QT- I’m Almost Died
Chapter 288. Welcome To Purgatory (IV)
TN:- !!!WARNING!!! This chapter contains sensitive, disturbing or inappropriate content. Reader’s discretion is advised.
As a psychic, Lin Nianci could perceive things invisible to the naked eye. Thus, the moment she released her magnetic field to shroud her pupils, the pitch-black lake transformed into a massive column of black miasma that shot straight into the sky. It loomed over the entire village, resembling a pack of vicious dragons writhing across the sky.
Xuan Chengzi also activated his Heavenly Eyes, and immediately his face turned pale with horror. He had been slaying demons and monsters for hundreds of years, and had never seen such a vast and intense Yin Qi. Some might even believe that this place was a branch of Hell.
What kind of evil can cause a lake to accumulate so much sin?
Thinking of this, he looked at Fan Jialuo.
Lin Nianci was also terrified and shook her head repeatedly, unable to believe that this was the small mountain village she had blessed back then.
Fan Jialuo walked to her side, half-squatted down, and slowly said, “You should still remember what it originally looked like, right?”
Remember. How could I not remember? The mountains here used to be lush green, not ash grey. The people here used to be simple and honest, not thoroughly evil. The water in this lake used to be crystal clear, not foul and stench-ridden.
What could have caused everything here to become so unrecognizable?
Lin Nianci was entirely devoid of divine insight, which was exactly why she kept failing on her path to godhood. What remained an impenetrable mystery to her, Fan Jialuo had effortlessly deciphered just by glancing at a picture of the dark lake uploaded online.
Lifting his gaze toward the column of black miasma coiling above, he calmly explained, “After you left, the people of this small mountain village became your most devout believers. Because the power of their faith was so overwhelming, they awakened the fragments of light formed by the Yang Jade one after another. Every single one of them had experienced the agony of being on the brink of death, so they harbored an insatiable desire for physical wellness.”
“A simple, harmless desire, wouldn’t you say?” Fan Jialuo asked.
Lin Nianci dared not answer.
Fan Jialuo continued, “Those points of light coalesced into small yang orbs, helping them realize their wishes. The men and women, young and old, in this village indeed became healthier than ordinary people, and never fell ill throughout the year. Seeing such results, their faith in you became even more devout.”
“What happens when you are healthy?” Fan Jialuo asked again.
Lin Nianci’s eyes darted around, completely failing to understand what could possibly be wrong with such a simple desire.
Song Rui analyzed, “With better health, life expectancy increases, and the birth rate will also increase.”
Fan Jialuo nodded, “Dr. Song is right. When people are healthy, they live longer and their birth rate increases. So the people in this village started having a lot of children, and the population expanded rapidly. There wasn’t enough space for many people here, so they moved up the mountain or to the other side of the mountain. As a result, a small village eventually became a town, and your followers also increased.”
“But prosperity is short-lived. When the wars began, the imperial army seized all the local men because of their strength. Swords are blind in the chaos of battle, what good is perfect health when you’re facing a blade? Thus, your believers shifted their prayers. They began to desire for power, desperate to simply stay alive in an age of endless bloodshed.”
“Those Yang jades once again fulfilled their desire for power.”
“Of the men who were taken, only a rare few returned alive. The rest perished on the battlefield. What was once a massive, bustling town withered away, shrinking right back into a tiny mountain village.”
“In that era of widespread suffering and dwindling population, reproduction was the most important word.”
“What does reproduction require?” Fan Jialuo asked abruptly.
Lin Nianci’s mind couldn’t keep up with his thoughts at all, and she could only look back blankly.
“Both men and women.” Song Rui said calmly.
Fan Jialuo nodded and said, “Yes, reproduction requires both men and women, but for the people here, reproduction seems to depend solely on men, with women merely serving as tools. In that era, such a mindset was taken as a law of nature. Did you foresee this outcome? The evil you unleashed finally began to rear its ugly head.”
Lin Nianci’s eyes flickered repeatedly, unable to understand what those words meant.
Xuan Chengzi looked at the lake filled with the aura of death, his eyes reddening.
“The men who returned alive became mutants, their bodies were extremely strong, and the women who survived were the same. They began to reproduce frantically, reproduce, reproduce…… But the war-torn land could not support so many people, so some people secretly threw female infants into this lake.”
“First it was one or two, then three or four. Once most people learned of this secret and got used to it, all the female infants born here were sent here.”
Lin Nianci snapped her head toward the lake, her eyes widening in sheer horror as if she were staring at some kind of abomination.
Fan Jialuo nodded and said, “True. It is an abomination that devours humanity. Keep the boys, drown the girls, this horrific practice actually became a clan law here, strictly upheld generation after generation. Then, a few years later, the women grew resentful and thought ——since childbirth is such an agonizing ordeal, why can’t they just give birth to sons and never bear a daughter again?”
