Li Nanzhu stood stunned on the spot.
Just as she was about to say something, Mu Wenyan's figure had already disappeared from the area.
As the night deepened, the residence was silent.
Li Nanzhu lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
Mu Wenyan's words—"Don't let preconceived prejudices influence your judgment"—echoed in her mind. He had clearly seen through her suspicion of her master, yet he had stopped short of saying more.
Moonlight from outside filtered through the window lattice, casting mottled shadows on the floor.
She rolled over, her thoughts drifting back to that eerie forbidden area. She still remembered the strange black shadows there.
If her eldest senior brother hadn't mentioned it today, she would have almost forgotten what had happened there.
What kind of troublesome matter would require her master to personally return and handle it?
Suisui crouched by her pillow, its soul fire flickering irregularly. Its bone claws occasionally scratched small marks into the bedboard. Li Nanzhu gently stroked its claws and gradually fell into a light sleep.
Ding—
A crisp bell suddenly rang out.
Li Nanzhu snapped her eyes open to find the sky outside bright with daylight. Her communication jade slip was buzzing on the table, emitting a faint glow.
She flipped out of bed, grabbed the jade slip, and injected it with spiritual energy. Lines of text floated in the air.
Li Nanzhu took one look, her pupils shrinking as her fingers instinctively tightened around the device.
She quickly threw on her outer robe, grabbed Suisui, and rushed out.
Outside, everyone had already gathered.
Feng Qingping stood in the center with a solemn expression, with Feng Weilan still behind her. Zhu Yinxi's jade flute spun lightly between his fingers, while Jiang Yifan leaned against a pillar. Even the usually boisterous Duan Xianxing was uncharacteristically quiet.
"Where is Eldest Senior Brother?" Li Nanzhu asked urgently.
Feng Qingping looked up, her eyes holding an unprecedented seriousness. "He went to see the Lingxiao Immortal Venerable."
"What happened?" Li Nanzhu's heart skipped a beat as a bad premonition welled up inside her.
"Mo Lin is dead," Zhu Yinxi's voice was cold. "A small sect found his body this morning. There was a hole in his chest, and even his blood had been drained dry."
Li Nanzhu's body trembled, and the jade slip nearly fell from her hand.
Wen Qianhui, Mo Lin... this was already the second contestant to die.
Although she knew Wen Qianhui's death was at the hands of the Sword Heart Sect, the consecutive deaths of contestants cast a heavy shadow over her heart.
"I have a new discovery here." Li Nanzhu took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down as she relayed the information from the jade slip.
"The Qingming Pavilion was founded only fifty-three years ago," she said, her brow slightly furrowed. "It is located at the Soul-Severing Cliff on the farthest edge of the Southern Wilderness."
"That place is covered in miasma year-round. There isn't even a decent spiritual vein within a thousand miles."
Those words caused everyone present to change expression.
"That doesn't make sense." Feng Qingping was the first to speak, her fingers instinctively brushing the array disk at her waist. "The most basic requirement for establishing a sect is spiritual vein resources." She looked toward Jiang Yifan. "Fourth Senior Brother, you consume over a thousand mid-grade spirit stones every month, don't you?"
Jiang Yifan nodded silently, his fingers mindlessly stroking his storage bag—it contained two magic tools he had just refined, each costing a fortune.
Duan Xianxing suddenly spoke up. "Wait, that's not right. Mo Lin was in the Nascent Soul stage!" He counted on his fingers. "To go from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul, even with extraordinary talent, it would take at least..."
"A hundred years," Feng Weilan finished the thought, a sharp glint in his eyes. "And that's in a paradise with abundant spiritual energy."
A sect without the support of spiritual veins could produce a Nascent Soul cultivator in just fifty-three years? It was simply...
"Like water without a source or a tree without roots," Feng Qingping softly voiced everyone's doubt.
But they didn't dwell on that question; Li Nanzhu understood and continued her report.
"The strangest part is their pavilion master."
"He goes by the name Mo Wuxin, but he has never appeared in public."
"The Tingfeng Pavilion scouts staked out the place for three years and only managed to hear one rumor—every time this pavilion master appears, he wears a bronze mask, and even his voice is artificially disguised."
She flipped through the jade slip, her brow furrowing deeper. "What's even more bizarre are the disciples. Every new recruit must change their surname to Mo, and every one of them has a special pattern tattooed on their body."
Feng Qingping frowned. "Forcing a change of surname? That is a major taboo in the cultivation world."
"It's more than that." Li Nanzhu shook her head. "It's rumored these disciples usually wear high-collared robes and don't even show their wrists, as if deliberately hiding something. And..."
She suddenly lowered her voice. "Three days ago, every disciple of the Qingming Pavilion suddenly left their residence. Tingfeng Pavilion initially thought it was a normal outing until they discovered the disciples even took their life-bound lamps. That's when they realized something was wrong."
Zhu Yinxi's jade flute stopped spinning. "The entire sect evacuated?"
"No, it's more like..." Li Nanzhu chose her words carefully, "a planned disappearance. When they left, they didn't even take the scrolls from the Library Pavilion. It didn't look like a relocation at all."
Duan Xianxing sucked in a breath. "Doesn't that mean Mo Lin was the last one..."
"Wait." Feng Qingping suddenly interrupted. "You said they all have tattoos? Then on Mo Lin's body..."
Li Nanzhu nodded. "During the match that day, I saw there was indeed a pattern on his back, but it was obscured by his clothes so I couldn't see it clearly. According to the intelligence gathered by Tingfeng Pavilion, the disciples of the Qingming Pavilion never let outsiders see those tattoos. Even bathing is done in isolation."
Jiang Yifan suddenly asked, "Tattoo location?"
"Both front and back," Li Nanzhu said solemnly. "Supposedly, every time a new disciple enters the sect, they must go into seclusion in the Founder's Hall for seven days. When they emerge, they have the tattoo."
Just as everyone was filled with suspicion and uncertainty, the courtyard gate was pushed open. Mu Wenyan stepped into the yard, his expression looking none too good.
"Eldest Senior Brother!" Everyone quickly surrounded him. "How is it?"
"The situation isn't good." Mu Wenyan shook his head. "According to news from the Sword Heart Sect, after the match ended, several black-robed men took Mo Lin onto a flying boat, saying they were taking him back to the Qingming Pavilion to recover. But..."
"This morning, a small sect on their way home discovered signs of a struggle. That's how they found his body."
"And according to them, there were no bloodstains at the scene, nor any residual spiritual energy. It was as if no one had ever been there."
He took out a memory stone and tapped it with his finger to activate it.
"The Sword Heart Sect sent someone to record the death scene."
In the image projected by the memory stone, on the ground of a messy valley, there were indeed several pieces of grey cloth scattered about. But besides that, there were no other traces.
"Nothing at all?" Feng Weilan said in a low voice. "That's not normal."
Li Nanzhu suddenly looked up as if remembering something. "Wait! What about Mo Lin's body..."
Buzz—
The communication jade slips at everyone's waists vibrated simultaneously, cutting off her unfinished words.
Feng Qingping quickly opened hers. A cold, hard announcement from the Sect Competition deacons appeared on the light screen.
—Attention all sects: due to the death of the Qingming Pavilion disciple Mo Lin, the competition is suspended for three days.
—Disciples of all sects are strictly forbidden from leaving their residences. Violators will be disqualified.
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