Brutal, bloodthirsty, and wild. This familiar killing intent was like a pot of boiling blood, bubbling up and filling the air with a choking, metallic stench.

Net Throat Demon?

Li Xun fought the urge to summon Nether One and Nether Two right then and there.

Foes like this one had a raw, animal instinct, almost primal.

The puppets were strong, no doubt, but if he played that card too soon and lost the element of surprise, the demon would absolutely shift tactics, dodging the strong and going straight for the kill in a blink.

Just as he stood frozen, a sudden splash echoed near his ear. At the same time, a soft chuckle floated in. Just a single “hm.”

And then, like a popped bubble, all the killing intent vanished without a trace.

His sensed a qi fluctuation. Caught off guard, Li Xun whipped his head around so fast it nearly snapped his neck.

Nothing behind him. Nothing at all.

"Got you, you fell for it!"

A girl’s bright, almost gleeful laughter rang out. In that moment, it felt downright eerie.

Li Xun flinched. That voice… He could hear himself swallow hard.

“Wuyou… Senior Sister?”

Li Xun could imagine just how priceless the expression on his face must be right now.

Lin Wuyou!

It was her. That mischievous, unpredictable, impossible-to-read Senior Sister. If there was anyone in the polar lands he least wanted to run into, she’d easily make the top three.

Lin Wuyou popped her head out of the water not far away, grinning and waving cheerfully. Even though she’d just come out of the sea, her clothes were bone-dry, not a drop of moisture on her.

Her hair was tied in a simple triple-bun style, something any young girl might wear, but it was a bit messy. You could tell right away that she had been playing somewhere wild to end up looking like that.

Seeing her so carefree and completely at ease, Li Xun suddenly wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react.

To be fair, with Nether One and Nether Two backing him up, he wasn’t particularly afraid of her. It was just… what happened back in Songjing. If he was being honest, he hadn’t exactly done right by her.

But then again. How much did she really know about it? Or more to the point, how much did the demon phoenix and Qing Luan behind her understand about how it all went down?

Li Xun hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind.

He straightforwardly pulled off his mask and gave a wry smile. “Fancy seeing you here, Senior Sister Wuyou.”

Lin Wuyou still had most of her body submerged, but her arms rested on the water’s surface like it was solid stone. It looked completely natural, as if she were lounging on a bench. Her wide-eyed, innocent gaze swept across his face. And then she let out a laugh.

“You’ve gotten even uglier, but your skin’s thicker than ever. How’d anyone manage to hurt you?”

There was meaning behind those words. Li Xun’s heart gave a little jolt, though his face showed nothing but a sheepish sort of awkwardness.

“Please, don’t bring that up. Back then… I was just someone else’s pawn, you know...”

“I knew it!” Lin Wuyou looked thoroughly unimpressed. “Auntie Qing told me all about it. Said somebody just laid there like a dead pig, letting people carve him up. Embarrassing!”

What could Li Xun even say to that?

Rare as it was for this little troublemaker to be so direct, he laughed awkwardly, hoping to brush it off. But then he saw her expression change; suspicion flickered across her face.

“Wait a second… if you really were out cold like a dead pig, how’d you manage to escape?”

Li Xun screamed internally.

He already had a story cooked up for Qin Wanru. But that had only worked because she knew some of the backstory, and misunderstood the rest. Moreover, down the line, Yin Wanderer could help him patch up any holes.

But Lin Wuyou? What about Qing Luan, who stuck it out to the very end. How much did she know?

His mind raced, but his mouth didn’t skip a beat.

With a pained smile, he said, “Escape? I didn’t run anywhere. I was out cold until sunrise. Next thing I knew, I’d somehow ended up outside the city. Half the skin on my body was torn off, and in one night, Songjing was a pile of rubble. I was still half out of it and didn’t dare hang around, so I just got out of there…”

Lin Wuyou raised her eyebrows. “I don’t buy it,” she flatly said. “If you really didn’t know anything, how would you even know you were being used?”

“It was Yin Wanderer who knocked me out!” Li Xun put on his most aggrieved face. “She’s the one who told me to stick around and keep you all company a bit longer.

“If I couldn’t at least figure that much, I might as well have wasted my life. Oh, and Senior Sister, do you know the Consort Qin? The one I mentioned back in Songjing? She’s Yin Wanderer’s disciple.”

He wore a look of frustration and bitterness.

“It wasn’t until a few days ago, when I ran into her by chance, that I finally figured it out… Damn it; she’s just a damn actress! The whole thing was a show!”

