Chapter 287. Welcome To Purgatory (III)

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Those who cultivate the Tao always believe that everything in the world has a spirit. The heavens and earth have spirits, the souls of the dead have spirits, the years have spirits, the sun and moon have spirits, and even a stone has a spirit.

They may disregard the opinions of the world, but they cannot ignore the judgment of their ancestral spirits. For it was these spirits who nurtured them, left them their legacy, and paved the way for their spiritual cultivation. They are the successors on this path, receiving the tradition and legacy from their ancestors, adding their own achievements and weight, and then properly passing it on to the next generation.

Some people stumble and fall on this road, shattering into pieces, others keep running, forging ahead without hesitation, until they finally reach the pinnacle of success.

Before reuniting with Fan Jialuo, Xuan Chengzi always thought he would be the one to reach the pinnacle of the Tao, but now he realized that he had already fallen from the highest clouds into the abyss.

Even more tragically, he didn’t realize he had fallen, so he continued running in the abyss, drifting further and further away from the true path.

That majestic sect towering high above the clouds, he could never return to it again. Yet he had still blindly fantasized about rebuilding the Tianshui Sect’s lineage in the secular world, restoring every single Holy Maiden statue, ensuring Song Enci would continue to enjoy the offerings of mankind, and even recruiting more believers for her……

If the ancestors of the Tianshui Sect, who stand in the heavens, could hear his thoughts and learn of his will, they would probably be so angry that they would send down several bolts of lightning.

Having lived for hundreds of years, Xuan Chengzi suddenly looked back and realized that he had become a joke. He pounded on the statue, tears welling in his eyes, but a mocking smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

When the statue’s gorgeous outer shell shattered, all that spilled out from within was a heap of pitch-black mud clumps and gravel mixed with literal garbage. To maximize their profit margins, there was no telling where the merchant had sourced such filthy filling.

But Xuan Chengzi felt that Song Enci’s statue should be like this. Wasn’t she herself just like that?

Xuan Chengzi’s actions attracted the attention of the group next door. The middle-aged woman, seeing the shattered statue of the Holy Maiden on the ground, roared angrily, “Twist off his head and offer it as a sacrifice to the Holy Maiden!”

Several burly men immediately rushed forward with iron bars. But Xuan Chengzi, having recovered his cultivation, easily defeated them in the blink of an eye.

The group of Hunchbacks standing behind the woman also charged forward with howls. Although they were disabled and ugly, they were more powerful than several strong men.

Xuan Chengzi opened his Heavenly Eye and immediately frowned. These strange beings seemed to have grown up in purgatory, their bodies covered in thick, black mist of bad karma, spewing out  poisonous miasma that was probably more potent than that of a cobra. Fortunately, Xuan Chengzi was a cultivator and had a way to deal with these evil spirits. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably die from just one bite.

While Xuan Chengzi was dealing with these half-human, half-ghost creatures, Fan Jialuo and Song Rui had already walked to the wooden bed and looked down at Lin Nianci, who was still trapped in the illusion.

“Shifu, why do you think Lin Nianci hasn’t come out yet? It’s just the memories of a few thousand girls who were tortured to death. Is that really so hard to break out of?” Fan Jialuo said with a half-smile.

“Seeing as your Shifu was entirely helpless against that illusion and relied on you to wake him up, I imagine the difficulty level must be astronomical.” Song Rui threw in a parting shot.

Xuan Chengzi, who had been moving with ease, froze for a moment, then was bitten on the thigh, and was in so much pain that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Fan Jialuo bent down, gazing intently at Lin Nianci’s face, which was filled with pain and despair, and slowly said, “Is it really that difficult to just get rid of the illusion?”

“Do any of you have even the slightest clue what I endured inside that Tree of Reincarnation? Time after time, I was forced to relive the exact split-second I plunged dagger into Shishu’s heart. Termlessly, I endured the hour of my own demise at Song Enci’s hands. The inferno of ice and frost conjured by the twin forces of Yin and Yang qi, the crucible of magma forged by the Ninefold Blood Fiend Soul Devouring Formation, trapped me firmly and extended the time indefinitely.”

“But I eventually came out of it. Compared to what I went through, what is this illusion? Why can’t you break free?” Fan Jialuo asked earnestly.

“Yes, why?” Xuan Chengzi was stunned by the question.

Lin Nianci, who was struggling desperately in the illusion, tilted her head as if she could hear these words.

Fan Jialuo slowly gave his answer, “Because none of you possess any true faith. Doesn’t that sound absolutely ridiculous? As cultivators, you lack the slightest shred of faith. Yet that is the absolute truth. The path to godhood you so fiercely believe in isn’t a faith at all, it is merely the manifestation of your own desires.”

“Your Dao heart is not a Dao heart at all, but a demonic heart.”

Upon hearing this, Xuan Chengzi, still in a daze, nearly had his leg bone shattered by a burly man. He dodged awkwardly, his already broken Dao heart becoming even more irreparable. Knowing full well that being distracted in battle was dangerous, he couldn’t help but glance at Fan Jialuo, and then deeply realized just how outstanding this child he had always overlooked had become.

As the saying goes, the fruit never falls far from the tree. Shidi nurtured Fan Jialuo into this state, but I? I raised Song Enci into a demon twice. I was the ultimate failure all along! As this realization crashed down on him, Xuan Chengzi completely lost the will to fight on.

Song Rui lacked the courage to even ponder the sheer horror Fan Jialuo had endured within the Tree of Reincarnation. What manner of being could emerge lucid from such depths? Only those who have eternally dwelt in the abyss, beings who can withstand any suffering, outlast any torment, and even feast upon despair as their nourishment.

Song Rui lowered his head, hiding his reddened eyes.

Fan Jialuo took his hand and chuckled softly.

What he didn’t say was that although he repeatedly relived the scene of plunging the knife into Shishu’s heart, he also clearly saw the gentle smile in his Shishu’s eyes through this memory that he had never dared to look back on before. Not only did he not hate him, but he was also proud of his decisiveness and courage.

Immediately afterwards, Shishu’s eyes became Dr. Song’s eyes, long and deep, yet also encompassing longing.

At that moment, Fan Jialuo had an epiphany, and then grasped the jade pendant hidden in the tree trunk, returning from purgatory to the human world once again.

This is the source of his faith and strength.

Seeing that Xuan Chengzi was outnumbered and retreating steadily, Fan Jialuo had no choice but to whisper in Lin Nianci’s ear, who remained unconscious, and coax her, “Remember? You are the Holy Maiden of Zezhou, and their power comes from you. You can make them omnipotent, and you can also make them lose everything. Just take back that power, and you can escape.”

As if hearing these words, Lin Nianci, lying on the wooden bed, raised her head and let out a series of shrill screams.

Immediately afterward, the men who had been frantically attacking Xuan Chengzi all knelt down, covering their ears and groaning in pain. One by one, points of light emerged from their bodies and returned to Lin Nianci’s body. These points of light contained small jade pendants, which were originally pure white but had now turned into a dark gray that was almost black.

The jade pendant that emerged from the middle-aged woman’s body was the largest and darkest in color. As it passed before Fan Jialuo’s eyes, it exuded pure malice.

“Aren’t you going to absorb them?” Song Rui asked in a low voice.

“No, my goal has never been to collect them, but to destroy them.” Fan Jialuo shook his head.

Having retrieved the jade pendants, Lin Nianci finally broke free from the hellish illusion. She ripped off the chains, touched her stomach, and found it perfectly flat, letting out a long sigh of relief. Completely exhausted, her face a mixture of fear and horror, yet she couldn’t help but chuckle softly. She was relieved that it had all been an illusion.

However, she had no idea that those things actually happened, only that the victims were already dead.

In the past, Xuan Chengzi would have rushed over immediately to check if his beloved disciple was alright, but now, he merely glanced at her coldly before walking out of the dimly lit room carrying an iron rod.

Fan Jialuo and Song Rui followed in his footsteps.

Lin Nianci dared not be alone, so she quickly jumped off the wooden bed and staggered after them. She wasn’t surprised that Fan Jialuo and Song Rui were here. She knew from the moment she was trapped in the illusion that this was another of Fan Jialuo’s tricks. He always enjoyed putting her in all sorts of unbearable situations.

The village’s adult men were assembled in full at the sacred altar, gasping for their final breaths after Song Enci absorbed the essence of their jade pieces. Strangely, far across the dark settlement, the windows of their homes still glowed with light.

Xuan Chengzi kicked open the doors of each house, followed the scent of burning incense and candles to the altar, and smashed the statues of the Holy Maiden to pieces.

He walked through the area, only to find to his utter horror that every family here was rearing at least one or more boys aged five to ten. Barely a handful had a normal appearance. The absolute majority were deformed, physically handicapped monstrosities. As for daughters? There wasn’t a single one.

No, perhaps there were, because in the pigsty of one of the families, Xuan Chengzi discovered the skeletons of many female infants. It turned out that they not only used female infants as food or sacrifices, but also as pig feed.

This scene caused Xuan Chengzi’s eyes to turn crimson again.

His main purpose in coming to Beijing this time was to rebuild Tianshui Temples, restore the statue of the Holy Maiden, and restore the incense offerings to Song Enci. But now, he wished he could set fire to everything, burning down Song Enci’s followers, offerings, and even the statues.

Lin Nianci stood pressed against the wall, staring in terror at her crazed master. She touched her face, which was suddenly covered in wrinkles, and let out a pitiful scream. The power she had just gained was rapidly draining away, her smooth skin was aging once more, and the color of the Dragon’s Curse seemed to have deepened.

A torrent of karmic backlash, infinitely more savage than anything she had faced before her rebirth, was tearing into her at this very moment. But why was this happening?

Fan Jialuo took out a walkie-talkie and said, “Chief Yan, Director Meng, you can now enter Xianghuo Village. The danger is not completely over, but it is under control. You must take proper protective measures.”

As he reported the situation, the children with shark-like teeth surrounded Xuan Chengzi, gnawing at his thigh. Their eyes, which should have been filled with childlike innocence, were instead filled with ferocious murderous intent. Growing up in such an environment, they had long since come to believe that everyone and everything, except their parents and the villagers, was their food.

Xuan Chengzi kicked them away without any mercy and continued to smash the statues of the Holy Maiden.

At the same time, Meng Zhong was organizing his troops to prepare for an attack.

“Are you all wearing protective suits? The people in this village are very difficult to deal with. When I was still in the Special Security Department, I launched two raids, but both ended in failure. The people inside are monsters. They are very strong and are not afraid of bullets. No matter how you shoot them, they are impossible to kill. What’s even more terrifying is that their teeth and nails are poisonous. If you are scratched or bitten, the mortality rate is 100%.”

The soldiers and police officers, who were getting ready, couldn’t help but show expressions of being on high alert.

“But Teacher Fan has already scouted ahead for us, so there shouldn’t be any problems this time. Come on, let’s check our watches.” Meng Zhong raised his wrist.

The group checked their watches, then charged in with their guns, expecting a fierce and arduous battle, only to find a bunch of little kids lying on the ground and a group of strange people on the verge of death.

A police officer bent down to help the little boy at his feet, but heard Teacher Fan’s stern voice coming from the walkie-talkie, “Stay away from those children, their teeth are poisonous.”

The police officer was startled and quickly withdrew his hand.

The child, who had been lying on the ground seemingly unconscious, suddenly got up and lunged at him, only to be kicked away by Meng Zhong, who arrived just in time.

The child tumbled a great distance before finally stabilizing his footing. When he lifted his head, he revealed a pair of completely emotionless, blood-red eyes. His thick, unclosable lips hung open, exposing two rows of razor-sharp teeth dripping with saliva. This was absolutely not a normal five-year-old child, he resembled a carnivorous beast instead.

Seeing this, everyone broke out in a cold sweat, still shaken by the experience.

Meng Zhong shouted sternly, “Didn’t you hear what I said before? No one in this village deserves any sympathy! Smash them on the head with the butts of your rifles, knock them unconscious, and tie them up with ropes, whether they’re adults or children!”

The crowd chorused their agreement, then proceeded to knock out anyone who was still conscious, one by one——

While the police and special forces were busy, Fan Jialuo took the nearly numb Xuan Chengzi and the constantly backlashing Lin Nianci to the innermost part of this small mountain village.

“This entire lake is severely contaminated.” Song Rui said, pointing to a small lake hidden in the valley.

Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci frowned and looked ahead, only to see a lake lying there. The black water in the lake was thick and viscous like mud, emitting a pungent stench.

Fan Jialuo walked to the lakeside and gazed into the distance. Without turning his head, he asked, “Lin Nianci, have you been affected by the backlash again?”

Lin Nianci stroked her wrinkled face, her expression panicked.

Xuan Chengzi glanced at her, but remained unmoved by her miserable state.

“If you knew what this place was, you would understand why, even after transforming into a second body, you still cannot escape the backlash of bad karma.” Fan Jialuo said with a half-smile.

Lin Nianci turned her head and looked around, asking in a trembling voice, “What is this place?”

“Don’t you remember?” Fan Jialuo pointed to the small valley and said slowly, “After leaving Young Master Zhang, you planned to become a god walking among humans. Gods must perform miracles, so you chose a small village infected with the plague to begin your path to godhood.”

Lin Nianci’s lips trembled uncontrollably.

Fan Jialuo raised an eyebrow and said, “How is it, do you remember now? Yes, this is the place where you first performed a miracle. You walked into this village that no one dared to approach, and touched the heads of the dying people one by one, giving them new life. They knelt at your feet to thank you for your great kindness, called you Holy Maiden, cast a golden statue in your image and offered incense. They were your first group of believers, and also your most devout group of believers.”

“Therefore, you can sever all ties with Song Enci, but you can’t sever this initial thread of cause and effect. Once you touch this thread again, all the sins will fall back on your head.”

Lin Nianci was stunned. After examining the surrounding terrain again, she finally managed to dig out some familiar shadows from her jumbled memories. Realizing this, she began to age rapidly, her once black hair turning completely white in an instant.

The devastation Fan Jialuo brought upon her was never meant to be quick. It was a slow execution, one hammer blow at a time, one knife cut at a time, leaving her trapped in a living hell.

But he was far from finished. Fan Jialuo gestured toward the black lake at their feet and asked, “Do you know why this water is stained black?”Do you know what made those villagers grow into such grotesque shapes? Do you know why there is only one female in this village, yet the rest are all men?”

“No, stop…… I don’t want to hear it!” Lin Nianci spun around to flee, but her legs were violently broken by a sudden swing of Xuan Chengzi’s iron bar, sending her kneeling straight to the ground.

