QT- I’m Almost Died
Chapter 282. Unveiling The Truth (VI)
Lin Nianci frantically tore at the bandages covering her body, but unfortunately, all ten of her fingers had been blown off by the grenade and hadn’t fully healed yet, making her movements extremely slow. Seeing that Fan Jialuo was determined to reveal all the secrets, she could only look at Taoist Zhi Fei, pleading for his help with her eyes.
Taoist Zhi Fei silently stepped back, his face cold.
Lin Nianci shifted her gaze back to Chang Sheng and Chang Zhen. Her eyes, which were slightly glistening with tears, were surprisingly clear and clean, like those of an innocent child.
Chang Sheng and Chang Zhen felt an even deeper chill under such gaze. Even now, she didn’t think she had done anything wrong, she still believed that Fan Jialuo had hurt her.
The two turned their backs, unwilling to look any longer.
Lin Nianci’s tears fell instantly. She waved to Lin Nian’en with her bandaged hand, looking helpless and vulnerable.
Curled up in the corner, Lin Nian’en quickly buried his head between his arms and knees, his body trembling, “She’s an abomination, she’s an abomination, she’s an abomination……” Fearful words kept spilling from his mouth, as if this could wash away his past infatuation and unconditional protection.
You asked him if he regretted it? Of course he did, he regretted it a lot, a lot……
However, Xuan Chengzi, who had always doted on Song Enci and Lin Nianci above all others, didn’t have the slightest hint of regret on his face. Instead, he spoke in a completely unshakeable tone, “This charge is fabricated.”
Yes, he knew with absolute clarity that this accusation was entirely fabricated. The only seven remaining dragon veins in China were the ones he had risked his life to protect, while the rest were destroyed at the hands of the Onmyoji. Since the founding of the nation, the Metaphysics Gate had sent people every year to inspect the dragon veins, and not a single anomaly had ever been found. They were all still safely coiled deep within this earth, nurturing exceptional life.
The so-called heinous crime of severing the dragon vein is actually a colossal lie.
Discovering that Fan Jialuo could also lie, Xuan Chengzi felt a strange sense of relief. He knew he had a psychological problem, but he couldn’t control it. If Fan Jialuo had another stain on his record, would Song Enci appear more innocent?
In the end, he was unwilling to believe that the child he had raised with his own hands would turn into such a completely different villain, while Fan Jialuo, whom he had always been wary of and even hated, had been silently protecting this world from the age of six until now.
He is the number one figure in the cultivation world, his judgment could not possibly be so poor.
Fortunately, although the people of the Taoist sects harbored extreme hatred towards Lin Nianci, they still spoke truthfully, “It is impossible for the dragon vein to be killed. Since the Great Battle to Protect the Dragon, our Taoist alliance has sent experts to check the vicinity of the dragon vein every year. Although their aura is somewhat weak and it will take a long time to recover to its peak state, they are indeed alive.”
Fan Jialuo gathered the black Yin jade and the gray Yang jade kneaded together in his palm, absorbed them into his body, then pointed to the black dragon beneath him and said in a deep voice, “Are you sure that you saved all seven dragon veins from back then?”
“Of course we’re sure! We can’t mistake the aura emanating from the dragon vein!” The members of Taoist alliance all spoke with certainty.
Fan Jialuo looked at Xuan Chengzi, whose face was ashen, and asked a completely unrelated question, “Shifu, have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘resentment surging to the heavens‘?”
Xuan Chengzi stared at the tip of his sword, stained with a few drops of blood, his expression cold. He didn’t want to answer this absurd question.
Fan Jialuo didn’t care about his attitude and simply said, “If an ordinary human’s unjust death can cause resentment to surge to the heavens, what do you think happens when a dragon dies unjustly? What happens if the very dragon guarding the nation’s destiny suffers a wrongful death, and dies at the hands of the citizens it nurtured?”
“I refuse to listen to your wild ravings. If you harbor resentment over the events of the past, I will naturally take Enci back to the sect to be disciplined.” Xuan Chengzi said coldly, word by word.
Lin Nianci, busy removing her bandages, breathed a barely perceptible sigh of relief. Her Shifu was still willing to protect her, if he had to discipline her, so be it. At worst, she’d be locked up for a few decades, she could just endure it.
