Chapter 1

It was the Qingming Festival, and a gentle rain had fallen over the Tianquan Sect, washing the spring scenery into a damp, lush vibrancy.

Melodious immortal music drifted up from the tiered pavilions. Above, the Immortal Peak—where clouds unfurled all day long—seemed to dissolve into the rain, leaving the Sect bathed in a magnificent, serene clarity.

Yet, at the very edge of those jade pavilions and golden palaces, there lay a dilapidated courtyard. The immortal music never reached this place, nor did the spring seem to spare it any favor.

The ancient stone walls were half-buried in layers of fallen leaves. Clumps of mud had crumbled from the walls, tangling with the foliage and making the ground impassable. A half-withered apricot tree leaned against the wall, its few remaining blossoms crushed into the mud by the wind.

Two mortal servants were sweeping the muddy ground, their faces etched with reluctance.

"Does a great figure truly live in this courtyard?" the shorter servant asked, frowning. "The most capable immortals in the Sect live in the Outer Disciples' Chushan Courtyard at the very least. Why would they stoop to live here? Are you trying to fool me?"

The other servant leaned on his broom and chuckled. "What would I gain from fooling you? That 'great figure' was once Elder Shi, who commanded the Sword Pavilion. She was a formidable figure in her day, but alas, times have changed..."

"Why is that?" The short servant stopped sweeping, his curiosity piqued.

"Since you're young, I'll tell you the whole story." The tall servant plopped down on a blue stone by the road. "This Elder Shi is named Shi Suiren. She was the youngest Elder in the Tianquan Sect, breaking through to the Peak Mahayana realm before she was even three hundred. The Sect Master personally appointed her to manage the Sword Pavilion. Her future seemed absolutely brilliant."

"Unfortunately, though she was a peerless genius, she was also a cruel fool. She favored her newly recruited prodigy disciple to an extreme, and in turn, she ruthlessly abused her eldest disciple. Poor girl—beaten so badly she was barely recognizable, even at such a young age. I later heard she was even sold off. Truly horrifying."

"How could anyone do such a thing!" the short servant exclaimed.

"That's not all." The tall servant, now fully engrossed in his tale, raised his voice. "To ensure her favorite disciple won the prizes in the Sect Competition, she even rigged the matches, causing several other disciples to be severely injured. When the truth came out, the Sect Master was furious. He crippled half her cultivation, stripped her of her position as Pavilion Master, and banished her here to the servant's quarters."

"Serves her right!" the short handyman declared, clenching his fist. "A villain like her deserves to be sliced a thousand times over. They shouldn't have spared her dog's..."

"Spared her dog's what?" a woman's voice drifted from behind them, as smooth yet piercing as a mountain stream.

A woman had appeared behind them without a sound. Her hair flowed like a black waterfall, her temples like drifting clouds. Though she wore only a simple light-blue robe, it could not conceal the elegant and refined air that graced her features.

Who else could this be but the rumored Elder Shi?

"Life..." The two handymen sprang to their feet in terror, then fell to their knees with a dull thud, not daring to breathe.

Though the Tianquan Sect strictly forbade cultivators from slaughtering commoners, they were still allowed to use some methods to punish servants. This was especially true when the cultivator in question was the notoriously ruthless Shi Suiren.

The thought sent a fresh wave of terror through the two men. They shook like sieves, certain their lives were forfeit.

Yet, a sigh drifted down from above. A gentle breeze lifted them from the ground. "The Sect prohibits servants from gossiping about cultivators. Those who violate this rule will be sent to the Tianxing Pavilion for twenty strokes of the cane."

"I will pretend I didn't hear anything today. Do not let this happen again," Shi Suiren said, withdrawing her spiritual power.

The two servants, unable to believe they had been spared, looked up in terror. But Shi Suiren refused to hear their thanks. She shut the courtyard gate and stood alone beneath the branches of an apricot tree that had grown over the wall.

Though it was spring, the area felt like the dead of winter, barren and lifeless. Shi Suiren reached out to touch a withered leaf on a branch, a silent sneer on her lips.

Years ago, a so-called "System" had appeared to her in a dream, claiming she was merely a cannon fodder supporting character in a book. It told her that a transmigrator would soon borrow her body to save the story's protagonist.