“Listen carefully to the sins you committed back then!” Xuan Chengzi said in an icy tone.

Fan Jialuo scooped up a handful of the foul, stench-ridden black water and sighed, “I told you before, the World-Destroying Tree was not your greatest sin. It was far from enough to trip you up at the very threshold of godhood. Everything carried within this lake is the true, indelible bad karma that you can never wash clean, nor ever hope to settle.”

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Chapter 286. Welcome To Purgatory (II)

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TN:- !!!WARNING!!! This chapter contains sensitive, disturbing or inappropriate content. Reader’s discretion is advised

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What is purgatory?

An agony that will never, ever end——that is called purgatory. An endless darkness where not a single glint of hope can be seen——that is called purgatory. A desperate struggle where one longs for death but cannot die——that is called purgatory.

At this very moment, Lin Nianci was trapped in this purgatory. Her body was enduring a level of devastation unimaginable to an ordinary person, over and over again, without end. More horrifyingly, her belly began to balloon out like a regular balloon, while those grotesque creatures swarmed around her, admiring her agonizing state with eyes full of sick excitement.

Her fury, her shrieks of pain, and her bitter curses fell upon their ears like a beautiful melody, plunging them into an even greater state of ecstatic bliss.

Lin Nianci, exhausted from shouting, began to cry, first sobbing softly, then wailing loudly. She felt something rapidly bulging her stomach, it hurt, it felt bloated, as if it were about to burst. She was covered in cold sweat, her face streaked with tears and snot, as if she had fallen into a swamp and was covered in filth.

The word ‘holy’ seems to have been forever removed from her. She was filthy, foul, base, and despicable. She was a plaything for these people.

With every breath, she begged for her master, straining her neck to look his way. Her eyes were completely filled with a silent plea to be killed, to just let it end

Xuan Chengzi had personally watched every single second of her brutal violation. His fury, grief, and hopelessness surpassed even hers. But what good was this storm of dark emotions? It only weaponized the pain against himself. His wrists and ankles were securely shackled in iron chains, locking him completely in place. Because of his frantic struggles, the metal had sliced into his flesh, leaving him a bloody, mangled mess.

Those people deliberately poured chili oil and strong liquor on him, then clapped and laughed while listening to his screams with relish.

Gradually, Xuan Chengzi realized that these people’s emotional experiences were the opposite of normal people’s. They took the greatest pleasure from the suffering of others, the more agonizingly you screamed, the more they found enjoyment in it. This was not a group of people at all, but a group of demons in human skin.

The sheer evil of human nature was on full display at this very moment, laid bare in all its hideous glory.

Xuan Chengzi finally gave up struggling.

Lin Nianci didn’t even have the energy left to thrash. In a span of just a few short hours, her stomach had stretched to the point of imminent childbirth, yet those living demons showed no signs of stopping their brutal torment.

Her voice completely shattered from hours of screaming, Lin Nianci was entirely silent when the contractions hit. She could do nothing but part her lips, coughing up thick, crimson blood from the back of her throat.

Fortunately, the woman was very experienced. She yanked back the person who was still fooling around and coolly laid out instructions without missing a beat, “Go get a basin and scissors.”

The group split up to retrieve the items.

Soon, Lin Nianci’s second purgatory began. She was giving birth, blood hissing and gushing out uncontrollably, but the baby was stuck and wouldn’t come out.

The woman yelled, “Press on her stomach!”

Then two burly men forcefully pushed Lin Nianci’s stomach, from top to bottom, again and again, causing her to faint from the pain time and time again, only to wake up again each time. In that short hour or so, she felt as if she had experienced death a thousand times over.

What kind of pain is slow slicing? Lin Nianci couldn’t have imagined it before, but now she knows. And she was certain that the pain she was suffering was a more cruel punishment than slow slicing, because in addition to the physical pain, she was also enduring mental humiliation and spiritual torment.

These people didn’t treat her like a human being at all.

The child was born, and Lin Nianci listened to his wailing almost numbly, her tears long since dried up.

Xuan Chengzi had managed to keep his eyes on her in the beginning, trying to spur her on, but in the end, he shut his eyes tightly. The phrase ‘too tragic to behold’ was likely created to describe the exact scene playing out before him.

The middle-aged woman cut the umbilical cord, examined the child carefully, and said, “Not bad, it’s a boy. We can raise him for a few days and then sell him.”

Raise it for a few days, then sell it. These short, simple words laid bare the countless atrocities and blood debts committed by these people. Had he not witnessed it with his own eyes and heard it with his own ears, Xuan Chengzi would never have imagined that the subject of their casual discussion was a newborn infant.

One of the grotesque creature held the child upside down by its ankles, limping away from the room that reeked of stench and blood. They called this place the Sacred Altar.

The woman put down the scissors, took off her blood-stained apron, and knelt before the statue of the Holy Maiden in silent prayer. Behind her, the men who had spent the entire night in a manic frenzy fell to their knees as well, prostrating themselves before the statue.

“Holy Maiden, thank you for your grace.” The woman kowtowed three times.

Lin Nianci raised her head, wanting to shout ‘you are not worthy to be my believers’, but no sound came out after she opened her mouth.

She finally collapsed, barely alive, but the nightmare had only just begun.

Having finished tormenting her, those people turned their cruelty upon Xuan Chengzi.

They dislocated his jaw as well, forcing a blue fruit down his throat.

Seeing this, Lin Nianci was terrified.

Gagging and crying out helplessly through his broken jaw, Xuan Chengzi glared ahead, his eyes completely bloodshot with rage.

But that fruit wasn’t a fertility fruit, it was a fruit with far more bizarre effects, capable of endlessly regenerating a person’s internal organs. So, without anesthesia, those people cut open Xuan Chengzi’s abdomen and removed all his organs except for his heart.

Of course, they picked them one by one, since no matter how magical that fruit was, it wasn’t an immortal fruit that could make someone impossible to kill.

Xuan Chengzi’s two ribs were broken and spread apart, revealing a bright red, beating heart. The woman’s hands churned inside his stomach, occasionally pulling out an organ and then pricing it, “This kidney can sell for 300,000 yuan, this lung can sell for 150,000 yuan, this pancreas……”

Xuan Chengzi’s vision was already blurring from the sheer agony. In his hazy consciousness, a thought surfaced—— the suffering I once endured in the past is truly not even worth mentioning compared to this.

Lin Nianci was completely devastated, but she couldn’t even cry.

If you were to ask her what hell looked like, she would tell you—— it is right here, it is right now, and it is these very demons cloaked in human skin!

How could they possibly be her followers? Why would her followers do such a thing and claim it’s all her blessing?

With these questions in mind, Lin Nianci completely fainted. The next day, the women gave her and Xuan Chengzi a blue fruit each and continued the previous ritual. They treated Lin Nianci as a breeding machine and Xuan Chengzi as a vessel for cultivating internal organs, exchanging their flesh and blood for a continuous stream of money.

Lin Nianci had lost count of how many fruits she had eaten and how many children she had given birth to. Among these children were both boys and girls. The boys were carted off by the women to be sold into trafficking, but the girls were ground straight into a bloody mush, served up for those hunchbacked demons to split and drink down like water.

When she bore a female infant for the first time, Lin Nianci was forced to watch this horror play out, vomiting until she was completely delirious. After a few more births, she had more girls, but this time they weren’t instantly crushed into mush. Rather, they were stacked together inside a tub, meticulously raised on milk.

Lin Nianci thought the children might survive, but one day, the middle-aged woman placed the baby girls in front of the statue of the Holy Maiden, cut their throats one by one with a knife, and let their blood flow out, calling it a sacrifice to the Holy Maiden.

Upon being presented with this horrific sacrifice, Lin Nianci snapped right then and there, sobbing until she utterly collapsed. She was cursed with eternal life, meaning this nightmare would never, ever come to an end.

Xuan Chengzi turned to look at her, his expression numb, but suddenly a whispered voice reached his ears, “Shifu, look closely, is this purgatory or the human world?”

That familiar voice was like a sharp knife, slicing through the darkness before his eyes and bringing Xuan Chengzi back to reality. As his vacant eyes gradually focused, he realized that he was indeed locked to a wooden bed, but his chest had not been cut open. There wasn’t a single scratch on his limbs, and he was still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing before.

In other words, the purgatory he just experienced was very likely an illusion.

He quickly turned to look at the bed next to him, only to find that Lin Nianci was still trapped in that illusion, crying her heart out with her eyes closed.

“Shifu, you’re awake.” That familiar voice came again.

Xuan Chengzi turned his head sharply and saw Fan Jialuo and Song Rui standing at the door, looking at him with inscrutable expressions. Both of them were wearing military uniforms and had walkie-talkies clipped to their waists, as if they were on some kind of mission.

A set of footsteps approached, and Fan Jialuo and Song Rui immediately stepped aside. Then, the door swung open. The burly man who had collected the toll poked his head inside, scanning the room, and shouted toward the next room, “It’s fine, that woman is just having a nightmare.” Even though Fan Jialuo and Song Rui were standing right under his nose, he couldn’t see them.

Someone from the other side gave a brief reply, calling the burly man away. Immediately after, an anxious conversation drifted over faintly, “The fertility fruits and flesh fruits are almost used up, and we can’t get in touch with Granny Tree. What are we going to do now?”

“Should I just go to her house and look for her?”

“Any living person who goes into that forest will never come out, only Granny Tree can go in.”

“Then what do we do? We can’t just stop doing business.”

“How many fruits are left?”

“There are still fifteen fertility fruits and twenty flesh fruits left.”

“Then let’s use these two first. The man is very strong, so his organs must be healthy. The woman is beautiful, and her child will fetch a good price. Let’s make a profit first.”

“I feel we should bide our time a bit longer. Losing touch with Granny Tree leaves me completely unsettled. Leave those two be for the moment. You can play with them if you want, but make sure you don’t break them.”

A few cheers were interspersed within the dialogue, making it chillingly clear what the so-called ‘play’ truly entailed.

Blood vessels webbed across Xuan Chengzi’s eyes once more, a clear sign that he was recalling those unbearable memories from the illusion.

“The illusion just now, it was you……” He looked at Fan Jialuo, his face full of anger.

Fan Jialuo tore off the red cloth from the altar, revealing Song Enci’s statue, and said without turning his head, “That wasn’t an illusion, it actually happened. It’s a memory preserved in this house. It’s the real experience of millions of people who fell into this place. What you’ve experienced is far less than one ten-thousandth of what they went through.”

As if in response to this statement, a chilling whirlwind inexplicably swept through the windowless house. It had witnessed countless hellish tragedies, far beyond what humans could imagine.

Xuan Chengzi stiffened. He had believed everything to be a mere illusion, but now, a sudden wave of absolute freezing cold violently extinguished the rage burning in his eyes.

“I’m surprised you couldn’t break free from the illusion on your own and had to be reminded by me.” Fan Jialuo looked up at the compassionate and holy statue and said slowly, “Do you think Shishu would be in such a sorry state if he encountered the same thing?”

No, impossible. Xuan Yangzi possesses a heart of iron. How could he possibly be manipulated by a paltry illusion like that?

“Guess what Shishu would do if he encountered his inner demons?” Fan Jialuo asked without turning his head.

“He…….”

Xuan Chengzi knew the answer, but couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“He will not hesitate to slay his inner demons. If he cannot, he will kill himself. He will never willingly fall into purgatory like you did.” Fan Jialuo said, enunciating each word clearly.

A visible tremor began to ripple across Xuan Chengzi’s face.

“Guess how Shishu would treat me if I did what Song Enci did?”

The trembling on Xuan Chengzi’s face ceased, only for his expression to turn utterly frozen.

“He would kill me without hesitation, and then judge himself. Because my sins are his sins, and he would personally obliterate all wrongs.”

“Guess who our Shizu chose as the sect leader between you and Shishu?”

Xuan Chengzi’s pupils suddenly contracted.

Even without turning around, Fan Jialu could guess his inner thoughts, so he nodded and said, “That’s right, the Shizu chose Shishu, but Shishu gave up voluntarily. He concealed the fact that he was a psychic, so he felt that he had shirked his responsibilities and was not worthy of being the sect leader. In his mind, you are the rightful leader of the Tianshui Sect because your sense of responsibility is paramount.”

Xuan Chengzi clutched his chest, involuntarily letting out a painful groan.

“Just imagine what he would think if he could see your behavior now. Tell me, do you still remember the words etched into the stone stele outside the entrance of the Tianshui Sect?”

Xuan Chengzi closed his eyes, unable to bear the memory.

“Let me remind you of what is carved there—— Save all living souls, protect the common people, keep order in Taoist sects, aid the nation’s destiny, promote the righteousness of heaven and earth, and uphold the Great Tao. You have cultivated the Tao for hundreds of years. Now, do you dare to look back and see what kind of Tao you have cultivated? Of every single commandment carved upon that stone, have you ever truly upheld a single one?”

These sharp accusations left Xuan Chengzi shaking to his core. He lacked the courage to look back at his past actions. If he dared to piece them all together, they would spell out only two words——pure wretchedness.

Fan Jialuo gave him no chance to escape, turning back to say, “Let me tell you exactly what you cultivate. It is the Demonic Path! You have betrayed every single shred of the will left behind by the Tianshui Sect’s ancestors!”

Xuan Chengzi suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of bewitched crimson pupils.

“All these years, when you sat in meditation before the ancestral tablets, did you ever stop to think about how they were looking down on you from the heavens? With relief? With pride? Or with utter disgust, rage, and shame?! When you die, will you even dare to face their heroic spirits? You barred Shishu from entering the Hall of Heroes, but are you yourself even fit to step foot inside?!

“You always claim that I show you no respect as my Shizun. But with a Shizun like you, how am I supposed to show any respect?!”

“Tianshui Sect’s spiritual heritage ends in your hands…… is truly nothing less than deserved.” Fan Jialuo pointed to the sky and suddenly asked, “Did you hear that?”

Routed and broken by the barrage of accusations, Xuan Chengzi could only look past the tip of the youth’s finger, completely stripped of his own volition.

Fan Jialuo slowly said, “That is the lament of Shishu, the angry rebuke of Shizu, the curses of countless heroic spirits of the Tianshui Sect, the wailing of all the heroes who sacrificed themselves in the battle to protect the dragon, and the cries of the thousands of innocent souls who died under the invading devil’s blade! That is not Song Enci’s fault, it is yours.”

Xuan Chengzi’s Dao heart shattered amidst the cries, scorn, curses, lamentations, and shouts, and his crimson eyes gradually turned into a dim and grayish color.

