Only now did Elder Chen realize, far too late, just what Lin Xuanwei intended to do.

Immense, suffocating terror shattered her mental defenses.

“No! Don’t Soul Search me! Spare me, I beg you!” she shrieked, her voice cracking. “What do you want to know? I can tell you! I’ll tell you everything!”

Lin Xuanwei’s gaze remained glacial. He looked down at Elder Chen’s face—twisted into a mask of excruciating pain and abject fear—as if he were a god looking down at a frantic ant.

Slowly, deliberately, he raised his right hand.

His index finger extended, the tip gently tapping against the center of Elder Chen’s forehead.

“Unnecessary.”

A faint, almost inaudible pop echoed in the silence.

The light in Elder Chen’s eyes was instantly snuffed out. The terror, the pleading, the agony—it all froze on her face as her life force was severed.

She slumped to the floor, a lifeless husk.

A deathly silence descended upon the quiet room, heavy and oppressive. The thick, metallic scent of blood began to permeate the air.

Lin Xuanwei turned around. His indifferent gaze fell upon the two sisters, Lu Shu and Lu Yao.

Feeling the weight of his attention, both women stiffened simultaneously, trembling uncontrollably.

He walked over to Lu Shu first. His voice was flat, devoid of any fluctuation. “I could kill you. But I won’t.”

Lu Shu’s body shuddered. She raised her head, her eyes swimming with a mixture of terror and gratitude. She knew the truth—it was that one insignificant shred of goodwill she had shown him earlier that had saved her life.

Had she not spoken up for him then, she would be a cold corpse on the floor right now.

“However, as you can see,” Lin Xuanwei continued, “the Guiyuan Sect is no longer a place you can stay. I will allow you to leave. Go wherever you wish.”

A flicker of hope sparked in Lu Shu’s eyes, but it dimmed just as quickly.

“I… I can’t leave the Guiyuan Sect,” she whispered bitterly. “I have… on my body…”

“I know,” Lin Xuanwei interrupted. “Your master is Hu Yanqing. And you and your sister are his Cultivation Furnaces.”

He looked at her calmly. “I can remove the [Devouring Origin Curse] he planted in you.”

“What?”

Lu Shu and Lu Yao cried out in unison. A light of pure disbelief exploded in their eyes.

“Really?” Lu Shu’s voice trembled violently.

Lin Xuanwei nodded.

“Good!” Lu Shu’s eyes filled with sudden, desperate resolve. “As long as you can remove this curse mark, I will leave the Guiyuan Sect immediately. I will never return!”

Lin Xuanwei’s gaze shifted to the side, landing on Lu Yao.

Meeting those cold, dead eyes, Lu Yao shuddered. She desperately forced a cute, pitiable smile onto her face, her voice dripping with a sickening mix of flattery and fear.

“B-Brother Xuanwei… actually, I wanted to save you earlier too! Really! It’s just… Ouyang Chen and Elder Chen were too powerful. I… I couldn’t do anything! I was forced!”

Lin Xuanwei’s eyes held no warmth. “The only reason you are still breathing is out of consideration for your sister.”

Lu Yao felt her scalp tingle under his stare. Panic rose in her throat. She hurriedly stammered, “I… I can also leave the Guiyuan Sect! I’ll go with my sister! I promise—”

“No. It’s not that simple.”

Lin Xuanwei flipped his palm.

A pitch-black pill appeared in his hand. On its surface, countless tiny black runes writhed and twisted like living worms.

“Eat it.”

He extended the pill toward Lu Yao, his tone brooking no argument. “I want you to return to the Guiyuan Sect. You will do some things for me.”

Lu Yao stared at the black pill. It emitted an eerie, ominous aura. Her throat bobbed involuntarily as she swallowed hard. She thought of her master, Hu Yanqing, and his twisted, perverse methods. Her body began to shake.

“Brother Xuanwei… I… I can serve you…” She tried to struggle, her voice turning tearful and seductive. “I know many techniques… really… If I go back, Master will definitely suspect something! He’ll kill me!”

Lin Xuanwei’s expression remained stone. “Swallow it, or die right now.”

Lu Yao looked into his utterly emotionless eyes, then glanced at the cooling corpses of Elder Chen and the others scattered across the floor. She had no doubt—if she hesitated for even a second longer, she would follow in their footsteps.

Trembling, she reached out. Her fingertips were icy cold.

