Yue Xi sighed. "I can’t shake the feeling that the Holy Land is kind of pathetic."

The noblewoman said irritably, "Aren’t you from the Holy Land? Wait, we have an update. It’s a corpse."

Yue Xi asked curiously, "A corpse? Was he killed?"

"Yes, he was killed." The noblewoman frowned. "And the methods were rather unusual."

An ordinary-looking woman asked, "Was it done by the one who sent us the tip?"

’If nothing unexpected happened, then it must have been him.’

Yue Xi said, "I’ll ask him. I’ll ask about the secret weapon while I’m at it."

Xiao Xiaomo quickly received the message. She then tagged Po Xiao in the group chat: "@Po Xiao, Elder, the Holy Land is asking if you killed the Ghost Cultivator on the sixth floor."

"They also asked about the secret weapon."

"The secret weapon is the Heart-piercing Snake, right? Can I tell them?"

Jiang Zuo glanced at his phone, then replied.

Po Xiao: "Whatever."

Jiang Zuo couldn’t care less about such matters. As for what they planned to do with the Heart-piercing Snake, he didn’t care about that either.

He had only put the Heart-piercing Snake in the lake so it would vanish along with the Immortal Spirit Spring when it disappeared.

Leaving things like that in the world was just asking for trouble, and it wasn’t like he could raise it.

Meanwhile, Chi Xue Child had been dragged off by Liuyue Xue and Liu Yiyi to act as a doctor.

The others immediately began to meditate. They had just absorbed so many Eight Trigrams Colored Fish; it would be a waste not to refine the energy.

Although it was already quite late, as long as they didn’t leave the Sacrificial Space, it wasn’t a major issue.

Jiang Zuo, of course, had no need to meditate, as he hadn’t absorbed any Eight Trigrams Colored Fish.

The Eight Trigrams Colored Fish were of little help to him, but the geyser erupting from the Immortal Spirit Spring was quite beneficial. Unfortunately, it was far too conspicuous, no matter which floor he was on.

Besides, the Holy Land had forbidden anyone from approaching the geyser. Even if Jiang Zuo shrouded himself in the Mist, he would definitely be discovered, leading to a conflict that would inevitably spiral out of control.

Jiang Zuo shook his head.

Just then, Chu Qing approached Jiang Zuo. Due to his special constitution, it no longer mattered whether he meditated or not.

Advancing his Cultivation too quickly would do him no good.

Because if his sister found his head too hard to hammer, she would go on and on relentlessly.

So, Chu Qing planned to wait for his sister to advance to Tier Three before he advanced to Tier Two.

"Senior, may I ask you a question?" Chu Qing asked in a hushed voice.

Jiang Zuo didn’t respond, waiting for him to continue.

Seeing that Jiang Zuo hadn’t refused, Chu Qing stole a glance at his sister, then asked cautiously, "Is there any hope for my sister?"

Jiang Zuo: "..."

Jiang Zuo thought for a moment. He had a good idea of what Chu Qing was asking. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Chu Qing wanted to ask about his sister, Chu Qing’s, obsession with forging, but that was a difficult question for Jiang Zuo to answer.

He had been through it himself. Changing was practically impossible, unless some major event occurred.

An event of great joy or great sorrow. Or perhaps one day she would simply grow up and lose interest in smithing. Then she would recover on her own.

Chu Qing looked at Jiang Zuo expectantly. He felt that Elder Po Xiao knew everything and surely wouldn’t declare his sister a lost cause.

As long as there was a sliver of hope, he was willing to wait.

Yet, Jiang Zuo opened his mouth and said, "She’s a lost cause."

’There was no definitive answer to this question, but Jiang Zuo was giving an answer based on his own experience.’

’It had taken him an incredibly long time to recover back then. And for the being he was at that time, he had almost no concept of what "time" even was.’

’So, for even *him* to feel it was a long time, it must have been an eternity.’

’He remembered a thought he’d once had: to use heaven and earth as his furnace and all living beings as the core to forge a world-class Divine Artifact.’

