Rose City lay close to the kingdom’s border in the opposite direction, beyond which was a foreign trading city rife with all sorts of people. Among the city’s darkest corners sat one of the continent’s largest black markets.
The black market streets were lined with vendors selling contraband, while security officers armed with weapons patrolled everywhere. The only difference between this place and a normal market was the nature of the goods being sold.
Lin Qiyou and Xiao Ya were disguised as masked customers, but they hadn’t come to shop—they were here to tail someone.
Ahead of them in the crowd were two people they had been following for some time, and these two were themselves following others.
“How do you know they’re there?” Xiao Ya, playing the lookout, nervously tugged on Lin Qiyou’s arm, her voice stammering.
“Magic.”
“Really? Wouldn’t they feel it?”
Xiao Ya was puzzled. If it was some kind of tracking magic, they should have been detected as soon as they entered the black market.
Besides, the black market was dotted with mana detectors everywhere. If anyone used forbidden magic, they would have been caught immediately.
“No.”
Lin Qiyou thought silently. Aura-based spells weren’t the same as magic.
They continued tailing the two, whose path Lin Qiyou had investigated led to a shop selling alchemical ingredients.
After waiting a while, Lin Qiyou sensed they had begun moving toward the black market’s outskirts. She urged Xiao Ya to hurry up. Once outside the market, Lin Qiyou intercepted the two in a hidden spot.
Both were dressed in black with masks. When stopped by Lin Qiyou, they realized resistance was useless and tried every trick to escape. But by the time Xiao Ya caught up, breathless, the two were already incapacitated, sitting on the ground.
“It’s you two?”
“Huh? How is this possible!”
When Lin Qiyou pulled down their masks, she and Xiao Ya were both shocked.
These two were the same people who had traveled with them from the border checkpoint to Rose City.
Then Lin Qiyou removed her own mask, and the two were equally startled.
“Tell me, why were you following that group? Who sent you?”
Lin Qiyou ignored their claim that they were “one of our own.” Speaking firmly, and despite Xiao Ya’s protests, she stabbed one of them sharply in the thigh.
Seeing Lin Qiyou was serious, the two didn’t dare hide anything and said bluntly, “It was Lord Nongli who sent us!”
“Nongli again?”
Lin Qiyou frowned thoughtfully. Suddenly, she said, “Then the woman who came looking for Xiao Ya earlier was scouting the area, right?”
Under the threat of the sword, the two nodded.
Now, Lin Qiyou’s mind began piecing together the chain of events.
She had gone to meet the Holy Maiden Yue Lan, and when she brought up Qingmu’s affairs, she must have crossed some line with Yue Lan. Yue Lan then sent someone to deal with her.
But when she was pondering outside the Rose Cathedral, the priest wasn’t Yue Lan’s agent—it was a spy for someone else whom Lin Qiyou had also “crossed.”
That spy clearly had ties to the people who had traveled from the border checkpoint, and that woman’s visit to Xiao Ya was reconnaissance.
At night, there were two groups: one affiliated with Yue Lan, and the other… with Nongli.
What puzzled Lin Qiyou most was why Nongli wanted her dead.
“The people you were tailing—are they from the church? From Yue Lan’s faction?”
Lin Qiyou asked them.
“We—we only know they’re from the church,” both replied in unison.
“Hm?”
Lin Qiyou closed her eyes and thought. It seemed there was some connection between Nongli and Yue Lan.
But whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t goodwill.
And now it was clear—the priest was also Nongli’s agent.
In other words, Nongli not only financed…
Lin Qiyou should pay closer attention to why Nongli was sending people to tail Yue Lan’s people.
Were Yue Lan’s agents buying contraband alchemical ingredients at the black market stalls?
Pressing for all the information, Lin Qiyou confirmed that the noble and sacred Holy Maiden Yue Lan had indeed purchased some forbidden alchemical materials at the black market.
This revelation left Xiao Ya incredulous. She kept repeating that this couldn’t be true and told Lin Qiyou that the church had explicitly forbidden those black market alchemical ingredients.
If the Holy Maiden were caught doing something that violated the doctrine, the consequences would be severe—and the church’s underbelly wasn’t dominated solely by the Holy Maiden’s faction.
Armed with this information, Lin Qiyou found the situation far more “interesting” than she had imagined.
She sensed the scent of internal strife and rebellion.
A scent she had tasted before—deeply memorable.
“But what exactly does Yue Lan intend to use those alchemical medicines for?” Lin Qiyou muttered to herself. This seemed like a perfect opportunity; she had to act.
Of course, ignoring Xiao Ya’s protests, she killed the two.
It was a necessary action.
The Great Rebellion of the Youjian Sect.
This incident ignited conflict among several sects, including the Youjian Sect.
Inside the Youjian Sect, elders led a campaign to hunt Youjian Xian. Other sects also pointed their weapons at Youjian Xian, claiming:
Youjian Xian had fallen into demonic ways and allied with the demon clans to defy the natural order.
These rumors should have been irrelevant to Qingmu and Nongli, who were hiding out in the mountain village.
Yet this event affected thousands of common folk.
Because of the sects attacking Youjian Xian, it seemed they had angered Heaven itself.
Natural disasters followed, forcing people to flee.
Famine and plague struck one after another.
Qingmu and Nongli’s mountain village was caught in the turmoil.
Life had once been thriving there, and not long ago Nongli had successfully sprouted a second tail.
Qingmu feigned ignorance of Nongli’s second tail and continued to prepare alchemical pills for her, assuming the role of her master.
After the famine began, most villagers fled; only a few remained.
Qingmu and Nongli hunted in the mountains to feed themselves and support the remaining villagers.
But good times didn’t last.
The mountain animals gradually disappeared.
Once the last of their grain ran out, Qingmu and Nongli no longer had food to share with the villagers.
Those villagers even camped outside the cave entrance, shouting that Qingmu and Nongli must produce food.
A few days earlier, their supplies had run out, and Qingmu and Nongli themselves had begun to starve.
They had initially thought about fleeing, but since Nongli had grown her second tail, her demonic aura had surged greatly.
She could no longer conceal it.
With cultivators flying about, anyone stepping outside would be mistaken for one of Youjian Xian’s demon kin—and inevitably killed.
Tonight was pitch black.
Qingmu and Nongli huddled together on a stone bed.
Outside, the villagers seemed to have tired of shouting and had fallen silent.
“Tomorrow, you should go back up the mountain and see if you can catch anything,” Qingmu mumbled groggily.
He was too weak from hunger to argue, and recently Nongli’s mountain hunts had been fruitless.
“Master, are you asleep?” Nongli whispered softly.
Qingmu didn’t respond. He seemed either asleep or too weak to answer.
Nongli, however, was in much better shape.
Now a two-tailed demon fox, her demonic and spiritual power sustained her.
“They can’t have taken everything. They must be hiding something,” the villagers’ voices echoed faintly from outside.
“What if he’s right and they don’t have anything?”
“Then we eat his apprentice!”
“How about eating him instead? His apprentice is so pretty. Didn’t you all say you wanted to have some fun before?”
The villagers’ conversation drifted into Nongli’s ears inside the cave.
Nongli’s crimson eyes gleamed in the dark.
Killing intent surged.