“XingXue.”

His eyes hurt as he strained his muscles to focus, in an attempt to spot where his master’s silken voice came from. His head was fixed stiffly on his shoulders and limbs rigid, unable to move. Shuangyue Elder’s voice brought him immeasurable relief.

The voice quietly whispered again, albeit more disgruntled than the first time. “XingXue… You can respond. Are you okay?”

He couldn’t respond.

“Lai XingXue. I see your eyes wide awake.” Shen QuanLi voiced, as his concerned expression came into the silent disciple’s vision. The initial relief he felt was replaced with disquiet. He didn’t want his teacher to misunderstand. The emotions welled up in his pupils and the emotionless face was now coupled with glassy eyes.

Grabbing Lai XingXue’s wrist, the elder’s expression grew dim before he discreetly explained, “...The dark energy from before is circulating through your body and restraining your motor capabilities.” Shen QuanLi dropped the sharp edge of his voice, opting for a softer tone as he continued speaking. Withdrawing a handkerchief from his sleeve, he dabbed at the second prince’s eyes. “This problem is nothing for your master to solve, so A-Bing don’t cry, alright?”

Golden eyes creased as if smiling at his master, and the tears that had formed were blinked away. Though he felt a twinge of embarrassment at his current appearance, which could only be described as something akin to a young maiden. After all, the young master secretly enjoyed the attention from Shen QuanLi.

His master withdrew his spiritual weapon, his favorite jade pipe, once he put the handkerchief back. Shuangyue Elder pressed the lip of the jade end to Lai XingXue’s mouth, instructing, “Breathe deeply, one of GuangMing’s key qualities is the augmentation and circulation of spiritual energy. It withdraws the unwanted energy in your spiritual capillaries in exchange for pure qi.”

Following the directive, the youth attempted to take a deep breath before his eyes began spilling tears. His lungs were inflamed, making it difficult to muster a single breath. Normally one would cough, cough the irritants out until they couldn’t feel anything, but such a feat was currently impossible. The strain felt like acid in his muscles. It hurt. Though paralyzed, he was still entirely capable of feeling pain and sensations. He just couldn’t move.

“XingXue?...” Shen QuanLi set the pipe back on the string that hung from his waistband. “You can’t?”

Teardrops clung to Lai Bing’s eyelashes.

“That’s fine.” Green eyes flickered towards something outside of Lai XingXue’s view as Shen QuanLi affixed a stern palm to his back. A rush of puissant spiritual energy poured into the teen, as the malicious energy was filtered out through the elder.

Lai XingXue could feel his strength coming back. In fact, by the end of the process, it seemed his master had left him with double the spiritual power he normally had. The teenager couldn’t help his reverence. “Shizun, this disciple owns you his life-”

Shen QuanLi pressed a finger against his disciple’s lip, hushing Lai XingXue in a familiar manner, “Time. Place.” The soft tone was gone, replaced with the algid tone that was typical of the teacher, now that he was no longer perforated with worry. The elder’s thumb pointed towards the paper-screened door to the side of them.

Finally, in a proper state of mind, Lai XingXue took the chance to take in his surroundings. He looked down and around. He and his master had been sitting on a stone bench at the corner of the strange room. The room itself was constructed from rough stone and was relatively square. In the corner furthest back, hung a curtain that matched the length of the room. An elevated stone platform, that had a symbol engraved with red he couldn’t distinguish, was in the center, and directly across from him had a wall decorated with sharp tools.

Such a setting was ridiculously ominous, whoever designed it left nothing to the imagination.

In layman’s terms, it was a murder room.

“XingXue, did you bring your sword?”

“My sword? The practice one?” While packing for his first mission to help out with village issues, the youth didn’t take into account that he would be battling for his life. The level of the mission had become unprecedented, and Lai XingXue had only packed for what he needed. Other things could be bought on the way. “It’s only wood, this disciple didn’t think it was needed.”

Nevertheless, Shen QuanLi frowned, but chose not to comment, aware that he was a source of the problem. With a shing, he unsheathed his spiritual blade from the scabbard and gave the hilt to Lai XingXue. Muttering a few commands to the weapon before he did so.

“Take care of Sendiao.”

Lai XingXue wanted to protest, but that was quickly shut down with a glare. Gripping the handle, the second prince could only nod in response, skimming his thumb over the artistic engravings of forestry embedded in the hilt.

A darkening shadow appeared on the paper windows of the exit doors, accompanied by soft footsteps. And there they approached. The malicious energy grew increasingly prominent. The entity sang such a happy tune as they pulled open the sliding doors.

A slim young woman stepped over the threshold. She had a red fabric fan in her right hand and was dressed in extravagant clothes, stylistically similar to that of a courtesan. “Oh, this is interesting,” she fluttered the fan open, allowing it to hide the bottom half of her face. “I didn’t expect the small daozhang to be awake. I only dressed up for LiangDi Immortal, you see.”

Shen QuanLi's frosted expression dyed with disgust. “Cut your nonsense. What’s your purpose here?”

“You know, very well, my purpose” She proclaimed as she clapped her hands. “This one is Ou-zhangzhu.” The silk fan brushed across the expanse of the young lady’s body, hiding her figure. The moment she withdrew it, the elderly woman in plain robes stood before them. Ou-zhangzhu snapped the fan closed, for it didn’t suit her current image, and she spoke in the frail voice of an elder. “Daozhangs know I lead the village.” She swept her fan once more and turned back into the dressed-up young woman from before. The moment prior was done entirely for spectacle. It was a demonstration of her spiritual prowess.

Lai XingXue's expression stiffened as he tried to steady his hold on Sendiao. A shift-shaping demon?

“Did daozhangs like my dance?”

