Outside the Celestial Treasure Palace.

The once bustling temple of Great Dao Teaching, filled with incense offerings, has now fallen into decay.

After the Zhenyi Sect drove the people away, they did not send anyone to tidy it up but left it vacant here.

Then they went on to vie with the Western Sect for various positions of real power in the court.

Each of the twelve provinces has positions with governing authority.

The collapse of the Celestial Treasure Palace has opened up many positions, enough for the two factions to split for a while.

Meanwhile, the Spirit Emperor remains indifferent, recently obsessed with the Celestial Demon Dance, showing no concern for external matters.

At this moment on Heavenly Treasure Mountain.

The white flowers of the mountain have long fallen and withered.

Only the bare trunks remain, awaiting new sprouts.

"The scent of medicine unknown, the white flowers on the Cloud Terrace....."

Inside the vast emptiness of the Celestial Treasure Palace.

A peculiar black-cloaked figure is slowly strolling among the temple halls.

The figure is cloaked in a large black robe, which is bulky enough to enclose the entire person and head, with a bizarre brass mask on the face.

The mask is extremely unusual. From forehead to chin, there is a golden line dividing it into two halves.

The left half is smiling, while the right half is angry.

"The temple has been here for a hundred years, it's time to change its name...."

The brass-masked person gently reaches out to touch the giant incense burner in the center of the Celestial Treasure Palace's main plaza.

The incense burner is six meters tall, with a diameter of more than seven meters, like a small house.

"Who is it!!? How dare you trespass here! Don't you know this is a forbidden area!?" Suddenly, a middle-aged man in Zhenyi robes rushed over from afar, glaring at the brass-masked person and angrily reprimanded.

At the same time, a team of spiritual soldiers guarding the place also followed him in.

This team is fully armed, with bows, crossbows, swords, and shields, looking strong and robust, and moving in neat formation, clearly well-trained.

"Hiding and sneaking around, clearly suspicious, seize him!" The Daoist instantly felt something was wrong upon seeing the brass-masked person's attire, so he immediately waved his hand to apprehend first and ask later.

In such sensitive times, seize him without hesitation.

This is Great Capital; no matter who he is or how skilled, he can't overturn heaven!

"Seize?" The brass-masked person chuckled quietly. He turned around to look at them.

"It's been so many years.... no one has dared to say such things to me in front of me...."

"It seems..." he reached out to touch the edge of his mask. "You've forgotten the pain this mask once left...."

"Stop!!" Suddenly, a stern shout approached rapidly from not far away.

But it was too late.

The brass-masked person's figure gradually faded away, dissipating into the air as if he had always been a phantom standing there.

In just a moment.

His figure once again appeared behind the spiritual soldiers. As if he merely walked through their ranks.

But every soldier in the spiritual army, all thirty-six of them, maintained their original actions and postures, motionless and stuck in place.

"Who is speaking? I didn't hear." The brass-masked person calmly turned and looked toward the source of the voice.

"Could you repeat that for me?"

In an instant, all the spiritual soldiers and the leading Zhenyi Sect Daoist erupted like fireworks.

But what scattered from them wasn't blood.

It was..... countless silver threads flowing like liquid!

Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow!!

All the silver threads didn't fall to the ground but crossed distances, rising into the air, and surged into the brass-masked person's wide sleeves, disappearing.

In an instant, all living beings present vanished, leaving only the leftover clothing, shoes, hats, and armor falling to the ground.

At this moment, an old Daoist in a green robe and gold crown, marked with Zhenyi Sect insignia, jumps over the palace wall from not far away, landing steadily, and fixing his gaze on the brass-masked person.

When he sees the scattered clothing on the ground and then the brass mask the person is wearing.

He suddenly seems to remember something, his pupils shrink instantaneously, and a faint sweat appears on his forehead.

"Senior! Debt has a payer, you shouldn't come to us...." The old Daoist is Daoist Taichang, the Grandmaster of Taiji Palace who guards here.

"What is a debt, and who owes me?" The brass-masked person slightly shakes his head, "Taiji Palace Qingyi is not in Great Capital, is he?"

Daoist Taichang's back instantly chills.

"No, my Zhenyi and you do not interfere with each other.... about the...."

Suddenly, his vision blurred, and not far away there was no sign of the opponent.

He hurriedly looked around, trying to find traces of the opponent.

But suddenly he felt a pain in his heart.

He quickly looked down frightened, pulled open the clothes on his chest, and saw a silver mark at his heart, slowly forming a silver crescent.

It's as if an invisible person is standing in front of him, painting meticulously on his chest with a pen dipped in ink.

"No!! I have painstakingly cultivated for decades, becoming a Grandmaster! I refuse....!!"

Boom!!

The sentence was abruptly cut short as the crescent was completed, and Daoist Taichang exploded like fireworks.

No blood, only countless silver threads burst out like liquid, flying away into the distance.

*

*

*

Taiyi Canyon.

