“Azure An! Don’t go too far!”

“Oh? And if I do? If you’ve got the guts, get up now and kill me.” Nana Toki sneered, cold as frost on steel.

The Heavenly Ascent Sect disciple bound by Tortoiseshell Bind: “...” This woman didn’t follow any script at all.

“I’ll give you ten seconds to think. When the sand runs out, if you don’t tell the truth—heh—I won’t be gentle.”

Nana Toki sat on a little stool with hoodlum swagger, a grin like a street dog baring fangs. That meaningful, wicked smile made the hairs on his back bristle like a field of needles.

“You… you’ll get nothing about my sect from me!” Fear flickered first, then he shouted to stiffen his spine. He forced on a martyr’s calm, ready-to-die mask. Nana Toki had seen too many paper tigers; a little pressure and the painted courage peeled off.

“Fine. Let’s see how faithful your heart is to the Heavenly Ascent Sect.” She rolled her eyes, didn’t argue, and began her count. “Ten, nine, eight, two—”

“W–wait!” Her count jumped from eight to two, and the disciple froze. “What about seven? Do you not even know how to count?!”

“You talk too damn much. How I count’s none of your business!” Nana Toki ignored his flailing, reached for his robe to yank it loose. “You’ve decided not to talk anyway. Give you time and you’ll just waste it. I might as well strip you and go find the next pack trying to hunt me.”

“...” This woman was poison.

They bickered in place for a bit. In the end, under Nana Toki’s pressure, the Heavenly Ascent Sect disciple agreed to spill the truth about that year’s events.

A year ago, after the Wildbeast Wasteland expedition, the sect was turned on its head. First, the Boundless Peak’s master, Zhao Zhan, died—yes, died in the Wasteland to a Longarm Demon Ape. That was what Li Qian, who escaped the Wasteland, swore he saw. Nana Toki didn’t buy it. She had lured the ape, sure, but Zhao Zhan was Golden Core, with escape tricks like stars in the sky. Even Li Qian—whom she’d knocked out cold—came back fine. How would a living, breathing Golden Core die to some ape? Don’t give her that “Li Qian’s luck is blessed” nonsense. He wasn’t the protagonist. Luck doesn’t bend for him. Something stank.

“So your Boundless Peak’s master died—what’s that got to do with me?” The ape was there before she arrived. If they wanted to pin it on her, they needed a reason. Why insist she killed Zhao Zhan?

“Uh… actually, his death doesn’t have much to do with you. The reason it touches you is the Immortal Phoenix Flame Grass on you.” The disciple glanced at Nana Toki, cautious as a bird in a storm. “The Third Elder fell into qi deviation from grief after Zhao Peak Master died. To heal, he needs Immortal Phoenix Flame Grass, a treasure rare as snow in summer. Some disciples said you found one in the Wasteland, so the sect sent people to track you.”

“But I’d already faked my death. Why burn time digging into a corpse’s trail?” Nana Toki was stunned. Their thinking was skewed; they didn’t even spare the dead.

“Mm… this goes back to Peak Master Yu and Peak Master Du.”

“Peak Master Yu?” Nana Toki caught the odd note. The seven peaks of the Heavenly Ascent Sect had no master surnamed Yu. “Tianqi Yu?” When did he become a peak master?

“Yeah, him.” The disciple’s face showed a touch of envy. “No idea what he was thinking. When Peak Master Du said you died to beasts in the Wasteland, Peak Master Yu flat-out claimed Du was lying. Later, the elders verified it, and Yu became the new master of Boundless Peak. Can’t deny the guy’s luck.”

“Verified? How?” Nana Toki arched a brow. The plot wasn’t as simple as she imagined.

Since Du Fei Yu didn’t betray her, how did the Protagonist Lord learn she faked her death?

“I don’t know what trick Peak Master Yu used first. In the end, the Third Elder performed a spiritual probe on Peak Master Du in front of the entire sect, forced out everything that happened in the Wasteland.”

