The Immortal Sect reorganizes its forces to resist the formidable enemy, while Shen Yi meticulously plots to display his heroic might.

Shen Yi’s thumb gently caressed the jade pendant, the golden patterns of the symbiotic contract flickering in the moonlight.

The snow lotus in Gao Yao’s hair emitted a peculiar golden glow, casting her profile like a statue carved of ice and jade, while even her gossamer sash exuded a chilling, lethal aura.

"If this spirit-devouring epiphiphyllum blooms, remember to weave me a wreath." Gao Yao suddenly reached out to poke the ink-colored flower bud at the edge of the spiritual field, the frost swirling around her fingertips startling the gold-devouring ants gnawing on the soil into scattering everywhere.

Shen Yi grinned and hid his dragon-powder-stained hand inside his sleeve, casually wrapping an arm around her slender shoulders. "If my wife is willing to wear that goose-yellow gauze dress, let alone a wreath, I’ll turn the entire spiritual field into a bridal bed."

The night breeze, carrying a trace of the smell of blood, swept across the medicine garden, the sound of ice crystals shattering forming an eerie scale behind the two of them.

From the corner of his eye, Shen Yi caught sight of the system map where the green dot representing Mingxin was sneaking toward the forbidden grounds of the back mountain.

Without a flicker of emotion, he gave a light, snapping motion with his finger, several spirit-devouring epiphiphyllum seeds silently sinking into the soil.

The morning mist of the third quarter of the Yin hour had yet to dissipate when Elder Xuanfeng’s bronze command flag was planted in the center of the martial arts arena.

Twenty-three wounded immortal sect disciples huddled on the bluestone steps, the snow-white hems of their spiritual skirts stained with medicine blemishes of varying shades, feeding the last half-bottle of Rejuvenation Powder to an unconscious youth.

"Three more spirit meridians withered last night." Hao Yu squatted beside Shen Yi, wiping his sword, the blade reflecting the residual shadow of the bloody vortex on the horizon. "Mingxin said he saw a dragon shadow circling the forbidden area and almost peed his pants from fright."

Shen Yi bit his fingertip, flicking a drop of blood toward the command flag, which immediately caused spiderweb-like cracks to spread across the banner's surface.

He looked at Gao Yao, who was administering acupuncture to the wounded, the symbiotic curse seal on her wrist flickering in intensity with the rhythm of her treatment.

In the warning pop-up suddenly thrown by the system, the scarlet digits of "Dao heart damaged 89%" made his eye sockets ache fiercely.

"Tell those cowards to tighten their belts." Shen Yi kicked a group of gold-devouring ants that were slacking off, and the pitch-black cloud of insects immediately lunged toward the armory storing spiritual artifacts. "Before the hour of the horse, I want to see all defensive arrays embedded with dragon scale grass juice."

Amidst the billowing steam of the medicine lodge, Gao Yao suddenly began to cough violently, the ice crystals leaking from between her fingers freezing into a phoenix totem on the ground.

Shen Yi flashed forward to catch her crumbling body, the heat of her back against his palm startlingly high, while a system scan revealed two conflicting spiritual energies tearing each other apart within her.

"Elder Xuanfeng said... cough... the mountain-guarding array at the North Cliff needs its carvings renewed..." Gao Yao’s blood-stained lips brushed against his earlobe, and the snow lotus in her hair suddenly bloomed, freezing a sneak-attacking poisoned needle into shards of ice.

Shen Yi stared at the poisoned needle pinned into the pillar, gold light surging violently in his pupils.

Feigning that he was leaning down to pick up a pestle, he instead pressed three dragon horn fragments into the gaps between the blue bricks.

The incantations on the fragments resonated with the ice-crystal phoenix Gao Yao had coughed up, weaving a pale-golden net in a corner where no one noticed.

The rain of the Shen hour arrived strangely, red raindrops lashing against the mountain-guarding array and rising into a foul mist.

Shen Yi squatted in the center of the spiritual field, watching the dragon scale grass planted yesterday spread into bloody briars, fragments of Mingxin’s array flags still hanging from the sharp thorns.

The immortal realm soil in the system space suddenly emitted a humming sound, completely swallowing the moon-glowing grass he had just harvested.