At that exact moment, his cultivation finally recovered, so he fiercely tore off those iron chains, walked to the altar, and smashed Song Enci’s Holy Maiden statue to pieces.

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TN:- Shizun is a highly formal, reverent term for one’s teacher.

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Chapter 285. Welcome To Purgatory (I)

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TN:- Sorry for not updating yesterday. It was hard to concentrate with headache, everything was blurred during finalizing. !! 2 Chapters !!

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While Xuan Chengzi was still caught in a dilemma, Lin Nianci slowly woke up.

“Shifu, where is this? Where is Fan Jialuo?” She looked at the scenery outside the window and touched the Dragon Curse on the back of her hand.

Xuan Chengzi stared at her coldly, offering no reply. He simply didn’t know how to face this person. If it were a matter of punishment, he should kill her, but tragically, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I’ve lost my cultivation, what about you?” He asked in a low voice.

They were now sitting in an old village bus, surrounded by other passengers, making it difficult to talk.

Lin Nianci subconsciously circulated her dantian, then shook her head, her face pale, “I have no spiritual power left either.” She looked at her arm covered with black markings and said in a trembling voice, “Is it because of the dragon’s curse?”

Xuan Chengzi was also confused, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a tearing pain in his heart when he saw those hideous black patterns. He desperately wished that Fan Jialuo’s trial was just a nightmare, but reality told him that it had all really happened.

The child he brought up with his own hands ended up becoming a villain guilty of countless sins, yet the detested vile disciple he always hated protected this land with all his heart.

Xuan Chengzi closed his eyes and finally made up his mind, “Once the bus enters the town, I will take you to turn yourself in.” He couldn’t bear to hurt her, but the country’s laws would eventually punish her.

“Shifu, which way is this bus going?” Lin Nianci effortlessly deflected the topic. It was her preferred method of interaction——evasion

Xuan Chengzi frowned, revealing a stern expression, while Lin Nianci clutched her chest and groaned weakly, “Shifu, it hurts so much.”

Xuan Chengzi’s ears stirred slightly, showing a flicker of emotion, but his eyes closed in utter helplessness

This child knew all too well how to manipulate his emotions, because she knew she was her Shifu’s only weakness. But this weakness was now rotting within him, and one day it would drag him down to hell……

How could he cut out this weakness? Xuan Chengzi fell into the most difficult and painful dilemma of his life

Lin Nianci nudged the shoulder of the passenger in front and asked softly, “Where is this bus going?”

The man was initially very unhappy, but when he turned around and saw such an extremely beautiful face, his tone immediately softened several degrees, “This bus is heading to Xiaotang Town, didn’t you know, miss? Wait, did you get on the wrong bus?”

“No, we just hopped on a random bus and decided to go.” Lin Nianci waved her hand with a smile, but she was already thinking things through.

Nothing in this world could destroy a body forged from the spiritual essence of heaven and earth alongside dragon veins fortune. Fan Jialuo surely let me go only because he was utterly powerless against me. But would he really just watch me walk away? This bus was bound for Xiaotang Town. What’s so special about Xiaotang Town?

Did Fan Jialuo set up some kind of trap there?

Even if it’s a trap, so what? This body can’t be blown up, burned, or stabbed to death. Even if its head is cut off, it can grow back completely intact. What can it do to me? Although she thought this, Lin Nianci hugged her arms tightly, feeling a chill run through her body.

In fact, death is not the most painful thing, living a life worse than death is. And Fan Jialuo was precisely the most skilled at using methods that make a life worse than death to torment a person.

Lin Nianci, who knew this all too well, was afraid. In fact, more than two hundred years ago, when Fan Jialuo first stepped into the gates of the Tianshui Sect and stood before her as a Holy Child, she was already afraid.

A mystical resonance naturally exists between psychics. The more powerful side always radiates a certain pressure, and at just five years old, Fan Jialuo had not yet learned to restrain.

Little did he know that as his small figure entered the Hall of the Three Pure Ones and looked up, Song Enci looked down only to feel that she were facing not a young child, but a towering, majestic mountain

One day, this mountain will crush me to death——Song Nianci had this thought for no apparent reason at the time, and thus a wisp of inner demon was left behind.

Memories of Fan Jialuo were always dark and terrifying. Lin Nianci clutched her chest, unable to bear thinking about it anymore.

Just then, the bus slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road. Then, the driver’s curses rang out from the front, “Goddammit, Xianghuo Village is stirring up shit again!”

“What’s going on? Are they charging tolls?” Several passengers stood up and looked around.

“Yes, hurry up and take out your money, don’t argue with them.” The driver started rummaging through his wallet.

The other passengers also took out their change.

Before Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci could figure out what was going on, a burly man forcibly pried open the bus door with an iron bar, climbed in, and said, “Ten yuan each, hurry, pay up!”

“Why is it ten yuan now? Wasn’t it five yuan last time?” Someone protested.

“Pay up or get out and walk. What are you running your mouth for?” The burly man slammed the iron bar hard against the back of the seat next to the passenger’s head.

The man immediately handed over ten yuan, and the others didn’t dare say anything more. After the passengers paid up, the driver did a quick headcount and handed over an extra sum himself. They called it an ‘operating tax,’ but honestly, how was this any different from highway robbery?

Everyone was angry but dared not speak out, except for Xuan Chengzi, who said coldly, “I have no money.”

Lin Nianci hugged her master’s arm tightly and leaned against him, looking timid.

Upon seeing her face, the burly man’s eyes lit up, but he didn’t show it on his face. He just grinned and said, “If you don’t have money, get off the bus and walk. You dare to act tough in front of LaoZi? Who do you think you are?” As he spoke, he reached out to grab her.

Although Xuan Chengzi had lost his cultivation, he was a true martial artist with much greater strength than ordinary people. He could handle not just one strong man, but even twenty more with one hand.

But a strange thing happened. When he tried to twist the strong man’s arm, the man easily subdued him, then grabbed his neck, shoved his head out of the bus window, and kicked him in the back.

Seeing her master fall headfirst out of the bus window, Lin Nianci couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

The burly man was surprisingly gentle with her. He grabbed her arm, pulled her down the aisle, and waved for the driver to continue.

The driver sped away, but the other passengers kept turning back to look, sighing, “What a pity for such a beautiful girl.”

“Once you fall into the clutches of those Xianghuo Village people, your whole life is destroyed forever.”

“They say the government is running an anti-organized crime campaign. When will they shut down Xianghuo Village for good?”

“It’s impossible to shut them down. Even a joint force of regular and military police couldn’t breach the Xianghuo village. The people there are freaky as hell, they have monstrous strength and are completely invulnerable. No matter how you shoot them, they just won’t die.”

“Is that really true?”

“I’m just repeating what I heard. Either way, I’m way too terrified to ever step foot in Xianghuo Village.”

“Me too. All the outsiders who went to Xianghuo Village have disappeared, but the police can’t even get into the village.”

The driver pointed to an asphalt road on the opposite mountain and chuckled, “Once that new road is finished, I’ll never drive on this road again.”

“Damn right, destroying this route is tantamount to destroying Xianghuo Village, let them all rot and die.”

The hatred these passengers harbored for Xianghuo Village was beyond reason, unfortunately, Lin Nianci and Xuan Chengzi, who had been left far behind, could no longer hear it.

Xuan Chengzi fell flat on his face after being thrown out of the bus window. It didn’t hurt much, but his pride was wounded, and he was quite astonished. He finally realized that this burly man’s strength far exceeded that of a normal person, it was as strong as an ox. No wonder he was involved in highway robbery, he had something to rely on.

Faced with these thoughts, Xuan Chengzi was compelled to rein in his deep-seated hubris and vanity, meeting this commoner with an attitude of utmost vigilance.

He quickly got up, pulled Lin Nianci behind him, and stared intently at the burly man’s vital points, thinking of ways to overcome his strength with skill.

But the burly man merely glanced at them with a half-smile before turning and leaving, taking large strides until he disappeared from sight in no time.

Lin Nianci hugged her master’s arm tightly and asked softly, “What do we do now?”

Seeing that the sun had already set and it would soon be dark, Xuan Chengzi pointed in the direction the bus had left and said, “Let’s walk a bit and see what happens.” Now is not the time to bring up past grievances, let’s find a safe place to stay first.

Having become a completely ordinary person, Xuan Chengzi’s mood became increasingly anxious.

Nodding deferentially, Lin Nianci doggedly shadowed her master, occasionally supporting his arm and murmuring warnings to watch his step. From her outward behavior alone, anyone would find it impossible to believe she was guilty of so many monstrous sins. How could she live with herself without feeling even a hint of remorse?

Xuan Chengzi glanced at her, his feelings extremely complicated.

Night descended rapidly, dropping the mountain temperatures below freezing. Bereft of warm clothes, the pair began to suffer an intolerable cold. They had known this icy bite once before, back when they were young and weak, but had gradually forgotten it as their cultivation progressed.

They once thought they had evolved into higher beings separate from common humans. Yet, when the dust settled, they realized that their supposed uniqueness was nothing but a grand delusion.

“Shifu, I’m so cold, so tired, and so hungry.” Having lived for over two hundred years, this was the first time Lin Nianci had experienced hunger, cold, and exhaustion.

“There are lights ahead.” Xuan Chengzi said excitedly.

The two quickened their pace toward the lights, only to find a village hidden in a mountain valley ahead, with only a few dozen scattered households, each filled with the aroma of food.

Xuan Chengzi walked towards the house closest to the road, knocked on the door, and explained his purpose.

“Come in, it’s cold outside.” The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman in her thirties.

“Thank you. May I borrow your phone to make a call? Where am I? I’ll have my friend pick me up.” Xuan Chengzi tried to speak in a gentle tone, which made him feel very uncomfortable.

“Go ahead and make the call. This is Xianghuo Village.” The woman handed over a dirty and tattered cell phone.

“Which province and city?” Xuan Chengzi continued to ask.

The woman gave him a strange look.

Xuan Chengzi asked again, and the woman reluctantly gave him the specific address. It turned out that this place was far from the capital, in a remote mountainous area in a neighboring province.

With no cell phone signal, Xuan Chengzi tried making a call from several different locations but was unable to do so.

The woman offered kindly, “You might as well stay over tonight and call in the morning. Reception is awful around here, it’s completely hit-or-miss, so you have to get lucky. Have you guys had dinner? If you haven’t, come join us for a meal.”

The woman led the two into the living room and pointed to the half-eaten dinner.

Lin Nianci gasped in surprise when she saw two extremely ugly men sitting in the room. One was quite old, presumably the woman’s husband, and the other looked young, presumably her son.

Both of their eyeballs bulged violently out of their sockets, webbed with bloodshot veins like high-pressure spheres on the verge of exploding. Their lips were thick and could not close, exposing two rows of sharp, needle-like shark teeth. The shapes of their heads were completely irregular, dented here protruding there, looking even more distorted than a figure in an abstract painting.

Both of them were curled up on the low stools, with high humps on their backs and swollen and deformed finger joints. They were awkwardly using chopsticks to scoop rice, drooling as they did so.

Upon seeing the guests arrive, they chuckled twice, and their bloodshot eyes suddenly trembled as if they were about to explode.

Such utter hideousness was completely intolerable to Lin Nianci. Even Xuan Chengzi, a man who had seen his fair share of ghouls and ghosts, found himself deeply unsettled.

The woman warmly invited them to eat at the same table, but they had no appetite and said they were too tired and wanted to rest.

The woman then led them to a clean room, brought out two quilts and two bottles of mineral water, and told them to make do for the night.

Having determined that the family only had two bedrooms, Xuan Chengzi had no choice but to give the bed to Lin Nianci and sleep on the floor himself.

Both of them were very hungry, so they drank all the mineral water. Before they could even lie down, their eyelids started to droop, and they both fainted.

When they finally came to senses, they found themselves tied to separate wooden beds barely four or five meters apart, close enough to see each other with a mere turn of their heads. Looming around them was a dense circle of dark silhouettes, every single one of them a Quasimodo-like creature with bulging eyeballs, razor-sharp teeth, warped skulls, and severely hunched backs.

The middle-aged woman standing out among the few normal men was particularly noticeable.

The woman turned on the light above their heads and said coldly, “Who wants to go first?”

“I’ll go first!” The burly man who had collected the toll earlier raised his hand.

“Hey, it’s my turn now!” Another normal man cut in defensively.

“I, I, I……. want a turn.” The middle-aged woman’s son was already drooling all over his neck.

“I want to too.” His father gave him a hard shove.

So everyone raised their hands, clamoring that they wanted to be the first one there.

Lin Nianci looked closer, only to find that every single one of these misshapen creatures was male. They all seemed severely mentally impaired, and each bore some form of physical handicap. They were either crippled, missing an ear, unable to uncurl their fingers, or half-blind.

They resembled a pack of shattered puppets that had been haphazardly glued back together, moving with an eerie, uncanny stiffness. In stark contrast, the few normal men were exceptionally towering and heavily built. Even their faces were layered with knotted, sinewy muscles, standing among the crowd like solid towers of iron.

The only woman scolded, “Stop arguing, you all draw lots first, I’ll pray to the Holy Maiden.”

She carried a dirty box onto the table, had the dozens of men line up to draw lots, and then lifted the red cloth on the altar and knelt down in devout worship.

Lin Nianci, who was struggling violently, was stunned, while Xuan Chengzi looked up and stared in astonishment at what lay ahead.

The woman was not kneeling before any named bodhisattva or deity, but rather the Holy Maiden of Zezhou, the former incarnation of Lin Nianci. Her beautiful face, flowing gauze dress, and the willow branch held delicately between the fingertips were all things Song Enci had sketched stroke by stroke with her own hands before commissioning expert craftsmen to bring them to life.

She hoped her statue would be more sacred than any bodhisattva, and she succeeded.

Right now, the woman was kneeling before her sacred statue, bowing devoutly, and the men also knelt down, shouting,  ‘Holy Maiden!’, and then eagerly drawing lots.

Xuan Chengzi was stunned when he discovered that these people were actually Song Enci’s followers.

Then, something even more unsettling happened. After the woman finished worshipping the statue, she took a black jar from the foot of the statue, took out a blue fruit that looked all too familiar, and fed it to Lin Nianci.

Lin Nian clutched her teeth together, refusing to open her mouth. One of the burly men stepped up and directly dislocated her jaw, allowing the woman to shove it inside.

Without a doubt, this is indeed the fruit of the demonic Bodhi Tree, because it melts in the mouth, leaving no room for refusal to swallow.

Lin Nianci seemed to realize something and began to struggle frantically.

