QT- I’m Almost Died
Chapter 279. Unveiling The Truth (III)
Through the near-death memories of the nine sect leaders, they saw the truth of what happened back then. Not only did the cultivators from other sects change their attitudes drastically, but so did the disciples of the Tianshui Sect themselves.
Chang Sheng, Chang Zhen, and the other younger members were so ashamed they couldn’t even lift their heads. Even if Taoist Zhi Fei had a lot of accusations brewing inside him, he couldn’t utter them now. What evidence could be more convincing than the victim’s own memory?
Moreover, this memory not only contains what the nine sect leaders saw and heard before their deaths, but also their thoughts at that time.
Seeing Song Enci kill Fan Jialuo with extremely cruel methods, and then utter some hypocritical words while shedding tears, the nine sect leaders felt both contempt and chills. When Song Enci turned around, saying apologies while slitting their throats, this contempt and chills transformed into boundless hatred.
Everyone caught up in this memory can personally feel the unspeakable hatred and the pain of their blood slowly draining away. They are both bystanders and participants. Their hatred for Song Enci is no less than that for the nine sect leaders who were sacrificed in the formation.
Abbot Changjing clasped his hands together, slowly knelt down, and began to silently recite the Sutra for the Salvation of the Dead. Benevolent as he was, he found it impossible to grant salvation to such wickedness. To tell her to ‘drop the blade and touch the divine‘ would be an insult to the dead…… A monster is a monster, there is no possibility of salvation.
In the blink of an eye, the once number one sect of the Taoist alliance became the number one disgrace of the Taoist alliance.
The disciples of the Tianshui Sect were all sweating profusely, trembling, and hanging their heads, wishing they could disappear on the spot. Only Xuan Chengzi stood motionless, his frost-like face unchanged.
Fan Jialuo met his gaze across the crowd and slowly spoke, “Shifu, did you find the words Young Master Zhang used to comfort Song Enci familiar?”
Xuan Chengzi’s dark eyes were calm and still.
Fan Jialuo continued, “Every time Song Enci shed tears because of her mistakes, didn’t you comfort her in the same way? When she fell, you told her it was because the ground was uneven. When she lost her position as a Holy Child, you told her it was because I shouldn’t have appeared. When she lost the competition due to her lack of skill, you said it was because others bullied her and won unfairly. In short, she was never wrong, the fault always lay with others.”
“Shifu, in your eyes, everything she does is right. If you want to spoil her rotten, that’s your prerogative, and outsiders have no right to speak on it.”
“But what’s frightening is that your educational methods have gradually led Song Enci to develop an unwavering belief that, everything I do is always right.”
“Therefore, what others consider to be a vicious act is, in her eyes, simply the right choice.”
With his slender fingertips, Fan Jialuo traced the blood-glowing formation and the ferocious-looking figures standing outside it, and sighed, “Even after committing such heinous crimes, Song Enci only shed a few cheap tears and then felt at ease.”
“She killed me and took the treasure, thinking she was cleaning the sect for you. She killed nine sect leaders and activated forbidden techniques, thinking she was protecting the sect’s sacred treasure. She grew up carefree, without any setbacks, following your upbringing. She has a childlike innocence, and therefore lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong and good from evil.”
“Shifu, the numerous crimes she committed were not only her own fault, but also partly due to your assistance. As the saying goes, ‘If a child is not taught, it is the father’s fault.’ Shifu, haven’t you realized this yet? You are the source of all evil. If you had disciplined her even slightly, she wouldn’t have become so unscrupulous.”
This was the first time Fan Jialuo had spoken to Xuan Chengzi in such a heavy tone, which showed that he was not without resentment or hatred, but simply buried it deep in his heart and never brought it up.
As he spoke, Xuan Chengzi’s eyes began to tremble, and then he involuntarily recalled many past events. Those unprincipled words of indulgence and acts of pampering now turned into sharp blades, stabbing deeply into his heart.
He didn’t want to believe that the child he had raised with his own hands would turn out like this, yet he had no choice but to accept it. His eyes, filled with complex emotions, slowly swept over Lin Nianci lying on the ground, and then a chill ran through him.
