In Great Wind City, Lu Qingshan stepped lightly away from a group of corpses. The city had devolved into another round of chaos in little over a month.

  This time, it was much worse. Blood painted the streets, and even some commoners weren’t spared inside their barricaded homes. Many had to escape or go into hiding in order to survive. Most of the houses where they lived had been ransacked.

  Lu Qingshan did not know why the situation had changed so drastically. This series of brutal killings was unnatural. Last time, the martial artists kept to their own conflicts, not touching the poor. Why was this time so different?

  Even the Azure Wind Gang had gotten involved in multiple deadly conflicts, losing some of their own men including three of the original group that had stormed the Barbarian Bull Gang. Lu Qingshan was most shocked at hearing about this. He believed they were trustworthy, only for them to turn around and ignore his words.

  The Stone Axe Gang fared better, surprisingly. They were just as aggressive as before, but Meng Zhang, Jin Teng, Li Fanghua, and Qin Ye were all there to keep them in check. Many enemies had come to attack them recently. So it was a surprise for them as well when they heard of the Azure Wind Gang's bold moves.

  "This doesn't make sense," Meng Zhang muttered. "I was just there around a week ago. They were keeping everything in order and I didn't see any signs of violence."

  Li Fanghua agreed. "Three weeks ago, a few gangs joined together to try and push them out. The Azure Wind Gang took a step backwards like you said, and negotiated for peace by giving the land to another gang. They didn't have to fight a single time. How could they do this?" She too looked lost.

  "Is Liu Yingting around?" Lu Qingshan asked.

  "He was staying near the Azure Wind's district last time I saw him. He should still be there. Maybe he'll know more."

  Lu Qingshan nodded heavily. As he left the Stone Axe Gang's district, he saw crumbled buildings and ruined stores, all broken and stripped clean of valuables inside. His travels towards the Azure Wind Gang revealed two groups of martial artists fighting over the rights to loot a well-regarded shop. Inside, the storekeeper was dead, a knife in his back while a boy looked around nervously.

  Lu Qingshan clad himself in a smoky veil and struck first, slaughtering all the martial artists in a single motion. He entered the shop. Instead of the boy running like he expected, their face first turned angry, then fearful. He took one step forwards and another step backwards, almost falling over himself with his weird movements.

  "What is going on?" Lu Qingshan muttered to himself, a chill going down his spine. The boy finally managed to control his body and ran off. He didn't give chase; the situation was too weird.

  The Nine Wines Restaurant was currently surviving the chaos. Two stone-faced martial artists stood guard outside the doors, and Lu Qingshan saw many more silhouettes at the windows. But the blood inside the restaurant let him know that this place had not been peaceful initially either. It was as if the entire populace had suddenly unleashed all their pent-up rage in a single burst.

  Lu Qingshan's original goals were put aside. First, he aimed to figure out what was affecting the people in the city. Second, he needed to find where the major forces stood in each conflict, including the city's guards. Marquis Zhou should not have let things happen this way.

  A pile of bodies were face-down outside Liu Yingting's house. He still approached. Beside rows and rows of bubbling cauldrons, the man was sitting silently inside, his face a mask of calm. But Lu Qingshan had been around the man long enough to know that rage was boiling inside him.

  "What's wrong?" he asked, stepping inside. Liu Yingting's sudden head-turn and glare almost made him think he was about to face an attack, but the man quickly cooled down.

  "Marquis Zhou was attacked," Liu Yingting said. "A man in robes was seen chasing after him."

  "I see," Lu Qingshan said. His mind immediately connected the dots, but he wanted to know more. "Where's his army?"

  "Resting in the central district. They've abandoned him, and most of the city too," Liu Yingting muttered. "Cowards."

  That explained why the guards hadn't tried to suppress the conflicts. They had simply given up entirely. Lu Qingshan was pretty sure he knew who was behind this turn of events. "Do you know what happened in the city?"

  Liu Yingting shook his head. "It was normal for the first few weeks after you left. We were working out negotiations with the ghost market. Then they just disappeared while we were still coming up with an agreement. They skipped the rest of the meetings afterwards."

  "We shouldn't have ignored this sign. That was the first warning. People then started to change. Conflicts between martial artists began without any good reason, such as walking the wrong way on the street, or making eye contact with one another. Soon, even the commoners were affected by the same rage."

  "At first, we thought it was an isolated incident. The people who were doing this had awful reputations, and they were ostracized for a few days. Then there were a few more bad people taking advantage of the chaos. That was normal, and so were the martial artists who defended themselves. Even if it meant fighting their way through the city streets.”

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  “I only figured out something was very wrong when the Azure Wind Gang began getting deeply involved. At first, they were staying out of the conflicts. But when one of the other gangs went too far, they retaliated, and then they never stopped.”

  “Through all of this, I didn’t move. I continued watching like you asked me to. And I think I managed to find the root cause of the conflict.” Liu Yingting produced a roughly-sketched painting of an ugly-looking man whose face appeared both young and old, somehow. “This is Liu Wanli. A cousin I thought long forgotten.”

  Lu Qingshan digested the information. “Did he go missing?”

  “Yes. I don’t know why he was there on the streets. But I do know one thing. He is the one behind my family’s deaths.”

  A silence hung in the air. Lu Qingshan wanted to assure him it was alright. They'd kill Liu Wanli and the city would return to normal. But he knew the matter wouldn't end there.