Fan Jialuo glanced at Lin Nianci, his tone equally cold, “Shifu, whether I’m talking wildly or not, listen closely to this resentment of the slaughtered dragons piercing the very heavens, and see for yourself.” He lowered his fingertip and pointed at the black dragon carved in the center of the formation.
In an instant, the black dragon, whose eyes had been lit up, opened its mouth and let out a long roar that could pierce through the clouds and split rocks.
“It’s a dragon vein, a living dragon vein!” Someone shouted, covering their stinging ears.
“How could there be a dragon vein here?”
“Wait, there’s another formation beneath this Soul Devouring Formation!”
“Amituofu, it’s the Dragon-Trapping Formation. Who would trap a living dragon vein here?” Abbot Changjing had the best eyesight and saw through the black-glowing formation hidden beneath the Soul-Devouring Formation with just one glance.
Xuan Chengzi stared intently and was immediately horrified. It was another secret technique of their Tianshui Sect, the Dragon-Trapping Formation. Abbot Changjing was able to recognize it because he had also participated in the Great Battle to Protect the Dragon back then.
Xuan Chengzi used this formation to preserve the remaining seven dragon veins.
But who drew this formation? Fan Jialuo had never learned any of the secret techniques of the Tianshui Sect, so he should not know.
“This formation was drawn by Shishu. Back then, he didn’t kill the small dragon vein in Weipu Village, but moved it here and trapped it in the formation. The charges you leveled against him back then were truly baseless.” Fan Jialuo revealed yet another shocking secret in a calm tone.
Xuan Chengzi finally couldn’t stand any longer. His sword tip dragged on the ground as he staggered back several steps, dazed, and said, “Since he didn’t kill any dragon veins, why doesn’t he defend himself?”
“These are Shishu memories. Take them and look at them yourself.” Fan Jialuo took out a nearly black Yang jade from his heart and tossed it to Xuan Chengzi.
Xuan Chengzi gripped the jade pendant, which was as cold as ice, and his originally expressionless face showed a look of desolation.
He has two weaknesses—— his Shidi Xuan Yangzi and Song Enci. Why has he harbored such deep hatred for Fan Jialuo all these years?
Because the two people he cared about most always died, either directly or indirectly, at the hands of Fan Jialuo.
However, he now had a vague premonition that the order within his heart might collapse completely after he obtained the jade pendant, turning into an unbearable burden.
Seeing that he held the jade pendant for a long time without moving, Fan Jialuo recalled, “Do you remember? Back then, Shishu was seriously injured during a demon-slaying mission and was about to die. You convened a sect meeting, gathered the will of the entire sect, and forced me to use the power of the jade pendant to save him. At that meeting, there were only two people who raised their hands and clearly expressed their opposition, one was me, and the other was Shishu himself.”
“You are not a psychic, so you will never know the secret of that jade pendant, and you also don’t know what the consequences of using it to revive Shishu will be. My firm opposition is seen as heartless and ungrateful in your eyes, Shishu’s firm opposition is seen as accommodating me. But do you know that Shishu was actually a psychic? He should have become the Holy Child of the Tianshui Sect, but he went to great lengths to hide this secret.”
“He was actually a Psychic!” Xuan Chengzi was completely stunned.
“Yes, he was a psychic. Yet, driven by curiosity before his spiritual power was ever tested, he had secretly snuck into the sect’s forbidden grounds and touched that jade pendant, uncovering every single secret. Terrified of bearing such a heavy responsibility, he chose to disguise himself as an ordinary disciple.”
“That’s why he’s so opposed to me going to save him. He’d rather die than become a slave to the desire, and he certainly doesn’t want my soul to be swallowed up by the jade pendant because of this karma.”
“But what people fear most is what they are most likely to encounter. One of us is a child, and the other is a critically injured person on the verge of death. We have no say at all. In the end, we still did as you wished. Because of this cause and effect, my soul was locked by that jade pendant and will be devoured one day. Shishu had a seed of a demon planted in his body, and would fall into the abyss one day.”