The sugar from the lady’s thin red lips was sickening.

Shuangyue Elder let out a short sarcastic laugh, “Ha. This room reeks of blood. Why would a village chief need a room of the dead.” His head cocked to the hidden corner of the room.

“Ah,” she clicked her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest, “LiangDi Immortal, going through a lady’s room is very immoral!”

The elder felt almost faint from anger at such an audacious response, but maintained his stoney expression. Demons were shameless beyond comprehension to such a pure immortal.

An ill-feeling kept building up in Lai XingXue’s stomach as Ou-zhangzhu continued to flap her fan. “Shizun, don’t listen to her pretty words.”

“You too?!” Shen QuanLi was really going to faint from anger.

“Look at her,” Lai XingXue’s words came out a bit too soaked in vinegar. He incorrectly emphasized the wrong words.

“XingXue, your shizun is not being seduced by the demon.” He reaffirmed.

To add insult to injury, the youth didn’t even think such a tale was a possibility. But having his master say it out loud, ended up reinforcing it as one in his mind. The teenager felt bitter, and a childish huff escaped his mouth.

“That witch is filling this room with black smoke.”

Gathering his senses Shen QuanLi waved his hand, creating a symbol and casting a protective enchantment over his disciple. “Stop pulling tricks, demon.”

Ou-zhangzhu rolled her eyes, “You asked about why I would need this room.” She snapped her fan shut. “It’s no fun if I can’t show you.” The demon clumsily tackled Shen QuanLi, to which the elder easily avoided. She was a demon who wasn’t used to melee combat, it seemed unrealistic to say she had even been in a real fight… Red eyes wandered to look at the younger disciple.

Lai XingXue stood still, but his eyes creased. He would not allow himself to inconvenience his master again, “Don’t try anything.”

Ou-zhangzhu continuously clicked her tongue. She raised both of her hands in defeat, slowly backing away from the two. “I understand there’s no point in dragging on a settled match.” She snapped her fingers with dramatic flair, causing the curtains to flutter down. Five men stood lifelessly next to each other, almost like dolls. Lai XingXue recognized one of them as the rude stranger that kicked the lacquer stacking box in the temple earlier.

“They’re all dead...” The teenager peered helplessly at the bodies.

Shen QuanLi’s expression turned frigid, “Is that what happened to YangSu village’s men?”

“LiangDi Immortal’s reputation precedes him, indeed,” The lady smirked, complimenting.

Shuangyue Elder’s horsetail whisk came down, callously. Although considered a soft weapon, the whisk effortlessly felt like a whip in the hands of a normal martial artist. In the hand of an enraged Shen QuanLi, the horse hairs came down, as iron threads. The demon barely managed to dodge. The whisk scratched her arm, causing leaking trails of dark blue blood after it was pulled away.

“How could an Immortal hit a woman!” she snarled, cupping her wound. The demon collected the dripping blood onto her fingers and smeared it onto the lips of the first few cadavers. Yet she was unable to paint the remaining three, once the horsetail whisk swung out again. The threads elongated and pierced, aiming to strike the lady. Shen QuanLi didn’t make a noise, didn’t respond, and continued to swing. And somehow, Ou-zhangzhu continued to dodge the full impact of each wave. It left her scarred and scratched up, even while she was entirely focused on evading. Although the demon had never fought, the innate power of the demonic bloodline managed to keep up to the years of trained combat of a human cultivator. The lady was simply dragging on time by this point.

As time passed, the corpses that had their lips smeared with the demon blood rose to consciousness .

The awakened bodies were dexterous and nimble. They would speak in short phrases, echoing portions of the demon's way of speech, and mimicking her character. Their target was pre-decided. After all, attacking Shen QuanLi would be easy, but so was being shredded, so both of them chose to bully the child. It would quite literally be child’s play.

The turn of the battle wasn't entirely unexpected for Lai XingXue, though. Master’s best and only disciple could easily piece together the previous puzzle pieces. Could he fight though?

The young disciple was trained, yes. He had dueled the disciples of other elders and gotten to a point where he could take on two disciples of his own level, with some difficulty. But two fully grown men powered off blue demon blood?

“XingXue,” Shen QuanLi called out after what felt like years. “Techniques five to six, until you can execute seven. Try not to damage the bodies beyond recognition.” The elder spoke as if he had eyes on the back of his head, chilling cold ones not leaving Ou-zhangzhu.

The feeling of his master’s spiritual sword was completely different from a wooden practice one. Sendiao’s weight pulled him a little whenever he followed through on his master’s directive, off-putting his proper pressure, and swing. While techniques four to five were defensive in nature, the seventh was an enchantment to purge and purify a body’s essence.

His enemies were strangely sophisticated for living corpses. They used the sharp tools on the stone wall to attack him, rather than their nails or brute strength. Most of the men in YangSu village were said to be farmers or merchants. Lai XingXue wasn’t aware that sword fighting had ended up as a popular pastime among the occupation. Fortunately, the simple tools were all short-handed weapons, similar to cutting knives and scalpels, nothing that can truly compare to a cultivated spiritual weapon. Despite the evident handicap, the cadavers made the difference up in skill and number.

Sendiao’s blade gleamed with enthusiastic intensity at the challenge, though. But for a novice like Lai XingXue, who never even touched a spiritual sword before, the surge in power was a greater burden to be acclimated to. He scarcely managed to fend off both of the living corpses without taking a hit but had yet to find an opportunity to cast the seventh enchantment. The second prince was stuck in a stalemate, and he was well aware his stamina would slip at this rate.

And it did. A combination of his unfamiliarity of handling Sendiao and his depleting stamina against two difficult opponents made it bound to happen. A scalpel took a dive into his side.