Cuixuan Xianren's Lesser World consisted of only two mountains—one upright and one inverted—with nothing else in between.
Li Fei hovered on her cloud, circling the upside-down peak for a long time. The familiar aura of the Outlander Tomb called to her, drawing her in, yet she hesitated, afraid to approach. Unconsciously, she flew in endless loops around the mountain.
She had already spotted the entrance—a gap in the center of the inverted peak, where a grand hall identical to the one in Chestnut Blaze Valley stood, guarded by two pitch-black Bronze Oxen at its doors.
This Outlander Tomb would no longer be empty. It must be filled with the bodies of Overseas Foreigners. Would there be… corpses of her own kind among them?
Before she realized it, she had already landed at the edge of the mountain’s gap. The familiar aura lured her, tempted her. Li Fei couldn’t resist flying inward, only to stop herself halfway. She wasn’t sure if she would remain unharmed after seeing the Outlander Tomb. This was a Celestial’s Lesser World—any unusual occurrence would be noticed immediately.
Lei Xiuyuan, who had been silent beside her, suddenly flew past her, heading straight inside. Startled, Li Fei called out to him several times, but he didn’t look back. Left with no choice, she followed him into the gap.
Inside, a grand hall floated in the void, its doors tightly shut, guarded by two enormous Bronze Oxen. Beside one of them stood a stone stele, its front covered in indecipherable script, while the back bore the inscription: Grave of Otherkin from Thousands of Continents and Myriad Islands Overseas . Lei Xiuyuan stopped before the doors, pressing a hand against them, uncharacteristically hesitant.
Li Fei stared blankly at the doors, then slowly approached, placing her own hand against them as well. The aura within felt so familiar, so nostalgic—it seized her senses once more, and without thinking, she pushed hard. The heavy doors creaked open with a piercing screech, revealing a narrow gap.
A strange fragrance seeped through the opening—neither cold nor cloying, neither warm nor stifling. Li Fei had never smelled anything like it, yet it made her tremble uncontrollably. She couldn’t explain why.
The doors slowly swung open completely, revealing a hall illuminated by several duck-egg-sized luminous pearls, casting everything in brilliant light. The spacious hall was packed with Crystal Coffins of varying sizes, all immaculately clean, as if someone tended to them regularly.
Lei Xiuyuan strode past her again, not even glancing at the outer coffins, heading straight for the depths of the hall.
Li Fei’s attention was no longer on him. She took a deep breath, enveloped by the strange fragrance. Never had she encountered such a scent—soothing yet elusive, neither warm nor cold. The longer she inhaled, the more an inexplicable sense of familiarity and nostalgia welled up inside her, as if she should have known this fragrance intimately.She slowly walked up to a crystal coffin and looked inside, only to jump in fright—lying flat within was an extremely tall figure, half again the height of an ordinary man. His skin was dark, his physique extraordinarily robust, covered only by a thin layer of soft silk. But the most terrifying thing was his face—while all his other features were normal, between his brows was only a single eye. This solitary eye was several times larger than a normal person's, wide open yet utterly lifeless, undoubtedly because the man was already dead.
Beside his head lay a bronze plaque inscribed with two characters in seal script: "One-Eyed."
This... this was an Overseas Foreigner?! He clearly had a human body and features, yet was born so bizarrely. Were the words "One-Eyed" on the bronze plaque simply describing his features because his name and race were unknown?
The adjacent crystal coffin also held a corpse, though much shorter in stature. From collarbone to navel, his chest was completely hollow—not as if it had been gouged out, but as if born that way. The bronze plaque by his head read: "Pierced-Chest."
Countless crystal coffins lined the outer hall, each containing people of unimaginably strange forms—some unheard of, with equally peculiar names like "One-Handed," "One-Footed," "Long-Armed..." There were even those covered in fur, with human bodies and beastly heads, all manner of inconceivable beings.
Li Fei felt her heart pounding in her throat. She felt no familiarity with these Otherkin, only a creeping dread. If the coffins had held terrifying monsters, she might not have been so unnerved. But these beings looked so human—either with bizarre facial features or limbs drastically different from normal people—making it all the more unbearable.
Were these really her kind? No way. She rejected the thought without hesitation, needing no reason. She just knew.
The strange, almost soul-snatching fragrance grew stronger, so intimate and familiar that she felt she should be able to name it instantly. Yet for some reason, she couldn't recall it no matter how hard she tried.
As if summoned, Li Fei walked toward the two innermost crystal coffins. Lei Xiuyuan stood motionless before one of them, like a statue.
Just as she was about to approach, Ri Yan's aged voice suddenly rang in her ears: "Where the hell have you run off to, you fool?!"
Li Fei turned to see Ri Yan, who had been missing earlier, now standing beside her. He looked extremely tense, even furious, his snow-white fur bristling and his nine long tails lashing violently, making him appear even larger.
