When Shu Tiantian raised her head, she only remembered seeing a pair of scarlet-gold pupils.

These eyes did not look like something a human should possess at all.

Golden pupils were originally the scarlet-gold amber exclusive to gods, yet these golden irises, because they reflected the color of blood, carried a kind of decadent beauty—like blood splashed across a divine statue.

The pale young man possessed a sickly yet sinister beauty, scarlet-gold pupils, and lips so vividly red.

Drip, drip—the blood seemed endless as it fell from his ankles. Shu Tiantian dared to conclude it was the young man’s blood because those drops fell one after another, and when they landed on the ground, they hissed as they bloomed into one flaming crimson blood flower after another.

Though it was utterly inappropriate, merely being near this person made Shu Tiantian feel that the chill from her Heavenly Yin constitution acting up had lessened considerably.

So much so that, even in extreme terror, she could still erupt with a powerful will to survive. Before the other party shattered the bed with a single palm strike, she stretched out her hand.

As a healer, she almost instinctively, through bodily reflex alone, reached a conclusion:

This person was injured—gravely injured. His divine soul was damaged, his meridians completely shattered.

Shu Tiantian summoned all her courage to say that sentence. The pale young man followed her gaze and saw the blood dripping from himself.

Those thin, beautiful lips curved slightly upward, yet the next second, the sound of wind suddenly came from behind—Yuan Jingzhi’s desperate final strike!

Without even turning his head, the young man casually reached back with a crack, and the dignified Nascent Soul Ancestor Yuan Jingzhi let out a shrill scream.

Originally, because her Heavenly Yin body had flared up, Shu Tiantian’s rationality had been teetering on the edge—like someone who had been frozen in bitter cold all day suddenly returning to a warm home, unable to resist drawing close to the fire for comfort. At this very moment, that scream jolted her sharply back to her senses, and the blood in her whole body turned cold.

Though she had not seen what happened, that crisp snapping sound was probably the evil cultivator Ancestor’s desperate strike—yet someone had twisted his neck off.

He tilted his head slightly, and with his other clean, slender hand, reached toward Shu Tiantian.

Tian’er: …

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

The pale young man’s slender fingers curled slightly—clearly impatient—reaching beneath the bed—then he lifted her up with one hand.

Shu Tiantian: …

Shu Tiantian fainted from fright.

That hand seemed to sense something abnormal about her, paused, then changed its hold—from grabbing the back of her neck to lifting her by the waist.

Before losing consciousness, Shu Tiantian seemed to hear a dying evil cultivator let out one last terrified cry,

“I-It’s… the Ancestor of Void Abyss!”

The pale young man’s steps paused, and the Niangniang Temple together with the evil cultivators turned into ashes.

“So noisy.”

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

If in the modern world, someone killed others because they were too noisy, Shu Tiantian would not believe it. But if it were in the novel Shizun Treats Me as a Substitute, then there really was someone who would kill just because things were too noisy.

And most unreasonable of all, this person had extremely sharp hearing. Within a thousand-li radius, whenever a sound exceeding a fixed decibel level appeared, he would show up at that place and randomly slaughter people.

In her hazy state, the original plot of the novel revolved through Shu Tiantian’s mind like a revolving lantern.

In the novel Shizun Treats Me as a Substitute, even Yuan Jingzhi, who had killed the white-moonlight junior sister, did not count as a villain. Later, he could be redeemed and even become one of the extreme admirers of the female lead Ling Ruoshui—showing just how distorted the moral values were.

Yet in such a novel, a genuine great villain had been created.

He loved randomly killing people; he killed when the weather was overcast, and he killed when the weather was clear. On certain specific days, he required silence within a thousand-li radius, if any sound exceeded a fixed decibel level, he would kill.

But fortunately, at the beginning of the story, this great villain was only going mad within Void Abyss. In the later part of the story, he no longer liked killing people; he changed his hobby to destroying the world.

People in the cultivation world all called him “the Ancestor of Void Abyss,” yet few knew his true name.

Although in the cultivation world, anyone at Nascent Soul and above was addressed as “Ancestor”—for example, the Ancestor Yuan Jingzhi who had kidnapped Shu Tiantian was a late-stage Nascent Soul powerhouse.

But if for others it was an honorific, then for the Ancestor of Void Abyss it was a literal translation—Void Abyss’s father.

Five thousand years ago, the various great sects joined forces to suppress this demon, yet no one expected that at the place where he was suppressed, black mist would thereafter be born, stretching for a thousand li, blotting out the clouds and covering the sun. Here, evil cultivators thrived, ghost cultivators were countless; it had simply become a living hell on earth.

