The man appeared to have been pleased, for he released Liu Xu’s neck. “You had better not be lying to me.”


  “I wouldn’t dare……” Liu Xu spoke softly.

  The man raised her chin and kissed her in a manner that was in no way gentle. By the time he released her, Liu Xu’s face was already flushed. She looked at the man with a subtle hint of seduction in her gaze.

  “Once you’ve done this for me, I will marry you.” The man ignored Liu Xu and handed her a porcelain bottle. “Be good. Don’t do anything to make me unhappy.”


  Liu Xu took the bottle from him. “Yes.”


  The man soon left.

  Liu Xu stood there holding the porcelain bottle for a moment before leaving too.

  Shi Sheng remembered that in the plot, Liu Xu had poisoned Fu Yiyun too. This was the climax of the novel.

  That poison was pretty powerful—there wasn’t an antidote to it. Fu Yiyun only survived because Bai Luo exchanged her blood for his, but as a result, it caused her features to turn ugly.

  In novels like this, blood types weren’t taken into consideration. What Shi Sheng was more curious about was how they’d exchanged blood in the first place.

  Shi Sheng found that Fu Yiyun was here too. Liu Xu pretended like nothing had happened and returned to his side, appearing very intimate with him.

  Since Shi Sheng was standing too far away, she didn’t know what they were saying.

  The leaders stood in the area closest to Mt. Di, their voices so soft to the point that even people using inner energy wouldn’t be able to hear them.

  Shi Sheng scouted around the area a bit before returning to where the Demon Sect members had set up camp.

  The Demon Sect members had hunted a rabbit from somewhere and were currently roasting it.

  ‘You people really aren’t nervous whatsoever ah!’


  Since their camp lay behind the expedition force, they wouldn’t be found out unless someone was paying attention to this direction, so Shi Sheng allowed them to continue roasting the rabbit.

  “Hmm mhm mhm……” Upon seeing Shi Sheng return, Jiang Zhan, who looked like he had been tied up into a dumpling, immediately struggled against his bindings.

  Shi Sheng walked over to untie him.

  “Pei pei! Wu Zheng, you dared to tie me up— Ow! What’re you doing?!” Jiang Zhan clutched his arm and retreated.

  Shi Sheng spoke with a calm face, “Proving that not only do I dare tie you up, I dare to pinch you too.”


  Jiang Zhan, “.……”


  ‘This lunatic! She was detestable back when she was younger, and she’s still detestable even now!’


  “Sect Master, please eat.” Ting Feng handed Shi Sheng a piece of meat that had just finished cooking.

  Jiang Zhan lost his temper. “Ting Feng! I’m(lz) your Sect Master!”


  Ting Feng hurriedly grabbed a rabbit’s leg from the side and handed it over to Jiang Zhan.

  Shi Sheng, “.……” ‘This retard.’
……

  The expedition force didn’t move even when night fell.

  In the middle of the night, Jiang Zhan’s closed eyes slowly opened. He nudged Ting Feng and Gu Yu, who were laying down beside him.

  Because they’d only been dozing, they woke up very easily. Jiang Zhan lifted his index finger and placed it in front of his mouth in order to tell them to keep quiet.

  Shi Sheng was leaning against a tree in the distance, her head turned the other way. Jiang Zhan observed her for a while, to make sure that her breathing was steady and that she was fast asleep, before slowly getting up and carefully sneaking out.

  Ting Feng and Gu Yu exchanged glances before cautiously following. The three snuck to the edge of the camp and swiftly melded into the darkness.

  Shi Sheng’s head moved, and she turned around. Her eyes were wide open. She watched them vanish into the night.

  A few minutes later, she shut her eyes again.

  The next day, the sect members discovered that their former Sect Master and both Sentinels had disappeared, only leaving behind the little puppy. This caused them to be very anxious.

  Unlike them however, their current Sect Master wasn’t worried in the slightest. She even got them to pack up and head home.

  “Sect Master…… We’re leaving just like this?” ‘Former Sect Master and the Sentinels have gone missing ah! Aren’t we going to look for them?’