Shi Suiren, completely bewildered, had refused. But the "System" had forcibly sealed her consciousness, allowing the transmigrator to seize control of her body.

Fortunately, Shi Suiren had managed to preserve a sliver of her will at the last moment. For eight years, she had nurtured her strength within her Sea of Consciousness, finally seizing the chance to severely wound the transmigrator's soul and reclaim her body.

Eight long years had passed, and the world around her had changed beyond recognition.

Her once-grand residence was now a dilapidated courtyard overgrown with moss. The cultivation she had painstakingly built over a century was nearly gone. Worse still, the Sect was rife with rumors of the countless foolish things her body had done in her absence.

Shi Suiren's fingers tightened as she thought of the rumors, crushing a dry leaf to dust.

Losing her cultivation and reputation would have been tolerable—rebuilding them was no insurmountable task. But who could have imagined that damned transmigrator would actually lay a hand on her disciple, Gu Yaoxing?

Shi Suiren still remembered the day she had brought Gu Yaoxing back to the Sect. The timid, cowardly girl had wrapped her arms around her neck, snuggling into her embrace as she stole glances at the apricot blossoms outside the window.

So obedient, so sensible, so precious... And now...

A knock at the door shattered Shi Suiren's train of thought. She withdrew her gaze, shook the dust from her sleeves, and said, "Come in."

The visitor was a young Outer Disciple. Upon seeing Shi Suiren, he bowed and presented a slip of paper. "Elder Shi, this is what you requested."

As Shi Suiren read the words on the paper, a flicker of emotion stirred in her eyes, which had remained calm and undisturbed for years. She withdrew her last remaining Spirit Stone from her sleeve and pressed it into the disciple's hand.

"Where?" she asked, her voice low and steady.

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An hour later, guided by an Outer Disciple, Shi Suiren landed her sword before the gates of a manor.

The great gate before her was black and rotten, its crevices stuffed with slimy filth. A breeze blowing over the courtyard wall brushed her cheek, carrying the damp scent of herbs.

"Medicine King Manor," Shi Suiren murmured. She sheathed her sword with a reverse motion, her phoenix eyes betraying no emotion.

She had heard of such places before. Though named Medicine King Manor, they were far from benevolent. They were filled with homeless children, most of whom had been sold into slavery at a young age. Day after day, they were forced to drink various medicinal concoctions. The herbs gradually accumulated within their bodies, and over time, the medicine would consume their physical forms, turning them into "medicine persons."

These cultivated medicine persons were typically bought by great noble families to serve as "supplements" for their cultivation. It was said that drinking their blood could prolong one's life and facilitate cultivation. Thus, although this practice had long been strictly forbidden by the cultivation world, people still sought it out, trading in secret.

The transmigrator had actually sold a mere five- or six-year-old girl to become a medicine person. How could they be so ruthless and cruel!

Fury seethed in Shi Suiren's heart. She struck without mercy, splitting the great gate asunder with a single sword blow. The thunderous crash drew the manor's guards. As she looked up, dozens of black-robed figures surged toward her like a tide. Yet before they could even draw near, they were sent flying into the air by a single gust of wind from Shi Suiren's sleeve.

"Overestimating yourself," Shi Suiren murmured softly. She lightly covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve and stepped over the shattered threshold.

Though the transmigrator had stripped her of half her cultivation, she had still been the Elder who commanded the Sword Pavilion of the Tianquan Sect. Dealing with a bunch of mere Foundation Establishment guards was child's play.

"You daring thief..." One of the guards who had been thrown aside refused to give up. He scrambled to his feet and charged at her, only to be seized by the collar by a sharp-eyed companion.

"You suicidal fool!" the companion hissed. "Can't you see her robes? That's the Tianquan Sect! How can we afford to provoke a proper sect? Run for your lives!"

These guards were mere mercenaries, hired for coin and unwilling to risk their lives. At those words, they abandoned all thought of fighting, dropped their weapons, and scattered in all directions, shouting in terror.

Shi Suiren thus entered the manor without hindrance. She hurried along the pebble-paved path, her heart growing heavier with every step. The thick scent of medicinal herbs clung to her nose, mingled with a foul stench that made her stomach churn.

