A master of both medicine and martial arts, he picked up a beautiful CEO as his wife.

It rained in Dongyang for three whole days.

Ye Feng stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window on the top floor of the Lin's Building, watching the rain run down the glass in crooked lines. The traffic below was like a glowing river, completely jammed, and the honking of horns carried up from dozens of floors away, leaving only a faint, warm, and indistinct noise.

It's been half a month since I returned from Nirvana Mountain.

For the past two weeks, Lin Yuqing hasn't had a single day off. In her hands, the Dongyang Alliance is like a machine that has been recalibrated: after the boss's capital line in Dongyang was uprooted, the gaps left behind, the vacant territory, and the fence-sitters all had to be dealt with by her one by one. She worked non-stop in the conference room during the day, and at night she had to accompany Ye Feng for a meditation session.

Ye Feng tried to persuade her, but she only replied calmly, "If I don't keep things stable here, you'll be distracted in the mountains." Her words left him speechless.

The conference room door opened, and Zhu Wanqing came out carrying a stack of documents. Her long, wine-red hair was pulled back, and her face showed signs of exhaustion. She placed the documents on the table, pulled out the top one, and pushed it in front of Ye Feng.

"I've finished investigating." She rubbed her temples. "The shell companies the boss has in Dongyang all have the same registered address that matches a common receiving account. The money eventually leaves the country and stops in Macau. It's a clean break, so professional it's disgusting."

"As expected." Ye Feng flipped through two pages and closed the document.

"There's one more thing," Zhu Wanqing paused, "Starting last month, a number of people have been coming to Dongyang. They don't cause trouble, they don't make any moves, they just stay. Some rented courtyards in the suburbs, some checked into hotels, and stayed for twenty days at a time. Old Zhou's side has been keeping an eye on three groups, and their behavior doesn't seem like that of locals."

Ye Feng tapped his fingers twice on the document cover.

"They're after her."

"That's what I thought too." Zhu Wanqing looked up at him. "So these past few days, when Yuqing went out, I doubled the number of people she had with her. She thought it was too ostentatious, but I didn't listen."

Ye Feng smiled and said, "You did the right thing."

Zhu Wanqing snorted, picked up the documents, and turned to leave. After taking two steps, she stopped and said with her back to him, "Take it easy over there in the mountains. Don't keep risking your life."

Without waiting for a reply, she entered the elevator. Ye Feng watched the elevator doors close and shook his head. This woman never admitted defeat verbally, but when it came to certain things, she was more serious than anyone else.

When Lin Yuqing came over from the other end of the corridor, she ran into his expression.

"What are you laughing at?"

"I laugh at your alliance, your people are united."

She handed him the tablet, on which was a transfer order: the Dongyang Alliance's unified external communication, rear liaison lines, and three emergency evacuation routes, all clearly outlined. At the bottom, in smaller print: Effective immediately, the Lin Group's President's Office will be temporarily managed by the Zhu Group for seven days, renewable.

"Seven days," she said. "I'll accompany you back to the mountain for seven days, and then I'll come back. The meridians have already reached a stage of harmony, and I no longer need to follow you around all the time—this is what the great physician Ye himself said."

Ye Feng handed the tablet back to her without saying a word.

He knew the score better than anyone. The number of cycles that the Meridian Energy could suppress had risen to five or six since the battle at Nirvana Mountain. Five or six sounded like a lot, but in a real fight, a fierce battle could burn two or three of them. This score couldn't afford to be squandered.

What worried him even more was the page outside the ledger—the words Shang Zhi had brought with him on his deathbed.

"Go back and tell that girl—"

"I've been waiting for this thing on her for twenty years."

"This time, no one can stop us."

For half a month, these three sentences have been echoing in his ears every single day.

The next morning, the three set off.

Shen Yu drove. Heading north out of Dongyang, the road grew narrower and narrower, the last stretch a mountain road flanked by dense, dark pine forests. A crack in the window let in the wind, carrying the scent of needles and damp stones.

"We've arrived." Shen Yu parked the car at the town entrance. "Tingxue Town."

Ye Feng got out of the car, stood in front of the blue stone tablet at the entrance of the town, and squinted.

Last time I visited, the town was like a taut bow—the streets were full of unfamiliar faces, each one a trained fighter, their eyes fixed on the road up the mountain. Now that Shang Zhi is dead, the nail the landlord had driven into the mountain has been pulled out, but the town hasn't relaxed.

It didn't loosen up; instead, it became even fuller.

Sitting in the teahouse, standing at the entrance of the inn, squatting by the shoe repair stall on the street corner... Ye Feng glanced around, silently counted in his mind, and then crossed the number off in his mind—he couldn't count them all.

"More than last time." Shen Yu's voice was very low.

"Last time it was Chongshan who came," Ye Feng said calmly, "This time it's the Chong people."

He didn't say who it was directed at. But Shen Yu and Lin Yuqing both understood.

During that fierce battle at the summit, the thousand-year-old pure Yin energy within Lin Yuqing completely went out of control once. A chilling light shot into the sky, causing the entire main peak's energy to tremble for half an hour. Such a commotion could be sensed by anyone with even a little bit of cultivation in the secluded world.

The news of the appearance of pure Yin in the world came from that day onwards, when it grew legs.

The three walked through the street without looking up. But Ye Feng could feel the gazes falling on his back, one after another, sticky like spider silk.

An elderly man in a gray robe, who was sitting on the second floor of the teahouse, waited until the three of them had walked half a street before slowly putting down his teacup.

"It's them," the young man behind the old man whispered.

"Did you see it clearly?"

"The aura emanating from that woman... even from across the street, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end."

The old man didn't reply, but instead squeezed the walnut he had been playing with for decades, making it crack.

At the end of the town lies the ancient bluestone path leading up the mountain.

At the entrance to the ancient road, people were standing.

There were about a dozen people, all wearing the same gray-blue Taoist robes, with a very fine silver cloud pattern embroidered on the cuffs—the color of Nirvana Mountain's attire. The leader was an elderly man around seventy years old, with a thin figure, a straight back, low-set eyebrows, and a pair of eyes that exuded an imposing presence.

Shen Yu saw the face clearly and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Master...Master Uncle?"

The old man ignored him, his gaze passing over Shen Yu and landing directly on Ye Feng, slowly scanning him from head to toe.

Ye Feng could read what was in that glance—a scrutiny, a weighing of the situation, and an undeniable air of disdain.

"You are Ye Feng," the old man said, his voice dry and hard, like two stones grinding against each other.

"it's me."

"He's been down the mountain for half a year," the old man's gaze fell on the watch that Lin Yuqing had forced onto Ye Feng's wrist, then on the leather shoes he had bought in the city, "working as a bodyguard, collecting consultation fees, getting into lawsuits, appearing on television, causing quite a stir in the city."

Ye Feng laughed: "You're quite well-informed."

"I don't listen to rumors," the old man said, emphasizing each word. "I follow the rules."

He took a step forward. The step landed very lightly, but the withered grass on both sides of the ancient road immediately bent down to either side.

"The gate of Nirvana Mountain," the old man stared at him, "was swept by your senior brother and guarded by your junior brother. On the night the gate was breached, thirty-seven lives were lost on that ledge."

Where were you that night?

"You are in Dongyang."

"Now the mountain is empty, the people are dead, and you've come back."

The old man stretched out a withered hand and placed it across the middle of the ancient road.

"What are you coming back for? To inherit your master's fortune?"

"You dare to challenge me?"