This roar echoed throughout the palace. The ghost next to him was about to pounce again when he heard Xie Shen's tired call from deep within the inner palace: "Bring him in."
Upon hearing Xie Shen's words, all the ghosts paused. They exchanged glances, and then, the palace gates slowly opened, one layer at a time. A man in the Spiritual Transformation Stage, dressed in official uniform, led a group of attendants to the entrance and said respectfully, "Ghost Master Fu, His Majesty invites you."
Fu Changling didn't hesitate. He jumped down from the wall and landed in front of the official. With a sword in one hand and a talisman in the other, he said calmly, "You should know what I hold in my hand."
"I know."
The official's expression remained calm. "Your Majesty is aware of this. Please rest assured, Your Excellency. Your Majesty has invited you with no ill intentions."
"Let's go."
Fu Changling didn't say much. He didn't believe what the official said, but he didn't want to get entangled either. So he just took a defensive posture, always on guard, and followed the official into the palace.
They passed through layers of palace gates and finally arrived at the main hall. When Fu Changling entered, Xie Shen was the only one in the hall. He sat on a high seat, his expression cold and revealing continued fatigue. Fu Changling held the blasting talisman in his hand and looked up at Xie Shen: "Where is Qin Yan?"
"He's fine."
Xie Shen said calmly, "I don't need to pursue what you did. Please leave Wangu Cliff."
"I'm asking you where is Qin Yan?!"
Fu Changling shouted, "Do you think I'm here to negotiate with you?!"
Xie Shen didn't say anything. He looked calmly at the blasting talisman in Fu Changling's hand.
He knew very well what Fu Changling held in his hands. When that person built the Cliff of Ten Thousand Bones, she told him that they were already evil spirits and had a huge hatred for Yunze. She built the Cliff of Ten Thousand Bones in the hope that they could let go of their hatred and either cross over into reincarnation or never enter Yunze in this life.
There is a core formation in the Hantan Cave. Once that core formation is destroyed, the entire Wangu Cliff will no longer exist.
In order to protect the core formation, the man set up a ban in the Hantan Cave. No ghosts or monsters from Wangu Cliff could enter the Hantan Cave, not even him.
He knew very well what Fu Changling was holding in his hand, so he also knew what Fu Changling meant. If he wanted to leave on his own, he would have left long ago. He came to the palace today just to take Qin Yan away.
Xie Shen stood up and said calmly, "Let's go. I'll take you to see him."
Fu Changling was stunned. He didn't expect Xie Shen to agree so easily. He couldn't help but become more vigilant. As he followed Xie Shen, he asked, "What do you mean? Are you willing to let him go with me?"
"It's not that I won't let him go," Xie Shen said calmly, "He promised me to stay."
"What do you mean?"
Fu Changling frowned: "What do you mean by staying here?"
Xie Shen didn't say anything. He paused, turned around and glanced at him up and down, then said, "It's you who wants to use the Rebirth Flower, right?"
Hearing this, Fu Changling was stunned. After a long while, he spoke with difficulty: "What... do you mean?"
"Le was once a prosperous country," Xie Shen said slowly, suddenly changing the subject. "When I inherited the throne, Le was prosperous and peaceful. I was eighteen years old then, and I thought it would always be that way."
Fu Changling was silent. He listened to Xie Shen's words and followed him through the corridor and out of the palace gate.
The sky was dark and it looked like it would rain at any moment. Xie Shen's voice was tired and desolate. "But I don't know when it started, but the Kingdom of Le began to decline. First, there were frequent droughts, and later many soils were unsuitable for growing crops. Under natural disasters, the people were displaced. I prayed everywhere, hoping that God would bless our Kingdom of Le."
"The Imperial Master told me that this was due to the increasingly thinning spiritual energy of Le Country, something beyond human control. So, as the emperor, all I could do was relocate and merge the people. Le Country shrank smaller and smaller, until only a little over 100,000 people remained. Then one day, someone reported that everyone in a city in Le Country had disappeared."
