Luozhou.

Baoshan Prince’s Mansion.

In a quiet underground passage, Zhong Zhengxiao stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His face was sharp and chiseled, as cold as iron, and a bone-chilling frost emanated from him, piercing deep into the hearts of all present.

The group of people standing around him subconsciously took a step back.

Among them, a beautiful woman in palace attire kept her head down, sobbing uncontrollably and muttering to herself.

RUMBLE~

Amidst the silence, a stone door a dozen meters to their right suddenly vibrated and slowly swung open.

WHOOSH!

A blast of energy, carried by a wave of heat, surged out from behind the door.

BUZZ~

A pleasant, humming vibration followed close behind.

"Who is it? Who?"

Seeing this, the woman in palace attire hurried over, her feet moving swiftly.

"Who is it? Who in the world killed my son!?"

The beautiful woman rushed into the open stone chamber and shrieked at an old man with white hair and a beard, who was gaunt and slumped on the floor, his face and head drenched in sweat. "Tian Xuzi, tell me! Who was it that killed my son!"

The old man gasped for breath, not responding immediately.

The ground where he sat was inscribed with circles of patterns resembling a bagua diagram.

Large circles enclosed smaller ones, which in turn were linked to others.

Beyond these patterns, individual circles were systematically distributed throughout the area.

On the four walls of the stone chamber, similar textured structures were everywhere.

Atop the central stone pillar rested a black Crystal Ball.

Pieces of tortoise shell, stone slivers, bamboo roots, jade artifacts... all floated in mid-air, releasing invisible energy fluctuations that connected with the entire stone chamber.

"I’m talking to you!"

The woman in palace attire shrieked again, "Who was it that killed my son!? Are you deaf?"

"Silence."

Zhong Zhengxiao walked in slowly, casting an icy glare at the woman.

She, however, was unafraid. She spun around and railed at Zhong Zhengxiao, "What are you pretending for! It wasn’t your son who died, was it? Zhong Zhengxiao, I’m telling you, if you don’t avenge our De’er, we’re finished! It’s over!"

"..."

Zhong Zhengxiao couldn’t be bothered with the woman. He looked at the old man on the floor, clasped his fists in a salute, and said, "I’m sorry to have troubled you, Master. Perhaps you should go upstairs to rest..."

"...It’s all right."

The old man took a deep breath, composed himself, and said slowly, "I am ashamed. This old one was incompetent. I failed to deduce through Divination who killed the Crown Prince..."

"What?"

The beautiful woman screamed, "Aren’t you supposedly one of the top three diviners in the world, someone who can find out anything about anyone? How could you be so useless this time? You can’t even figure out who killed my son?"

"Be quiet."

Zhong Zhengxiao’s eyes widened. He immediately turned back to the old man and inquired, "Master, if I may ask, is someone helping to conceal the culprit?"

"More or less."

The old man exhaled and slowly stood up. "The person who killed the Crown Prince possesses a treasure that conceals the Celestial Secret. It is so powerful that even my senior brother would be unable to perform a Deduction."

"Not even Senior Tian Ji?" Zhong Zhengxiao frowned. "What kind of treasure could be so powerful?"

"A Marvel!"

The old man said gravely, "This treasure that conceals the Celestial Secret is definitely one of the Marvels, born from the evolution of the Rules of Heaven and Earth themselves. Our path of Divination is based on deducing the workings of heaven and earth. We cannot reverse them, much less defy them. To forcefully go against them would not only shorten one’s life, but lead to death."

"Hmph, that’s a nice way of saying you’re just afraid to die," the woman in palace attire said shrilly. "I don’t care! I want to know who killed my son! Zhong Zhengxiao, go to Hongzhou and investigate for me! I don’t care how much manpower or resources it takes. In short, I want to know who killed my son!"

Zhong Zhengxiao remained silent.

Zhong Tiande had died in Hongzhou, and everyone with him had been killed as well.

By the time they received the news, all they found were corpses.

As for clues, although the body had multiple fractures and many ruptured internal organs,

the fatal wound was the complete annihilation of his Spirit and consciousness. His very soul had been practically scattered!

