EPISODE 13 main them: "The trail of shadows/Calm Before the Carnage"
After their chilling capture in the demon sect's hidden lair, Episode 13 slows down for a moment of quiet tension — but it's a silence thick with secrets, suspicion, and stormy intent.
Xiao Kai, Du Fan, Li Han Xiao, and Cheng Xiao awaken chained and exhausted, surrounded by robed figures exuding murderous aura. The four friends exchange glances, realizing they have been brought together deliberately. The demon sect leaders, cloaked in arrogance, begin a long interrogation — trying to worm secrets out of the group, while also boasting of their dark plans to spread chaos throughout the Qi Dynasty.
Among the demons, a powerful and mysterious woman known only as Demon Jade Butterfly steps forward. Her voice is sweet, but her intent is deadly. She offers Xiao Kai and the others a choice: Join the sect and gain power beyond comprehension… or die like insects. Her speech is layered with temptation and subtle threats — clearly meant to divide them from within.
Cheng Xiao lashes out first, calling them cowards and monsters. Du Fan remains quiet but alert, scanning for weaknesses. Li Han Xiao mocks the offer entirely, saying he would rather die than serve under filth. The tension grows.
Xiao Kai, calm and collected, remains the last to speak. The room stills as he simply says:
> "You're offering power to the wrong person. You think you've captured us all, but all you've done… is invited me in..."
EPISODE 13 — "The Trail of Shadows/calm before the carnage"
Just after the confrontations between both sides and the escape of the hidden demon organization header, darkness lingered like a thick mist even after the brutal battle ended. The once-hidden lair of the Demon Sect now lay in ruin — blood stained its stone floors, and the scent of battle clung to the air like smoke after wildfire. Xiao Kai stood at the center, chest rising with calm breath, eyes narrowed—not in exhaustion, but deep calculation.
Their victory was incomplete.
The head of the demon organization, a shadowy Dou Huang expert cloaked in a veil of dark Qi, had escaped — taking with him the sect's most dangerous artifacts and techniques. What disturbed Xiao Kai the most wasn't the escape — it was how easily he vanished, as if the entire trap had been more about luring them than defending anything.
---
A Bitter Aftermath
Cheng Xiao sat against a broken pillar, breathing heavily, knuckles bruised and stained. Du Fan paced in circles, blades still drawn, while Li Han Xiao examined the shattered walls for any secret exits.
> "They wanted us here," Cheng Xiao finally said. "They wanted us to see all this… then leave."
> "Or die," Du Fan added grimly.
But Xiao Kai wasn't responding.
He stared at a strange marking on the wall — glowing faintly in blood-red inscription, a language none of them had ever seen before. Until now.
He traced his finger across it. "This is… ancient Qi script," he muttered. "From the Northern Reign... Something's off."(His began to get more suspicious more than before about what is happening at moment)
---
Back in the Azure Dragon Sky Sect
News of the escape and battle reached the sect faster than fire through a dry forest.
Master Yi Tianlei, Xiao Kai's instructor, frowned gravely during the council meeting.
> "They found the lair, yes. But something tells me that lair was just a branch. The real body of the Demon Sect... is elsewhere." and reply swept through to the question saying we all know it has never been the real demon sects rather it's just a branch of theirs to gain more followers either by force or deceit.
A murmur swept through the great hall.
> "If that's true," said the Grand Elder, "Then our enemies are far closer and far stronger than we assumed."
Cheng Xiao's father, Elder Cheng Weishen, stood, voice calm. "And yet… we still have Xiao Kai. As long as that boy breathes, we are not without power."
The room nodded silently. But beneath their pride, a cold unease was settling. The Demon Sect was no longer hiding—they were playing a game.
---
A Message from the Shadows
As Xiao Kai and his squad returned to Jade Willow Village, a new visitor awaited them in their inn.
She wore a tattered bamboo hat. Her eyes were silver, strange. Her cultivation was sealed, but her presence… undeniable.
> "You're Xiao Kai," she said, voice like wind through leaves.
> "Who are you?" he asked, alert.
