Chapter 1
Late at night, a young woman walked along the road, surrounded by tall trees, the moonlight seemingly unable to penetrate from above. The only light was the lantern she carried. Her steps were hurried, her expression panicked, constantly glancing around as if some danger lurked nearby.
Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, staring in horror at the white figure before her. The person had fallen from the tree, long hair hanging to the ground, eyes bulging as if they would fall to the ground at any moment, and his mouth was even more terrifying, as if it had been torn to the earlobe by someone, revealing a bizarre smile.
The woman dared not approach; the fallen man stood motionless in front of her, blocking her view. His eyeballs were still moving, and blood flowed with them down his forehead, then dripped onto the ground through his hair.
The woman, witnessing this bizarre scene, covered her mouth, her expression one of disgust, as if she were utterly repulsed. She walked away from the incomprehensible, upside-down object and ran forward without looking back.
The person hanging upside down turned around in a strange way. "It" looked at her back and its long tongue suddenly stuck out, swaying along with her hair.
Suddenly, a man appeared behind the Hanged Man. The man was strikingly beautiful, with completely white hair, yet he looked remarkably young, appearing to be only in his thirties. His clothing was also outrageous, revealing large expanses of his chest, his skin appearing deathly pale in the sliver of moonlight.
The upside-down man sensed someone behind him and turned around in a bizarre way, twisting himself into a pretzel.
After seeing who was behind him, he somehow fell from the tree. He looked at the man, then crawled back on the ground. He retreated quite a distance before standing up and running away, disappearing in the blink of an eye. The man, however, never once looked at the hanging man; he kept staring at the woman's retreating figure.
"This is..." the man said softly.
The woman didn't notice anything amiss behind her and continued running. Finally, unable to run any further, she looked behind her where there was no one, reached up and twisted the bracelet on the wrist of the lantern-carrying hand, and let out a long sigh of relief.
The bracelet was a simple design with four koi fish linked head to tail, the kind you could easily see on the street. But her clothes looked very expensive, and the silver bracelet didn't match them.
Looking down from above, the forest was shrouded in a thick fog. However, the woman seemed to possess some unknown power; before she even approached, the fog dissipated, as if afraid of her. The dissipated fog never closed again, and the places it passed through were illuminated by moonlight, creating a stark contrast with the surrounding darkness.
She didn't notice that one or two "people" would come out from behind her and quietly sized her up.
Some of them were furious at the sight of the woman, yet for some reason they suppressed their anger; others were delighted to see her and followed her at a respectful distance; still others greedily inhaled her scent, but then frowned and stared at her retreating figure with great confusion.
Unbeknownst to her, a number of such "people" had gathered behind her.
"Are you sure it's Shi Wanqing?" someone asked.
"It doesn't taste like it. I drank a mouthful of her blood back then, and I remember the taste." Her expression seemed to be savoring the memory.
"No wonder you got in," someone mocked the banshee.
With a formidable enemy at hand, we cannot afford to panic. Someone changed the subject, saying, "Their auras are the same."
"She didn't cultivate immortality in this life, so it's normal that the taste is different!"
"Who cares who she is? It's not easy for anyone to get in here. It would be even better if it were Shi Wanqing." A woman stood in front of the crowd, pointing to the woman's back and saying, "Who wasn't thrown in by her back then? Haven't you had enough of these hundreds of years of darkness?"
Hearing this, these people no longer hesitated. What difference did it make if it was Shi Wanqing? If it was, even better, while she hadn't cultivated immortality in this life.
The male demon glared fiercely at the girl's retreating figure. "Who cares if she is or isn't? If she is, then this is perfect revenge!"
"Hahaha, it's just that she died too young in her previous life. I didn't even have time to go out and kill her before she died. But now she's delivered herself to my doorstep!"
The group of demons charged forward.
The white-haired man did not follow; he watched the group's actions from a distance, seemingly unconcerned about it all.
The Hanged Man followed behind the man. He really wanted to get a share of the pie, but he didn't dare to act rashly because of the man's strength.
"Aren't you going, sir?" His voice was unusually hoarse, and it was impossible to understand what he was saying unless you listened carefully.
"Why do you want to go?" The man's voice was quite ordinary, contrary to his appearance.
The Hanged Man looked at the man with some surprise, "Shi Wanqing has never cultivated immortality in this life, this is a good opportunity for revenge."
The man looked at the upside-down man and asked, "Do you think I was brought here by Shi Wanqing?"
The Hanged Man stared at the man without speaking. The man's intense murderous aura made it uncomfortable. It didn't know what it had said wrong; it couldn't have entered this place willingly! But at this moment, keeping silent and bowing its head was the right choice.
The woman continued walking, unsure how she had entered the woods, but thankfully there was a path. Following the path, even if she couldn't escape, she should at least see people. However, the person hanging upside down she had just encountered made her uneasy. All she wanted now was to get out.
