Far away from Dragon Yuan Mountain, in another province of the Eastern Region, stood a mountain perpetually shrouded in grey mist.
Hidden deep within the mountain was a quiet courtyard.
The room was simple, yet every brick and every piece of furniture carried faint spiritual fluctuations. Numerous formations silently isolated the place from the outside world.
An elderly man sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.
His eyes remained closed, but the pressure emanating from him was enough to make ordinary Purple Palace cultivators lower their heads instinctively.
In front of him, Gu Qing knelt respectfully.
Cold sweat continuously rolled down her forehead.
She didn't dare even raise her head.
After a long silence, the old man finally opened his eyes.
His gaze landed on Gu Qing.
"So..."
His calm voice carried an invisible pressure.
"You're saying that someone tampered with your memories..."
"...and that person may even know part of the Sect Master's plan?"
The room instantly became silent.
Gu Qing's face turned pale.
"Master..."
"I truly don't remember."
"I only remember attending Patriarch Qian's Purple Palace breakthrough banquet."
"After that..."
"My memories become extremely blurred."
"The next thing I knew..."
"...I was already taking orders from someone whose face I couldn't even remember."
As she spoke, the pressure in the room suddenly increased.
Boom.
It wasn't spiritual pressure.
It was killing intent.
Gu Qing immediately felt as though a mountain had landed on her shoulders.
Her breathing became difficult.
Every instinct in her body screamed danger.
She hurriedly lowered herself until her forehead touched the ground.
"Master!"
"I dare not deceive you!"
"I truly don't know anything else!"
The old man stared at her for several breaths before slowly withdrawing his aura.
The suffocating pressure disappeared.
Gu Qing secretly let out a relieved breath, though she didn't dare move.
The old man fell into deep thought.
His fingers lightly tapped the armrest beside him.
After several minutes, he slowly stood.
Without another word, he walked toward Gu Qing.
She instinctively looked up.
"Master?"
The old man raised one hand.
His palm gently rested against her forehead.
The moment contact was made—
Gu Qing's expression changed drastically.
A terrifying force invaded her Sea of Consciousness.
"Master—!"
Before she could finish speaking—
"AAAHHHHHHH!!"
A miserable scream echoed throughout the room.
It felt as though countless needles were piercing directly into her soul.
The foreign force searched every corner of her consciousness without the slightest concern for her pain.
Fragments of memories flashed one after another.
Broken conversations.
Blurred figures.
Countless missing pieces.
Several moments later...
The force slowly withdrew.
The old man removed his hand.
Gu Qing collapsed onto the floor, gasping heavily.
Her entire body trembled uncontrollably.
It took several breaths before she finally managed to regain enough strength to sit up.
She looked toward her master.
The old man stared quietly at his own hand.
A faint strand of grey aura floated above his fingertips before disappearing into his palm.
His brows furrowed slightly.
"So that's how it is..."
Gu Qing weakly asked,
"Master..."
"...what happened?"
The old man looked at her calmly.
"If you weren't my personal disciple..."
"I would've shattered your Sea of Consciousness the moment I suspected outside interference."
His tone remained indifferent, as though discussing something completely ordinary.
"Fortunately..."
"The one who tampered with your memories didn't leave behind a direct soul restriction."
"Otherwise..."
"...even I would've found it troublesome."
Hearing those words, Gu Qing secretly felt relieved.
She lowered her head respectfully.
"What should this disciple do now?"
The old man waved his sleeve.
"Return and rest."
"I'll personally deal with this matter."
Before Gu Qing could respond...
The old man's figure slowly faded.
Like smoke carried away by the wind...
He disappeared from the room.
Only Gu Qing remained kneeling in silence.
After resting for several minutes, she slowly supported herself to her feet.
Her body still felt weak after the soul search.
Step by step...
She made her way back toward her residence.
Her footsteps appeared sluggish.
Anyone watching would think she had suffered severe injuries.
Only after returning to her private courtyard...
Only after every formation had been activated...
Did she slowly close the door behind her.
Silence filled the room.
Then...
A faint smile appeared on her face.
It slowly widened.
Until it became something almost eerie.
"Heh..."
"So..."
"It worked."
She let out a quiet laugh.
Her expression no longer carried the fear or weakness she had shown earlier.
Instead...
Her eyes were filled with cold amusement.
She had finally succeeded.
Her master no longer suspected her.
