Yi Qianying continued to cough more and more intensely. She felt a sudden iron tang in her throat, and she began to spit out blood. With blood dripping down a corner of her lip and seeping through the cracks in her fingers, a face as pale as snow, she looked like a ghost out for vengeance.

“How long do I have left?” she asked the shadow before her.

“About a month,” came its reply. Its voice was hoarse and pitched just too low for comfort, sounding neither like a man nor a woman.

“This is the price I have to pay?” Yi Qianying was regretful and bitter. “If I had known the second elder would let me out, I wouldn’t have made such an exchange with you!”

“Do you think the second elder let you out because he had a change of heart? You killed his grandson, and there’s no way he would let you go. You’re only being made use of.”

“Made use of? For what?”

“For you to enter the otherworld instead of another student from the southern college,” the shadow replied. “All of you think that the otherworld’s a treasure trove, but it’ll be hell for a weakling like you! Given your current state, you’re sure to die in the otherworld, and perhaps in a worse manner than if you’d stayed here.”

Yi Qianying sat in silence and darkness. The shadow remained silent, as if it didn’t actually exist. It was a phantom that had been drawn out of a set of skeletal remains in the prison of the hall of penitence. When she met the shadow, Yi Qianying was almost going mad from her imprisonment.

The shadow quickly formed a pact with her: it would take Yi Qianying’s yang energy for its own cultivation, then help her break out once it managed to refine a physical body. In trade, it promised Yi Qianying to kill a few people—Yun Ruoyan, Pei Ziao, and the crown prince Li Qianxiao. Yun Ruoyan was naturally the target of Yi Qianying’s hatred, but Pei Ziao was a close second. Meanwhile, Li Qianxiao had sullied her purity.

Now that almost all of Yi Qianying’s yang energy had been consumed by the shadow, her yin energy wouldn’t be able to support her life for long.

“Regardless of your claim, it’s all pointless to me now. Our pact remains valid,” Yi Qianying stated, as though resigned to her fate. A sudden viciousness claimed her face. “Since I have another month of life left, I want to see these three dead before me by then. Can you accomplish that?”

The shadow thought for a moment. “With my current strength, it’ll be very difficult to kill anyone in Kongming Academy, and I’ll die if anyone finds out. I don’t want to take this risk, but…”

“But what?”

“But if you’re willing to pay the price, I’ll risk it,” the shadow finished.

“I’m already near death. What else can I provide?” Yi Qianying seemed shocked.

“Your body,” the shadow replied. “There’s still a long while before I can maintain my own physical form, so I’ll need a body with which to act before that.”

“Yes.” Yi Qianying didn’t hesitate at all: what use was a body to her, when she was about to die?

“I’ll act tonight,” the shadow promised.

“I really don’t want to return to this hateful place,” the crown prince Li Qianxiao grumbled, pushing open the door to his manor. To the other students, Kongming Academy was a cultivator’s heaven, but for Li Qianxiao? His accommodations weren’t as lavish as in the palace, and there weren’t any restaurants or brothels near him. What fun could he have in such an ascetic place?

His status as the crown prince had afforded him the privilege to arrive late, but he still wasn’t satisfied. I’ll report that I’m back, then find an opportunity to get off this dumb mountain, he thought to himself. Instead of returning to the capital immediately, I’ll head to Yuelu Villa, since Fourth Brother’s there, then head back to the capital a few days afterwards. As long as Father doesn’t find out, everything will go smoothly…

Following behind Li Qianxiao were two outer disciples, each carrying a number of bags. Within the bags were all sorts of toys and gadgets that he brought with him from the palace. The two disciples dropped the bags off in his manor, then left, leaving Li Qianxiao alone.

I’ll have a night’s rest, then report in early next morning, Li Qianxiao thought.

The moment he entered the manor, he sensed the unusual coldness in the air. He didn’t worry too much about it, thinking that it was because nobody had inhabited the manor over the holidays. He lay in bed and quickly fell asleep after the weary day of travelling, dreaming that he was in a brothel with a courtesan he had recently gotten very acquainted with. Her soft, seemingly boneless body lay beside him, her face beautiful and beckoning. However, just as he was about to reach his climax, that figure suddenly morphed into a skeleton, and two beady eyes penetrated his body.