Meanwhile, Xuan Chengzi thought to himself, his face deathly pale——Is this fruit a Fertility Fruit, a Longevity Fruit, a Potential Fruit, a Youth Fruit, or something else entirely?

Looking at this group of extremely excited men, the answer was self-evident……

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Chapter 284. The Source Of All Sins

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Xuan Chengzi personally raised Song Enci, and a hundred years later, he personally raised the reincarnated Lin Nianci. His understanding of them can be described as profound.

Lin Nianci’s eyes darted around, and he guessed what she was up to. Seeing her grip the sword with both hands, he immediately became furious.

His Dao heart urged him to strike out in rage, to shout, ‘you dare!’, yet his demon-corrupted self remained utterly unmoved.

He knew perfectly well how heinous and monstrous Lin Nianci’s actions were, yet he was controlled by his inner demons and unable to stop her. He couldn’t even save himself, how could he save the world? He couldn’t even cleanse himself, how could he cleanse his own sect?

The so-called guardian of the metaphysic society was nothing but a huge joke in the end. He wasn’t even as good as a six-year-old child!

Thinking of this, Xuan Chengzi’s face twisted into an extremely painful shape, and his heart was torn into two bloody halves.

The cultivators standing around also realized Lin Nianci’s plan, but because they had retreated too far, they were too late to stop her.

“You beast!”

“She should have had her head chopped off!”

“Still unrepentant at this point!”

As everyone cursed and rushed forward, they were horrified to find that Fan Jialuo, who had been standing in the formation, had now appeared silently behind Lin Nianci like a ghost, also grasping the tip of the sword that had pierced her body and pulling it out violently.

Before Lin Nianci could absorb any spiritual aura, the sharp blade slashed her palm, the sword plunged into her lower abdomen, and then emerged from behind, piercing her through.

After grasping the Sovereign Sword of the Eight Horizons, Fan Jialuo used a magnetic field to firmly envelop it, severing Lin Nianci’s connection to it. Then, with a reverse grip, he plunged the blade straight into her back. Xuan Chengzi could never bring himself to do this, but he could.

Upon seeing the sword tip emerging from Lin Nianci’s heart, Xuan Chengzi’s pupils dilated instantly, and his face became even more distorted.

Lin Nianci looked down at her blood-stained chest, then looked up at her master’s inscrutable face, and tears welled up in her eyes. She placed her hands on her master’s shoulders and cried out mournfully, “Shifu, save me!”

Xuan Chengzi instinctively reached out and hugged her.

At that moment, Fan Jialuo drew the sword, placed his hand over the wound, and used the rapidly rotating magnetic field to draw out all the blood from Lin Nianci’s body.

The rapidly gushing blood hissed like a burst high-pressure water pipe, threatening to burst at any moment and surge like a tidal wave. Lin Nianci collapsed into Xuan Chengzi’s arms, choking back tears, “Shifu, how could I not save you under those circumstances? What does the fate of the nation matter? What does the common people matter? The suffering of the people is none of my concern. You raised me, you protected me from all harm. If this world were without you, what would be the point of my life? No matter what, I had to save you. Even if it meant severing the dragon veins and cutting off the nation’s fate, I would still save you. I don’t care if this world is completely destroyed, I just want you with me.”

She raised her head, revealing a pair of clear yet stubborn eyes.

Indeed, she was just that self-serving. She was just that stupid and superficial. She didn’t want the greater good of the nation or the country’s rise. She only wanted to hide beneath her master’s protective wings for eternity, living as an innocent, carefree child

After wandering for over a hundred years, experiencing the vicissitudes of life and the coldness of human relationships, she finally understood that only by staying by her master’s side could she find true happiness. Nothing in the world could compare to the preciousness of the person before her.

Gazing unblinkingly into that pair of eyes, so obsessed and crazed, yet utterly clear and pure. Xuan Chengzi’s tears finally spilled over. He truly did not know what he was supposed to do with this child.

However, as Lin Nianci nestled in her master’s arms, speaking tenderly, her hands slowly rose, rapidly drawing life force from everyone around her to replenish her own constantly losing blood.

Dragon qi is not so easy to digest, especially dragon qi carrying overwhelming hatred. Over the years, Lin Nianci has never dared to touch this power, because even the slightest touch would cause her excruciating pain. Unable to endure such suffering, she set her sights on the national treasure.

But Fan Jialuo and his friends always managed to push her to the brink, once, twice, three times, four times, making her more and more miserable each time.

Fan Jialuo draws her blood, and in return, she ruthlessly plunders the life force of others, waiting to see who will stop first. She can drag the whole world down with her. Can Fan Jialuo do that?

As it turned out, Fan Jialuo couldn’t do it. Seeing the cultivators collapse to their knees one after another, gasping in agony, their faces rapidly aging and withering, he ultimately stopped draining the blood. Yet, in the next instant, he struck Lin Nianci squarely on the crown of her head with his palm, knocking her unconscious.

After Lin Nianci lost consciousness, the cultivators kneeling on the ground felt as if they had come back to life. The feeling of life force pouring out like a torrent was truly terrifying.

“Xuan Chengzi, what on earth were you doing just now? Why didn’t you kill Song Enci!” Without even waiting to catch their breath, someone instantly hurled a furious accusation.

“What exactly is your relationship with this witch? Something seems very wrong between you two!”

“You cannot distinguish right from wrong, nor can you discern good from evil. What qualifications do you have to be the leader of the metaphysic society?”

“Not only is Song Enci a sinner for all eternity, but you are the prime culprit! You and your disciple are two peas in a pod! As the saying goes, ‘if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams will follow.’ The vile things Song Enci did were all because of your teachings!”

“Xuan Chengzi, you deserve to die too!”

“Traitor to the nation!”

“Beast!”

The sharp rebukes and tirade finally broke Xuan Chengzi’s mental demons, making him realize how inappropriate and disappointing his actions had been. He slowly and stiffly turned to look at the disciples of the Tianshui Sect, only to find them all wearing expressions of shame and indignation.

He turned to look at Abbot Changjing, only to see the other man with his hands clasped together, his eyelids lowered, avoiding his gaze.

When he looked at the person in his arms again, the complex emotions that had been building up in his eyes suddenly boiled over like magma.

He felt as if he had reached a dead end, with nowhere to go, no way forward or backward, and no way out in any direction. He couldn’t understand how he, who once had a pure and clear mind, had gradually slid into this abyss.

Before he could react, Fan Jialuo struck him with a palm, knocking him unconscious.

“Kill them!” Someone immediately shouted from the side.

Yet Fan Jialuo paid them no mind. He simply withdrew a pair of glowing blue fruits from his spiritual form and placed them gently into their mouths.

“Cause and effect?” Abbot Changjing exclaimed in shock.

“It’s not about cause and effect, it’s a fruit that, once eaten, will cause you to lose your cultivation and spiritual power, temporarily turning you into an ordinary person.” Fan Jialuo explained simply.

“What do you want to do? Aren’t you going to kill them?” Abbot Changjing breathed a sigh of relief but continued to press for answers.

“For those who are unrepentant, being killed is the quickest way out. I won’t kill them, I want them to experience the consequences of their actions.” Fan Jialuo clapped his hands slightly, and the basement door opened. A group of heavily armed soldiers walked in and carried Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci away.

Letting the blood that coated his hands drip into a porcelain vial, Fan Jialuo tossed it to a cultivator and commanded, “Take a single drop each. It will help you quickly replenish your lost vitality.”

“Hmm?” The cultivator was full of surprise and doubt, but still used a drop. His ashen face was instantly tinged with a healthy blush.

Seeing him instantly burst with renewed vitality, the rest of the crowd scrambled to gather around. They fought to consume Lin Nianci’s blood, their faces showing no outward change, yet their minds were churning with tempestuous waves. As expected of the blood of a demigod who had plundered so much of the nation’s fortune, just a single drop was comparable to ten-thousand-year spiritual essence! This stuff was far more potent than any heavenly treasure!

If Song Enci’s blood is already so precious, what about Fan Jialuo’s blood?

Thinking of this, some people secretly cast greedy glances at Fan Jialuo.

Fan Jialuo walked toward the door with his back to everyone, his voice, which seemed to be both smiling and not smiling, slowly drifting over, “The blood of the nine sect leaders flows in my veins. If you want to be plagued by inner demons and have your cultivation regress, you are welcome to try.”

The crowd’s expressions stiffened slightly before they suppressed their evil thoughts.

The place where the dragon vein and Fan Jialuo’s soul had been suppressed was a nether abyss, saturated with the malicious, baleful nether qi of hell itself. For Fan Jialuo to crawl out of such a horrific place while maintaining absolute clarity and reason, how could he possibly be someone easy to deal with?

Simply put, he was a creature of pure malice, whoever touches him will die.

On the contrary, Lin Nianci is a treasure trove, possessing both dragon qi and national fortune, a jade pendant capable of reviving the dead and restoring flesh to bones, and blood comparable to spiritual essence. If only they could capture her……

Realizing this, everyone scrambled out of the empty basement, pretending to have urgent matters to handle. Only Abbot Changjing remained. He sat alone, tapping his wooden fish and reciting the sutra for the dead.

Hearing the hurried and chaotic footsteps, he sighed softly. ——

As soon as Fan Jialuo stepped out of the basement, he saw Dr. Song, who had been waiting for him.

“Wash your hands.” He naturally handed over a bottle of water.

Fan Jialuo returned the sword to Chief Yan, who was waiting anxiously, and then washed his hands with water.

Chief Yan asked in astonishment, “What on earth did you do to ruin this sword?” The sacred blade that once gleamed with a freezing brilliance was now buried under a layer of gore, making it impossible to see its original shape.

“Give us the sword, let us take a look!” Elder Liang and Elder Lu quickly gathered around, wiping the sword clean with a fine cloth and professional cleaning tools, and then examining it inch by inch with a magnifying glass, for fear of any damage.

Fan Jialuo dried his hands with a soft cloth and chuckled, “Don’t worry, this blood is the best preservative, it can restore this sword to its perfect condition.”

“Hold on, something’s wrong. Is this divine sword genuine or a counterfeit?” Noticing a hidden detail, Elder Liang asked in a state of startled disbelief.

Elder Lu pointed to a spot on the blade, his tone astonished, “I remember when this sword was exhibited in the new country. Their researchers secretly scraped a bit of metal from the edge for testing, which left a tiny notch. Why is that notch gone now?”

Elder Lu still vividly remembers the shameless actions of the new country, so he certainly won’t overlook this small opening.

“The gap has healed itself.” Fan Jialuo strode toward a military vehicle.

“Can a metal gap really heal itself?” Elder Liang and Elder Lu found it hard to believe, yet they had no choice but to accept it.

The metal composition of this sword remains a mystery even with advanced technology, and its forging techniques have been lost. While replicating its shape is relatively simple, imitating its sharpness and crackled texture is far too difficult. Experts can immediately determine its authenticity with just a few glances under a magnifying glass.

“How is it? Is there anything wrong with this sword?” Chief Yan asked cautiously.

“There were problems when I lent it to Teacher Fan, but now there are no problems at all. Look, the blade is even sharper than before.” Elder Liang pinched a strand of hair and brought it close to the blade. With just a light touch, the hair broke in two. Its sharpness was simply unbelievable.

Chief Yan laughed heartily twice, and was immediately completely relieved.

“I knew it! Teacher Fan is always very reliable.” He then strode towards the military vehicle.

With Song Rui’s help, Fan Jialuo climbed onto the back of the military truck. He first checked on the unconscious Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci, then looked at a certain spot and asked, “How did you end up like this?”

Song Rui was stunned for a moment before realizing that the question wasn’t directed at him, but at something behind him.

“Who?” He turned around and glanced back, his expression calm.

“Bai Mu.” Fan Jialuo shook his head, “He’s dead.”

Although Song Rui was surprised, he didn’t ask any more questions.

Gazing silently at Bai Mu’s soul for the longest time, Fan Jialuo ultimately shook his head, letting out a heavy sigh.

This person died so tragically that he gave up his other nine chances to be reincarnated, turning into a resentful spirit that lingered near the old residence. He happened to bump into Lin Nianci and then followed her.

His soul was a mass of black mist far more sinister than bad karma. A mere brush against it would cause an ordinary person to meet a violent, untimely end. He was a creature of ultimate misfortune. Unable to speak, he bent his waist and bowed deeply, silently conveying his apology, before pointing at Lin Nianci on the ground.

Seeing that he had no hostility toward him and only wanted to stay by Lin Nianci’s side, Fan Jialuo ignored him.

“Where are you planning to send them?” Song Rui asked in a low voice.

“Send them to the place where all evil begins.”

Song Rui asked again, “What did you say to those cultivators in the basement? I saw that they seemed to hate the Tianshui Sect people. They almost started fighting when they came out the door. The Tianshui Sect people kept backing down and didn’t dare to fight back. Even the arrogant Taoist Zhi Fei hid in the crowd. This is not the style of the Tianshui Sect.”

“I was just telling the truth about what happened back then.”

“I also want to know what you went through back then.” Song Rui grasped Fan Jialuo’s hand.

“After coming back, I will let you look directly into my memories,” Fan Jialuo said, tapping the space between his brows. He was opening his heart to this person without holding back a single thing.

Song Rui’s tense face finally relaxed, and he nodded with a smile.

Clambering up into the back of the truck, Chief Yan and Meng Zhong spoke with pure schadenfreude, “Is the Tianshui Sect about to collapse? I saw people from several other sects cursing them. Taoist Zhi Fei previously caught me urging me to help them rebuild the Tianshui Temples, but this time when he saw me, he actually turned away and hid.”

“How long the Tianshui Sect can hold out depends entirely on the choice my Shifu makes.” Fan Jialuo lowered his eyes to look at the unconscious Xuan Chengzi, shaking his head and sighing. Pushing the sect to this point was not his intention——

A day and a night later, the military vehicle stopped by a bumpy mountain road, and a dilapidated bus drove up and took away the unconscious Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci.

Half an hour later, Xuan Chengzi woke up and found that he was holding Lin Nianci in his arms. The two of them had changed into clean clothes, as if they were going on a trip.

Having plundered so much of the nation’s fortune and spiritual aura, Lin Nianci’s new body was practically immortal. In just a few hours, the wounds on her body had completely disappeared.

Seeing this, Xuan Chengzi’s heart was torn apart once again. Reason and emotion stood at opposite ends of the spectrum, beckoning to him, but his heart was in turmoil, and he had no idea how to choose.

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Chapter 283. Unveiling The Truth (VII)

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As Xuan Chengzi was lost in this memory, the magnetic field emanating from the jade pendant also pulled everyone else into it.

