If the compass had been pointing in the wrong direction from the start, then from the moment he set out, he was destined to follow a mistaken path. No matter how precise Aunt Lou's calculations were, he wouldn't have been able to encounter the person he was seeking.

And if the compass's direction was wrong, the only one who could have tampered with it was Yin Wushu, who had given him the compass.

Yin Wushu again...

In that moment when this thought flashed through his mind, Xie Bai felt a surge of frustration rising within him, but just as the anger began to overwhelm him, a profound sense of confusion enveloped his mind.

Why did Yin Wushu throw him away and go on his own...

Why did Yin Wushu tamper with that book, " trivial talk by the western window"...

Why did Yin Wushu insist on accompanying him throughout the demonic market, indulging in all the foods he had ever wanted to eat as if they might not see each other for a long time...

And even why was Yin Wushu always willing to accompany him from the beginning...

Suddenly, various events seemed to connect—when Lou Xianyue finished divining the direction, Xie Bai intended to set out, Yin Wushu's attitude was almost abnormal in its casualness. Now thinking back, it wasn't casual at all; he had planned everything from that moment, intending to lead him astray from the very start.

Xie Bai was bewildered.

His puzzlement wasn't because he didn't know what Yin Wushu was up to; on the contrary, he could almost guess Yin Wushu's intentions without much thought. Whether Yin Wushu had feelings or not, whether he cared or not, he wouldn't harm him, nor was it possible or necessary.

Yin Wushu's purpose in doing so was either to forcibly prevent him from finding that person or to find that person for him, both ultimately aimed at protecting him.

Xie Bai wasn't naive nor was he ungrateful; he wouldn't deny the goodness Yin Wushu had shown him over the past hundred years just because Yin Wushu had thrown him out in the end. In fact, it was precisely because he remembered it all that he couldn't let go even after a hundred years had passed.

He was just bewildered by Yin Wushu's fluctuating attitude.

Since he had already proven his indifference with nine days and nights of seclusion and a hundred and thirty-two years of time, why bother being kind to him again...

Was it a resurgence of compassion for the abandoned kittens and puppies after so long, or was there another hidden motive?

Xie Bai furrowed his brows, stood up abruptly, and strode toward the door of the hut.

He wanted to see Yin Wushu.

Whether it was the former or the latter, he wanted to see Yin Wushu now!

The merman nearby hadn't noticed the change in his expression. After rolling around in the room for a while, he muttered in confusion, "This room looks incredibly mysterious, but since coming in, nothing seems to have happened. It's quite warm here compared to the icy world outside; it's a great place to avoid the cold. I wouldn't mind staying here for a few more days—What? Are we leaving already after resting?"

He had barely finished muttering when he noticed Xie Bai lifting the old-fashioned wooden latch on the door, so he got up from the ground as well.

However, before he could straighten his back, Xie Bai's movements with the door latch suddenly became louder. When he looked up toward the door, Xie Bai slapped the door abruptly, making a loud "bang" sound, startling the merman, who recoiled, "Hey—what's wrong with you?!"

Xie Bai replied expressionlessly, "The door won't open," then turned around and kicked the door with force.

A thunderous "clang" reverberated through the hut, shaking it as if it were about to collapse, but it remained steadfastly intact.

The merman: "..."

Xie Bai stood there staring at the door for a moment, then turned to glance at the closed window. Turning back to the merman, he said, "We're locked in here."

His tone was extremely calm, and his expression mirrored the quietness. But for some reason, this extreme calmness inexplicably sent a chill down the merman's spine. He remembered his sister once saying that the quieter and calmer someone appeared, the more terrifying they were when truly angry—not in a hysterical way, but in a way that suggested they could explode and destroy an entire city in the next second.

And that was exactly the feeling Xie Bai was giving him now.

At first, the merman was startled by his words. He glanced around, then cautiously looked at Xie Bai's expression and said, "Is this room really a trap? Then what do we—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Xie Bai coldly raised his hand to signal, "Stand in the corner and bring my cat over."

"Hey! I'm pretty strong too, you know! Haven't you seen all these muscles?" The merman was immediately displeased upon hearing this, but before he could protest any further, he was met with a cold glare from Xie Bai. Reluctantly, he bent down to reach for the little black cat.

However, the cat dodged him and moved to the corner on its own.

The merman hurried to the corner and pointed at the cat angrily, "Even you're avoiding me—what the hell?! Are you going to demolish the house or the mountain?!"

Before he could finish his accusation against the cat, he was stunned by the sudden commotion caused by Xie Bai.

Black mist transformed into countless sharp blades, crazily roaming around the entire room, relentlessly striking the walls of the cabin. Each impact left a trail of golden light, sparks flying, blinding to the eyes.

The black blades, seemingly agile and lightweight, were actually incredibly powerful with each strike, producing sounds akin to thunder and wooden impacts. Not only did they assault the cabin, but even the stone platform under their feet and the entire mountain trembled.