"Senior Brother Shen! The thousand-machine crossbows in the armory..." Hao Yu’s startled cry was cleaved apart in mid-air by a roll of thunder.

Shen Yi hurled a dragon-veined dagger with a backhand motion, the hilt precisely knocking away a bone nail that was about to pierce the back of Hao Yu’s heart.

He narrowed his eyes, watching the phantom of a mask gradually take shape in the rain, the spirit-devouring epiphiphyllum seeds crushed beneath his boots oozing black mist that silently coiled around the intruder's ankles.

During the strategic meeting of the Xu hour, Elder Xuanfeng’s sand table suddenly exploded.

Amidst the splashing fragments of spirit stones, Shen Yi saw Gao Yao using blood-stained fingertips to trace a teleportation array beneath the table.

Her pale cheeks showed a totem similar to the golden patterns of the snow lotus, and the system warning sound blasted in his sea of consciousness—that was the precursor to the backlash of an immortal realm forbidden art.

The morning dew of the Yin hour still clung to the leaves of the spiritual plants when Shen Yi squatted in the spiritual field, tinkering with three golden-veined green peaches.

The moment the system light screen popped up, he casually stabbed a shovel stained with dragon scale grass juice into the soil, startling the gold-devouring ants into twisting into black-and-gold braids on the ridge.

"Senior Brother Shen!" Hao Yu rushed over holding half a broken sword, only to stumble over vines that suddenly lunged up from three paces away from the spiritual field.

He stared dumbfounded as those star-dust-entwined vines automatically wove themselves into a stretcher, upon which rested seven jade-smooth vermilion fruits.

Shen Yi tossed a vermilion fruit over with a roguish smile. "Want a taste? Cultivated with last night's bloody rain." The moment the fruit touched Hao Yu's palm, its dark red skin suddenly faded to an amber color, overflowing with spiritual qi like clear spring water.

The listless disciples around him immediately acted like cats sniffing fishy blood, even Mingxin, cowering in the corner, stretching out his neck.

Elder Xuanfeng’s bronze command flag vibrated punctually at the Chen hour, the cracks on the banner this time filled by dragon scale grass into ferocious beast-head patterns.

Shen Yi leaned sideways against the newly grown green peach tree, watching twenty-three golden-veined green peaches bloom simultaneously, pale golden pollen swirling with the wind into the mouths and noses of the wounded—the disciples huddled on the bluestone steps suddenly began to cough violently, the black blood they coughed up freezing into ice crystals upon hitting the ground.

"This is..." Linyun’s hands holding the pestle trembled slightly, the silver needle pinned in her hair suddenly flying into the air on its own, stringing the ice crystals into a flowing river of stars.

The most heavily wounded youth abruptly sat up straight, pale-golden light dots wandering within his withered meridians.

Shen Yi toyed with the blazing sun vine seeds fished out from the system space, his peripheral vision catching Gao Yao using frost to staunch a wounded man's bleeding.

The symbiotic curse seal on the young woman's wrist was much dimmer than yesterday's, yet the snow lotus in her hair bloomed all the more enchantingly.

With a flick of his fingertips, several seeds precisely dropped into the brocade pouch at her waist.

"Brew tea with these." As he leaned closer, he caught the cold scent of her mixed with blood. "It will make you cough less at night."

Gao Yao raised an eyebrow and tied the pouch back to her sash, an ice butterfly formed of frost suddenly lunging toward Shen Yi’s earlobe to block a fragment of bronze that had shattered off the flagstaff. "If fellow Daoist Shen could bother to spend less time wagging his tongue, I might actually get half an hour more sleep."

As twilight gathered, a red pillar of light suddenly surged on the east side of the martial arts arena.

The blazing sun vines planted by Shen Yi grew wildly within three hours into ten-zhang-tall giant trees, hanging from their knotted branches lantern-shaped fruits, each fruit containing a glowing spiritual insect curled inside.

Disciples who had previously hidden in their quarters were attracted by the spiritual qi, and even Elder Xuanfeng could not resist poking a lantern fruit that spat fireballs with his command flag.

"Senior Brother Shen!" Hao Yu ran over excitedly holding his sword, the dragon scale grass juice newly embedded in the blade glowing with an eerie light. "The cracks in the western defense array have been patched! That coward Mingxin actually volunteered to guard the eye of the array!"

