The Vermilion Bird Altar had fallen. Altar Master Xiong Qianjin had been torn apart alive by furious villagers, but a good many captives remained, and whether they lived or died was for Mu Qingyan to decide. You Guanyue stood at the left of the altar master's throne, head high and chest out, and ordered his men to bring the prisoners up one by one for the Young Lord's judgment. The first to be dragged up was the Left Deputy Altar Master, Zhang Xun, trussed hand and foot. He gave Mu Qingyan, seated above him, a coquettish smile, so lush and overpowering that even You Guanyue, who had fought this wretch openly and in secret for years, had to admit the man's looks were exceptional. Mu Qingyan did not so much as lift an eyelid. "Crooked mouth, squinting eyes. Kill him." You Guanyue was stunned. Next came the badly wounded Right Deputy Altar Master, Li Zhang. He had always known how to read people and attend to detail. The moment he saw Mu Qingyan, he offered to ha...
The Haihan Mountains were not one mountain but a whole range. Wherever the eye turned there were layered peaks and rolling ridges. By day they were a wall of green; by night the ghost fires multiplied and the lamplight turned dim, until it was hard to tell who was human and who was ghost. Two hundred years ago, Mu Xiujue, the first sect leader, had chosen this place to found the sect. He built the Palace of Supreme Bliss and the Pavilion of the Nine Provinces Treasure Scrolls first, and several later leaders added the Immortal Sacrifice Cliff, the Godslaying Platform and other key sites. With these places at the center, countless secret passages and hidden doors spread like spider silk, buried deep beneath the towering peaks. The only passage open to the outside lay in a dense grove of ink-black bamboo, with traps and mechanisms on every side. In the jianghu it was known as the Netherworld Bamboo Road. Tonight the Netherworld Bamboo Road was unusually quiet. Along the way, not a si...