"I know." Fu Changling nodded. "It was the Baile Sect that did it, right? They massacred your people and trained you into spiritual veins. Later, you and Hongmeng Tiangong asked for help, but the Hongmeng Tiangong reinforcements did not arrive. The people behind the Baile Sect, the female devil, arrived first."
Fu Changling didn't want to mention the name of the female devil. He said lightly: "The female devil led people to kill you. You died here in vain, turned into wronged souls and evil spirits, and were sealed in the Ten Thousand Bones Cliff. But?"
"She-devil?"
Xie Shen couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. "Is that what the outside world actually told you? Just finding a scapegoat and taking the blame?"
Hearing this, Fu Changling couldn't help but be stunned: "What do you mean?"
"Where is the female devil?"
Xie Shen laughed loudly: "Those who came are immortals! They are all immortals from Hongmeng Heavenly Palace!"
Hearing this, Fu Changling's pupils suddenly shrank: "What did you say?"
"When I learned that the people in that town were massacred, I asked the National Master to investigate. The National Master told me that it was the Baile Sect that did it, so I asked for help from the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace." Xie Shen led Fu Changling out of the palace gate. The rain began to fall. The attendant beside him held up an umbrella to block the way for them. Xie Shen's voice was a little vague in the rain. "Hongmeng Heavenly Palace quickly replied to me and said they would send people to help me. Haven't you ever wondered that in a country, the people may be helpless, but the emperor has dragon energy to guard the palace. No cultivator can casually enter the palace and kill a monarch. Whether it's the female devil you mentioned or the Baile Sect, how did they break the rules of heaven, enter the palace, kill me and everyone else of the National Master, and leave the entire Le Kingdom without protection?"
As Fu Changling listened to his words, a terrible thought emerged: "It was Hongmeng Tiangong... who deceived you."
Xie Shen fell silent.
He climbed the stairs, and after a long while, he said, "Perhaps, there's more than just Hongmeng Heavenly Palace."
"Many people came that day. The three sects and four clans all sent people. They wanted to enter the palace to rest. I didn't suspect anything. I just thought it was an honor for us that the Yunze Immortal Realm paid so much attention to a small country like ours. So I personally opened the city gate and brought them into the palace. I hosted a banquet for them and told them about the hardships that Le Country had suffered over the years. I hoped that they would help the people in the future. We will build a Taoist temple for Amen and offer incense. We will be grateful to them and regard them as our gods."
"They agreed. However, that night," Xie Shen's voice trembled, "after nightfall, they massacred everyone in the palace. My wife, mother, children, brothers, friends, subjects..." Xie Shen stood on the steps. He turned his head to look at him. The rain pattered down, and blood-red tears fell from Xie Shen's green eyes. "I watched them fall one by one with my own eyes."
"That night, Qing'er was the only one who wasn't with us. She cried all night and was taken to the garden by her nurse to play. Then she disappeared. I thought she was dead too."
"Everyone died, and I was the only one who survived. They captured me alive and imprisoned me. Then they used a mountain to build a refining pool and threw the people into the refining pool as materials."
"They are refining their spirit veins..."
"Right!" Xie Shen laughed heartily. "Spiritual veins! They're the foundation of your cultivation as immortal cultivators! The source of everything in this world. It turns out it's not just Le Country that's running dry, but the entire Yunze, the entire immortal world! But they dare not speak out, dare not tell others. The higher-ups in your immortal world have been worried about this for a long time. What can we do?"
"It just so happens that the Baile Sect has come up with this method of using humans to refine spiritual veins. If the people of a city can cultivate a spiritual vein that the Baile Sect needs, then can the people of a country also cultivate the spiritual veins that all the cultivators in the Yunze Immortal Realm need?!"
"Do you know now that Yunze's spiritual energy is depleting?"
Xie Shen walked down the steps and approached Fu Changling: "Does anyone know about Yunze? Are you still practicing as usual, still cultivating as usual, and still thinking that Yunze is still in the heyday of cultivation, with geniuses emerging in great numbers?"
