The salt lake is located in Fengliu City, and Chen Yang and Luo Yang, as the guardian cultivators of Fengliu City, surely know the formula to disarm the array within the salt lake.

However…

Yue Lin thought to himself that since Chen Yang was suspected of colluding with the demon clan, even if Rongku Sect deeply trusted him, by right he should be confronted by Chu Hanjin to prove his “innocence” before being released from prison, right? How come he is now free to roam, even appearing near the salt lake?

The two figures stood side by side, conversing.

“Life in prison isn’t easy, huh?”

“Any pursuers?”

“None. Master Song helped me escape. I was prepared to head straight to the demon realm, but I heard that you needed me, so I came right away.”

Bai Gu hummed, “Good.”

His tone was even, no longer clumsy or frail as it was in front of Yue Lin, but rather, he appeared pensive, his gaze focused, pointing towards the inside of the barrier, “Teach me the array’s disarming formula now, and I’ll go in.”

Chen Yang looked troubled, “It’s been several months; I don’t know if the formula has changed. I only know the one from four months ago.”

Bai Gu sighed, “Let’s try our luck then.”

Chen Yang broke a branch from the ground and started drawing in the dirt while explaining, “While in prison, I followed your instructions and shifted the blame for the curse mark to the Demon Lord and Lord Yue Zhao. My master initially didn’t believe it, but I embellished it with the Celestial Burial Pit incident, and since my master lost his puppet and was severely injured while in a rage, he listened to me, losing trust in Far Mountain Sect and growing suspicious of Lord Yue Zhao’s identity.”

“Good job,” Bai Gu responded.

They spoke softly, learning the curse mark, their bodies partially obscuring the view of the mark.

Hidden behind a tree with his sword, Yue Lin, overhearing their conversation, nodded subconsciously. This confirmed his guess, Bai Gu and Chen Yang were in cahoots, shifting the blame for the curse mark onto Chu Hanjin to cover their own crimes.

He had everything confessed, and now it seemed time to close the net.

However, something felt off to Yue Lin.

Everything was going too smoothly.

From tracking Bai Gu, seeing his confusion at the barrier to now “coincidentally” hearing their plotting loudly.

For Yue Lin to catch them now, weren’t they just walking into his trap?

But Bai Gu was cunning. If Yue Lin suspected him of colluding with the righteous path, wouldn’t he suspect that Yue Lin might side with Chu Hanjin and the righteous path? Speaking out loud of a deadly crime in such a brazen manner wasn’t his style.

Fishing, and it’s uncertain who the real fish is.

After some thought, Yue Lin decided to hold off.

Bai Gu rehearsed the curse mark a few times, asking, “Just apply it inside the array to move unimpeded, like a fish in water?”

“Yes, anyone entering the misty ridges must recite this spell first, or else the array will weaken a cultivator’s spiritual energy to that of an ordinary person, even crushing bones and tearing flesh, which is extremely dangerous.”

Bai Gu nodded, “I see.”

Chen Yang pulled out a geomantic map from his sleeve, “The terrain of the misty ridges is all mapped here. Here is the location of the salt lake. According to the schedule, the elders have already brought the boys and girls to the foot of the mountain and will ascend after a night’s rest. If you want to proceed, you better hurry.”

Bai Gu smiled, “Thank you.”

“No need to be polite,” Chen Yang replied, “You taught me the puppet curse, I offer these boys and girls to you in exchange, a fair trade. Tonight I’ll assist you in the abduction, then find a mountain top to bury my junior brother’s ashes and hold a vigil for him, never to return to the world after.”

Bai Gu nodded, “Your junior brother would have wanted you to live well, not drag you to hell with him after being backstabbed. You should honor his spirit properly.”

That junior brother must be Luo Yang, known as the “evil ornamental ball,” who Chen Yang had once fatally stabbed in an attempt to escape blame.

These two, one seemingly frail but with gentle, jade-like eyes, and the other in white robes with the bearing of an immortal, spoke of such unrighteous things.

Yue Lin tightened his grip on his sword, remaining motionless.

“Let’s go then,” Luo Yang said.

“Wait, someone hasn’t arrived yet,” Bai Gu added.

“?”

Hearing this, Yue Lin’s heart skipped a beat, thinking Bai Gu was hinting at him.

“Your Majesty, Master Song is late.”

Unexpectedly, from the tall grass on the other side, a figure emerged, dressed simply, with a scholarly cap, holding a scroll in one hand, a middle-aged scholar by appearance.

Yue Lin recalled this was the water-selling scholar he and Chu Hanjin had encountered on their way to take Chen Yang back to Rongku Sect for questioning.

The man’s face was middle-aged, but his voice was young, “Chen Yang has taught me the disarming method. I just tried it, and it works. I can enter without triggering any mechanisms. Congratulations, Your Majesty, tonight’s task is within easy reach.”

