Soft Feather tilted her head.

　　Were these voices coming from her Inner Demon?

　　But wasn’t only one Inner Demon supposed to appear during the ‘tribulation of the Inner Demon’? Why were there so many Inner Demons in her sea of consciousness? Or was it possible that it was just a single Inner Demon appearing in different shapes?

　　Regardless of the way things stood, she couldn’t accept the surrender of the Inner Demon or stop singing Senior Creation’s song. Since singing seemed to be effective, she would press forward without letting up, getting through this tribulation of the Inner Demon!

　　Thereupon, the ❮Seven Deaths Song❯, with the power of vibration added to it, reverberated even more clearly in Soft Feather’s sea of consciousness.

　　The Inner Demon cried at the top of its lungs.

　　Screaming and screaming, the cries of the Inner Demon started to get weaker.

　　Around three minutes later…

　　The space before Soft Feather became bright, and that dark and chaotic space surrounding her disappeared. She had managed to defeat the tribulation of the Inner Demon!

　　I feel that the tribulation of the Inner Demon wasn’t that scary in the end. I managed to get past it rather easily, Soft Feather thought to herself.

　　Actually, Soft Feather’s Inner Demon was indeed not that powerful.

　　Venerable Spirit Butterfly thought that Soft Feather’s willpower might be her weak point due to his overprotective attitude that didn’t allow her to experience any danger.

　　But his guess was wrong. Although Soft Feather’s willpower was no match for those people that had gone through a lot of life and death experiences, it was by no means weak.

　　In addition, she was very strong-minded.

　　It was thanks to this mindset of hers that she felt thrilled and delighted after getting sent away by Venerable White’s disposable flying sword.

　　Also, it was still thanks to her strong mindset that she was able to find Dharma King Creation’s shrill voice pleasant to the ear.

　　Even if she couldn’t rely on Dharma King Creation’s singing, it was only an issue of time before Soft Feather defeated the tribulation of the Inner Demon on her own.

　　Inner Demons weren’t too good at dealing with simple-minded or strong-willed people.

　　After transcending the tribulation of the Inner Demon, the true qi inside Soft Feather’s body started to change, transforming from liquefied true qi into ‘innate true yuan’. The color of her mental energy likewise changed, becoming silver.

　　The biggest change would take place while the true qi was transforming into innate true yuan. At that time, an illusory core of true yuan would appear in the original dantian.

　　This core of true yuan was also known as ‘illusory core’—the Golden Core of Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperors was precisely the evolution of this ‘illusory core’.

　　Soft Feather had successfully transcended her tribulation, officially becoming a cultivator of the Fourth Stage.

　　From today onwards, Venerable Spirit Butterfly wouldn’t have to worry about Soft Feather losing her way. If she could ride a flying sword, Soft Feather could just fly high in the sky after getting lost and then find her way.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　At this time, Song Shuhang and the Western monk entered the hospital room where the disciple of the Chu Family was staying.

　　This hospital was the one Su Clan’s Sixteen had gone to after getting injured while transcending the heavenly tribulation.

　　That disciple of the Chu Family was still lying in bed, unconscious; his injury was very heavy. Song Shuhang used the healing technique on his ancient bronze ring to heal his external wounds. The external wounds quickly recovered, but the troublesome part was the internal injury the sword qi had caused.

　　“Ye Si, can your healing technique fix his internal injuries?” Song Shuhang asked.

　　“It can. But if we simply use a healing technique to treat his injuries, hidden problems are very likely to stay behind. The strength of this disciple of the Chu Family is simply too low, and he’s only at the First Stage Fourth Aperture Realm. As such, the sword qi ended up injuring his meridians and internal organs. If we want to properly treat his injury, we first have to remove the remaining sword qi in his body and then use a healing technique alongside medicinal pills to treat him. If possible, it’s better to ask a specialized fellow daoist to cure him,” Ye Si said.

　　“In that case, let’s get him out of the hospital first,” Song Shuhang said with a nod.

　　But before leaving the hospital, they had to let the Western monk settle the bill. This hospital was one of the possessions the Spirit River Su Clan had in the mortal world, and it would be improper not to pay the bill in a hospital that belonged to Su Clan’s Sixteen’s family.

　　While they were discussing, the disciple of the Chu Family slightly opened his eyes. His internal injuries had yet to recover, but he was able to regain consciousness thanks to his will.

　　After opening his eyes, he saw Song Shuhang.

　　“Mister Song, is it really you? Or am I having hallucinations?” the disciple of the Chu Family said in a hoarse voice. Due to him being too agitated, he started coughing, and almost lost consciousness again.

　　The Western monk said, “That’s indeed Benefactor Song. Little Fellow Daoist, you are not mistaken.”

　　The disciple of the Chu Family said in a hurry, “Mister Song, please save our Chu Family!”

　　Sure enough, the Chu Family was in trouble again.

　　“Don’t overdo it, and slowly tell me what happened to the Chu Family. Ye Si, can you first stabilize his injuries? As for his internal injuries, we’ll bring him to Senior Seven Lives Talisman and take care of them at that time,” Song Shuhang said.

　　“Sure, no problem.” Ye Si stretched out her hand from Song Shuhang’s chest, placing it on the body of the disciple.

　　Spiritual energy of the Fifth Stage Realm poured into the body of that disciple of the Chu Family and wrapped around his meridians and internal organs, preventing his internal injury from worsening. Then, the radiance of a healing technique shone on his body, stabilizing his injury.

　　The disciple of the Chu Family felt that the state of his injury was much better than before. Even his complexion was ruddier.

　　Song Shuhang asked again, “What happened to the Chu Family?”

