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

"Master Lin Du has crushed the core of the demonic tide!!! The demonic tide is about to recede!!!"

A deafening shout came from outside the city, a joyful cry after great sorrow, a hope after despair, as if it were howling out the despair and helplessness of the past seven days.

After seven days of hopeless fighting, they could finally shout that they were about to win.

This is not the dawn, but the full light of day! The gates of life have opened wide!

Only a few "little cats" remained of the evil spirits in the city. They were cornered in a dead end by a group of righteous cultivators, and their enormous bodies looked pitiful.

Sheng Yan heard a faint shout, "They're about to win outside the city, we can't fall behind!"

She raised her hand, and the twin blades unleashed a blade aura much brighter than their dark, heavy blades. With one strike, she finished off two demons. Then, she nimbly turned around, twirling the twin blades between her hands before neatly inserting the tips downwards into the leather scabbards at her waist.

"Victory is back! Time to go home for dinner. Sheng Tang and the others are heading back to the city."

The feast proceeded with light steps toward their makeshift stove.

Lin Du felt fine; she hadn't reached the point where she absolutely needed acupuncture, really.

Du Shao firmly inserted the gold needle into her head. "No, I have to get the needle in. Bear with it."

Lin Du remained silent, Lin Du sighed, Lin Du had become a scarecrow to be manipulated by others.

By the time Du Shao's master arrived, Lin Du had become a sparse little hedgehog in the process of losing its quills.

The golden thorns, the kind that even glow, constantly channel spiritual energy into them, relieving the pain of excessive consumption.

Lin Du looked innocently at Elder Su Mu of the Jishi Sect, "Master Su, what a coincidence, we meet again."

Su Mu felt that this scene was familiar, except that the last time someone fainted, she was the one who administered the acupuncture.

She watched Du Shao administer the acupuncture without interrupting, and said, "Insert it another inch."

Lin Du trembled all over, and before he could speak, he hissed.

"Your spiritual energy is completely depleted. I heard from people outside that you pulled down the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm?" Su Mu took Lin Du's pulse, took a thicker gold needle than the one Du Shao used, inserted it into the acupoint, and infused it with spiritual energy to soothe Lin Du's exhausted meridians.

"It's alright, it's alright. We cultivators are all about borrowing a thread from heaven, aren't we?" Lin Du said modestly.

"This is the first time I've ever seen someone forcibly pull against the rules of Heaven without suffering a backlash. How did you do it?" Su Mu's hands didn't stop.

Lin Du dared not move. "It's just a matter of doing this first and then that. A formation master is nothing special."

It was extremely perfunctory, but Su Mu was merely taking advantage of her distraction to pierce her heart with a needle.

Lin Du spat out another mouthful of blood.

"Your heart meridian has a much stronger vitality than when I last saw you. It seems the Living Judge is still the most powerful."

As Su Mu spoke, he poured healing spiritual power into it, saying, "This time, the body is much stronger than last time."

Lin Du frowned slightly, paused for a moment, and asked, "May I ask, Master, how long will this acupuncture treatment take?"

"What? You still want to go out and kill demons?" Su Mu looked up at Lin Du's face and sighed softly. "No need to worry, reinforcements have arrived. They were afraid that Huangshi City would be breached, so they reinforced the defenses of the cities behind it to prevent the demon horde from approaching. I didn't expect you to defend the city gates to the death and not let a single demon escape."

Lin Du nodded upon hearing this, "Mainly because... there's a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm outside, and we're already here."

The fine virtues of the people of Zhongzhou are evident; since we're already here...

Su Mu: ...

"He's still a child. Is his life more important or his opportunity? Why is he getting involved?" Su Mu is only a fourth-level Marquis now. In terms of cultivation, he should be on par with her. But in Zhongzhou, people under a hundred years old are called children.

As she spoke, her needlework was incredibly precise. "I'm telling you," she said, "you're just too hard on yourself."

The Supreme Sect has many geniuses, but its mortality rate is also extremely high. It is true that when it is prosperous, it is truly prosperous, but when it is in decline, it is plagued by a series of premature deaths, as if there is some strange curse.

Originally, it was thought that this batch of disciples would also succumb to that curse... After all, before Lin Du's batch of disciples, two of the new generation of disciples of the Supreme Sect had already died prematurely. In recent years, there have been many rumors, one after another, that the spiritual bones were gone, another after the dragon energy was gone, and yet another after Lin Du was about to die.

But at the most crucial moment, they all reappeared.

The Jishi Sect treated countless cultivators outside the city gates, but none of them were from the Wushang Sect. However, after asking the seriously injured, it was found that four or five out of ten of them were rescued by people from the Wushang Sect.

It wasn't until the mother tree was destroyed that five cultivators jumped out first, shouting the name of their junior uncle, which convinced Su Mu that the disciples of the Supreme Sect were still alive.

It's strange, isn't it? They hide in prosperous times and emerge in chaotic times. Their fate seems fragile and precarious, like duckweed, yet they always manage to turn the tide at crucial moments.

In the midst of her busyness, she also caught a glimpse of the astonishing scene of Lin Du pulling down the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm amidst the heavy snow. She also witnessed the demons, jostled together by the spiritual energy waves, about to devour human flesh.

The legendary sword genius who had lost his spiritual bones had already swiftly leaped into the air and drawn his sword before the cultivator could even get up.

A sword strike brought down a bolt of lightning, and twenty-seven bolts of lightning descended amidst the falling snow, transforming into rampant sword energy that instantly slain nearly a hundred demons.

Like the end of winter and the prelude to spring.

It turns out that the harsh winter is not so hard to endure; it means that after a period of painful trials, a perfect harvest will finally arrive at the end; it means that spring is coming and there is hope for the future.

After finishing the acupuncture, Su Mu straightened up and gave Lin Du one last look. "That's enough, you can stop now."

Just then, someone knocked on the door. "We are from the Tongtian Sect's Grand Feast. We've brewed a pot of excellent soup that can dispel evil, replenish the spirit, purify the body, and even boost physical strength. Would you like some, fellow Daoist?"

Su Mu responded, "Thank you for your help."

She opened the door. "Give her a big bowl. She's been killing demons for seven days straight, and then she put on a big show. It's time for her to replenish her strength."

Sheng Yan looked up and gazed at the person on the couch.

His white hair was whiter than snow, and he wore only a thin inner garment, the collar slightly loose. He was always carefree and unrestrained, but now he looked even more frail and sickly. Though not as white as jade, he was more like glass. Although he was still prickly like a hedgehog, he could still lazily lift his eyelids and wave at her, "Hey, how's the city?"

"Very good. There were demons disguised as humans hiding in the city. They had settled there long before the demon tide came and sealed the city. It was probably a backup plan left by the demons, trying to coordinate an attack from the inside. We killed them all."

Sheng Yan handed Lin Du a bowl of soup, blending the thin layer of snow into the warmth of the meal.

"Drink up, the battle outside the city is almost over."

Lin Du smiled and thanked him, "I've managed to raid a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm outside the city."

Sheng Yan lowered his gaze, looking at this cultivator who was younger than him but possessed an incredibly strong mind. "What do you mean?"

"We should accept this gift from heaven without hesitation."

Lin Du blinked, took a small sip of the soup, and squinted his eyes in satisfaction. It was so fresh that he felt spiritual energy exploding on his tongue, rich and lingering. "Ah... this is what culinary cultivation is all about."

It looks like a cat that has successfully stolen some fish, but it is actually a black-hearted wolf.

Sheng Yan accepted her invitation, pondering that Lin Du's suggestion of accepting everything was quite interesting.