Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The wind stopped.

On the peach trees that had been broken in half, the last few petals finally fell.

The ground was covered with a layer of dust, a mixture of pink and white, crushed into fine powder by the oppressive force just now, making a rustling sound when stepped on.

Tianpeng sat in the middle of that pile of debris.

She didn't look up.

Her long, gray hair hung down, the ends brushing against her knees, covered with peach wood shavings shattered in her rage.

Her right hand groped around her side for a few moments and found the wine jug that had been broken in two earlier. There was a long crack in the body of the jug, and the last bit of wine was still at the bottom, slowly seeping out along the crack.

Tianpeng scooped up the broken half of the pot, brought it to his lips, and tilted his head back to drink it down.

The wine, mixed with shards of broken porcelain from the spout, slid across my tongue. A cut appeared at the corner of my mouth, and a drop of blood seeped out. I swallowed it, mixing it with the peach blossom wine.

Then she laughed.

That smile was even uglier than before; the wide arc of his mouth stretched too far, aggravating the tiny wounds on his cheeks that had burst open due to the forced suppression of his spiritual energy. Blood seeped from the gaps in his skin and trickled down his chin.

Don't look at me like that.

Tianpeng's voice was so hoarse that each word sounded like a shard of porcelain scraping against his throat.

She didn't look at Su Chang'an; her gaze was fixed on the broken pot in her palm.

"I didn't mean to save you."

Su Chang'an leaned against the broken wooden stake and did not reply.

Tianpeng's thumb rubbed the cracks in the pot, the calluses on his fingertips brushing against the porcelain surface, making a soft, rustling sound.

"I just can't stand it."

Her voice suddenly dropped, so low it was almost drowned out by the wind.

"If you can't stand that face, die in front of me again."

Su Chang'an's eyelid twitched.

Looking at Tianpeng's appearance, something moved in her throat, but in the end she said nothing.

Those words just now have already torn open Tianpeng's deepest wounds, leaving no trace of flesh and skin. There's no point in stabbing him in any further now.

The peach grove remained quiet for a long time.

It was only after Su Chang'an thought Tianpeng had fallen asleep amidst the petals that the figure sitting on the ground moved again.

Tianpeng tossed the broken pot behind him, and the pot smashed into the broken peach tree root with a dull thud, shattering into several pieces.

Do you know what the place you're standing here is called?

Tianpeng's tone changed; it was still hoarse, but his emotions were forcibly suppressed, turning into a cold and businesslike flat tone.

Su Chang'an glanced around.

The mountain is covered with peach trees, their spiritual energy far surpassing that of the human world, and the soil is a dark reddish color.

She had previously determined that this area was within the territory of the Nine Heavens Demon Court.

"The Peach's Death Ground".

Tianpeng's voice came from the pile of broken flowers.

"The Demon Court is an absolutely forbidden area; it is not on any map."

"There are no patrols or guards within a radius of three hundred miles, and even the divine sense of Indra does not probe this area."

Su Chang'an's eyes darkened.

There are no patrols, no guards, and it's not on the map.

This means that even if she died here, no one would know.

The reason Tianpeng was drinking here was precisely because it was the only place in the entire Demon Court where she could shed all her pretenses.

"The ruins of the ancient peach tree. The tree died tens of thousands of years ago, but its roots are still embedded in the ground. The spiritual energy is not completely dispelled, and this peach forest has grown from it."

Tianpeng tapped his finger on the soil beneath his feet.

"Three thousand feet below the ground, there are only dead veins formed from the roots of the peach tree."

"The residual power within the Death Meridian is enough to distort the laws of space; any means of communication here will be swallowed up."

After saying this, Tianpeng paused for a moment.

Then she raised her head and looked directly at Su Chang'an for the first time.

The rage in those eyes had completely faded, leaving only a layer of hazy weariness, and beneath that weariness, a complex feeling of not knowing how to deal with it.

"Your tiger."

Su Chang'an's breath hitched for a second.

Tianpeng stared at her reaction, a slight smile playing on his lips, a smile that was hard to decipher as either mockery or pity.

