The Hehuan Sect cultivates alchemy; my senior sister helps me refine alchemy throughout the world.

At the mountain gate, Elder Gu leaned against a stone pillar, his left arm still in a sling, and his right hand holding a wine gourd. Seeing Shen Yifei approaching, he tucked the gourd into his robes and went to greet him.

"Kid, I heard you're going to the Ten Thousand Mountains?"

"Yes."

Elder Gu looked him up and down: "Late stage of Golden Core, with an injured dantian. In your condition, going into the Hundred Thousand Mountains is practically suicide."

"Elder Gu, are you here to see me off or to persuade me?"

"Advice? Do you think you can dissuade me?" Elder Gu took out a token from his robes and tossed it to him. "This is the sect's distress token. If you encounter a monster you can't handle, crush it, and it will emit a red light. If there are any Hehuan Sect disciples nearby, they will come to help. However, there are basically no sect disciples active deep in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, so don't get your hopes up too high."

Shen Yifei tucked the token into his pocket.

"Thank you, Elder Gu."

"Don't thank me." Elder Gu waved his hand. "You'd better come back alive, even if you don't get the elixir, staying alive is the most important thing. I'm missing a fifth-grade pill in my alchemy room, come back and help me refine it."

Elder Gu's words deeply moved Shen Yifei. He knew that Elder Gu was advising him that if he couldn't get the elixir, he would be a cripple, but Elder Gu would take care of him when he returned.

He cupped his hands in thanks, "Elder Gu, your kindness is beyond words!"

He slung the bundle over his shoulder, turned around, and strode south.

He had to travel three thousand miles to reach the nearest ferry crossing to take a flying boat.

Two hundred miles south of the Hehuan Sect lies a small town with a ferry crossing and flying boats that travel between various states. From there, a two-day journey by flying boat south will take you to the last human settlement on the outskirts of the Ten Thousand Mountains—Qingmu City.

It took Shen Yifei two days to travel the two hundred miles of mountain road.

The crack in his dantian throbbed intermittently, causing him to grimace in pain. He had taken three painkillers, but their effectiveness was waning. Liu Mengli floated out of the cauldron and sat on his shoulder, her mouth never stopping the entire way, either eating or chattering away.

Two days later, he arrived at the small town.

The town wasn't big, about the same size as the town outside the Blood Soul Cult's underground palace. There was only one main street, and you could walk from one end to the other in the time it takes to burn an incense stick. There was only one inn in the town, and half of the inn's signboard had been blown away by the wind, leaving only the character "客" (guest) hanging crookedly on the door frame.

Shen Yifei entered the inn. Behind the counter sat a fat innkeeper, who was dozing off. Hearing footsteps, the fat innkeeper opened one eye, glanced at him, and then closed it again.

"A hotel?"

"Stay one night, leave tomorrow morning. How much?"

"A spirit stone."

Shen Yifei took out a spirit stone and placed it on the counter. The fat shopkeeper opened his other eye, picked up the spirit stone, shone it in the oil lamp, put it in the drawer, and took a key from the wall and threw it to him.

"The room at the far end of the second floor. You have to heat the water yourself in the backyard; firewood is extra."

Shen Yifei took the keys and went upstairs. The room wasn't big; the spiderwebs in the corners were almost reaching the rafters. He threw his bundle on the bed, sat for a while, and then the pain in his lower abdomen returned.

This time it hurt even more than before.

The crack on the golden core looked as if it had been broken, splitting from the thickness of a hair into two strands. Another horizontal crack appeared on the surface of the golden core, intersecting with the vertical one.

Shen Yifei was bent over, his hands pressed against his lower abdomen, his forehead covered in sweat.

Liu Mengli floated out of the cauldron, squatted in front of him, and placed her hand on his dantian. Her palm was cool, and the nightmare spiritual power seeped into his dantian, easing Shen Yifei's pain a little.

"Two stages already. At this rate, you won't last until you reach the Ten Thousand Mountains."

"I have to hold on, even if I can't," Shen Yifei gritted his teeth. "What's the difference between losing my cultivation and dying?"

