Moon Tower.

Above the vast, white sea of fog, rows of pure white Moon Towers suddenly began to glow with a faint, silvery light.

The top of every Moon Tower lit up like a lightbulb, shining with a distinct silver radiance.

On the tallest Moon Tower in Extreme Desire Heaven, the one with a top like a mushroom cap.

Inside the main hall, long, drawn-out figures appeared one after another in mid-air.

"Who’s in trouble?!"

"Whose distress signal was that?!"

"We’re all here! It must have come from the Taixu Origin Disk side!"

All eight figures materialized. Once they confirmed everyone was present, the Elders of Extreme Desire Heaven breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"How many years has it been... How many years since an Elder has fallen... Why now, of all times!"

"Besides the Hongyin Empire, no one has this kind of power! We must go to war! If they can kill one Elder today, they can kill all of us tomorrow! We must retaliate!"

"I agree! But we need to determine what exactly happened. Contact the Taixu Origin Disk."

"Silence."

Amidst the many voices, a cold, male voice overpowered the other seven, instantly calming the hall.

All the Elders turned to look at the figure floating highest in the air.

This was the First Elder of Extreme Desire Heaven, the eldest son of the Fog People—Ning Qianzhi.

"I’ve already contacted the Taixu Origin Disk. Their reply is... the one who fell was the Eighth Elder, Han Sanmian," Ning Qianzhi responded, his voice frigid.

Han Sanmian...

Everyone fell quiet for a moment. Although the Elders, as Blood Ancestors, were incomparably powerful and glamorous figures to the outside world, they still had their own internal hierarchy and power levels.

Han Sanmian was one of the "civilian" Elders, not part of the combat sequence. He was also a Blood Ancestor dispatched from the Federation, not a local. It was known that not all Blood Ancestors within the Taixu Origin Disk were dispatched from outside; some were of local origin.

Everyone had a rough estimate of Han Sanmian’s strength in their minds; among the Blood Ancestors, he was likely third-tier.

The Blood Ancestors as a whole were divided into three tiers. The first tier consisted of eldest sons of the Fog People, like Ning Qianzhi. The first child born to a Fog Person always inherited the most talent and power. Furthermore, due to their close ties, they also received the greatest support, resources, and authority.

Over the course of nearly ten thousand years, the power of a Blood Ancestor like Ning Qianzhi would naturally become terrifyingly immense.

"They couldn’t identify the killer either. However, because Elder Han Sanmian fell too quickly—less than an hour passed between him leaving the Moon Tower and his death—they deduced that the only one with such power must be a Marshal of the Hongyin Empire," Ning Qianzhi said.

"Can they pinpoint the location of the power fluctuation? It was such a short time, it should still be within surveillance range," an Elder asked.

"No. Before Elder Han left, he had his subordinate block the surveillance for a short while," Ning Qianzhi replied.

At these words, the others fell even deeper into silence.

"Since Hong Yin has made such a vicious move, I will now request a war order from Mother," Ning Qianzhi said coldly.

"Could it be that this is exactly what Hong Yin wants?" an Elder suddenly whispered.

...

...

The rest remained silent.

It was as if their righteous indignation from moments before had been a mere illusion.

"Fools!" Ning Qianzhi’s voice held a trace of anger. "Those willing to fight, mobilize with me in thirty seconds! We will meet Hong Yin head-on!"

With that, he paid no more heed to their reactions and simply vanished.

*

*

*

Fog Area.

THWUMP.

A corpse riddled with thousands of holes plummeted from mid-air, slamming heavily into the sand and sinking into it.

In the sky, the swirling mist slowly dissipated.

The terrifying, fate-like pressure vanished along with it.

Lin Hui slowly descended from the sky, landing lightly on the balls of his feet.

Looking at the corpse on the ground, he walked over, bent down, and gently pinched a tiny, colorful crystal fragment.

But the next moment, with a CRACK, the crystal shattered into countless colorful specks of dust and vanished completely.

A trace of helplessness flashed in Lin Hui’s eyes.

’The Wind Calamity’s power is strong, alright, but it’s too strong,’ he thought. ’Once I use it, there’s no holding back.’

’Its tyrannical power to decompose everything instantly reduces all things to their most primitive form.’

PAT. PAT.

Behind him, two more soft sounds marked the arrival of two figures landing and steadying themselves.

Master Yunxia and Han Xiaoyue had returned together and were approaching him.

Master Yunxia gulped, her eyes darting from Han Sanmian’s body on the ground to Lin Hui’s back.

’Although I’d long suspected his true strength was absolutely terrifying, I never imagined that even an Elder, a Blood Ancestor, could die at his hands...’

’Even if he wasn’t a combat-type Blood Ancestor, he was still a Blood Ancestor!’

’It had been at least several hundred years. In the hundreds of years she had been active in Tuyue, a Blood Ancestor had never fallen!’

’And now, such a legendary event had happened right before her eyes. She had witnessed the whole thing, and even participated a little...’

"Daoist Master..." Master Yunxia wanted to ask something, but found her voice was inexplicably hoarse.

"What should we do now?" she continued. "The fall of a Blood Ancestor is an absolutely massive event for any city. What’s sure to follow is a large-scale manhunt and wanted posters. But considering the special circumstances right now, I’m guessing the Moon Tower is very likely to pin this on the Hongyin Empire."

"Is that so? Then I guess I’m pretty lucky," Lin Hui said, turning around. The Qingyuan Body covering him slowly faded, and the three golden characters floating behind him also vanished.