Lin Wuyou’s eyes flicked sideways. She nodded slightly. “That actually makes some sense. What about Yin Wanderer and the Blood Wanderer? What happened to them?”

“What do you mean, what happened?” He looked genuinely confused. “All I saw was Wei Bufan and Fairy Qing Luan going at it. Then everything went black.”

Lin Wuyou tilted her head, those seemingly innocent eyes studying him. “Didn’t you say you ran into that Consort Qin or whoever? Didn’t she tell you anything?”

He looked helpless. “Barely had time to run away from her! That woman's a nightmare to deal with.”

The expression he made was classic suffering-in-silence, and Lin Wuyou burst into giggles.

His mind was racing, trying to steer the conversation somewhere else. But not too obviously. So he just kept up the resigned tone. “Anyway, I finally got rid of her. And hey, what a coincidence running into you today. Are you just out here having fun or... wait…”

His face shifted slightly.

Only now did it hit him. That sudden unease earlier hadn’t come out of nowhere.

And the fact that he’d just happened to wander into this place and bump into Lin Wuyou? Come on. What were the odds of that?

“Ha! Just as I figured things out over here, you had a breakthrough on your end too!”

Lin Wuyou leapt effortlessly out of the seawater.

Li Xun saw her clearly now.

She wore a short pink blouse with matching lantern pants. Cute as could be. The thin, gauzy fabric clung just enough to hint at the graceful curves of her long legs. Her feet were bare, pale as snow, stepping lightly across the surface of the sea as if it were a soft blue carpet.

She grinned and gave him a playful little “come here” gesture with her finger. Li Xun blinked, not understanding at first; then realized she was motioning for the mask in his hand. With a shrug, he stepped forward and handed it over.

Lin Wuyou snatched it without hesitation, spinning it around her finger like a toy, then gave a dismissive little sneer.

“You think slapping on a mask is enough to fool us? Scared we’ll expose your little secret, huh? You really don’t have much of a backbone.”

Li Xun had no better response than a bitter smile. What else could he do?

Still, one thing nagged at him. How had Lin Wuyou even found him?

She let her playful side show again, curling her finger at him a second time. But this time, he didn’t even have to move. He felt a sudden lightness at the top of his head. His Phoenix Feather Needle, which had been tied into his bun, detached itself entirely, drifting down into Lin Wuyou’s waiting palm like it had a mind of its own.

Seeing that, it clicked for Li Xun. “So that thing’s how you found me.”

“Rude.” Lin Wuyou’s face turned serious. “Calling it ‘that thing’? Where are your manners?”

Fair enough. The artifact was made from a phoenix plume taken straight from the demon phoenix herself. His casual phrasing really wasn’t all that respectful.

Still, her little burst of indignation lasted all of a second. With a casual flick of her fingers, she returned the treasure to its true form: crimson feathers, golden eyes. It was so dazzling it nearly hurt to look at.

“I asked for it back before, remember? You wouldn’t give it to me. Serves you right for getting caught today.”

She looked smug. "Silly you. Since it came from my mother's body, of course it's super easy to sense. My mother can even use it to put a Soul-Tethering Charm on you if she wants.

“As soon as you stepped into Nightless City, she knew right away! You’re just lucky things were so chaotic those few days. You didn’t wander within ten li of her, or she would’ve killed you on the spot.”

So that’s how it works. Li Xun felt a chill run through him as the pieces fell into place.

If Lin Wuyou hadn’t mentioned it, he really would’ve forgotten all about that ten-li warning the demon phoenix had given him. But even so… could she really just kill him that easily now?

A twitch passed over his face.

Lin Wuyou caught the look and clearly misunderstood. Smiling sweetly, she said, “Don’t be upset!

"It’s actually super hard to cast a Soul-Tethering Charm, you know. And given your... history with my deadbeat father, I’d never sell you out anyway."

"And besides, you should be thanking that Phoenix Feather Needle. That day when I let ‘Doggie’ out. If he hadn’t caught my mother’s scent on you from that thing, he would’ve torn you apart right then and there.”

“Doggie? What doggie?”

Something strange stirred in Li Xun’s heart. A sudden, sharp instinct. Like he’d just stumbled onto a crucial piece of the puzzle. He stared at Lin Wuyou, and then out of nowhere, it hit him…

Lin Wuyou saw the look on his face and gave him a totally innocent smile. “Doggie. You’ve met him before! He’s the one who scared you just now, remember?”