Better still...
His attention had shifted completely toward that mysterious person.
The two of them would now begin searching for each other.
Exactly as she wanted.
She slowly sat down before taking out a small jade slip.
Its surface carried only a single ancient character.
Yin.
She had stumbled upon it by pure chance while escaping the Heaven Seal Gate Secret Realm.
After injecting spiritual energy into it, the jade slip released strands of strange Yin aura that continuously nourished her spirit.
Although it hadn't completely restored her missing memories...
It had weakened whatever influence that mysterious man had left behind.
Enough...
To let her remember fragments.
She still couldn't recall his face.
Nor his identity.
But she now remembered something else.
Something far more valuable.
A secret...
Concerning the Qian Family.
Gu Qing's smile deepened.
"After I recover..."
"...I'll pay the Qian Family a visit."
"As for the two of you..."
Her fingers gently stroked the jade slip.
"I sincerely hope..."
"...you kill each other."
"That way..."
"I won't have to worry about either of you ever again."
Her quiet laughter echoed softly throughout the empty courtyard.
------
High above the mountain range, the old man reappeared atop a lonely cliff.
The wind blew gently past him, causing his robes to flutter. His expression remained calm, yet his eyes were fixed on the palm of his right hand.
There, barely visible to the naked eye, lingered a thread of unfamiliar aura.
It wasn't spiritual qi.
Nor was it demonic qi.
It was something far subtler—a remnant left behind after probing Gu Qing's Sea of Consciousness.
Most cultivators would have overlooked it completely.
But he wasn't most cultivators.
He slowly raised his hand.
A small black jar appeared from his storage ring.
Removing the lid, he extended a finger inside.
A moment later, a tiny insect crawled out.
Its body was no larger than a fingernail, its shell pitch-black with crimson patterns covering its back. Six needle-like legs clung tightly to his finger as it let out a faint, almost inaudible hiss.
The old man watched it quietly before guiding the lingering aura toward it.
The insect immediately became restless.
Its tiny mouthparts opened wide before swallowing the unfamiliar aura in one gulp.
Almost instantly, its movements slowed.
The crimson markings on its body glowed once before fading away.
It curled into a ball and fell completely motionless.
The old man nodded slightly.
"So... you've remembered it."
This was the unique characteristic of Tracking Gu.
Once it consumed even the slightest remnant of an unfamiliar aura, it would digest it before entering a dormant state. When it finally awoke, it would instinctively point toward the owner of that aura, regardless of how far away they had fled.
Among the demonic paths of cultivation, there existed four infamous inheritances known collectively as the Four Great Demonic Hundred Arts.
Gu rearing. Poison creation. Zombie refining. Ghost rearing.
Each path was feared throughout the cultivation world.
Gu cultivators raised strange insects capable of tracking, controlling minds, devouring flesh, stealing lifespans and performing countless bizarre feats.
Poison masters refined toxins so dreadful that a single drop could wipe out an entire city.
Zombie refiners transformed corpses into undying servants whose bodies were harder than spirit artifacts.
Ghost rearers enslaved wandering souls, turning them into invisible killers that attacked directly at a person's spirit.
Every one of those inheritances was regarded as heretical.
Yet... none could deny their terrifying effectiveness.
The old man belonged to the first path.
He quietly waited.
Several minutes later, the dormant Gu trembled.
Its body slowly unfolded.
Then its tiny head turned in a single direction.
The old man's eyes narrowed.
"So..."
"You're there."
Without hesitation, he looked toward the distant horizon.
The direction wasn't toward the Qian Family.
Nor was it Dragon Yuan Mountain.
It pointed much farther away.
A cold smile slowly appeared on his face.
"So you really do exist."
"I'd like to see..."
"...what kind of person can tamper with my disciple's memories."
He waved his sleeve.
A spirit boat, black as ink and engraved with countless ancient runes, appeared before him.
The old man stepped aboard calmly.
With a light tap of his foot, the formations covering the spirit boat lit up one after another.
Whoosh!
The boat shot into the sky like a streak of black light, tearing through the clouds as it sped toward the direction indicated by the Tracking Gu.
Within moments...
Both the old man and the spirit boat had disappeared beyond the horizon. Unknown to him, the aura his Gu had locked onto was only a carefully prepared decoy. The true mastermind had already hidden herself behind layers of deception, watching events unfold from the shadows with quiet satisfaction.