’He failed. Then, Jiu Xi, who had been absent for ages, suddenly popped up to make her presence known, and after that, he began to come to his senses.’

’Thinking back on it now, he felt he must have been deranged—that his very intelligence had been compromised. How could mere living beings possibly be used to forge a world-class Divine Artifact? Most of the time, they were far too fragile.’

’Instead of forging that kind of Divine Artifact, one might as well forge a Daoist Divine Artifact.’

At that, Chu Qing asked, "Then... does that mean my life is ruined?"

Jiang Zuo nodded nonchalantly. "Yeah."

Chu Qing: "..."

His fragile little heart suffered a devastating blow.

’The Elder in the group chat had spoken. It seemed his sister really was a lost cause. And if his sister was a lost cause, then he was surely doomed as well.’

"I hear the college entrance exams are really stressful. I wonder if that will be enough to balance things out with my sister," Chu Qing muttered.

After that, Jiang Zuo leaned against a wall and went to sleep. It was nighttime, and even though it wasn’t dark here, Jiang Zuo had only just recovered and was still exhausted.

「By the time Jiang Zuo woke up, it was already the next morning.」

It was the second day of the sacrificial rite. Those who hadn’t been able to make it in time, due to the Holy Land’s abrupt start to the event, were now arriving in succession.

The situation with the ordinary people on the first and second floors had been completely resolved, and most of them had remained to continue fishing.

The Ghost Cultivation Marks in the lake had also been cleansed.

The Holy Land was now almost completely back to normal, with the exception of the sixth floor.

Yue Xi had come by to check on Jiang Zuo at some point. Seeing him sleeping soundly, however, she went off to attend to her own business. She even made a point of taking a picture of him.

What could she do? The girl who was obsessed with her husband wanted to see it, saying it was the only way she could truly feel at ease.

Yue Xi couldn’t understand it. ’What’s with all the pointless worrying? Doesn’t he still have the Protective Treasure on him? Even if something did happen, we’d be able to sense it.’

After Jiang Zuo woke up, the others also began to stir, though they were emerging from their Cultivation.

The result was that they looked exhausted. After all, not everyone could handle a full night of Cultivation.

For a Tier One, pulling an all-nighter like that offered few benefits and would instead leave them more tired. It was better for a Tier Two, no big deal for a Tier Three, and not a problem at all for anyone Tier Four or above.

At higher levels, a day truly consisted of twenty-four hours of activity; sleeping was a complete waste of life.

Just then, Mo Yan came running back from a distance. "Fishing has resumed on every floor, but the sixth floor is now off-limits."

She glanced at Jiang Zuo as she spoke, presumably thinking it was all because of the Heart-piercing Snake.

Jiang Zuo wasn’t bothered about not being able to go to the sixth floor. It was all the same to him, as long as he could catch one more Yin Yang Fish.

Chi Xue Child then asked, "So which floor should we go to? We’re already blacklisted on the second floor. If we go back, they’ll beat us to death."

Jiang Zuo said, "To the fifth floor."

With that, Jiang Zuo headed straight for the fifth floor.

Meanwhile, on the seventh floor, Jingyue and the others were waiting with desperate anticipation, but the Yin Yang Fish never came.

A whole day had passed. They always used to arrive before dawn, but now they had failed to appear.

Su Qi asked, "Senior Sister, aren’t you going to tell Master?"

Jingyue said, "I did. It’s just that something happened outside. They said they’ll come help us after it’s handled. To be blunt, that just means they don’t know what’s going on either. They’re just stalling for time, hoping we can sort it out ourselves."

"Then does Master have a video? A photo would be fine too. Of my husband," Su Qi asked immediately.

"Hold on, let me check... Er, she actually sent a photo."

"Quick, let me see!" Su Qi said excitedly.

Jingyue shook her head. "I can’t. The photo is too large, it won’t go through. Man, the transfer function here is terrible."

Su Qi: "..."

’Is she messing with me?’