In the flickering light and shadow of memory, Xuan Yangzi, whose heart had been pierced, gently patted the back of Fan Jialuo’s hand, which was still gripping the hilt of the knife, his eyes so tender and his smile so gratified.

Yes, he was gratified and proud that his own death had forged such a strong, fearless, morally upright, and courageous child. He knew that through this experience, the child would shed the last trace of weakness in his heart and become an invincible guardian.

Xuan Yangzi closed his eyes tightly, but there was no resentment on his face, nor any lingering regret in his heart.

This memory came to an end, leaving everyone in a daze and shocked, standing there dumbfounded, trying to process all the earth-shattering information.

Only Xuan Chengzi suddenly knelt down and wept bitterly. He had hated Fan Jialuo for over two hundred years, but only now did he realize that he was the source of all the tragedy.

He had willfully violated the sect rules, triggering that jade pendant. Bound by the Iron Law of Karma, its influence spread throughout the mortal realm, indirectly causing the deaths of his Shidi and Fan Jialuo. The people who never should have died were all gone. How did he still have the face to remain alive?

The disciples of the Tianshui Sect all gathered around him, weeping. So this was the truth of what happened back then, the so-called slaughter of fellow disciples was actually for the purpose of protecting others. How much willpower and unwavering determination must one possess to bear such a heavy burden and persevere until now?

One by one, the disciples of the Tianshui Sect knelt down, their faces filled with shame.

Suddenly, a top cultivator of the Taoist alliance shouted, “Something is wrong! Since we protected the dragon veins, why did the massacre of the city in the vision still happen? The dragon veins were never severed, and our nation’s destiny remains intact, this catastrophe should have been avoided entirely!”

“Yes, didn’t Xuan Yangzi Qianbei also secretly preserve a small dragon vein? That means we still have eight dragon veins, so a massacre is absolutely impossible!”

More and more people sensed something was amiss, but Abbot Changjing closed his eyes, letting out a long sigh as two lines of tears of extreme grief streamed down his face, “Have you all forgotten? Benefactor Fan has already said that Song Enci has slain the dragon veins.”

What had previously sounded utterly absurd now resounded like a thunderclap in everyone’s ears, leaving them dizzy and unsteady on their feet.

Unable to extricate himself from grief, Xuan Chengzi suddenly fell silent, his eyes flashing as he looked at the culprit.

Lin Nianci, still struggling with her body covered in bandages, froze again, her clear, watery eyes darkening with anxiety.

“Yes, those seven dragon veins died long ago. What remains now are just seven wisps of dragon qi.” Fan Jialuo’s fingertips drooped slightly, illuminating the eyes of the black dragon beneath him. He said in a deep voice, “Everyone who has killed a dragon vein will be cursed by the raging dragon’s resentment. If a living dragon vein encounters such a person, it will naturally let out a furious dragon roar.”

“Shifu, this time, listen carefully.” Fan Jialuo released his hand that was suppressing the dragon vein, and the black dragon opened its mouth and let out a deafening roar.

The dragon’s roar, filled with anger and resentment, pierced everyone’s eardrums and caused unimaginable damage to Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci. Blood seeped from their skin, and then black lines appeared.

After the dragon’s roar subsided, everyone was horrified to discover that the black lines had actually crawled all over Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci’s bodies, vaguely forming several black bone dragons that appeared on their faces, necks, backs of hands, and other places that could not be covered by their clothes.

The dragons that died unjustly did not vanish into the world, instead, they transformed into a lingering affliction, deeply embedded in the souls of the two people, casting a curse upon them for eternity. Hearing the hateful howls of their kind, they emerged and echoed the cries.

Taoist Zhi Fei originally wanted to help Xuan Chengzi up, but when he saw the black dragon bone claw on the back of Xuan Chengzi’s hand, he was so frightened that he took several steps back.

Lin Nianci’s newly grown skin was covered with bone dragons, and upon careful counting, there were as many as five.

Xuan Chengzi stared at her with bloodshot eyes. After taking off his robe, he saw two black bone dragons coiled on his chest. A sharp dragon claw pressed down on his left chest, as if trying to rip out his heart. A vast and boundless hatred surged wildly around him.

Such is the wrath of the dragon. For as long as the cosmos remains, this hatred shall never fade. It will be etched into the very fabric of his soul across every reincarnation, subjecting him to a boundless cycle of agony

The curse of being a cursed lone star for ten lifetimes is nothing compared to the curse inflicted by the vengeance of a dragon. Even a great ruler who establishes a great empire can perish in the endless desert after severing the dragon vein, let alone a cultivator who never even reached the pinnacle of the Great Dao!

Xuan Chengzi stared at his chest, his breathing stopped, and he seemed to be dead.

“Shifu.” Lin Nianci called out hesitantly, but he couldn’t hear her at all.

Everyone distanced themselves from Xuan Chengzi and Lin Nianci, including the incredibly magnanimous Abbot Changjing. How dare these two sever the dragon vein and ruin the nation’s destiny!

“Did you see clearly, Shifu?” Fan Jialuo lowered his fingertip and touched the brow of the black dragon that was on the verge of madness, calming it down.

“How do you think Song Enci saved you from the brink of death back then? How do you think she was able to be reborn as an infant and escape from the near-death situation caused by karmic backlash? What do you think is the reason that you are plagued by inner demons and your mind has changed so drastically?”

With each word Fan Jialuo uttered, Xuan Chengzi’s face twitched. After all, he was a no.1 cultivator in metaphysic society, how could he not understand the hidden meaning behind it?

He was so afraid that he dared not answer that he almost ground his teeth to powder.

But someone in the room insisted on revealing the whole truth, and that person wasn’t Fan Jialuo, but rather the most silent Abbot Changjing. Even someone as tolerant as him could no longer tolerate Song Enci’s actions.

“Back then, we fought a great battle against the invaders and won a pyrrhic victory. The lives of many cultivators were sacrificed in the dragon’s lair to save the seven dragon veins from barely surviving. Xuan Chengzi, Song Enci, and I were the only three survivors.”

“Song Enci was hiding on the outer perimeter. She was the least injured and could still move freely, but Xuan
Chengzi and I couldn’t even stand up. I estimated that Xuan Chengzi’s heart had been pierced and he should not survive, while all my meridians were severed and I eventually fell into a coma.”

“When I woke up again, the news I received was that Xuan Chengzi was alive, Song Enci was missing, and she had left a newborn baby near the battlefield, which was taken back and adopted by the Tianshui Sect. I was surprised for a moment, thinking that Xuan Chengzi had accumulated virtue and was protected by Buddha, and had truly survived a great calamity. Thinking back on it now, that was never some accumulation of virtue or the protection of the Buddha. It was actually Song Enci slaughtering the dragon veins, turning the nation’s destiny into her own power to save Xuan Chengzi’s life. Knowing she was already doomed to die from the backlash of her bad karma, she used five dragon veins as a sacrifice to cultivate a doppelgänger.”

“The secret technique of the doppelgänger, I’m sure everyone here has heard of it?” Abbot Changjing looked around at everyone.

One sect leader pondered, “Borrowing the power of heaven and earth allows one to cultivate a doppelgänger. This power naturally includes the dragon veins nurtured by nature. After cultivating a doppelgänger, even if the first body dies, all karma can be severed, allowing one to start anew. The so-called backlash from bad karma will no longer exist. Song Enci is truly cunning, using the entire world as her sacrifice! Fortunately, Xuan Yangzi Qianbei had the foresight to secretly hide a dragon vein, otherwise wouldn’t we all have become slaves of a conquered nation?”

Abbot Changjing slammed his staff on the ground and said sternly, “That’s exactly right! For their own selfish desires, they severed the dragon vein, cut off the nation’s destiny, and plunged the people into misery. In all my years, I have never seen such a heinous villain! Tianshui Sect, are you not going to clean the sect? If you don’t take action, I’m willing to do it for you!”

Lin Nianci was jolted awake by the metallic clang of the monk’s staff and began frantically tearing at the bandages covering her body. She sensed that what she was doing was pushing her master beyond his limits.

Amidst the angry shouts, Chang Sheng and Chang Zhen were the first to raise their swords, pointing them at Lin Nianci, followed by Taoist Zhi Fei and his disciples. Lin Nian’en, who had been hiding in a corner trying to escape reality, wiped away his tears and snot, grabbed his coin sword, and strode over.

Abbot Changjing looked at no one but Xuan Chengzi.

The other cultivators also stared intently at Xuan Chengzi.

They were waiting for his response. If he continued to protect this demoness, the entire metaphysic society would ostracize the Tianshui Sect.

Looking back now, Chief Yan was truly a wise and discerning person. Before Song Enci could cause any bigger trouble, he had all the Tianshui Temples across the country demolished.

Back then, metaphysic society thought the government’s actions were uncalled for. Looking back today, they wanted nothing more than to applaud and shout in approval.

Xuan Chengzi raised his crimson eyes and stared straight at Lin Nianci, whose body was covered in black curse marks. Then he raised the sword in his hand and slowly released a wisp of purple lightning.

Just a second before he could make a move, Fan Jialuo said, “Wait. If Shifu wants to clean the sect, he might as well change his weapon.” He stroked the long wooden box on his lap with great care, his voice low and slow, “Like the black dragon, it is also waiting very anxiously.”

Xuan Chengzi looked at the wooden box, his facial expression stiff, but his eyes trembled slightly. With each word Fan Jialuo spoke, his heart skipped a beat, he was truly terrified.

Fan Jialuo opened the wooden box and carefully took out a sword that gleamed with a cold, eerie blue light.

The members of Taoist alliance were so frightened by the soaring killing intent released by the sword that they took several steps back, and then shouted in unison, “Sovereign Sword of the Eight Horizons!”

Xuan Chengzi’s lifeless eyes involuntarily revealed a look of horror. He never expected that Fan Jialuo’s connections were so extensive that he could even use the nation’s most precious treasure at will.

Fan Jialuo ran his fingers along the sharp blade and nodded, saying, “That’s right, the Sovereign Sword of the Eight Horizons. Shifu, guess why I was able to lend it out? Because apart from this single sword, every other heirloom treasure of our nation had been secretly replaced with counterfeits by Song Enci. She drained all their spiritual aura to pave her own path to godhood. I said I wanted to borrow this sword to punish the culprit, how could the higher-ups refuse?”

This statement carries the weight of a nuclear bomb, once dropped, it instantly kills everyone’s brain cells.

After a very long time, Xuan Chengzi finally asked in a trembling voice, “What do you mean by that?”

“I said, after Song Enci tasted the sweetness of plundering the nation’s fortune by severing the dragon vein, she set her sights on these treasures. She spent nine years meticulously planning to replace all these national treasures with counterfeits, while the genuine ones were drained of their spiritual aura and turned to dust. This sword, because it is irreplaceable, was fortunate enough to be preserved. Listen, this is its lament.”

Fan Jialuo dripped his blood onto the blade, and everyone, through his magnetic field, heard a sharp, piercing shriek. This shriek even caused Abbot Changjing’s staff to howl along with it——so angry, so sorrowful, so frenzied. No one could mistake the overwhelming hatred contained within that shriek.

Lin Nianci’s eardrums were punctured by the long ringing, and two streams of blood flowed out.

The lightning that Xuan Chengzi released from the tip of his sword almost flowed back through his meridians, shattering his dantian. These increasingly horrifying pieces of news were gradually destroying his Dao heart.

Abbot Changjing was stunned for a long while before shouting angrily, “Abomination! How dare you desecrate our ancestral treasures! You heartless monster, do you not realize those artifacts are our very roots?! This land didn’t just birth a nation, it birthed a continuous civilization, a supreme existence far above any political state. We are the scions of the Dragon! We are the bloodline of Yan and Huang! That shared civilization runs through our veins, and it is the ultimate anchor of who we are!!”

“The script left by our ancestors thousands of years ago can still be deciphered by future generations today because our civilization has been passed down from generation to generation and has always been protected. We will also pass on this civilization to future generations, so that they can be proud of this glorious land and our great nation.”

“But what have you done! You traitor! You sinner for all time! You severed the most important blood vessel flowing through each of our bodies!”

Abbot Changjing’s roar gradually grew hoarse, turning into a mournful sob. He had never imagined that a person’s evil could reach such a level.

Killing fellow disciples, seizing sacred treasures, sacrificing the living, committing evil deeds, severing the dragon vein, seizing the nation’s destiny, and cutting off the lineage——Song Enci’s crimes were simply unforgivable!

“Kill her!” Someone shouted in extreme anger.

Immediately afterwards, more voices began to shout frantically, “Kill her!”

“Obliterate her body and spirit!”

“No, that’s not enough! We must also trap her in the Ninefold Blood Fiend Soul Devouring Array, to suffer the torment of being burned by hell fire for countless millennia!”

“And furthermore, bring her corpse back to the Taoist alliance to be publicly whipped!”

“Kill her!”

Flames of fury blazed in everyone’s eyes. Though those present each harbored their own selfish motives, they were all descendants of Yan and Huang, the bloodline of the Dragon. How could they tolerate Song Enci’s treasonous atrocities against her own country and race? To brand her ‘the shame of the nation’ was an understatement, she was simply unfit to be called human.

“Shifu, didn’t you come here today to clean the sect?” Fan Jialuo’s clear voice, amidst the hoarse shouts, was the most unmistakable.

Taoist Zhi Fei looked at Xuan Chengzi, whose face was stiff and cold, and asked, “Shifu, what are you waiting for?”

Xuan Chengzi’s sword suddenly fell from his hand.

At the opportune moment, Fan Jialuo threw the Sovereign Sword of the Eight Horizons.

Xuan Chengzi dared not allow the national treasure to be damaged, and quickly caught it steadily. However, he was tormented by his inner demons and hesitated. Everything in this world is governed by cause and effect. Since Song Enci saved him, his inner demon is bound to be tied to her. Slaying her means slaying his own inner demon—and how could that ever be easy?

But the Sovereign Sword of the Eight Horizons possessed its own will, forcefully dragging his arm and stabbing straight at Lin Nianci.

Just then, Lin Nianci unwrapped all the bandages and prepared to escape, but her legs were struck by a nine-section whip from a cultivator, causing her to kneel down.

A sword gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light was aimed at her heart, but at the last second, the demon-possessed Xuan Chengzi twisted its direction, piercing her lower abdomen and avoiding all vital organs.

Lin Nianci raised her head, gasping for breath in pain, yet still managed a happy smile. She knew that no matter how many wrongdoings she had committed, her Shifu would always choose to forgive her. Even now, he still couldn’t bring himself to use excessive force.