“Argh!” Li Qianxiao yelled out, waking up drenched in sweat. Only then did he find that night had fallen, that it was dark all over the manor and that he was very, very alone.

Li Qianxiao wasn’t particularly timid, and he had never found himself ill at ease because he was occupying such a large manor alone, but that dream had left him shaken. As he stood up in an attempt to light the lamp on his bedside table, he suddenly found himself missing Yi Qianying. Although the two of them didn’t talk very much, she was still a living person.

Li Qianxiao lit a match, which gradually brightened up the room. Just as he was about to light up the lamp on his bedside table, he suddenly found a shadow by the corner of his room.

“Who is it?” he called out, but that shadow had vanished.

Li Qianxiao wiped the sweat on his forehead with a sleeve, then lit the lamp, mumbling to himself, “What’s wrong with me today? Where did that nightmare come from, and why’s my sight failing me now, too?”

“Oh, I’m right here, right behind you…” a dark, sinister voice whispered into his ear.

Li Qianxiao’s ear went numb, as though someone had blown a freezing jet of wind along it, followed by his face, then his entire body.

He forced his neck to rotate, only to see a black shadow floating toward him.

“Ghost—!” Li Qianxiao opened his mouth wide. He was about to scream when the shade clenched his neck with a claw, cutting off his airflow. Li Qianxiao found himself gasping for breath, his eyesight blurring. The fear of death overwhelmed his senses, and he reached out, grabbed an ornamental dagger from his waist, and tried to stab it into the shade’s body.

But the shade was immaterial, and Li Qianxiao’s resistance was fruitless.

“Remember this,” the shade murmured, as Li Qianxiao’s face turned a purplish-red. “The person who wants you dead is Yi Qianying, for all the wrongs that you’ve done her!”

With a snap, Li Qianxiao’s neck broke, and he exhaled his last.

The shade released him, and Li Qianxiao’s corpse fell to the ground. The black shadow picked up the ornamental dagger from the ground, snuffed out the lamp, and vanished into the darkness.

Yi Qianying stood in her own cottage, looking in the direction of Li Qianxiao’s manor with an expressionless face, until it lit up in flames. The fires roared and blazed, turning the sky itself a flaming red.

A cold smile slowly appeared on Yi Qianying’s face, one that widened and widened. Yi Qianying laughed so hard she began to cry.

The black shade appeared in front of Yi Qianying, and it handed her the dagger.

“Keep it for yourself.” Yi Qianying didn’t accept the proffered dagger. “Next, use this dagger to kill Yun Ruoyan and Pei Ziao.”

“I just headed to the cottage by the cliff that you mentioned,” the shade replied. “There were two auras within, one so strong that I’m no match for it. The other wasn’t weak, but it was something I could handle.”

“That strong aura undoubtedly belongs to the Slaughtering King. He’s an instructor of Kongming Academy, as well as Yun Ruoyan’s master. That weaker aura is likely Yun Ruoyan, so you just have to avoid the Slaughtering King until you can find an opportunity to get rid of her.”

“I heard that there’s a training session for all those entering the otherworld tomorrow. I’ll sneak into it and try to find a chance.”

The next day marked the start of the next training session. This time, Li Mo was still the instructor in charge. With him in the lead, the students entered an isolated island. There were a few beasts on the island, but they were so weak that even the weakest seventh-rank blademasters among the students could handle them. The elders had chosen relatively safe training grounds to prevent any egregious loss of students so close to entering the alternate dimension.

“These beasts don’t have great offensive capabilities,” Li Mo shouted. “We’ll split up into small groups and hunt them today. Your goal is to try to get at least ten low-grade and three mid-grade beast cores. Once you’re done, gather back here.”

Because of the enmity between various students of different colleges, Li Mo had opted to have the students self-assemble into teams. Very quickly, the twenty-nine students grouped up into eight teams, each setting off in a different direction through the island...