Shen Yi chewed on a vermilion fruit without answering, his gaze falling upon the system map—the green dot representing Mingxin was flickering eerie warnings at the western array eye.

With a flick of his finger, he launched the fruit pit toward the blazing sun vine, and a sky full of flowing fire instantly burst across the tree canopy, igniting the cheers of the disciples into a boiling sea of stars.

The medicine lodge of the Xu hour was fragrant with the sweetness of vermilion fruit, and the way Shen Yi kicked open the door startled Linyun into spilling half a bowl of medicinal soup.

Gao Yao was leaning against the window drawing a star map with frost, the snow lotus in her hair making her profile appear almost transparent.

Shen Yi suddenly reached out and pinched the back of her neck, fine golden sparks bursting forth when the dragon scale pattern on his palm touched the curse seal.

"Don't move." Shedding his roguishness for once, he fished out a seed wrapped in frost crystals from his bosom. "This was grown using the blood you coughed up."

The moment the seed touched the frost, it blossomed into twin lotus flowers, the two buds exhibiting dual gold and silver colors respectively.

Gao Yao’s pupils contracted slightly, and the instant her fingertips brushed the petals, the entire lotus flower transformed into flowing light and merged into the space between her eyebrows.

On the system light screen, the value for "Dao heart damaged" began to fluctuate wildly, finally stabilizing at 85%.

"This is called the two-lives lotus." Shen Yi tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Remember to cough towards it next time you cough up blood; it'll save thirty percent of your spiritual energy."

During the midnight patrol, Shen Yi caught the gold-devouring ants stealing vermilion fruits in the corner of the armory.

Squatting down, he poked the queen ant's round belly, and the insect swarm immediately spit out seven mutated seeds as if offering treasures.

These sticky-coated little things exhibited an eerie metallic luster under the moonlight, and system scans showed they could absorb the malevolence of killing arrays.

"Senior Brother Shen!" Hao Yu rushed in holding a torch, the firelight illuminating dense claw marks densely covering the wall. "New cracks have appeared in the mountain-guarding array at North Cliff, Elder Xuanfeng said it looks like... like something chewed them open!"

Shen Yi pressed the mutated seed into a gap in the wall, turning his head to catch sight of the bloody vortex outside the window having expanded by half an inch compared to yesterday.

He sniffed the blazing sun vine seeds inside Gao Yao's brocade pouch and suddenly chuckled aloud. "Tell the elder to dispatch twenty men to the back mountain to dig for earthworms tomorrow."

The torrential rain poured down once again at the Yin hour, this time mixed with fine, shattered scales.

Shen Yi sat cross-legged in the center of the spiritual field, watching the dragon scale grass planted yesterday swallow those scales as nourishment.

A sudden tremor came from the system space, and that lump of immortal realm soil actually swallowed more than half of the newly harvested blazing sun vines, its surface hatching patterns resembling Gao Yao's curse seal.

"Quite the appetite, aren't you?" He licked a fingertip cut by a scale, tossing a blood-stained vermilion fruit toward the soil.

The sound of swallowing abruptly hastened, and the azure starlight at the edge of the map suddenly split into two clusters—those were precisely the eastern and western flanks that needed to be fortified tomorrow.

As the morning light first emerged, Shen Yi stood at the North Cliff watching the disciples practice a new formation.

The fire dragon slashed out by Hao Yu's sword was neutralized by the water shield that Mingxin nervously patched up, while Elder Xuanfeng's command flag was planted at the cliff edge, the blazing sun vines twined around the flagstaff spitting fireballs that dispelled the mist.

"How much dragon scale grass juice is left?" he suddenly asked Linyun, who was watering the vines.

The female physician shook the bottom-heavy medicine bottle, the golden liquid remaining at the base reflecting the bloody vortex on the horizon. "Only enough to patch the defensive array three more times."

Shen Yi touched the jade capsule at his chest, the tremor of the immortal realm soil transmitting through his clothing.

He gazed at Gao Yao, who was instructing disciples in forming arrays; the golden patterns of the snow lotus in her hair displayed three more cracks than they had yesterday—a mutation the system had never prompted him about.