Zhou Kai’s Divine Sense swept into the Storage Bag, scanning its contents.

Two sets of Array Discs emitting a faint blue glow and several Array Flags lay quietly inside—the control artifacts for the island’s defenses. Beside them rested a Jade Slip labeled “Array Control Formula.”

Deeper within, he found a trove: piles of Spirit Stones, bottles of high-grade pills, booklets on cultivation techniques, and a thick stack of ancient texts inscribed with “Golden Copper Lin Family Array Treasure Compendium.”

It was a staggering fortune. The foundation of an array lineage family was truly deep.

Zhou Kai retrieved the control artifacts and injected a stream of Spirit Qi.

Buzz.

The Array Discs hummed. The air around them rippled like water, peeling back the veil of invisibility to reveal complex geometric patterns of light hanging in the sky.

“There really is a grand array set up! And not just one!”

He formed a series of hand seals and chanted softly. “Retract!”

The Entrapment Array and Killing Array surrounding the forest clearing flickered, then slowly dissolved into motes of light.

Chen Ziyi watched quietly, understanding dawning in her eyes.

Zhou Kai pondered the weight of this gift. What kind of loyalty could inspire an old servant to take his own life just to pave a path for his mistress? In a world where cultivators would stab their own mothers for a Spirit Stone, Uncle Sun was as rare as a phoenix feather.

He put away the artifacts and turned to Chen Ziyi.

“This place isn’t safe. Let’s go to the lake island and check on the Lin family’s young master.”

The elegant bamboo building on the island remained unchanged, but the backyard carried an eerie, suffocating stillness.

Inside a quiet room, Zhou Kai and Chen Ziyi found Lin Zhiyuan.

The young man, bearing a striking resemblance to Lin Zhiwei, was bound to a wide wooden chair with specialized chains. His eyes were wide but vacant, drool pooling at the corner of his mouth. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.

Strangely, his complexion was flushed with an unnatural, feverish vitality.

“This…” Chen Ziyi covered her mouth, distressed by the sight.

Zhou Kai frowned.

Logically, a body deprived of a complete soul should wither rapidly. Lin Zhiyuan was clearly being sustained by potent life-force treasures, force-fed to him like coal into a dying furnace.

Zhou Kai attempted to probe Lin Zhiyuan’s Consciousness Sea with his Divine Sense.

Bang.

His mental probe hit an invisible wall. He couldn’t extend his senses beyond his own skin.

“Hmm?”

Zhou Kai realized instantly. The entire backyard was enveloped in a high-level Soul Locking Array, designed to slow the dissipation of the remnant soul while blocking external interference.

He leaned close to Chen Ziyi. “I’ll take care of Brother Lin until Lin Zhiwei emerges. Don’t dwell on it. For Uncle Sun… death might have been a release.”

Chen Ziyi nodded, leaning into his warmth.

Time flowed like water. Over a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Kai and Chen Ziyi never left the island.

Days were spent refining pills, cultivating, and monitoring the vegetable-like Lin Zhiyuan. Zhou Kai also dove into Uncle Sun’s legacy, discovering a gem among the texts: a Divine Sense cultivation technique called the [Mirror Lake Clear Heart Method].

After weeks of practice, his stats updated:

[Divine Sense: 797]

Meanwhile, Chen Ziyi fully mastered the [Roaming Dragon White Jade Body]. Her muscular frame softened completely, returning to her original, devastatingly feminine curves—only now, her flesh possessed the toughness of refined jade.

One day, the door to the bamboo building’s seclusion room creaked open.

Lin Zhiwei emerged. She looked pale and fatigued.

“Where is Uncle Sun?”

Her gaze swept the courtyard, searching for the familiar hunchbacked figure. When she found only empty air, panic flickered in her eyes.

Zhou Kai and Chen Ziyi were waiting.

Chen Ziyi stepped forward, taking Lin Zhiwei’s cold hands in hers. “Sister Lin, please stay calm.”