“These women knelt before the statue of the Holy Maiden, praying for blessings so that they would only bear sons and no daughters. This strong desire was heard again by the jade pendants and thus fulfilled. But the women did not know that it was the jade pendants that brought about this ‘miracle.’ Desperate to showcase their resolve to the Holy Maiden, every female in the village gathered that night to drink the lake’s water——the exact water polluted by the corpses of countless drowned female infants.”
Lin Nianci covered her mouth, involuntarily gagging. She couldn’t understand why humans could do such a thing.
Xuan Chengzi closed his eyes, unable to bear the sound.
Song Rui analyzed, “This kind of thing is not uncommon. In those days, some people would strangle their firstborn daughters in order to have a son, and bury them on the road in front of their house, so that passers-by would trample on them repeatedly, in order to frighten the spirits of the infants still floating in the sky and prevent them from being reborn as girls in their family.”
“Yes.” Fan Jialuo closed his eyes, his tone cold and deep, “Some people will stop at nothing to have a son.”
“After praying to your statue and drinking the water from the lake, the women in this village indeed only gave birth to sons and no daughters from then on. They were overjoyed and renamed it Xianghuo(Incense) Village. This miracle spread far and wide, attracting many people who were eager for children.”
“How could the villagers let them take advantage of them for nothing? So they guarded the village entrance and demanded exorbitant prices, making a fortune in the process.”
“But the lake water isn’t what’s causing this ‘all-son anomaly.’ Selling it off is bound to invite massive trouble, right?” Song Rui had already anticipated the horrific truth.
Fan Jialuo nodded and said, “Yes, they had gotten themselves into trouble. But they didn’t think it’s a problem with the water. Instead, they thought it’s because the villagers aren’t having any more daughters, and too few female infants are being sacrificed to the lake, causing the lake to lose its divine power.”
Song Rui shook his head and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.
Xuan Chengzi opened his tightly closed eyes, revealing a hint of tears.
Lin Nianci did nothing but shake her head in a daze, continuously murmuring under her breath, “No, it’s not true…… it’s not true……”
“Why not?” Fan Jialuo pointed to the pitch-black lake water, “If it’s not true, then how do you explain its existence?”
“Yes, it is precisely as you suspect. The villagers started hunting down female infants from far and wide, tossing them into the waters and glorifying it under the name of a ‘sacred sacrifice’. Yet the lake water failed to manifest any effect on the outside world, cutting off their source of wealth. To make matters worse, drastic shortage of females meant the local men could no longer find wives.”
“At first, they would bring back women from other villages, but these women did not have Yang jade in their bodies, and the children they gave birth to were both boys and girls. The miracle of Xianghuo(Incense) Village finally crumbled into nothing. Yet, that horrific clan law continued to be passed down anyway.”
“The sins of the past were repeated once again, male infants could live, but female infants had to die. What girl would want to marry into such an evil mountain village? As a result, the men here could no longer find wives, because no women from the surrounding areas dared to come.”
“But it doesn’t matter. If a woman doesn’t want to marry, the men here can go out and snatch her, steal her, or abduct her. Whatever means they use, as long as they bring a woman back, it’s proof of their strength. Some of the women who were brought back accepted their fate, some went mad, and some committed suicide. Those women who committed suicide were also thrown into this lake.”
“Later, all the women who died in this village were thrown into this lake as a sacrifice to the Holy Maiden.”
“A new nation has risen. Theft, robbery, abduction, and fraud can no longer procure women in large numbers.” Fan Jialuo stared intently at Lin Nianci and asked, “Tell me, what choice do the men of this village have left?”
Lin Nianci shook her head repeatedly, her tone agitated, “I don’t know, don’t ask me! These things have nothing to do with me!”
Fan Jialuo continued, “If there aren’t enough women, they can make do. One woman can be shared by the whole family or even the whole village, and so everything here is in chaos.”
Song Rui shook his head and said, “No wonder there are so many deformed people here. It turns out it’s all because of inbreeding.”
Xuan Chengzi knelt down, making retching noises. This was utterly horrifying!
Lin Nianci covered her ears with her hands, unwilling to listen any longer. It was too terrifying, absolutely too terrifying! She simply couldn’t believe such a thing could happen!
Fan Jialuo sent his voice directly into her mind, “Then came the day Duan Xiaoyun stumbled into this village. She found herself thoroughly pleased with those inhuman beasts, picking out one of the women to act as her agent and collect fertilizer. You’re aware, aren’t you? Her so-called fertilizer is nothing but human flesh and blood.”
“You’ve already experienced what happened next firsthand, so I don’t need to elaborate, right? Countless women were lured by them, and countless men were killed by them to sell their organs. They obtained millions of babies through that fertility fruit. The boys were sold for money, and the girls were eaten, sacrificed, or used to fill lakes.”
“They grew up drinking the water from the lake, so naturally they are full of bad karma. They weren’t trying to murder individuals, they wanted to eliminate women as an entire gender. But women will always exist, just as Yin and Yang coexisted when the world began. It is the natural law, an undeniable truth.”