And just like that, it all clicked. Li Xun stopped breathing for a moment.

A now-familiar aura surged up beside him.

He stiffly turned his head. In the clear daylight, that pitch-black body, the writhing spikes, and those blood-red eyes that seemed to drag souls straight from the living, like something out of a twisted nightmare, exploded into his mind all at once.

“Net Throat Demon!”

At that moment, there were barely three feet between him and the demon.

The fact that Li Xun didn’t scream on the spot was already a display of serious nerve. But even so, the shock overwhelmed him. His face went pale, and he staggered back two steps.

Lin Wuyou clapped her hands and laughed. “Scared again? You're such a coward! Chuchu!”

She puckered her lips slightly and made a summoning sound. Net Throat Demon gave two small hops before landing obediently at her side.

Only then did Li Xun see that The Net Throat Demon in front of him was down on all fours, its head bowed, eyes lowered; it really did look like a tame little pet dog. The only thing missing was a wagging tail.

But with a body that massive, even curled up like that, it looked more like some beast from hell.

Then, he watched as she gave a soft whistle and told it to head out toward the sea. The demonic beast lowered its ears and followed the command without hesitation.

It wasn’t until Lin Wuyou shot him a smug glance that he finally snapped out of it. But he was left speechless, completely at a loss for words.

This just wasn’t possible.

Net Throat Demon, one of the Seven Great Demons of the World, even if it wasn’t the brightest, it was still born with a wild, untamable nature, not to mention an instinct for cunning and cruelty. How could a beast like that submit to some young girl, let alone let itself be treated like a pet dog?

“How about that? Pretty cool, huh? Someone gave me a really pretty cat, so I decided to raise a little dog, too. If it hadn’t gone easy on you that day, you would’ve been in a really, really bad spot…”

Leaving aside the bizarre logic behind that statement, there wasn’t the slightest trace of awe or reverence in her cheerful tone. Nothing to suggest she understood just how terrifying this legendary demon really was.

Li Xun felt bitter. What kind of world was this?

He seemed to have forgotten that he, too, held two similar trump cards in his hand. Give it enough time, and each of those cards could very well rival this Net Throat Demon.

But what had he gone through to get them? The price he’d paid… Just thinking about it made his chest tighten with frustration.

And yet, what had Lin Wuyou done to deserve hers?

He stood there in a daze for a long moment, feeling like he should say something; maybe sigh or make a comment. But when he opened his mouth, what came out was something else entirely.

“It... didn’t your sect leader say Net Throat Demon had nothing to do with you guys?”

“Eh. You didn’t know?” Lin Wuyou widened her beautiful eyes in disbelief. "My cousin is the world’s greatest liar. You can’t trust a single word she says."

Li Xun didn’t consider himself a stupid man, but it still took him three tries to fully understand what she meant.

He gave a dry smile and nodded, then cautiously asked, “Cousin? You mean... Sect Leader Sister Gu Yin?”

She nodded casually, then suddenly realized something. “Oh right. I almost forgot to tell you. Earlier this year, my mother officially became Uncle Gu’s concubine. So now I’m technically the same generation as my former Aunt Gu!”

Li Xun was silent for a moment. “Senior Sister didn’t call me out here just to tell me all this, did she?”

She shot him a sideways glance and chuckled. “What, getting annoyed? Alright, alright. So you do have a conscience after all. At least you’re showing some appreciation for this young lady's sincerity…”

“Sincerity?”

This time, Li Xun caught on quickly. Lin Wuyou had summoned Net Throat Demon openly, without hiding anything. Just letting him see the demonic beast up close like this was already a major gesture of “trust.”

He glanced nervously around, scanning the surroundings to make sure no one else was nearby before finally letting out a breath of relief.

If someone had seen him standing this close to Net Throat Demon, barely ten feet away and completely unharmed, with only “Senior Sister Wuyou” between them… things could have gotten disastrous.

That said, if you thought of this like a business deal, then the dangerous secret Li Xun had “left” with her, and the fact that Net Throat Demon was within the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance were like bargaining chips of equal value. Maybe not practical leverage, but at least symbolic, right?

Still, Li Xun couldn’t quite figure it out. With powerful Grandmasters like the Demon Phoenix and Gu Yin, why go to such lengths to play fair with someone like him, a mere junior disciple?

Technically speaking, the more deliberately “fair” something appears, the more intricate the true motives tend to be. It only means the reward they’re after must be worth far more than it seems.