The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

Many people in Zhongzhou have wondered what kind of demeanor the person ranked first on the Qingyun List must possess, and there are many rumors circulating about it.

Everyone knows that this person with the greatest talent is born with a deficiency in health and will not live long. She rarely appears in public. Some people say that Lin Du looks like a god and is not like an ordinary person. Some people say that she is weak and has a pale face, like the reincarnation of the dead. Some people say that Lin Du comes from the streets and has no manners. She is born a bad seed. Others say that she is exceptionally talented and intelligent to the point of being almost demonic.

Upon first meeting Lin Du today, Meng Ling felt that the rumors were mostly true, except for one more thing: arrogant and unruly.

Meng Ling is a renowned array genius of the new generation. Even after entering Lin Du's array, she was still amazed by its meticulousness and versatility. But the person in front of her now had an arrogant expression and a lazy, teasing tone. The words she spoke were so arrogant that they would probably provoke the dissatisfaction and criticism of many powerful figures.

She seemed to possess an innate power to overturn this gloomy world.

Lin Du had already turned around and started drawing the array eye diagram with Jin Rui.

Time was tight, and they couldn't afford to take their time to plan.

By the time the drawing was finished, it was already getting dark.

The flags following the names of various sects in the sky continued to change. Apart from the five flags of the Supreme Sect, the Guiyuan Sect also quietly changed to two flags after nightfall.

As night falls, it is a time when all the major sects are feeling the pressure.

Just as the disciples on night duty were changing shifts, two disciples from the Jinhua Sect had just woken up and were about to patrol the surrounding area when they saw a bright light shining in the valley from afar.

But upon closer inspection, it didn't seem aggressive at all; instead, it resembled a ghostly flame, glowing with an eerie purple light, constantly shifting and coiling into a strange shape.

The two disciples were quite frightened. "If they were alive, why aren't they rushing to take down the flag now that the formation has been broken?"

"Could it be... some kind of strange beast?"

"Are there strange beasts in this man-made secret realm?"

"I think I saw a human face in the distance, it was snow-white, could it be a bound spirit?"

Has anyone died in this secret realm before?

"You know what, the Central Plains Grand Competition represents more than just sect honor. The rankings also determine the proportion of newly discovered resources in the Central Plains over the next century. Perhaps some might really be fighting tooth and nail?"

"Never mind, we're cultivators, we don't care if they're human or ghost, let's go and fight!"

The more the two thought about it, the more frightened and angry they became, so they simply grabbed their weapons and rushed into the woods.

Once inside, their spiritual senses could no longer detect whether it was a human or a ghost.

"Hey, I just saw a speck of light here?"

One person extended their divine sense forward, but found nothing. Just as they were about to withdraw it in confusion, they suddenly froze.

Not far behind him, the light reappeared, standing out starkly against the darkness, like a lamp from the deepest hell.

The disciple was so frightened that his hair stood on end, and he threw an explosive talisman at that spot.

"Who! What kind of scoundrel dares to play tricks here!"

Suddenly, someone gently patted his shoulder from behind. The disciple instinctively reached out with a palm strike, but it was blocked by a cold fan. Then, a smiling voice rang out.

"Don't be nervous, fellow Daoist. We're not here to take your flag."

A pale face, bathed in an eerie purple light, appeared before the disciple. "We are just..."

"Aaaaaaah, Senior Sister! It's a ghost!!!"

Lin Du: ...I give up.

She turned to look at the two people over there. "I already told you you shouldn't have put up those concealment talismans. Now look what's happened, they're terrified. How can you reason with them?"

Two figures, one tall and one short, silently appeared from the shadows of the valley. Meng Ling strongly condemned Lin Du's act of falsely accusing him, saying, "You're the one who scared them away!"

Jin Rui brushed the sand and grass clippings from her clothes after the explosion. "We really don't know how to fight. What if they don't listen to us?"