It took all her strength just to pick up the black pill. As soon as it touched her skin, a bone-piercing chill shot up her arm.

She squeezed her eyes shut and shoved the pill into her mouth.

The pill dissolved instantly.

It didn’t feel like medicine; it felt like swallowing a mouthful of liquid nitrogen. It transformed into thousands of icy needles, surging through her meridians and burrowing into her bones.

Intense, screaming agony swept through her entire body in a heartbeat.

“Ahhh!!!”

Lu Yao let out a shrill, blood-curdling scream. She curled up on the ground, her body convulsing violently. Cold sweat instantly soaked through her robes.

Beside her, Lu Shu couldn’t bear it. “Senior, my sister, she…”

“Don’t worry, she won’t die,” Lin Xuanwei said indifferently. “As long as she does her job well, I will grant her freedom.”

It took a long time for the agony to recede like a tide.

Lu Yao lay limp on the floor, gasping for breath, her face as pale as paper. The look she gave Lin Xuanwei was now filled with bone-deep terror.

Only then did Lin Xuanwei reveal a faint smile. “Good. You’ve completed the first step.”

He crouched down, leaning close to Lu Yao’s ear. His voice was low, commanding, and dangerous.

“Next, do exactly as I say…”

He whispered a few instructions. As Lu Yao listened, her body couldn’t stop trembling.

After delivering his orders, Lin Xuanwei stood up. He paused, as if remembering something trivial.

“Oh, right. You can try asking your master for help, or find someone else to detoxify it.”

He looked down into Lu Yao’s terrified eyes. “However, I suggest you consider the consequences privately before you try anything stupid.”

The two women left, utterly dispirited.

Only when they were gone did the icy mask on Lin Xuanwei’s face fade, replaced by a deep, profound calm. He walked over to Elder Chen’s still-warm corpse.

“Bind.”

He lightly spat a single word.

An extremely faint wisp of spiritual consciousness was forcibly extracted from the corpse, swirling into his hand before being sealed inside a jade vial.

“This way, her Soul Lamp won’t extinguish for a while.”

He needed Elder Chen’s status to appear normal to avoid alerting the Guiyuan Sect’s higher-ups too early.

Next, he flicked his finger.

A spark of spiritual fire landed on the corpse. It burned silently, without smoke or smell. Within moments, the body was reduced to nothingness, not even a trace of ash remaining.

After handling everything, Lin Xuanwei finally let out a sigh of relief.

He wiped his hand over his face. The disguise melted away, revealing a handsome, steady visage.

It was Zhang Xian.

Six months ago, his System had successfully upgraded. Zhang Xian had immediately ‘gifted’ a massive wave of resources, triggering a windfall of returns. He had obtained so many Top Grade Spirit Treasures and Heaven Grade Techniques that his hands practically went soft from counting them.

However, his cultivation base remained at the peak of the Golden Core realm.

While the System’s upgrade removed the restriction on using high-level items, his own limitations meant he couldn’t fully unleash the potential of Top Grade artifacts yet.

But even so, facing Elder Chen—a cultivator at the second level of the Nascent Soul stage—he could still insta-kill her.

Money really was the greatest superpower.

Six months ago, Zhang Xian had piloted his upgraded flying vessel, spending a full three months to reach the Central Continent headquarters of the Heavenly Abyss Alliance.

Upon arrival, he found Xia Chengyan on the verge of death. Without hesitation, Zhang Xian had pulled out a [Primordial Creation Pill], dragging the prince back from the gates of hell.

during that time, Zhang Xian had gained a comprehensive understanding of the situation in the Central Continent and the wider cultivation world, both from Xia Chengyan and the Alliance’s intelligence network.

The world was divided into five regions: the Central Continent, the Eastern Sea, the Southern Region, the Western Region, and the Northern Ridge.

The Central Continent was the strongest, possessing the deepest foundations—the true heart of the cultivation world. The other four regions were roughly equal in strength.

However, the Western Region had already fallen.

[Hatred].

It spread like a plague. In just a few short years, it had swept through the entire Western Region. Countless cultivators were infected, their minds erased, turning them into maddened demons that knew only slaughter.

The flames of war had already reached the western borders of the Central Continent.

The Heavenly Abyss Alliance headquarters was located precisely on that frontier. They were the first line of defense, bearing the brunt of the assault and enduring immense, crushing pressure.