Scattered whips and mottled bloodstains littered the path, a grim testament to the tragedy that had unfolded here before her arrival.

"Dao Origin Heavenly Law, Eternal Radiance in an Instant..." Shi Suiren frowned as she recited the heart mantra. Two fingers traced a path down her forehead, and a faint light rose from her brow, instantly dissolving into the clouds.

Her phoenix eyes closed, and the sound of a single water drop echoed from the southeastern region of her Sea of Consciousness. Shi Suiren's eyes snapped open, and her body vanished from the spot.

______________________________________

Shi Suiren had never seen a place so filthy and dark. She pressed her lips together and shivered, walking through the cave by the sliver of daylight filtering down from a crack in the ceiling. Dried feces and bloodstains littered the ground, forcing her to tread carefully to avoid soiling her robes.

The cave was a series of interconnected chambers, forever devoid of sunlight and covered in mold and moss. Countless straw mats were laid out along the sides. Some mats held emaciated, small figures; others were thick with dust, clearly abandoned for a long time.

They were all children, the oldest no more than fourteen or fifteen, the youngest only five or six. They didn't hide when they saw Shi Suiren, merely sleeping numbly or staring with open eyes.

They were like a group of living corpses.

"Xingxing? Gu Yaoxing?" Shi Suiren called her disciple's name softly, her heart tightening as she studied their faces.

Gu Yaoxing had been gone from her for seven years and was now eleven. Her face would have changed completely by now, and if she had truly been kept here for so long, it was uncertain if she was even alive.

Though she had carefully examined every face along the way, she soon reached the last cave. This one was colder and deeper, its ceiling gaping like a man-devouring maw. A sudden gust of wind from nowhere whipped her sleeve across her face, momentarily blocking her vision.

Just then, a dark shadow darted past her feet. A beast-like snarl ripped through the air as a spray of fresh blood splashed before her eyes. Shi Suiren's breath hitched.

At the same moment, two dark figures tumbled into her line of sight, locked in a savage struggle. Though both were frail and emaciated, they fought with a desperate ferocity, neither willing to yield an inch.

Before Shi Suiren could intervene, one of them gained the upper hand and knocked the other unconscious. Clearly driven by long-term starvation, the victor seized a blackened lump of food and scrambled toward a corner to escape.

Shi Suiren's heart tightened. She quickly unleashed her spiritual power to intercept the fleeing shadow. The figure stumbled, nearly falling, as the food rolled away into the darkness.

The spiritual power's glow illuminated her form: matted, filthy hair tangled in a knot at the back of her head, and layers of oversized, tattered clothes draped over her frame. Her exposed skin was so dark and gaunt it nearly blended into the shadows.

Though her features remained indistinct, her eyes shone with an extraordinary brightness, a mixture of panic and terror. The moment she saw Shi Suiren's face, that terror sharpened into a bone-chilling dread.

Despite their starkly different appearances, Shi Suiren caught a faint, almost imperceptible trace of familiarity. She held her breath and spoke tentatively.

"Xingxing?"

The girl didn't answer, but her increasingly trembling shoulders already proved she was Gu Yaoxing. Seeing her like this, Shi Suiren's heart filled with both horror and heartache.

"Xingxing, it's me." She softened her voice and slowly approached the girl. The girl, however, backed away in panic. With the hard stone wall behind her, she had nowhere to hide and could only crouch down, hugging her knees, as a continuous stream of whimpering pleas escaped her lips.

What kind of suffering had she endured to be so terrified of me? Shi Suiren didn't dare think further. Instead, she reached out to touch the girl's loose strands of hair. Unexpectedly, the girl, seized by terror, suddenly lunged forward and bit down.

Shi Suiren had let down her guard, and fearing that struggling away would hurt Gu Yaoxing, she remained still. She watched as a pair of canines sank into her flesh. As a sharp pain shot through her, blood flowed down her hand and dripped onto the ground.

The girl refused to let go, whimpers churning in her throat like a cornered animal. Beneath the messy long hair over her forehead, her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Don't be afraid," Shi Suiren said, her face pale as she patted the girl's back and soothed her softly. "Master is back."