Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The bell from the temple to the Celestial Tree stopped, leaving the depths of the small alley in silence.

The young lady quietly stood in front of the wooden gate, apparently in deep thought.

A low roar came from within the small courtyard. This voice was so low that it almost couldn't be heard, yet it was as clear as if it had come from right next to her ear. It was brimming with venom and curses, imbued with a naked rage. It was an extremely bizarre sound.

Several streams of black mist rushed out from the seams of the gate along with this roar.

But immediately after, this roar from the courtyard suddenly became a cry of fear.

The polluted black mist did not even dare to approach the young lady. It instantly drifted far away as if filled with dread. Occasionally, the wind would blow a few strands of black mist toward the young lady, where they would be burned into wisps of smoke by a golden flame.

At those moments, painful yowls would come from the small courtyard, like the whimpers of a dog.

The gate of the courtyard could not endure the clash of these two opposite Qis. It began to visibly decay, and then it slowly collapsed.

Upon walking into the courtyard, the young lady saw the neat pile of wood and froze.

She recalled that on her first visit to the Orthodox Academy, she had seen a neat pile of clothes in the wardrobe in Chen Changsheng's room.

The short pine growing near the wall of the courtyard had withered some time ago, making the remaining green mixed with brown all the more striking.

The white cobblestones bore ten-some black footprints, so small that they seemed to belong to a child.

The door to the house had decayed away and several streams of dark liquid were slowly dripping from the beams, giving off an unbearable stench.

The once-secluded small courtyard had now become a bizarre and frightening scene.

Behind the half-collapsed remains of the paper door were Bie Yanghong and Wuqiong Bi.

They leaned against the wall, their faces pale. They seemed almost dead, but they were still alive.

Just a few moments ago, they were about to be killed, even eaten, by Chusu, but then Chusu suddenly disappeared.

Nothing seemed to be happening in the small courtyard, but Bie Yanghong and Wuqiong Bi, as experts of the Divine Domain, could naturally see that a silent but dangerous battle was taking place within and without the courtyard.

When the golden flames rendered the black mist into wisps of gray smoke, Bie Yanghong knew who had come.

He glanced at Wuqiong Bi, finally relieved.

No matter how terrifying Chusu was, he would never be able to defeat the young lady.

Because the young lady was Xu Yourong.

Yes, the young lady standing in the courtyard was Xu Yourong.

On the shore of the Tong River, she received Chen Changsheng's letter, handed the White Crane over to him, and returned to Holy Maiden Peak.

At the time, no one knew what she would do next, not Ye Xiaolian, not Chen Changsheng, and not even herself.

She did not know why the first thing she did after returning to Holy Maiden Peak was convening the disciples and taking care of temple matters.

As she handled these matters, she knew what she needed to do, or perhaps what she wanted to do.

So handling became handing over. After handing over the affairs of the temple, she left Holy Maiden Peak.

The White Crane could fly extremely fast. Other than experts of the Divine Domain, no one could keep up with it.

She had left one day after Chen Changsheng, but she had arrived at White Emperor City at basically the same time.

Because she could also fly.

Just when she was prepared to go to the Imperial City, she suddenly sensed something, something that made her uncomfortable.

It was like if one were walking amongst a clean plain of grass, white as far as the eye could see, and suddenly saw a rotting corpse.

It was like if one had eaten until stuffed and then saw a plate of pork so cold that the oil was now a congealed white.

In short, it was an extremely unpleasant mental experience.

Her Dao heart was brightly lit, so she could sense it all the more clearly, found it all the more difficult to endure.

Thus, she tracked this feeling down to the end of this alley, where she smelled that stench.

To her surprise, when she entered the courtyard, she saw Wuqiong Bi and Bie Yanghong.

Chen Changsheng had no idea that a battle between the Divine had taken place over White Emperor City several days ago, and neither had she.

They had both been flying at the time.

Upon seeing Bie Yanghong and Wuqiong Bi, Xu Yourong quickly guessed at the truth of the matter.

Perhaps 'deduced' was the better word.

But she still did not find the person that made her extremely uncomfortable, extremely wary and uneasy.

There was someone that could hide from her eyes, was so skilled in concealment?

Xu Yourong did not speak to Bie Yanghong or Wuqiong Bi, nor did she enter the room.

She quietly stood in the courtyard, seemingly lost in thought.

A chilly wind came in from the alley.

Pine needles rustled down from the dead tree.

Her eyelashes trembled.

Suddenly, a spark landed on those needles.

With a boom, the pine needles began to fiercely blaze into a wall of fire.

This wall of fire began to spread, quickly surrounding the entire courtyard.

Innumerable flames began to rise from the ground, incessantly blazing between the white stones.

Xu Yourong calmly stood in the sea of fire.

Deep within the ground, a scream of absolute rage could be heard.

Crickcrack!

White stones were sent flying into an air as a figure was forced out of the ground by the flames.

It was a short and hunchbacked fellow, covered in a black robe and the awful stench of decay.

He was using the black robe to tightly cover his face, apparently extremely afraid of the flames. Only his two hands were showing, their surface covered in ugly scales and black fur. Their sharp claws were caked in filth and a few traces of decayed blood and flesh.

Grating screams of fury continuously rose from the black robe.

He waved his claws as if wanting to leap and tear Xu Yourong to pieces, yet he did not dare take a step forward.

Xu Yourong calmly gazed at him and asked, "You are Chusu?"

The furious screams from the black robe stopped, turning into a panting sound that could not be distinguished as crying or laughing.

Chusu was bitterly laughing, but he wanted more to cry.

He had never expected to meet this person in White Emperor City.

In Wenshui, Chen Changsheng had been accompanied by three Prefects of the Orthodoxy and Guan Feibai, but he had not been afraid. This was because he cultivated the secretive and treacherous art of the Yellow Springs and was also extremely skilled in hiding and escaping. Even if Zhexiu had enough strength to kill him, Nanke had enough speed to keep up with him, and even if someone like Qiushan Jun appeared, he had still been confident in his ability to evade capture.

No matter what he did, even if he could not succeed, he could still easily escape.

This was the case in Hanqiu City, in Wenshui, and when he confronted Xiao Zhang.

But he knew that he had a bane.

It was precisely the young lady within the sea of fire.

Xu Yourong was faster than him, and her brightly lit Dao heart made her impervious to his mental attacks.

More importantly, her temple sword could restrain his Yellow Springs art.

To put it another way, no matter how selfish and cruel he was, he had to engage in a hotheaded battle today.

Only this way would there be the slightest chance of victory.

With a rip, the back of the black robe tore open.

Accompanied by a putrid stench, a pair of gray, ugly, and fleshy wings unfurled from Chusu's back.

The white stones on the ground shrieked into the air and smashed at Xu Yourong.