"Do you know where the spiritual energy you use comes from? Do you dare to look at what you are stepping on?"
The bluestone pavement beneath Fu Changling's feet slowly transformed into white bones. They lay beneath his feet. Xie Shen watched him quietly: "You step on the flesh and blood of others, on their corpses, and then step by step walk towards your path to heaven."
"You call yourselves immortals, you claim to be on the right path, but how can what you do be considered the actions of an immortal? How can you say it is the actions of the right path?!"
Fu Changling listened to Xie Shen's words with a calm expression. Facing this tragic past, for a moment, Fu Changling felt as if he had returned to his previous life, when he was still True Lord Huayang.
He sat on top of the clouds, listening to the suffering of all living beings.
Yunze did not die in the Karma Prison in the end. The door of the Karma Prison was closed as early as when Qin Yan died, and no demon cultivators appeared later. Yunze finally experienced ten years of spiritual energy exhaustion and ended up in the end of the world.
He had always believed that Yunze's spiritual energy depletion was due to Karma Prison, and that it was Karma Prison that caused Yunze's final downfall. But now he knew that Yunze's end had been written so long ago.
He remained silent in the face of Xie Shen's questioning.
This was the sin of the immortal world, and he had no way of refutation.
Seeing that Fu Changling didn't say anything, Xie Shen's emotions gradually calmed down. He turned around and walked forward.
The sound of rain pattered, and his voice was hoarse. "I've asked those immortals, they practice Taoism, if it's not for the people, not for the common people, then what is it for? They told me that they practice Taoism to seek their own power to ascend. In this world, the strong prey on the weak. We have never shown mercy to ants, and they will not show mercy to us either."
"Then I knew there was no way out for our Le Country. We were finished."
"Their formations are operating day by day, and my people become the nourishment of the spirit veins. Those thrown into the refining pool will not only lose their flesh and blood, but their souls will also be refined into spirit stones, becoming consumables for the cultivators. When a spirit stone is used up, that person will completely disappear from this world."
"I kept wondering what to do, and finally one day, someone came and saved us."
Fu Changling and Xie Shen arrived at the altar door together. Xie Shen did not open the door. He stood at the door, looking at it, and said calmly, "To prevent the cultivators from slaughtering us wantonly, she transformed us all into evil spirits. Fearing that we would cause chaos, she signed a blood pact with us and used her life's cultivation to open up the Ten Thousand Bone Cliff. Then she died."
"Although she is dead, the matter is not over. The spiritual energy depletion has not stopped. When the spiritual energy of Wangu Cliff is completely exhausted, we will also turn into ashes. So I have to think of a way to get out. The best way is to find someone who can open the seal of Wangu Cliff. The place to unlock the seal of Wangu Cliff is outside, and because it is a blood covenant seal, it needs my blood relatives to break it. Therefore, Yuqing is my hope, the hope of our entire country of Le."
"So what's the second option?"
Fu Changling spoke, looking at the ancient gate in front of him.
He suddenly felt a little hesitant to open the door, nor did he dare to know what was behind it. But he had to ask, he had to know.
Xie Shen was silent for a moment, then he finally spoke slowly: "We are evil spirits and cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation. If there is someone who can save us, then we can enter the cycle of reincarnation."
"Convert?" Fu Changling's lips trembled. "How?"
"Have you ever heard of the Buddha feeding an eagle with his flesh and blood?"
Xie Shen turned to look at him. Fu Changling trembled as he turned back, looking at Xie Shen in shock. Xie Shen, with a hint of pity, said, "The simplest method is to feed these wronged souls with the flesh and blood of immortals. The moment each wronged soul consumes his flesh and blood, he will experience the most resentful and hateful thing in that soul's memory."
"He needs to use his spiritual power to continuously regenerate his flesh and blood. Once his spiritual power runs out, he will die here."
"What if he's not dead?"
