The interior of the bamboo cottage was a stark contrast to the lush, engineered paradise outside.
Kai stepped over the threshold, his boots making a soft thud on the polished wooden floor. He had expected a grand hall filled with glowing treasures, floating scriptures, or walls lined with high-grade weapons—the kind of lair a hidden expert would possess.
Instead, he found simplicity.
The air smelled faintly of dried sandalwood and old paper. The room was spacious but sparsely furnished. To his left, a simple wooden desk sat cluttered with brushes that had long since dried and scrolls that had yellowed with time. To his right, a bookshelf stood filled with binded manuscripts.
It was not the home of a warrior; it was the study of a scholar.
"It is not much," Su Qing's voice drifted from behind him. "But it was home."
Kai nodded, his gaze sweeping the room. "It's peaceful."
His eyes, however, were drawn inevitably to the center of the room.
There, dominating the space, was a large, rectangular structure carved from a single block of translucent, white stone. It radiated a bone-chilling coldness that made the air around it shimmer. It was a coffin. A sarcophagus of Frost-Jade Crystal.
The lid was made of a clear, glass-like material that Kai didn't recognize, allowing a perfect view of the occupant.
Su Qing floated past him, her expression softening as she looked at the stone box. She signaled him to approach.
"Come," she whispered. "Meet the vessel I left behind."
Kai swallowed hard. His heartbeat began to accelerate, a rhythmic thump-thump against his ribs. It was the primal anxiety of facing the dead, mixed with a morbid curiosity.
He stepped closer, the cold radiating from the coffin nipping at his skin. He leaned over the glass.
His breath hitched.
He was stunned.
Lying on a bed of silk petals was a woman of breathtaking beauty. She looked nothing like a corpse. She looked like a goddess who had simply decided to take a nap for an afternoon.
Her features were delicate and sharp, carved as if from the finest porcelain. Her eyelashes were long, casting shadows on her high cheekbones. She wore the same ancient, cloud-embroidered robes as her spirit form, the fabric preserved perfectly by the cold arrays.
But what struck Kai the most was her skin.
It wasn't the pale, sickly white of a corpse. It was a lustrous, bluish-white hue, like moonlight reflected on a frozen lake. It felt unnatural to his human eyes, yet on her, it looked undeniably perfect, as if she were a creature born of the stars and ice.
"She... she looks alive," Kai whispered, unable to look away.
He felt a strange heat rise in his cheeks. It wasn't lust—that would be perverse—but a sheer aesthetic appreciation that made him feel clumsy and small. He was a muddy boy from the wilderness staring at a sleeping princess.
"So..." Su Qing's voice came from right beside his ear, startling him. She was leaning over the coffin too, looking at him with a mischievous glint in her translucent eyes. "Have you already fallen for this old bag of bones?"
Kai jumped, his face flushing red. He stumbled back a step, nearly tripping over his own feet.
"No! I... that..." Kai stammered, waving his hands frantically. "I didn't mean... it's just..."
He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure as he saw the ghost chuckle. It was a light, teasing sound, reminding him that despite her ancient age, she likely died when she was young.
"She looks perfectly normal," Kai managed to say, his voice still a bit high. "How did you die? There isn't a scratch on her. No blood, no wounds."
The humor vanished from Su Qing's face as quickly as it had appeared. Her gaze turned back to her own body, and the sorrow within her eyes deepened, looking like a bottomless well.
"The body is intact because the body was not the target," she said softly. "I faced a Deadly Soul Art."
"Soul Art?" Kai asked instantly, his brow furrowing.
He knew that cultivation affected the body, the Qi, and the Soul. But Soul attacks were the stuff of legends—invisible, undefendable, and terrifying.
"Who?" Kai asked.
Su Qing looked at him, her expression grim. "The people who wield such arts are far more dangerous than any beast you have met. They are masters of the unseen."
She sighed, a sound that seemed to lower the temperature in the room.
"They are from Soul-Severing Hall. You are too weak to know their names yet. Knowing would only invite calamity upon your spirit," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "You will understand in the future. But for now... I want you to listen to me. I need you to understand my motive. Will you?"
Kai looked at her serious expression. He adjusted Xiao Bai in his arms, feeling the fox's warmth grounding him.
"I'm listening," Kai said seriously. "Please start."
Su Qing gestured to a nearby wooden chair. "Sit. It is a long story."
Kai sat down, placing Xiao Bai on his lap. The fox curled up, sensing the heavy atmosphere, and closed her eyes for a nap.
Su Qing floated to the other side of the coffin, hovering there like a guardian. Her gaze drifted past Kai, seemingly tearing through the void of time to look at a distant memory.
"I was not born in the Azure Heaven Wilderness," she began, her voice taking on a narrative cadence. "I was born in the Human Greatland."
Kai's ears perked up. The Human Greatland—the center of civilization, where the Human Empires and various Sects resided. It was a place he had only heard of in the Lin Clan's geography lessons.
"The Greatland is vast," Su Qing continued. "And humanity there is very diverse. There are sub-species, bloodlines mixed with ancient spirits. I am one of them. My clan, the Su Clan, carries the blood of the Lunar-Frost Species. That is why my skin bears this hue."
Kai nodded, filing that information away. 'So there are different races of humans...'
"My clan was a powerful one, ruling a region rich in spirit mines. From a young age, I was hailed as a genius. While others practiced sword or spear, I saw the world in lines and nodes. I mastered Arrays and Formations before I could even run properly."
Kai wanted to ask how powerful the Su Clan was compared to the Lin Clan, but he decided to shut his mouth and keep listening.
"But a bird born in a golden cage still dreams of the sky," Su Qing murmured. "When I entered the Qi Core Realm, I decided I wanted to see the world. I wanted to explore the Great Azure Heaven, the wild frontier that speaks of ancient wonders. But my father... the Clan Head... he was vehemently against it. He wanted me to marry into another powerful family to secure an alliance."
She smiled bitterly. "So, I did what any rebellious daughter would do. I stole a spatial treasure, left a note, and ran away under an alias."
"I came here with void ships," she gestured to the invisible walls. "To the Violet Yang Domain. With my hard work and talent, I entered a prestigious sect in Flame Cloud City—the Mystic Cloud Sect. They were known for their Array Masters."
"I was rising," she recalled, her eyes gleaming with a phantom pride. "I became a core disciple. I fixed arrays that had been broken for centuries. Naturally, I attracted attention."
"Various male disciples started pursuing me," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. "Gifts, poems, duels for my honor. It was exhausting. Even the Holy Son of the sect proposed to me."