Ling Luo hadn’t expected that in such a short time, the few casual words she had spoken would spread throughout Tianji.

Yun Shouxi was quite popular among the people of East Island in Tianji.

Yu Xiu furrowed his brows, still confused.

Ling Luo stretched out her hand and said, “Second Senior Brother, I’ll take it.”

She took the dewdrops and moongrass from Yu Xiu’s arms.

“Why is everyone collecting dewdrops today?” Yu Xiu looked ahead at a few disciples hanging from the trees and asked in confusion. “What does it have to do with Master?”

Ling Luo replied seriously, “Maybe they’re thinking of gathering the essence of heaven and earth to honor Master. Second Senior Brother, let’s hurry. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late!”

The Heart Guard Hall was where disciples practiced the sect’s inner methods.

New disciples had to practice here for at least a year.

During this time, older disciples would often accompany the juniors to teach them.

Ling Luo spent the whole morning at Heart Guard Hall, and at lunchtime, she returned to Mirage Tower with Yu Xiu.

Yun Shouxi was sitting at the desk, watching his two disciples return, each holding dewdrops and moongrass.

Yu Xiu carefully chose his words, saying, “Master, these were given to you by the disciples of the Three Sects.”

Ling Luo sat quietly beside them, her head lowered as she placed the bottles and baskets on the table without saying a word.

Yun Shouxi gave them a quick glance but showed no sign of annoyance. Instead, he smiled at Ling Luo and said, “This morning, the Sect Leader and a few Hall Masters also sent me quite a few gifts.”

Ling Luo subtly dug her nails into her palm, trying to suppress herself.

Yu Xiu, still momentarily confused, didn’t understand what he meant.

Yun Shouxi continued, “Since others have sent gifts, why haven’t my two disciples made any gesture?”

Yu Xiu replied, “Master, please don’t mind. We were just wondering why you wanted the dewdrops and moongrass?”

Yun Shouxi smiled and looked at Ling Luo, saying, “Didn’t your little junior sister tell you?”

Yu Xiu was slightly stunned and turned to look at Ling Luo.

Ling Luo knew she couldn’t stay silent any longer. With her head still lowered, she obediently admitted her mistake, “Master, I know my mistake.”

Yun Shouxi reached out, his long fingers, with clear knuckles, lifted the bottle cap. He glanced inside at the clear dewdrops.

“What mistake do you speak of?” he asked gently.

Ling Luo explained, “This morning, when talking with a few fellow disciples about Master, they asked me what Master’s favorite food is. Since you’re like an immortal in my eyes, I said that immortals eat dewdrops and moongrass.”

Yu Xiu, finally understanding, couldn’t help but chuckle, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

Yun Shouxi poured a small cup of dewdrops, then took a piece of moongrass. It was no surprise that it was nourished on the peak of the immortal mountain—its color was vibrant, shaped like the moon, thin and delicate, with a faint, refreshing fragrance.

He placed the moongrass into the cup and handed it to Ling Luo. “Want to try it?”

Ling Luo couldn’t refuse, so she took it and drank, the coolness of the moongrass lingering on her lips as she watched him. However, in her heart, she silently cursed. She should have never joined that jade listening group in the first place. This never happened in her past life.

Yun Shouxi extended his hand, making an ambiguous motion in Ling Luo’s eyes.

His warm fingertip lightly brushed against the water droplets at the corner of Ling Luo’s lips, and he softly asked, “Is it good?”

Ling Luo: “…”

Pervert.

How could he dare to touch her in front of Second Senior Brother?

Yet Yu Xiu didn’t find anything wrong with it. In his mind, his Master was sacred and elegant, and he could never harbor any improper thoughts toward his little junior sister.

Ling Luo didn’t answer directly, instead saying, “I know my mistake, Master. Please punish me.”

Yun Shouxi smiled, “I haven’t yet decided how to punish you, but Hall Master Fan has already made the decision for me.”

He withdrew his hand, sitting with a composed and elegant posture, his voice as gentle as ever. “According to the rules of the Discipline Hall, go and receive your punishment.”

Ling Luo stood up, bowed her head, and said, “I will go now.” She left to head for the Discipline Hall.

Yu Xiu turned to look at Yun Shouxi, wanting to intercede for Ling Luo, but he froze upon seeing the expression on his Master’s face.

Ling Luo recalled when she first entered the inner sect in her previous life. She had followed Yun Shouxi obediently, not causing trouble, simply focusing on cultivation. But now, her mindset had changed, and unexpected things were happening.