Xuan Chengzi met her eyes, overflowing with happiness, and his expression slowly twisted into a mixture of anger and pity. His lucid self roared to kill this wicked disciple, while his demonic self secretly pleaded—— Take her away, give her a way to live.

He hesitated to thrust the sword in, yet dared not pull it out either, and so they remained locked in a stalemate.

Lin Nianci raised her hand, gripped the sword, and tried to drain the spiritual aura of this national treasure.

Having gained this immense fortune, powerful enough to stabilize a whole nation, all her wounds would heal in the blink of an eye.

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Chapter 282. Unveiling The Truth (VI)

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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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Chapter 281. Unveiling The Truth (V)

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TN:- 3 Chapters!!!     

!!! WARNING !!! This chapter contains cruelty toward kids and cannibalism. Readers discretion is advisable.

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Blood-red tears bled from Duan Xiaoyun’s eyes. Complemented by her savage expression, she looked like nothing less than an Asura in the flesh

In an incredibly calm tone, she slowly recounted her story, “Bodhi and I were both enlightened by the Holy Maiden, and gradually acquired spiritual powers. We could communicate silently with each other, sharing joys and sorrows, and dispelling loneliness and grief. When there was a drought, the Bodhi would ask me for water. When there was a flood, the Bodhi would issue a warning, allowing me to take my husband and son to the mountains in advance. We guarded the Holy Maiden’s temple and spent year after year together. We weren’t family, but we were closer than family.”

“One year, famine struck, and everyone in the village packed their bags and fled. But I couldn’t bear to leave Bodhi and stubbornly stayed behind. When I was starving, I hugged the trunk and murmured, ‘if only you could bear fruit for us to eat.’”

“It understood just from that one sentence, and then it swayed its branches and leaves, making a rustling sound, as if responding to me.”

At this point, a faint smile of happiness appeared on Duan Xiaoyun’s face, which was covered in blood and tears, “I fainted from hunger while holding my son. When my husband shook me awake, what I saw was three apples growing on the tree. Can you imagine? A Bodhi tree actually borne apples. Such a scene was simply a miracle in the era of famine.”

“Our family of three was overjoyed, but instead of picking the apples right away, we knelt down in front of the statue of the Holy Maiden and kowtowed three times to her.”

“I kowtowed until my forehead bled, and I was truly grateful to you.” Duan Xiaoyun suddenly leaned close to Lin Nianci’s face and said in an almost frantic tone, “How could I have known that this absurd wish would not open the gates of heaven, but rather pave the way to hell? Because human desires are endless! Once we eat an apple, we want to eat meat. So I stood under the tree and said to Bodhi——Son, Mother wants to eat meat.”

“Bodhi understood, and the next morning, many fleshy fruits appeared. Do you know what fleshy fruits are? They look like a fruit on the outside, but when you crack open the hard shell, it’s all flesh inside! The three of us threw the fruits into the fire and had a delicious roasted meat meal.”

Upon hearing this, while others remained silent, Abbot Changjing lowered his head and murmured a Buddhist prayer with a mixture of helplessness and sorrow. How could a tree possibly produce a fleshy fruit? Every cause has its effect, the origin of that fleshy fruit is likely far from simple!

Sure enough, Duan Xiaoyun chuckled for a while, then her expression turned cold, and she said sadly, “But later I discovered that those fleshy fruits were actually transformed from birds that landed on the Bodhi tree. In order to feed me, the Bodhi tree actually committed murder. It was originally a sacred tree, with the potential to ascend and become a Buddha, but because of my desire, it stepped into the abyss. But at the time, I didn’t realize that the abyss was so close to us.”

“I thought, what’s wrong with a few birds? If they die, they die, it doesn’t matter. So I continued to ask Bodhi for meat, and Bodhi asked me for water. It gave me fruit, and I watered it, which was only right. But the problem was, there had been a severe drought for a year, and everyone in the village had left because of famine. The wells had dried up, so where was I supposed to find water?”

At this point, Duan Xiaoyun touched the blood on her cheek with her fingertip and laughed like a malevolent ghost, “Holy Maiden, guess what? We came up with an even better way. The three of us started taking turns watering that Bodhi tree with our blood. We pushed it, which was originally sacred, step by step, into the depth of the abyss. It started to get used to the taste of blood and refused to drink water. We could only keep cutting our wrists and bleeding it out.”

“The constant bleeding was unbearable. Fortunately, there was a famine at the time, and refugees often passed through the village. The three of us decided to target them. After all, they were all refugees who had fled from elsewhere. Even if they died, who would know?”

Upon hearing this, everyone had an expression of sudden realization.

So this is how the Bodhi tree, which could have become a god or a sage, degenerated into a demon requiring offerings of human blood, flesh, and souls. To be truly lost is to struggle endlessly in the sea of desire, drifting further and further from the shore, for the ocean of desire is inherently boundless……

“But desire is endless!” Duan Xiaoyun sighed, her tears of blood dried and turned into mottled stains.

“With fruit and meat, our family of three survived the three-year drought peacefully. Suddenly one day, my husband said to me, ‘wife, do you think that sacred tree can bear fruit that prolongs life?‘ He hadn’t mentioned it before, and I had never thought about it, but once he brought it up, the idea took root in my mind. So one day, I said to it, ‘son, can you bear fruit that will prolong my life?‘ It rustled its leaves as if it had agreed.”

“My husband and I were overjoyed. That very night, we cut our wrists and let it bleed three bowls of blood. The famine was over, and the refugees had disappeared. We could no longer kill people as recklessly as before. It was so utterly starved that as it drank the blood, it actually thrust its roots out from beneath the earth, sweeping the blood-drenched soil toward itself like a broom. It could actually move on its own now!”

“This discovery did not alarm me at all, on the contrary, it made me overjoyed. I thought it was because of its improved cultivation, so the next day, my husband and I happily went to its tree to wait for the longevity fruit, and we did find two dark blue fruits that emitted a strange fragrance.”

As she recalled this part, Duan Xiaoyun covered her mouth and made a nauseating sound, “We picked the fruit and ate it eagerly, only to realize after we finished that there were only two fruits today, not three. How could Bodhi forget its XiongDi? In the past, whenever it had something good, it would prepare at least three portions. It would never forget my son.”

“After eating the fruit, my husband and I indeed became younger and stronger. Only then did we begin to look for our son, searching around the house, up and down the mountain, for a whole day and night. However, after searching everywhere, our son was nowhere to be found.”

Duan Xiaoyun suddenly stared straight at Lin Nianci, chuckled like a lunatic, flashing two rows of bone-white teeth, “And then guess what? Three days later, when we were feeding Bodhi, its roots burrowed out of the soil to feast on blood, and brought out my son’s longevity lock with them.”

“I was struck dumb, frozen on the spot, and then I started frantically digging at its roots, pulling out my son’s body. He was covered in roots, every drop of blood in his body had been drained, and his mouth was still open, as if he was calling for his mother. I cried until I was almost blind, but my son would never come back. I was so angry, I picked up an axe to chop down the tree, but my husband wouldn’t let me. He said it was a money tree and couldn’t be cut down. He said that even if my son died, I could have another one, so why was I crying?”

“He could have many sons, but for me, my Xiaobao was my lifeline! I want my Xiaobao, I don’t want any money tree!” Duan Xiaoyun’s eyes began to shed tears of blood again, and her sobs were as annoying as needles.

Abbot Changjing had long anticipated this outcome, and couldn’t help but silently recite a passage from the Sutra of Salvation for the Dead. The so-called longevity fruit, in the end, was nothing more than exchanging life for life. There is no tree without roots in this world, so how can there be a fruit without a cause?

Xuan Chengzi closed his crimson eyes, unable to bear the sight.

Lin Nianci was stunned, her still-developing features contorted in shock and helplessness. She truly never imagined that her casual action back then would lead to such a tragedy.

But Duan Xiaoyun’s story was far from over. She gave a bitter laugh and continued, “I cried, I made a scene, I went crazy, but in the end I couldn’t resist my husband’s greed and didn’t cut down the Bodhi tree. Later, I consulted several eminent monks and learned that there is no such thing as a longevity fruit in the world. There is only life for life, blood for blood. If my husband and I want to live forever, we must exchange the lives of our blood kins. This is the constant way of heaven and cannot be changed.”

Fan Jialuo closed his eyes, knowing that the deepest abyss, the darkest darkness, was reaching out to Duan Xiaoyun at this very moment.

Duan Xiaoyun’s tone was indeed filled with deep regret as she choked up, saying, “If only we could have stopped back then! But some things, once done once, become especially easy the second and third time. Less than half a month after Xiaobao died, my husband said to me that if we could keep taking the longevity fruit, wouldn’t we, as husband and wife, live as long as heaven? I strongly resisted this idea, but he pushed me into the room without saying a word, wanting to have a second child with me immediately. I knew he couldn’t wait any longer.”

“So we had our second child, and right after the umbilical cord was cut, we gave him to Bodhi in exchange for two fruits, then came the third child. You know, once the floodgates of desire are opened, it’s like a dam bursting. My husband started to complain that my childbirth was taking too long, and he paid someone outside to help him have a child. That was his blood kin, and the fruit could only be consumed by him, it was useless to me. He became younger and younger, and when we stood together, we looked like two different generations.”

“My heart slowly grew cold, then slowly hardened. Later, he complained that other women were still too slow at giving birth, so he asked me to ask Bodhi if it was possible to grow a fruit that would allow one to give birth immediately after eating it. Bodhi told me through telepathy that it was possible, but only if it had to absorb the flesh and blood of another infant. A fertility fruit would inevitably require the life of a child to be exchanged.”

Upon hearing this, Fan Jialuo nodded slightly, understanding the secret behind Su Fengxi’s having given birth to over a hundred children in just a few months. It turned out to be the Fertility Fruit.

“I initially refused, but my husband readily agreed. He found an infant somewhere, smashed it to death beneath the Bodhi tree. The next day, a fertility fruit grew. He offered it to me, but the moment I picked it up, I vomited violently. When I saw my husband’s furious face, he suddenly seemed like a complete stranger. In my dazed state, I had this question, are we, husband and wife, now human or monsters?”

“My husband ran away with the fruit, and the next day he brought back an infant, smashed it and offered it to Bodhi, in exchange for a longevity fruit. A few days later, he bought an infant from outside, smashed it and exchanged it for a fertility fruit, and the next day he brought back another infant, in exchange for a longevity fruit. In this way, he kept exchanging and killing, and the soil under the tree began to smell foul, which was the fermentation of the bones of countless babies.”

“I watched coldly as he grew madder and more cold-blooded each day, so when he was away from home, I asked Bodhi, ‘if I offer you my husband, what kind of fruit can I exchange for?’ It told me telepathically that I could exchange him for a Youth Fruit, which would keep me young for three years. So I said, ‘let’s exchange.’”

At this point, Duan Xiaoyun smiled, her eyes narrowing, “So, when my husband returned cradling yet another infant, preparing to smash it to death beneath the tree, the roots pierced straight through his body. He was transformed into a Youth Fruit. I gave the child to a kind person to adopt, crushed the fruit, and prepared to burn myself and Bodhi together. But then the war broke out. In an era where fields were strewn with the bodies of the slaughtered, humans ate humans, animals ate humans, and trees ate humans. Just to stay alive, I gradually learned to eat humans too. By the time I realized that the old era had ended and the new era had arrived, Bodhi was already very powerful and could find its own food. I became its broker, helping it sell those magical fruits and finding puppets for it to walk among humans.”

“Youth Fruit, Longevity Fruit, Fertility Fruit, Potential Fruit——the effects of these fruits are insane, and I obtained everything from the powerful and wealthy who bought them. I have nothing to worry about, yet I miss Xiaobao more and more each day. One day, the Bodhi tree discovered Teacher Fan’s existence and offered me a deal I could never refuse. It asked me to take Teacher Fan to its forest to be devoured, and in return, it would revive Xiaobao for me.”

At this point, Duan Xiaoyun let out a long sigh.

The rest of the story is well-known. Xiaobao failed to revive, and the tree was destroyed by Fan Jialuo instead. When Duan Xiaoyun saw the branches collapse from above, creating a large hole that let in a ray of sunlight, she didn’t feel disappointed, instead, two lines of tears filled with joy streamed down her face.

She knew that she had finally been freed from this endless hell.

If it weren’t for curiosity, wanting to visit Teacher Fan’s home, she would never have known that she, her husband, and their son should have died long ago from that plague. If they had died then, they would still be a happy family of three, and would never have been condemned to hell.

Lin Nianci saved them in her quest to become a god, but in doing so, she also planted the seeds of evil in their hearts. Looking back now, how could a tree possess such evil? If it hadn’t been influenced by humans, Bodhi would never have become what it was later.

It was originally a sacred object illuminated by the Buddha’s light, a pure land cleansed of all worldly impurities, a bright platform untouched by dust, a radiant light, and a tree of enlightenment where all phenomena are void.

Duan Xiaoyun covered her face, sincerely repenting, “I destroyed Bodhi, I’m so sorry.” Then, her body transformed into sharp, cone-shaped vines, piercing towards the stunned Lin Nianci, roaring, “And you destroyed me! You are a demon, a monster, the most filthy thing in the world!”

Lin Nianci covered her head and face, instinctively crying out, “Shifu, save me!”

Without a second thought, Xuan Chengzi swung his sword, cleaving Duan Xiaoyun in two and averting the crisis.

Lin Nianci called out ‘Shifu’ mournfully, and her uneasy heart finally calmed down. Because she now knew for certain that no matter how big a mistake she made, her master would always protect her, without exception, from childhood to adulthood.

Xuan Chengzi stared at his sword in astonishment, completely bewildered. In that instant, he suddenly realized that his body seemed not to belong to him, but rather to Lin Nianci.

Fan Jialuo gathered his five fingers together and took the jade pendant inside Duan Xiaoyun’s body into his palm. He shook his head and sneered, “Shifu is still the same as ever. He only knows how to protect his own and cannot distinguish right from wrong. Duan Xiaoyun’s story is over, but Lin Nianci’s story is not over yet. Her sins are far more than just that one world-destroying tree.”

“What?! A single world-destroying tree wasn’t enough for her to wreak havoc with?!” Finally, a Taoist cultivator, unable to bear watching or listening any longer, blurted out.

“What is one world-destroying tree? To longevity, to become a god, she even dared to slay dragon veins.” Fan Jialuo said, enunciating each word clearly.

Lin Nianci, whose teeth and tongue had finally grown in, let out a sharp scream, “Shidi, stop talking!”

