One day ago, Punishment Peak.

The sky hung low, lead-gray clouds seemingly within reach, pressing heavily upon the undulating black mountain ridges. Here, there was none of the flowing, colorful light of Formation Peak, nor the sharp, piercing edge of Sword Peak, only a solemnity that felt nearly solidified.

A dim streak of light skimmed the ground from the Outer Sect direction, silently slicing through the thick mist shrouding the mountainside, and landed before the steward's platform halfway up Punishment Peak.

As the light faded, it revealed a middle-aged man in gray robes. His face was gaunt, his eye sockets slightly sunken, and his entire person resembled a lifeless, withered tree. This man was precisely Punishment Peak's Shadow Hall steward, Li Mo. As a cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment stage, his aura was restrained to the extreme; if not for being seen with the naked eye, a divine sense sweep would only perceive a flowing mass of air there.

Li Mo did not linger. The moment he landed, he strode swiftly toward the peak. Wind stirred beneath his feet, yet not a speck of dust was raised. His figure weaved through the layered curtains of restrictive formations with a practiced ease akin to a fish returning to the sea.

Passing by the corridors of the Discipline Hall on the way, a completely black "Truth-Hearing Spirit Hound," large as a lion, was dozing in the shadows beneath the walkway. This spirit hound, raised from a pup by Punishment Peak, possessed a supernatural sense of smell and was most adept at discerning lies and karmic retribution.

As Li Mo passed the corridor corner, the hound, whose breathing had been long and steady, suddenly trembled its eyelids and abruptly lifted its massive head.

Its pair of dark golden vertical pupils fixed intently on the empty ground where Li Mo had just walked. Its nostrils flared violently, and a low growl full of wariness and suspicion rolled from deep within its throat: "Woo—Woof!"

The sound was abrupt and sharp, shattering the deathly silence of the corridor.

Li Mo's footsteps paused imperceptibly, but he did not look back.

"Blacktooth, quiet!"

The disciple on guard duty hurried forward, forming a hand seal to pacify the agitated hound, while looking somewhat puzzled at Li Mo's retreating back. "Steward Li, this beast doesn't know what's gotten into it today, disturbing you..."

Li Mo waved a hand, his voice raspy. "It's fine."

He continued onward, only his fingers hidden within his sleeves made a subtle calculating gesture, and his brows drew together slightly. Blacktooth was usually highly perceptive of human nature. Such unusual behavior today... could it be because of some invisible karma clinging to the archives he had brought back?

Passing through the long Punishment Corridor, at its end lay the "Shadow Hall," deeply embedded within the mountain body.

The door was carved from a single block of Dragon-Severing Stone, its surface engraved with intricate isolation formation lines. Li Mo took out his waist token, channeled spiritual energy into it, and the heavy stone door slid open silently, revealing a sliver of profound darkness.

No lamps were lit inside the Shadow Hall. Only a few glowstones embedded in the four walls emitted a faint, cold light.

In the center of the hall, behind a massive obsidian desk, sat a figure completely shrouded in a wide black robe. The person seemed to merge with the surrounding darkness, only a pair of emotionless gray eyes gleamed with a heart-chilling cold light from within the shadows.

That was the Punishment Peak Master, the sharpest "blade" of the Cloud Hidden Sect.

Li Mo strode forward quickly, stopping three zhang before the stone desk, and bowed in salute, his movements as precise as if measured by a ruler.

"Peak Master."

He offered no superfluous pleasantries. With both hands held level, a flash of spiritual light appeared in his palms. Three jade slips of aged hue, a stack of well-preserved shadowstone records, and several yellowed documents stamped with the bright red seals of mortal government offices floated neatly onto the obsidian desk.

"This disciple was ordered to thoroughly investigate the background of the newly promoted True Disciple Su Ming. The investigation lasted seven days, traveling back and forth to the Great Xing Kingdom, the northern border exile route, and the sect's internal archives."

Li Mo's voice was flat and toneless, as if reciting a dry scripture. "All findings are here. Please review them, Peak Master."

The Punishment Peak Master did not speak. A pale, slender hand emerged from beneath the black robe, its fingertip lightly tapping.

The topmost document bearing the mortal seal unfurled on its own.

It was a copy of the fish-scale register from Qingshi Town under the jurisdiction of the Great Xing Kingdom's Ministry of Revenue. The paper was already somewhat brittle, emitting a stale odor of ink.

"Speak." The Punishment Peak Master's gaze swept over the names on the document.

