Chapter 984: Destiny

"Sect Master, we have already traced it!"

The Elder of the Mysterious Gate hurried over to report, Chu Shanhe inhaled deeply: "Who exactly killed Wu'er?!"

"It is said to be a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator named Han Wuxian; back then he...", the Elder recounted the incident, and Chu Shanhe was left breathless!

"Han, Wu, Xian!" Chu Shanhe's five fingers dug deep into the rosewood desk, the Great Vehicle Stage pressure causing the entire hall's pillars to groan under the strain.

The jade tablet on the desk recorded all the killer's information: mid-Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, originally a lone cultivator, habitually wielding a broken bronze short sword. Most ironic was that this person murdered publicly in a market under the Mysterious Gate's jurisdiction.

The Steward Elder kneeling on the ground had blood seeping from his forehead: "After the thief killed, he shouted 'Chu Huaiwu forcibly abducted a civilian woman, should be killed', provoking many lone cultivators to cause a ruckus..."

Before the words finished, his whole body suddenly rose three feet off the ground, his neck seized by an invisible force.

"So you let a Foundation Establishment ant swagger away?" Chu Shanhe's eyes flickered with crimson flame, and behind him the illusory form of the Mysterious Gate's sect treasure "Mysterious Gate" appeared.

The ten‑hundred‑thousand living‑spirit pattern carved on the gate was writhing; those were the souls of enemies refined through the ages: "Our Mysterious Gate's authority—when will it be the lone cultivators' turn to trample?"

The Steward Elder's skin began to crack, yet he dared not channel his energy to resist: "At that time a mysterious person interfered with the heavenly mechanism, waiting for us..."

"Enough!" Chu Shanhe flicked his sleeve, hurling the person into a hall pillar, then turned toward the shadows: "All Shadow Guards, mobilize, bring that bastard back alive."

Twelve black silhouettes silently knelt and bowed, each with a soul‑binding chain soaked in blood‑killing aura around their waists: "Remember, I want him to watch his own spirit be scorched by Nine‑Nether Fire for three thousand six hundred days!"

Outside the hall, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded; a beautiful woman staggered in: "Ancestor! Wu'er's soul lantern..." The bronze lantern she held, which should have nurtured the soul with Spiritual Fire, had instead turned an eerie black.

Chu Shanhe's pupils contracted sharply; this was the mark of a forbidden technique that subjects the soul to eternal torment!

"How daring!" Shanhe's cauldron thundered onto the ground, its mouth spewing blood‑light that dyed the clouds within a hundred‑mile radius crimson.

Ten senior Elders of the Mysterious Gate who were in seclusion awoke simultaneously; the echo of the Sect Master's furious transmission exploded in their Sea of Knowledge: "Activate the Celestial Star Array! Seal all teleportation arrays in the Nan Ting Mountain Region!"

The beautiful woman suddenly grabbed Chu Shanhe's sleeve: "That wretched maid... the mortal woman Wu'er brought back has disappeared!"

She dug her fingernail deep into her palm: "It must be that she colluded with outside thieves to harm my Wu'er!"

Chu Shanhe's complexion turned ominously feral.

He performed a finger‑seal to summon a water mirror; within it replayed Chu Huaiwu's dying moment: a brocade‑clad youth pierced through the brow by a bronze short sword, the wielder a plain‑faced young cultivator.

In the corner, the plain‑clothed woman whom Chu Shanhe had previously ordered to be spared calmly wiped the blood from her hands.

"So it was you..." Chu Shanhe suddenly laughed, his laughter shaking the hall tiles into a rattling fall.

"Damn Yan Buji!"

The water mirror suddenly shattered, and the splintered fragments reflected his twisted visage: "Issue the Mysterious Gate execution order: anyone providing Han Wuxian's whereabouts will be rewarded with ten thousand Supreme Spirit Stones! Those captured will be granted a Great Vehicle preaching!"

"Sect Master!" the Grand Elder hurriedly cautioned, "Such a heavy reward may attract all factions..."

"Are you teaching me how to act?" Chu Shanhe kicked the incense burner, the ash in the air coalescing into Han Wuxian's portrait: "Dispatch the order to every city: from today all Foundation Establishment Stage lone cultivators must undergo soul‑searching! Those who shelter them, exterminated nine families!"

The entire Mysterious Gate boiled instantly. Three thousand law‑enforcement disciples poured out, and on the crystal steles erected at each city gate, Han Wuxian's portrait was imbued with a tracking curse— even a glance would trigger an alarm.

Even more terrifying was Chu Shanhe's personally performed "Bloodline Tracing Technique"; all cultivators who had ever contacted Han Wuxian now bore the imprint of the Mysterious Gate in their Sea of Knowledge.

"This day is not called heaven, it's like an inverted bowl, a tightly sealed pot lid. We cultivators are merely frogs in warm water; when we know death, it is already certain."

A young man walked down the road muttering to himself, followed by a plain‑clothed woman, silent and taciturn.

"By the way, miss, what's your name?"

"You.... you helped me kill that person, yet you still don't know my surname or given name?"

"I despise bullies who prey on women the most; that guy tried to force, and I couldn't stand it," the young man laughed.

"I..." the woman began, but suddenly a Threefold Transformation demon beast leapt out ahead!

The young man hurriedly pulled the woman close, standing ready as the clawed demon beast snarled: "Miss, be careful, this beast is hard to deal with."

The beast's crimson pupils contracted into lines in the darkness, its barbed tail sweeping the ground, carving three deep trenches.

The young man thrust the plain‑clothed woman toward an old tree behind him, the bronze short sword in his palm emitting a cold, forest‑green arc.

"A Threefold Transformation bone‑chilling lizard..." he licked his cracked lips: "Miss, watch my hand signal and run east later."

The lizard's spinal bone spikes suddenly erupted, its poison glands spewing violet mist that instantly corroded the surrounding shrubs. The young man's collar caught the mist, emitting green smoke, yet he grinned: "Perfect, my specialty is skinning reptiles!" The short sword suddenly burst with blood‑colored light beyond its broken form, ancient runes appearing on the blade, causing the plain‑clothed woman's pupils to narrow.

"Roar!" As the lizard lunged, the young man's figure bizarrely split into three.

Two phantom images were torn apart by sharp claws, while the true body emerged beneath the beast's belly, the blade carving a scarlet blood line upward. The foul‑stinking entrails splashed over his head and face, yet the young man suddenly changed color: "Wrong!"

The lizard, which should have perished, suddenly swelled its skeleton; flesh fell away like rotten mud, revealing a blackened bone armor inside.

The woman cried out, "It's a Fourfold Transformation bone‑demon lizard! It has shed its skin and advanced!" The beast's newly formed vertical pupils locked onto the young man, a gray light flashing instantly.

"Damn!" the young man snarled, rolling wildly, his left shoulder still brushed by the gray light.

Creepy to the bone, the wound's flesh began to ossify; within three breaths the entire left arm turned into a pale bone sculpture. Worse, the ossification spread toward the chest.

The plain‑clothed woman suddenly rushed forward, her fingertip pressing on his seventh vertebra: "Don't move!"

A cool breath surged in, temporarily halting the ossification. The young man was astonished to find the seemingly frail woman's technique terrifyingly precise, each finger striking a vital meridian point.

"Thank you, miss!"

The bone‑demon lizard emitted a mocking hiss, thirty‑six bone spears sprouting around it. At the brink of death, the young man's right palm struck hard, gathering all his cultivation into a single point, instantly erupting an over‑eight‑meter massive pillar of light that pierced the Fourfold Transformation beast.

The woman stared, surprise flashing in her eyes: "Light Path Principle?"