Both the outer and inner sects had Discipline Halls. Ling Luo was sent to the inner sect’s Discipline Hall, where she was punished by being made to clean the Saha Realm.

The Saha Realm was located at the boundary between the inner and outer sects and was where Tianji imprisoned disciples who committed serious crimes or demons.

Some disciples, after venturing into the world, violated the sect’s rules, committed heinous acts, or practiced forbidden techniques, aligning with demons.

The Sect Leader would issue a bounty order, either capturing them to imprison in Tianji or executing them on the spot.

Ten years ago, the second elder’s favorite disciple, who had conspired with demons to wreak havoc in the mortal world, caused great outrage. The Sect Leader had no choice but to order their capture. However, the elders and disciples sent to apprehend the disciple were killed.

Eventually, the three Sect Masters went together to capture the person and locked them in the Saha Realm.

The disciple was originally meant to be executed, but the second elder knelt and begged for mercy, so they were merely imprisoned in the lightless, fiery place, forever trapped in the realm of karmic fire, unable to leave.

The second elder felt deep guilt over his disciple’s betrayal, killing their fellow disciples and bringing dishonor to the sect. In repentance, he entered seclusion and has not emerged to this day.

Ling Luo, on her way to the Saha Realm, remembered this incident and a faint, enigmatic smile appeared on her lips.

The disciple imprisoned there was named Qing Shun, one of the twenty-six demons.

Ling Luo had only one word to describe him: mad.

His path was completely different from Tianji’s, but because of the second elder, he had endured. Once he left the sect and entered the world, far from his master’s watch, he eventually couldn’t hold back.

As wild as he was, his strength was not to be underestimated.

Even though he had been trapped in the Sōpo Realm for more than ten years, tortured by the flames of karma, he was still able to continue cultivating, becoming tens of times stronger than before.

He was truly a monster.

Ling Luo met up with an old acquaintance in advance, showing no signs of distress from the punishment, instead, she seemed somewhat amused.

The Sōpo Realm was located in a valley between two 1,000-meter-high cliffs. On both sides were black stone walls, and in the middle was a narrow passage. Looking up, the top seemed unreachable, with countless small compartments and thousands of hanging iron chains along the stone walls.

Occasionally, a gust of wind would pass through the valley, bringing with it a terrifying wail and the sharp sound of iron chains clashing against the stone walls.

As soon as Ling Luo arrived at the exit of the Sōpo Realm, she saw three people standing there, each holding a white broom and staring at each other awkwardly.

All three were wearing the inner sect disciple uniforms. Ling Luo recognized one of them: a round-faced, chubby guy—Song Yuanyuan, who had been taken in as a direct disciple by Hall Master Fan.

“Ahem, nice to meet you all,” Song Yuanyuan greeted awkwardly. “It’s fate that we meet here, and today we’ll share the hardships of the Sōpo Realm. When we leave, our bond will be stronger than that of other disciples.”

“Bah! You idiot, it’s because of you that Hall Master Fan found out about the jade listening device message and learned it was us who spread it!” The handsome young man beside him, Chang Fei, was so angry his fair face turned red. He poked at Song Yuanyuan with his broom. “Traitor, prepare to die!”

Song Yuanyuan defended himself, holding his broom up and backing away. “You’re the one who sold this news to others, causing all the disciples of Tianji to know. Only then did my master insist on investigating!”

Ling Luo was speechless.

She glanced at Chang Fei, the overly delicate-looking young man who resembled a girl. His name, too, seemed feminine, and yet instead of admiring Yun Shouxi, he had sold his information for money.

What a business genius.

While the two of them were fighting with their brooms, the more composed young man, Xu Shen, handed his broom to Ling Luo and said, “Hurry, if we finish cleaning before sunset, we can go back to eat.”

Ling Luo rolled her eyes. “You’re dreaming.”

The four of them entered the valley.

Except for Ling Luo, the other three had never seen the interior of the Sōpo Realm.

They were stunned as they saw the towering, dark cliffs and the tightly packed compartments along the stone walls, unable to look away for a long time.

“This… we have to clean all of this?” Song Yuanyuan swallowed nervously. “This place has a forbidden spell, we can’t use our spiritual power, and it will take days just to climb!”

Chang Fei, after a moment of despair, swung his broom at him again. “I’ll kill you!”