Li Mo bowed his head. "First point of suspicion: Mortal origins and sudden emergence of cultivation."

"Su Ming, hails from Su Family Village, Qingshi Town, Great Xing Kingdom. Father: Su Shan. Mother: née Li. His ancestors for three generations were all mortal farmers, surviving by cultivating two meager acres of land. According to testimonies from local neighbors and the village head, Su Ming displayed average abilities before the age of sixteen, with a dull, taciturn personality, even somewhat physically weak. There were never any signs of contact with the cultivation world."

Li Mo paused, his voice growing heavier. "The key lies in the national conditions of the Great Xing Kingdom. Since the 'Jinghe Reforms' sixty years ago, the Great Xing imperial family has pursued a policy of 'Severing Heaven from Earth,' viewing cultivators as sources of chaos. Throughout the entire country, all texts and artifacts involving breathing exercises and Qi Refining have been strictly controlled and destroyed by the imperial family and the State Pacification Bureau. Those found privately possessing them face execution of the nine familial generations; those discussing the path of immortality face exile of three thousand li."

"This disciple personally infiltrated the secret archives of the Great Xing Kingdom's State Pacification Bureau to investigate. Within a five-hundred-li radius of Su Family Village, there have been no records of cultivators passing through in the past fifty years, nor any anomalous phenomena like falling stars or ground fissures. It is a true 'spirit-barren land.'"

The Punishment Peak Master's fingers lightly tapped the desktop, producing crisp "tap, tap" sounds that echoed in the empty Shadow Hall.

"Continue."

"Yes." Li Mo pointed to another shadowstone. "In the year Su Ming turned seventeen, his family was sentenced to exile to the northern border due to his father's involvement in a grain tax case. During the journey, they encountered a mudslide. Both parents perished, and he went missing for three months. When he reappeared, he had reached our Cloud Hidden Sect's outer sect recruitment point and displayed early Qi Refining stage cultivation."

"During sect registration, he claimed to have 'chanced upon a nameless fragmentary manual and figured it out on his own.' However, this explanation cannot withstand scrutiny. In the environment of the Great Xing Kingdom, a farm boy who had never learned to read or write, relying solely on three months, without a teacher or guide, managed to draw energy into his body on his own? This requires not only talent but also luck—a kind of luck that is unnaturally good."

The Punishment Peak Master's gaze shifted from the document to that shadowstone. The stone activated, projecting a blurry image: It was the Outer Sect Repair Hall from two years ago. Su Ming was squatting on the ground, intently dismantling a discarded formation plate.

In the image, the youth's fingers were astonishingly nimble, each cut of his blade landing precisely on the nodes of the runes.

"Second point of suspicion: The source of his knowledge is dubious."

Li Mo pointed at Su Ming in the image. "Peak Master, please observe. This is a recorded image from the Repair Hall two years ago. At that time, Su Ming had just entered the outer sect and had not yet systematically studied the path of formations. Yet, his method of handling formation lines displayed a remarkably strong systematic nature."

"The 'standardization' and 'process-oriented' repair concepts he promoted were extremely mature. This disciple specifically reviewed the outer sect's annual archives; there has never been any similar record. More importantly..."

Li Mo took a tattered rubbing from his sleeve and placed it on the desk. "After comparison by the Shadow Hall, some of the special dismantling techniques he used early on in the Repair Hall show a thirty percent covert correspondence with the records in the fragmentary text 'Heavenly Craft Hundred Ingenuities Record,' which is sealed in the Yi-character vault of the sect's Scripture Depository."

The Punishment Peak Master's tapping fingers abruptly stilled.

"'Heavenly Craft Hundred Ingenuities Record'?" His voice turned slightly colder. "That is a relic from the destruction of the Heavenly Craft Sect three hundred years ago. Because its philosophy overly emphasized 'clever tricks and decadent crafts' while neglecting the Great Dao, it was classified as miscellaneous literature and sealed deep within the Yi-character vault. Apart from inner sect stewards and above, menial disciples absolutely do not have borrowing privileges."

"Exactly." Li Mo nodded. "A menial disciple who has never entered the Scripture Depository, yet understands lost techniques from three hundred years ago. This absolutely cannot be explained by 'figuring it out on his own.'"

A brief silence fell within the Shadow Hall.

Only the "tap, tap" tapping sounds continued, one after another, like blows striking against one's heart.

After a long while, the Punishment Peak Master slowly spoke, his voice betraying no emotion. "Is there any direct evidence pointing to possession, infiltration, or carrying a demonic path inheritance?"