Zhou Kai decided to stick to the partial truth. He looked at Lin Zhiwei calmly.

“A month ago, the Fu family found us. They clashed with Uncle Sun in the forest. Uncle Sun fought desperately and killed two of their scouts… but he succumbed to his injuries. Before he passed, he signed a Spirit Contract with us, entrusting you to our care.”

He produced the contract, glowing with the blood of three people.

“Uncle Sun… he…”

Lin Zhiwei swayed, her face draining of color. But she didn’t scream or faint. She stood there, frozen, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

She looked at Zhou Kai, her eyes filled with a terrifying emptiness.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou… what do I do now?”

Zhou Kai countered with a question. “How much longer can your brother hold on?”

Lin Zhiwei lowered her gaze. “At most… another month and a half.”

“In that case,” Zhou Kai said firmly, “we stay here. We accompany Brother Lin on his final journey.”

“And then?” she asked instantly.

Zhou Kai looked her in the eye. “Then, you follow me.”

She stared at him blankly, processing the command. After a long silence, she whispered, “Mm.”

Another month and a half slipped away.

Chen Ziyi spent every day with Lin Zhiwei, talking to her, distracting her. The relationship warmed rapidly, and Ziyi began calling her “Sister Lin.”

Privately, Chen Ziyi confided in Zhou Kai with a mix of amusement and pity.

“Husband, Sister Lin is… helpless. Even for lunch, or sleeping, she asks ‘what do I do?’ It seems without guidance, she ceases to function.”

Zhou Kai had noticed. Without Uncle Sun—her backbone—Lin Zhiwei had reverted to a lost child. She was brilliant with arrays but functionally useless at life.

One morning, the inevitable arrived.

Lin Zhiyuan lay on his bed, his chest still. The unnatural flush had faded, leaving him looking peaceful, as if in a deep sleep. The last male descendant of the Lin family was gone.

The three of them buried him in a scenic cave on the island, right next to a fresh grave—Uncle Sun’s.

Dusk approached, painting the sky in hues of blood and gold.

The setting sun cast long shadows over Lin Zhiwei’s slender shoulders as she stared at the twin graves. Finally, she turned to Zhou Kai.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou… what do we do next?”

Again with the question.

“This place isn’t safe,” Zhou Kai said. “The Fu family will investigate eventually. We must erase all traces.”

Lin Zhiwei nodded. She formed a series of hand seals, activating the island’s self-destruct mechanism.

Rumble!

The ground shook violently. Runes lit up the earth, surging with destructive energy.

Gales howled, tearing through the bamboo grove. The elegant buildings collapsed into dust, ground to powder by the very arrays that had protected them.

Within the time it took to burn an incense stick, the lush paradise was reduced to a desolate, rocky shoal. Only the spot where the three stood remained untouched.

Lin Zhiwei looked at Zhou Kai. “Then what?”

“Then,” Zhou Kai said, looking toward the horizon, “we go to Crouching Tiger Mountain.”

He checked his status panel one last time.

[Zhou Kai] [Cultivation: Qi Condensation Fourth Layer (96/400)] [Vitality: Meridian Opening Ninth Layer (460/1350)] [Divine Sense: 970]

My Cicada Shell is complete. My Vitality is monstrous. It’s time to settle things with Chen Xingze.

Under the cover of a moonless night, three figures sped away from the ruined island like ghosts.

They traveled for a full day and night without rest, navigating increasingly complex terrain as the forest grew dense.

Seeing that Zhou Kai and Chen Ziyi were tiring, Lin Zhiwei stopped. She hesitated, then pulled something from her Storage Bag.

It was a palm-sized boat carved from emerald jade, glowing with soft light.

She held it out to Zhou Kai, her eyes asking for permission.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou… can we use this?”

Zhou Kai’s eyes widened.

A Flight Artifact! And judging by the fluctuations… a high-grade one!