  "Liu Wanli has a master," Lu Qingshan said, choosing his words carefully. "He cannot be the only one causing the city to become like this. It's too much for one man."

  "I know. But we can still kill him."

  "We can. Are you strong enough though?"

  Liu Yingting paused. He shook his head and huffed in frustration. “I was worried you’d say that.”

  “Our war plans might not need changing.” Lu Qingshan concentrated on the Bloodsense Bug’s connection with Marquis Zhou. “Your senses are keen. What did the man in robes look like?”

  “Unassuming,” Liu Yingting said. “Like any average commoner. I almost thought nothing was wrong with the scene. I knew what the Marquis looked like, but I just couldn’t think of it. Then I saw Liu Wanli and my senses became sharp again.”

  Lu Qingshan nodded. That sounded like an immortal cultivator. Which meant they were behind the recent chaos. His impression of them lowered even further, but he still needed to confirm something.

  “If I’m right about this…” he muttered. “Let’s do it. Do you know where he went?”

  “No,” Liu Yingting admitted. “He was too fast and disappeared before I could do anything.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t,” Lu Qingshan said. “We don’t know his cultivation level, but it's probably above Radiant Lake judging by that squirrel demon. Gather everyone else. I’ll visit the Jade Skies Sect.”

  Liu Yingting stood up slowly, his bones creaking. He nodded and left.

  When Lu Qingshan entered the Jade Skies Sect’s outpost in the city, it was as he expected. The place was deserted except for a few Marrow Tempering martial artists left behind. These people were solely there to keep up appearances. Even the storage area door was ajar, its contents emptied.

  The Jade Skies Sect was known to work with immortal cultivators. They clearly knew what was going on. They had to have retreated early from the city to their true sect grounds. Meanwhile, demonic cultivators like Liu Wanli were running rampant in the city.

  A clear image of the immortal cultivators negotiating with demonic cultivators appeared in Lu Qingshan’s mind. His face twisted in rage before he forced himself to be calm. To sacrifice an entire city of mortals was an inhuman act. He had to do something.

  Lu Qingshan met up with Liu Yingting again. With him were the rest of the sect’s Elders, along with the six foreign travelers. The chaotic effects in the city didn’t seem to affect them or Marrow Tempering experts as much. He had seen many of them remain sane, though there were definitely some indulging in their desires in the midst of the chaos.

  "We're walking through the city," he told them. "You've been working hard inside the Stone Axe Gang, so you don't know the extent of the damage yet. I need you all to ingrain this within your minds — the power that immortal cultivators truly wield."

  They headed for the Song family manor first. Lu Qingshan needed to check if the immortal was still there. Along the city streets, walls, and buildings, all throughout the entire district of the Barbarian Bull Gang, a massive cloud of Bloodseeker Flies began to move. This swarm had swelled over the years, growing even larger than the swarm initially found in the forested mountain range.

  Lu Qingshan didn't plan to use them in the war. Instead, they had one goal, and one goal only: to track and alert him of any immortal cultivators.

  Beside him, Feng Ranran observed the bloody streets and muttered, "How could they be so cruel? Are they still human?"

  "In the pursuit of power," Jin Teng said, "humans can become monsters." His gaze was sorrowful as he stared at two similar-looking children fighting over scraps of food. One of them slapped the other so hard that they fell onto the ground, unmoving. The victor grabbed the steaming hot bowl and ran away, leaving the other boy behind.

  Li Fanghua took a step in their direction, only for Qin Ye to stop her with a shake of his head. He pointed in the distance where three martial artists were surrounding a woman and an elderly man. Anyone with eyes could see that the two were experts, but those martial artists had still recklessly attacked. A moment later, their heads fell off, and the elder slid his sword back into its sheath. The two of them then walked over to the fallen boy to pick him up.

  All over the city, violence continued, but there were some who were trying to restore order. Sometimes, they succeeded in calming down the people, but most of the time, the dead littered the streets. There were just too many cases. Lu Qingshan's group couldn't spare the time to help much.

  Lu Qingshan's cloud of flies soon scattered across most of the city while the ones sent to the Song family manor fell from the sky and died as he expected. He breathed a small sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't have to deal with this immortal cultivator on top of everything else.

  They arrived near the Blade Shadow Valley's grounds where Miao Mei and Wu Ruoling were posted. The two of them opened the door to let them inside. Fortunately, the disaster had avoided the two entirely. Local houses had been untouched in the chaos — which only made the sect more suspicious. He suspected Liu Wanli was the one behind the mutated Green Heart Worms.

  “Tonight,” Lu Qingshan said, addressing the sect in the small, cramped room. “We exterminate two demonic sects. They will likely have demonic cultivators as their backers. Are you prepared to face them if necessary?"

  Everybody nodded, a grim expression on their faces. "I have reached the Viscera Tempering stage," Wu Ruoling declared.

  "Good, good." Lu Qingshan smiled lightly. "I'd congratulate you, but it would have to wait until after the battle. We've come a long way. Welcome to the sect, Jin Teng and Feng Ranran. I had hoped we would have more time to grow, but this might be our last opportunity before we draw the full attention of immortal cultivators. Let's make the most of it."

  He strode out of the house, and the others kept pace. They climbed up towards the temple where a few guards lazily sat watching on top of their stone walls. "Stop!" they shouted down, arms immediately heading towards their weapons.