The shrieks of pain came one after another, so constant they almost blended into a single scream, erupting from all directions. Yan Shuiyue turned around in shock. Just moments ago, the disciples from the various sects had been full of high spirits. But in the blink of an eye, more than ten of them had already fallen.

No one had any idea what was going on, not until four or five figures suddenly shot up into the sky. Only then did people begin to snap out of it.

"Spies! They’re spies. Those people are demons in disguise!"

Panic broke out at once. Disciples from all sects drew their swords, trying to give chase. But again came the screams.

No one knew how many demons had slipped into their ranks. As everyone's attention was fixed on the sky, more lives were taken. Another seven or eight disciples went down.

Now it was chaos for real. Most of these disciples barely knew each other; many were meeting for the first time. In the confusion and fear, everyone began to look at the people around them with suspicion. Every unfamiliar face seemed like it could be a demon in hiding.

Tension gripped the field. Everyone had their guard up, watching all sides, trusting no one. It was like a powder keg. One spark and the whole thing could blow sky-high, taking everyone with it.

And you could bet the demons hiding in the crowd wouldn’t hesitate to light that spark.

Yan Shuiyue stood on the edge of the chaos, her position giving her a clear view of the situation.

But ever since she’d begun her cultivation, she’d lived within the safety of her sect, reading the wind, studying the moon, casting divinations. She’d never seen anything like this. Even though her mind had already cycled through at least ten ways to defuse the situation, the fear and tension were so overwhelming that she couldn’t get a single word out.

In that moment, she was so anxious she felt like crying.

Just then, a shout rang out behind her: "Silence!"

Yan Shuiyue’s eyes went wide as she turned to look. And in fact, the entire crowd turned with her.

What they saw was a single figure: a man wearing a metal mask, drawing a long sword and pointing it toward the sky. He stood out starkly, blindingly so.

Li Xun didn’t seem to notice the hundreds of eyes on him. Sword raised, he spoke in a rapid-fire rhythm, but every word was crisp and sharp; there was no mistaking what he said.

"This is the rally point for disciples of the Mingxin Sword Sect. Line up by seniority. State your name as you arrive. From this moment on, all disciples of every sect, hands up. Anyone who speaks or moves without permission dies."

He paused. Then through clenched teeth, he squeezed out another sentence, one word at a time:

"Circulate your true breath for protection. From now on, if you're attacked, you are not to fight back. If you retaliate, both parties die."

Those last four words landed like iron, cold as ice. It was like a bucket of freezing water dumped on their heads. The noise among the disciples was crushed in an instant. For a few seconds, the whole place fell deathly silent.

But the silence lasted only a heartbeat. Then someone barked out a curse:

"You son of a—"

A flash of green light streaked through the air. Before the man could finish his sentence, he never would. His head, the size of a bucket, flew into the sky, blood spraying like a fountain from his neck.

Yan Shuiyue saw it clearly. The man was the one called Luo Wuchang.

And in that moment, something clicked.

Luo Wuchang, Luo Qichang... What kind of master would name their disciple with such ominous, taboo names?

The whole field dropped into an icy silence once more. The only sound was Li Xun’s cold, steady voice:

"I have the Xingtian Judgment Sword of Immortal Master Zhong Yin in hand. Anyone care to object?"

The name Zhong Yin, a legend from ancient times, left no room for argument.

At once, hundreds of disciples raised their hands like a forest of upturned arms.

From within the crowd, Wenhai shouted loudly, "Wenhai, present!"

He leapt into the air. Seeing no objection from Li Xun, he landed beside him.

Next came Wu Lingquan and Ling Muren, calling out one by one. In no time, they had all gathered in one place. The female disciples from various sects also regrouped safely, thankfully unharmed.

Even so, when they counted heads, they found one missing.

Just then, flashes of sword light and shifting figures appeared in the distance. The sect leaders and elders from Nightless City had arrived. With them on the scene, there was no chance for the situation to spiral any further.

Two remaining demons made a last, desperate move, but were instantly crushed to death by Master Tianzhi’s void power.

The disciples erupted into cheers. But Yan Shuiyue was looking at Li Xun.

He had already lowered his sword and was quietly sheathing it.

She couldn’t see his face behind the mask, but there was something in his calm movements that made him seem completely separate from the excitement all around him.

He’s strange... It’s like he’s a different person from before.

She only got this far in her thoughts before everything started unfolding too fast to keep up with. The two demons struck down by Master Tianzhi hadn’t even hit the ground yet when the gloomy sky suddenly turned pitch black. It was like someone had spilled ink across the heavens.

The light that had shone unchanged for ten thousand years was wiped away in an instant. For a moment, everyone just stared, stunned.

But what was even more terrifying than the darkness itself… was what had caused it.

“In the northern seas lives a giant fish,

Stretching thousands of li in length.

It exhales snow from the Three Mountains,

And drinks down the waters of a hundred rivers.

It moves with the tides,

And blazes to life on the wind.

I watch it soar through the heavens,

Yet even after ninety thousand miles, it does not stop.”