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Chapter 280. Unveiling The Truth (IV)

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Fan Jialuo stopped there and did not continue.

He looked at Lin Nianci, who was still lying on the ground, and said slowly with a smile, “Song Enci! If you don’t show yourself right now, I am going to expose everything you’ve done over the years! Are you sure you want to keep hiding?”

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the ‘mummy’ with suspicion and uncertainty.

Xuan Chengzi shook his head and said in a hoarse voice, “No, she isn’t——”

However, he couldn’t continue speaking, because Lin Nianci, who had been on the verge of death, suddenly sat up and began to unwrap the gauze wrapped around her body. Her actions proved Fan Jialuo’s earlier judgment that she was indeed the long-lost Song Enci.

In that instant, the last trace of color drained from Xuan Chengzi’s face. He simply couldn’t believe that his beloved and cherished little disciple had even lied to him. Why?

“Want to know why?” Fan Jialuo had already heard his thoughts, so he chuckled and said, “Then, I’ll continue.”

Realizing that her junior brother would increasingly expose her, Song Enci quickened her pace in removing the gauze. Her head soon emerged, but her face was a bloody mess, there were no eyeballs, no nostrils, no mouth. All her features had been shattered into bare bones by bomb shrapnel.

Upon seeing such a terrifying head, the members of Taoist sects couldn’t help but gasp and exclaim in shock. At the same time, they realized that Song Enci was indeed the holder of that treasure, she was still alive despite being injured like that.

Then, something even stranger happened. Song Enci wasn’t just immortal, she was practically a monster capable of infinite regeneration. Pink buds slowly sprouted from her bloodied and mangled face, filling in the mottled wounds and coalescing into new facial features.

Eyeballs, nose, and mouth gradually began to take shape. This process was comparable to a demon being reborn in chaos, which was disgusting and shocking.

Chang Sheng and Chang Zhen turned their heads away, not daring to look at her. Taoist Zhi Fei pointed at her with trembling fingertips, saying a series of, you, you, you, but couldn’t make sense of it.

Lin Nian’en was the one most affected, he was now curled up in a corner, sobbing uncontrollably. His beloved senior sister had died in his heart at this moment.

Xuan Chengzi’s dark eyes were tinged with crimson fury at this sight.

Fan Jialuo stared at Song Enci, whose movements were becoming increasingly hurried, and chuckled, “Where was I? Oh right, I mentioned the secret of this double fish pendant. Now, everyone, please look, what was its original form?”

Everyone’s eyes were involuntarily drawn to the jade pendant that Fan Jialuo was holding in his hands.

Fan Jialuo drew a circle with his fingertip and slowly said, “It was originally one piece, but after being broken apart, it became two halves, yin and yang. And then what?”

The crowd’s gazes grew increasingly intense, and their curiosity reached its peak.

“The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things. This simple and true Taoist scripture should be understandable to everyone, right? And that is the ultimate mystery of this jade pendant.” As Fan Jialuo spoke, he reached into the dragon’s mouth and took out one gray jade pendant after another. Their shapes were exactly the same as the black jade, only smaller in size, and the fish heads were facing the opposite direction.

In just a few minutes, a large number of small jade pendants had piled up at Fan Jialuo’s feet. He gathered them together and, to the disbelief of the crowd, slowly kneaded them into a larger gray jade pendant. He then pieced it together with the black jade pendant, only to find that the joint was still slightly too small and did not match.

So he took the gray jade pendant and kneaded it into small jade pendants, scattering them casually at his feet.

“Did you all see clearly? This is the principle of “Three Begetting All Things.” This double fish pendant can be divided in two, and the white half can be divided into three, four, five, or even thousands upon thousands of pieces.

“Why is it divided into so many small pieces, and even the color has changed?” A top cultivator of the Taoist alliance couldn’t help but ask.

This issue not only attracted the attention of others, but even Song Enci, who was removing her bandages, stopped what she was doing. Her mouth was not fully grown and she could not speak, and her eyes were just two small black dots, unable to see, but her eardrums could still receive the vibrations of sound waves.

She tilted her head to the side, remaining motionless.

Fan Jialuo glanced at her, his smile mocking, “Didn’t I just say that? Song Enci thinks she’s doing good deeds, but in reality, she’s sowing the seeds of evil. Every time she saves someone she shouldn’t have, a bit of the power of that Yang Jade will be diverted and lie dormant within that person. Do you remember how she became famous?”

“The Holy Maiden of Zezhou!” Someone blurted out.

“Yes, she saved the entire population of Zezhou. So, the Yang Jade she carried with her unknowingly split into countless smaller pieces. Saving lives requires power, and once this power is separated from the jade pendant, it lies dormant within these people who should have died long ago, until a strong desire awakens them. They were originally pure white, but once tainted by the desire, they turn gray, and then manifest strange phenomena, driving people insane.”

“What is the true nature of evil? I find that Western theology captures it perfectly—— pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, lust, and gluttony. These Seven Deadly Sins are humanity’s original sins, the very wellspring from which all human malice flows.”

“The arrogant desire supreme status, the envious desire to suppress all competitors, the angry desire the power to vent their anger, the lazy desire to gain without effort, the greedy desire unparalleled wealth, and lust and gluttony will lead one to utter depravity in the abyss of depravity.”

“These differentiated jade pendants lie dormant within human bodies, and humans are the aggregate of all desires. Once these desires are awakened, they will cause these hosts to mutate, thus stirring up trouble in this world. Perhaps some people awaken those jade pendants because of the allure of desire, but how many of them can there be? Once desire is amplified infinitely, the result will only be disastrous.”

“Ma You, Su Fengxi, Zhang Yang, Xiao Yanling, do you still remember these people?” Fan Jialuo raised his head and looked around at everyone.

After gradually understanding what kind of evil things Song Enci had scattered among the people, these cultivators all turned pale.

“This jade pendant belongs to Ma You, this jade pendant belongs to Su Fengxi, this jade pendant belongs to Zhang Yang, and this jade pendant belongs to Xiao Yanling. They inherited these jade pendants from their ancestors or others. They activated the jade pendants with strong desire, gaining bizarre abilities that are unimaginable to ordinary people.”

Fan Jialuo flicked out four gray jade pendants of different sizes with his fingertips and sighed, “Song Enci, take a good look at the kind of monsters you have created.”

“Now you understand why you suddenly suffered a backlash when Ma You went on a killing spree, right?”

Lin Nianci’s body had stiffened, and the growth rate of her facial features seemed to have stagnated.

Chang Sheng, Chang Zhen, and Lin Nian’en, who had personally experienced this incident, all looked at her with disbelief and anger.

So, the serial killer Ma You was actually created by Lin Nianci herself! No wonder all those evil deeds ended up on her! This is karma!

Fan Jialuo continued, “Having saved the entire population of Zezhou, you became a being close to deity walking among humans, gaining fame, followers, and temples, and beginning to enjoy the offerings of mortals. For the first few years, you indeed saw hope of becoming a god, you regained your youth, gained an ageless appearance, and your power reached a level unimaginable to ordinary people. But——”

Fan Jialuo’s tone was laced with sarcasm, “Suddenly, one day, the nightmare returned. Your body began to rot from the inside out, and with each passing day, you were closer to your doom. You didn’t understand why. You had saved countless lives, accumulated unparalleled merit, and stepped into the threshold of godhood, yet why did all your efforts crumble? In countless days and nights, you racked your brains, but you probably still couldn’t understand, right?”

He looked at Lin Nianci, who was sitting motionless.

Lin Nianci’s toothless mouth opened rapidly, and she asked in a hoarse voice, “Why?”

Why, why, why…… These words had echoed in her mind countless times, and had tormented her heart countless times. The heavens and the divinity were clearly only a step away from her, so why did they suddenly knock her down?

Why?!

“Because what you’re accumulating wasn’t merit, but bad karma, what you’re creating wasn’t beauty, but sin. Have you ever gone back to visit those you casually saved, to see what became of them?”

Lin Nianci thought of Ma You and the others, and her heart clenched involuntarily.

But Fan Jialu shook his head and sneered, “People like Ma You, Xiao Yanling, Su Fengxi, and Young Master Zhang are just insignificant stains on your path to godhood, far from enough to ruin your chance to become a god.”

Lin Nianci’s eyeballs finally grew back, and began to dart around in their eye sockets without eyelids. Her eerie and sinister appearance startled everyone. Now, she was no longer the Holy Maiden of Zezhou, she was a living demon.

Xuan Chengzi looked at her with his fiery red eyes, which made her shiver involuntarily, and then she lowered her head deeply.

But Fan Jialuo’s words made her suddenly look up, her face contorted.

“This Yang Jade, with its dull grayish-green tint, is something I pulled straight from the core of the demonic Bodhi tree. A monster like that, capable of forcefully binding karmic ties, upending the cycle of reincarnation, and nearly bringing about the end of the world, was your masterpiece too. And the boundless bad karma it accumulated will, in the end, fall entirely on your head.”

Everyone stared in horror at the gray-green jade pendant that Fan Jialuo was holding between his fingers.

“How is this possible!” Lin Nianci shouted hoarsely.

Fan Jialuo said with a half-smile, “How is it impossible? You are the Holy Maiden of Zezhou who saves people from suffering, you are a deity walking among humans. How many impossible things have you done to demonstrate your miracles? That Bodhi tree was struck by lightning and should have withered and died long ago. You saw how terrified and helpless the believers kneeling on the ground were, so on a whim, you touched its charred branches with your fingertips.”

“And so, the lifeless branches sprouted tender green buds and regained their vitality. The crowd was awestruck by your miracle and knelt at your feet, calling you Holy Maiden. You flicked your sleeves and left gracefully, while that Bodhi tree eventually became the demon tree we see today.”

“If I hadn’t awakened, it would have destroyed this city, and then this country. All these sins are placed upon your head. How can you become a god? How can you avoid the backlash? How can you not fall from the clouds and become this pile of mud before you? What was the purpose of you reviving that Bodhi tree?”

Lin Nianci’s teeth chattered, and she was too timid to answer.

Fan Jialuo answered for her, “You’re only doing this to satisfy your own vanity. You enjoy seeing others grovel at your feet. So you see, even the smallest human desire is so ridiculous and filthy.”

Lin Nianci covered her face and began to tremble violently.

Xuan Chengzi finally understood—— That world-destroying demon tree and those inhuman monsters, ruthless killers who unleashed carnage and bloodshed, treating ordinary people as mere sustenance, turned out to be the handiwork of his beloved disciple. No wonder her backlash was so devastating when she returned to the sect. It had nearly taken her life, leaving her completely beyond all help. Having committed such monstrous sins and accumulated such heavy karmic debt, how could Heaven possibly tolerate her?

Xuan Chengzi’s sword tip trembled slightly and slowly pointed at Lin Nianci, whose body was still wrapped in bandages.

Lin Nianci called out Shifu plaintively, wanting to say something conciliatory, but was interrupted again by Fan Jialuo, “Having heard so many secrets, shouldn’t you show yourself now?”

What? Someone else is here? The cultivators immediately raised their weapons and assumed a defensive posture.

Strange things began to happen. Many vines squeezed out from the cracks in the basement bricks and slowly twisted into a human shape, forming a face that was completely unfamiliar to others but very familiar to Fan Jialuo. Who else could it be but Duan Xiaoyun, who had already transformed into a treant?

“Duan Xiaoyun, now you should know who caused the tragedy of your life, right?” Fan Jialuo was not surprised by the person’s resurrection. In fact, he had known all along that this person was nothing more than a trap.

She assumed that Fan Jialuo would inevitably die at the hands of that Bodhi tree once he entered the forest of the demon tree, so she made no effort to conceal the flaws in her actions. Why was it that while everyone else’s mobile phones and communication devices ceased to function upon entering the forest, she alone was able to send so many videos and photos?

Dr. Song had already figured out these obvious doubts the moment he entered the forest. So, when Fan Jialuo took the initiative to touch the demon tree, Dr. Song told him a sentence with his mind—be careful of Duan Xiaoyun.

Having obtained the jade pendant from the demon tree and learned about its life story, Fan Jialuo naturally knew very well what kind of tragic fate Duan Xiaoyun had with this tree.

However, those around them were unaware of the inside story, so they looked at each other in bewilderment and were greatly surprised.

Even the culprit, Lin Nianci, looked completely bewildered, as innocent as a child.

Duan Xiaoyun looked at her and chuckled, “Holy Maiden, we meet again. Back then, everyone in our village was infected with the plague. You saved us and took us to a dilapidated temple. That day, lightning struck down from the sky and killed the Bodhi tree in front of the temple. Everyone said it was a terrible omen and knelt down to apologize to the heavens. Only you said it didn’t matter and with a flick of your finger, you brought the tree back to life.”

“Before you left, you casually pointed among the kneeling crowd and said in a melodious voice, ‘From now on, you will be my temple keeper, managing this temple of the Holy Maiden and taking care of this sacred tree for me.’ The person immediately knelt down, trembling with fear, and then you gracefully departed.”

“You’ve never really looked at that person properly, have you? Otherwise you would remember that I am her.”

Lin Nianci was stunned.

The others gasped in astonishment. This was yet another ancient monster, one or two hundred years old!

Duan Xiaoyun walked over to Lin Nianci, bent down to look at her, and sneered, “The Holy Maiden is indeed prone to forgetting things, or perhaps it is only natural. After all, that was the height of your glory, when temples dedicated to you were scattered across the entire Qing state. How could you possibly remember such an insignificant nobody?”

“Holy Maiden, would you like to hear my story?” Duan Xiaoyun knelt down, poised to have a long talk.

Lin Nianci shook her head repeatedly, her gaze frantically sweeping over her master standing beside her. She only wished that in her Shifu’s eyes, she would always be the most adorable, the purest, the kindest, and the most trustworthy and beloved one. So seriously, don’t say another word!

But the more terrified she was, the more exhilarated Duan Xiaoyun felt.

“It seems you’re eager to hear more, so I’ll continue.” Duan Xiaoyun knelt down, her eyes vacant, and began to speak slowly and deliberately, “Back then, I was really naive. I always felt that being chosen by you was the greatest fortune, so I took good care of that tree and talked to it all the time. I always felt that it had been enlightened by you and had a spirit. As it turns out, my guess was right. One day, I actually felt some special emotions from it, such as joy, loneliness, sadness, and so on.”

