The Dispute

Li Nanzhu’s fingertips unconsciously dug into her palm.

Those bleached white bones were haunting her mind—each skeleton had once been a living cultivator, perhaps once full of hope as they stepped onto the path of cultivation, only to end up as victims of an evil cultivator’s experiment.

"They..." she started, her voice strained.

Jiang Yifan’s eyes darkened. "It wasn’t just people, but demonic beasts as well." He rubbed the demon qi crystal. "I found at least three different mutation routes near the mother nest. Some retained human form, while others turned entirely into monsters..."

Feng Qingping suddenly covered her mouth, her face turning pale. "So those tentacles... could be..."

"The remains of demonic-aspected cultivators," Jiang Yifan’s voice was as cold as ice. "The Blood Fiend Sect transformed them into half-human, half-demon monsters."

The air inside the tunnel seemed to freeze.

Suisui’s soul fire flickered uneasily, casting distorted shadows against the rock walls.

"Evil cultivators... they all deserve to die!" Feng Weilan gripped his long blade, his knuckles turning white, the hatred in his eyes impossible to conceal. "Just wait until I get out of here and kill them—"

"Weilan."

Feng Qingping’s voice wasn’t loud. She merely gazed at him, her eyes as calm as still water, causing Feng Weilan to fall silent involuntarily.

"What is happening here is beyond our capability," Feng Qingping’s voice was steady and strong, as if her momentary discomfort had never existed. "As soon as we get out, we must inform Master and have him contact the other sects. We—we must leave."

Feng Weilan’s fists cracked loudly, the cold light on his blade reflecting in his bloodshot eyes. "Fifth Senior Sister, you want me to just walk away? Those evil cultivators—"

"Will be handled by the sect," Feng Qingping’s voice fell like a bucket of cold water. "I said, this is not something we should be meddling in."

These words were like a sharp blade, instantly puncturing Feng Weilan’s fury. His expression froze, and the hand holding his blade trembled slightly.

"Qingping..." Feng Weilan’s voice was incredibly raspy. "But..."

"No buts." Feng Qingping took a step forward and tapped his brow with her finger, sending a Cleansing Heart Sutra into him. "Deep-seated obsessions can destroy a person. Look at our little junior sister—"

Li Nanzhu, suddenly called out, was startled.

"Weren't you well aware of her previous state? And look at how well she is doing now? All these years I’ve looked after you, it wasn't so you could go and seek death." Feng Qingping’s gaze swept over the three of them. "Our current mission is to get out alive and deliver this information, not to indulge in a moment of reckless bravery."

Jiang Yifan suddenly gave a cold sneer. "Fifth Senior Sister makes it sound so simple. The mysterious yin iron is extremely important to me. Now that it has appeared here, I am definitely going to take it..."

"Fourth Senior Brother," Feng Qingping turned to him, her tone softening slightly. "I know you aren't satisfied. But the mysterious yin iron here has already been contaminated. Even if you take it back, you won't be able to use it."

"I can purify it—"

"With what?" Feng Qingping interrupted him. "You have almost no spiritual energy left, you aren't treating your injuries, and the toxins in your body still haven't been cleared!"

Jiang Yifan’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

Silence fell over the tunnel, with only Suisui’s soul fire flickering anxiously. Their arguing only left the little skeleton feeling bewildered, and it huddled tightly behind Li Nanzhu.

Li Nanzhu looked at her three seniors with mixed emotions.

She understood that Feng Qingping was right—in the original story, the proud Fourth Senior Brother was ultimately dragged into a bottomless abyss by his own obsessions. But in the matters of this world, how could things be so easily divided into right and wrong?

An obsession was an obsession precisely because it was not easy to let go.

It was a demonic barrier rooted deep in the heart, a hurdle across one’s fate, and a wound one dared not touch during a midnight dream.

She gripped her sleeves tightly.

Having not experienced their pasts or shared their pain, at this moment, she was nothing more than an outsider.

An onlooker—the word suddenly surfaced in her mind, making her feel a wave of dizziness.

Despite being inches away, it felt as though they were separated by an entire world.

The arguments of her senior brothers and sister seemed to drift in and out. The flickering soul fire on the rock walls stretched their shadows so long that they seemed impossible to reach.

In a daze, she remembered something the battlefield doctor had said: 'When reality is too painful, a person’s consciousness will protect itself...' Is this what dissociation feels like?

"Little Junior Sister?"

Feng Qingping’s voice pulled Li Nanzhu back from her daze. She only then realized her fingers were unconsciously rubbing her storage bag, her fingertips ice-cold.

"I’m fine." She forced a smile, only to find all three of them looking at her with concern.

Feng Weilan’s brow furrowed. "You look terrible."

"Maybe... the air here isn't good." Li Nanzhu avoided their gazes and looked down at Suisui. The little skeleton’s soul fire flickered uneasily, as if it also sensed her abnormality.

Feng Qingping reached out to feel her forehead, her spiritual energy seeping into her meridians like a thin stream. "There are no signs of poisoning, but your divine sense is a bit disordered." She paused. "What are you thinking about?"

Li Nanzhu opened her mouth but didn't know where to start, so she simply made an excuse. "I was thinking about those tentacles..."

"Speaking of tentacles," Jiang Yifan spoke up again, "those things seem to be capable of parasitism as well..."

"What?! Parasitism!" Li Nanzhu suddenly bolted upright and rushed in front of Jiang Yifan, her voice intentionally hurried. "Fourth Senior Brother, are you sure they can parasitize?"

"...Yes." Although confused by her reaction, Jiang Yifan confirmed the statement again.

"Then it matches up..." Li Nanzhu murmured.

"What matches up?" Feng Qingping couldn't help but feel curious.

"I encountered something similar in the Forest of Demonic Beasts!"

Li Nanzhu quickly described the blue mycelium she had seen in Xiao Yan’s cave dwelling, then spoke about the actions of the evil cultivators in the Forest of Demonic Beasts at that time and the clues she had learned from Xiao Yan.

Of course, she hid Xiao Yan’s existence, only saying she knew the original appearance of the blue mycelium. Combined with that eerie mural, she was certain those things were most likely also creations of the evil cultivators.

"Little Junior Sister, are you sure?" This time, even Jiang Yifan’s expression turned solemn.

"I’m sure," Li Nanzhu paused before continuing, "I hadn't made the connection at first, but after Fourth Senior Brother said the tentacles could also parasitize..."

Li Nanzhu didn't need to finish her sentence for the three of them to understand what she meant.

If this was the case, then what the evil cultivators were plotting was far greater than they had imagined. However, this also made Feng Qingping even more determined to lead them away immediately.

"Even if we leave, there are tentacles everywhere outside. What can we do? Fight our way out?" Jiang Yifan snorted softly.

"The Mountain-Moving Disk..."

"Forget it," Jiang Yifan waved his hand. "That requires a stable structure. Does this place look stable to you? We’d be buried alive before we made any progress."

The atmosphere fell into silence once more, and Li Nanzhu’s mind raced for a solution.

When her fingertips touched an ice-cold object, her eyes suddenly lit up!

"I have a way!"