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

Lin Du did not refuse. She could break the formation, but she was purely destructive. The vines stretched across the entire village, almost forming its foundation. If she took action, she would only destroy the village.

Moreover... let Wei Zhi take the blame for this.

Just as Wei Zhi was about to raise his hand, he suddenly seemed to sense something and looked in a certain direction.

Under the moonlight, a hunched old man suddenly appeared outside the barrier, looking at the mess on the ground and the two people standing in the middle with an inscrutable expression.

The taller monk was carrying an unremarkable incense stick, while the child next to him was a head shorter and looked like he was being scolded.

The two men looked over at each other, their eyes suddenly becoming sharp, like thin frost under the cold moon, revealing an unmistakable killing intent.

Lin Du laughed first. She held a folding fan in one hand, having already poured a considerable amount of spiritual energy into it, yet it still showed no fluctuation, only gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "Grandma Ma, the moonlight is poor tonight, what are you doing out here?"

The man gave Lin Du a nonchalant look and said, "You've gotten yourself into big trouble."

Lin Du was still grinning, like a carefree child who was always joking around. "Grandma, it's not my fault. It was all that monk's doing. I only came out when I heard the noise, and then I saw that the monk had blown up the vines."

Wei Zhi, who was standing still and inexplicably burdened with a false accusation: ...

Fortunately, he's already taken the blame for so many things, one more won't make a difference.

Granny Ma stared intently at Wei Zhi, sensing the unfathomable power of his cultivation. Without a word, she turned her gaze back to Lin Du. "You've been to my courtyard in Phoenix City. Now you probably know something, and you still dare to approach me?"

Lin Du laughed and said, "Compared to that monk, I still prefer being with someone like you with so much hair, Grandma. If I were old and still had this much hair and looked this good, I would wake up laughing in my dreams."

Wei Zhi hadn't realized Lin Du was so cheeky before. After thinking about it for a while, he suddenly thought it was quite nice that she was Yan Ye's apprentice.

Yan Ye's head of white hair might even go bald from anger caused by that little apprentice.

Granny Ma listened to Lin Du's glib tongue, and a smile crept onto her face. "If I said that this vine is indeed related to me, but it's not my vine, would you believe me?"

"What's there to disbelieve?" Lin Du blinked his large, bright eyes, which were unusually dark when he looked at people normally. "You don't even need to explain to me, because I need your help, and you're the one who explained. You're truly a living bodhisattva."

Granny Ma glanced at Wei Zhi again. Apart from wearing a monk's robe, he was also wearing a bamboo hat, so it was hard to tell whether he was a real monk. However, Lin Du was a disciple of the Supreme Sect. The disciples of the Supreme Sect had different characteristics, but there would not be one who would be so unorthodox as to wear a monk's robe.

"However, I do vaguely recognize this person; he's someone I treated before."

A dark glint flashed in Lin Du's eyes. "Is that so?"

"Five hundred years ago, I saved a man who slaughtered a village of Gu. I don't know why, but I noticed something strange about him. His body was transformed from a piece of red willow branch, and he was on the verge of collapse at that time."

Granny Ma smiled and said, "So I gave him a new body using the spirit vine from that Gu Village."

The more Lin Du listened, the deeper his smile became. With his eyes lowered, the spiritual energy in the Floating Life Fan in his hand accumulated more and more.

Fortunately, although the Floating Life Fan lacks another accompanying spiritual treasure, it has been imprinted with Lin Du's divine sense, making it Lin Du's possession. Its fan surface reflects the floating life of its owner, so it only contains frost and snow, and temporarily absorbing a little spiritual power is not a problem.

"So this spirit vine is his true form?"

"No, it's more like a split body. I just didn't expect that he would actually cultivate a split body."

Lin Du gave an "oh," his voice strangely excited, "Grandma, what if I told you that after he killed the Gu Master, he created even more Gu Masters?"

Granny Ma seemed not to have heard clearly, or perhaps she had, but she asked again, "What did you say?"

Lin Du raised his eyes, a strange smile flashing in his dark pupils. "Among the outer disciples of the Flying Star Sect, as far as I know, there are quite a few Gu Masters. I even killed one myself."

"Does your mother-in-law know about that man's background?"

"I heal people without asking about their background. Only righteous disciples like you would honestly state your names. After I healed him, I never saw him again." Granny Ma's face showed a rare hint of coldness. "It was only later, when I passed through this village on my way up the mountain, that I discovered this spirit vine in the village."

"The villagers call this the Moonlight Vine, and they say they are blessed by the Moon Goddess."

As she spoke, she suddenly reached out, and a flower landed in her hand from a distance. "One morning, a child died. The unmarried girl, dressed neatly, left with a smile on her face. But the villagers said that the moon goddess had come to take away her bride."

