With a soft creak, Xu Xianqing pushed open the wooden door and stepped into the courtyard.
She paused to take in her surroundings. Layout-wise, it was no different from Si Niang’s house, but where Si Niang’s home carried the warm, lived-in traces of daily life, this place was bone-chillingly desolate…as if it had been abandoned for years.
Xu Xianqing wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved by the stillness or heartbroken that Miss Ye wasn’t here.
She pushed open the door to the main house, and the moment it swung wide, a wave of stale, musty air hit her face.
Frowning, she raised her sleeve to cover her nose and mouth as she looked around. Dust lay thick over every piece of furniture, and dark cobwebs clung to the corners, trapping the withered remains of tiny prey.
Aside from that, there wasn’t even a mouse in sight.
This place didn’t look like it had hosted a human soul in a long time. Xu Xianqing sighed, turning to leave, when she felt the golden core resting against her chest suddenly glow warm.
She froze.
Carefully scanning the room once more, she couldn’t spot a single thing out of the ordinary. Puzzled, she reached up to touch the core, but before her fingers could brush against it, the gold orb darted away on its own.
It floated over her head, zipping across the room until it hovered at the tight junction where two walls met, spinning slowly in place.
Xu Xianqing rushed over. Gathering her robes, she dropped to one knee and leaned close. The wall in this corner indeed looked subtly different from the rest.
Is something hidden inside?
Without hesitation, she pulled out the dagger Miss Ye had left her and carefully chipped away at the wall. To her surprise, the structure gave way easily.
As the loose debris fell, a small wooden box embedded deep within the wall came into view.
Xu Xianqing stared at it, a sense of familiarity tugging at her memory.
She took off her satchel, pulled out the wooden chest Miss Ye had given her earlier, and held it side by side with the newly unearthed one. They were identical.
Yet, there was a key difference. The box Miss Ye gave her could be opened effortlessly. This one, however, seemed locked under a stubborn magical seal.
She decided to take it with her for now…perhaps she could find a way to crack the seal later. But just as she reached out, the floating golden core sank gently into the palm of her hand.
Only then did Xu Xianqing notice a small, crescent shaped indentation on the surface of the box.
Trembling, she set the golden core into the groove.
The box shivered softly. With a faint click, the small latch sprang open.
Xu Xianqing retrieved her golden core, her hands shaking so violently that she couldn’t open the box right away. Her head spun with a mountain of unanswered questions.
Why was this box keyed to open only with her golden core? Had Miss Ye planned this all along?
Had Miss Ye foreseen her own death and left this box here on purpose? What on earth was inside?
Unable to piece it together, she finally lifted the lid. Resting inside was a single Shadowstone.
Xu Xianqing pulled it out and activated it with a spirit stone.
A projection flickered to life. “Father… if you are seeing this Shadowstone, your daughter has likely already passed away. Please, do not grieve for me. There are three matters I must entrust to you.”
Xu Xianqing’s chest tightened as she realized this message had been meant for her father in law.
In the projection, Ye Ming looked severely injured. Her brows were knitted in pain, and her hands were clutched into fists so tight her knuckles were drained of all color.
Xu Xianqing put the pieces together. Three years ago, after being wounded in the secret realm, Miss Ye must have passed through this place on her way home and left this message behind.
“In the secret realm, I encountered an evil cultivator,” Ye Ming’s voice sounded weak yet resolute. “They were ruthless…slaughtering others and plundering their treasures. My companions and I pursued them, but I was tragically infected by a Demon Seed. It cannot be removed; I had to seal it directly within my spiritual root. To keep my sanity intact, I had no choice but to swallow Heavenly Dew Frigid Poison to suppress my own spiritual root.”
Xu Xianqing had learned a great deal about the immortal and demonic realms recently. A Demon Seed was like a concentrated mass of demonic energy…a primordial trace of the ancient Heavenly Demons from the upper realms. Once it fell into the mortal cultivation realm, it drove cultivators, spirits, and beasts into mindless, bloodthirsty madness, reducing them to low-level demonic beasts.
However, the Demon Seeds were supposed to have been sealed away during the ancient Great Immortal-Demon War. How could one have reappeared now?