The merman dared not boast about his strength or muscles anymore; he pressed himself against the wall, feeling as though the cabin might collapse at any moment, taking them all down into the abyss.

Even if the stone platform didn't crack, the mountain might collapse. He could almost hear the faint rumble through the continuous impacts.

As he listened carefully to the rumbling, his face turned pale. It seemed like the avalanche had already started...

Just as he was scared out of his wits by Xie Bai's momentum, he suddenly realized that the roaming black blades weren't striking randomly; they seemed to be following a certain formation, each strike adhering to a pattern. It was just that the pattern was too complex for him to decipher immediately.

Xie Bai remained in the center of the room, brow furrowed, face cold, manipulating all the black blades. Black threads extended from under his feet, spreading out like a spider's web in all directions along the walls, covering the entire room.

As the merman truly heard the sound of the stone platform beneath them cracking, Xie Bai lightly commanded amidst the swirling blades, "Open!"

The entire cabin trembled as if being pulled apart by countless hands from the outside. The walls on all sides were torn apart amidst the splattering golden light, and with a loud explosion, they shattered into ruins.

In the swirling dust and the sudden gust of cold wind, Xie Bai threw out a spiritual Yin gate, one hand catching the little black cat that leaped onto him, the other grabbing the awkwardly walking merman. With a step, he stepped into the spiritual Yin gate.

As soon as the black mist disappeared, the entire half of Mount Guha, along with the stone platform, collapsed with a thunderous roar, chunks of shattered rock and sliding snow cascading down...

This time, Xie Bai didn't bother to step every few steps along the road, but instead directly opened the way to Guyang Street. While Mount Guha was in the extreme northwest, Guyang Street was in the east-southeast, and the distance between them was astonishing even if straightened out, so even with the spiritual Yin gate opened, it wasn't a blink of an eye to get there.

Inside the spiritual Yin gate was a dark and exceptionally cold environment, completely unbearable for ordinary people.

The merman followed Xie Bai's small steps for a long time before he couldn't help but ask, "Why is this road so cold? It's like it's been opened straight from the underworld. Do you usually walk on such cold and dark paths? Isn't it uncomfortable?"

Xie Bai, with a cold face, didn't want to pay him any mind, but the merman kept mumbling on and on.

Finally, Xie Bai couldn't stand it anymore and simply said, "It's a matter of constitution."

The merman turned to look at him but couldn't see anything in the pitch-black darkness. He suddenly felt a bit braver and said, "I used to think that Lord Yin Wushu or Lord Yinkè, they were all figures who controlled life and death in the demonic spirit realm, they must have been very imposing, able to do whatever they wanted. But now I see... They're indeed powerful, but it seems like they're not living as comfortably as ordinary demonic spirits, right?"

Xie Bai casually replied, "Everyone has their own fate." Then he raised his hand and slashed, and the endless dark path came to an end.

They stepped out onto Guyang Street, and this time Xie Bai didn't make a mistake in the location, landing right at the gate of the Tai Xuan Dao.

Although it hadn't been long since their last visit, everything felt a bit unfamiliar.

The merman touched the stone beast squatting in front of the gate, looking silly as he asked, "Where are we?"

Xie Bai knocked twice heavily on the ancient-style door knocker, then pushed open the heavy door without hesitation and strode in, saying, "Tai Xuan Dao."

The commotion caused by Xie Bai's entry alerted the people inside the building. He saw a Feng Li dashing down from upstairs like a gust of wind, skidding to a stop in front of Xie Bai, looking bewildered. "My lord? Why are you here?"

Before he could finish speaking, a white figure also rolled down from upstairs, hands in sleeves, and puzzledly asked Xie Bai, "My lord, weren't you going to find that array person? How did you resolve it so quickly?!"

As soon as he saw Li Dong, Xie Bai felt a slight relief in his heart. "Where's Yin Wushu?"

But Li Dong exclaimed, "Ah!" and replied, "Lord Yin hasn't come back yet. He's still missing about ten hearts, but he's not at ease with just Feng Li guarding Tai Xuan Dao alone, so he sent me back first."

Xie Bai's heart suddenly jumped, furrowing his brow. "Where is he now?"

Li Dong shook his head. "I don't know. The lord's hiding places are strange and remote, with so many locations. You don't even know, let alone me."

"Then where was he before you came back?" Xie Bai asked again.

"At the demonic market," Li Dong replied. "It was after coming out of the demonic market that he asked me to come back first."

Xie Bai: "..."

Feeling something amiss in the tone, Li Dong couldn't help but ask, "My lord, is something wrong for you to be in such a hurry to inquire about Lord Yin's whereabouts?"

Xie Bai furrowed his brow and shook his head, too preoccupied to answer. Instead, he turned and headed straight for the Xianyue Tavern.

With no one knowing Yin Wushu's whereabouts, he had no choice but to directly consult Lou Xianyue for a divination. Regardless of where it led, he was determined to find Yin Wushu!

 

Translator : DarNan