“When I pressed the jade pendant on his heart to help his wound heal, we, as psychics, together saw a terrible future through the vast heavens and the ever-changing space and time.”
“What future?” Xuan Chengzi’s voice trembled with fragility.
“You’ll understand once you look through Shishu’s memories.” Fan Jialuo closed his eyes, holding back the tears that were welling up in his pupils.
Xuan Chengzi was at a loss when the jade pendant spontaneously merged into his palm, pulling him into a world that flickered with light and shadow, yet was filled with blood and darkness. He stood above this world and saw the little Fan Jialuo, his hand trembling, pressing a jade pendant against his Shidi’s chest.
Shidi wanted to stop it, but his powerless hand could only cover that small hand. Their eyes involuntarily gazed into the void, as if they had foreseen something.
In that exact instant, Xuan Chengzi was dragged into the void. He witnessed the horrifying spectacle of China’s dragon veins being butchered one by one. Then came the ravages of war, a world painted in blood, and rivers of gore. Those beasts in enemy uniform brandished their long blades, hacking down civilians in the streets at will, howling with maniacal laughter as they slaughtered.
Behind them lay piles of corpses and pools of blood that stained the streets.
The entire city was shrouded in a black mist formed from countless wronged souls. This was the consequence of the severing of the dragon vein, the cataclysmic disaster caused by the decline of the nation’s fortune.
The innocent civilians who died unjustly and the dragon veins that were slain combined to form a sky-covering resentment that plunged the country into hell.
Xuan Chengzi had always thought his Dao heart was unbreakable, but only now did he realize that it wasn’t. His Dao heart had been torn to shreds by this horrific scene. He couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, and let out a mournful cry like a trapped beast. In a daze, he felt that his life in this world was utterly meaningless.
He could not save his country, nor could he save his people. If he was to live on as a wretched coward, he might as well drag them all down to the grave with him!
He gripped his sword tightly and slashed fiercely at the grinning invading devils, only to suddenly discover that the blood-red street had vanished like a bubble, and he had returned to the day his Shidi was seriously injured.
Looking down, he saw his Shidi and Fan Jialuo holding hands, their expressions filled with extreme terror. They already understood the meaning of this illusion.
From that day on, Xuan Yangzi began searching far and wide. After two years of tireless effort, he finally located a minor dragon vein in Weipu Village and bound it secretly inside a nether-abyss, using the heavy nether-qi to suppress its draconic aura. Because land devoid of a dragon vein becomes a barren wasteland, he spent another two years gradually moving all the villagers away.
In those last two years, he would reinforce the Dragon-Trapping Formation every now and then, but the clarity in his eyes became less and less, while the darkness became more and more.
He wanted to both preserve the dragon vein and rescue little Fan Jialuo from the confinement of that jade pendant. Because it was his child, not his own, but more precious than his own.
But how can this be done? Without sufficient power, who can break the ironclad law of cause and effect?
Thus, he set his sights on achieving godhood, yet he rejected the two conventional paths of gathering faith and accumulating merit. His vision and sheer audacity were far beyond anything Song Enci could match. Through analyzing the various forbidden arts passed down by the Tianshui Sect, he quickly derived a taboo technique to ascend to godhood, the Heaven Sacrifice Ritual.
The so-called Heaven Sacrifice meant using thousands upon thousands of living souls as sacrifices, or rather, as stepping stones, to pave his own path to godhood. Once he became a god, he could shatter every single rule in existence and sever all karmic ties
The moment the forbidden technique took shape, he began his descent into depravity. Through this memory, Xuan Chengzi could even see the occasional crimson light flickering in his dark pupils. That gaze…… how was he any different from the bloodthirsty invaders in the illusion?
Xuan Chengzi’s heart ached with this discovery, he wanted to reach out and save the soul that was slowly sliding into the abyss, but he was powerless. That was all in the past.
Therefore, desire is such a terrifying thing. Xuan Yangzi’s starting point was clearly out of love for his child, but the result was the destruction of the world.
One day, Xuan Yangzi, carrying the tools to inscribe the sacrificial array, walked towards the gates of the sect. He felt that sacrificing the people of a city alone was not enough, perhaps he could also sacrifice the dragon vein. After all, he was destined to become a god, and he had enough power to protect his country.
