They had left in the height of summer and come back in the dead of winter.

Heavy snow had turned all of Jianyang Prefecture white, and the big house looked a little desolate.

Ye Lan was worried about Great Nanzhou, so the trip back took a few days less than the trip out. As soon as they arrived, she took Ye Jing and went off to see to business.

After all, she was a titled general of the Demon-Slaying Office. With signs of chaos just starting to show, she had been gone for the better part of a year. She owed the court some kind of explanation.

Shen Yi walked back to his courtyard alone, pushed open the door and sat down on the edge of the bed.

This trip had paid off handsomely. He now had a legitimate footing in the Divine Land, and he had secured a true method of the Three Teachings like the Taixu Dao-fruit. He could fairly say he was on solid ground at last.

But it hadn't come without a price.

He turned his eyes to the heavy snow outside the window and quietly put his thoughts in order.

First there was the matter up in heaven. He'd heard that after Qinghua went back, what she'd taken from the White Plume Immortal had won her two more promotions in one go, lifting her straight to junior fifth-rank immortal general.

Honestly, Shen Yi seldom envied anyone, except Qinghua.

Things other people had to fight to the death to win came as easily to her as eating and drinking.

She had broken through to Dao-merging on pills fed to her by Shi Ren, then relied on merit to become a seventh-rank immortal, leaping straight past several of Hongze's Dao Realm cultivators. In a short time in heaven she had become the equal of a Taiyi immortal.

She was rising so fast that even Shen Yi felt a little pressure…

But precisely because of that, anyone with any sense could see how absurd it was.

When something is out of the ordinary, there's a demon behind it.