Yan Shuiyue had only ever seen this passage in the sect’s ancient texts. Back then, she’d puzzled over it, struggling to imagine what it would be like to see a creature thousands of li long flying through the sky.

Now… she no longer had to imagine.

Though the sky was now a boundless void of black, the sharper-eyed cultivators could see that the darkness above was slowly, subtly shifting. Like breath moving through a living thing. It was breathing. And the rhythm of that vast, slow respiration echoed in an eerie wail that swept across a thousand li.

The heaven trembled. The earth trembled. The sea trembled. All of Nightless City groaned under the weight of it. Lights flickered into life on the outskirts of the city.

The city’s protective formation had activated. Even earlier, the aurora barrier along the North Sea had begun to glow. Now, the two shields answered each other across the distance, briefly holding back the darkness.

But even that shimmering aurora wall, stretching for a thousand li along the coast, was nothing more than a pretty sheet of glass in front of this monstrous creature.

From the distant sea came the sharp, twisting sounds of something cracking and splintering: “kkrrrk, kkkchhh.” From within Nightless City, they could see vast sections of the aurora barrier breaking apart, shards falling away. The brilliant magnetic light it emitted shot toward the darkness overhead… but when it struck the black “sky,” it sparked briefly, then vanished without a trace.

“The Old Demon Kunpeng!”

A piercing howl shot straight into the sky, sharp and fierce. It was the battle call of Li Douliang, the Sect Master of the Soul Suppression Sect. The roar rang out like a colossal fist punching through the heavens, slamming hard against the endless "Skyveil."

With a thunderous crack, the newly formed protective formation outside the city split open with a jagged tear. Almost instantly, a deafening rumble rolled across the sky like a storm.

The entire Nightless City lit up. Buildings forged from snow-gold and brimstone began to glow one after another, each casting a soft white light. As the lights converged, the whole city was soon wrapped in a thick, glowing mist. It looked like something out of a dream. It was all unreal and otherworldly.

Yan Shuiyue had read about this in her sect’s ancient records. She clapped her hands and cried out, “The Eternal Aurora…”

Just as she spoke, a violet beam of light shot into the sky from the heart of the city, right in front of the Radiant Hall. It soared upward like a divine sword, swaying side to side before it suddenly began to spin. In an instant, the white mist turned completely violet.

There was no pause before other colors burst forth, one after another. The original violet was pushed higher and higher, as waves of different colored lights layered over each other and surged skyward. It looked like a rainbow, yet far more dazzling; its shifting colors weaving together in patterns even rainbows couldn't match.

This breathtaking display of swirling colored mists lasted only half a breath before it began to fade. One by one, the colors disappeared, until only a soft green light remained. It spread out across the land, connecting sky and earth, stretching for miles upon miles.

Then came another roar from above. But this one was sharper. Hundreds, maybe thousands of times more piercing than the first.

To Yan Shuiyue, it felt like thunder exploded right beside her. Her ears rang, her head spun, and blood trickled from her nose and mouth. Her body gave out. Just as she was about to collapse, someone caught her.

She turned her head and, with a joyful cry, called out, “Master!”

The one who had caught her was none other than her master, Daoist Yu Lan.

Yu Lan was a middle-aged Daoist woman with unremarkable looks. But her eyes held a calm, restrained brilliance, deep and unreadable. Just by standing there, she carried an air of quiet authority that made people think twice before underestimating her.

Daoist Yu Lan gave her a glance and nodded. “The Eternal Aurora has already recalibrated the elemental polarity. Under its cycle of generation and overcoming, that old demon Kunpeng is no longer a threat. But next come Gu Yin, the Demon Phoenix, and the others. Your cultivation is still too shallow to be of help. Head to the elemental core in the inner city and assist with the defenses there.”

Yan Shuiyue knew her master might usually be kind and gentle, but when it came to serious matters, her word was final. She didn’t dare argue. She simply nodded and turned to leave.

As her eyes swept the area, they landed again on that masked young man. A stunningly beautiful female cultivator was speaking to him, but he only shook his head.

That strange guy… His cultivation clearly isn’t anything impressive, so how did he manage a sword strike like that?

Could the Mingxin Sword Sect’s sword techniques really be that profound?

Yan Shuiyue felt a twinge of frustration. Ever since she began training in the Water Mirror Art, her eyes had never once failed her in reading someone’s cultivation. And yet, today, she’d clearly been wrong.

Still, thinking back, she remembered her first impression of the man. She had instinctively judged him to carry the signs of “blood-red eyes, a fierce soul, endless calamity.” In the chaos just now, some of that seemed to ring true. That wasn’t too bad.

So many hidden layers… Half true, half false. Well, at least I got a ‘Senior Sister’ out of it.

With that thought, the young disciple of the Water Mirror Sect brightened. Grinning to herself, she walked off in high spirits.

.....

Wait, did I read that right? A middle-aged Daoist woman with unremarkable looks? No way. My eyes must be playing tricks on me. There’s no such thing as an unremarkable woman in this book. That can’t be right.