Ling Luo hung steadily on the stone wall, exchanging moves with Qing Shun through the iron gate.

Her techniques were skillful, and a hint of surprise flickered in Qing Shun’s eyes.

“Interesting.” Qing Shun stopped his attacks and squinted at Ling Luo, asking, “Whose disciple are you in the Tianyun Sect?”

Ling Luo snorted and ignored him, instead looking at Yue Liangze, who was scrubbing the iron gate.

She said, “Get up, stop cleaning.”

Yue Liangze asked, “Are you done fighting?”

Ling Luo felt the urge to strangle him.

Qing Shun extended his hand toward Yue Liangze again, asking him to clean the blood off his hand, and said, “Your junior sister has quite the temper.”

Yue Liangze remained silent, focused on his cleaning.

Ling Luo continued asking, “When did you two meet?”

Seeing her persistence, Qing Shun raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s it to you?”

Ling Luo blatantly lied, “Of course, I’m afraid that this great demon might deceive my pure and kind-hearted senior brother!”

Qing Shun: “…”

Yue Liangze showed no reaction. He knew she was lying and remained unaffected.

“You don’t seem to know your senior brother well enough,” Qing Shun remarked playfully. “Your senior brother may be kind, but he’s not pure—just a bit slow.”

Ling Luo found his words surprisingly reasonable.

“Still, I must prevent you from leading him astray,” she said.

Qing Shun chuckled. “What use is his kindness? He still ends up bullied and insulted by those inner disciples, driven to this wretched place for punishment.”

Although his lips curved into a smile, his eyes betrayed no humor, and his tone carried a sinister edge. “The kind are always bullied.”

Ling Luo understood the meaning of his words well, having experienced it firsthand.

But she glanced at Yue Liangze and said, “He’s bullied not because he’s kind, but because he’s too weak right now.”

Just wait until he wields the Zhenxian Jade and becomes the foremost sword cultivator in the immortal sects.

Who would dare to bully him then?

This unexpected response left Qing Shun momentarily stunned.

Meanwhile, Yue Liangze, the subject of their conversation, remained indifferent and disinterested.

After a moment, Qing Shun asked, “What’s your name?”

Ling Luo raised her delicate finger to her lips and didn’t answer.

Instead, she returned a mysterious smile.

She turned away, grabbing onto the iron chains, and climbed upward.

Qing Shun turned to look at Yue Liangze, who said, “I don’t know.”

Qing Shun narrowed his eyes. “Are you messing with me?”

Yue Liangze wrung out the damp cloth and said, “All done. Rest well.”

Qing Shun withdrew his hand from outside the iron gate without pressing further, his voice calm. “She doesn’t have good intentions toward you. Don’t let yourself get used by her.”

Yue Liangze thought for a moment and replied, “I’ve noticed.”

“Oh?” Qing Shun turned to him. “What have you noticed?”

Yue Liangze said, “She just wants to spar with me.”

Qing Shun was momentarily speechless.

After Yue Liangze left, Qing Shun chuckled to himself.

Fool.

Spar with you?

With your meager spiritual power?

She just wants to bully you.

Flames scorched his skin, the heat searing through his entire body.

Qing Shun lowered his gaze, chuckling softly as he looked at the charred, festering wounds on his skin, his eyes full of disdain.

The cell holding Qing Shun was situated in a central position.

Meanwhile, Ling Luo and Yue Liangze continued climbing higher.

Ling Luo glanced at Yue Liangze, who had caught up to her.

Still annoyed, she ignored him and focused on her cleaning.

It was Yue Liangze who broke the silence, saying, “I’ve been coming to the Saha World to clean since last year. That’s how I know him.”

Ling Luo couldn’t help but turn her head to look at him. “It seems like you’re quite close to him.”

Yue Liangze fell silent again.

“Do you know the things he’s done?” Ling Luo asked further.

Yue Liangze replied, “I do.”

His expression remained calm, his tone steady and unchanging.

It seemed that knowing was just knowing, without any opinions attached.

Yue Liangze had even prepared himself to hear Ling Luo’s scathing condemnation of Qing Shun’s filthy deeds—calling him a disgrace to his sect, a murderer of his elders, someone who deserved to die a thousand deaths.

But Ling Luo said nothing.

After a long stretch of silence, Yue Liangze glanced at her.

She was casually wiping down the iron gate, as if she’d already tossed aside the topic of Qing Shun.

Ling Luo had no standing to criticize Qing Shun.

The things she did later were even worse than his.

Meanwhile, Chang Fei and Xu Shen moved closer to them, their voices now within earshot.

“It’s getting dark outside,” Chang Fei said, glancing up at the sky.

It was already a mass of dark clouds with barely any light. “Are there any lights here? What do we do if it gets pitch black?”

“There are,” Yue Liangze said.

“Where?” Chang Fei looked around curiously.

Suddenly, the door to a compartment swung open, and a man screamed as he was flung out, crashing against the iron gate before collapsing unconscious.

Startled, Chang Fei cursed and clung tightly to the iron chains, nearly falling off.

“There are fire spells in the valley,” Yue Liangze explained. “They’ll activate when the time comes.”

Just as he finished speaking, the last traces of daylight disappeared into darkness.

Suddenly, firelight began to illuminate the vast valley, gradually gathering into a large, bright glow.

The fire spells, carved into the doors of the compartments, now appeared, lighting up the canyon walls and allowing them to see their surroundings.

Ling Luo glanced at the glowing fire spells on the canyon walls and let out a soft “huh.”

