As the flying sword soared into the sky, Yu Jinghan felt a sharp, piercing gaze seem to watch him from afar. He lowered his eyes, pulling Ye Qing deeper into his cloak, and looked down warily and coldly.

For miles around, the malevolent aura soared, and a hundred ghosts howled.

“Everyone, run! Don’t let anyone fall behind!” As the senior disciple, Jing Qian took charge, holding a compass and directing everyone to flee on their flying swords.

Without him leading the way, the Guiyuan Sect disciples would have flown around like headless chickens, becoming scattered.

Just as Jing Qian rushed out, he heard a young girl’s scream.

It was actually Junior Sister Yu Feixue! Jing Qian was shocked.

It turned out that, after the old man with the jade pendant warned him, Qin Xun had acted faster than anyone else. He had also realized that Yin Miaomiao had lied to him.

She hadn’t told Qin Xun that, besides her identity as a female cultivator of the Liuli Sect, she was also the illegitimate daughter of Demon Lord Jiyuan. Demon Lord Jiyuan had died long ago, the Liuli Sect’s supreme treasure was a fake, and her quest for revenge was a lie.

She had deceived him!

Qin Xun’s mind was clear, and he knew it all perfectly well.

But as soon as he summoned the Feishuang Sword, he took flight on it. Yet at the very last moment, he still grabbed that exquisitely beautiful lamp.

The old man with the jade pendant was speechless.

Are you out of your mind?

Qin Xun gritted his teeth. She lied to me, but her pitiful appearance and tragic past are still real!

There was another reason, too. Things had already come to this. No matter how dangerous the situation or how dire the circumstances, it was already this bad.

He might as well just go all out. That Golden Lotus of Evil, which could purify plagues and command ghosts, was a treasure he had to obtain, even if it wasn’t the lost treasure of the Liuli Sect. This was his opportunity, and he was determined to seize it!

Only Yin Miaomiao knew where that treasure was!

With these two selfish motives intertwining, his emotions churned, and he refused to leave the lamp behind.

He also hadn’t forgotten his fiancée, Yu Feixue, who was still a mortal. She had no sword, and her cultivation level was too low to fly on one.

“Feixue, hurry, grab my hand and come up!” Qin Xun sat on the Feishuang Sword, extending a strong, sturdy hand to Yu Feixue.

Yu Feixue grabbed it, but she couldn’t pull herself up.

Her eyes widened in a mixture of fear and bewilderment, unable to comprehend what was happening.

A flicker of confusion crossed Qin Xun’s face. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could not only fly on a sword but even carry another person.

He was the only one on the Feishuang Sword, yet he was certain he could still take Yu Feixue with him. Unable to grasp the situation and seeing the Fierce Ghost charging toward them, his anxiety mounted, and his tone sharpened.

“Feixue, what are you still waiting for? Hurry up and get on!” He assumed she was struggling with her posture or had somehow offended the Feishuang Sword. His words, though urgent, placed immense pressure on her.

Yu Feixue’s heart pounded with terror. “I’m trying, but I can’t get up!”

The old man with the jade pendant roared in anger, “Don’t you see it yet? Throw the lamp away! The Feishuang Sword is a Divine Weapon you found in the Secret Realm, and it possesses a Sword Spirit. You thought Yin Miaomiao was just a remnant soul, but Divine Artifacts are sentient. The sword has identified Yin Miaomiao as a second person, which is why your Dao Companion cannot board!”

The old man was a remnant soul of the Mahayana Stage. The Sword Spirit acknowledged his presence but judged him as non-human and therefore weightless.

Yin Miaomiao, however, was different.

She had lied, claiming to be a thousand-year-old remnant soul, but in reality, she was a Fierce Ghost. Though she seemed weightless and unburdened, she still possessed weight a fact she could not hide from the Natural Sword Spirit.

The Sword Spirit judged her to be the second person.

The sword was now at capacity. Naturally, Yu Feixue could not ascend.

The old man with the jade pendant was truly a drifting remnant soul. Over the long ages, he had grown forgetful and felt he had lost something. It was only after Qin Xun awakened him that he remembered his mission: to assist Qin Xun in dominating the Eight Desolations, growing stronger, and saving the Cultivation World.

He had always remembered his mission, but that didn’t mean he, an old man, was willing to resolve such a mess for a youngster!

Once again, the pressure fell upon Qin Xun.

His expression was one of bewilderment. “How could this be!” Both women were crucial to him, one was his Dao Companion, and the other could guide him to opportunities. Yet he could only save one! Heavenly Dao, why did you force him to make such an impossible choice!

Why did you leave him in this desperate, precarious situation? Speak, Heavenly Dao! Speak!

Though wrapped tightly in a cloak, the human child still sneezed, nearly tumbling off the sword. This sent Tang Xi into a state of extreme anxiety.

Qin Xun agonized over the choice. He found himself blaming the Sword Spirit, why could it only carry two people instead of three? What kind of divine artifact was this? He also resented the Yu Family.