Later, that place was called Void Abyss.

Unfortunately, this novel did not have a Demon Realm; if one had to compare, Void Abyss was a place even more sinister than the Demon Realm.

The Tianji Sect, where Immortal Lord Chixiao resided, in order to guard the cultivation world, deliberately established their sect near Void Abyss, intending to stand watch and also to suppress the evil demons of Void Abyss.

It was said that those who went there would have entry but no exit, death but no life.

That Yuan Jingzhi had chosen that Niangniang Temple precisely because Immortal Lord Chixiao’s divine sense could not cover Void Abyss.

Void Abyss also had markets, villages, and even an infamous auction house, but unlike the outside world, here the mountains and plains were filled entirely with evil cultivators and countless mutated demonic beasts.

Moreover, the closer one was to the center of Void Abyss, the higher the level.

Of course, Void Abyss’s father lived at the peak of the mountain at the center of Void Abyss.

Sin flourished here, desire blotted out the sky and covered the sun, turning it into a fallen land of evil.

On this evil soil, because of the existence of Void Abyss’s father, there was an unwritten rule—on nights when the full moon hung high, no sound could be made; even if you were a Deity Transformation Ancestor or a Heaven-tier demonic beast, all must abide by this rule.

But because the Ancestor of Void Abyss had been silent for many years, this rule showed signs of loosening.

Like Yuan Jingzhi, he was one of those who knowingly broke the law and took his chances.

What Shu Tiantian could be certain of was that in the original text, the little junior sister probably had not triggered this setting, because Yuan Jingzhi had continued to hop about alive until halfway through the story. When Immortal Lord Chixiao learned the truth and wanted to kill Yuan Jingzhi to avenge the little junior sister, Ling Ruoshui had even knelt in bitter pleading.

Most suffocating of all, the female lead’s plea had actually succeeded.

Shizun had not killed Yuan Jingzhi, merely abolished his cultivation.

What about the so-called white moonlight? What about lifelong regret? Shu Tiantian only felt a wave of stifling frustration.

But in her sleep, Shu Tiantian suddenly thought of something and was startled awake—

She clearly remembered that in the later part of the story, after Yuan Jingzhi’s meridians were abolished by Immortal Lord Chixiao, he simply turned into a ghost cultivator.

Then the question arose: that Ancestor of Void Abyss just now seemed to have merely given a crisp snap and twisted Yuan Jingzhi’s neck…

Yuan Jingzhi was someone who would retaliate for the smallest grievance, and yet this time it was Shu Tiantian who had drawn the Ancestor of Void Abyss here! Shu Tiantian seemed to see Yuan Jingzhi grinning ferociously as he reached his demonic claws toward her.

She abruptly opened her eyes—

A precarious thatched hut, broken windows and tables and chairs; if not for the faintly visible black mist outside blotting out the sky and covering the sun, Shu Tiantian would have thought she had transmigrated again.

That iconic black mist—it was Void Abyss.

She sat up from the bed drenched in cold sweat, feeling as though she had survived a catastrophe. The Ancestor of Void Abyss had not killed her; she had lived.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

Shu Tiantian pricked up her ears warily, clutching her medicine box tightly. Before she could react, she saw a graceful woman, still charming despite her age, push the door open.

The woman carried some things in her hands, set them on the table beside her, and smiled. Her voice was pressed extremely low. “Miss, you’re new here, aren’t you?”

Shu Tiantian did not dare relax her guard and quietly stepped back without a sound.

The woman did not mind her attitude at all and began introducing things with a smile. Her voice remained very low, probably fearing the sound might carry outside—she even deliberately shut the window.

Only then did Shu Tiantian understand why she had been able to survive—because she was a medical cultivator.

By sheer coincidence, she had actually said the correct keyword.

The place where Shu Tiantian was now was already very close to the center of Void Abyss.

Three cities stood side by side in Void Abyss, each city guarded by an evil cultivator at the Integration stage. Where there were people, there was the jianghu; Void Abyss also had families and sects, though the number of rogue cultivators was even greater, yet all bowed their heads to the three cities.

However, outside these three cities, there was an area independent of Void Abyss—Black Valley.

The black mist of Void Abyss blotted out the sky and covered the sun; the closer to the central mountain peak, the denser it became. By the time it reached this valley, it had grown dense to the point of darkness, and so it was named Black Valley.

Every year, countless medical cultivators were captured and brought into Black Valley to be delivered to that great demon Ancestor. After all, due to the conditions in Void Abyss, precious medical cultivators were extremely scarce.

