Three great immortal sects had come to the door and begged audience.

No few disciples of a quicker turn of mind sensed that something was odd.

The Peach Spring Manor wiped out to the last soul, and stewards and outer-gate elders of the Nanhong Seven fallen in circumstances nobody could explain — this ought by rights to have been a matter to shake all Nanhong.

But the several cultivators who had gone to the Nanyang Sect to ask, the Heaven-Sword Immortal Maiden among them, had gone back to their own sects with their brows drawn tight.

Not only had they come into no quarrel with the Nanyang Sect, as everyone had imagined they would.

Instead they had promptly seized several more disciples and outer-gate elders of their own.

"Wretched creature."

Elder Liu of the Heaven-Sword Sect slowly closed his hand.

He did not care in the least what had actually happened. He knew only that a chance as rare as this had been let go so very lightly.

This Heaven-Sword Immortal Maiden really was open-handed.

Taking the life of her own sect's outer-gate elder to buy herself a favor — one could only admire it.

"……"

As a White Jade Capital cultivator, Liu Xingshan seldom let pleasure or anger show in his face.

But at this moment his eyelid twitched slightly, and a scene from not so long ago rose up in his eyes.

When he had word that the Nanyang treasured site had reappeared, he had brought out his Dao token and gone at once — and had then found himself looking at that heap of common mortals with their feeble cultivation.

And had praised one of them, against his conscience, for bearing the aspect of dragons.

He still remembered what strength that young man surnamed Shen had had in those days. The two strongest men in the whole Nanyang treasured site were no more than the first layer of Return-to-Void; and since he could wear the Nanyang white robe he was presumably a little stronger than those two, but certainly not by much.

Set inside the Heaven-Sword Sect,…