Ling Luo walked over to the stone wall, looking at the first row of compartments near the ground.

They were small, only big enough for one person.

Each had an iron door facing the mountain path, but inside there was also a moving door covered in spells.

Behind the moving door were various punishment formations.

Xu Shen tightened his clothes, adjusting his pants, and when he looked up, he heard a snapping sound. In the compartment directly in front of him, the moving door suddenly opened and closed with a whoosh.

A bloodied man flew out, crashing into the iron door before collapsing.

Blood splattered onto Xu Shen’s face.

Xu Shen raised a hand to wipe the warm liquid off his face, and when he looked at it, he was stunned.

Ling Luo, about to pick up the water bucket, watched as Xu Shen plunged his face into it, scrubbing furiously.

Ling Luo: “…”

It was clear that he had a serious obsession with cleanliness.

Meanwhile, the other two, having given up on the brooms, were pulling their hair out in frustration, and Ling Luo, with an impassive expression, grabbed an iron chain to climb up, her tone cold. “If you don’t finish by today, I’ll kill you all.”

The two who were pulling their hair and slapping their faces suddenly felt a chill and stopped at the same time.

They looked at Ling Luo with unease, the ominous feeling overwhelming them. They reluctantly released their grips, silently stood up, and picked up their brooms again.

Chang Fei casually pulled Xu Shen out of the water bucket.

Song Yuanyuan looked at the bloodied man in the compartment and said, “This unknown senior brother is too tragic.”

“Senior brother, my foot! He’s no longer our disciple after breaking the sect rules and associating with demons!” Chang Fei rolled his eyes.

Ling Luo waved her hand. “Work.”

She grabbed a broom and began sweeping the floor, picking up the leaves and flower petals blown in by the wind, as well as large clumps of dried blood that had spilled onto the ground.

Song Yuanyuan and Chang Fei stared up at the high cliff, despairing. How long would this take?

No way—there’s no way we can finish today!

They worked themselves to the bone for half the day, cleaning the blood-stained iron doors. Song Yuanyuan clutched the iron chain and screamed, “How am I supposed to climb up there? I can’t use my sword or spiritual power!”

Xu Shen, barely managing to climb a few meters and his legs trembling, pretended to be calm. “You can do it. Just climb.”

“Brother, you’re overestimating me. I really can’t!” Song Yuanyuan cried, clutching the iron chain. “Is this even human work? Look at Chang Fei! His monkey-like agility is useless here; he’s just a crab stuck in place!”

Chang Fei slid down the iron chain, kicking Song Yuanyuan with a shout, “You’re the crab!”

“You see, even Xu Shen’s legs are shaking! Who can withstand this? Over a thousand meters high, who can handle it?” Song Yuanyuan yelled, clutching the chain. “Anyone who can climb up and down without using spiritual power is my father!”

Ling Luo snorted and glanced at them. “Really, what’s the point of all that training you’ve been doing?”

“Training is one thing, but doing it for real is another!” Song Yuanyuan shouted.

Ling Luo shrugged her shoulders, about to show him, when she suddenly heard a crisp sound from above—iron chains clinking against the mountain walls.

Everyone turned in unison to look up at the sound.

High up on the nearly 1,000-meter cliff, a tiny dot was sliding down. As they focused, they realized the color—it was dark green—and soon they saw that the small dot was a person.

The person moved steadily, sliding down the iron chain with ease, even cleaning the bloodstains on the mountain as they descended.

Song Yuanyuan and Chang Fei, at the bottom, were dumbfounded.

Ling Luo squinted her eyes. When the person descended to a certain height, she recognized that it was a slender young man, an outer sect disciple.

Her eyelid twitched.

This person seemed familiar.

As the young man slid down closer, the most shocking thing revealed itself:

Instead of using his palms to grip the iron chain— which would have left his hands shredded—he was using the smooth wooden pole of a broom to slide!

In the stunned gazes of Song Yuanyuan and the others, the young man performed a graceful spin and, just as he was about to reach the ground, pulled the broom off the chain and landed smoothly.

Ling Luo looked at the person who was now facing her—Yue Liangze—and her temples twitched.

Why were you punished again?

And why do you look so familiar with this?

Yue Liangze paused when he saw Ling Luo, momentarily stunned.

Before either of them could say anything, Song Yuanyuan, standing nearby, grabbed his hands and looked into his tearful eyes, then screamed, “Dad—”

Yue Liangze: “?”