Squelch.

Gu Xiu withdrew his blade from the chest of a White Qilin Sect Golden Core. The body slumped to the deck, joining a gruesome heap of the fallen. Behind him, the corridor was paved with mountains of corpses and painted with seas of blood.

Gu Xiu slowly raised his head, his gaze landing on the last four survivors.

The Golden Core experts trembled violently. Their wills shattered.

“Run… Run!”

“He’s a devil! A demon!”

“I don’t want to die here! Get me out of here!”

At this moment, courage was a distant memory. Gu Xiu’s figure—bathed in blood, calm as a millpond—was branded into their souls like a nightmare. He was terror incarnate. To fight him was not bravery; it was suicide.

When they had breached the formation, they thought they were tigers entering a flock of sheep. They expected a slaughter.

They just didn’t expect to be the sheep.

They had walked willingly into a tiger’s mouth, and now the jaws were snapping shut.

The four survivors scrambled toward the breach, clawing at the shimmering barrier of the defensive array.

” The formation is blocking the way!”

“Open it! Open the damn formation!”

“Save us! Elder, save us!”

The airship’s defensive array had been active the entire time. They had only entered because the experts outside had used a siege weapon to punch a temporary hole. Now, from the inside, that same shield was an impenetrable wall sealing their doom.

However, their desperate screams finally drew the attention of the experts hovering outside.

Scanning the interior of the ship with their spiritual sense, the expressions of the White Qilin Sect elders turned to horror.

“What is happening?”

“Why… why are all our people dead?”

It was inconceivable. They had assumed their strike team was currently massacring the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion disciples and seizing the legacy. They never imagined looking inside to find a charnel house.

High above, the Soul Formation expert who had been overseeing the battle—Chi Mingfei—narrowed his eyes. His gaze, sharp as lightning, pierced through the chaos to lock onto the man holding the ink-black Shadow Chasing Sword.

At that exact moment, Gu Xiu sensed the gaze and looked up.

Their eyes met.

Gu Xiu’s expression was flat, rippling like a deep, dark well.

Chi Mingfei, however, reacted as if he had seen a ghost.

Whoosh!

His protective Spiritual Qi erupted instinctively, covering his entire body in a thick barrier. He didn’t stop there. The mighty Soul Formation expert retreated several zhang in an instant, putting distance between himself and the ship, his eyes wide with vigilance.

This terrified reaction stunned everyone present.

“Uh… what is the situation?”

“Did a Soul Formation expert just get scared off by a single look?”

“Is that even reasonable?”

Wan Xiaobei was equally confused, but her mind worked fast. Her eyes lit up as a theory formed.

“Guest Elder Feng!” she whispered urgently. “That White Qilin expert can’t see through your cultivation! He thinks you’re a hidden master of the same rank!”

“We need to stall for time. The Pavilion’s reinforcements should be here any minute!”

The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion disciples nearby nodded in agreement. It made perfect sense. Why else would a Soul Formation expert retreat?

Sure enough, Chi Mingfei stared fixedly at Gu Xiu, his voice tight. “That face… it is not yours. You are using a disguise?”

“How can you tell?” Gu Xiu asked calmly.

“The eyes!” Chi Mingfei gritted his teeth. “I would recognize those eyes even if you turned to ashes!”

Gu Xiu raised an eyebrow.

It had been over five hundred years. Chi Mingfei had ascended to the Soul Formation realm, yet he still held such a grudge?

Wan Xiaobei, misinterpreting Gu Xiu’s silence as hesitation, nudged him frantically.

“Guest Elder, don’t panic! I was right!” she hissed. “He definitely mistook you for someone else! Just pretend to be his old acquaintance! Bluff him! We only need to stall for one stick of incense!”

Gu Xiu blinked, glancing at the girl beside him. Pretend to be his acquaintance?

“The White Qilin Sect has declined,” Wan Xiaobei analyzed rapidly. “Besides their dying Sect Leader, the only Soul Formation expert left is the Sect Leader’s personal disciple, Chi Mingfei. This must be him! He mistook you for someone, but we don’t know who yet…”

“Are you going to keep up the disguise?”

Before Wan Xiaobei could finish her coaching, Chi Mingfei roared a name that shook the heavens.

“GU XIU!”

Gu Xiu???

A man’s name is like the shadow of a great tree.

As soon as those two syllables were spoken, silence descended. Every cultivator from the White Qilin Sect and every disciple of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion froze, their heads snapping toward the man in the bamboo hat.

He… is Gu Xiu?

The Azure Mystic Sword Immortal?

Wan Xiaobei’s jaw dropped. But a split second later, her eyes shined with terrifying intensity. She grabbed Gu Xiu’s sleeve.

“He thinks you’re the Sword Immortal! He thinks you’re the Gu Xiu I admire! Quick, Guest Elder, pretend to be Gu Xiu! Scare him to death!”

Ah, this…

You want me to pretend to be myself?