In other words, the killer had mastered a form of Realm Power.

This was what made it so infuriatingly difficult.

Injuries from Realm Power were fundamentally untraceable unless the Realm Power in question was particularly unique.

In reality, they couldn’t find a thing.

So, they had sought out this old man, an expert in Celestial Secret Divination, to perform a Deduction.

But that had failed as well!

’A treasure that conceals the Celestial Secret?’

’Damn it!’

Zhong Zhengxiao clenched his fists, the frosty aura around him leaking out once more.

Sensing this, the old man beside him took a deep breath and offered some comfort. "Rest assured, Prince. Treasures that can conceal the Celestial Secret can rarely be used multiple times. Each use is followed by a long cooldown, or they are simply single-use items that become useless afterward. Allow this old one to rest for seven days, and I will attempt another Deduction!"

"..."

Zhong Zhengxiao pressed his lips together slightly, then unclenched his fists. He faced the old man and said respectfully, "Then I must trouble you, Master."

...

「Luozhou.」

In an unnamed mountain.

SWISH! SWISH!

The spear’s shadow multiplied, its sharp edge dazzling.

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

With a series of strange noises, four late-stage Tier 2 Demon Fiends were torn to shreds, their ugly, massive bodies falling to the ground in pieces.

Zuo Lingfeng, who had just retracted his spear, suddenly froze. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Heaven-Covering Leaf Gu Zheng had given him.

He watched as the leaf rapidly disintegrated right before his eyes, turning into a pile of dust.

WHOOSH~

A mountain breeze blew, and the powder scattered on the wind, vanishing without a trace.

’What’s going on?’

’Did the Heaven-Covering Leaf break?’

’Or...’

’Did the King of Baoshan have someone perform a Divination on me?’

A cold expression appeared on Zuo Lingfeng’s stern face.

After a long moment, he exhaled a breath of stale air and gazed at the blowing mountain wind, muttering to himself.

"Now I owe him a huge favor."

...

...

「Fengzhou.」

In a hidden valley outside the State City.

Gu Zheng focused his Spirit on his panel, spending Demon Points to upgrade Golden Thousand Blades.

VMM!

His body trembled as a sharp, invisible energy burst forth from within him. It was like countless sharp Sword Artifacts slicing through the surrounding air, creating a hissing sound.

In Gu Zheng’s mind, hundreds, even thousands of blades danced, circled, dashed, and sliced.

Golden Thousand Blades, the advanced Ultimate Skill version of Nine Luminaries Golden Saber, had no extraneous moves. It consisted of a single form.

Heavenly Flowers Descend!

A single slash would split into thousands of blades, like heavenly flowers fluttering down to cover and submerge the earth.

It was a True Skill specializing in large-area attacks.

Of course, the size of its range could be controlled—from a few meters, to dozens of yards, to even hundreds or thousands of yards.

It could also be concentrated on a single person or point before being unleashed.

Controlling this power depended on one’s depth of understanding of the True Skill and one’s comprehension and command of the Power of Heaven and Earth.

Even if a True Skill was cultivated to perfection, its power would be limited without sufficient comprehension of the Power of Heaven and Earth.

At the very least, it couldn’t cover an area more than a few hundred yards wide.

This was because one’s Divine Wondrous was limited.

The Power of Heaven and Earth, however, was infinite; it all depended on how much you could channel and control.

Comprehending heaven and earth couldn’t be achieved by simply allocating points.

Gu Zheng wasn’t in a hurry. He decided to add points to his True Skill first.

VMM!

After spending 100 Demon Points to upgrade Golden Thousand Blades to Mastery,

he spent another 360 Demon Points to upgrade Golden Thousand Blades to Minor Achievement.

The countless blades dancing in his mind grew more intense, and the sharpness of the energy within his body instantly magnified.

HISSSSSS!

The grass, trees, and stones around the meditating Gu Zheng were sliced apart by the invisible energy, shattering into pieces and slivers.

VMM!

He continued, spending 800 Demon Points to upgrade Golden Thousand Blades to Great Success.