Fan Jialuo also looked at Lin Nianci, whose chest was heaving, and said with a half-smile, “ShiJie, Shifu is right here, why don’t you acknowledge him? Ah, of course, in your entire life, you’ve only ever been good at two things, first, shifting blame, and second, escaping reality. In this situation, you probably wish you could just disappear on the spot, right?”
Lin Nianci, wrapped up like a mummy, stopped breathing heavily and her arms twitching, and lay motionless on the ground.
Xuan Chengzi’s icy gaze was fixed on her.
Fan Jialuo lowered his eyes to look at the black jade pendant at his feet and continued, “This half of the jade pendant was thrown away by Song Enci. Shifu, why do you think she only took half? Was it really to give me a burial item to appease my soul?”
“Why?” Xuan Chengzi turned to look at him, finally taking the initiative to ask about everything that happened back then.
“Speaking of which, this is yet another of your sins.” Fan Jialuo said, shaking his head and sighing.
Xuan Chengzi’s face was covered with a dark, gloomy expression.
Fan Jialuo continued, “From childhood to adulthood, you’ve always saved the best for her, to the point that you’ve spoiled her and made her picky. She won’t even look at anything that isn’t absolutely top-notch. Have you forgotten? On the day I was bestowed the title of Holy Child, Song Enci made a scene, wanting to take this Double Fish Jade Pendant from me, and you took it from my waist without a word and gave it to her. In your eyes, the entire Tianshui Sect belongs to you, so this jade pendant is naturally something you can distribute as you please.”
Following his words, Xuan Chengzi returned to that past and saw Song Enci’s tear-streaked face in his memory.
“But the next day, she took the initiative to return the jade pendant, and told you that the jade pendant originally belonged to me and that she shouldn’t have taken it. While you were feeling gratified by how sensible she was, did you have any idea what she had endured the very night before?”
Fan Jialuo sat cross-legged on the ground, holding half of the black jade in his palm.
“What did she experience that day?” Xuan Chengzi took a few steps forward, completely captivated by the topic.
The members of Taoist alliance, who had been blinded by hatred, all looked at Fan Jialuo and listened intently.
“All heirloom treasures possess a spirit, you should know this, shouldn’t you?” Fan Jialuo gently stroked the lifelike half of the fish-shaped jade pendant.
“Of course we know. So, this jade pendant also has a spirit?” Abbot Changjing asked.
“Yes, it has a spirit, and only those of us who are born with a spirit can sense this. Song Enci and I are both psychic, and we can sense the message that this jade pendant conveys to us the moment we touch it. It tells us with its will that its two halves are yin and yang, integrated into one, and inseparable.”
“It can grant us earth-shattering, wind-summoning power, but once we use this power, our souls must belong to it, meaning they will be devoured by it after death and never exist again. Which cultivator wouldn’t want such power? However, once possessed, this world will be plunged into catastrophe because of this unrestrained power and endless desires.”
“That’s why our Tianshui Sect has passed down an ironclad rule——Holy Child must not use the power of this jade pendant.”
“However, this jade pendant is alive and possesses extremely high intelligence. It will constantly tempt its holder to use this powerful force, thus becoming its sacrifice. Its power may have originally come from heaven and earth, but it was later accumulated by the lives of one psychic after another who could not resist the temptation. The more powerful the psychics, the more clearly they can hear its seduction.”
“If you stubbornly refuse to use it, it will find a way to deal with you. It will continuously pour Yin and Yang qi into your body, causing you to suffer the burning pain of Yang qi during the day and the cold of Yin qi pouring over your head at night. Every day and night, you will live in the burning of hell fire and the freezing of ice. It is a double hell composed of ice and fire, an endless torment that you must endure every moment to live.”
“If you want to get rid of this pain, you must use its power continuously to deepen the karmic connection with it. In this way, when it devours your soul, even the Heavenly Dao cannot stop it. Otherwise, such a heaven-defying thing would have been destroyed by the Heavenly Dao’s tribulation lightning long ago, back in the era before the Gods perished.”
Fan Jialu raised his head and stared straight at Xuan Chengzi, revealing one secret after another that was laid out before him but never allowed him to think too much, “That’s why the successive Holy Child of our Tianshui Sect never live past thirty, because they spend every day in a hell forged by ice and fire.”
