"Who is that person?" Ye Lanshan had suspected someone had betrayed her, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it, since most had sworn oaths under heaven and earth, leaving only the children trained by Futian without such vows.
"He's dead. Everyone who didn't swear the oath is dead, leaving only us girls and Yun Di." Qing Dai hung her head, looking deeply sorrowful.
"Alright, let's head back first. We'll talk slowly once we're there."
Ye Lanshan, still worried about Yue Shu's condition, didn't let them linger here.
The group filed out in a grand procession, but outside, there were nothing but corpses. Despite the commotion, no one had been drawn here, and the magnificent palace stood empty, devoid of a single soul.
Ye Lanshan felt a pang of suspicion, sensing something off about the situation, yet she couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.
But her intuition told her there was a conspiracy at play she didn't know about.
Qing Dai was the real Qing Dai—Ye Lanshan could tell the moment she grasped her hand that this time, it was truly her.
"Finally out. It's been so long since I've seen sunlight." For a brief moment, Qing Dai seemed eerily strange, but she quickly returned to normal.
Ye Lanshan and the others were sharp enough to notice the oddity.
Yes, something was very wrong. Yun Di, who used to be talkative and always gravitated toward Ye Lanshan with undisguised admiration, was now utterly silent, shrouded in a heavy aura of death.
The others wore blank expressions too—no joy at seeing her, no fear at the corpses, like walking corpses.
Ye Lanshan grew wary. She subtly probed Qing Dai with questions, but found nothing amiss in her words.
Ling Chunian used a spell to speak in her mind: "They're being controlled."
"What kind of force is this?"
Ye Lanshan found this organization extremely bizarre, filled with strange people who seemed mentally disturbed.
Ling Chunian said with a hint of hatred, "It's a wildly insane and twisted force, almost as twisted as the Holy Land."
The Holy Land? Oh no, the Twin Fruit.
Ye Lanshan's face paled, as if she'd missed something critical.
"What's wrong? Is your injury acting up?" Ye Yutian had been watching her closely and, seeing her expression change, assumed she was in pain.
"The Twin Fruit—we missed the time to seize it."
"The Twin Fruit? But it's not ripe yet." Ling Chunian counted on her fingers; indeed, it wasn't time.
"You know about the Twin Fruit? Didn't you say you've never been outside?" Ye Lanshan tilted her head to ask.
Ling Chunian swallowed and said, "I haven't been out, but that doesn't mean I don't know. And I not only know about the Twin Fruit, but also where other rare herbs are."
"Fine. Once they're settled, take me to gather those herbs."
Ye Lanshan and the others hurried back to the cave just before dark.
"Chunian, are you okay? Any injuries?"
The other Spirit Clan members sitting in the cave rushed over to surround Ling Chunian when they saw them return.
"I'm fine, see? I'm perfectly well." Ling Chunian spun around to show she was unharmed.
"Greetings, Chieftain."
Just as Ye Lanshan was pondering why they were being controlled, Ling Chunian's "Greetings, Chieftain" startled her.
The other Spirit Clan members knelt, sincerely calling out, "Greetings, Chieftain."
This time, they truly accepted Ye Lanshan from the bottom of their hearts, not just as a formality like before.
"I want to know why you call me Chieftain. Though we're all cultivators, we didn't know each other before, yet you called me that the first time we met. It confuses me."
Ye Lanshan had thought about it the whole way but couldn't figure out how she'd ended up as their chieftain.
She prided herself on being unmatched in intelligence, yet she still couldn't grasp the connection.
"Because you have the mark of the Seven-Petal Lotus on your arm. Ancient records say that whoever bears the Seven-Petal Lotus is the one who can lead us to glory."
Ling Chunian produced an ancient tome and flipped to the relevant page, as if to prove her point.
"If that's the case, then taking me to the dungeon earlier was just to test my strength." Ye Lanshan finally understood her strange behavior.
"Yes, and it proves you're worthy of being our chieftain." Ling Chunian nodded.
"But I don't want to be your chieftain."
"But Chieftain, you promised to save us earlier!" One of them looked up in disbelief.
"I promised to save you, but I didn't promise to be your chieftain."
Ye Lanshan had no interest in a group of disloyal subordinates who doubted her.
"Chieftain, whether you accept it or not, you are our chieftain. Unless I die, I'll follow you wherever you go." Ling Chunian's tone was firm, leaving no room for refusal.
"Follow me if you want, but I'm not agreeing."
It wasn't that Ye Lanshan was foolish to turn down power handed to her; she knew taking on this force meant inheriting a mess. She didn't have the time to clean it up, especially when it might be beyond her current ability to handle.
"Is this a poison蛊?" Ye Lanshan knocked Qing Dai unconscious and examined her, only to find she was infected with a mind-controlling蛊.
"Does the poison蛊 exist outside the Holy Land too?" Ye Lanshan frowned. This蛊 wouldn't be easy to cure.
Hearing this, Ling Chunian explained, "Key figures from the Holy Land are involved in their ranks. The poison蛊 comes from the Holy Land."
They had been infected for days now. If not cured quickly, they'd be under the蛊's control for life.
Without delay, Ye Lanshan began chanting the anti-蛊 spell. Though it consumed a lot of spiritual energy, it was the best method against the poison蛊.
After chanting the spell, she used up nearly half her spiritual energy, but the effect was clear. Qing Dai and the others gradually regained clarity, though they seemed slightly dazed from the蛊's erosion. A day or two of rest would restore them.
"What's the relationship between the Holy Land and the forces in the Sunset Mountains?"
"There's no strong connection. The people in that force are all madmen, crazily conducting all kinds of experiments—combining humans with humans, humans with beasts, humans with weapons. Anything terrifying, unimaginable, or insane, they do."
As Ling Chunian spoke, she grew furious, as if they had experimented on her too.