Below her, Xu Shen followed her gaze and saw a black holy spirit bird flying down from above the valley, followed by a second, and then a third—five in total, each landing in front of a different Tianji disciple present.

On the ground, Song Yuanyuan also noticed the black holy spirit birds and let out a soft exclamation.

She extended her hand, allowing one to land in her palm.

The bird’s eyes met hers, delivering its message before dissipating into a shower of glowing embers.

The black holy spirit birds, known as messenger birds, were only accessible to inner disciples.

When something major occurred that needed to be communicated to all Tianji disciples, these birds were sent out.

At this moment, the five disciples, including Ling Luo, received the same message from the messenger birds:

“[The Profound Realm within the Sky-Swallowing Tower has triggered the Chaos of Ten Thousand Demons. It will randomly manifest in the mortal world. All disciples are advised to exercise caution.]”

The Sky-Swallowing Tower was one of Tianji Sect’s unique features on the Eastern Island.

It was an artifact left behind by the sect’s founder to train disciples.

The scenes within the tower were a mix of illusion and reality, containing countless demons and monsters imprisoned by the founder for disciples to combat, as well as ever-changing opportunities for fortune.

The tower had 8,000 levels.

To this day, no one had fully cleared it.

“What level is the Profound Realm?” Chang Fei asked, her mind a little muddled.

Xu Shen replied, “Between the 300th and 600th levels.”

“Which senior brother or sister is climbing the tower right now?” Chang Fei muttered. “They even triggered the Chaos of Ten Thousand Demons. If a powerful monster appears and drops a divine weapon, I’ll be so jealous I could cry.”

The demons in the Chaos of Ten Thousand Demons were different from those at the normal challenge levels.

Defeating the former could reward divine weapons or rare medicinal herbs, while the latter at best offered an increase in cultivation and spiritual power.

Thinking of this, Ling Luo couldn’t help but glance at Yue Liangze.

If he climbed the Sky-Swallowing Tower, maybe he could increase his spiritual power and cultivation.

Or perhaps his spiritual power would surge in the future because he had gone to the Sky-Swallowing Tower?

No, no, by that time, he wasn’t even in Dongdao Tianji anymore.

Ling Luo’s train of thought had completely veered off from the others’ conversation.

She only vaguely heard Xu Shen saying, “Triggering the Ten Thousand Demon Chaos actually follows a pattern. It happens once every six months, concentrated in the final seven days. During that time, many people climb the tower, including hall masters and elders.”

Chang Fei looked at him in surprise. “How do you know this pattern?”

Other than Yue Liangze, the group had all been in Dongdao Tianji for about six months.

Xu Shen replied, “If you collect enough information from your fellow disciples and senior brothers, you’d know too.”

Chang Fei rolled his eyes and asked, “Then where did the last Ten Thousand Demon Chaos appear?”

“At the Waterside Pavilion in the outer sect,” Xu Shen said. “The location of the Ten Thousand Demon Chaos’s appearance is unpredictable, but it’s always within Dongdao Tianji’s domain. So whether you’re in the inner or outer sect, you’ll receive a notice.”

Ling Luo wasn’t very interested in the topic.

In her previous life, she had climbed over 6,000 levels of the Sky-Swallowing Tower without ever triggering the Ten Thousand Demon Chaos.

In her mind, the tower was already blacklisted.

When she destroyed Dongdao Tianji, she had considered dealing with the Sky-Swallowing Tower too.

But, being a masterpiece of the ancestral founder, it wasn’t easy to destroy.

It required time, which the circumstances didn’t allow, so she had turned her attention elsewhere.

“I only know that the demons appearing during the Ten Thousand Demon Chaos drop Divine Weapons when defeated,” Chang Fei sighed. “Divine Weapons! They can sell for tens of thousands of gold!”

Xu Shen was dumbfounded.

He hadn’t expected her to crave not the Divine Weapons themselves but their price.

You shouldn’t be cultivating immortality. You should be learning commerce!

Yue Liangze, on the other hand, said, “Divine Weapons are highly valuable. Even auxiliary ones sold at Haina Pavilion last year had a minimum price of 1.6 billion.”

Ling Luo: “…”

She lowered her gaze to Yue Liangze. “How do you know that?”

Yue Liangze said, “I keep an eye on prices.”

Ling Luo asked, “Why would you pay attention to the price of Divine Weapons?”

Yue Liangze blinked and looked at Ling Luo. “I focus on the prices of market vegetables and sauces. The Divine Weapon price was something I overheard in passing.”

Ling Luo was momentarily at a loss for words.

Chang Fei, however, felt she had found a kindred spirit and started an in-depth discussion with Yue Liangze about the prices of commodities and how to make money.

Their conversation came to an abrupt halt when a piercing scream echoed from above, reverberating through the valley.

Chang Fei immediately fell silent, eyes wide as she looked around in alarm.

The others also stopped what they were doing, holding their breath and focusing intently.

The sharp, piercing cries sounded like a mix between a screeching lynx and a howling jackal, sending shivers down their spines.

The canyon amplified the cries, carrying them far and wide.

Down below, Song Yuanyuan shuddered in terror and fell off the iron chain that was only half her height, screaming all the way down.

“W-what is that?” Chang Fei’s voice trembled as he glanced nervously around. “It better not be the Chaos of Ten Thousand Demons refreshing right on top of us, right?”

No sooner had he spoken than Ling Luo shouted, “Above!”

The remaining three instantly looked up and saw a massive black shadow hurtling down toward them.