“That’s why Song Enci took the initiative to return the jade pendant the next day. She wanted power, but she couldn’t bear even the slightest pain. Just one night was enough to make her give up.”
“Therefore, after taking the jade pendant, she broke it in two to guard against the torment of the Yin and Yang qi, and also to prevent her soul from being devoured by the jade pendant. She thought that an incomplete individual would not possess such powerful destructive force. The black jade, which governs death, was useless to her, the white jade, which governs life, made her the Holy Maiden of Zezhou, who could revive the dead and heal the wounded.”
“Therefore, I endured thousands upon thousands of cycles of rebirth inside that Tree of reincarnation. Because I have been forced to bear that exact agony from the age of six all the way to nineteen, I can naturally maintain my sanity and absolute clarity.”
“Therefore, I was able to destroy that tree, because I am just a soul, not subject to the Five Elements. I am already dead, not involved in cause and effect. I am suppressed in the mortal world, unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation. Coincidentally, I am the nemesis of that tree.”
After saying this, Fan Jialuo held the black jade and fell silent.
Meanwhile, Xuan Chengzi’s breathing began to become heavy.
The members of Taoist alliance, who had been consumed by hatred, now all looked at the black jade, their eyes filled with greed and apprehension. The thought of killing and seizing the treasure flashed through their minds, only to quickly vanish. Not now, within this formation, Fan Jialuo seemed invincible.
“Amituofu, so that’s how it is. If it weren’t for Song Enci’s momentary lapse of judgment back then, there would be no Benefactor Fan to save the world. Everything in this world is indeed preordained.” Abbot Changjing clasped his hands together and bowed deeply to express his gratitude and respect.
He believed that everything happening in the past and present was being watched. The Heavenly Dao was watching, the Buddha was watching, and all the spirits of the world were watching. Who was right and who was wrong, who was righteous and who was evil, they all held the answers in their hearts.
Xuan Chengzi seemed to sense this overwhelming gaze as well, a gaze that, rather than being an illusion, stemmed from his conscience and reason. His hands trembled more and more violently, the tip of his sword pointing towards the ground, shifting back and forth, left and right, unsure of where to point it.
Only now did he realize that the sword——this grand symbol of thunder and divine justice——should have been pointed at himself all along. The disciple he had condemned as utterly vile had, in truth, been guarding this world since he was a mere child.
How did he manage to get through it all? Xuan Chengzi dared not think about it too deeply.
Chang Sheng and Chang Zhen looked at the person in the formation with awe, their knees buckled, and they actually knelt down.
Lin Nian’en thought of the seed that had been used to plot against Fan Jialuo, and the shame in his heart suddenly boiled like magma.
However, the story of Fan Jialuo is far from over.
He gently stroked the jade pendant, a symbol of death and misfortune, and slowly said, “From the age of six to nineteen, I lived in hell every day. Therefore, while this Ninefold Blood Fiend Soul Devouring Formation might be an inhumane torture for other ghosts, it was merely a trial for me. It was through its refinement that I continuously stabilized my soul, avoided being devoured by this Yin Jade, and finally cultivated human form, returning to this world.”
“After I died, Song Enci eloped with Young Master Zhang, under the polite guise of having failed her duty to guard the treasure and bringing shame to the sect, she claimed she was simply too humiliated to show her face.”
At this point, he seemed to find the excuse quite amusing and chuckled softly a few times.
The Tianshui Sect members, who had completely believed Song Enci’s lies, blushed, bowed their heads, and were filled with shame. Even the most stubborn Taoist Zhi Fei dared not utter a single word in their defense. The more they said, the more despicable they would appear.
Xuan Chengzi’s sword tip trembled violently, almost unable to suppress the pain and sorrow caused by the collapse of his beliefs.
“This Yin jade can only absorb Yin qi and isn’t very useful, but that Yang jade is a true treasure that can grant its owner’s every wish. Shifu, can you guess what wishes Song Enci and Young Master Zhang made to that Yang jade?”
Xuan Chengzi pressed his lips together, remaining silent. The belated remorse, shame, and anger were rapidly destroying his Dao heart. He feared that if he opened his mouth, he would spit out blood.
The Taoist cultivators standing behind him all came up with the same answer, and some even unconsciously shouted out, “Immortality, godhood.”