“I was overjoyed and never treated it as different again, but as another child of mine. I even had my son become XiongDi with it. My husband, son, the tree, and I lived a carefree and happy life in the temple of the Holy Maiden”

“However, the tragedy of my life was already destined the moment I met you. If I hadn’t heard Teacher Fan’s explanation just now, I might never have found the culprit who harmed me. It was you! It turns out that the one who ruined my family was the infamous Holy Maiden of Zezhou. Ha, what Holy Maiden? I think she’s just a demon……”

As Duan Xiaoyun spoke, two lines of bloody tears streamed down her face, and her once beautiful face was now contorted into a grotesque ghost.

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Chapter 279. Unveiling The Truth (III)

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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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Chapter 278. Unveiling The Truth (II)

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It’s unclear when it started, but Xuan Chengzi’s eyes had been tinged with a deep, suppressed emotion. He stared intently at Fan Jialuo’s face, his hand gripping the mystical thunder sword trembling uncontrollably, as if he could kill him and silence him at any moment.

If Fan Jialuo were the only person Song Enci had killed, the matter would simply be an internal affair of the Tianshui Sect, with no room for outsiders to interfere. Take Fan Jialuo back to the main sect, close the doors, and the Tianshui Sect can do whatever they want with him. Regardless of whether Fan Jialuo’s story is true or how much he suffered, Song Enci’s reputation is what it is. For the sake of the Tianshui Sect’s interests and face, the entire sect will inevitably help her cover it up.

But that won’t work now. Song Enci has so many lives on her hands, and each of them was once a top figure in the Taoist alliance. How can the Tianshui Sect help her cover this up? No matter how big Xuan Chengzi’s face is, it’s not big enough to call a deer a horse or turn black into white.

Right now, everyone was shocked by this truth that is completely opposite to what they imagined, and even the younger generation of the Tianshui Sect were ashamed.

Seeing their grandmaster’s extremely distraught reaction, they realized that everything Fan Jialuo had said was true, and that the formation was indeed drawn by Song Enci. She had killed someone and then suppressed their soul here for centuries, subjecting it to the burning flames of hell day and night, without release or end……

Such cunning and ruthlessness can only be described with one word—— vicious! A true wasp’s stinger indeed, nothing is more venomous than a woman’s heart!

Chang Sheng and Chang Zhen were originally the ones who loved Lin Nianci the most. When they saw her being placed on the ground by their Shizu, they quickly gathered around her, carefully lifted her up, spread a thick coat on her to make her more comfortable, and each of them held one of her hands, gently comforting her.

But now, they flung her hand away as if it were a burning ember and hastily retreated.

Lin Nian’en was kneeling beside Lin Nianci, looking at her wounded body with a pained gaze. Upon hearing Fan Jialuo’s words, he leaned back and collapsed to the ground. Then, he used his hands and feet to scramble away from this person.

If Fan Jialuo wasn’t lying, then Lin Nianci is very likely Song Enci. How many people did she kill during her hundred years of wandering? Could she have been so ruthless as to inflict such a forbidden technique on her Shidi without hesitation? Was her heart truly black?

Everyone distanced themselves from Lin Nianci, who was bound like a mummy, and vaguely believed Fan Jialuo’s words. Only two people stared at him intently, their bodies trembling, not because they found it hard to accept or any other emotion, but because of uncontrollable anger.

These two people were Xuan Chengzi and Taoist Zhi Fei.

Xuan Chengzi valued Song Enci more than his own life and had taken meticulous care of Lin Nianci for decades, so he naturally couldn’t accept this cruel reality, while Taoist Zhi Fei was only concerned about the reputation of the Tianshui Sect. He used to only dislike Fan Jialuo, but now he hated him to the core.

Why would he bring up such a shameful secret in front of everyone? Does he think the reputation of the Tianshui Sect isn’t bad enough?

Taoist Zhi Fei immediately retorted, “Who can prove that everything you’re saying is true? Perhaps you killed those nine sect leaders, and Enci just thought you were utterly wicked and drew an array to seal you! You think you can distort the truth with just your words? You’re dreaming!”

Although his words were far-fetched, they weren’t impossible. Moreover, his reputation was excellent and his prestige was high, making people more willing to believe him.

Xuan Chengzi’s sword, which had been drooping listlessly, now pointed at Fan Jialuo’s face again. Taoist Zhi Fei’s words cleared his turbulent mind. He repeatedly told himself—— Yes, this is the truth. How could the child I raised with my own hands do such a vicious thing? She must have had a reason, and now that reason was found. She was simply cleaning the sect!

The sword in Xuan Chengzi’s hand trembled and hummed, constantly spewing out cold light and killing intent, as if it would be swung out at any moment.

The best course of action for the Tianshui Sect is to smear all the blame on Fan Jialuo alone, let everything remain the same, let good people remain good and bad people remain bad. This case cannot be overturned, nor is it allowed to be!

With this in mind, Xuan Chengzi and Taoist Zhi Fei had already prepared their killing move.

This trial will never have had a fair judgement from the very beginning.

But Fan Jialuo seemed to have anticipated their reactions, and felt neither sadness nor anger. He simply chuckled, touched his brow with his fingertip, and used his magnetic field to collect a drop of bright red blood. He slowly spoke, “Shifu, from childhood to adulthood, you have never taught me any arts. You have treated me like an ornament, casually tossing me aside. But do not forget, I am a Psychic, and everything in the world is my medium. In other words, although I have no witnesses, everything in the world can vindicate me.”

“Where is the current leader of Nanshan Sect?” He called out loudly, a drop of crimson blood glistening on his fingertip.

The leader of Nanshan Sect subconsciously responded, “I’m here.”

“This belongs to your Shizu, keep it safe.” Fan Jialuo flicked the blood drop away.

The leader of Nanshan Sect wanted to catch it, but worried about being tricked, so he hesitated for a moment. In that brief moment, a drop of blood fell onto his sleeve and soaked into the fabric.

Taoist Zhi Fei immediately sneered, “Playing tricks!”

Xuan Chengzi’s sword remained pointed at Fan Jialuo, never advancing an inch. His bloodshot eyes were filled with murderous intent, yet he maintained a sliver of clarity. One voice clamored for him to strike, while another told him to wait. These two voices were like two ropes, binding him from the left and right, rendering him unable to move.

The current leader of Nanshan Sect noticed the blood drop staining his pure white Taoist robe, and a look of disgust appeared on his face. He couldn’t help but echo Taoist Zhi Fei’s words, “So you’re just playing tricks! What are you trying to do by shooting your blood at me? Do you have some kind of venereal disease?”

This conjecture made him feel nauseous, and everyone around him frowned as well.

However, in the next instant, the disdain and disgust on his face froze, and his pupils suddenly widened as if he had seen something terrifying.

“Shizu!” He called out briefly, then clutched his neck and slowly knelt down, his once rosy cheeks rapidly turning pale.

He began to convulse, his mouth agape, unable to utter a sound, only making muffled gurgling noises.

Everyone was stunned and at a loss for what to do when Fan Jialuo shouted again, “Where is the current leader of Dongyue Sect?”

This time, no one dared to admit, but a strong sense of panic and fear surged in one of them’s minds. So, Fan Jialuo drew another drop of blood from between his eyebrows and flicked it at the man. The man tried to dodge, but his legs were bound in place by an invisible force.

Blood drop was splattered directly onto his face, and he clutched his own neck and knelt down, his face contorted, drained of color, and gurgling sounds coming from his throat.

Everyone stepped back from them, their faces filled with horror.

Just a single drop of blood was enough to kill. No, Fan Jialuo is too powerful, they have to run!

Thinking this, some people turned and ran towards the exit, only to quickly discover that the basement had already been sealed off by a powerful magnetic field, forming an impregnable prison. Without Fan Jialuo’s permission, everyone was a sitting duck, completely at his mercy.

“You wicked creature, what have you done to them! You are truly heinous! It was the right thing to kill you, you deserved to die!”

Taoist Zhi Fei launched a talisman, but it was blocked by the Ninefold Blood Fiend Soul Devouring Formation, only producing a spark before turning into black ash.

Fan Jialuo didn’t even bother to look at Taoist Zhi Fei, his eyes were fixed on Xuan Chengzi, and he pointed out one sect after another.

The leaders of seven more sects——Kunwu, Changling, Cangshan, Xiding, Beilu, Lingyi, and Feixian——received his blood. They then knelt down, clutching their necks, their eyes wide with disbelief, as if they were witnessing scenes from hell.

“What have you done to them? You didn’t come here to clarify the truth, you came here to kill and silence them, didn’t you? Kill everyone in the Taoist alliance, and no one will know about the shameful things you did back then.” Taoist Zhi Fei said through gritted teeth, “You beast, your heart is so vicious!”

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than the leader of Nanshan Sect, whose name was called first, stood up. His face was streaked with tears and his eyes were bloodshot, but he was in excellent spirits. He even drew his nine-section whip from his waist and lashed it hard at the ground several times.

“You are fine?” Taoist Zhi Fei was surprised.

The leader of Nanshan Sect looked at him, his scarlet eyes blazing with murderous intent that could almost turn into hell fire.

Immediately afterwards, the leaders of Dongyue Sect, Kunwu Sect, Changling Sect…… and others also stood up one by one, silently surrounding the people of Tianshui Sect, and each took out their magical weapons, quickly preparing their killing moves.

Hearing the truth from someone else is never as satisfying as experiencing it firsthand. Just now, through the lingering memories within those drops of blood, they witnessed the entire brutal murder of their Shizu or Shifu. It was as if the blood in their bodies had drained away with the exposure of the truth, and the pain was no less than if they themselves had been killed by Song Enci.

Even more so, an overwhelming hatred and endless sorrow were passed down through their blood. If this grudge is not avenged, the nine sect leaders will likely be tormented by their inner demons for the rest of their lives.

Seeing that the Tianshui Sect had suddenly become the target of everyone’s anger, Taoist Zhi Fei panicked and loudly questioned, “Fan Jialuo, did you cast a curse on them?” Even now, he was still sparing no effort to smear this man.

Fan Jialuo cut his wrist with his sharp nails, splashing his blood out, and said calmly, “You can see for yourselves what they just went through.”

Taoist Zhi Fei immediately activated a protective talisman in an attempt to keep the bloodstains out, but it had no effect.

Those bloodstains possessed extraordinary penetrating power, just like the karmic ties formed by the demonic Bodhi tree——irresistible and inescapable. They pierced through the barriers and restrictions erected by the Tianshui Sect disciples, landing on everyone without hindrance and pulling them back to the distant past.

Song Enci’s stunningly beautiful face appeared under the moonlight, as beautiful as a fairy.

“The time has come.” A deep male voice suddenly rang out in the darkness.

Everyone’s gaze followed the voice and fell upon an exceptionally handsome face. The face seemed somewhat familiar, as if it belonged to a household name celebrity.

“Then let’s do it.” Song Enci pointed to the ground, “Drag him into the formation.”

The man bent over, dragging something heavy. Immersed in the vision, the onlooker followed the line of his straining arm to look down, only to realize with absolute horror that the heavy object was none other than Fan Jialuo’s corpse. A dagger was embedded in his chest, the hilt of which was engraved with a weeping willow, Song Enci’s unique mark. His skin was covered in cuts from the blade, the bloody gashes forming almost black characters. A truly gruesome sight.

“What do we do now?” The man asked breathlessly as he dragged Fan Jialuo’s corpse to the center of the formation.

“Bury him at the center of the formation.” Song Enci threw half of the black jade pendant far away onto the corpse, then turned her back, her voice trembling, “Shidi, I’m sorry, don’t blame me. Who told you to be so heartless and refuse to save Young Master Zhang? This half of the jade pendant is a burial gift from your ShiJie. Are you satisfied now?”

“Don’t blame yourself. He could even kill his own Shishu, which shows how wicked he is. He’s beyond redemption. Didn’t you say your Shifu wanted to clean the sect a long time ago? Killing him now is twofold, first is to stop him from killing indiscriminately in the future, and second is to relieve your Shifu’s worries.” The man comforted her while digging the pit.

Song Enci sobbed with her back to the man, and after a long while she asked, “Young Master Zhang, are you really feeling better?”

“It’s all better now. Thank you, Enci, you saved me. If it weren’t for you, I probably would have died by now. After we deal with this big problem, we’ll get married and run away together. I promise you’ll have a good life.”

It turns out that the man was Young Master Zhang that Song Enci had mentioned. From this brief conversation, it’s easy to see that the reason they killed Fan Jialuo was simply because Young Master Zhang was dying and Fan Jialuo refused to help him.

Those qualified to enter this basement are all prominent figures in the Taoist alliance, possessing intellect and judgment far exceeding that of ordinary people. How could they not piece together this obvious yet utterly absurd truth? The so-called theft of the treasure by Fan Jialuo and his defection from the sect was actually a case of the Holy Maiden’s love affair blossoming, leading her to kill the innocent to silence him! That jade pendant must have the power to prolong life or cure diseases.

Just as everyone was guessing this, Young Master Zhang had already buried the body and walked to Song Enci’s side.

Song Enci handed him a dagger and said in a trembling voice, “Let’s begin.”

The two walked heavily toward the outer edge of the formation.

Only then did the Taoist sects’ members, lost in this memory, realize that nine men were bound hand and foot and placed around the array, each with nine mysterious runes pressed against their heads and their necks aligned with a groove.

The nine people struggled incessantly, but only one pair of eyes could move.

Song Enci grabbed one of the men by the hair, her voice mournful, “Zhao Bobo, I’m sorry.” Her words were so polite, and her expression so respectful, but her actions were extremely ruthless. With a single stroke, she severed the man’s carotid artery, causing his blood to spray into the groove, staining each of the connected engraved runes red.

On the other side, Young Master Zhang also slit someone’s neck.

The nine sect leaders were positioned in nine different directions, and this memory combined their perspectives, leaving virtually no blind spots. Thus, everyone could clearly see the evil deeds of Song Enci and Young Master Zhang. They swiftly and decisively deprived these ‘sacrifices’ of their lives, one cut after another, then stepped outside the formation and watched silently.

Song Enci began to cry, covering her face with her hands, her body trembling like a willow in the rain, as if she had suffered a great injustice and was extremely fragile.

Young Master Zhang pressed her head into his arms and gently comforted her, “Don’t cry, don’t cry. These people are here to kill and steal the treasure. You were just protecting the treasure. You did nothing wrong.”

The two embraced amidst the blood-red light, the man was incomparably handsome, the woman breathtakingly beautiful, the scene was so beautiful. And this memory remained frozen in that moment, then slowly faded, turning into gray specks of light and disappearing.

The crowd’s eyes flickered slightly as they snapped out of their daze. When they looked at Tianshui Sect members again, their gazes had completely changed.

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