As quirky and dangerous as the fall seemed, they weren’t really in danger.

<Xiao Xuan: Grab a shadow. Tell Hanbi to grab one as well. I’ll get Sierra.>

Though it seemed like he greatly underestimated Sierra.

She was blind, but not helpless.

Before he could even get to her, she started floating, and even without being able to see him, she nodded in his direction.

Sighing, Xuan stopped in mid air as well, glancing at the others.

Hua Lian and Huang Shuying weren’t doing that badly either. Both of them landed on their swords and, even though it seemed like they were struggling, they still floated in the air.

Seeing that everything was fine, Xuan exhaled a relieved breath and, alongside the others, floated down, landing by one of the houses.

It was made of wood, and it was pretty damn old.

Not too far away were three people: an old man and woman, as well as a little child.

All of them were looking at Xuan and the others with confusion, awe, and fear.

But, like the good negotiator that Xuan was, he would—

"Sup. We mean no harm," Yuelan stepped up with her arms raised. "We just landed here, and I take it you’re locals?"

<Xiao Xuan: They think you’re an alien with all that dust on you. Clean that shit off.>

She flinched.

<Xiao Yuelan: Dust does not veil my beauty... or something. Just relax, I got this.>

The old man narrowed his eyes.

"Are you two here to meet the Three Eyed Angel?"

"Uhh... yes?" Yuelan blinked. "Can we do that right away?"

"Xuan."

Sierra tugged at his sleeve. When he turned toward her, he saw a conflicted look on her face.

She leaned in and whispered, "They’re not human either. Only the child is."

Hearing that, Xuan’s head immediately snapped toward the two old people, but by then, it was already too late.

Their bodies shifted into grotesque demonic forms and then lunged at Yuelan.

"Uh?"

She seemed a little flustered at first.

But after taking a second to compose herself, Yuelan unsheathed her sword and slashed it horizontally. The blade was beautiful, but sadly, the two demonic beings in front of her didn’t have the luxury to admire it, as that very same blade cut off their necks.

A single red eye appeared in the center of their foreheads. Their bodies regenerated quickly, and although their confident demonic expressions seemed ominous, Yuelan and the others had already had their run-in with these types of demons.

And so, a miniature black vortex appeared in the center of Yuelan’s palm. With a flick, she sent it toward the two demons, destroying their bodies in an instant.

She just stared at their ashes, then let out a sigh.

"That was so~ anticlimactic."

Xuan rolled his eyes.

"Yep. I’m sure the child whose grandparents you just killed in front of thinks the same."

"Ah..."

Yuelan glanced down at the child. It was a golden-haired little boy. It was no surprise he looked soulless, since his only family had just died.

Or that was what it looked like at first, until Sierra approached the boy and crouched down.

"Mmm... there’s some kind of centipede inside his head."

A what now?

"A centipede?"

Yuelan crouched down and inspected the boy as well.

Then, she backed off with a slightly wary look.

"There’s a literal centipede behind his eye... Xuan, it’s your turn. I’m going to go vomit."

Seriously?

Before Xuan could say anything, Yuelan Void Stepped away.

He just sighed at her manners and approached the boy and infused his Qi into him. Both the women were right, and there really was something behind the boy’s eye.

Although he had no idea how to deal with it, Sierra surprisingly did.

"I need a needle and preferably a sharp knife."

"I have some," Hanbi said and tossed both the needle and a sharp knife toward Sierra.

Xuan stepped in and caught both items, since he didn’t trust the blind Sierra to safely catch them.

And when he handed the items over, Sierra didn’t waste any time and began her mini-surgery. She stabbed a needle into one of the child’s pressure points, removing all his pain. Then, she carefully infused her Qi into the sharp knife and placed it against the child’s eye.

Xuan thought for a moment that he’d see something gruesome. Instead, her knife phased through the boy’s eye and sliced the centipede in two. Finally, she controlled her Qi and safely extracted the remains of the grotesque centipede through the corner of the boy’s eye.

In the next instant, the boy vomited out the impurities and, with a shaky gaze, fell unconscious.

Just like that, tragedy was averted. And honestly? Xuan didn’t expect a blind girl to do something like that.

Hell, he wanted to just have Hanbi do it, since she was an actual healer.

But clearly...

"That was impressive."

Sierra stood up and nodded at him.

"Thank you. I used to be a nurse."

"Since when can nurses do something like that?"

She shrugged.

"I was a very competent nurse."

No shit.

"Your methods were slightly crude," Hanbi chimed in, then approached the two of them.

"You didn’t wash the knife, and you also forgot to take the needle out of his chest, which led to him vomiting and passing out. You’re an amateur."

Sierra’s brow twitched as she leaned down and retrieved the needle. The boy’s expression became much brighter instantly.

"I didn’t need to wash the knife, since I cut with my Qi."

"Humph. You have an excuse for everything, don’t you? Very well. Become my disciple."

"...Pardon?"

Hanbi nodded at her with a smirk.

"I shall not tolerate subpar healers whom I wouldn’t be able to trust my back to if I ever get injured. In short, whether you like it or not, you are now my disciple, Sierra."

"Uhh...?"

"And for starters, my disciple... we must help out Yuelan."

Speaking of Yuelan, she was right beside the wooden house, vomiting her guts out, grossed out by the centipede.

"Bleghh..."

Xuan let out a sigh.

This is going to be a long dungeon.

.

.

.

"Kuhh... I’m fine." Yuelan straightened her back and wiped the vomit off her face. The women backed off, and as for her shadows, they stuck by her pretty closely.

