Just like in the afternoon, chaos reigned inside. Children shoved, scrambled, and shouted over bowls of rice and scraps of meat. It looked less like a food hall and more like a war zone.

As Fu HongJun stepped inside, the familiar shriek of a voice rang out like a cursed bell.

“Hey, country bumpkin! Ugly scarred face! Didn’t you understand my words?! How dare you enter this food hall again?!”

He froze for half a second.

Of course. It was none other than her. The demon in ribbons.

Xue LuLi.

Fu HongJun clenched his fists but said nothing. He simply kept walking forward, his gaze straight ahead.

Seeing that she was being ignored again, Xue LuLi’s eyes blazed with fury.
“You!” she shouted and leapt forward, leg pulled back, clearly about to launch another one of her signature flying kicks.

But just before her foot could meet his face 

“LuLi. Stop it.”

A calm voice cut through the noise like a knife through soup.

The moment she heard it, Xue LuLi froze in mid-air and landed with a light bounce.

Her expression changed instantly.

“Grandpa!” she squealed, spinning around like a completely different person. “When did you come back?! Did you bring me a present?!”

The old man chuckled softly and patted her head.

“LuLi, from tomorrow onward, he’s your fellow little brother. I’ll be training him personally. So don’t be too harsh on him.”

He pulled out a small cloth bag from inside his robe and held it out.

“Here. Your present.”

But instead of being excited, Xue LuLi immediately recoiled. She pinched her nose and backed away.

“Eww, Grandpa! Why would you keep it inside your robe?! It smells like old sweat and... trees or something!”

The old man laughed heartily.
“Haha! Fine, fine. I’ll give it to your mom. She’ll wash it first.”

Fu HongJun stood frozen, utterly stupefied.

He had clearly heard it.

Xue LuLi called this old man… Grandpa.

His brain felt like it had just exploded.

“I’m dead. I’m completely screwed…” he muttered under his breath.

The old man turned to him with a calm smile, clearly amused by his expression.

“Brat. Go grab two drumsticks and a bowl of rice. Don’t bother with the soup. It’s just flavored water.”

Fu HongJun gulped and nodded slowly.
Inside, his soul screamed.

Across the hall, Xue LuLi turned to look at him, her lips curling into a wicked, knowing smile. It wasn’t the smile of someone welcoming a new “brother.” It was the smile of a tiger welcoming a deer into her den.

Nearby, several instructors — including the stern, dark-skinned Qin An shuddered slightly at the sight.

“Alas… this boy might be screwed.”
They all thought the same thing in silent agreement.

Fu HongJun tried to focus and took two drumsticks and a bowl of rice. His stomach rumbled, but before he could take a bite, he suddenly remembered

His uniform. His travel bag.

He looked up quickly and called out in a flustered tone:
“Grandpa,no, no….Master, my uniform and bag are missing!”

Hearing the complaint, Qin An stiffened in the distance. His eyes twitched.

He remembered now.
When he lifted the boy up by the back of the neck earlier that morning, Fu HongJun’s belongings had dropped right in front of his table… and he had completely forgotten about them.

Afraid that blame would fall on him, Qin An shot forward like a startled rabbit. He sprinted to the north corner of the field, grabbed the uniform and bag from under his table, then ran back with the speed of a guilty man chasing redemption. Without a word, he shoved them into Fu HongJun’s arms and vanished.

The old man only chuckled, pretending not to notice.

As the dinner wrapped up and the chaos faded, the old man led Fu HongJun around the side of the main hall, toward a quieter corner of the academy grounds. Lanterns swayed in the wind, casting long shadows as they arrived at a modest, slightly worn building.

He opened the door to a small room.

“This will be your place,” the old man said simply.

Fu HongJun glanced around. The room was plain but clean just a bed, a table, and a window that overlooked the yard. He let out a sigh of relief. Not bad.

But then he noticed something else.

Just across the narrow hallway was a familiar door.
On it, in fancy script carved into a wooden plaque, was a single word: Luli.

His expression froze.

“…Why is her room… right in front of mine?”

