CLANG!!

Swords clashed, and a longsword was sent flying. The qilin engraving on its hilt gleamed brightly in the firelight.

Chen Qi looked at the longsword pressed against his neck, then at the sword’s owner—a person wearing a black mask.

He recognized this black mask...

As the Young Venerable of the Dragon Emperor Hall, he naturally knew this was the disguise his subordinates were using for this operation.

But the person before him was definitely not from the Dragon Emperor Hall.

The Dragon Emperor Hall... had no such master.

This was an underground space, surrounded by numerous corpses. If Fang Shuwen were here, he would likely recognize one of the bodies as the very person who had previously called him gentle and refined.

Besides that one, there were also many disciples of the Dragon Emperor Hall, all wearing masks.

Flames flickered all around in small clusters. They seemed poised to dissipate at any moment, yet their heat never faded. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Chen Qi slowly raised his hands.

"I admit defeat. What is it that you want?"

He had already used all of his ultimate moves.

Not the kind he had displayed before Fang Shuwen and the others, but truly all of them.

He had played every single one of his trump cards.

Yet, in front of this person, it was like a three-year-old brandishing a greatsword—utterly incapable of making a stir.

The hand holding the sword was as steady as Mount Tai, but the other began to pat down Chen Qi’s body.

Chen Qi’s expression was complicated.

"Senior... I’m a man from a respectable family."

SLAP!

The words had barely left his mouth when he was slapped hard across the face. A somewhat chilling voice emerged from behind the mask:

"How could Chen Qiusheng have a son like you?"

Chen Qi’s pupils contracted sharply.

"You... knew my late father?"

The searching hand paused for a moment, then reached into Chen Qi’s lapel. When it withdrew, it held a triangular stone.

Seven lines were inscribed upon it, revealing its identity—the Seven-String Ancient Chapter.

The masked man stared at it silently for a moment, then suddenly asked:

"Did you get this from Gu Panxi?"

"That’s right!"

Chen Qi immediately nodded.

"If you want it, Senior, you’re welcome to take it."

The masked man fell silent. After several shifts in the expression of his eyes beneath the mask, he suddenly stuffed the Seven-String Ancient Chapter back into Chen Qi’s robes.

"If you like it, keep it."

After saying this, he removed the longsword from Chen Qi’s neck and turned to leave.

"Wait."

Chen Qi suddenly called out to him.

"Looking to die?"

Cold sweat trickled down Chen Qi’s forehead.

"Of course not... I just have a few things I’d like to ask you, Senior..."

"You have one sentence to decide whether you live or die."

"I want to know, what kind of person was my father, really?"

Chen Qi didn’t dare try to be clever again and directly asked the question he most wanted answered.

The masked man’s pupils shifted slightly, and he suddenly sighed.

"The Qilin Hall never meddles in the affairs of the surface world. In all these years, even less news has made its way back. So, Chen Qiusheng is dead."

Chen Qi gritted his teeth and dropped to his knees with a THUD.

"Please tell me, Senior."

"Why do you want to know?" the masked man asked in a deep voice.

"No matter what kind of person he was, he was still your father."

"Yes... But I want to know if what I’m doing now is... right, or wrong..."

The masked man turned back slightly, a ripple of emotion appearing in his eyes.

He let out an almost inaudible breath and continued in that slightly hoarse voice:

"Your father... was a good man."

After saying this, he didn’t linger and strode away.

"’A good man...’"

Chen Qi seemed to lose all his strength, looking weakly up at the stone ceiling, but the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but curl up.

"That’s good, then."

He stood up, retrieved his personal sword, and casually sheathed it.

He felt the Seven-String Ancient Chapter in his robes and glanced at the bodies on the ground. His gaze flickered almost imperceptibly toward a corner before he retracted it, then he too turned and left.

However, he didn’t take his original path, instead heading in a different direction.

Only after the two of them had left, one after the other, did two figures emerge from the darkness.

Little Madman Zhang Xuanfeng, and a man holding a Qimei Stick—Leng Yanqiu’s younger brother... Wu Hui.

Zhang Xuanfeng had originally been with the Ghost Slave, tracking Gu Panxi, but the paths within the Earth Palace were a tangled maze. As a result, he was separated from the Ghost Slave and had a chance encounter with Wu Hui.

"Amitabha Buddha."

Wu Hui looked at the surrounding corpses, a trace of compassion in his eyes.

Zhang Xuanfeng, however, looked in the directions the two men had departed, his face a mask of confusion.

"What the hell is going on?

"That masked man clearly wanted the Seven-String Ancient Chapter, so why did he give it back after seeing Chen Qi’s?

"Why did Chen Qi ask that strange question?

"Chen Qiusheng, Qilin Hall?

"What is that place?"

Wu Hui glanced at him.

"This slaughter, born from the desire for the Seven-String Ancient Chapter, should be brought to an end as soon as possible."

"..."

Zhang Xuanfeng was a bit exasperated.

"You’re not a monk anymore. You don’t have to be a vegetarian or chant scriptures, so why are you still saying ’Amitabha Buddha’ all day?"

"As long as one’s heart is with my Buddha, it matters not whether one is physically in the Buddhist Sect or living in the mortal world..."

"Alright, alright."

Zhang Xuanfeng waved his hand dismissively.

"I don’t have the patience to listen to your..."

His words cut off abruptly, his eyes flying wide as saucers.

His pupils were filled with shock and horror.

Because a hand, appearing from who knows where or when, had quietly crept onto his neck. Immediately after, a voice reached the ears of both Zhang Xuanfeng and Wu Hui:

"The one who uses a sword, where did he go?"

The voice was perverse, with an indescribable, gloomy feel to it.

Just hearing it made Zhang Xuanfeng and Wu Hui feel deeply uncomfortable all over.