The search for a quilt in the illusory realm is fraught with hardship.

Four people, coughing up blood, knelt scattered on the ground. Huaiwen supported himself with one hand on the ground and clutched his chest with the other, looking around but not seeing Xuan Ye.

Huaiwen tried to get up, but was ambushed by a ball of energy. She rolled over, trying to dodge it. Unexpectedly, Pei Suqin was waiting behind her, wanting to possess Huaiwen's body.

Fortunately, Huaiwen reacted quickly and dodged Pei Suqin's sneak attack. Pei Suqin was not angry when she saw that she had failed to possess them. She smiled in a chilling way when she saw the black and purple marks on the four people's faces.

Rong Yun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stood up: "It's you again!"

Pei Suqin covered her mouth and laughed: "Did you miss me?"

Rong Yun spat and said, "You're the one who trapped us in here, trying to harm us!"

Pei Suqin laughed wildly: "Look closely, who isn't here now?"

Everyone looked around, but Xuan Ye was nowhere to be found.

Bai Yuqi spat: "I knew he was a demon!"

"Then do you know what kind of demon he is?" Pei Suqin smiled enigmatically. "Touch the flower marks on your faces; those are all left by him."

Everyone touched the marks on their faces again; they still stung a little. Huaiwen's face was ashen, her brows furrowed. Her eyes were still searching; she couldn't believe Xuan Ye had simply vanished.

Rong Yun exclaimed incredulously, "What on earth is going on?!"

Pei Suqin playfully tapped her cheek: "What could it be? You know his secret, and he's going to kill you all."

Mo Heng said, "No, it won't happen."

"What secret?" Bai Yuqi pressed.

Pei Suqin blinked and smiled: "Ask your junior sister."

Everyone looked at Huaiwen, only to find her lost in thought. Bai Yuqi's worries and resentments only intensified. He shouted sternly, "Ajun! You can't protect him! He's a demon, but not a good one! He wants to kill you, and he wants to kill us all! Tell us the truth about him!"

“Ah Jun, tell the truth!” Rong Yun advised, “You can’t lie to the gods! You know, if you lie to the gods, you can forget about being a priest for the rest of your life.”

Mo Heng urged anxiously, "A-Jun, hurry up and tell me, you... if you tell me, everything will be alright."

Huaiwen reached out and touched the patterns left on her face, feeling a slight sting. She turned to the others and said, "I have nothing to say. A-Ling is a demon, nothing else."

Bai Yuqi roared in fury: "You! You—you're beyond redemption!"

Pei Suqin found the fighting amusing and clapped her hands, drawing everyone's attention back to her. Rong Yun, enraged, immediately raised her spear and charged.

How could Pei Suqin, an eight-hundred-year-old ghost, be so easily stabbed? She dealt with Rong Yun with ease. Bai Yuqi then joined the battle, and the two were determined to capture Pei Suqin.

"I'm already dead, you can't kill me now," Pei Suqin laughed. "You'd better think about how to avoid dying. Otherwise, if you become ghosts, I'll eat you first."

Rong Yun cursed, "What nonsense!"

As the fight went on, Pei Suqin felt exhausted. With a burst of energy, she cast some kind of spell, and Rong Yun and Bai Yuqi suddenly convulsed. When Huai Wen and Mo Heng tried to step forward, they were also trapped in place by Pei Suqin's spell and could not move.

Pei Suqin, who felt completely in control, laughed wildly and clapped her hands in self-congratulation: "You guys are still too young. You lack experience. I, on the other hand, enjoy helping others, so today I'll take pity on you and teach you a lesson."

Rong Yun convulsed, trying hard to control himself, but accidentally rolled on the ground. He rolled to a grave mound and glimpsed a tombstone on it: "Never Rest in Peace".

At that moment, the grave he and Mo Heng were looking for was right here.

Pei Suqin saw them and was about to speak when she was attacked by a long sword. She dodged and rolled over, and saw Cang Lun, Shi Yuluo, and Chu Xu.

Shi Yulu shouted, "You audacious ghost! Surrender at once!"

"Why are you here?" Mo Heng asked.

