"What in the world are you doing?"

Ye Wenxuan swept slowly across the sky, and the closer she came to that hall in the Den's deepest reaches, the faster her heart beat.

Until she could sense the aura inside the hall.

She drew several rough breaths and stopped advancing altogether.

"Idiot!"

This was nothing at all like what she had expected. How could she possibly meet the old dog like this — without a word of consultation, without the slightest preparation?

And if something went wrong, what then?

She gritted her teeth, and saw Nie Jun still moving forward — which meant Shen Yi was still closing on the hall.

"That is a disciple I raised with painstaking effort!"

Her hands clenched. Nie Jun was her only hope of leaving the Nanyang Sect.

And Shen Yi was leading him, step by step, to the old dog's door.

She was silent a long while.

Once Nie Jun was entirely out of sight, she stamped her foot in resentment and rode her cloud after him.

That grand and perfectly intact hall came gradually into view.

Ye Wenxuan checked.

Because she did not see the slaughter she had pictured.

Nie Jun still hung in the sky, staring down as uncomprehendingly as she was.

Down there, Shen Yi stood alone before the hall, looking at it.

The young man's expression was calm, his black hair stirring faintly.

The space before the hall was empty, and yet Ye Wenxuan could still catch the formidable aura held within it. The old dog was plainly inside.

"What—?" Her alarm and confusion mounted.

A moment later Shen Yi actually sat down on the ground, spread both palms, and gold thread wreathed in black killing-force issued from his fingertips. He began laying a formation, in front of Zhang Laifu.

"……"

Ye Wenxuan looked at the hall, then at Shen Yi, and her gaze slowly went unfocused.

A mere Spirit-Transformation cultivator, swaggering right up to the old dog like this — it was no different from a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.

And yet, for whatever reason, the fierce…