After Granny Ma finished speaking, she lowered her head and smiled, "There was no crying in the village, and some people were even smiling."

"So, that girl... is in your house now?" Lin Du stood in front of her, but his gaze was not on the flowers, but on her eyes.

Granny Ma's eyes weren't those of an old woman. Although her eyelids were loose and drooping, she probably had round eyes when she was young. Now that she was old, her dark eyes still held a watery gleam, and for some reason, they had a sense of pity about them.

"I just happen to need two maids to serve me."

As she spoke, she couldn't help but recall the first time she met that little girl.

Back then, Qinglu Village hadn't reached such a frenzied level. Two little girls were washing clothes together by the river, laughing and joking. They weren't in a hurry to go back. They picked a few flowers to play with. When they turned around and saw Granny Ma coming down the mountain, they ran over to help her. Seeing the flowers and plants in her basket, they assumed she was picking flowers to sell in the city. They put the few orchids that were about to bloom into the bamboo basket.

She vaguely remembered that day when the children were playing by the river, saying, "I wonder what Phoenix City is like. I'll go out and see it someday."

"It's a pity we probably won't be able to get into the city this year. Last year's harvest wasn't even enough to feed our own people. This year, the weather is cold and we're up the mountain late, so all the mountain produce has already been trampled by wild animals."

Granny Ma was never a kind person, but seeing everyone in the village happy except for the little girl hiding by the river crying, she asked, "Sister, you've become the Moon Goddess's bride. The dowry she left is enough for the village to eat for a long time, but will the bride herself be able to enjoy it? Will the Moon Goddess be in Phoenix City?"

The Moon Goddess is certainly not in Phoenix City.

Granny Ma looked at the little girl, and for reasons unknown, she turned and left a curse mark on the corpse as she passed by the village.

This village was originally a burial ground surrounded by mountains and water, a place where the body could remain unharmed even after seven days of mourning.

So, seven days after his death and burial, a girl appeared in the small courtyard covered with vines in Phoenix City.

The girl had entered the city on her own thanks to Granny Ma's corpse-controlling technique. When the guards heard that she was Granny Ma's maid, they let her pass without asking for any spirit stones to enter the city.

The little girl, like her sister, became the moon goddess's bride and fell into a silent sleep one morning.

So the two sisters reunited in Phoenix. Their wish in life was fulfilled in death, but it was a belated and distorted kind of fulfillment.

Granny Ma pulled herself out of her reverie and looked up at Lin Du.

Lin Du was far more cunning than those two children. Children from the mountains are simple and clever; such children are shrewd and resourceful, forged through the trials and tribulations of the world.

Even if you know she's playing tricks on you, you can't bring yourself to dislike her.

It's probably not as fun to be dead as to be alive, so never mind.

Granny Ma couldn't explain why she was so indulgent towards Lin Du. She simply said, "Anyway, that's how it is. It was just a moment of kindness. You mentioned the Flying Star Sect earlier. Was that person from the Flying Star Sect?"

Lin Du thought he was probably right.

On that day, Yin Zhong was present outside the secret realm, and Yin Zhong's eldest disciple, Tao Xian, came to rescue Shao Fei, saying that the elders said they should spare no effort to bring Shao Fei back.

Tao Xian's divine abode had been tampered with, and since she was from this village, she didn't know what other people's masters were like. Putting aside that monster Yan Ye, just looking at Ju Yuan's anxious attitude towards Mo Lin's body, if Yin Zhong were a proper master, he wouldn't have failed to notice Tao Xian's strangeness.

Yin Zhong is now one of the most influential elders in the Flying Star Sect, but the chaos in the outer sect of the Flying Star Sect is a recent phenomenon.

When all the coincidences come together, they are no longer coincidences.

Mo Lin's tragedies in both his past and present lives are related to Shao Fei and the Flying Star Sect. Lin Du is determined to settle this score.

Even if she doesn't yet have enough evidence to definitively pinpoint the mastermind, Lin Du is best at saying one thing to one person and another to another. If she wants to bring Granny Ma to her side, cure Mo Lin, and not hinder her elimination plan, then regardless of whether Yin Zhong is the mastermind or not, he must be the mastermind now.

She was saved by Granny Ma, and became the mastermind behind the rampant use of Gu magic.

Lin Du's clear black and white eyes flashed with a resolute glint, then he suddenly smiled, revealing his prominent canine teeth. "Although I am young and fond of joking, I am still a disciple of the Supreme Sect, and I cannot break the precept against lying. What do you say?"

Wei Zhi silently turned his face away, pretending he hadn't heard.