She glanced over at Xuan, who was just idly standing by, trying to make sure no one else would pop out of nowhere.

And once he realized everything was fine, he waved at Yuelan and the others before finally entering the wooden house.

Honestly, he was expecting to see something demonic, but everything was pretty normal. He glanced around a bit more carefully, and in one of the bedrooms, Xuan spotted a black sword sticking out of the wall.

It definitely didn’t fit in this place. Heck, Xuan would be surprised if the only reason those two people turned into demons was because they put their hands on this.

Anyhow...

"That looks like a cool sword," Yuelan said, arriving beside him.

"It does look pretty cool."

She paused for a moment, a faint smirk appearing on her face.

"Can I have it?"

"...?"

"You want the sword?"

She nodded.

"I was thinking of learning how to dual wield. It’s like, with one hand, I can already use around 90% of the sword’s power. Two hands would make it 100%. While I might not be a math genius, two swords at 90% power seem a lot better than 100% of one sword."

Mmm.

"If you say so."

He enveloped the black sword in his Qi. In an instant, he felt like something had begun corrupting his Qi and eating away at it. A scorching sensation shot throughout his body, and for a moment, Xuan thought he was being burned alive.

But even though the sensation was brutal and very painful, Xuan didn’t flinch or make any noise. He simply eliminated the negative Qi from the black sword. Soon enough, the sword shifted shades, becoming pure white, much like the sword Yuelan had at the moment.

Except this sword seemed to be imbued with some kind of strange bright Qi. It wasn’t Moonlight Qi like hers, but rather something purer. He had never felt it before, but if he had to guess, it was something like Light Qi.

Either way, Xuan stepped forward and carefully extracted the sword from the wall. Afterwards, he tossed it over to Yuelan, who caught it happily and inspected it.

"Oooh~! It’s actually really good. Apparently, it’s bathed in Light Qi, so every attack with it deals a lot more damage to demonic enemies. Or I guess, just any being that uses Demonic Qi."

"Try not to cut me then," Xuan replied with a chuckle.

After that, he went around the house alongside the others, searching for anything special. Sadly, there wasn’t anything, only a few books and notes that had weird scribbles on them.

Xuan and the others eventually left. As for the child, they couldn’t really take him along. At most, Sierra and Hanbi made sure he was healthy. They also prepared some food, and as for everything else... Well, life was cruel.

Once they stepped outside, they took a good look around.

"The island’s back," Yuelan pointed out. "Though, the ground’s invisible. The trees and everything else are still there... How trippy."

"Yep. But we’re not going up there. Look here."

Xuan pointed into the distance. To everyone’s surprise, there was the outline of a large wall, and if anyone used even a little bit of their noggin, they’d know that wall was surrounding something.

A city, maybe?

Either way, their next destination was clear. They kicked their journey into gear, and by nightfall, they had managed to reach the wall.

But calling the wall giant was an understatement.

Up close, it was impossible to see the top without craning one’s neck until it hurt. The stone blocks were enormous, each one larger than a carriage. Not to mention, all those bricks were stacked with unsettling precision.

Its surface was dark, and it carried a dull sheen, as though polished by centuries of wind. Thin pale lines ran through the stone that glowed subtly when Qi brushed against them.

That also meant there was no way for Xuan to Void Step inside, since odds were, he would get stuck in the wall.

"Mm... This wall reminds me of the wall that surrounds my estate back in my realm," Hanbi said, placing her hand against the wall, then nodding.

"The material is similar too."

She turned to Xuan and Yuelan.

"I’m guessing that behind this wall, some kind of powerful clan lives."

Xuan nodded at her.

In the next instant, he felt something odd wrap around his legs. He didn’t think much of it at first, but by the time he realized that his leg had gone numb, it was too late.

SWOOOOOOOSH!

A powerful dagger flew in from the side, aimed straight at Xuan’s neck. Right as it was about to hit him, Yuelan stepped in, catching the dagger effortlessly and tossing it back at the attacker.

Yet as the dagger flew back, a fierce gust of wind brushed over them from above. And only then did they realize there was an extremely large ball of sand overhead, ready to drop down and crush them all.

And that was exactly what happened as the giant ball of sand split into thousands of small, sharp granules and headed down toward them.

However, whoever was attacking them severely underestimated their abilities.

Clearly, Xuan did as well, since before he could use his Spatial Devour skill, Hua Lian and Huang Shuying suddenly stepped forward.

The two of them seemed very similar side by side, but that was only natural since their heights were the same, and they also wore the same wigs.

If anything, the only thing that differentiated the two was the length of their swords.

And apparently, their skills.

Hua Lian raised her longsword up high. A small black vortex formed at the tip of her longsword, slowly sucking up all the surrounding sand, much like Xuan’s skill.

...Was what he thought at first, until Hua Lian abruptly turned the incoming sand into glass and created a large barrier that covered them all. There was a small amount of Qi in the glass, but nowhere near enough to protect them.

But that was when Huang Shuying finally stepped in. She stuck her sword into the ground and placed both of her hands on its grip. A silent prayer escaped her lips, as well as an enormous amount of Qi that washed over everyone within the barrier.

Every single person, including Xuan, felt like their Qi reserves had been expanded, and their reflexes and strength were also heightened. However, the same appeared to be true for the glass barrier, as the amount of Qi it had previously was nothing compared to what it had now.

And so, as the split second passed, the sharp pieces of sand finally collided with the glass barrier.