I was clearly in the Royal Hunting Grounds, so how did I get lost as soon as I stepped out the gate? And it's not just strange, it's incredibly bizarre. Could I have encountered a ghost wall?
But how could the royal hunting grounds possibly be a place where you can get lost in a maze?
Suddenly, several people appeared in front of her. Their clothes were quite revealing; she had never seen anyone dressed so lightly, even in summer.
She carefully examined the demonic markings on their faces that hadn't faded or were deliberately left there, as if she knew she had entered a place she shouldn't have.
"Shi Wanqing, you've finally arrived."
With the arrival of these people, the place became as bright as day. The woman noticed that these people had strange markings on their faces, and their clothes were truly appalling. Remembering the upside-down man she had just seen, she realized that this was a dangerous place.
She tried to calm her fear and said with a smile, "I think you have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Gu Qingci."
"Don't think that just because you've been reincarnated, we won't recognize you."
My past life?
Looking at the layers upon layers of people—no, demons—Gu Qingci swallowed hard. “I’m really not the person you’re looking for.”
"Isn't that even better? It's perfect for eating!"
...
Gu Qingci looked at the horizon with a look of sudden realization. She pointed to the horizon and said, "Isn't that Shi Wanqing over there!"
Unfortunately, no one turned around to look. She awkwardly withdrew her hand, looked at the group of demons in front of her, suddenly threw the lantern at them, and turned to run away.
How could a mere mortal who didn't even know kung fu outrun these demons? She turned around and saw a group of demons behind her, wondering how she had offended them in her past life. Before she could even finish her thought, she was slapped away by a palm strike, crashing into a tree trunk before falling heavily to the ground.
The violent impact made her vision go black, and she couldn't see anything. When she could see again, she saw the group of demons walking towards her step by step. She had nowhere to retreat now, and the demons' hands were about to grab her neck. She involuntarily reached out to block them.
The female demon found Gu Qingci's appearance amusing. In her previous life, Shi Wanqing was hailed as the number one female immortal, and one-third of the demons here were captured by her. Looking at Gu Qingci's cowardly appearance now, she couldn't help but laugh out loud.
But her joy didn't last long. Just as her hand touched Gu Qingci's neck, a light emanated from Gu Qingci's body. The light rapidly expanded, enveloping Gu Qingci.
The pure immortal power made it impossible for her to breathe. The light instantly illuminated the entire forest.
The immortal power sealed the power of all the demons and monsters in the forest. When they opened their eyes again, Gu Qingci, who had just been on the ground, was gone...
Since his master passed away, Zhou Xuanzhi has been staying on the back mountain of Lingqiu Peak, the main peak of Tianyu Mountain. He is monitoring the ten-directional barrier between the human and demon realms on the sea in place of his master.
On this day, he entered meditation as usual, when suddenly the entire Lingqiu Peak began to shake. Although it only lasted for a moment, it was enough to alert these cultivators.
He left the room and went outside to see what was happening. He discovered that the source of the tremor was his master's room, and that a strange light was emanating from it.
He hurried to his master's door, took a deep breath, and then pushed open the door. The glowing object was a flute on the table, one of his master's personal magical artifacts. Seeing the flute glow, Zhou Xuanzhi quickly summoned his sword—the Setting Sun.
The sword's hilt and spine were red, and the junction of the hilt and blade was adorned with intricate patterns. This sword was utterly mismatched with Zhou Xuanzhi. Zhou Xuanzhi possessed a handsome appearance, with striking eyebrows and bright eyes, and an aura of sharpness. The Remnant Sun Sword clearly belonged to a woman, and in a fight, a man wielding such a sword seemed far too delicate.
But after the sword was drawn, it seemed to sense something, and began to vibrate and make a sound in Zhou Xuanzhi's hand. It sounded like a mournful cry, yet also like a welcome.
"Is it Master?" Zhou Xuanzhi murmured to himself, his face filled with undisguised joy and delight.
Since my master passed away, everything here has become very quiet, especially after my junior brother left, leaving me all alone.
But her master vanished into thin air back then, with no possibility of returning... How could this situation have occurred here? Zhou Xuanzhi was in no hurry to think about it. He placed the sword next to the flute with both hands, and the two swords gathered together and emitted a dazzling light.
A short while later, its light dimmed, and it transformed back into an ordinary bamboo flute. The sword no longer trembled or wailed, but it could feel the sword and the flute comforting it. It had been with its master for nearly eight or nine hundred years, and it was able to suppress its grief and comfort itself.
He looked at the sword in his hand and gently stroked its blade...
Gu Qingci woke up by the roadside, on a busy avenue. A group of bodyguards were resting beside her, and passersby assumed they were together when they saw her near them.
However, she was still in shock. It was daytime on the street, and those people who were either demons or monsters shouldn't appear in front of her, right?
And there is another big problem, which is where I am right now?
Yesterday, she was hunting with her family and the emperor in the hunting grounds. That evening, after leaving her parents' tent, she somehow got lost and ended up in that place full of monsters. Then they tried to eat her, and just then, a flash of white light appeared before her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was here.