“No, don’t go, don’t do that kind of thing.” Xuan Chengzi descended from mid-air, following closely beside him, and shouted into his ear.
But the other couldn’t hear, so he quickened his pace.
Suddenly, a pair of small hands grabbed his big hand, and a faint but firm child’s voice stopped him in his tracks like a spell.
“Shishu, don’t go. Saving you is the happiest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve never regretted it. If you go, I’ll let that jade pendant devour me.” The little child took out the jade pendant and said with great conviction.
Xuan Yangzi’s steps suddenly stopped, and his blood-red eyes instantly regained their clarity.
He crouched down, his voice trembling, and asked, “You know?”
“I heard the sound coming from here.” The nine-year-old boy placed his hand on his chest. He was the strongest Holy Child of Tianshui Sect, so naturally he could hear such a powerful temptation.
“Shishu, do you still remember the story of the Great God Pangu that you told me? You told me that even if we cultivators die, we should give back the last bit of power in our bodies to heaven and earth, because it is this world that nurtured us. Shishu, stay here, don’t go.”
The nine-year-old child gripped Xuan Yangzi’s hand tightly and said anxiously, “Don’t become a god, don’t leave.”
“Fine, I will not become a god.” Xuan Yangzi shed tears, and the shame in his heart surged like a tide.
He finally came to his senses, but fearing that he would one day be dragged into the abyss by the desire, he took out a dagger that could cut through iron like mud from his satchel and solemnly instructed, “If one day, Shishu makes an irreparable mistake, you must kill me with your own hands.”
The nine-year-old child was so frightened that he started crying, putting his hands behind his back and refusing to take the dagger.
Xuan Yangzi placed his hand on his shoulder, his tone cold and stern, “If you can’t even punish my mistakes, how can you defend this land? You should understand now what kind of hell you will live in for the rest of your life, right? If you can’t be strong, then you can only choose to kill yourself, because if you can’t endure it, you will fall into demonic ways. Cowardly guardians are a threat and a disaster to this land!”
The weighty word ‘Guardian’ was thus placed on a nine-year-old child by Xuan Yangzi.
Xuan Chengzi, who always considered himself the guardian of the Tianshui Sect, was now bent over with shame.
As the nine-year-old child slowly gripped the dagger and nodded cautiously with tears in his eyes, a condemning voice suddenly echoed in Xuan Chengzi’s mind——To harbor hatred for this child, who do you think you are?! To speak of cleaning the sect, how are you even qualified?!”
In a daze, the scene in his memory shifted. Xuan Yangzi abandoned his idea of becoming a god through sacrificial rites, but he still couldn’t escape the punishment of heaven. Two years was ultimately too short, and the villagers of Weipu were too attached to their homeland to leave. Thus, after the dragon vein was severed, they encountered an unprecedented earthquake.
More than a dozen people died in the village. Metaphysic society sent people to investigate, and naturally they found out that Xuan Yangzi was the culprit.
Xuan Chengzi watched helplessly as his Shidi dropped to his knees in front of the Three Pure Ones Hall, prostrating himself to receive the sect’s judgment. He watched helplessly as his past self fought with him in anger, and he watched helplessly as they both fell to the ground, seriously injured and unable to move.
Then, the scene that he could not forgive most happened. Little Fan Jialuo walked in, drew a dagger from his waist, and cleanly pierced his Shidi’s heart.
In the past, whenever Xuan Chengzi recalled this scene, the hatred in his heart would burst forth like a flood, but today, when he looks at it again, he feels only heart-wrenching regret.
From his Shidi’s perspective, he saw how Fan Jialuo’s small face was submerged in tears, how he bit his lips and gums until they bled, revealing a heartbreaking expression. His Shidi, however, wore an encouraging smile, his index finger slightly curled, he silently mouthed the words—— Do what is right, and never falter.
What is the right thing to do?
To Fan Jialuo, the right thing meant punishing those who fell to the demonic path, guarding this vast land, and protecting every living soul.
It’s hard to imagine that a ten-year-old child is carrying such a heavy burden on his shoulders.
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