Cang Lun helped him up and said, "We were not far from the illusory mirror when we saw the colorful black mist and fog that suddenly appeared here. We felt something was wrong and came to take a look."

Chu Xu first looked at the tomb and immediately sensed something was wrong. Then he looked at the four people whose patterns were left after being infected by the black energy, and his heart sank even further. Finally, he looked at Pei Suqin, holding his breath, his expression cold.

“Oh, more and more people are coming.” Pei Suqin teased, resting his chin on his hand. “That’s perfect, let more people know how bad he is.”

As Pei Suqin spoke, she spread her arms and began to summon a black aura. Chu Xu immediately sensed something was wrong and tried to stop her. However, the oppressive aura of the black aura was too strong, and Chu Xu frowned. Even with the help of Shi Yuluo and Cang Lun, this couldn't last long.

"Bang—"

A gigantic cherry blossom fire fox bloomed in the air, devouring the black mist. Everyone froze in place; it was the mark of the Demon King Lingshan Xuanye.

A figure in red descended from the sky.

Mo Heng stared in disbelief and muttered, "A-Ling is the Demon King."

Mo Heng wasn't the only one surprised; A Ling was Ling Shan Xuan Ye.

Bai Yuqi chuckled: "No wonder, no wonder. Ah Jun, Ah Jun, he said he was going to kill you, how could you not believe him? Who in this world doesn't know he's going to kill you? You were actually blinded by him."

Upon seeing this, Chu Xu exclaimed, "He actually came here."

"What do you mean, Lord Chu Xu?" Cang Lun asked.

"That tomb contains the remains of a Taoist priest whom Lingshan Xuanye killed and who was about to ascend to immortality."

"What!" Rong Yun roared in a loud voice.

Huaiwen listened to Chu Xu's words and watched Xuan Ye descend from the sky. Her mind was in turmoil. She had heard that Xuan Ye of Lingshan was cruel, and that one should run away as soon as they encountered him, but she had also seen that Xuan Ye could not bear to kill, and that he left room for maneuver in his affairs.

But when she actually heard that the Taoist cultivator killed by Xuan Ye was buried here, Huaiwen felt a mix of emotions. She was someone who wanted to attain immortality, and she and Xuan Ye were not on the same path at all.

Chu Xu explained, "The formation that trapped you there sealed the ghost of a dead Taoist priest."

Shi Yulu asked, "Why seal it?"

Chu Xu continued, "Because the Taoist priest harbored deep resentment and could not reincarnate, allowing him to roam the world would only cause chaos. Seeing this, the True God Fulin sealed him here, intending to purify him in this Pure Forest of the Void Mirror."

Fifteen hundred years ago, there was a small forest. After a great fire, new seeds sprouted and new life came to life in this small forest.

Thus, the cherry blossom tree that grew beneath the waterfall was born. From then on, the mountains and forests began to gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, until three hundred years later, when Xuan Ye was born in the forest. The little fox cultivated in this mountain forest and grew into a human.

Before long, the mountains and forests attracted a group of Taoist cultivators. Among them was the deceased Taoist. The Taoist was named Lu Yuan, and he was accompanied by his two junior sisters, Ming Yue and Xin Yue.

The three of them encountered Xuan Ye in the mountains and forests. Upon seeing Xuan Ye, they mistook him for a little fox who had just transformed into human form. At that time, Xuan Ye had no ulterior motives or evil intentions; he was just a little fox who only wanted to cultivate.

After some thought, the three of them took Xuan Ye and his little fox companion with them and began cultivating together.

The Taoist priest and the little fox were a laughable sight in the eyes of other Taoist practitioners. Wherever they went, they were met with ridicule and mockery.

There has never been a Taoist priest in the world who cultivates alongside demons.

Kelu Yuan and Mingyue Xinyue didn't care about this, but Xuan Ye and the other little foxes were deeply moved. Their friendship deepened as a result.

One day, news began to circulate among the Taoist priests that someone had attained immortality. Overjoyed by this good news, everyone eagerly sought to emulate the Taoist priest and uncover the secrets of his ascension to immortality.

