The night had grown deep.
Lai Li’an sat alone on the steps beneath the eaves, a cup of tea long gone cold in his hand.
He had changed back into his gray robes, his belongings all laid out to dry nearby.
He tilted his head back to look at the moon overhead, feeling that he was probably the most pitiful master in the entire cultivation world.
In the room lay his disciple and another young woman.
And he, the master, had been driven out to sit in the cold wind outside.
Though he had walked out on his own, that wasn’t the point.
The point was—he had nowhere to go.
Lai Li’an let out a sigh and downed the cold tea in one gulp.
As the chilly liquid went down, a trace of bitterness spread across the tip of his tongue.
He smacked his lips, finding it tolerable.
He set the empty cup on the steps beside him, laced his hands behind his head, leaned against the porch pillar, and closed his eyes.
Next came serious cultivation—grinding through those Heaven-grade techniques one by one, truly stabilizing his cultivation base, and then… what?
He hadn’t figured that out yet.
He had been running himself ragged for the sake of “survival” all this time.
Now that he finally had a little breathing room, he didn’t know which direction to go.
Whatever.
He’d take it one step at a time.
If there was one thing he was good at, it was adapting on the fly.
The night breeze grew colder.
He yawned, his eyelids growing heavy.
Just as he was about to drift into sleep—
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Three knocks, impossibly clear in the silent night.
Lai Li’an’s brow twitched slightly.
Who would come knocking at this hour?
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Three more knocks, a bit more urgent than the last.
Lai Li’an rose to his feet, straightened his robes, and walked unhurriedly toward the courtyard gate.
His right hand slipped discreetly into his sleeve.
There wasn’t much useful left in the System Warehouse.
Still, the Taixu Life-Protecting Bead was there.
Then again—if someone was knocking, they probably weren’t here to kill him.
What villain would politely knock on the door, right?
Lai Li’an reached the gate and pulled it open.
Moonlight illuminated a figure’s silhouette.
The person stood outside the gate, drenched in blood.
His clothes were tattered, blood dripping from the hem of his robes.
The moment he saw Lai Li’an, a light suddenly blazed in his eyes.
Lai Li’an’s pupils contracted sharply.
He recognized that face.
Shao Jiao.
Right now, he stood before him covered in blood, like a torch about to burn out.
“Senior.”
Shao Jiao said in a low voice:
“Forgive me.”
His hand shot out from his sleeve, striking toward Lai Li’an’s forehead.
Lai Li’an instinctively tried to dodge, but before his body could react, a talisman had already been pressed against his brow.
A cold sensation spread from his forehead.
One thought flashed through Lai Li’an’s mind—
I’m done for.
The next second, the talisman blazed to life.
Dazzling white light erupted from the paper, instantly swallowing Lai Li’an’s vision.
He felt his entire body yanked upward by an irresistible force.
His feet left the ground, his body shooting upward through the void at breakneck speed.
Wind roared past his ears, white light exploded before his eyes—everything happened too fast to think.
“What the—!”
Lai Li’an managed one last curse before his vision went black, and his entire being vanished into the white light.
At the gate, the white light faded.
Shao Jiao stood before the now-empty doorway, drenched in blood, swaying on his feet.
He watched the spot where Lai Li’an had disappeared, and a slow arc curled at the corner of his mouth.
“Thank goodness.”
His voice was as light as a wisp of smoke.
“The sect… is saved.”
The moment those words left his lips, it was as if the last shred of strength had been drained from his body.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.
Blood poured from his wounds, slowly spreading across the stone.
In his mind, the words his master had spoken before dying echoed.
“Jiao’er, you are the last hope of the Wuyue Sect. Live. As long as you live, the Wuyue Sect will never fall.”
He hadn’t listened.
From the moment the Blood Lotus Sect had attacked the Wuyue Sect, he knew he wouldn’t survive.
He only wanted to do one last thing for his sect before he died.
Now, he had done it.
That person.
The one who had seen through all his disguises at a single glance.
That person could definitely save the Wuyue Sect.
Shao Jiao slowly closed his eyes, waiting for the darkness to swallow him.
“Shao Jiao?”
A voice came from afar, muffled and indistinct.
Shao Jiao no longer had the strength to respond.
“Shao Jiao! Wake up!”
Shao Jiao felt his body being turned over, his back pressing against the cold qingshi ground.
The pain made his brow furrow slightly.
A cool hand pressed against his wrist, a thread of spiritual power probing into his meridians.
“The wounds are serious… but he can still be saved.”
The voice carried a hint of cold clarity.
Shao Jiao felt it sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before.
He struggled to open his eyelids, his vision a blur.
Through the haze, he saw a figure in green.
The figure crouched beside him, produced an elixir pill from their sleeve, and fed it into his mouth.
The pill dissolved the moment it touched his throat, a wave of warm medicine power rising from his stomach.
Wherever that warmth passed, the pain of his wounds lessened, and his consciousness began to slowly clear.
Shao Jiao blinked, finally making out the person crouching beside him.
“Ruan… Se?”
“Don’t talk.”
Ruan Se’s tone was cold, but her hands never stopped moving.
She produced another elixir pill from her sleeve, crushed it between her fingers, and sprinkled it evenly over the wounds on Shao Jiao’s body that were still seeping blood.
The moment the powder touched his flesh, the bleeding stopped.
Shao Jiao lay on the ground, gasping for breath, letting Ruan Se tend to his wounds.
His gaze fell on the empty gate.
The Teleportation Talisman…
Did it… work?
Senior Lai was gone.
He hadn’t been able to confirm.
“Master? Master, are you out there? I heard something.”
A voice came from the direction of the main room.
Su Wan’er poked her head out from the doorway, moonlight falling across her face, illuminating her delicate features in striking beauty.
She had thought she heard something in her dream, woke up groggy, found Ruan Se missing from her side, and had gotten up to check.
Su Wan’er rushed out of the room, her bare feet padding across the cold qingshi ground, and reached the gate in a few quick steps.
“Where’s Master?”
Her gaze swept across the gate, then landed back on Ruan Se’s face.
“Where did my master go?”
Ruan Se was about to speak when Shao Jiao, still lying on the ground, spoke first.
“Senior… was teleported to the Wuyue Sect by me.”
Su Wan’er froze.
Her gaze fell on Shao Jiao’s face, and the light in her eyes gradually turned cold.
“What did you say?”
“The Wuyue Sect was attacked by the Blood Lotus Sect. I… my master told me to use the Teleportation Talisman to escape.”
Shao Jiao paused.
“But I couldn’t just live on. The Blood Lotus Sect hunted me everywhere. I was badly wounded… as I broke through their encirclement, I kept searching for someone—someone who could save my sect.”
His gaze shifted away from Su Wan’er’s face.
“Nothing that no one else could see through—that person saw through it. If it’s him, he can definitely save my sect.”
Su Wan’er’s expression sank by the second.
She crouched down, grabbed Shao Jiao by the collar, and yanked him up from the ground.
“So you sent my master over there?!”
Her voice trembled with barely contained fury.
“Who gave you the right to make that decision for him?!”