Chapter 21: Xuanwu Town

Xuanwu Town was nestled in a valley in the northern part of the Liu Continent. To reach it, Tang Yue and Elder Ruan Sang needed to pass over a great lake—Lake Xuanwu. Although they flew across by spirit boat and were not directly harassed by the beasts in the lake, they still had to stay alert for sudden attacks. The ferocious beasts here were notorious for ambushing cultivators flying overhead.

The lake was home to delicious whitefish, and Elder Ruan Sang even caught a few to roast for Tang Yue. Along the journey, she discovered that Uncle Ruan Sang was quite the man of refined tastes—he told her many tales of local customs and landscapes, clearly a well-traveled man. Tang Yue listened with great interest. Just for the stories alone, this trip had already been worthwhile.

As the two approached Xuanwu Town from the sky, they noticed something was off. The air below felt wrong. A town that should have been bustling with activity was eerily silent.

They descended before reaching the town and disembarked from their spirit vessel. Elder Ruan Sang stowed the vessel away and said to Tang Yue, "Something is strange here, but we have to go in and take a look. Stay behind me—I'll protect you."

Tang Yue agreed, and the two began making their way into the valley slowly. The path should've had people welcoming them—Tang Wenhua had written ahead to the town mayor to schedule Tang Yue's entrance into the secret realm today. But the valley was completely deserted.

They arrived at a nearby inn, its doors tightly shut. Elder Ruan Sang pushed them open and stepped inside. The once-busy main hall was completely empty. They searched the rooms one by one, but found no sign of the townspeople.

Tang Yue suggested, "Let's go straight to the mayor's residence. Maybe there's some clue there. If we confirm that the entire town has vanished, we'll need to report this to the major sects."

As she spoke, she took out a shadow-recording stone. "To avoid any misunderstanding and for documentation, I'll record the current state of Xuanwu Town."

Elder Ruan Sang praised her caution.

They proceeded to the mayor's pavilion but found nothing there either. It was as if the townspeople had vanished into thin air.

They continued searching and eventually arrived at the town square—a place usually used for festivals or public announcements, where all the townspeople would gather. Suddenly, Tang Yue heard faint growling from a residential area on the east side of the square. A scene from a modern movie came to her mind.

"Uncle Ruan, I think… something's about to come out."

She had barely spoken when someone roared and charged at them. Elder Ruan Sang immediately repelled the attacker with spiritual force, sending them crashing into a nearby wooden sign with a loud bang.

At that moment, a horde of people burst out from the houses, waving their arms wildly and rushing toward them. They certainly didn't look like they were welcoming visitors.

Tang Yue quickly said, "Uncle Ruan, let's fly up and see what's going on from above!"

When the townspeople saw their targets vanish into the air, they howled in fury, staring up at the two. Tang Yue recorded the scene on the shadow-recording stone.

Elder Ruan Sang said grimly, "They seem to have lost their minds—like they've turned into some kind of living dead."

To Tang Yue, they looked just like the zombies she'd seen in modern movies.

Xuanwu Town was a town of cultivators, and the average strength of its people was not low. Even transformed into monsters, they retained their cultivation. Some townsfolk suddenly remembered they could fly and shot into the air to attack.

Elder Ruan Sang didn't retaliate. "We don't know the cause yet. We can't strike recklessly. Let's leave for now and reassess."

They circled to another settlement in the valley, hoping to exit from that side—but found someone standing at the mouth of the valley.

Tang Yue looked closely—it was Lu Lingyi.

His expression was stiff and his eyes dull, completely lacking his usual warm and polite demeanor. He walked toward them, sword in hand. At least he wasn't staggering like a mindless corpse—his movements were precise and strong.

As he drew nearer, both Tang Yue and Elder Ruan saw a purple gleam flash in his eyes, faint runes flickering on his body, and the sword in his hand raised to strike.

Elder Ruan sensed the power of the blow and swiftly carried Tang Yue out of the way.

"Senior Brother Lu, it's me, Tang Yue! Don't you recognize me?" she shouted, trying to awaken him.

But Lu Lingyi gave no response and continued his attack.

Elder Ruan said, "He's likely been hit by some kind of bewitchment curse. His consciousness is trapped deep inside—he can't hear you."

A flash of insight sparked in Tang Yue's mind, but there was no time to dwell on it—Lu Lingyi's next strike was coming, even more powerful than before.

Without hesitation, Tang Yue pulled out the Wanshi Array from her storage bracelet. Instantly, it imprisoned Lu Lingyi, halting his attack.

Elder Ruan felt a wave of relief. He hadn't expected that even with his Divine Transformation cultivation, he couldn't withstand Lu Lingyi's strike. It was fortunate that Tang Yue had the array.

"Good thing the city lord's wife thought ahead and gave you the Wanshi Array. I wouldn't have been able to deal with him," he said.