Anyone who embarks on the path of cultivation will set ‘living as long as the heavens’ and ‘ascending to godhood’ as their ultimate goals, and Song Enci was no exception.
Fan Jialuo chuckled, but his gaze turned cold as he looked at these people, “Yes, she and Young Master Zhang wished for eternal life. With eternal life, becoming a god is not far off.”
The members of the Taoist sects all breathed heavily, their eyes filled with a greed bordering on madness.
Fan Jialuo watched their expressions with great interest and was convinced that if Song Enci dared to step forward and reveal her identity, she would be skinned alive and have her treasures stolen by these people.
Lin Nianci, wrapped like a mummy, remained motionless, even the rise and fall of her chest had ceased, as if she were dead. The Tianshui Sect disciples who had previously been carefully watching over her now all kept their distance.
Xuan Chengzi still stood in front of her, protecting her. The sword that had once been firmly pointed at Fan Jialuo was now lowered towards the ground where she lay, as if it had already switched sides.
Fan Jialuo glanced at Lin Nianci with a half-smile and continued, “Song Enci doesn’t know that immortality is not the path to godhood, but a curse that can never be shaken off, because immortality is not the same as eternal youth.”
The members of Taoist sects did not realize the sinister nature of those words, but Xuan Chengzi’s eyes began to flash intensely.
Seeing his reaction, Fan Jialuo asked lightly, “If your life continues while your body ages, what will you become?”
This question sparked everyone’s imagination and caused Xuan Chengzi’s cold and hard face to twist for a moment.
Fan Jialuo shook his head and chuckled, “Your life is eternal, but your body is dead. So you straddle the line between Yin and Yang, becoming a walking corpse. You want to die but can’t, you want to live well but can’t. Your body is as thin as a skeleton. Your internal organs are rotting like putrid water. When you open your mouth, you spew out the unique stench of a corpse. When you look in the mirror, you see a face that looks like a monster. Your remaining life will be hell.”
The members of Taoist sects involuntarily retreated, their expressions filled with horror, their greed replaced by fear.
Xuan Chengzi’s eyes welled with tears, reflecting an unspoken conflict, anger at their lack of resolve, or sorrow for their misfortune.
Fan Jialuo calmly said, “Yes, Song Enci’s imagined perfect life vanished in just a few decades. She gained the power of Yang Jade, which slowed her aging process, but that Young Master Zhang turned into a walking corpse right under her nose.”
“How long can the love she once had last under this ugly, ghost-like face? So she left and desperately sought a way to become a god, because she knew that if she could not become a god, she would become a zombie like monster.”
“There are only two paths to becoming a god—— one is to collect faith and incense offerings, the other is to perform good deeds and accumulate merit. With the Yang Jade that can revive the dead and heal the wounded, Song Enci chose these two paths without hesitation, unaware that the Yang Jade also concealed an extremely terrifying secret.”
Fan Jialuo looked up at Xuan Chengzi, his voice turning cold and stern, “Shifu, after all that I’ve said, you should already know that none of the ironclad rules passed down through the Tianshui Sect can be violated. The first rule is that a Holy Child must never use the power of the jade pendant, the second rule is that only the strongest Holy Child of each generation is worthy of protecting the jade pendant. You must already understand why the first rule was established, so what about the second rule?”
Xuan Chengzi’s jaw muscles twitched slightly, and he clenched his teeth, unable to answer. Only now did he realize how much of a failure he had been as the sect leader. Those ironclad rules must have been passed down from countless ancestors who had suffered greatly, yet he could change them so easily because of his personal preferences.
Fan Jialuo lowered his eyes to look at the jade pendant in his palm and slowly replied, “Because the stronger the spiritual power of a Psychic, the more information it can sense from this jade pendant. Those with unwavering willpower are the most suitable to protect this jade pendant.”
“But Song Enci’s spiritual power is weak. She can only hear a little tempting sound and feel some hot and cold sensations. How could she understand its horror? Shifu, you must admit that I am the strongest Holy Child in the history of Tianshui Sect. So the moment I touched this jade pendant for the first time, I had already discovered all its secrets.”
“It is by no means a treasure, but a seed left in the human world by a demon born from chaos. Song Enci was merely its puppet, sowing more sins while doing good. Her tragedy began from this……”
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