> "I'm a messenger. Of the Black Silk Pavilion. We know who you're chasing. We've been chasing them longer."
The name made Cheng Xiao's heart skip a beat. The Black Silk Pavilion was a rogue intelligence guild, neither righteous nor demonic — but obsessed with balance.
> "Why help us?"
> "Because if the Demon Sect succeeds in reawakening the Wraith Bone Seal, your continent will fall within three years. We don't care for righteousness, but we despise extinction."
She handed them a scroll — written in complex formations and coordinates.
> "The true base... lies underneath the Qi Mountains. You won't reach it by flying or walking. You must pass through a spiritual gateway located in a forgotten ruin, north of this village. You have three nights."
Then she vanished.
---
The Spiritual Gateway
That night, the group followed the map and discovered the Ruins of Wanhe, a site buried in history and myth. The moment they entered the outer circle, phantoms of ancient cultivators emerged — illusions or trapped spirits, they couldn't be sure.
> "This isn't just a gate," Li Han Xiao said, voice uneasy. "It's a test."
Four ancient statues surrounded the circle, each whispering riddles in broken tongues. It was Cheng Xiao who realized:
> "To pass, we must each give up something valuable from our past. A memory. A regret. A bond."
The cost was steep. Du Fan clutched his mother's locket, trembling. Cheng Xiao wept as he offered the memory of his elder sister who died protecting him. Li Han Xiao gave away the name of his former master, sealing it forever.
Xiao Kai…
He closed his eyes, and gave up his first master's final words, the one who raised him from childhood and died in the massacre that orphaned him.
The statues lit up. The gateway opened.
---
Into the Underworld
What they found beneath the ruins was not a base. It was a city. A forgotten realm buried beneath the Qi Dynasty. A place where the Demon Sect had been feeding off forgotten cultivators, soul by soul, and forging weapons powered by hatred, pain, and forbidden alchemy.
And watching them… was a figure cloaked in red flame.
Not the sect leader — but someone worse: "The Crimson Alchemist", an ancient Dou Zong long thought dead.
> "You're far too early," he whispered. "The prophecy said he would come alone."
His eyes locked onto Xiao Kai sensing his cultivation at just a dou qi but his intent is so murderous even his friends at dou Wang doesn't give him the chill as he does .
> "So you're the boy the whose name have been sweeping round the glove the one everyone keeps whispering about."
Suddenly, hundreds of spirit-formed demon cultivators emerged — their weapons etched with void-engraved runes.(I have heard about you and how good you are to take on very powerful dou zongs but I have gotten myself more prepared for you hahahahahahahah)
> "since you know about him that means you already know we will be here sooner or later and guess what since we are here we are not leaving any time sooner," Cheng Xiao said.
> "No," Xiao Kai replied, eyes now glowing faintly with golden flame. "We came this far not only to deal with the demons but also to make sure they never rise to pose any threats to humans and to do that we all must stand more firm am to fight against these spiritual formed demon cultivators."
Hahahahahahah the ancient dou zong laughs hysterically saying no matter how powerful you are you won't and can never get pass through my armies of spiritual demons then suddenly he raised his hands like he is about to offer some sacrifice
---
Final Scene
As the Crimson Alchemist raised his hand, the underground city began to quake and the spiritual demons moves side to side and this grows more fear and tension in the four friends thinking what is happening again none of them knows....
Suddenly, the ground split—and from deep within the core of the underworld, a sealed coffin floated to the surface, pulsing with eerie life. The Alchemist smirked In murderous way.
> "You've woken something, Xiao Kai. You thought you were hunting we demons… but you were merely knocking on our king's coffin and truly you all shall perish today."
Xiao Kai didn't freak out as he doesn't always fear of what always happens because he believes in himself and the orb which no one on earth knows about yet
And the power behind me is very much powerful for any cultivator he will be going against until later so that assurance already made him relaxed but at the same keeps him grinding and working hard to cultivate more qi to open the other power levels in the orb
What happens next suspense....
Cut to black.
[To Be Continued…]