail, yet every night he was out in the cold wind, and she kept running into him. Fate, perhaps.
Duan Nanyun coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood, once again suppressing the backlash of Malevolent Will. Word by word, he smiled gently: “I was thinking, even among immortal cranes, there are scoundrels.”
Fu Mingxia looked at the distant, grief-stricken Song Ya mourning his lost spirit herb, and sighed: “Immortal cranes are beings with intelligence. Having intelligence, their natures naturally vary. How could they all be kind and docile?”
The next day, several fellow disciples jointly sent a silk banner hanging before Duan Nanyun’s door.
—In gratitude for his capture of this beast that had been disrupting everyone’s cultivation by stealing cultivators’ spirit herbs.
The banner read: Selfless and Bravely Devoted, A Fine Son of Fuxi!
Rumor had it these two lines were personally inscribed by the Sect Leader.
Duan Nanyun: …
He had considered that he might not be accustomed to the righteous sect lifestyle, but he hadn’t expected to be this unaccustomed.
~
After several failed attempts, Duan Nanyun coughed blood repeatedly at night, unable to suppress his Malevolent Will. It erupted, blasting apart his dwelling and a nearby mountain bridge, coincidentally blowing up demons and devils lying in ambush beneath it, waiting to infiltrate Fuxi.
As is known, any demon or devil capable of evading the First Immortal Sect’s detection were top-tier in disguise and concealment. Without his explosion, they might have truly infiltrated the sect.
Thus, Duan Nanyun rendered another meritorious service. One silk banner was decidedly insufficient. The Sect Leader decided to personally protect him during his future Spiritual Light Unsealing.
Duan Nanyun: “…”
Backlashes from Malevolent Will became routine. Multiple times he fainted after a fit, waking to find he was soaking in the pool again. Every time, it was Fu Mingxia sneaking in to toss in medicine.
Especially after Fu Mingxia figured out the fixed date of his monthly attacks, the operations became even more convenient.
Incidents like these were too numerous to count.
Half a year after entering Fuxi, Duan Nanyun passed by the mountain’s bulletin board, discovering he had been used as a case study posted all over it.
Including but not limited to—
Typical Victim of a Spirit Stone Scam,
Representative of Multiple Heroic Deeds.
Promoter of the “My Life is My Own, Not Heaven’s” Spirit of a Mortal Resisting a Degenerate Cultivator,
Righteous Warrior Guarding Fuxi and Exterminating Devils,
Typical Representative of Not Pocketing Lost Items, etc…
Next to it was a lost item notice for stolen spirit herbs posted by Song Ya, the victim himself—
Every month, on certain days, top-grade spirit herbs from the Healing Arts Sect would inexplicably vanish. The crime involved massive sums. An inside job was suspected. Rewards of spirit stones and herbs were offered for information clues.
One day, Fu Mingxia casually passed by, tearing it down and hanging it at Qin Jinghan’s saber practice spot.
That day, a whirlwind capable of shouting “Mad Saber” spun into the area, and the notice was instantly sliced into “snowflakes” scattered across the ground.
And Duan Nanyun gradually became the kindest, most righteous, most pitiful sword cultivator with the most tragic background and experiences in Fuxi Sect.
So, that day’s failed rampage wasn’t the biggest failure; it was merely the start of the failures.
~
Magistrate of Xuzhou Prefecture, Kong Boshu, was informed by a servant’s report that immortals from Fuxi Mountain had come to report a case—the City Lord’s mansion had been brutally massacred.
Each phrase of this sentence struck like a thunderclap, frightening him right out of bed. He hurriedly called for servants to bring out his treasured set of crimson-colored, curved-collar, large-sleeved formal robes. After donning the full official attire, with no time for lunch, he immediately rushed to the scene.
Arriving before the mansion gates, Magistrate Kong adjusted his official hat with its extended corners to ensure it was perfectly straight before solemnly stepping inside.
Though officials had come earlier to clean up, the moment Kong Boshu entered, he was horrified by the lingering, thick stench of blood and the bloodstains covering the ground.
Kong Boshu paled in shock: “Wh-what… what kind of savage Demon Creature could have done this?!”
Vice Magistrate He beside him explained, “Heard it was the work of a Devil Cultivator. Last night, luckily two immortals from Fuxi Mountain arrived in time to save the City Lord’s son and daughter. It’s just a pity… everyone else in the entire household…”
Kong Boshu’s official boots had already begun instinctively edging toward the gate as he frantically scanned the surroundings. “The Devil Cultivator… have they been brought to justice?”
Vice Magistrate He: “The Devil Cultivator reportedly escaped.”
Magistrate Kong trembled. “That means… they might come back? Inform them I’m unwell, and will pay respects to the two immortals another day…!”
Vice Magistrate He desperately grabbed the large sleeve of the Magistrate’s robe. “My Lord! This matter is of grave importance! Moreover, with the two immortals here, the Devil Cultivator likely won’t dare return. The immortals are waiting in the inner courtyard. I’ve already sent word earlier. If you slip away now, I’m afraid…”
“How can that be called ‘slipping away’? Xuzhou Prefecture has already lost its City Lord; it cannot afford to lose its Magistrate too!”