HISSSSSS!

Streams of invisible blade-like energy suddenly rained down densely, shooting out hundreds of meters in all directions. Everything within this range was shredded, sliced into strips and slivers.

A large, empty clearing instantly formed with Gu Zheng at its center.

In his mind, countless blades danced and swirled, sometimes gathering, sometimes dispersing, sometimes scattering gently across the sky, sometimes soaring straight up into the heavens.

Gu Zheng quietly absorbed the essence of it all, an understanding dawning in his heart.

After a long while, the energy around him dissipated, and everything returned to calm.

’Golden Thousand Blades, Great Success!’

’To reach perfection, I’ll need two thousand Demon Points.’

’I don’t have enough Demon Points right now.’

’Looks like I’ll have to go hunt more Demon Fiends.’

However, the effect of the Thunder Storage Source Fruit was time-limited.

’I should draw lightning first, so I don’t waste this Source Fruit.’

’Absorbing lightning and converting it into energy can also increase my physique, Divine Wondrous, and Spirit...’

Thinking of this, Gu Zheng acted.

Gu Zheng stopped his cultivation, entered the State City, and began investigating information in the archives of the Demon Slayer Bureau headquarters.

He was looking for a place with frequent lightning strikes.

As for Chen Beihan, he had already returned to the north.

After a thorough search, he found that the place with the most frequent lightning was Guangzhou.

In eastern Guangzhou, there was a medium-sized mountain range called the Celestial Thunder Mountain Range.

Thunder rumbled in this mountain range year-round, as lightning gathered and struck down from the sky.

There were no fewer than twenty places like Thunder Peak and Thunder Gathering Valley.

After the Celestial Change, the lightning in the Celestial Thunder Mountain Range had become even more frequent.

’It’s just...’

’Didn’t Xu Jianzhu say that Luo Cheng went to the Tier 3 passage at Dahuashan?’

Gu Zheng looked at the entry for Dahuashan in the archives; it was a mountain peak just north of the Celestial Thunder Mountain Range.

’If I go to the Celestial Thunder Mountain Range, I won’t run into him, will I?’

Shaking his head, Gu Zheng didn’t dwell on it.

’Even if I do, it’s no big deal.’

...

「Guangzhou.」

Celestial Thunder Mountain Range.

RUMBLE RUMBLE!

CRACK! CRACKLE~

Thunder rolled as arcs of electricity bloomed, flashing across the sky.

Dark, heavy clouds covered everything, hanging over the mountain range as if they would never disperse.

SWOOSH~

Gu Zheng’s figure streaked through the air, landing on the peak of a mountain where he had just seen lightning strike.

CRACKLE~!

BOOM!

A bolt of lightning immediately followed, tearing through the sky and descending upon Gu Zheng.

Gu Zheng, long since prepared, raised his arm to welcome the thunderbolt.

CRACKLE-POP~

Amid a flash of electric light and a tingling numbness, the lightning was completely absorbed and converted into energy. It enhanced his physique, which in turn boosted his Divine Wondrous and Spirit.

"Awesome! Again!"

Gu Zheng looked up at the sky, his bare arms raised.

CRACKLE~

RUMBLE!

Lightning bloomed and struck down once more.

Gu Zheng continued to absorb it.

Under the effects of Union, his strengthening physique provided feedback, and the number of Demon Points required for his breakthrough began to drop.

Previously, it required fifty thousand Demon Points, but now the number was visibly decreasing.

Forty-nine thousand... forty-eight thousand five hundred... forty-eight thousand...

Forty-seven thousand... forty-six thousand...

...

SWOOSH!

Just as Gu Zheng was standing on the mountaintop, absorbing lightning and continuously strengthening his physique, Divine Wondrous, and Spirit, a figure suddenly streaked toward him from the north like a bolt of lightning.

The rolling thunder masked the sound of the figure slicing through the air.

It wasn’t until a glint of cold light flared up, a hundred meters away, that Gu Zheng finally sensed it.

SHING~

PFFT!

BOOM!

As his figure flickered away, a sudden explosion erupted.

"Die, Demon Fiend!"