"I smell Azure City's scent! What have these scum done to him?!" His voice had never sounded so urgent or enraged.
Yet his words barely registered in her mind. Li Fei merely glanced at him before turning back and slowly approaching the two crystal coffins.
Lei Xiuyuan stood before the rightmost coffin, staring intently. Layers of dull golden light seeped from his hair and skin, and even his pitch-black irises had turned a dark gold.
Unnoticing, Li Fei approached the left coffin and saw a layer of pristine white brocade inside, upon which lay a black horn—three or four inches long and very slender.
The bronze plaque in the coffin bore three characters: "Yaksha Horn."Is this the Yaksha Horn? The one severed by Qing Cheng Xian Ren all those years ago? So it was indeed sealed within the Outlander Tomb!
An intoxicating, soul-stirring fragrance wafted faintly from the crystal coffin on the right. Li Fei suddenly felt something surging within her—both familiar and strange. Subconsciously, she moved closer, only to see that the coffin Lei Xiuyuan was staring at contained nothing but a single snow-white human bone, resembling an arm bone. The bone was smooth and pure white, almost as if carved from jade.
The bronze plaque inside the coffin bore only two words: "Unknown." It seemed the Celestials of No Moon Court had obtained this Otherkin's arm bone but had no idea what it truly was.
Li Fei stared blankly at the arm bone, faint memories surfacing in her mind. Yet the images that abruptly appeared shattered like a mirage in an instant. The strange fragrance grew so thick it seemed almost sentient, lingering around her as if reluctant to leave. She even sensed that the scent was emanating from this very arm bone—how could a bone carry such a fragrance?
Suddenly, a piercing, drawn-out howl, like that of a beast, echoed from nearby. Li Fei's dazed mind snapped back to reality—was that Ri Yan?!
She hurried over, only to freeze in horror at the sight of a shadowy figure standing deep within the hall! Ri Yan stood beside it, howling furiously at the sky, his emerald-green eyes streaming with tears. The fox was trembling violently.
Her heart pounded like a drum as she approached. There, standing in the depths, was an elderly Celestial clad in the simplest of green robes. His eyes were sunken, his face withered, resembling a corpse. Yet, terrifyingly, his chest still rose and fell faintly—he was still alive?!
Ri Yan let out a heart-wrenching wail: "Qing Cheng! Qing Cheng! Had you known it would come to this, would you have regretted your choices?!"
Li Fei gasped, "Is... is this that Qing Cheng Xian Ren?!"
Wasn't he said to be the most brilliant Celestial in No Moon Court's legends? The one who severed the Yaksha Horn? Why was he left here in the Outlander Tomb, neither alive nor dead?! She scrutinized his face, but his features were indistinguishable, nearly skeletal. What kind of torture had reduced him to this state, clinging to life like this?
Ri Yan trembled uncontrollably. With a heavy sigh, he turned his head away, unwilling to look further, his voice broken: "They must still be trying to extract information about the lands beyond the sea from him. Little girl, end his suffering for him!"
Li Fei was even more horrified. "End his suffering... You want me to kill him?"
Ri Yan suddenly stood, his fur bristling as he roared, "Why hesitate?! How can you stand by and watch him suffer like this?!"
Before Li Fei could respond, Ri Yan had already bolted away. His mournful howls trailed into the distance, neither weeping nor wailing, neither singing nor chanting—as if he had gone utterly mad.
Li Fei stared uneasily at Qing Cheng Xian Ren. His pitiable state sent chills down her spine. Was this the doing of No Moon Court's Celestials? Though she had long known that so-called Celestials in this world were neither good nor evil, witnessing such cruelty firsthand still made her hands tremble uncontrollably.
She couldn't bring herself to kill him. This was Cuixuan Xianren's Lesser World, and Qing Cheng Xian Ren had been placed in the Outlander Tomb. Only she and Lei Xiuyuan had entered. If she killed him, the blame would fall squarely on them.
Closing her eyes, Li Fei whispered shakily, "I'm sorry... I can't help you..."The next moment, a bony, iron-ring-like hand suddenly grasped her wrist. Li Fei was so startled she nearly jumped. She stared wide-eyed as the old Celestial, who looked like a living corpse, raised his head. His skeletal face actually managed to smile at her—a smile that seemed both relieved and liberated.
A dim black light suddenly gathered in his palm, and immediately after, a black book fell at Li Fei's feet. He gently squeezed her wrist twice, then his hand went limp and dropped weakly. His entire body seemed to crumble like softened bones as he slumped to the ground. The faint sound of his breathing could no longer be heard.
Dead?!
Li Fei slowly picked up the black book and flipped through it hastily. To her surprise, it was completely blank—not a single word inside. What was this book about? Was it meant for her? Why did he die right after giving it to her?!
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