The wooden door creaked open with a groan.
The wind stopped.
The copper bells on the eaves fell silent, and the maple leaves across the mountain seemed frozen in mid-air, as if heaven and earth were holding their breath.
Sandalwood smoke curled within the hall.
A white-haired old man sat regally at the front of the Great Hall, his luxurious brocade robe embroidered with golden cloud patterns at the sleeves.
Two women clad in sheer silk snuggled against him, giggling.
“My Lord, is this the new flame you’ve found?”
“My Lord, how could you do such a thing?”
He tightened his grip on the women and leaned in to kiss them.
“How could I? In my heart, there is only you.”
“Oh, you’re terrible!”
He was currently holding a pot and pouring wine, the amber liquid flowing into a white porcelain cup.
An actual living person barging in has ruined my elegant mood.
Those thirty-odd people at the stronghold are all useless trash!
He leaned back against the chair, his voice coarse and raspy: “An honored guest has arrived. Why not have a drink?”
The young girl sat down and glanced at the wine.
Finding no issues, she downed it in one gulp.
Gu Liang raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the white-robed girl before him.
Why is it a Yin-Yang Sect disciple?
The girl’s voice was flat and cold: “Are you Gu Liang?”
“Heh! So what if I am?!”
“And what if I’m not!”
The old man curled his hand around the teacup and looked at the girl: “Great Immortal, I have already left the Yin-Yang Sect. I am no longer under their jurisdiction.”
“So, what is it… that you want?!”
The girl did not answer Gu Liang’s question directly.
Instead, she asked: “Are you a transmigrator from Earth?”
Gu Liang froze, then continued to put on an indifferent front.
“Did Li Wanquan tell you that?”
Gu Liang felt a twinge of bitterness in his heart, because Junior Brother Li had once been his best friend in the cultivation world, but Li Wanquan had betrayed him.
The girl looked at the maple leaves in the courtyard: “No. I guessed based on the items in your courtyard.”
Upon hearing this, a very faint smile flickered across the corner of Gu Liang’s mouth, vanishing in an instant before returning to calm.
“Could it be that the Great Immortal is also a transmigrator?”
Li Ze did not answer directly, her gaze like a blade piercing straight through Gu Liang: “The year 2026—you came from that time?”
Gu Liang’s smile froze instantly, then he threw his head back and laughed loudly: “Hahaha, as expected! A hundred years. For a full hundred years, I have finally met a fellow countryman!”
He pushed the women in his arms away and stood up.
His luxurious brocade robe swayed gently with the wind as he began to talk to himself: “I, Gu Liang, fell into a space-time rift in 2026 and arrived in this cultivation world for no rhyme or reason.”
“At first, I thought I was the chosen one, that I would become the protagonist and stand proud above the world.”
Gu Liang’s tone carried an irrepressible bitterness: “Unfortunately, I only have a piece of trash talent. After cultivating for a hundred years, I am stuck at the tenth stage of the Spirit Realm, unable to advance even an inch further.”
He paced to the window, his fingers lightly stroking the simplified Chinese characters carved into the windowsill: “I once thought I could change this world, creating a civilization of technology and cultivation. But the reality is, I can’t even achieve Foundation Establishment.”
Li Ze looked at him coldly: “So you resorted to burning, killing, looting, and oppressing mortals to be the leader of these mountain bandits?”
“Why not?”
Gu Liang laughed wildly.
“This world is inherently one where the strong prey on the weak! My poor talent cut off my path to immortality.”
Gu Liang’s anger began to swell: “For these hundred years, I have been too restrained, too enduring.”
“Now I only have ten years left to live. Since the Heavenly Dao is unfair, then I shall find my own pleasure!”
“For these last ten years, I’m going to live a happy life!”
Li Ze remained expressionless: “I have not experienced your suffering, so I will make no judgment.”
“But you have committed numerous crimes. The Yin-Yang Sect has listed you as a target to be killed.”
Gu Liang sneered: “A target to be killed? Heh, I stopped caring long ago. That traitor Li Wanquan told the sect all my secrets, didn’t he?”
Li Ze’s tone was flat: “Today, I have accepted the sect mission to take your life.”
Gu Liang’s fingertips crushed the wine cup, amber liquid splashing along with the porcelain shards.
The last trace of playfulness vanished from his eyes, replaced by a murderous intent: “Since we are both transmigrators, why be so desperate to drive me to a dead end?”
Li Ze’s figure did not move, yet the hem of her white robe fluttered without wind: “You have damaged the reputation of the Yin-Yang Sect and slaughtered mortals.”
“Even if I do not kill you, someone else will.”
“Haha! A mere fifth stage of the Spirit Realm speaks of killing me? You must still be dreaming.”
Gu Liang’s wild laughter shook the dust from the rafters.
“Coming to this bullshit cultivation world was already bad luck, and now a little girl at the fifth stage of the Spirit Realm wants to kill me too!”
He mocked amidst his laughter: “Did you think that by transmigrating to a cultivation world, you’d be the protagonist? You actually want to challenge someone of a higher level.”
The girl’s voice was like cold ice: “I do not think I am a protagonist.”
