Sang Dai and Su Xuan entered the Burning Heaven Realm again, with Liu Lixue trailing behind, shivering.
“Ah, I should’ve worn another layer. This ghostly aura is freezing,” Liu Lixue complained. “I mean, really, for someone like Fu You to throw all his treasures into this place just to kill Miss Sang… talk about having too much time on his hands.”
Su Xuan gave him a sideways glance. “Spineless.”
Though his words were sharp, when Liu Lixue extended a hand with a grin, Su Xuan still generously conjured a flame of hellfire for him.
The ancient divine beast’s hellfire was warm enough to shield him from the ghostly chill of the Burning Heaven Realm. Liu Lixue, nearly moved to tears, cried, “Sovereign Lord, ever since Miss Sang showed up, you’ve finally learned how to act human!”
Su Xuan: “…”
Grinding his teeth, Su Xuan barked, “Get lost!”
Hugging the hellfire tightly, Liu Lixue darted off. “Right away!”
Watching the scene, Sang Dai couldn’t help but laugh. She had always thought Su Xuan and Liu Lixue had a simple master-servant relationship, but now it seemed more like they were brothers.
After all, one pretended to be aloof while the other pretended to be unserious—a true case of birds of a feather.
Su Xuan reached out and took the swordsman’s wrist with practiced ease, sending a small wisp of hellfire into her meridians.
His spiritual energy was as fiery as his personality. Although Sang Dai now had her cultivation and Golden Core restored and didn’t feel cold, the warmth from Su Xuan’s spiritual energy spread through her meridians, making her feel noticeably cozier.
“You now have your spiritual energy and cultivation back,” Su Xuan said. “If you encounter vengeful ghosts, you can protect yourself. But don’t push yourself too hard.”
Su Xuan released her hand and handed her the Qingwu Sword at his waist, saying, “There are too many vengeful ghosts here. They’re relentless and only know how to kill, but your life is important. Don’t fight recklessly like before. Zhiyu hasn’t been reforged yet, so use my Qingwu Sword for now.”
Sang Dai’s eyes curved slightly in a smile as she accepted the Qingwu Sword. “Su Xuan, do you know what you’re like right now?”
“What?”
“You’re like an old father sending his child off to school, fussing over and over again, ‘Don’t forget your books, don’t fall asleep in class, don’t get into fights with others.’”
She pointed to her ear. “I’ve heard these things so many, many, many times already.”
To emphasize, she repeated “many” several times in a bright, playful tone, her words ending in a soft, lilting cadence that sounded almost coquettish.
Su Xuan froze, staring at her.
[Dai Dai… so cute.]
Sang Dai sighed.
[Want to kiss her.]
Rolling her eyes at him, she said, “Sovereign Lord, stop wasting time.”
[Is she acting spoiled? Is Dai Dai acting spoiled with me? Can she say it again? Why is her voice so sweet, so adorable, so adorable, so adorable—want to kiss her!]
Realizing the thoughts in his mind were spiraling out of control, Sang Dai turned and walked off.
The fox behind her quickly followed, his silver hair swaying as his ears stood tall and straight. The smile on his lips was impossible to suppress.
Walking beside her, Su Xuan silently leaned closer until their shoulders were touching.
Her clothes, custom-made for her, were something he had specially ordered. The hairpin in her hair was from a collection he had saved up over the years. He never imagined he’d see the day when she’d wear them.
Su Xuan wanted to pamper this swordsman until she was radiant, a far cry from the austere and frugal life she’d endured at the Sword Sect.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, catching the soft flutter of her thick, curled lashes.
So beautiful.
His Dai Dai deserved only the best.
Of course, Sang Dai had no idea what was going on in his mind.
Compared to Su Xuan, her thoughts were far more practical.
The Burning Heaven Realm should have still been occupied by members of the other two realms, but as they traveled, aside from encountering some demonic cultivators, they didn’t see anyone from the Immortal Realm.
Had they all left?
Sang Dai couldn’t be certain. While the Immortal Realm seemed absent, the number of vengeful ghosts hadn’t diminished. If anything, there were so many it was overwhelming.
Another vengeful ghost rushed at them, but Su Xuan deftly dispatched it with a wave of hellfire.
Sang Dai walked silently by his side.
Ahead of them, Liu Lixue strolled along as though he were wandering through his own private garden. With Su Xuan behind them, every ghost that came near was reduced to ashes, leaving Liu Lixue utterly at ease.
Sang Dai asked, “Should we look for the Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root first?”
Su Xuan countered, “Do you know where the Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root is?”
