Most crucially, Xiang Haikui’s death lacked any dignity.
When it comes to entering the Way, sooner is better than later. As soon as she arrived, her father helped her build her foundation and spent half a year helping her stabilize her realm.
After she adapted to life in the cultivation world, he went into seclusion.
He had previously suffered severe injuries, and now, after multiple expenditures of energy, he needed to seclude himself for a while.
A few days later, Xiang Haikui worked up a smelly sweat while practicing, so she took a flower petal bath in her room. Suddenly, a ghostly figure appeared behind her.
Before she could react, the person viciously grabbed her hair bun and forced her face into the bathwater.
Under the pressure of that hand, her dantian was sealed, preventing her from releasing spiritual power. But she already had a foundation in the Dao, so she struggled for a full ten minutes until blood flowed from her eyes, ears, and nose, turning the entire bathtub red before she drowned—
When Xiang Haikui woke from this nightmare, her forehead was covered in cold sweat.
The terror of suffocation and the despair of death kept pounding her brain.
She couldn’t help but curse: “Damn! Sick pervert!”
But something was strange.
To infiltrate the heavily guarded City Lord’s Mansion with its many formations, to sneak into her room with its special security lock, to evade the guards her father had arranged for her—the culprit must have possessed very high cultivation.
If they wanted to kill her, it would have been as simple as flicking a finger at her forehead.
Why kill her in such an inhumane, torturous way?
“Who did this?!” Xiang Haikui never saw the culprit’s face, which infuriated her!
“As the person involved, you would only see more than I did,” Yin Changli implied that he also didn’t know who it was. “I suspect this matter is related to Xiang Tianqing.”
“W-what?” Xiang Haikui could hardly believe it.
Xiang Tianqing was the biological daughter of the body her father had transmigrated into.
At that time, the original owner was being hunted by demonic cultivators and was fleeing for his life with the newly born Xiang Tianqing. When both were near death, the original owner used his last strength to seal Xiang Tianqing away.
When her father transmigrated into the original owner’s body, the original owner still retained some consciousness and begged her father to take care of Xiang Tianqing.
Being fathers themselves, both having precious daughters, and having occupied someone else’s body, with Xiang Heng’s straightforward and responsible nature, he naturally agreed without hesitation.
He detoxified her, removed the seal, cured her illnesses, and carefully raised Xiang Tianqing to adulthood, never hiding his identity.
As for Xiang Tianqing, though she knew from childhood that her biological father was dead, she still regarded him as her father and insisted on keeping the surname Xiang.
“Why would she kill me?” Xiang Haikui couldn’t think of a reason.
Was she unhappy about sharing her father’s love?
Or afraid Xiang Haikui would take her inheritance?
Seated behind the desk, Yin Changli rested his chin on his hand, his phoenix eyes slightly raised, his gaze never leaving Xiang Haikui’s face, constantly observing the changes in her expression.
He was making his final decision.
But this didn’t prevent him from answering Xiang Haikui’s question: “It wasn’t she who killed you, but the forces behind her. Xiang Tianqing’s background isn’t simple—she’s the daughter of a powerful family from the Upper Realm, who came to the Lower Realm to accumulate experience…”
Upper Realm?
The realm above the cultivation world—that would be the realm of immortals.
Xiang Haikui understood.
Xiang Tianqing was originally a celestial maiden who had descended to undergo her tribulation.
From what Yin Changli was saying, the great families of the heavens liked to send their descendants to transmigrate and reincarnate in the Lower Realm, slaying demons and establishing achievements.
When they returned to the Upper Realm, these accomplishments would become their capital for standing and comparison.
This should have been a good thing.
But at any time, there never lacked those who were keen on taking shortcuts.
Just like the forces behind Xiang Tianqing, who would send servants to the Lower Realm to quietly protect her, and even plan her entire future path.
Without merit, they would artificially create merit.
So, the murderer who drowned her was paving the way for Xiang Tianqing.
The target was—
Her father, Xiang Heng.
The murderer specifically tortured her, making her continually unleash her survival will during suffocation.
In this way, Xiang Heng, who was secluding himself in the city at a distance that wasn’t too far, would be able to sense it.
Seven days into seclusion was precisely when one’s internal energy completed a great cycle. Additionally, when he previously detoxified Xiang Tianqing, he had accumulated demonic poison in his body. Suddenly stopping and breaking seclusion would essentially cause him to go berserk.
Rushing over in a hurry, only to see his daughter’s naked body drowned in a bathtub full of blood, would be another tremendous shock.
This was just her speculation.
Shortly after, the calculating brush touched her forehead again, confirming her deduction.
Her father went mad on the spot.
Unable to find the culprit, he slaughtered half of Yin Sha City, which he had once protected with his life.