With all their heavenly treasures, Yu Jinghan had been able to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage in a single step. Why couldn’t they have at least trained Yu Feixue to become a Qi Refining cultivator?

He couldn’t help but think of his Junior Sister, Luo Ling. Though she was usually spoiled and unreliable, she was a Qi Refining cultivator who could fly on a sword.

In a critical moment, she wouldn’t hold anyone back or become a burden. If Yu Feixue were her, he wouldn’t have to face this impossible choice.

Qin Xun’s mind raced.

The old man with the jade pendant, completely oblivious to his inner turmoil, saw his hesitation and his face twisted with rage.

He looked ready to unleash a torrent of abuse on Qin Xun.

“Is there even anything to hesitate about? You are a cultivator of purity and restraint! You should see beautiful women as crimson-powdered skeletons and remain forever loyal to your Dao Companion!”

In other words, choose Yu Feixue and throw away this damn, cursed lamp immediately.

“I have no such intentions!” Qin Xun’s face flushed and paled in turns as he defended himself.

“I only felt pity for her, seeing her all alone and forsaken.”

Though he offered the excuse, he still didn’t throw the lamp away.

He had a nagging feeling that if he did, the female ghost inside would cry, and his own fortuitous opportunity would be lost.

Just then—

“A-Xun!” Yu Feixue cried out in terror.

The bell chimes in the bamboo grove grew louder. As cultivators who had trespassed into the burial grounds, they were now being targeted.

Several Fierce Ghosts had already broken away from the main procession and were lunging toward Yu Feixue, closing the distance to within ten meters.

Seeing this, Qin Xun’s breath quickened, and his heart nearly stopped.

Jing Qian: “???”

From his perspective, all he could see was his Junior Brother Qin Xun hovering mid-air on his sword, while Junior Sister Yu Feixue jumped repeatedly on the ground. Her exquisite embroidered shoes were already caked in dust, yet she still couldn’t reach him.

He couldn’t understand why his Junior Brother was playing a game of “extreme tug-of-war” with his Dao Companion while the Fierce Ghosts were about to attack. The frustration was killing him.

With Senior Brother Zheng Yiming absent, Jing Qian was the highest-ranking cultivator present. He had no choice but to dive back into the swarm of ghosts, grab Yu Feixue’s hand, and pull her onto his sword.

After a heart-stopping moment, Yu Feixue was safely aboard.

Just one second more, and her low cultivation would have seen her torn to shreds.

No matter how she tried to steel herself, she was still a girl under sixteen. Facing death by a hair’s breadth, terror surged through her, and tears fell like a broken string of pearls.

Qin Xun breathed a sigh of relief, his heart overflowing with tenderness. “Feixue, are you alright? It’s all because the sword suddenly broke. Thank goodness I could save you.”

Jing Qian also reflected on his own carelessness.

I was too reckless!

Because Junior Sister was Qin Xun’s Dao Companion, he had instinctively grouped them together, assuming Qin Xun would definitely save her. He had never considered what would happen if his Junior Brother failed to rescue her in time. If a tragedy had occurred, it would have been his failure as a Senior Brother!

“I’m sorry, Junior Sister. It’s all my fault!” Jing Qian struck his own head in frustration. As a disciple of Talisman Peak, he was clearly only suited for support, not for leading a team.

He felt immense guilt toward Yu Feixue, but she didn’t blame him in the slightest.

On the contrary, her heart swelled with gratitude toward Senior Brother Jing, and she now believed his words: the Guiyuan Sect was a harmonious and warm sect.

Then again, she was a girl with sharp intuition. When Qin Xun had come to Yu Manor to propose marriage, he had mentioned that the Feishuang Sword was an extraordinary blade. She found it hard to believe the sword had simply broken, yet she couldn’t understand why she had been unable to mount it.

She could only swallow her questions.

Before he’d encountered the Glazed Lamp, Qin Xun’s ambitions had been simple: to rise in rank, build his prestige, and secure leadership over his peers. But this time, he had miscalculated.

Seeing their Junior Sister in such peril and weeping so bitterly, Jing Qian wouldn’t dare let him lead.

Qin Xun’s plans had once again fallen through.

The disciples of the Guiyuan Sect had fled in panic after running into the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, white paper flowers scattering in the howling wind.

Just then, the culprit slipped out of the lamp again. She clung to Qin Xun’s back, her ghostly form weightless as she pointed toward the pitch-black palace ahead. “The Soul Refining Hall has opened, right there! I can sense your senior brothers’ presence, they’re trapped inside.”

Her acting was superb; no one yet connected her to the one who had just cried “thief” to deflect suspicion.

With the outside world turned into a ghost realm and their senior brothers missing, what other choice did they have?

They immediately charged through the hall’s gates, the wind roaring around them. Only after running for what felt like an eternity did they finally escape the danger.

“Hey, hey, hey, you stinking cultivator,” the girl whispered, leaning close to his ear. Her voice was soft, her scent a faint, haunting fragrance.

“Find a chance to ditch your senior brothers and sister. We can go treasure hunting alone, that’s a powerful artifact.”