Fu Changling asked hoarsely. Xie Shen turned to look at the door: "I don't know."
"Everyone has love, hate, and grudges. If he has to bear the hatred of 100,000 people alone, I don't know what he will become."
He doesn't know.
But Fu Changling knew it.
When he took the flowers for the afterlife, he sent them to him.
Fu Changling remembered that rainy night, when he definitely felt someone approaching in the courtyard. But that night, perhaps he had just returned from the Ten Thousand Bone Cliff, his body covered in blood and flesh, his Dao heart damaged.
He might even be surrounded by ghosts, and he dared not see anyone.
So he just placed a flower of rebirth on Fu Changling's window, and then staggered away in the rainy night.
When he took the flower of rebirth, he was only eighteen years old.
He was still a young man and had not seen the true appearance of this world, yet he had to face the hatred of one hundred thousand people.
That hatred stemmed from his master, the place where he was born and raised. This place had taught him to "eliminate evil and uphold the Way, and maintain a single-minded heart," yet it had turned around and joined forces with the immortals to massacre a hundred thousand innocent people.
He experienced the suffering of those people over and over again. For three months, he had been under the Cliff of Ten Thousand Bones for nearly a hundred years. When he came out of the Cliff of Ten Thousand Bones, how could he be the Yan Ming who was in the wind and snow that year?
"Did he do this voluntarily?"
Fu Changling's voice was dry.
Xie Shen shook his head: "No one can force him."
"What does he want?"
"Nothing." Xie Shen hesitated for a moment, then finally said, "He just told me that if he unfortunately died, the Rebirth Flower under his seat would bloom, and he asked me to bring it to you. He also told you to come back and seal the Karma Prison Qi Channel."
Fu Changling felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on his chest. At that moment, the rock suddenly fell down, smashing his heart and causing it to bleed profusely.
He finally understood how the flowers of rebirth came.
He finally understood why he had never seen this flower of rebirth in the eight years he had been at the foot of the Wangu Cliff.
He finally understood why Qin Yan had not been in a hurry to find the Rebirth Flower or seal it since entering the Wangu Cliff, but was only focused on rescuing Xie Yuqing.
He knew from the beginning that the Flower of Rebirth was needed to save these 100,000 wronged souls!
What about back then? Did he know when he entered the Ten Thousand Bone Cliff?
Fu Changling didn't dare to think. The rain was dripping. He staggered forward and pushed open the vermilion mottled door in front of him with all his strength.
The door creaked with age, as if it was opening the curtain of time and showing the past before him.
Then he saw, at the center of the altar, a young man in blood-stained white robes, holding a lotus flower in his hand, sitting cross-legged on a blood-drawn formation. Ghosts swarmed over him, biting at him. His white robe was the only bright spot in the darkness, his expression calm and composed, without a trace of struggle. The interweaving of black and white, blood-red, resembled the images of gods and Buddhas painted on the walls of the Jinguang Temple pagoda. Seeing it filled one with sorrow and pity, one wished to kneel down and repent before him.
Fu Changling looked at Qin Yan, who was being bitten by the ghost with his eyes closed, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
He staggered forward and knelt in front of Qin Yan.
Fu Changling had fantasized countless times about what he would do if one day he really met Qin Yan and saw him nailed to the wall of the pagoda.
And now he seemed to see it.
He thought that in his previous life, when he didn't know, at the foot of the Wangu Cliff, the eighteen-year-old Qin Yan looked like he does now.
He raised his hands tremblingly to cover his face, crying and laughing.
"How can you be so stupid..."
The moment his hand touched Qin Yan, the ghost climbed along Qin Yan's body all the way to Fu Changling. When the pain was transmitted, Fu Changling suddenly hugged the person in front of him into his arms.
The ghost screamed in surprise and instantly devoured Fu Changling completely. The moment Fu Changling held the man in his arms, he felt—
In past and present lives, there was finally a moment when they were together.
Whether they live or die, they go together.
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