"But no matter what, the Moon Tower will definitely raise hell over this. They might use some of the special treasures and relics from their vaults to investigate and locate you. Daoist Master, you must be careful!" she said in a low, serious voice.

’I thought I had hidden my true strength well enough, but it looks like the Daoist Master is on another level... Even the deep-sea leviathans at the bottom of the Jade Sea don’t hide as much as he does.’

"It’s fine. There are only the three of us here, and I trust you," Lin Hui said with a small smile. His gaze, however, fell on Han Xiaoyue.

Han Xiaoyue was silent for a moment and was just about to speak.

Suddenly, she paused, realizing that after her transformation, her clothes had been torn to shreds. She was completely naked.

"Let’s find a place to rest and reorganize first," she suggested.

"Alright," Lin Hui nodded.

Han Xiaoyue’s expression was complicated. She had never expected this. She had only casually chosen a pretend fiancé to deal with the annoying troubles of a false identity.

’She thought she had hidden her secrets deep enough, but it turned out the other one was hidden even deeper than the Jade Sea she had seen...’

’The world is full of unpredictable turns. Perhaps this was a perfect example...’

Noticing Lin Hui’s gaze on her, an idea suddenly sparked in Han Xiaoyue’s mind.

"You saw it, didn’t you?" she asked softly.

"Saw what?" Lin Hui raised an eyebrow.

"My true form," Han Xiaoyue said. "Are you afraid?"

"Do you think I should be?" Lin Hui retorted.

"..." Han Xiaoyue fell silent. ’Right,’ she thought. ’A terrifying guy who can chop a Blood Ancestor to death this quickly... if anyone should be afraid, it isn’t him...’

"Alright, alright, we should probably get out of here first. Or how about the three of us find a place and have some babies together? I know a great spot..."

THWAP!

A thick, black tentacle shot out and wrapped viciously around Master Yunxia’s head, silencing her instantly.

The tentacle, extending from behind Han Xiaoyue, was covered in small suction cups and faintly emanated a subtle black aura in mid-air.

"If you don’t know how to talk, you can just not talk," Han Xiaoyue said with a gentle smile.

Lin Hui shook his head and turned to head back toward the Lin Mansion’s convoy.

"Let’s go."

"Since it’s over, I’ll be heading back too," Han Xiaoyue said softly. "I originally thought you might need help, so I rushed over..."

"Thanks," Lin Hui replied, looking back at her. "I owe you one for this. If you need anything in the future, you can find me here."

With a flick of his hand, a flat piece of white stone shot out, spinning through the air. Han Xiaoyue caught it with precision.

She glanced down. The stone was about the size of her palm, and on it was an extremely abstract and crude stick-figure drawing.

’Is this... supposed to be a map?’ she wondered.

A few question marks popped into her head. She wanted to ask something more, but when she looked up, Lin Hui and Master Yunxia were already gone.

She retracted her tentacle, sighed softly, and turned to look at Han Sanmian’s corpse on the ground.

SHHIIING!

Several thick tentacles shot out from beneath her, wrapped around Han Sanmian, and abruptly retracted.

The next moment, Han Xiaoyue’s figure also vanished into the fog.

*

*

*

The Lin Family convoy moved slowly through the Fog Area.

After Lin Hui had taken over the battle and dealt with all the pursuers, they had immediately followed their prior arrangements and headed deeper into the Fog Area.

Within the convoy, apart from the occasional low growls and footsteps of the livestock, there was almost no human sound to be heard.

Everyone was still replaying the recent events in their minds.

The people of the Lin Mansion and the Clear Wind Temple were all a tangled mess inside, their minds filled with countless questions and doubts that had no answers.

This was especially true for Lin Shunhe’s family.

Inside a large carriage in the front-middle section of the convoy.

Lin Shunhe sat cross-legged, silent.

Across from him was his wife, Yao Shan, her head bowed as she muttered something under her breath, seemingly praying for their son’s safe return.

Liu Shenglan sat diagonally opposite, holding Lin Xiaoliu and sitting close to Yao Shan.

And across from her, next to Lin Shunhe, was Liu Xiao, who had just entered and sat down.

Five people in one carriage.

"Alright, alright, can you stop muttering those damn scriptures!" Lin Shunhe grumbled, his ears filled with the droning sound of Yao Shan’s chanting.

"It’s not like you didn’t see how impressive your son was. With one slash of his sword, he sent that... that Palace Master flying! There’s been no sign of them since," Lin Shunhe said, exasperated.

"I just want to pray for blessings. Is it wrong to pray?" Yao Shan shot back. "I’m not asking you to be religious. What’s wrong with me praying for my own son? How is it any of your business?!" Yao Shan’s voice grew louder.

"Now, now, sister is just thinking of Ah Hui. Even if Ah Hui has hidden his strength so well and is so powerful, he might still run into some trouble. Praying for him to have a smooth journey is a good thing," Liu Shenglan said, trying to smooth things over.

"Sigh, I know that, but what’s the use of your chanting? Look at your son, practicing martial arts all the time, spending so much time on it that he even..." Lin Shunhe started to say out of habit, but then he faltered.

He really wanted to find some angle to complain about his son to get his wife to stop chanting, but after thinking for a while, he couldn’t come up with a single thing wrong with Lin Hui.

It was true that martial arts took up a lot of his time, but he had also just turned the tide and saved everyone present.