Gu Xiu gave Wan Xiaobei a strange look. Finally, he withdrew his gaze, took a step forward, and looked up at the hovering expert.

“Chi Mingfei,” Gu Xiu said softly. “Long time no see.”

“It really is you?” Chi Mingfei’s eyelids twitched violently.

Gu Xiu nodded. “It is me.”

“Then why do you wear that face?”

“In youth, one abandons the gilded crown; in age, one rests among the pines and clouds,” Gu Xiu quoted softly, shaking his head. “What does it matter if I change my face?”

Chi Mingfei frowned. “You aren’t staying in your Azure Mystic Sacred Land? Why run here to mix with merchants?”

“Is it not allowed?” Wan Xiaobei interjected boldly, chest puffed out. “The Azure Mystic Sword Immortal is an honored guest of our Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion! He is our eternal friend!”

Chi Mingfei fell silent, his expression darkening.

Wan Xiaobei’s heart hammered in her chest. She was terrified of being exposed. If Chi Mingfei realized “Feng Bugui” wasn’t actually the legendary Gu Xiu, a Soul Formation expert’s rage would vaporize their ship in seconds.

But Chi Mingfei didn’t seem to doubt. Instead… his hand clenched.

A long, glowing spirit whip materialized in his grip.

“Gu Xiu!” Chi Mingfei pursed his lips. “I didn’t expect to see you here. But since fate has brought us together… I want to challenge you!”

Wan Xiaobei’s heart sank to her stomach.

It’s over! The act is too good!

Gu Xiu’s expression remained placid. He looked deeply at Chi Mingfei. “Are you sure?”

“I…” Chi Mingfei hesitated, the trauma of the past flickering in his eyes. Then he gritted his teeth. “Of course I am sure! When we explored the Falling Rain Valley centuries ago, I was no match for you. But I always believed that one day, I would defeat you!”

“And you think you can defeat Senior Gu Xiu now?” Wan Xiaobei challenged, trying to bluff him down.

“At the very least,” Chi Mingfei said, tightening his grip on the whip, “I want to see how big the gap between us still is!”

Crack!

Chi Mingfei flicked his wrist. The long whip lashed out, shattering the void and leaving fractured shadows in the air. His eyes blazed with fighting spirit.

“Gu Xiu!”

“Do you dare accept my challenge?!”

His voice carried the overwhelming momentum of a Soul Formation expert, pressing down on the ship like a physical weight. The disciples gasped, knees buckling under the pressure.

Wan Xiaobei groaned internally. The support hadn’t arrived. She thought impersonating a legend would scare the enemy off, but instead, it had provoked a duel!

What now?

While Wan Xiaobei racked her brain for a solution, Gu Xiu was already preparing to step forward.

He lifted his foot.

“Chi Mingfei!”

A thunderous voice rolled in from the horizon, dripping with arrogance and boundless power.

“What kind of nobody are you to think you’re qualified to challenge my lifelong rival?”

Chi Mingfei frowned instantly, his gaze snapping toward the south.

A man in black robes with wild black hair was walking through the sky. He didn’t fly; he stepped on the air as if it were solid ground. With each step, Dao runes bloomed beneath his boots, resonating with the laws of the world.

He carried an aura of absolute invincibility. It was like watching a mountain range uproot itself and walk.

Seeing this arrival, Gu Xiu paused, a strange expression crossing his face. He quietly lowered his foot.

Chi Mingfei ignored Gu Xiu now. He stared coldly at the uninvited guest, spitting out a name through gritted teeth.

“Lu Dongshan!”

The arrival was none other than Lu Dongshan.

The man who had cultivated the Invincible Dao Heart, only to bind himself for five hundred years because he dared not draw his sword against Gu Xiu. The man who had recently plotted a heaven-shaking scheme to receive Gu Xiu’s “Immortal’s Head Pat,” achieving Soul Formation in a single day and returning to the ranks of the supreme.

Now, he no longer hid in the shadows. He showed his true face, radiating the same pride as the peerless prodigy of five hundred years ago.

In three steps, he crossed the horizon and stood before the airship. He glanced disdainfully at the crowd, then sneered at Chi Mingfei.

“Kid, your luck is decent. You blindly rob a ship and stumble upon my fated rival?”

“Lu Dongshan,” Chi Mingfei warned, “this is between me and Gu Xiu. Are you going to meddle?”

Even when Lu Dongshan was at the peak of Nascent Soul, he was a monster. Now that he had reached Soul Formation, even a veteran like Chi Mingfei felt suffocating pressure rolling off him.

“Meddle?”

Lu Dongshan curled his lip, a dangerous smile playing on his face.

“There is an order to all things. Gu Xiu is my fated rival. He has reappeared after five hundred years.”

Lu Dongshan took a step forward, his aura crashing against Chi Mingfei’s.

“What gives you the right to be the first to challenge him?”

“You…”

“Are you worthy?”