Too young, like a teenager.

And… Yue Lin felt this voice was eerily familiar.

Where had he heard it before?

Bai Gu said, “If he succeeds, it’s his, it has nothing to do with me.”

“Thinking so pessimistically? Even if he dies, whatever he refined is still yours, right?” Song Shu said with a smile, “Just endure a bit longer, and you can put him in a deadly situation where he will never transcend.”

Laughing as if amused, Bai Gu sent out a chuckle.

Yue Lin’s heart jolted.

Stolen memories?

Chu Hanjin’s missing memories?

So, it wasn’t that he had forgotten voluntarily, but that his memories had been taken from him?

Suddenly, it clicked for Yue Lin—he remembered who this voice belonged to!

That day in the capital, when he was disguised as a child to accompany Chu Hanjin during his boring pregnancy, wandering the streets, they mistakenly entered a bookstore during a rain.

This person’s voice was identical to that scholar’s!

Yue Lin’s memory flashed.

Back then, Chu Hanjin had randomly flipped through a book, reading a segment… Yesterday I had tea with my aunt, who laughingly cursed her husband’s family as she refilled our cups. Her lips curled up so beautifully…

Flipping to the next page, the content changed. The road was long and shrouded in dark clouds, birds circled, and beasts howled, only despair and desolation as if one could never reach the end.

And the next page read, She blew on my eyelid, a moist and cool sensation touched me, the fiery pain disappeared, replaced by a cold that could freeze my eyeballs. But at that moment, all I could see was her beautiful jaw…

These weren’t stories, not fiction, not scripts.

These… Yue Lin realized, were shrouded in thick fog.

This was a person’s memory.

Profound and detailed memories tend to be clear and specific, but as time passes, most people only recall disjointed fragments.

Well then! Yue Lin thought, in the twenty-some years I’ve been dead, the demons have gotten more resourceful, even creating forbidden arts to slice away memories, worthy of admiration.

What if all the keys to this entire mystery lie in the memories Chu Hanjin lost? If he could remember, everything would become clear.

With this thought, Yue Lin stepped forward.

But in that instant he drew back his leg thinking, Too coincidental.

Too perfect!

Just so he could hear the key to Chu Hanjin’s memory loss?

If this wasn’t a setup, what was?

Yue Lin’s fingers tensed on the hilt of his sword, his eyes like deep pools fixed on the three speakers. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Among them, who was the oriole, and who was the mantis?

Who was the prey?

“Let’s go, take advantage of the dark and hurry,” Bai Gu said.

In the moment of Yue Lin’s hesitation, the three stepped side by side into the dark chaos of the misty ridges, the formation emitting a golden light, the dense curse marks engulfing their figures.

Yue Lin walked to the woods, looking down at the disarming method Chen Yang had written on the ground. Before leaving, Chen Yang had deliberately stepped on it, smudging the curse mark, but some peripheral outlines were still visible.

Yue Lin touched the formation again, using the bit of the diagram to replicate the correct curse mark. He was skeptical, aware this could all be a setup, a banquet trap, bait for the unwary.

But after a moment, Yue Lin scattered the redrawn curse mark and turned to walk into the misty ridges.

The formation’s golden patterns instantly swallowed him.

– 

Inside the inn.

Chu Hanjin, after several attempts, channeled his spiritual energy to shatter the door’s seals. The wooden panels exploded outward, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Amidst the chaos, Mu Lianchun’s voice rang out.

“Ah… Junior brother, you’re still so stubborn.”

Chu Hanjin closed his eyes, “What stubbornness?”

“The current situation is far more perilous than you think. The Celestial Burial Pit incident demands an explanation from Far Mountain Sect by the Six Sects. If we don’t provide one, they’ll start making moves, and all the pressure falls on me! What should I do? Should I, as they suggest, label you as the chief culprit of the Celestial Burial Pit incident to appease their anger? Impossible! There must be a perpetrator for the Celestial Burial Pit incident, and the only possible culprit is Yue Lin!”

Chu Hanjin, “But he isn’t the culprit!”

“If he isn’t, then who is? Junior brother! Far Mountain Sect is facing grave dangers, if it’s not him, it’s you! Even if the real culprit is someone else, Far Mountain Sect can’t wait… He’s a demon lord, how can you be sure he’s not the culprit? Even if he isn’t, with all the evil he’s committed before, being falsely accused this time, what’s the injustice!”

“Senior brother…!” Chu Hanjin’s chest pained, he blurted out.

His heart was choked with emotion, his voice trembling, “The sins of the past have their own retributions, if he’s not the culprit of the Celestial Burial Pit incident, he’s not the culprit… Is it so hard to judge each case on its own merits? Why, because he did bad things before, must he still be a bad person now… Even if he is openly slandered, no one feels injustice for him…”

Mu Lianchun’s voice changed from frantic to low, “You feel injustice for him, but did you ever feel it for your senior brother!”

