Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I was finally brought back to the Heavenly Inquiry Platform.

I wasn’t captured and dragged back by the Sect Leader.

I walked back on my own.

Master followed me the entire way.

When he had fought his way through the encirclement, the Demon Mark had crawled from his wrists up to his neck, and his white robes were drenched in blood.

It was the first time I had ever seen him looking so wretched.

It was also the first time I realized that he wasn’t immune to pain.

He was just too good at enduring it.

The Formation Fire had been reignited on the Heavenly Inquiry Platform.

The Grand Elder stood in the center of the array, clutching my Life Tablet in his hand.

A crack had formed across the tablet.

He said, “Jiang Heng, enter the formation.”

I looked at him.

“Can’t you all find a different way to say that?”

The Grand Elder frowned.

I continued, “Every single time, you tell me to enter the formation, to go to my death, to save the common people. My ears are starting to ache from hearing it.”

Shen Zhaowei whispered from the side, “Well said.”

The Grand Elder shot her a cold glare.

Shen Zhaowei raised her sword.

“What are you looking at? I’ve rebelled too.”

Wen Zhi held up a short blade, his voice sounding deathly weak.

“Me too.”

The Grand Elder looked at them like a group of ignorant children.

“Do you really think that by betraying Kunwu, you can change the mandate of heaven?”

I walked to the edge of the formation.

The Formation Fire licked at the hem of my skirt, and the Half-formed Pill Core inside me immediately began to sear.

The pain kept me lucid.

I asked, “What exactly is the Abyss of Demons?”

The Grand Elder did not answer.

The Sect Leader descended from the jade steps.

“It is the collective malice of the mortal world.”

“Speak plainly.”

Shen Zhaowei nearly burst out laughing.

The Sect Leader watched me for a moment.

“It is the Resentful Souls that the Immortal Sect sealed inside when the Heavenly Gate collapsed eight hundred years ago.”

My heart sank.

He was finally starting to tell the truth, but he was only telling half of it.

“Which Resentful Souls?”

The Sect Leader remained silent.

Master spoke up.

“Thirty thousand mortals, three thousand Outer Disciples, and twelve with innate Spirit Bones.”

His voice was incredibly hoarse.

“And Wuchen.”

A deathly silence fell over the Heavenly Inquiry Platform.

The Grand Elder barked, “Xuanwei!”

Master didn’t even look at him.

“Ah Heng, the Abyss of Demons isn’t a natural disaster.”

He looked at me, finally laying the filthiest truth bare before my eyes.

“It is a debt.”

Suddenly, I understood.

They weren’t saving the common people.

They were using new lives to suppress an old debt.

Every time the seal loosened, they would find a more suitable person to shove inside.

And then they would tell themselves that this was for the greater good.

I began to laugh.

I laughed until tears fell from my eyes.

“So if I die, I’m just buying you another hundred years?”

The Sect Leader said, “A hundred years is enough for many people to live.”

I asked, “And what happens after a hundred years?”

He said nothing.

I turned to look at Master.

“You knew all along?”

He nodded.

“Since when?”

“The year you were fifteen and failed to form your core.”

My voice trembled.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

His gaze darkened.

“I was afraid you would walk into the formation on your own.”

I wanted to curse him.

But when the words reached my lips, all that remained was a sharp, aching sting.

Because he was right again.

If the fifteen-year-old me had known that my death could trade for a century of peace, I might have actually gone.

It wasn’t that I was particularly noble.

It was just that, back then, I believed too much in the Dao they taught me.

Master said softly, “That is why I would rather have you hate me.”

I looked at him.

“Xuanwei, you really know how to drive a person mad.”

He replied, “Yes.”