The female ghost’s breath brushed against him, and the air seemed to turn sweet.

Qin Xun’s ear itched. Before he could reply, Yu Jinghan, the cold youth, shot him a sharp, piercing glare. “Why is she telling you to leave your senior and junior disciples behind and act alone?”

Qin Xun’s breath hitched. !!!

Yu Jinghan, I’m going to kill your whole family!!!!

The shock of being exposed, like a lover caught in the act, left Qin Xun’s face a mix of embarrassment and fury. His senior and junior disciples stared at him with utterly strange expressions.

Yu Feixue noticed the lamp. In a flash, she recalled that when she couldn’t ascend the Feishuang Sword, Qin Xun had still been clutching that lamp. Suspicion flared in her mind, followed by a spark of anger.

“Junior Brother! This female ghost has been misleading us for so long. How could you side with her? What kind of deal have you made with this ghost?!” Jing Qian, usually good-tempered, was now furious.

Under the collective wrath of his companions, Qin Xun had no choice but to confess everything about the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, including the information about the Ghost Crown Prince, Yan Chili.

Demon Lord Jiyuan had been a philanderer by nature, fathering over a hundred children. After his death, the Sea of Endlessness fell into chaos. The Demon Realm was already a place where demons ran rampant and the people were fierce, savage, and adhered strictly to the law of the jungle.

Unlike the peaceful and serene Immortal Realm, every day here was filled with infighting, blood, and slaughter.

Demon Lord Jiyuan was killed by Pei Xuan. He died with a grudge, hoping his children would avenge him. Instead, they fought each other daily, crumbling the power he had spent tens of thousands of years building into a scattered mess, with almost every child claiming a piece of land.

Just then, the Ghost Crown Prince, Yan Chilí, appeared. He refined over a hundred of his siblings who had been fighting him for power into Fierce Ghost puppets. With a single blast of his bone flute, their fragmented factions collapsed.

He unified the Sea of Endlessness and proclaimed himself the new Demon Lord.

Just as everyone thought this arrogant, temperamental young Demon Lord would challenge Pei Xuan, no one expected him to surrender to his father’s killer.

The Cultivation World was thrown into turmoil.

The two great villains joined forces, directly conquering more than half of the Demon Realm’s territory, including the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons, the Sea-Making Abyss Tower, the Eternal Frozen Wasteland, and the Sand of Buried Bones, unifying the three hundred million demons and monsters of the realm.

And today, unfortunately, is the Qingming Festival.

The Demon Lord’s children have come to Yunzhou City to pay their respects to their old father.

The crowd stood frozen, their hearts pounding with terror as a chill ran down their spines.

They were merely low-ranking disciples of the Guiyuan Sect, their cultivation levels no higher than Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment. How could they possibly withstand the Hundred Ghosts? And as for the Ghost Crown Prince, Yan Chili, he was far beyond their league!

Uncontrollable shivers racked their bodies.

“Brother, I’m scared.” Ye Qing stuffed himself into his cloak.

Finding it still offered little security, he lifted the hem of Yu Jinghan’s robes, draped them over his face, and only then did he dare to continue trembling.

Only two people remained unfazed.

One was Yu Jinghan.

He held the shivering human child in his arms, his expression calm, his eyes like cold stars. After all, he lived with the Ye Family and was well aware of such matters.

The other was Tang Xi. He could only sigh in despair. Pei Xuan, that cold-blooded demon, was already so powerful.

Even with a second chance at life, his territory and influence were expanding just as rapidly as before. The demons of all four directions submitted to him as their lord, just as they had in history.

The only thing he could do was protect Ye Qing.

As long as Qingqing was around, Pei Xuan, that madman, would be filled with fatherly love and wouldn’t slaughter the Cultivation World. The Nine Provinces Continent would be spared from destruction.

__

Today was the Qingming Festival, a time when ghosts were everywhere. Every move the Guiyuan Sect disciples made was under Yan Chili’s control.

“Master, look at the Guiyuan Sect! Protecting that female ghost, and even bringing a little child along to cultivate immortality.” Ye Qing was a lovely, snow-white ball of fluff. The sight of him burying his face and shivering with fear amused many of the ghosts.

They didn’t know he was Pei Xuan’s only son. If they had, how would they dare laugh so insolently? They would have rushed forward to kiss the little one’s small boots.

“Shut up.” Yan Chili, clad in purple robes, walked through the underground palace.

His handsome face flashed with a trace of ruthless murderous intent as he spoke coldly. Almost the moment his voice fell, the mocking Fierce Ghost turned into a wisp of black scorched smoke and merged into his shadow.

His more than a hundred brothers and sisters were all present, and they instantly fell silent, not daring to laugh again.

From the ghosts’ perspective, the little child was adorable and charming. Anyone might have curled their lips in a mocking smile.

Yan Chili was the same. His eyes were fixed on the child, unmoving. His beautifully shaped eyes narrowed slightly, as if he found the scene very interesting, yet he did not smile.