"What a coincidence, I can't fight either." Lin Du sighed as he watched the two who had already run off to call for backup. "Let's go find someone to reason with."

The three arrived at the gathering place and happened to overhear the disciple vividly recounting his ghost encounter. "When that hand was on my shoulder, I felt a chill even through my clothes, colder than ice. That face was frighteningly pale, and its eyes were dark and lifeless, with will-o'-the-wisps. The resentment could even condense into will-o'-the-wisps. This must be a vengeful ghost with a thousand years of cultivation..."

Lin Du: ...

She cleared her throat and said, "I don't know if she's a vengeful ghost, but in Xia Lin Du, she's only twenty-two this year, so she certainly doesn't have a thousand years of cultivation."

The five people all turned to look at the speaker. The young man was holding a disciple token of the Supreme Sect and had a shadow at his feet, so he was definitely a living person.

There were two other people standing behind her.

"My name is Meng Ling of the Lianheng School."

"Jin Rui of the Lianheng Sect, we have come here because we suspect there are anomalies in this secret realm. There are unknown array eyes set up by evil spirits under the territories of various sects. So we came to investigate and also to remind you that we have no intention of competing with you for territory."

The five people saw the disciple tokens in the two people's hands and were completely convinced.

The Lianheng faction, huh? Then it's alright.

"Then, I wonder if the three of you have discovered anything?" a more composed person asked.

"Yes," Lin Du said decisively. "That's why we've come to inform you that your sect also has people who practice formations, right? Come with us."

Of the five, only one had some knowledge of formations, but was not an expert. Nevertheless, he cautiously followed them into the valley to investigate.

The three people were followed closely by the five others. After probing the strange energy of the array's core, they also finished drawing the diagram.

One of the cultivators, who had some knowledge of formations, observed for a while, then his expression became more serious. "May I ask what your plans are?"

"Whether it is a test left to us by our predecessors or the malicious intent of evil forces taking advantage of our weaknesses, we must plan to break through the formation and take precautions. Therefore, I am here to inform you that when the time comes, please set aside your different camps and work together to break the deadlock."

Jin Rui cupped his hands in a Taoist salute, his features clear and his expression resolute.

Several disciples from Jinhua Sect returned the greeting.

The three men came under the cover of night, and they left under the cover of night as well.

They entered another battleground, only to find the two sides locked in fierce combat.

Lin Du glanced at the leather scroll. "Sorry, I didn't realize you guys were fighting. Why don't you pause for a bit?"

The Guiyuan Sect and Wuyai Sect members looked at each other, bewildered by the three people holding a disciple's token in one hand and a compass in the other.

How can you stop when a knife is already at someone's throat?

But Lin Du didn't care. He pushed Jin Rui forward, repeated his old rhetoric, and lured away two array masters from two sects before leisurely leaving.

Within just three days, the Lianheng Sect members and Lin Du had visited all twenty-five camps, and informed every sect they encountered about the matter.

"There's only one place left." Meng Ling's face showed utter exhaustion. She glanced at Lin Du, who remained calm and collected. "May I ask, aren't you tired?"

Logically speaking, Lin Du, who was born with a deficiency and looked like she could pass away at any moment, should have collapsed from exhaustion by now, but she was still the same as she was at the beginning.

You say she's not in good health, yet she lasts longer than anyone else; you say she's in good health... but she looks like she could pass away at any moment.

Lin Du, with a mint in his mouth and his eyes now showing a slight bluish tinge, chuckled upon hearing this.

Do you know what "super long battery life with the last 10% of battery" means?

This is.

"Speaking of which, many sects are missing one or two people, and those who failed to seize territory along the way seem to have vanished as well," Jin Rui said worriedly. "Could it be that the mastermind has already activated a grand formation without our knowledge?"

Lin Du: ...

She cleared her throat. "I roughly know where they are. It's alright, we'll be in our Supreme Sect's territory soon."

If nothing unexpected happens, they should all still be trapped inside.

She is the mastermind behind the disappearance of people.