Liu Mengli remained silent for a moment before withdrawing her hand.

"Have you noticed that fat shopkeeper downstairs?"

"What's wrong?"

"He's not human."

Shen Yifei was stunned for a moment.

"There's a painting hanging behind the counter, depicting a woman in red. There's a faint, eerie aura about the painting, but I can smell it." Liu Mengli paused. "That fat shopkeeper is most likely a demon in human form."

Shen Yifei placed his hand on the Listening Tide Sword.

"What level of cultivation?"

"Not high, around the early stage of the Golden Core realm. Far inferior to you." Liu Mengli floated to the doorway. "However, the fact that he can run an inn in this town means there are strongholds of demons nearby. The Ten Thousand Mountains are only three thousand miles to the south. It doesn't make sense for demons to come out of the mountains and run an inn on human territory."

Shen Yifei loosened the hilt of his sword.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I think this inn might be a spy planted by demons on human territory. They're specifically watching over cultivators coming and going, and relaying information to the demons in the Hundred Thousand Mountains."

Shen Yifei stood up, walked to the window, and pulled back the curtains to look down. The street was deserted, with only a thin dog lying in the middle of the road. All the shops across the street were closed, and it was pitch black.

"You mean, I've already been targeted by demons before I even entered the Ten Thousand Mountains?"

Shen Yifei lowered the curtains and sat back on the bed.

"A demon at the early stage of the Golden Core realm can't cause any trouble. I'll leave tomorrow morning. If he dares to stop me, I'll just kill him with one sword."

Liu Mengli didn't say anything more and floated back into the cauldron.

Shen Yifei lay on the bed fully clothed, his eyes closed. The pain in his dantian was suppressed by Liu Mengli's spiritual power, which lessened it considerably, but it still throbbed faintly.

He drifted off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Shen Yifei was awakened by a noise.

It was the sound of footsteps, very light.

The footsteps came from the direction of the stairs, one after another, making a soft creaking sound on the wooden steps. The footsteps stopped at the door of his room.

Shen Yifei opened his eyes and placed his hand on the Listening Tide Sword.

A sliver of light shone through the crack in the door—candlelight, a small, dim yellow glimmer flickering on the floor.

Then the door opened.

There was no sound of picking the lock; the door opened silently, as if blown open by a gust of wind. But there was no wind outside.

There was a person standing at the door.

A woman, dressed in a bright red wedding gown, adorned with a phoenix coronet and embroidered robes, her face veiled in red, held a red lantern in her hand. The candlelight from the lantern shone through the red paper, bathing the entire room in a crimson hue.

When Shen Yifei saw her wedding dress clearly, his scalp tingled.

This guy is exactly the same as that lustful demon in the Blood Soul Cave.

The woman stood motionless at the doorway. A voice came from beneath the red veil, soft and sweet, exactly like the voice of the Demon of Love.

"Young master, I have been waiting for you for a long time."

Shen Yifei sat up abruptly, drew his Listening Tide Sword, and pointed the tip at the woman at the door.

"What are you?"

The woman didn't answer. She stepped over the threshold and went into the room.

The hem of her wedding dress trailed on the ground, rustling softly. With each step she took, the room grew colder. By the third step, Shen Yifei's breath had turned into white mist.

"Young master, don't you remember me?" The woman stopped three steps away from him, her red veil swaying slightly. "In the Blood Soul Cave, you shattered my heart. I'm in so much pain."

Shen Yifei's heart sank to the bottom.

The Demon of Love. The Demon of Love he encountered in the Blood Soul Cave. Yin Wuxie's split soul shattered her heart with a single palm strike, and he witnessed her turn into dust and scatter in the blood mist.

How did she end up here?

"Weren't you dead?"

"Dead?" The woman laughed. "Young master, the demon of love cannot be killed. Even if the heart is broken, as long as there is still a trace of love, it can come back to life. Last time, you broke my heart, and I drifted in the blood mist for a long, long time before I found a trace of love that hadn't been completely severed."

She raised her hand; her five fingers were deathly white, and her nails were painted blood red.

She slowly lifted the red veil.