At these words, a stabbing pain spread.

“Was it me who wanted to take over the mess of Far Mountain Sect back then? You all refused the role, leaving it to me alone. All these years, I’ve been the one to kowtow to the Six Sects, I’ve faced the cold shoulders, I’ve been the one running around, doing the dirty and tiring jobs. Has anyone ever spoken up for me? Has anyone ever said a word for me?!”

Chu Hanjin knew he harbored resentment, “Senior brother…”

“The Battle of Hate Green was bravely fought by Far Mountain Sect! But those who died did so most tragically! Yet as Far Mountain Sect declined, other sects rode roughshod over us! You know well that without finding the culprit of the Celestial Burial Pit, they’ll bleed us dry, yet you still plead for outsiders… Only I think about how Far Mountain Sect should position itself among the Six Sects… how to preserve the dignity of Far Mountain Sect… what to do about the future of Far Mountain Sect… Junior brother, how could you…”

Chu Hanjin’s heart felt torn, he took a deep breath to calm himself, “Senior brother, rest assured, we will definitely find the culprit. This trip, we are here to catch the culprit.”

Mu Lianchun emerged from his immersed emotions, “What?”

“The culprit is right now in the misty ridges, not Yue Lin, but someone close to him. I was eager to come out to lend you a hand.”

“It’s someone close to him?!”

“Yes!”

Mu Lianchun fell silent for a while, then said, “If what you say is true…”

Chu Hanjin resolutely, “Absolutely true!”

Silence fell in the air, after a long distance, Mu Lianchun pondered on the other end of the transmitted voice.

After a while, he didn’t speak, and Chu Hanjin gently exhaled, “Senior brother, I have one more thing to say.”

Mu Lianchun, “What?”

“When they pushed you to become the sect leader, it wasn’t because of the mess after the war that no one wanted to deal with. I sincerely believed that you, with your enthusiasm and integrity, were more suitable to lead Far Mountain Sect than me, than the uncle master, than anyone else.”

Silence surrounded, Mu Lianchun’s reticence.

Chu Hanjin, “And me, other than my parents once being sect leaders and later honored as heroes, I have contributed nothing to Far Mountain Sect. Back then, when they all pushed me to be the sect leader, I wholeheartedly recommended you, causing others to accuse you of being greedy and destructive, usurping my father’s foundation; yet they labeled me as noble and detached. That’s actually nonsense.”

His voice paused, Chu Hanjin’s clear eyes lowered, then lifted again, “In my eyes, you are the best senior brother.”

Chu Hanjin waited for an answer.

But the voice at the door was gone.

Silence lingered.

This indicated Mu Lianchun no longer obstructed him.

“Thank you, senior brother.”

Chu Hanjin finished speaking, stepping out of the inn!

Now, he finally understood the sequence of events, the reason his senior brother called him over, kept him in the room to delay time, preventing him from leaving… It was because the Six Sects had organized an encirclement at this very moment.

With the sect leader of Far Mountain Sect appearing at the salt lake, the Yin-Yang Sect’s Lord of Negative Yin and Lord of Positive Yang, the Mo Fa Sect’s Flowing Light Master, and the experts from Wu Ji Sect and Liuli Sect, must all be gathered here.

According to the set time, Yue Lin was probably already following Bai Gu into the misty ridges, about to face their joint attack.

Moreover, near the salt lake within the misty ridges, which was already the most heavily guarded area of Rongku Sect, the power of the arrays was immense, and Yue Lin’s situation was likely dire.

As for all this…

Chu Hanjin, as he hurried towards the misty ridges, pondered intensely.

The boys and girls of the salt lake were promised by Chen Yang to Bai Gu as a reward, and Chen Yang likely confessed this to the people of Rongku Sect, so they set a trap, waiting for Yue Lin and Bai Gu to arrive, catching them perfectly.

Bai Gu deserved death, but Yue Lin was truly innocent in this matter. The sword has no eyes, and should not harm him.

Moreover… if they really treated Yue Lin as the chief culprit of the Celestial Burial Pit, his situation would become even more perilous.

Chu Hanjin sped up his sword flight.

Temporarily, he had left the fruit ball back in his room, and now, speeding like the wind, he reached the barrier outside the misty ridges in an instant.

Near the outpost, Rongku Sect cultivators patrolled rigorously.

Chu Hanjin entered, expecting arguments and disputes, but instead, he found several cultivators from Far Mountain Sect sitting there.

Upon seeing Chu Hanjin, they stood up to report, “Lord Yue Zhao.”

After saluting, they handed him the disarming formula, saying, “The sect leader sent us to support you, please come in.”