Gu Qingci felt it would have been better if she hadn't sorted things out at all; the more she thought about it, the more confused she became. For example, the forest where she got lost seemed to be a place where monsters were imprisoned. But how could the royal hunting grounds be near such a place? And how did she even get there?
And how did I get out of here? And where am I?
She noticed that the bodyguards around her seemed to be leaving, and now she wondered how she was going to get home.
She brazenly approached the nearest bodyguard and asked, "Excuse me... young hero, where is this place?"
As expected, the young bodyguard looked at her as if she were a fool, but he quickly changed his expression. "Where do you live? I'll take you to report to the authorities!" He also looked the woman up and down. Her clothes and appearance did not seem to belong to a poor family. She must be a rich girl with a mental problem who had gotten separated from her family.
"The capital." Gu Qingci was quite certain that this was not the capital.
...
The bodyguards still had a mission to complete, but they still upheld the code of honor among the common people. They took Gu Qingci to a noodle stall, gave the owner some money and a bowl of noodles, and told her to wait there patiently, as officials would come to take her home soon.
Really? Can it be delivered even to Beijing? But there's no other way now, we can only wait.
She simply sat there, waiting for the officials to arrive. But while she waited, she saw many cultivators on the road, their swords either slung over their backs or held in their hands.
"Why are there so many cultivators here?" Gu Qingci asked the shopkeeper beside him.
If they were just passing by, surely people wouldn't ignore them! The fact that they treat these people so calmly shows that they've seen it many times and are used to it.
The shopkeeper glanced at the cultivators outside and said, "This is Yunzhou, they're everywhere."
"Oh." Yunzhou, that's normal. Beyond Yunzhou lies the sea and mountains, the barrier between the human and demon realms. This thin barrier separates the two worlds, but sometimes the demon realm destroys it, wreaking havoc on the human realm. So it's normal that there are many cultivation sects and cultivators here. Wait… this is Yunzhou… how did I end up in Yunzhou, a thousand miles away, from the hunting grounds outside the capital?
She looked at the shopkeeper and asked, "How far is Yunzhou City from here?"
The boss looked at her and pointed to the city that was faintly visible outside. "That's it," he said, turning around and pointing behind him. "If you go straight ahead, you'll reach the sea. The immortal gates on the sea are very close to here, and the immortal mountains are not far away either."
This was a huge blow to Gu Qingci, several times worse than the worst outcome she had anticipated.
"How did I get here overnight?" She wondered if she was still dreaming.
"Because of Guancheng."
A voice sounded behind her, and when she turned around, she saw a young man who looked to be no more than twenty-two or twenty-three years old. He was handsome and upright, dressed in a moon-white robe, with a flute hanging from his waist.
How could a strange man have overheard my mutterings?
The man naturally understood Gu Qingci's feelings, and he introduced himself: "I am Zhou Xuanzhi, a disciple of Tianyu Mountain."
Zhou Xuanzhi naturally couldn't stay obediently on the mountain, so he found an opportunity to go down. Before that, he had heard from the sect leader that there was something unusual in Guancheng, that a mortal woman had come out of Guancheng.
Gu Qingci looked at the man without saying a word.
The man continued, “The girl carries the aura of the demons of Guancheng. Guancheng is a place where demons are imprisoned; you can think of it as a place where demons who have committed crimes serve their sentences. After they enter Guancheng, they will have a unique aura.”
"I'm just a mortal." Gu Qingci now knows that the place is Guancheng, but the question is, how did she get there?
Zhou Xuanzhi had no idea how a mortal could enter Guancheng. After descending the mountain, his sword guided him to this place, where he discovered the woman. The woman's aura clearly resembled his master's. The sword had been drawn by his master's aura…
"The entrance to Guancheng is not fixed; only those with permission can enter. As for how you got in, I have no idea." But for now, we need to keep this woman calm; perhaps we can find out the reason for last night's strange phenomenon from her.
"So, I unknowingly wandered around that Guancheng. That place is like a prison for monsters, mostly filled with vicious and wicked people?" She suddenly felt that it was fortunate to have come out alive. So many monsters had surrounded her; if it weren't for that white light, she would have died inside.
However, she wasn't sure if what Zhou Xuanzhi said was true, so she looked at the silent man beside her and said, "You can continue."
"Once you finish your sentence, the aura of the monsters that came out of Guancheng will naturally disappear. No monster has ever escaped Guancheng since ancient times. In other words, the aura of Guancheng on you could not have come from a monster that came out of Guancheng and tainted you; it's because you entered Guancheng."
"Then how did I get out?" Gu Qingci looked at the person in front of her and felt that she had finally found a savior.
Zhou Xuanzhi looked at her, seemingly unsure how to begin.
"Because of the aura emanating from you."
Gu Qingci looked in the direction the sound came from and realized that she had stumbled upon a den of cultivators; the man was clearly also a cultivator.
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