Having left the sect, Mu Liuyin was now using a concealment spell to quietly follow behind Mingli, who was out in the world on her training journey. With Mingli only in the early Nascent Soul stage, there was no way she could detect her master’s presence.
Days turned into nights. Winter gave way to spring. Mingli had now been out training for five years. Throughout that time, Mu Liuyin had never once revealed herself. She simply stayed in the shadows, silently watching over her. Meanwhile, Mingli had progressed to the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
A warm summer breeze blew beneath a deep night sky. Moonlight scattered across the earth. Hidden by magic, Mu Liuyin reclined on the thick branch of an ancient tree. Below, Mingli was roasting spirit beast meat over a fire she had built.
The meat’s aroma filled the air, but as soon as Mingli took a bite, she frowned. As expected, no matter how long she spent on the road, she just couldn’t get used to her cooking.
It simply didn’t taste good.
It wasn’t the first time Mu Liuyin had seen Mingli make that same disgusted face while eating her food. She couldn’t help but smile, covering her lips to keep from laughing out loud.
Truly, it was much more comfortable being out here than back in the Taiyan Sect. No need to keep up appearances or wear a cold mask all the time.
The night passed. Mingli continued her training journey. Two months later, deep in a ravine, she was intercepted by two rogue cultivators, both at the late Nascent Soul stage.
“Big bro, this girl’s not just pretty—she’s in the mid Nascent Soul stage. She’d make a fine cauldron for us to use,” one of them said, his lecherous gaze locked on Mingli.
Mingli raised an eyebrow and sneered coldly. “A cauldron?”
The moment she finished speaking, a flash of sword light cut through the air. The two men didn’t even have time to react before they both dropped dead on the spot.
A streak of violet lightning obliterated their nascent souls—so thoroughly that they wouldn’t even get the chance to reincarnate.
This familiar scene unsettled Mu Liuyin. Her heart seethed with fury, but she was also impressed by Mingli’s swordsmanship, powerful enough to kill across cultivation stages.
What she didn’t see, however, was the faint crimson glint that passed through Mingli’s otherwise calm eyes. As the wind swept through her dark hair, a small portion of her collarbone was revealed, exposing a vividly blood-red mark—the very lifelike image of a Red Spider Lily.
And that scene… was seen in its entirety by an elder of the Astrolabe Pavilion, who had been hiding on the edge of a cave deep within the ravine.
This very elder had once been humiliated by Qin Yu in Taiyan Sect. He’d been stuck at the peak of the Integration realm for years. Just days earlier, the Pavilion Master of Astrolabe Pavilion had done a divination for him and said that he’d find a great opportunity here. Before he left, Ye Fengjue had even given him a cryptic smile and said he might uncover something unexpected.
He was highly skilled in concealment, and since he’d arrived before Mingli, even Mu Liuyin hadn’t noticed his presence.
Now, as he stared at the blood-red Red Spider Lily mark, he was about to step forward and capture Mingli. But just before he could move, he remembered Ye Fengjue’s warning—under no circumstances should he act rashly.
In mere seconds, he pulled out a memory mirror. It captured everything with crystal clarity: Mingli’s cold, beautiful expression, and the vivid red mark on her collarbone.
Mingli had already left the area. Mu Liuyin, still hidden in the shadows, quietly followed after her.
The elder, breathing a little harder now, stared at what he’d recorded, his eyes filled with excitement. So the reincarnation of the Lord of the Demon Realm… was the top disciple of Taiyan Sect.
Back at the Astrolabe Pavilion, Ye Fengjue watched the scene on the memory mirror. His phoenix-like eyes curved into a smile. His voice was clear and cold:
“Good thing you didn’t act. If you had not, not only would we have failed to expose the reincarnated Demon Lord, but you wouldn’t have made it back alive either.”
The disciples of Astrolabe Pavilion regarded their master’s words as divine command. Hearing this, the elder broke into a cold sweat.
“Master, why do you say that?” he asked.
“If I’m not mistaken,” Ye Fengjue said with a slight smile, “Huan Xi is hiding in the shadows to protect her exceptionally gifted disciple. How interesting.”
The sect leader of the foremost cultivation sect, secretly raising the reincarnated Lord of the Demon Realm as her disciple.
The elder trembled with a mix of fear and relief. “Then, Master… what do you plan to do?”
“Now that we’ve confirmed the reincarnation,” Ye Fengjue said, toying with the jade-crafted memory mirror in his hand, “it’s time to announce it to the world. Taiyan Sect… It’s long overdue for a change in leadership.”
He tossed the mirror back to the elder and instructed him to make several copies and send them to the other eight major sects.
The very next day, news of the reincarnated Demon Lord swept across the cultivation world.
Rumor had it—
She was the top disciple of the number-one sect, Taiyan Sect.
A personal disciple of the sect leader.
A mid-Nascent Soul cultivator—
Mingli.
Meow meow On TPH Chapter 26.1