"Taiwei gave him a travel permit and told him that his avatar was not truly dead, and that his true body was still sealed in the Northern Region."

Su Chang'an remained motionless.

"What do you think he'll do?"

"Go back to Yunmengze and cultivate in seclusion until you become a Great Emperor, then come back to find me?"

Tianpeng's smile deepened, becoming so deep it was almost bitter.

"On the third day after Bai Yin obtained the travel permit, he stormed into the border area between the Demon Court and Kyushu."

Su Chang'an's fingers moved.

The translucent hand, which had been resting steadily on the broken wooden stake, slowly curled up its five fingers.

"He stopped practicing his martial arts, stopped sleeping, and even stopped using that three-pointed double-edged sword."

Tianpeng's voice was devoid of any emotion, uttering each word as if he were listing the names of the dead.

"Use the most primitive Geng metal evil energy directly, kill whatever it sees."

"Anything that stood in his way, whether a demonic beast or a rogue cultivator, was crushed into minced meat."

"He is using slaughter to build up his cultivation, and using endless blood energy to forcibly cleave open the cracks in the seal of the Northern Region Emperor."

Tianpeng braced himself on his knees and slowly pushed himself up from the ground.

"Indra sent three groups of people to stop him."

"The first wave was wiped out."

"Two of them came back in the second wave, and they've both gone crazy."

"Before the third wave even got close, they took one look at the sky stained red with blood and immediately knelt down and resigned from their posts."

Tianpeng stood up, patted the petal fragments off her clothes, her casual movements completely at odds with what she was saying.

"Su Chang'an, the knife you raised has become a mad beast without reins."

"At this rate, he won't live more than three years."

Su Chang'an remained silent.

But Tianpeng saw it.

Su Chang'an's semi-transparent hand, hanging by his side, was clenched tightly with his five fingers. The phantom shell at his knuckles cracked again due to the excessive force, and silver-blue star power was seeping out from the cracks little by little.

Tianpeng stared at that hand for a long time.

Then she lowered her head and began to undo her belt.

Not really, she fumbled around her waist for a few moments and pulled off two things tied to the inside of her belt.

A dark gray jade pendant with dark gold tassels swayed twice in mid-air.

A porcelain bottle about the size of a thumb, its mouth sealed tightly with wax.

With a flick of his wrist, Tianpeng sent the two objects flying in an arc through the air before landing steadily at Su Chang'an's feet with two soft thuds.

Su Chang'an looked down.

The jade tablet was the Demon Court pass she had just tried to steal.

The porcelain vase was the one that she had previously clipped to Tianpeng's waist, but hadn't had a chance to examine closely.

"The contents of the bottle are called Nine-Turn Resurrection Elixir, but it's a defective product."

Tianpeng's voice regained its cold, hard tone.

"The complete product can bring a dying person back to life, while the defective product has no such effect, but its potency is enough to forcibly extend your life by three months."

After Tianpeng finished speaking, he turned around and faced away from Su Chang'an.

"Within three months, find your tiger, or find a vessel that can receive your soul."

"If you can't do it, after three months, the shell will shatter and you'll be scattered, and no one can save you."

Tianpeng's shoulder blades were taut beneath his clothes, and the outline of his two muscles was clearly visible through the thin fabric.

"Now, get out of the Demon Court."

The last five words were pronounced with extreme emphasis, leaving no room for ambiguity.

Su Chang'an bent down.

Her movements were slow; the shell's structure had just suffered a severe blow, and every bending of her joints caused a subtle creaking sound from inside the shell.

The translucent fingers pinched the jade pendant and porcelain bottle on the ground, picking them up one by one and holding them in the palm of their hands.

The porcelain bottle feels cool to the touch.

The tassel of the jade pendant rested on the back of my hand, the ends of the silk threads were frayed and worn dull.

Su Chang'an straightened up.

She didn't say thank you.

She looked at Tianpeng's back. He stood very straight, but his hands hung at his sides, his fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly, his knuckles cracking.

