A little while later, the two arrived at another body of water.
"Wait..." Langtian stopped in his tracks, eyes narrowing as he gazed across the murky surface.
The lake was dark and still, the water stained with a dull, mossy green. A thick layer of mist clung just above the surface. Broken logs floated lazily, bobbing in silence. Some were long and jagged, clearly torn from the cliff above and fell down here into this lake.
In the distance, the low roar of a waterfall echoed faintly, muffled by the fog. Though the mist made it impossible to see far, Langtian recognized the sound instantly.
"This must be the waterfall from Sun-Chasing Dragon Cliff..."
"This is the place where I fell... isn’t it?"
"Yes," Yue Ling nodded, placing a hand on Langtian’s shoulder. "This is exactly the place."
Back then, it was this very lake that had saved Langtian’s life by breaking his fall after he was thrown from the cliff. If not for the water, a drop from that height would have shattered every bone in his body and killed him instantly.
In fact, even with this lake here, him surviving was already a huge miracle.
Langtian’s gaze slowly swept across the lake’s edge, then his eyes stopped on a shattered tree near the shore. Its trunk was splintered, its bark stripped and torn.
’And that’s the one... the tree I slammed into during the fight with those wolves...’
There was dried blood on the bark and the ground.
The memory came rushing back. He remembered the pain, the fear, the chaos, and the way he had fought fiercely, desperately, just to stay alive against those beasts...
If Senior Sister hadn’t found him that day, he would’ve been dead for sure, torn apart and eaten by the wolves.
He was indeed really, really lucky.
"But why are we back here?" Langtian turned to his senior sister, confusion written across his face. His robe fluttered softly in the breeze.
"You were wondering where I got my things from, weren’t you?" Yue Ling said, giving a small, knowing smile. "The clothes, the weapons, even the spices I used to cook our stew..."
She glanced toward the edge of the lake.
"They all came from here. This is the place."
Langtian blinked, puzzled. His eyes swept across the desolate lake once more.
But he saw nothing but water, stone, and that same eerie, lifeless scenery.
"Senior Sister, are you messing with me right now?" he asked, frowning.
"No. I’m telling the truth," Yue Ling replied calmly, folding her arms.
"But there’s nothing here!" he said again, this time with more frustration.
’Could it be... there’s some mysterious merchant who shows up out of nowhere and sells her all those things?’ he thought suddenly.
’But that makes no sense!’
But before he could ask more, something stirred within the fog.
Then came a low grinding noise, like stone scraping against stone.
"Senior Sister, something’s here!" Langtian exclaimed the moment he heard it, his body dropping instinctively into a combat stance.
From his Qiankun pouch, he drew his dadao, which was the very one Yue Ling had given him. The blade gleamed faintly in the dim light, its reflection catching the sharp focus in his eyes.
’A demonic wolf?’ he thought. ’Well... even if it’s a Rank 3 demonic wolf, or five of them, I’m in good shape now. I can handle it. No need to trouble Senior Sister.’
The thought calmed him a little. Whatever it was, it likely posed no real threat.
But then, as a shadow moved through the mist, Langtian’s breath caught in his throat.
It wasn’t a beast—no.
A man stepped out from the fog.
And not just any man.
He was wearing the robes of the Mysterious Sun Sect!
Langtian’s eyes widened in disbelief. He knew that design well and was able to instantly recognize it. The color... the style...
It was by no mistake the uniform of his own sect, the exact kind that he had worn during his years of training!
"That’s... our sect’s robe!?" he murmured. "But why...? Why would someone from our sect be here?"
He was about to step forward, to call out to this brother and ask who he was. Maybe this was someone who had come searching for him.
But then he stopped mid-step.
Because he sensed it. Something was off.
The man’s robe was in tatters, shredded in places and soaked through with blood. The crimson stains ran all the way down to his boots, like he’d been crawling through a massacre.
Meanwhile, his hair hung in long, messy tangles that draped over his face like wet cloth, but not once did he try to brush it away.
And the way he moved...
His steps were uneven, jerky, like a puppet with half-cut strings. His arms hung loosely at his sides, his fingers twitching as though they didn’t quite belong to him.
Worse still, his neck was tilting at an unnatural angle as he walked, leaning too far to one side. And then, with each shallow breath, black mist hissed out between his lips, curling like smoke into the cold air.
Langtian’s heart skipped.
A sense of dread suddenly filled his chest.
"What... the hell is going on? Is he... fully corrupted?" Langtian whispered.
All of a sudden, the figure lunged!
With a bestial roar, the man charged forward like a rabid beast. His arms outstretched, nails clawed, eyes blazed with a terrifying crimson light!
Langtian’s instincts flared. He tightened his grip on the dadao.
"That’s right. He’s not human anymore," Yue Ling said calmly.
She stepped forward and unsheathed her twin Yanling blades in one smooth motion.
Before Langtian could even react, her swords flashed through the air.
The man’s head flew from his shoulders, spinning once through the air before landing on the rocky ground with a dull, wet thud.
The body collapsed a moment later.
A thick spurt of dark blood gushed from the severed neck, splattering across the stones and spreading into a thick crimson pool.