Tang Yue gave a sheepish grin. "Mother does think things through." She didn't mention that she'd once used this array to trap someone during a scam.

She added, "Uncle Ruan, can you take us somewhere safe? I want to examine Senior Brother Lu's condition. With the walking corpses nearby, I don't dare check him here."

Elder Ruan took them to a cave he remembered from a previous visit—back then, some Xuanwu Town cultivators had brought him here during an outing. Sadly, those same people were likely now among the walking dead.

The Wanshi Array followed the array disk in Tang Yue's hand and could be moved with her. Inside the cave, she sat down and sent her divine sense into the array to inspect Lu Lingyi.

She saw him bound in layers of curse power, his face contorted in pain as he struggled against it. The array's power and the curse were clashing, fighting for control over his mind.

Seeing that the array couldn't overcome the deep purple curse energy on its own, Tang Yue reinforced it with her knowledge of Five Elements formations, adding elemental power and spirit stones to strengthen the array.

Sometimes brute force is the key to miracles. After exhausting a large amount of Five Elements materials and spirit stones, the cursed restraints around Lu Lingyi began to unravel, and his expression gradually calmed. Once she sensed the last trace of the purple energy disappear, she released him from the array.

Elder Ruan infused him with spiritual energy to help him recover.

When Lu Lingyi opened his eyes and saw Tang Yue and a vaguely familiar elder, he was dazed but composed. "Junior Sister Tang, could you tell me where we are and how I got here?"

"I was on my way back to Xuanyuan Mountain to report, when I suddenly lost consciousness. I seemed to fall into a dark realm filled with demons and monsters, and I kept fighting and killing. When I woke again, I saw you two."

Tang Yue explained the situation to him. He quickly realized this was a deliberate trap, and he had been targeted.

It was only because Tang Yue remembered a key scene from the original book that she'd acted so quickly—using the Wanshi Array to save the man who would later become one of the novel's major villains. Xuanwu Town was where Lu Lingyi's descent into darkness began.

In the novel, Lu Lingyi one day massacred everyone in Xuanwu Town, shocking the entire continent. Xuanyuan Mountain released a statement: the Lu family had practiced forbidden techniques, sacrificing lives to forcibly raise their cultivation, and had been annihilated for their crimes.

Only the "traitorous disciple" Lu Lingyi had escaped. Xuanyuan Mountain issued a kill order, offering a high bounty for his head.

For over a decade, Lu Lingyi disappeared. Then, he returned with a legion of demonic cultivators, attacking Xuanyuan Mountain and nearly destroying it. Even Xuanjian City, nearby, was overrun and turned into a land of demons.

The righteous sects of Liu Continent launched a prolonged counteroffensive, vowing to reclaim their territories. Eventually, the male lead, Chu Tianshu, faced off against Lu Lingyi and accused him in front of the world:

"You were born of Xuanyuan Mountain. Your entire family turned to demonic ways and slaughtered innocents. Now you return at the head of a demonic army to destroy your own sect, betraying your master's teachings. Today, I will slay you, ungrateful traitor, to appease the souls of Xuanyuan Mountain."

Lu Lingyi had only laughed. "Master's teachings? They're nothing but thieves and murderers who covet others' treasures. They're not worthy of loyalty."

Chu Tianshu didn't understand, but still used his protagonist halo to defeat the first true villain of his life—his senior brother from Xuanyuan Mountain, once hailed as a paragon of virtue, now feared as a monster. In the end, Lu Lingyi was slain.

Tang Yue had always thought it likely that the Lu family possessed a powerful secret treasure or technique—something so valuable that Xuanyuan Mountain was willing to wipe them out, sacrificing even their most promising disciple to get it.

She'd only met Lu Lingyi once—back when he saved the original Tang Yue. At that time, she hadn't transmigrated yet. That brief encounter had left her with a good impression. He seemed like a good person.

The book had portrayed him as a noble character: upright, kind, generous. Tang Yue had liked him more than the actual male lead.

And he was very good-looking. The kind of face that, in modern times, would make fans scream "Mom loves you!"—handsome and heartbreakingly pitiful. As a certified face-con, Tang Yue had no choice but to save him. She couldn't stand seeing him fall victim to a scheme right in front of her.

But of course, she couldn't directly tell Lu Lingyi the truth. No one would believe that their own sect wanted to kill them. They might even suspect her—or Kunwu City.

Lu Lingyi noticed the strange, almost maternal gaze Tang Yue was giving him, and was puzzled. But he didn't ask. There were more urgent matters.

"Junior Sister Tang, Uncle Ruan, I'd like to go with you to investigate the townspeople. Perhaps, like me, they've been cursed and can still be saved."

Lu Lingyi realized that if he hadn't encountered Tang Yue and Elder Ruan today, he might've lost control and slaughtered the entire town. No one would have believed he'd been under a spell. And that outcome… would have destroyed the Lu family.