Sang Dai shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Su Xuan replied, “But there’s someone who might.”
It didn’t take Sang Dai long to understand what he meant. “Senior Ling Yin.”
Su Xuan raised a brow in agreement.
Sang Dai continued, “We should find Senior Ling Yin first. The Burning Heaven Realm is vast, and searching without a clear goal would just be a matter of luck. Senior Ling Yin might know something.”
They were already planning to seek out Ling Yin. There were too many mysteries surrounding her, and if Sang Dai wanted to uncover the truth about the events of the past, Ling Yin was a thread she had to follow.
The destiny Ling Yin had seen—was it connected to the destruction of the Guixu’s spiritual veins over a hundred years ago?
And within that destiny, had she seen Ying Heng?
Perhaps Ling Yin held the answers.
Sang Dai asked, “Where is the Red Sand Spring?”
Su Xuan tilted his chin toward a distant direction, motioning for Sang Dai to look. “See that area over there? The deeper you go into the Burning Heaven Realm, the more vengeful ghosts you’ll encounter, and the denser the ghostly aura becomes. The Red Sand Spring lies at its deepest point.”
Sang Dai’s expression turned thoughtful. “The lair of the vengeful ghosts?”
“Naturally.”
Liu Lixue, walking ahead of them, suddenly turned back and said, “It’s not just the lair of ordinary vengeful ghosts. The ones deep in the Burning Heaven Realm are said to be very different from the ones we’re encountering now.”
As he sidestepped a vengeful ghost lunging at him from nowhere, he flicked his folding fan, decapitating it in one fluid motion. Su Xuan followed up with a wave of hellfire, reducing the ghost to ash in an instant.
Liu Lixue continued, “The vengeful ghosts there were once powerful cultivators who met horrific deaths. In life, they were at least at the Nascent Soul stage. For example, have you heard of someone named You Hanlu from the Hehuan Sect? He slaughtered the Lin family in Jingyang County and was sentenced by the Immortal Alliance. He was hunted by the sects and eventually killed in the Ten Thousand Kill Formation. Even then, his soul transformed into a vengeful ghost and killed a number of elders.”
Sang Dai nodded. She had heard of him. As the sect master of the Hehuan Sect, he was infamous for his beauty and had countless admirers among female cultivators.
“Ultimately, the sects joined forces to capture him, and he was exiled to the Burning Heaven Realm. He might still be there at the Red Sand Spring. After so many years, who knows if his cultivation has improved?”
Before his imprisonment, he was at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. He might even have reached the Soul Formation stage by now.
Liu Lixue added, “What I’m saying is, the vengeful ghosts at the Red Sand Spring aren’t ordinary. Many of them retain some level of consciousness, and they love to toy with their prey.”
“For example, they might ask you to judge whether they were guilty.”
“Or ask if you think they’re good-looking.”
“Or request help finding their physical body.”
Liu Lixue turned around and waved his hand dramatically. “No matter how you respond, they’ll kill you anyway. With these types of vengeful ghosts, you have no choice but to draw your sword. Reasoning won’t work, and they’re exceptionally hard to kill.”
“Hopefully, we won’t run into any with intact consciousness—they’re the hardest to deal with.”
He flipped open his fan with a flourish and waved it lazily, his demeanor suave.
Sang Dai nodded, indicating she understood.
Su Xuan said, “You’re at the peak of the Soul Formation stage now. Dealing with them shouldn’t be a problem.”
Sang Dai didn’t feel afraid either.
She gazed toward the depths of the Burning Heaven Realm, where amidst layers upon layers of ghost fire, the distant Red Sand Spring appeared even more terrifying.
Only a patch of vibrant green fire was visible, its intense blaze a clear indicator of the overwhelming ghostly aura and the sheer number of vengeful ghosts present there.
Ling Yin was actually in that place.
Sang Dai sighed inwardly, gripping the Qingwu Sword tighter.
As it turned out, Liu Lixue had been completely right.
He really was a jinx.
The moment Sang Dai stepped across the boundary of the Red Sand Spring, a vengeful ghost dropped down from above, hanging upside down. Its tangled hair fell like a curtain, and its eyes glowed a deep crimson.
The instant their eyes met, a chill ran down Sang Dai’s spine.
Just as she feared, they had encountered a conscious vengeful ghost.
Su Xuan’s face turned icy as he grabbed Sang Dai’s hand and yanked Liu Lixue back by his collar, retreating quickly.
The ghost hung in midair, suspended by something unknown, its face deathly pale.