  “Were you planning on suiciding into that group?” Shi Sheng expressionlessly replied with a question of her own. Since Jiang Zhan insisted on showing off, she figured that she’d just let him. After all, how was it any of her business?

  Although the others were a bit unwilling to leave like this, with the threat of Shi Sheng’s fists hanging over their heads, no one dared to raise any objections as they packed up to leave……

  Jiang Zhan climbed Mt. Di in the night. Where once there had been buildings here, there was now only ruins, so it took him quite some time to find the entrance to the underground tunnel system.

  Once they entered, Ting Feng and Gu Yu were rather quiet, the faint light visible illuminating their slightly solemn expressions.

  The tunnel system had a series of levels, and Jiang Zhan continued heading downwards. Only once they were at the last layer did they stop.

  “Sect Master, the people outside are here to……?” Ting Feng couldn’t help but ask.

  Jiang Zhan looked at the rows of ancestral tablets. This place was where the past Demon Sect Masters and members were venerated.

  He walked up to them and bowed.

  “They’re looking for the treasure.” Jiang Zhan turned around, frost spreading in his eyes. “You know the rumour about the treasure map to the previous dynasty’s wealth?”


  Ting Feng nodded. It had already been three hundred years since the previous dynasty was overthrown, but rumours of their hidden cache still circulated in jianghu to this day.

  It was said that one merely had to find the map to locate the treasure. But no one had ever found the map.

  In Ting Feng’s eyes, that treasure was but grasping at shadows.

  But Jiang Zhan’s sudden question caused a faint suspicion to rise in his heart.

  “The treasure is under here.” Jiang Zhan tapped the floor with his foot.

  Ting Feng’s eyes widened. ‘It really exists?!’


  Gu Yu didn’t have any particular expression, probably due to his disinterest in these ‘vulgar’ objects.

  “It was because of this treasure that the Demon Sect’s first Sect Master was hunted down.” Jiang Zhan’s voice echoed in the underground chamber. He slowly narrated a story that neither Ting Feng nor Gu Yu had ever heard before.

  The Demon Sect’s founder had made it his life’s dream to be a great hero. He unexpectedly obtained a treasure map and succeeded in finding the treasure.

  He wanted to use these treasures to provide relief for the poor, but this resulted in attempts being made on his life. In the end, he hid on Mt. Di and founded the Demon Sect here.

  The secret of the treasure had always been passed down verbally from Sect Master to Sect Master. Jiang Zhan had only learned about it right before his father’s death.

  “I want to destroy this place.” Jiang Zhan concluded.

  “Ah?” Ting Feng hadn’t fully digested the first half before hearing Jiang Zhan say the last bit, causing him to look at the latter in surprise. ‘Why must it be destroyed?’


  “How?” Gu Yu was much simpler.

  “We might not be able to escape.” Jiang Zhan’s tone turned serious. “Right now, you guys still have a chance to leave.”


  Although Ting Feng didn’t understand why they had to destroy the treasure, he was aware of his place.

  “Sect Master, we grew up with you, so of course we’d listen to you.”


  Jiang Zhan patted their shoulders. “There’s gunpowder buried here. There wasn’t enough time to set it off back then. There are three ignition points, we just have to set them off at the same time. There’s an escape route at every point, so if you guys are quick enough……you should be able to get out.”


  Gu Yu walked in the direction Jiang Zhan pointed in, but after he walked halfway, he suddenly turned around. “Sect Master, did you already make your decision when you told us to accept Wu Zheng?”


  The Demon Sect members weren’t that easy to tame. Had Jiang Zhan not given them the order, they probably wouldn’t have acknowledged her as their Sect Master even on pain of death.

  Jiang Zhan shook his head, his gaze turning distant. “At first……I just wanted to give her a safe harbour to return to.”


  He hadn’t expected this matter to be revealed so suddenly. He thought that after the Demon Sect burned to the ground, this secret would be forever buried in its ashes. Yet who knew that someone would reveal it?

  Sometimes, more people knew about something you’d thought secret than you’d expect.

  “Sect Master……” Ting Feng’s expression was dazed.

  Gu Yu turned and continued onward without hesitation.