Shu Tiantian thought that they were probably captured to treat the Ancestor of Void Abyss. After all, the Ancestor’s divine soul was damaged and his meridians shattered—at a glance, they were chronic old injuries. Capturing a group of medical cultivators was quite reasonable.

Only… Shu Tiantian had not been sent here by others—she had been brought here by the Ancestor of Void Abyss himself. But judging from appearances, this person did not seem to know that.

The woman suddenly smiled and asked, “I heard that outside Void Abyss, a Nascent Soul evil cultivator captured a furnace today. Like you, she’s a medical cultivator. Do you know her?”

Shu Tiantian’s heart skipped a beat.

The greed in the woman’s gaze was almost tangible, yet when her eyes touched something, it was as if she had been pricked by a needle, and her expression abruptly changed.

Following the woman’s line of sight, Shu Tiantian looked at her own hand, tightly gripping a blazing Scarlet Flame Flower.

Shu Tiantian found an excuse, saying she wanted to go out and take a look. Before the woman could react, she grabbed her medicine box and hurried out.

Black Valley lived up to its name—so dark that one could only see two or three meters ahead. On the road, people walked here and there in small groups; there were even stalls selling things, but there were very few people, and each one was extremely quiet, as if none dared make any sound at all.

Clutching the Scarlet Flame Flower, Shu Tiantian walked quickly.

Just now, Shu Tiantian had suddenly thought of a problem—

If medical cultivators in Void Abyss were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, then in this village, most of the so-called “medical cultivators” were probably all evil cultivators.

And Void Abyss was filled with slaughter and bloodlust, a place that magnified evil. The law of evil cultivators was survival of the fittest—so among this group of “medical cultivators,” would they really coexist peacefully?

Then Shu Tiantian, whose cultivation was only at the Qi Refining stage, was probably at the very bottom of the food chain—and she just happened to be a walking piece of Tang Monk’s flesh…

Shu Tiantian knew very clearly that the only reason she was still safe right now was the blazing Scarlet Flame Flower in her arms.

But this flower was about to go out.

Shu Tiantian walked faster and faster, faster and faster.

Even without turning back, countless malicious gazes and covetous looks stabbed into Shu Tiantian’s back.

This village settlement within Void Abyss was shrouded in black mist that never dispersed year-round. Not far away, however, one could see a massive mountain peak rising into the clouds, like a pillar holding up the entire sky—extremely conspicuous within Void Abyss’s valley terrain.

Shu Tiantian quickened her pace and hurried in that direction.

The wind blew, and the flame of the Scarlet Flame Flower flickered in the breeze. Soon—just as Shu Tiantian stepped out of the village—it went out!

Clutching her medicine box, Shu Tiantian turned and ran—

Help, help, help!!!

But Shu Tiantian was only a small medical cultivator at the Qi Refining stage. Though her medical skills were extraordinary, she only knew a bit of lightness technique.

Seeing the black evil cultivators surging behind her like a tide, and with a low cliff in front of her, Shu Tiantian simply hugged her medicine box and rolled down.

Nothing unexpected happened—Shu Tiantian was knocked senseless, tumbling five, six, seven, eight times before finally stopping. When she coughed and looked back, she did not know why, but those evil cultivators had not chased after her.

Panting, Shu Tiantian sat up, and what she saw was an entire valley of Scarlet Flame Flowers, stretching to the horizon—beautiful like a sea of fire, burning red across the edge of the sky.

Right… with these flowers here, those evil cultivators would not dare come.

Though the scene was somewhat eerie, Shu Tiantian finally let out a sigh of relief and completely lay flat in the middle of the sea of Scarlet Flame Flowers.

The evil cultivators stopped at the edge of the settlement, silently communicating with divine sense,

“Huh, didn’t she get burned to death? Why did she sit up?”

“Hiss, she lay down again. Probably when the body gets scorched it twitches a bit. She’ll die eventually—no one can get out.”

“What a pity, such an excellent furnace…”

The fragmented whispers of divine sense scattered into the air above the cliff, and the tide of evil cultivators gradually retreated.

Thus, no one noticed that the “scorched” Shu Tiantian had finally caught her breath, stood up again, and walked toward the endless depths of the Scarlet Flame Flowers.

If nothing unexpected happened, this would be Shu Tiantian’s refuge for the time being.

She still had to find a way to send a message to that dog of a Shizun. Even if going back meant stepping straight into a large-scale melodramatic romance double-standard scene, it would still be far more comfortable than this horror-film setting of Void Abyss.

But as Shu Tiantian walked, she suddenly felt that the texture of the ground beneath her feet was a bit strange…

Soft, yet hard.