CRACK!

CRACK!

As soon as Su Xuan took the bracelet, a strange shattering sound echoed through the air, as if glass had suddenly been exposed to extreme heat.

At the same time, shallow fissures materialized out of thin air in the space around him.

"Stop him!"

"Don't let him go!"

At that moment, his brother-in-law, whom Su Xuan had felled with a kitchen knife, actually stood up, picked up his own severed head, and hurled it at Su Xuan.

His father-in-law also scrambled up from the ground, completely disregarding his injuries as he lunged at Su Xuan with a ferocious expression.

"Isn't it good to live in this world with me?"

"Why must you leave?"

"Everything here is real!"

Zhang Tingting also lunged at Su Xuan, her eyes filled with a deeply sorrowful look.

"So you're dropping the act?" Su Xuan's gaze turned cold. With a sudden flick of his hand, a burst of flame erupted, surging toward Zhang Tingting and her family.

This flame was the high-level martial technique the system had rewarded him with: Undying Earth Fire.

The moment they were touched by the earth fire, Zhang Tingting and her family instantly became human torches, rolling on the ground as plumes of dark smoke billowed from their bodies.

Meanwhile, the fissures in the air grew larger and larger until they formed a crevice wide enough for a person to pass through.

"Goodbye." Su Xuan gave the figures struggling in the inferno one last look before slipping sideways into the fissure.

An excruciating headache.

Accompanied by unbearable pain, Su Xuan's vision blurred. When his vision cleared, the scene before him had completely changed.

He was no longer in that world of false affection.

This was Luo Yue Village.

But the Luo Yue Village of this moment was vastly different from before. With its crumbling walls, dilapidated ruins, and overgrown paths, it was clearly a village that had been abandoned for countless years.

COUGH! COUGH!

Suddenly, a fit of coughing sounded from an old house nearby whose courtyard wall had partially collapsed.

Su Xuan collected himself and followed the sound into the old house, pushing open a half-rotten wooden door.

COUGH! COUGH!

A middle-aged man lay on a cobweb-covered bed. He turned his head to look at Su Xuan as he entered.

His clothes were tattered, and several wounds had already scabbed over, clear evidence of severe injuries.

"You're very skilled," the man said weakly, "breaking my Minor Illusion-World Formation so easily."

"That was a formation?" Su Xuan approached the man step by step. "How long was I trapped in it?"

It felt like I'd been in there for a whole day. And he still had the urgent mission from Qi Li. A delay of a whole day was enough to cause too many unforeseen complications.

"Not long." The man raised his hand feebly. "Only about the time it takes to eat a bowl of noodles."

"That's a relief," Su Xuan breathed out.

"Since you've found me," a trace of despair appeared on the man's pale face, "then please get on with it. But first, tell that bastard Liu that I, Qi Qingshan, will return as a vengeful ghost to claim his life and seek justice for my Floating Cloud Sect!"

"You're Qi Li's father?" Su Xuan asked.

"I am the Sect Leader of the Floating Cloud Sect, so of course, I am Li'er's father." Sect Leader Qi Qingshan tried to push himself up on the bed but failed. He resorted to speaking to Su Xuan in a chilling tone, "You can do what you want to me; I won't fight back. But if you dare harm my daughter, I would rather spill my blood in defiance..."

"I came here at Qi Li's request," Su Xuan interjected, not letting Qi Qingshan finish his threat. "Qi Li has returned from the base of the mountain, but Elder Liu has locked her in the dungeon along with Lu Dongshan. She wants you to go back and save them. She said that only your return can quell the sect's turmoil."

"How can I believe you?" Qi Qingshan stared at Su Xuan's face.

"With this." Su Xuan took out the bracelet Qi Li had given him.

"Li'er..." Qi Qingshan's eyes reddened the moment he saw the bracelet.

But his expression quickly turned grim again. "This bracelet isn't enough. What if you stole it from Li'er to deceive me?"

"Of course not." Su Xuan had anticipated this and recited the verse Qi Li had told him.

"Setting sun and lonely wild goose fly together,

Autumn waters and the long sky are one color."

They were common lines of poetry, but upon hearing them, Qi Qingshan's eyes reddened once more.

He completely let down his guard toward Su Xuan. "This bracelet was a token of love between Li'er's mother and me. It was on an autumn day..."

"Sect Leader Qi," Su Xuan cut in, having no interest in the bracelet's story. "Qi Li is in grave danger. You need to quickly think of a way to save her, and Lu Dongshan too, of course. Are you aware of what's happened in the world below? About Yan Xiaosong's death."

"Uh..." Seemingly taken aback that Su Xuan had no interest in his story, Qi Qingshan blinked his dry eyes and said, "In my current state, forget about returning to the sect to save them. I'd be lucky to survive the night. As for Yan Xiaosong's death, I'm aware of it. Sect Leader Yan of the Spirit-Taming Sect claimed that Qi Li killed him..."

"She didn't." Su Xuan took out his phone and played the video from the bookstore's security camera. "Yan Xiaosong was killed by a person in a mask. An unknown faction is trying to provoke a war between your two sects to profit from the conflict."

Watching the video on the screen, Qi Qingshan's expression grew increasingly somber.

Deep suspicion was hidden in his eyes as he asked Su Xuan, "You're from the world below the mountain, aren't you? You met Li'er there, right? She only descended the mountain a few days ago. How could she entrust something as valuable as her bracelet to you?"

Is that important? Su Xuan didn't understand why Qi Qingshan was asking this; it wasn't the issue at hand.

COUGH! COUGH! Qi Qingshan coughed again and returned to the topic. "The Spirit-Taming Sect declared war on my Floating Cloud Sect over Yan Xiaosong's death. Elder Liu used the incident to rally the other elders, seize my authority, and even tried to kill me... Linking all these events together, it truly seems like someone is pulling the strings from behind the scenes. By the way, what is your name?"

"Sect Leader Qi, perhaps you could put down the knife in your hand before asking my name?" Su Xuan suddenly said.

While they had been talking, Qi Qingshan had kept a short knife concealed in his sleeve.

"Uh..." Qi Qingshan looked somewhat embarrassed. He placed the knife beside him and said sheepishly, "My apologies. The situation is perilous; one must be on guard."

"Your injuries aren't so severe that you won't survive the night, are they?" Su Xuan remarked with a wry smile.

"Heh, I suppose I can manage to hold on," Qi Qingshan said, sitting up with surprising ease.

"My name is Su Xuan," he finally answered. "I came to this mountain because I need Qi Li's help with something. So, Sect Leader Qi, you need to be frank. How do you plan on saving Qi Li?"

"There is only one way." Qi Qingshan rubbed his forehead and said slowly, "I need you to bring Sect Leader Yan Peng of the Spirit-Taming Sect here to me!"

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