Jin Yuyan, who had been practicing the cultivation of literature with closed eyes, nurturing her spirit and adjusting her state, suddenly opened her eyes naturally and slowly stopped her training.

For supreme experts like her who have already worshipped the gods, cultivation cannot enhance oneself but can always stabilize and harmonize their state, keeping themselves in a perfect state of Essence Qi, spirit, and mind anytime, anywhere.

"It's time." She stood up and looked boldly at the two Spirit Generals opposite.

"Are you ready?"

Opposite her, Zhenyi Chunrong and West Sect's Yuan Li opened their eyes simultaneously, looking at Jin Yuyan with confusion.

"What do you mean by this? We both have backup plans, with the power of Heavenly Treasure and Jade Void. If people below don't know, it's understandable. But at our level, everyone knows. If you talk about hiding, how much can you hide?" Chunrong said with a smile, indifferent.

"It seems Yu Yan is confident, but..." Yuan Li said calmly, "The reinforcements I've been waiting for should have arrived."

"Reinforcements?" Jin Yuyan's expression faltered slightly, as if sensing something. She suddenly turned her head and looked into the distance.

There, a graceful figure was wearing a black skirt, her form graceful, and her long hair fluttering in the wind.

Coincidentally, her face was also covered with a pure silver mask.

Her mask, whether by style or size, was exactly the same as Jin Yuyan's.

"Sister.....long time no see...." The silver-masked woman's bell-like laughter echoed from afar.

"You're still so beautiful....beautifully aloof...beautiful enough to make one want to tear that pretty face of yours apart...."

The malice in her tone was so intense that even Yuan Li and Chunrong, who were beside, felt a slight chill to the core.

"You're still alive." Jin Yuyan, taken aback, regained the calm beneath her mask, her pupils showing a hint of disdain.

"Years ago, my momentary compassion spared your life. How dare you now appear before me...."

"I heard you even joined Taiqing's lineage? Entered the Sensing Sect? Just to seek revenge on me?"

Jin Yuyan's eyes slightly squinted.

"And now you've betrayed the Sensing Sect, joined the Western Sect. How ridiculous!"

"Whether it's ridiculous, I don't know." The silver-masked woman walked forward step by step, approaching.

"I only know... today, you are doomed to die!"

"Die? Just by you guys?!" Jin Yuyan squinted her eyes, her pupils slowly turning silver.

Clusters of silver Spiritual Lines surged beneath her skin, flowing, like rivers washing riverbeds, making an annoying rustling sound.

In an instant, her body rapidly expanded, growing larger, countless silver lines gushed from her pores, covering and weaving into a complete set of silver armor outside her body.

At the same time, the three opposite her were also completely covered in silver, their bodies rapidly enlarging.

*

*

*

Snap.

Zhang Rongfang shuddered, sensing chilling currents pouring from the tumor on his back, spreading throughout his body.

The bone-chilling cold was so cold that he involuntarily shivered.

"What's wrong? Sir?" Chang Yuqing noticed his anomaly and asked with some doubt.

"Nothing, it's just... I've discovered something about your illness." Zhang Rongfang suppressed the urge to immediately go back and check his physical anomaly and continued to chat with Chang Yuqing calmly.

He had night vision abilities and could somewhat see anomalies in the other person's body.

Blood vessels were narrow and winding, flow was slow, muscle structure seemed different from normal people.

Every term Zhang Rongfang spoke caused Chang Yuqing's face to show more shock with each one.

She was horrified to find that the other party was even more detailed and meticulous than any doctor she'd seen before.

This gave her the thought that perhaps her problem might have a chance to be cured.

Just as she had this thought, Zhang Rongfang suddenly proposed to leave.

"Just thought of something to do, I'll head out first, be back soon."

"Ah, this...." Before Chang Yuqing could respond, Zhang Rongfang turned and left quickly.

With a slam, the door closed.

Zhang Rongfang rushed swiftly towards Agarwood Mansion.

At this moment, he could already feel that the tumor on his back seemed to have split open and was no longer there.

Yet he didn't know the exact situation and needed a mirror to see clearly.

In this era, many people still used copper mirrors.

Polished copper mirrors were actually only slightly more blurry than real glass mirrors.

Except for the color being somewhat yellowish, the rest were no different from glass mirrors.

They just required regular polishing and refurbishment to restore smoothness.

Returning to Agarwood Mansion, Zhang Rongfang went straight to the bedroom and took out two round copper mirrors placed by the desk.

Then taking off his shirt, he adjusted the angle for reflection on his back.

Instantly, the changes on his back were clearly presented in his view.

"What is this!!?"

His pupils contracted abruptly.

As if he had seen something inconceivable.

In the reflection of the copper mirror.

He clearly saw that on his back, densely packed blood vessels, like threads, vaguely wove into a Blood Lotus flower!

The flower had as many as eighty-one petals.

Zhang Rongfang, in the sect for these years, read many classics and biographies of Daoist figures in his spare time.

But never had he seen anyone like him at this moment, with an actual woven Blood Lotus formed with blood vessels appearing on their body!