After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

Tang Li felt her heart pounding uncontrollably again.

At the same time, she closed her eyes almost numbly.

Although you should be mentally prepared when entering a bizarre instance, this journey has been far too bumpy.

"Huh?" The voice behind me was still curious. "Isn't that you?"

"Why don't you turn around and look at me?"

The little girl sighed heavily, stared at the wine jar in front of her, and said wearily, "I'm afraid that if I see your face, you will kill me."

Ah, doesn't this sound familiar?

The person behind them noticed this as well and chuckled softly, "This is our second meeting... why are you still so cautious?"

Yes, the murderer who killed the flower girl was standing right behind her.

A cold hand landed on Tang Li's shoulder, and the person behind her asked, "Why aren't you practicing martial arts at 'Jie Bailing'? What are you doing here?"

Tang Li calmly took out the book "Xingtian Manual" from her bosom and waved it with her back to him.

"This isn't you pointing out a clear path for me, but wanting to follow it... all the way to the dark."

"We only gave you two days..." The person behind her casually grabbed her wrist, pinching and grinding it with their thumb and forefinger, unable to help but marvel at her remarkable agility, "Wow, you've already started training?"

Jiang Hui's words in the live stream suddenly popped into Tang Li's mind: Evil arts are inherently against the will of Heaven, capable of forcibly altering the talents of those who lack them.

Therefore, those behind her naturally attributed the improvement in her physical constitution after taking the pills to the effect of practicing the [Xingtian Technique].

Tang Li raised her eyelids without changing her expression: "Yes, I think I have a great talent for this."

The little girl grinned, her voice echoing eerily in the dark depths of the earth.

"I heard that there are 'good materials' for practicing martial arts in 'Snowy Pavilion', but I don't have any money," Tang Li "frankly" told the person behind her. "So, I had no choice but to sneak in and take a look."

"Who knew that after all this twists and turns," she sighed again, with a hint of the embarrassment of an unlucky person, "I somehow ended up here through some unknown hidden door, without getting any good stuff and getting lost myself."

"You..." Tang Li asked earnestly at the end, "Could you... take me out?"

The person behind her burst into a loud laugh, and even the hand on Tang Li's shoulder trembled.

"I have to say, you really are..." With a swift movement, the hand moved from her shoulder to her neck, and the person easily grabbed Tang Li's neck. Their mouth was right next to her ear, and the voice, which wasn't unpleasant, had a sinister, serpentine quality to it.

Have you ever seen a thief break into a house, steal, and then ask the homeowner to open the door and let him out?

Tang Li's eyelashes trembled slightly, her body tensed, but her tone remained calm: "This place is actually your property?"

She coughed lightly, "I was truly blind to your greatness. I'm so sorry. I thought you and I were kindred spirits."

—I thought you and I were both here to steal.

The chilling aura, like a venomous snake's tongue, vanished like mist, and the man leaned on her shoulder, laughing incessantly. He seemed genuinely worried for her: "I've caught you, Little Tang Li, what are we going to do?"

He knows my name.

Tang Li blinked. "How about this? Give me a chance, forgive me this time. Once I return to 'Jie Bailing,' as long as my physical constitution improves, my status within the sect will rise higher and higher. I'm willing to sacrifice the sect's interests for you."

"You didn't intend to kill me anyway," she calmly advised. "Otherwise, why would you have given me the 'Xingtian Manual'?"

"Hmm..." The person behind him pondered for a moment, then suddenly laughed, "Alright, alright, I really can't bear to kill a little guy like you who's suited for evil arts."

"However, there's one thing you're wrong about."

"You don't have a natural talent for practicing evil arts," he said casually. "Practicing evil arts doesn't require talent. As long as you are ruthless and cruel enough, the more lives you take, the more your skills will improve."

"To achieve this in just two days," the hand finally left her neck, leaving a burning sting, "you truly deserve the title of vicious."

That's why he valued Tang Li.

"Now, turn around and come with me."

As he spoke, the man turned around and led the way.

Tang Li immediately followed. At this point, he couldn't possibly kill her. She stared at the man's dark back, finding no other clues besides that he was a tall, slender man.

He merely made conversation by asking, "What are these... wine jars for?"

The man didn't even turn his head, just chuckled and said, "That one?"

"Some of my old friends are inside."

Tang Li's face scrunched up as bloody and gruesome scenes flashed through her mind.

"I didn't harm them," the man smiled. "I'll take you to see them sometime, and they'll rave about me."

Where are you going to take me to see them? To underground?

"Oh, it's time you knew who I was," the man said slowly, then suddenly stopped and turned to look at her with a smile.

It was an unfamiliar face.

He had a high, straight nose, thin lips, beautiful eyes, and slanted eyebrows that swept towards his temples, with a bright red cinnabar mole between his eyebrows.

A face that could be described as that of a handsome young man.

He was dressed entirely in a black robe, with a single, dazzling peach blossom embroidered diagonally on it. He certainly didn't look like a rampant, bloodthirsty cult member.

"My surname is Xia," he smiled and casually uttered a name, "Xia Feilin."

Upon hearing those three words, Tang Li knew that this person would not let her go any longer and would make her follow him to the very end.

Xia Feilin, one of the four most famous assassins in the martial arts world, alongside Han Zhou and "Sha Zi"... and also the one with the best reputation.

Fang Yingjie introduced her to this man, saying that he was known among the people of the martial arts world as "a man of chivalry and righteousness, with a warm heart."

The result was that they were people practicing evil arts.

Xia Feilin looked down at Tang Li's expression and knew that if she didn't react as he wanted, she would probably be beheaded right now.

So Tang Li smiled politely and said, "My surname is Tang, Tang Li."

"You really are..." Xia Feilin's thin lips curved up again. "Let's go."

"Didn't you want to sneak in and steal some cultivation 'materials' to take out?" His voice came from the front unhurriedly. "Since you've come all this way, it wouldn't be right to let you go back empty-handed."

Tang Li: ...Oh no.

Is he going to stuff a bunch of living people into my hands and have me refine them on the spot?

The two walked one after the other. Xia Feilin pushed open several hidden doors first, and after a few twists and turns, they soon arrived at a proper corridor, with a lamp appearing at intervals on both sides of the wall.

Tang Li thought to herself, "Luckily, I met Xia Feilin. Otherwise, with my own abilities, I don't know when I would be able to get out."

Just as Tang Li was following Xia Feilin, her thoughts racing, she heard hurried yet light footsteps approaching, and a person carrying a lantern appeared ahead.

They were wearing the same clothes as the guards.

The newcomer looked anxious. Upon seeing Xia Feilin, he bowed deeply and said, "Sir, something has happened in the building! A man and a woman are causing a ruckus, and they've killed all the brothers from Team One and Team Two!"

A man and a woman? Tang Li quietly pricked up her ears.