The old man stretched lazily.
“Coincidence. Probably.”
But the corner of his lips twitched suspiciously.

Fu HongJun gave him a deadpan stare but said nothing. He was too tired to argue.

With a groan, he dragged himself inside, clutching his bag and uniform. He dropped them by the table and collapsed straight onto the bed without even changing clothes or taking a bath.

His eyes shut.

His mind blank.

His body aching.

But somewhere deep inside him beneath the soreness and exhaustion, a strange warmth was building.
The start of something new.

And dangerously close, just across the hallway…
Luli’s lamp was still lit.

Nine Dragon Mountain – Nightfall

The wind howled across the steep ridges of Nine Dragon Mountain. Clouds choked the moonlight, and the thick woods rustled with uneasy stillness.

A group of six teenagers, dressed in rough cultivator robes, made their way up a narrow path. The leader, Long Jiang, a cocky youth with a mole under his eye, waved a crude talisman.

“Hey Long Jiang,” one of them whispered nervously, “Are you sure this info is real? Thousand-year-old ginseng… doesn’t that usually come with... I don’t know, guardian beasts? Or sect protection?”

Long Jiang scoffed. “It came from a reliable source. An old spirit vendor said he saw a purple flame dancing at the mountain’s base. That only happens when rare herbs ripen. Besides , do you see any beasts here?”

“No, but I do see death flags…” another muttered.

Still, they pressed on, greed gleaming in their eyes.

Then

Click.

The ground beneath them shifted. A heartbeat later, it collapsed.

They fell with a chorus of screams into a deep pit.

“AHHH!!!!”

CRASH!

The moment they hit bottom, heavy chains wrapped around their legs like metal snakes. Sharp wires jerked tight, suspending them at awkward angles. Before they could even cry out properly, a dozen jagged weight stones fell from hidden compartments above, slamming into their backs and legs with loud, bone-crunching thuds.

“Gahhhh!! My spine!”

“Trap! This is a trap!”

But the horror wasn’t over.

From the upper walls, a glimmering net of razor-thin wires joined with knifes dropped. Its edges coated in glossy black venom. As it descended, it sliced through robes, skin, and even bone, causing shallow but widespread cuts across the teens’ bodies.

The air instantly filled with the coppery stench of blood.

Some tried to scream, but even that was choked by pain.

Then, above the pit, shadows appeared.

Dozens of masked men wearing robes of burlap and dark iron armor stared down with pitiless eyes. Elder Liu Yun stood at the edge of the trap, arms folded, lips curled in disdain.

Beside him stood Grandpa Ji, his face calm as stone.

Grandpa Ji gave a simple hand signal.

One of the masked men stepped forward and dumped the contents of a small bronze cauldron into the pit.

A thick, syrupy liquid rained down the aphrodisiac fog mixed with potent musk. It clung to the wounded bodies below like spiritual poison.

The already dazed teens suddenly began writhing.

Their pupils dilated. Breathing ragged. Moaning. Their minds clouded. The pain mixed with unrelenting lust. Male and female alike lost all sense of self scratching, biting, clawing in confusion, some even hugging as their sanity dissolved.

Elder Liu Yun turned away in disgust.

“Fuck… I might gouge my own eyes out. Next time, use poison gas instead.”

Grandpa Ji, unbothered, muttered, “Let them rot like wild dogs. These cultivators would’ve done worse things than we do.”

Still, he waved his hand again.

With a hiss of gears and a flash of firelight, the final trap activated.

A narrow slit opened above the pit. Then

FWOOSH!

A ring of fire oil ignited around the edges. The hole blazed with a roaring inferno. The wires heated up, glowing red. Screams from within the pit turned into shrieks of pain and madness.

“AAAAHHHH!!”

“MY SKIN….IT’S MELTING!!”

One girl reached up with blistered hands. “Please… mercy…”

Grandpa Ji didn’t blink. His voice was as cold as steel.

“No mercy. Just blame your luck and greed”

The flames rose higher.

Above the mountain, black smoke coiled into the dark sky like a silent prayer for revenge.