Xu Xianqing’s mind reeled before a heartbreaking realization struck her: Miss Ye hadn’t accidentally ingested the Frigid Poison in the secret realm. She had taken it intentionally to keep the demon inside her at bay.
And since Heavenly Dew Frigid Poison had no cure… it meant that back then, Miss Ye had already chosen to die.
“I underestimated how fiercely the Frigid Poison would ravage my body,” Ye Ming continued in the recording, her breath labored. “I don’t know if I’ll survive the journey home. My death is of little consequence, but the return of the Demon Seed in the spiritual realm must be reported. The evil cultivator ambushed us along the way; I barely escaped with my life… By chance, I stumbled upon this place. Old Sophora Village lies outside the Five Elements and the Six Realms, which allowed me to feign my death and slip past my pursuers.”
*”Father, there is a second matter, and it is deeply suspicious. That day in the secret realm, the person accompanying the evil cultivator appeared to be a disciple of Medicine King Valley. Medicine King Valley has remained secluded from the world for a thousand years, so their sudden appearance in the secret realm is concerning. While confronting the evil cultivator, I learned that hidden demons have infiltrated the Four Great Sects… Even inside Cangyun Sect, there are… cough, cough!”
Even knowing this was merely a recorded memory of someone long gone, watching Ye Ming cough so violently made Xu Xianqing’s heart clutch tightly.
“Miss Ye!” she gasped instinctively.
Sadly, the Ye Ming in the projection knew nothing of Xu Xianqing. She didn’t know that she would manage to drag her broken body home, nor that her father would find her and use the Sympathetic Bond contract to save her life at the cost of his own.
“The third matter concerns our Ye Family,” Ye Ming’s projection continued. “I dare not jump to conclusions lightly, but the two elders of our family acted strangely in the secret realm that day. I beg you to investigate them thoroughly, Father. If there are demonic moles within our Ye Family…no matter who they are…do not show mercy. They must be eliminated.”
The recording didn’t end there.
Ye Ming reached into her robes and pulled out an ancient, leather-bound book. Drawing her sword, she sliced the volume clean in two.
“Forgive me for destroying a family treasure, Father. If you are the one who finds this, you can bring this Medical Canon back. But if you fail to reach this place… then I fear the Ye Family has already met with disaster. In that case, I leave this here so that if a destined soul finds it, this manual may one day clear our family’s name.”
Xu Xianqing had heard Ye Ming mention these treasures before.
Back at the Ye estate, Ye Qinfeng had repeatedly tried to force Ye Ming to hand over the family heirlooms.
The first was the Ye Family Genealogy…a proof of the Patriarch’s absolute authority. Only those whose names were inscribed upon it were recognized as the true head of the family. Typically, once a Patriarch took office, the genealogy was handed directly to the designated successor so that in the event of a tragedy, the heir could claim leadership without interference, ensuring the main lineage remained unbroken. Furthermore, signing the genealogy granted the heir the combined legacy and insights of every past Patriarch, making it an invaluable treasure.
The second heirloom was the family’s secret medical archive. In the past, the Ye Family walked the line between good and evil, so their texts were split into two volumes: the Poison Canon, which detailed every deadly toxin invented by the family, and the Medical Canon, which contained the cures.
Xu Xianqing had never expected Ye Ming to hide the Medical Canon in a place like this.
As the projection faded and went dark, Xu Xianqing picked up the halved manual from the box, her mind swimming with heavy, conflicted emotions.
When Master Ye rescued Miss Ye back then, she must have told him everything that happened in the secret realm. Which meant Master Ye hadn’t perished in the secret realm while searching for a cure for his daughter…he had died trying to investigate the Demon Seed and the evil cultivators behind it.
Miss Ye’s life had been forcibly prolonged by her father’s sacrifice, but when her father died before her, she had been left to carry the crushing weight alone. In her final days, dragging her failing body, she had meticulously orchestrated every remaining detail.
Sending Xu Xianqing south to find Medicine King Valley had all been part of a plan to lead her toward the truth.
Every single step Xu Xianqing had taken…including the fall of the Ye Family…had been anticipated by Miss Ye.
And that was precisely why Miss Ye had urged her to leave so desperately.