“As for killing you, it is not for those innocent dead, but only for myself.”
A flash of pain crossed Gu Liang’s eyes, which then turned into ruthlessness: “In that case, then come!”
Before his voice finished falling, three yellow talismans flew from Gu Liang’s sleeve.
Green flames ignited in mid-air, transforming into three fire snakes that lunged straight for Li Ze.
The copper bells in the courtyard rang in unison, and the bandits of the stronghold were drawn by the commotion.
But seeing this situation, none of them dared to go up and seek death; they merely watched from the sidelines.
“When immortals fight, we mortals shouldn’t get involved.”
Simultaneously, formation patterns lit up on the ground, enveloping the entire Great Hall.
Li Ze’s figure moved like smoke, easily dodging the fire snakes.
However, the ground formation was already complete; the earth split open, and countless stone spikes thrust toward Li Ze.
Li Ze had no time to react and was pierced through the left hand by a stone spike.
“To think you hid such a move.”
Immediately after, a flying sword lunged straight toward her.
Li Ze forcefully pulled her hand out of the stone spike and tilted her body to dodge the fatal blow.
“Not bad, you’re quite agile!”
Li Ze remained silent.
The spiritual energy within her body circulated, and her movements suddenly accelerated, weaving through the formation like a phantom.
Gu Liang’s expression changed slightly.
He formed seals with both hands, and the formation patterns shifted.
Li Ze’s surroundings changed as a bamboo forest appeared before her eyes.
A voice echoed through the bamboo forest: “Being fellow Earthlings, I wanted to help each other out. But since you want to kill me, then don’t blame me for being heartless!!”
Suddenly, Li Ze heard the sound of countless objects tearing through the air, “Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…”, coming from all directions.
A continuous stream of bamboo leaves, sharp as needles, stabbed from every angle.
A yellow protective talisman appeared in Li Ze’s hand.
The talisman turned into an afterimage, forming a protective barrier.
Gu Liang watched from the shadows, seeing the protective barrier about to be shattered.
“Pay the price for your arrogance.”
Li Ze smiled and murmured: “Who said I only had one protective talisman.”
The protective barrier lit up once more.
Gu Liang was somewhat surprised: “To actually have two talismans… but it won’t change the fact that you’re going to die!”
Just as the barrier was about to break, Li Ze took out yet another talisman.
Gu Liang was beginning to find this incomprehensible.
Complex talismans like these protective ones could only be drawn by great experts of the Core Realm.
How could a Spirit Realm disciple have three?
Gu Liang didn’t believe it and continued to wear Li Ze down.
Following that, Li Ze used a fourth…
A fifth…
Gu Liang sensed something was wrong.
If this continued, he would be the one whose spiritual energy was exhausted.
“I only have thirty percent of my magic power left. Could this girl have obtained some kind of fortuitous encounter?”
He retracted the formation, and the bamboo forest vanished.
The moment the bamboo forest disappeared, Li Ze’s Ripple Steps left afterimages beneath her feet, and a green sword pierced through Gu Liang’s heart.
The girl’s voice was frigid: “Heh, I knew you were here all along! I was waiting for this exact second.”
Beneath the maple tree, the maple leaves fluttered down in a chaotic dance.
Gu Liang fell to his knees, his eyes staring blankly ahead.
The blood in Gu Liang’s mouth half-choked his throat as he spoke with great effort: “Oh, Heavens!!”
“This immortality… let whoever wants to cultivate it, do it.”
“I’m tired—”
“Cough, cough—”
Following the two coughs.
Gu Liang’s life “fell” to the ground along with the last maple leaf.
Seeing their leader dead, the bandits in the stronghold tried to flee.
A green sword flew out, and screams echoed one after another.
Not one of the thirty bandits remained.
Li Ze’s tone was light: “Bear the karma for your own crimes.”
A purple-black soul banner emerged from Li Ze’s sleeve and slowly drifted above Gu Liang’s head.
The banner unfurled, and a purple-black light enveloped his entire body.
Gu Liang’s body gradually became transparent, and a phantom with the same appearance as him floated out from the body—it was his divine soul.
Li Ze sat cross-legged, using the Purple Soul Banner to refine Gu Liang’s soul, then closed her eyes and absorbed it into her own body.
Her cultivation was not high enough; she could only rely on the soul banner to absorb souls for recovery.
Li Ze felt the pain in her damaged divine soul lessen slightly.
After a long time, Li Ze opened her eyes, a sharp light flashing within them.
“I do not know who Li Wanquan is.”
“But it doesn’t matter. I have completed my mission, and you have borne your karma.”
She stood up, surveyed the ruined Great Hall, and sighed softly: “A hundred years of cultivation, all for nothing in the end.”
She walked out of the hall.
The maple leaves in the courtyard were still as red as blood.
Li Ze waved her hand and released a fire talisman.
The fire spread rapidly, turning the Gu Family Stronghold into ashes.
“On the path of cultivation, only the strong survive.”
Li Ze said softly.
She turned and departed, activating a flight formation to fly toward Mengxi City.
The setting sun stretched her shadow very, very long.