Tsk. Of course.

The Plot God was at it again.

The Protagonist Lord’s arc had almost collapsed, yet the plot stitched it back using another expendable.

Zhao Zhan died; his master, the Third Elder, fell into qi deviation from love for his disciple. It sounded natural, but the taste was strange.

Set aside the noise. With Zhao gone, Boundless Peak largely fell under Tianqi Yu’s hand, neatly patching the hole left by him failing to take Majestic Peak. As for the Holy Fruit of Illusory Feathers and the Immortal Phoenix Flame Grass—did Tianqi Yu not get either?

Nana Toki dared a bold guess. That conniving Heaven Dao would later toss out two substitutes with similar effects, letting Tianqi Yu refine pills and mend his hidden ailments anyway.

“So now the entire sect knows Azure An isn’t dead?” Nana Toki drew a long breath. Worthy of a xianxia protagonist—the aura clung like dye you couldn’t scrub.

Pressed by her question, the disciple didn’t dare answer. His silence said enough. She’d planned to gift Majestic Peak to Du Fei Yu as easy goodwill, but she’d only put him in danger. The taste in her mouth turned bitter.

“Fine. If you won’t answer, I’ll take it as a yes. As we agreed—tell me the sequence of events, and I let you go. Report back or not, I won’t stop you. Do as you please.”

Nana Toki undid the Tortoiseshell Bind on him, then turned to leave with the others behind her.

She was rational. She wouldn’t go charging back for revenge just because someone who once helped her ran into trouble.

“Move. We’re going to Fengdu Ghost City.”

After releasing the Heavenly Ascent Sect disciple, Nana Toki led Blue Magpie and the rest north.

Now that the truth was exposed, she wouldn’t play hide and seek anymore.

They wanted to hunt her? She’d return the favor and paint them in their own colors.

Fengdu Ghost City carried a fearsome name among mortals, a gate said to bridge the human and demon realms. Nana Toki was headed there because the Nether River that breeds the Eight Cornered Ghost Algae Fish runs through it. By her original plan, she’d go to Tianshan first to find the Thousand-Year Frost Silkworm. Fengdu was danger stacked like thunderheads, and she worried barging in would cost precious time.

But now she changed her mind.

She remembered the Protagonist Lord had another golden finger in Fengdu.

She’d go to snatch the Eight Cornered Ghost Algae Fish—and snap that golden finger on the way.

Fengdu’s called a capital, but not quite. It’s built upon the Nether River. Only by riding the ferrymen’s boats can one see the city’s full face when night grows thick as ink.

It’s a strange existence.

The System’s files said the city’s residents are people who once died. For reasons beyond telling, they couldn’t enter reincarnation, so they linger in the mortal world—a demon branch called the ghost race.

They aren’t mist and moan, but bodies forged from stubborn thoughts that refused to fade. They live in Fengdu, blood and flesh, much like ordinary folk. Many are strong cultivators. But none can step beyond Fengdu. Their lives are given by Fengdu. Born in Fengdu, ending in Fengdu.

The Protagonist Lord’s golden finger ties to this ghost race.

With full-story memory, Nana Toki knew Fengdu held the fallback Tianqi Yu left for himself after failing a tribulation as a Great Vehicle Stage powerhouse.

It’s a vast legacy, preserving most of Tianqi Yu’s former might. Accept it, and Great Vehicle Stage, then ascension, would be within reach.

In the original plot, Tianqi Yu cured all his hidden ailments first, then went to Fengdu to accept the legacy.

That legacy was special. Even as its owner, he had to treat it with caution. Enter with a body full of ailments, and the power could burst him like an overfilled wineskin.

In the Wasteland, Nana Toki had seized the Holy Fruit of Illusory Feathers and the Immortal Phoenix Flame Grass meant to cure him, cutting his path to the legacy—at least for now.

So she’d go now, quietly, and break the only golden finger he had left to turn the game on her.