I owe you one.

Four words, crisp and concise, without any unnecessary syllables.

After saying this, Su Chang'an turned and walked away.

The sound of my feet rustling as I stepped on the fallen peach blossoms.

The remaining starlight flowed through the meridians, supporting the shattered illusory shell as it moved at top speed toward the edge of the peach grove.

She didn't turn around.

Tianpeng stood still, listening to the footsteps grow farther and farther away, lighter and lighter, until they finally blended into the sound of the wind.

Her knees buckled.

He stumbled back two steps, his back hitting a half-person-high piece of broken wood, and slowly slid down the curve of the trunk.

When its bottom landed on the ground, it kicked up a small amount of petal powder.

Tianpeng lay on his back, looking at the sparse peach tree branches above him.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, falling on her face and revealing two still-dry streaks of blood at the corners of her eyes.

Her lips moved.

The voice was so soft that it was unclear who it was being spoken to.

"Central Continent direction."

Tianpeng's gaze followed the direction in which Su Chang'an disappeared.

"That mad tiger has a nose better than anyone else's. If he can't find the way to the Northern Region, he'll look for the scent left on her body."

Tianpeng closed his eyes.

"The Chen family of Zhongzhou, Guiyuan Hall."

That sentence was blown away by the wind.

"Sooner or later, there will be rivers of blood."

---

Su Chang'an hurried along the peach grove.

Not far from the edge of the Peach Death Zone, she tore open the wax seal on the porcelain bottle while running, put the bottle mouth to her mouth, and gulped down the cold liquid inside.

The moment the medicine entered the throat, an extremely powerful force surged from the stomach, rushing through the meridians and throughout the body.

Those body parts that had become blurred due to the shattering of the phantom shell became real again under the influence of the medicine.

The translucent skin surface gleams with a pale silver sheen, and the thickness of the shell wall visibly increases.

Uncomfortable.

The medicine was too potent and mixed; after all, it was a defective product and lacked the smooth, jade-like penetration of a complete one.

Su Chang'an's internal organs felt like they were being churning on fire, over and over again, and she was sweating from the pain.

But it works.

She could feel her legs regain their strength, and the feeling of her feet sinking into the soil was no longer one of shaky instability.

The space ahead has changed.

The density of peach trees began to decrease, the spacing between the trunks became wider and wider, and the concentration of spiritual energy also decreased rapidly.

The dark red soil on the ground gradually transitioned into a normal grayish-brown.

The boundary of the dead land of the peaches.

Su Chang'an's gaze locked onto a spatial fold that was almost invisible to the naked eye thirty feet ahead. It was a natural boundary membrane between the forbidden area and the outside world of the Demon Court, where air would be slightly refracted when it passed through.

The jade pendant felt hot in her palm.

Su Chang'an stopped five zhang in front of the boundary membrane and held the jade tablet to his chest.

She sensed the restrictive array inside the jade tablet activating on its own, with dark golden light spreading from the tip of the tassel towards the tablet.

This is a key.

All she had to do was crush it, and a gap large enough for a person to pass through would open in the barrier, simultaneously triggering a short-range teleportation array to send her out of the forbidden area.

Su Chang'an gripped the edge of the jade pendant with his fingers and began to exert force.

The first crack appeared on the surface of the jade plaque.

In that very instant.

The void three zhang in front of her silently distorted.

No sound.

There was no fluctuation of spiritual energy.

There were no warning signs whatsoever.

A huge bulge suddenly appeared on the surface of space, and a pitch-black crack tore open at the top of the bulge, with thick spatial turbulence churning inside.

A hand reached out from the crack.

The enormous hand, each finger joint as thick as Su Chang'an's forearm, had a surface covered with dense, dark gold scales on the back of its hand, with a faint blue light seeping through the gaps between the scales.

Spread your five fingers.

His palm was positioned directly against Su Chang'an's throat.

Su Chang'an felt a rush of blood to his head, and he froze on the spot.

The hand, carrying enough power to tear apart the void, came straight at you.