It stared at Sang Dai and suddenly licked its lips, murmuring, “Young lady, you smell so sweet…”
Sang Dai: “…”
Liu Lixue: “…”
Su Xuan: “You’re courting death!”
With a snap of his fingers, Su Xuan summoned his hellfire, crackling with intense energy, and hurled it at the ghost. The flames surged forward like a tidal wave, engulfing the hanging figure.
Even as the fire consumed its body, the ghost paid no mind to its impending demise. Its glowing red eyes stayed fixed on Sang Dai as it shrieked, “You smell so sweet! So sweet!”
From deeper within the ghost fire came more voices, echoing eerily.
“So sweet, so sweet. Such fragrant blood and flesh.”
“Young lady, may I eat your arm?”
“No, no, I’m not greedy. I only want a finger. Just one. Won’t you share it with me?”
“I want some too! I want some too! I want, I want!”
Sang Dai spotted dozens of blood-red eyes glowing in the dark, filled with greed and malice.
They all clamored to speak at once.
“I’m missing an arm. They took my arm, and now I can’t leave the Burning Heaven Realm. May I have yours?”
“I’m missing a head. They took my head, and now I can’t get out. I’d like yours instead.”
“I’m missing a leg. They took my leg, and I want so badly to leave. Would you give me yours?”
Liu Lixue shivered violently, letting out a string of curses. “What is wrong with you lunatics?!”
Sang Dai remained relatively composed, though her brows furrowed slightly. She was just about to draw her sword when a shadow flickered in front of her.
Su Xuan moved so quickly that his figure left afterimages. The golden patterns on his black robe glimmered faintly under the ghost fire, and the hellfire surrounding him flared up with several times the intensity of the ghostly flames, forcing them to retreat.
The oppressive chill of the ghostly aura was overwhelmed and pushed back, bit by bit, under the force of Su Xuan’s power.
Wherever Su Xuan passed, his hellfire ignited the vengeful ghosts.
Countless twisted figures burned in the flames, their agonized screams mixed with greedy longing as they fixed their blood-red eyes on Sang Dai.
“I must leave the Burning Heaven Realm! I must leave!”
“Young lady, help me! Help me!”
“Let me eat you! Let me eat you!”
Liu Lixue rubbed his arms, his usually charming face now twisted with disgust. “What is all this?! Absolutely revolting!”
Sang Dai, however, did not respond.
Noticing her silence, Liu Lixue turned to look at her and realized her gaze was fixed on something.
He followed her line of sight.
Su Xuan’s hellfire burned alongside the ghostly flames of the vengeful ghosts, setting the Red Sand Spring ablaze. Within the roaring inferno, the silhouettes of the ghosts twisted in agony. Their blood-red eyes never left Sang Dai as they staggered forward, limbs aflame, clawing desperately toward her. Yet Su Xuan shattered them with a single strike each time they approached.
Beyond the wall of flames, however…
A solitary figure stood quietly.
She wore flowing white robes that dragged along the ground. The flames licked at her hem, but not a single thread was burned.
Her long hair was loose, its ends so long they brushed the floor, as though it hadn’t been cut in centuries.
Her eyes weren’t the blood-red hue typical of vengeful ghosts. Instead, they were calm and black, warm and gentle. Her delicate, elegant face was free of the grotesque ghostly markings that adorned most vengeful spirits.
Liu Lixue stammered, “L-L-L-L-Ling—”
Sang Dai interrupted calmly, “Senior Ling Yin.”
Su Xuan stopped as well, his tall figure standing amidst the flames, his silver hair fluttering in the heat.
He looked toward her, but Ling Yin wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was fixed solely on Sang Dai.
Standing at a distance, Ling Yin suddenly smiled softly at Sang Dai and asked, “Young lady, do you dare to come in?”
Sang Dai frowned. “Come into what?”
Ling Yin’s dark eyes met hers, her voice gentle. “The Red Sand Spring. If you step inside, the vengeful ghosts will tear you apart and devour you.”
Devour her.
Every ghost in the area seemed to crave her flesh.
Ling Yin continued, her tone light and almost playful. “Young lady, didn’t you come here to find me? I’m right here. Do you dare to step inside?”
Su Xuan’s heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively moved toward Sang Dai. “Sang Dai, you can’t go in.”
Liu Lixue’s voice trembled with alarm. “Miss Sang, don’t! Absolutely not!”
Sang Dai’s expression remained unchanged. Before Liu Lixue could finish his words, she had already drawn her sword and leapt forward in a flash.
The cold, clear voice of the swordsman rang out:
“Of course I dare.”