Kong Boshu sighed: “However, you have a point. I was friends with the City Lord. Now that his household has suffered such a great calamity, I should come and see.”
But seeing was secondary; the most important thing was that the immortals were here.
He had long heard that Fuxi Mountain had produced several young immortal talents of extraordinary skill at a young age. Xixu Prefecture was situated in the Western Territory, quite close to Fuxi. He had heard all sorts of folk legends, one among them being a “Goddess” named Mingxia.
Another, according to folk tales, could wield the moon and slash stars, his swordsmanship unparalleled, born with the bearing of a dragon and the looks of a phoenix, elegant and dashing. He was hailed as the Number One Young Sword Immortal of Fuxi. His surname seemed to be… Duan?
Thinking about it, he was a little excited. He, too, could actually meet the protagonists of those demon-subduing and devil-exterminating tales.
In teahouses and taverns, tales of these few were the hottest. Even the brothels sang songs about them: “Clear Radiance Shining on the Moon, Flying Star Sword, in this mortal world, all seek one glimpse. The Goddess, the Blue Bird, comes from the clouds, ensuring no calamity befalls the year.”
The Xixu Prefecture was perpetually under the protection of Fuxi Mountain and the Kunlun Mountains. Disciples from these two sects often descended the mountain for training, conveniently vanquishing demons and exterminating devils. Thus, Demons and Devils rarely dared to wreak havoc here. Having been transferred here for two years, Kong Boshu had never seen such a gruesome scene.
Pinching his nose, he walked toward the inner courtyard. “How can there be such… such things hanging from the tree branches…”
After retching a few times, Kong Boshu forced his gaze away from that bit of intestine.
He concluded it must be the work of brutal Devil Cultivators!
So utterly inhumane!
At that moment, Qin Jinghan, standing in the inner courtyard, sneezed on the spot.
Strange, his body was always robust, never caught a cold before. This could only mean—“It must be that surnamed Duan cursing me behind my back…”
Just then, Magistrate Kong passed through the archway into the inner courtyard and spotted the two immortals standing beside the City Lord’s son.
Immortals truly lived up to their name; their extraordinary bearing was instantly apparent.
That young woman had a light, graceful waist and jade-like skin, wearing a teal-blue flowing cloud-patterned skirt, even more stunning than the teahouse tales described. The youth beside her was heroic and striking, a jade crown binding his hair, his spine straight as a sword or a saber.
Magistrate Kong immediately suppressed the urge to vomit, replacing it with a beaming, enthusiastic smile as he approached: “Might you be the two immortals from Fuxi Mountain?”
Qin Jinghan turned. “Who are you?”
Vice Magistrate He, at the side, introduced, “This is the Prefecture Magistrate, Magistrate Kong Boshu.”
He was about to introduce Fu Mingxia and the others when the Magistrate pushed him aside.
Kong Boshu bowed respectfully. “Ah, no need for words! The deeds of you two immortals have long reached my ears! This one, surely, is the Goddess Mingxia. And this one—”
He stroked his beard confidently. “Must be the one famed as the Sword Immortal, Duan, Duan… Young Hero Duan!”
Qin Jinghan: “Do you want…”
The word ’die‘ hadn’t left his lips when Fu Mingxia pulled him back, smiling. “His surname is Qin. Duan Nanyun will arrive a bit later. Today we’ve troubled Magistrate Kong to come here; we have matters to discuss.”
Kong Boshu: “Oh oh…! Young Hero Qin! I’ve long admired your name!”
Realizing he’d likely misidentified the person, he immediately wiped the cold sweat from his face and changed the subject. “Goddess, please speak freely. Just tell me what’s needed. As long as we can capture, drive out that Devil Cultivator from my Xixu, protect the common people, and avenge the City Lord’s household, I, Kong, will spare no effort!”
His words were forceful and resolute, but the core message was one—begging the experts to resolve the Devil Cultivator problem before leaving!
Li Weiyi, at the side, finally found a chance to interject: “Um… doesn’t my sister seem like she still hasn’t woken up? Is this normal?”
Fu Mingxia: “Naturally, it’s not normal.”
Li Weiyi: “??”
He thought she’d offer some comforting words.
Fu Mingxia: “After my investigation this morning, the City Lord’s Daughter Su Yun’s Soul Spirit is likely missing. If it cannot be retrieved, I’m afraid in seven days, her physical body will begin to decay.”
It wasn’t just cultivators who possessed a soul spirit; mortals did too, though theirs weren’t as powerful.
Kong Boshu was horrified: “What? How was it lost?”
Just as Fu Mingxia was about to answer, someone rushed in urgently, “I-it’s bad, Vice Magistrate, M-magistrate… outside…”
Vice Magistrate He scolded: “What’s the panic! Speak properly!”
The reporting messenger gasped. “Someone outside is trying to force their way in! They’ve injured the guards at the gate, and claim to be a cultivator too! They’ve come to… to…!”