The Martial Arts Contest for Marriage in Flame City

Su Wanyin reached out with a trembling hand toward the flat bluestone beside her.

On it lay an ordinary storage bag.

There was not a single word left behind.

She sent her divine sense into it.

Inside, dozens of mid-grade spirit stones were neatly stacked, along with several bottles of healing pills. There was even the Water Severing Sword that Ye Guxiao had tried to use to kill her that day in the Ghost Crying Cave.

The only thing missing was any trace belonging to that man.

"Goods and money cleared..."

Su Wanyin clutched the storage bag tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force, while tears uselessly fell in large drops onto her gray robe.

"Li Feiyu, you bastard..."

"You took my Pure Maiden Exquisite Heart, you took my Primal Yin, and you even absorbed the fatal tribulation from my body..."

"You risked your life to save me, and in the end, it was just for this so-called 'life-buying money'?"

"What do you take me, Su Wanyin, for? A brothel woman selling her body in exchange for her life?"

She cried until her voice was hoarse, yet she smiled with incomparable desolation.

She knew this was Gu Yang's way of "saving her face."

He didn't want her promises, didn't want the Hehuan Sect's repayment, and even less did he want her to bear the heavy burden of a life-saving debt.

Using this cold, almost "transactional" method, he severed all karma, shouldering the backlash of devouring the exotic flame all by himself as he disappeared into the vast sea of people.

"Do you think giving money settles everything?"

Su Wanyin raised her hand and touched the slightly crooked jade hairpin in her hair.

Her fingertips brushed across the faint crack.

It was a piece of "trash" he had casually tossed to her on the road.

But at this moment, this damaged hairpin was more precious in her eyes than all the magical treasures in the world.

Because it was imperfect.

Just like her.

Being in a demonic sect, practicing charm arts, despised by the orthodox path, and schemed against by her fellow disciples.

In everyone else's eyes, she was just a piece of meat waiting for the highest bidder, a human cauldron used to improve one's cultivation.

Only him.

In his eyes, she was a living, breathing human being.

A person who, even with cracks, was still worth protecting.

Su Wanyin took a deep breath and slowly stood up.

The morning breeze blew up her loose gray robe, revealing her long, straight legs and a crimson hickey like a plum blossom on her neck.

That was the only "mark" left by that man on the edge of losing control during last night's madness.

She didn't hide it. Instead, she reached out a finger and gently caressed the red mark. The desolation in her eyes gradually faded, replaced by an unprecedented determination and ambition.

It was a kind of "possessiveness" that belonged to a demonic sect enchantress, and also one bestowed upon her by that man.

"Li Feiyu..."

"No matter who you are, no matter where you went."

"Even if I have to turn over every inch of the Cangyun Continent, I will find you."

She turned around and looked at the towering, gloomy mountain gate of the Hehuan Sect in the distance.

That place used to be her cage, a hunting ground for old monsters like Mo Yuan.

But now, it was her battlefield.

Mo Yuan was dead. Hua Nongying was dead.

A trace of the Great Sun True Fire's origin now flowed in her body. She was no longer bound by the fate of a pure yin cauldron.

She was going back.

Since that man liked "transactions" and "value."

Then she would climb to the highest position, grasp the greatest power, and collect the world's rare treasures.

Until one day.

She could stand before him again, no longer such a miserable burden.

But able to straighten her back and, using the entire Hehuan Sect as her dowry, say to that ordinary-looking man:

"This time, the life-buying money is my entire sect, and... me."

Su Wanyin gathered her messy long hair and reinserted the jade hairpin, placing it perfectly straight.

She took a new human-skin mask from the storage bag and covered her country-toppling face, hiding all her frailty and tear stains.

When she raised her eyes again.

Those peach-blossom eyes were filled with cold charm and killing intent.

"Hehuan Sect, this Holy Maiden... has returned."

...

...

The Eastern Region of the Cangyun Continent was vast and filled with numerous sects.

Gu Yang unfolded the beast-skin map in his hand, his finger slowly tracing westward along a winding red line.

The starting point was the Luoyun Sect at the edge of the Eastern Region, where seas of clouds churned and snow lay year-round. Three thousand miles to the west was the territory of the Hehuan Sect, which he had just plotted against and harvested; although dangerous, it was merely a remote corner of the Eastern Region.

And beneath his feet now was Red Flame City, located at the edge of the Eastern Region's heartland.

"Two thousand miles further west is the Eastern Region's most prosperous core hub—Holy Heaven City. And the Immortal Burial Forbidden Ground, where the 'Evernight Empress' Tantai Jin is buried, lies deep within the three-hundred-mile wasteland north of Holy Heaven City."

Gu Yang put away the map and cast his gaze toward the massive city before him, which seemed to be burning.

Red Flame City was situated on an active miniature fire vein. It was a mandatory stop on the way to Holy Heaven City and the most densely populated artifact refining center for rogue cultivators in the Eastern Region.

As far as the eye could see, everything was crimson.

The city walls were built of reddish-brown fire-patterned stone, radiating rolling heat waves under the scorching sun. The air was filled with a dry, hot scent of mixed sulfur and rust.

On both sides of the streets, countless shirtless rogue cultivators hawked their wares along the road. The clinking and clanging of artifact refining rang out like a chaotic symphony.

Gu Yang wore a dusty gray linen robe. Using the Withered Wood Breath Concealment Art, he remained disguised as his previous "Scarface" rogue cultivator persona.

He pulled his bamboo hat low, feeling the geothermal heat seeping up from beneath his feet. With a calm expression, he passed through the noisy crowd and settled at an inconspicuous inn in the west of the city.

[The hour of Zi has arrived; the daily intelligence has refreshed.]

[Generating today's intelligence for the host...]

Today's intelligence seemed exceptionally "rich."

[White Intelligence: Shen Qingyue, a Golden Core Elder of the Luoyun Sect, attempted to suppress the flaring cold poison in her body half an hour ago using a stockpiled Nine Revolutions Ice Heart Pill. However, ever since experiencing the host's overbearing Great Sun True Fire that night, her meridians have developed a "craving" rejection reaction. The icy pill entering her stomach not only failed to alleviate the dry heat but instead provoked an even deeper cold and piercing pain.

At this moment, she is tossing and turning on her Cold Jade Bed, subconsciously wrapping her quilt tightly around herself, trying to find that lingering trace of extreme yang aura.]

...

[White Intelligence: Unable to enter a state of meditation, the "Ice Soul Sword Immortal" Ji Shuanghua sits upright on a chilling jade bed, wearing the sect's specially crafted supreme-grade dharma garment, the Flowing Cloud Snow Silkworm Skirt.

Her surroundings are a forbidden ground untouchable by the reverent gazes of her countless junior brothers and sisters; she is the sole master here.

Yet, though she normally wouldn't flinch even if Mount Tai collapsed before her, right now her forehead is covered in cold sweat.

She tries to circulate the Supreme Forgetfulness Sword Scripture, but when she closes her eyes, what appears in her mind are not sword moves, but entirely that putrid swamp.

A pair of long, powerful, callus-covered hands mercilessly choking her neck.

That sense of suffocation, that humiliation of being casually manipulated like an object, and finally, the indifference in that man's eyes when she was tossed into the mud pit.]

Whenever the scene froze on Gu Yang wiping the specks of mud from his fingers with her snow-white Daoist robe, an indescribable heat would surge from deep within Ji Shuanghua's dantian, causing her sword qi to fall into chaos and nearly driving her into qi deviation. ]

...