Fan Jialuo straightened up, looked down at the trembling Lin Nianci, and asked, “Take a guess. On what exact day did they codify the drowning of every newborn girl into their clan laws?”
Lin Nianci removed the fingers that were plugging her ears and looked over in horror. She seemed to have realized something.
Fan Jialuo curled his lips in a sarcastic smile and nodded, saying, “Yes, you guessed right. It was the day you suddenly suffered a backlash and could no longer perform any miracles, it was the day you thought you had crossed the threshold of becoming a god, but then suddenly fell from the sky, it was the day you had to return to the Tianshui Sect and ask Shifu for help.”
Lin Nianci shook her head and said in a hoarse voice, “Why? Why is it being pinned on me? I didn’t do any of those things!”
“Don’t you understand yet? What these people did wasn’t just mindless killing.” Fan Jialuo said in a chilling tone, “They have defied human morality, defied their own race, defied Yin and Yang, and defied the natural law. How could they possibly endure the backlash of a bad karma that was born defying Heaven, race, and the natural law? They can’t. So naturally, the burden falls on you, the instigator. But as for you…… do you honestly think you can survive it?”
Lin Nianci looked down at her wrinkled, withered hands and already understood the answer.
Xuan Chengzi said coldly, “Bad karma of this magnitude is a burden that even true deities could not withstand, let alone a mere mortal like her.”
Looking back now, he truly regretted it. If any member of the Tianshui Sect had harbored any doubts about Song Enci’s words back then, a simple calculation would have revealed the truth. But no one doubted her, not a single one!
She said that her injuries were caused by Fan Jialuo, and everyone believed her, because Fan Jialuo was a villain who had killed his Shishu, so what was so strange about him injuring his ShiJie? Prejudice can really blind a person to the point of being unable to see the truth.
The iron bar slipped from Xuan Chengzi’s hand as he fell to his knees, utterly defeated. He was wrong. For all these years, he had lived a massive, absolute lie!
Lin Nianci frantically rubbed her wrinkled hands, instantly summoning all her luck to counter her plummeting life force, but nothing worked. The vortex of doom had fixed its gaze upon her, and it would never allow her to escape.
Fan Jialu walked step by step to Lin Nianci’s side and held his palm in front of her face.
Lin Nianci subconsciously activated her magnetic field to block, but then heard him say calmly, “Without merging the Yang Jade back together and refining it into a part of your own body, you’re nothing but a sad little bug I can squash on a whim. So get out of my sight.”
“What?” Lin Nianci was stunned. She had truly believed that the bitter blood-feud between her and Fan Jialuo would have to be settled today once and for all.
“I foresee that you still have three debts to repay.” Fan Jialuo withdrew his hand and gestured with his chin toward the village entrance, “Go, go repay the debts you owe others, and then I will settle the account between us.”
Lin Nianci scrambled to her feet and staggered away. Paying off debts and settling accounts were completely out of her mind. She only wanted to get as far away from Fan Jialuo as possible, to get as far away from this black lake as possible, and never see it again!
Although she had lived for over two hundred years, she had never suffered much hardship. In the sect, she was protected by her master and fellow disciples, after leaving, she was protected by Zhang Wencheng, after parting with Zhang Wencheng, she was protected by a group of believers, after suffering a backlash, she turned back into an infant and continued to be protected by her master and fellow disciples.
Her life was like a cycle, mirroring Fan Jialuo’s but in the exact opposite way. Fan Jialuo was someone who had waded through the fires of hell to cross over his cycle, whereas she had lived her entire life in a honey pot, pampered, protected, and idolized by everyone around her.
How could someone like her possibly fight back? The fact that she was able to ruthlessly kill Fan Jialuo back then was due to Zhang Wencheng’s constant manipulation and his meticulous planning. She couldn’t accomplish anything alone.
Seeing her retreating figure without turning her head, Xuan Chengzi’s last trace of master-disciple affection for her vanished.
He had personally cultivated this kind of child with his own two hands. He was guilty!
“Shifu, there is something else I need to tell you.” Fan Jialuo walked to Xuan Chengzi’s side, lowered his eyes and said, “When I used the jade pendant to revive Shishu, we both foresaw the future of the dragon vein being slaughtered. My spiritual power is slightly stronger than his, so I saw more of what he saw. One of the scenes is related to you. Would you like to know?”
Xuan Chengzi raised his head and stared at him in astonishment.
Fan Jialuo took his hands and led him to recall that memory.
After a moment, he slowly asked, “Shifu, tell me, is this future real or fake?”
Xuan Chengzi froze, his dark eyes fixed on a single point in the void, as if he had seen some kind of demon or monster. After a long while, he said in a trembling voice, “It’s true.” Then he bent over, pressed his head to the ground, and hugged it tightly with both hands.
This is an act of admitting guilt, but also an act of escaping.
And so, Fan Jialuo understood everything. With unshed tears glinting in his eyes, he gave him one last, deep look. Then, he turned on his heel and walked away. His cold words scattered into the wind, “Shifu…, this is the absolute last time I will ever use this title for you.”
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