"Brother, the woman's lamp is out," a man in a tree outside the inn whispered.
"Mm, prepare to move,"
Dozens of people melted into the night, slowly approaching Bai Ran's room.
A thin tube pierced the gauze window, and white smoke filled the room through the tube.
"Action!" Dozens of masked men surged in, but Bai Ran was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is she?"
They were all cultivators in the Golden Core stage. A weak woman shouldn't have been able to detect them.
The man called Brother reached out and felt the bedding. It was cold. She hadn't slept at all?
But her lamp had gone out...
Not good! It's a trap!
"Withdraw!" the man roared.
But terrifyingly, their bodies wouldn't move. Each one was frozen in place.
"Ah!" A scream tore through the silence in the darkness.
"Third Brother!"
Third Brother was in trouble! Damn it! The woman was still inside!
Third Brother gave no response, and silence fell upon the room again.
"Ugh!" A muffled groan, and someone fell to the ground.
The pitch-black room, the cold moonlight outside the window, the white smoke lingering in the air.
Cold sweat trickled down their backs. The fear of dying at any moment washed over them.
"Why can't our bodies move! What did you do!" the man shouted.
This couldn't go on! They would all die here!
The next moment, he saw someone sitting on the bed, a pair of eyes watching him with a smile.
"You finally showed yourself," he stared intently at the person sitting opposite, his brows furrowed with caution and fear.
There was no escape...
The moment the man met those eyes, that thought formed.
What kind of eyes were those? They were like a black panther playing with its prey before the hunt.
"Want to take a look back?" Bai Ran propped her chin and looked at him.
The man suddenly found he could move. He instinctively turned to notify everyone to escape.
When he turned back, something in his mind collapsed. His blood ran icy cold, and his jaw trembled uncontrollably.
Countless silver threads crisscrossed every corner of the room, interwoven. The threads pierced through the lifeless heads of each corpse, their eyes wide open, staring at him.
"Ahhhhhh!" He screamed and crouched down, hugging his head, trembling uncontrollably, looking utterly deranged.
They were dead...
All dead...
Only he was left...
Bai Ran walked over to the man and squatted down, looking at him.
"Go back and tell your master not to be in such a hurry to die."
The man shot up abruptly and ran outside as if mad, disappearing into the night.
Bai Ran watched the man escape, patted her clothes, and stood up. A raging fire ignited behind her, burning all the heads and corpses to ashes.
"Tsk tsk tsk, why would they think of assassinating you?" Jing Feng appeared from the shadows, shaking his head as he looked at the ashes on the ground.
Bai Ran rolled her eyes at him and began to cultivate.
Ever since she advanced to the ninth stage of the Golden Core, the Treasure Pavilion in the Heaven-Slaying Realm had always possessed a mysterious allure, constantly tempting Bai Ran.
Let's go and see.
Bai Ran's consciousness instantly entered the Treasure Pavilion and followed the guidance to the third floor.
This floor, could it be for cultivation techniques?
But typically, one could only learn cultivation techniques after entering the Nascent Soul stage.
She scanned her surroundings. Dust covered many shelves, obscuring various cultivation techniques.
She had never been able to enter the third floor before, but now she had done so with such ease.
On the piled-up shelves, a crimson light shone brightly.
Bai Ran watched, a smile gracing her lips. Red, it truly had a connection with her.
As Bai Ran approached, the ball of light vanished, revealing a book with no words.
As her hand reached out, the book suddenly took flight and plunged directly into Bai Ran's forehead.
Golden characters began to appear on the blank pages of the book, inscribing themselves directly into Bai Ran's mind.
Falling Sun Dance?
A small figure appeared in her mind, continuously demonstrating the first move of the Falling Sun Dance, Blood Rain.
Bai Ran focused her thoughts. Her photographic memory allowed her to perfectly replicate it after just one viewing.
Yet, Bai Ran still repeated it again and again.
Qin Mu Bai, who lived next door, sat cross-legged, outwardly cultivating.
Every time a chilling scream came from the adjacent room, he would flinch, unable to concentrate.
They dared to provoke that female demon? They were courting death.
He offered them three minutes of silence.
"Creak."
Just then, the door slowly opened with a creak, revealing half a head in the darkness, quite terrifying.
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Ahhhhhh!"
Qin Mu Bai, scared out of his wits, stood pressed against the wall, covering his face with his hands.
Another woman's scream caught his attention.
He was perplexed. Ghosts scream too? Qin Mu Bai cautiously opened his eyes and glanced.
Fang Tianhui?
Why was she here?
He saw Fang Tianhui crouched on the ground, clutching her head and trembling.
"You're going to scare me to death in the middle of the night!" Qin Mu Bai said angrily, looking at her.
She lifted her head and cautiously glanced at Qin Mu Bai.
"I... I'm a little scared..."
Fang Tianhui had been cultivating in her room, but late at night, the terrifying screams from Sister Bai's room made her too scared to be alone.
Sister Bai was busy beating people, so she had to come to him, the big scary ghost.
"I'm not a tool! You usually look down on me, and now you come looking for me?"
Qin Mu Bai crossed his arms, feigning displeasure.
It had to be said, Fang Tianhui at this moment looked like a startled rabbit, her eyes red and appearing very pitiable.
While muttering about Fang Tianhui, he pulled her up and draped a silk blanket over her.
"Look at your courage! Useless!" He also handed Fang Tianhui a cup of hot water.
Fang Tianhui held the cup, the warmth gradually spreading to her heart. Her heartbeat felt a little off.
"You were scared too," she mumbled softly.
Qin Mu Bai pouted, not refuting.
"Alright, I'm not kicking you out," he said gruffly.
Qin Mu Bai watched Fang Tianhui sit on the bed, sipping hot water.
She looked quite cute when she wasn't fierce.
He shook his head abruptly. Qin Mu Bai! How could you have such a thought!
But Bai Ran's words echoed in his mind again and again, refusing to fade.
"Her father was killed by a demonized person, and her mother is also gone. If you bully her, don't blame me for being impolite."
How old was she, with both parents gone...
Qin Mu Bai's peripheral vision kept glancing at Fang Tianhui, his eyes full of concern.
The next morning, Bai Ran cleaned up her room and saw two people emerging from a room.
"Hmm?" She sized up the two of them.
Qin Mu Bai and Fang Tianhui had dark circles under their eyes that almost reached the ground, looking so weak they could faint at any second.
"You're hiding things even from me?"
It wasn't that Bai Ran was overthinking, but the scene before her was indeed somewhat misleading.
"It's not like that!" Qin Mu Bai quickly interrupted.
What kind of melodramatic misunderstanding! It's nothing like that at all!