Xuan Ye and his group of little foxes, upon learning of this, also wished to help Lu Yuan, Ming Yue, and Xin Yue achieve immortality. They transformed themselves into various forms, searching for the secret to immortality. Unfortunately, the secret spread far and wide, but no one knew the truth.

Until one day, a little fox that was close to Xuan Ye was slaughtered.

Xuan Ye was about to pursue and retaliate when he unexpectedly encountered Lu Yuan and the priests of the divine realm. Lu Yuan's sword was dripping with blood, and at their feet lay the little fox that had just been on the verge of death.

Xuan Ye didn't rush up directly; he hid behind a tree and listened to their conversation.

The priest said that if you want to become an immortal, you cannot be soft-hearted.

Lu Yuan said, "Could it be that slaughtering is the only path to immortality?"

The priest replied, "No, it's about taking precautions. But if one wishes to become an immortal, destroying demons is the path."

With tears in his eyes, Lu Yuan finally stabbed the dying little fox with his sword, and it died.

From then on, Xuan Ye went from the light to the shadows, hiding in the shadows and killing many Taoist priests. This inevitably attracted the attention of the divine realm, which sent officials down to investigate the truth.

The pursuit eventually revealed that Xuan Ye was the one harming the Taoist priests, so the divine realm was to kill him. Lu Yuan didn't believe it and initially even protected Xuan Ye, until he witnessed Xuan Ye kill a Taoist priest with his own eyes. Seeing this firsthand, Lu Yuan was overwhelmed with grief. Only then did he understand what the priest had told him: he couldn't be soft-hearted; demons are neither good nor bad.

However, because of their feelings for each other, Lu Yuan offered to kill Xuan Ye himself.

The once pure and innocent fox, Xuan Ye, had grown increasingly powerful after absorbing too much of the Taoist's immortal magic. Lu Yuan and Xuan Ye fought for hundreds of rounds, both suffering serious injuries. Ming Yue and Xin Yue rushed over, wanting to persuade Xuan Ye to surrender, but Xuan Ye was blinded by rage and wouldn't listen.

Instead, they used Mingyue and Xinyue to threaten Luyuan, and in the end, Luyuan was willing to exchange his life for Mingyue and Xinyue's. But who could have predicted that the dying Luyuan would witness Xuan Ye immediately break their agreement and severely injure Mingyue and Xinyue?

Thus, even in death, Rokuhara could not find peace.

Desperate for revenge, his resentment grew so strong that it could not be easily resolved. In the end, Lu Yuan, transformed into a ghost, began to wreak havoc on the human world. When the True God of Fulin learned of this, he sealed him away once more.

"Bang!"

Seeing that the black energy mass was under control, Pei Suqin was unwilling. She glanced down at it, a smirk playing on her lips. She pulled out a hand and aimed it at the unsuspecting Huaiwen and the others. Her eyes changed drastically, and the black energy mass stopped rising into the air. Instead, it continuously flowed into the four people's bodies.

Chu Xu, Shi Yuluo, and Cang Lun hurriedly used their weapons to cut through the black mist. However, as they cut, the patterns on their faces became more numerous and deeper, and even appeared on their hands and feet.

As Xuan Ye swept her away, Huaiwen, supporting his arm, asked, "Did you really...kill them?"

Xuan Ye neither denied nor nodded. He countered, "Do you believe them or me?"

I only believe in the truth.

Xuan Ye sneered: "I—did kill them. But they deserved it."

Bai Yuqi scolded, "A-Jun, now do you understand your master's good intentions? He asked you to take him with you so that you could see the true face of Lingshan Xuan Ye!"

Huaiwen had never felt anything like this before; the pain wasn't physical, but rather deep within her heart. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, yet she couldn't utter a single word. She tried to suppress these pains, but the more she tried, the more her heart ached. She had always stood firmly by Xuan Ye's side.

But now, he himself has said that he killed the Taoist priests, those Taoist priests who only wanted to become immortals. Will she, Ruan Shiyun, also one day die under his blade like Lu Yuan?

Chu Xu reached out and summoned his longsword, gripping it tightly; "Since I've encountered you today, you are doomed."

"All officials, heed my command! The demon that plagues Lingshan Xuanye must be eliminated!"