　　“A few days ago, the secret information about a certain forbidden area, which was recorded in the book with the sword technique handed down in our family, was leaked. In addition, the more the leaked information spread, the more things were exaggerated. Some people even said that there were some magical pills inside that forbidden area that could make whomever ate them jump to the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor Realm, or that there were all kinds of godly weapons. This ended up attracting the attention of several greedy cultivators,” the disciple of the Chu Family said with a bitter expression on his face.

　　The information about a certain forbidden area? Was this the same forbidden area that he and Venerable White were preparing to explore, the one that Daoist Priest Li Tiansu had discovered?

　　Song Shuhang furrowed his brows, and asked, “How was this information leaked?”

　　At the same time, Song Shuhang remembered that the reason for the conflict between the Chu Family and the Illusory Sword School back then was that someone had leaked that the Chu Family possessed a mysterious sword technique.

　　If it happened once, it might be a coincidence. But if it happened two times in a row, it couldn’t be simply considered a coincidence.

　　“It was the doing a clansman that was around my father’s age. When the information about the ‘sword technique’ of the Chu Family got leaked the last time, it was also his doing. According to what I’ve heard, this clansman wasn’t careful while making friends outside and got cheated, which caused the leak. Of course, this was very likely just an excuse. The family leader thought that the clansman was fishy as well, and it was possible that he had intentionally colluded with his friend to leak that secret information. However, we were unable to find out why he had acted like this. That clansman was locked up, but it was already too late,” the disciple of the Chu Family continued.

　　When they discovered that there was something wrong with this clansman, the information had been already leaked outside.

　　A few days later, enemies from the outside secretly sneaked into the land of the Chu Family, attacking them during the night and extorting information about their sword technique and that forbidden area.

　　Those enemies severely injured their ancestor of the Spiritual Emperor Realm, and a calamity befell the disciples of the Chu Family. Only a small portion was lucky enough to escape.

　　This disciple was part of the small group that managed to escape, but just as he was running away, he got hit by a sword attack, getting severely injured.

　　After leaving the land of the Chu Family, the disciple had no idea whom he should look for in order to seek help.

　　In the end, he remembered Song Shuhang, the person that had helped them during the battle on the Grievance Settling Platform.

　　Although Mister Song was only a cultivator of the Second Stage Realm, he knew several powerful seniors. Since he had nowhere to turn, he decided to come to this place and look for Song Shuhang.

　　However, he didn’t have much information about Song Shuhang. He only knew that he lived in the Jiangnan area, somewhere close to the university town.

　　Thereupon, he headed over there.

　　His luck was pretty good since Song Shuhang’s university had just started in this period, and he met the Western monk, who was also looking for Song Shuhang, along the way.

　　After the Western monk heard that the disciple of the Chu Family was also looking for Song Shuhang, he decided to bring him along to the Jiangnan area.

　　Still… f*ck! Someone was trying to steal their prey!

　　He and Venerable White were obviously planning to head to that forbidden area tomorrow and take advantage of the weekend to explore it. But now, it turned out that someone raided the Chu Family, and was preparing to snatch their forbidden area and get the first blood!

　　“Who were those people that attacked your Chu Family during the night?” Song Shuhang asked.

　　The disciple of the Chu Family shook his head.

　　All kinds of people had raided their Chu Family, but he knew none of them.

　　“Is the old family leader of the Chu Family alright?” Song Shuhang asked another question. Their old family leader was a Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor and a friend of Daoist Priest Li Tiansu. Even if he was caught off guard and severely injured, he should still have the means to protect his life, right?

　　The disciple of the Chu Family replied, “After getting severely injured, the ancestor got surrounded. The ancestor is the only one that knows the location of that forbidden area. The people that raided the Chu Family probably thought of obtaining the location of the forbidden area and the secret concealed in the sword technique from him.”

　　Song Shuhang nodded.

　　The ancestor of the Chu Family knew the approximate position of that forbidden area, but only Song Shuhang knew the method to open the door.

　　Even if the ancestor of the Chu Family led them there, they would get to the periphery of the forbidden area at best.

　　They could forget about entering that forbidden area if they didn’t uncover the secret concealed in the sword technique first.

　　However, Song Shuhang had no way of telling if someone among the people that had raided the Chu Family would be as lucky as him and uncover the secret concealed in the sword technique, obtaining the method to access the forbidden area…

　　It was better to immediately get in touch with Senior White and tell him about this matter.

　　Earlier, Senior White was planning to choose people from the Nine Provinces Number One Group and his group of old friends to form a powerful team in order to explore the forbidden area.

　　If Senior White had already formed this team, they could conveniently help the Chu Family solve this problem as they were heading toward that forbidden area to sweep it clean.

　　Just as he took out his mobile and prepared to give Venerable White a call, Song Shuhang received a call from Soft Feather.

　　Song Shuhang picked up the phone, and said, “Hello, Soft Feather? Is something the matter?”

　　“Hehehe, Senior Song, I’ve successfully transcended my tribulation. I’m now a cultivator of the Fourth Stage! Father said that he would let me rest for a while, and after that, he will teach me how to ride a flying sword!” Soft Feather said happily.

　　“Congratulations, Soft Feather,” Song Shuhang congratulated her.

　　“It was also thanks to your gift, Senior Song,” Soft Feather said with a smile. After all, the ❮Seven Deaths Song❯ had helped transcend the tribulation of the Inner Demon.

　　Song Shuhang was confused. When had he given Soft Feather a gift?

　　“Right, Senior Song, what are you doing now? Are you at the university?” Soft Feather asked.

　　“I was preparing to solve a matter related to the Chu Family,” Song Shuhang replied. He remembered that Soft Feather was friends with a female cultivator from the Chu Family. Therefore, he planned to tell her everything that had happened to the Chu Family.