Echoes of Suffering: A Tale and a Calamity

Shame and indignation raging within her, Ji Xue lunged forward like a fierce tigress.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Lin Mo seized her wrist once more.

He used her momentum to spin, throwing her to the ground.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he strode over and pinned her firmly beneath him again.

“You… I think you genuinely have a death wish!”

Ji Xue bit down hard on her lower lip, her eyes blazing with fury.

She wished nothing more than to tear this audacious scoundrel, who dared to repeatedly toy with her, into a thousand pieces.

“Your Highness,” Lin Mo’s voice deepened, imbued with a hint of genuine apology. “I was wrong to deceive you. I am willing to compensate you. But now, it is my turn to tell you a story.”

The story Lin Mo recounted was, in essence, his own past.

However, in his narration, he ingeniously shifted identities.

He fabricated a ‘younger brother,’ attributing his own hardships to this fictional sibling.

Meanwhile, he, in the guise of ‘Lin Wan’er,’ narrated his ‘brother’s’ tale.

From the ‘sister’s’ perspective, he poured out every torment and humiliation his ‘brother’ had endured to Ji Xue.

When he reached the conclusion, his voice was thick with profound sorrow and an incomprehensible bewilderment:

“I don’t know… what my brother truly did wrong…”

“He merely wished to live a simple, earnest life.”

“Yet, every time he returned from that noble family’s estate, he was covered in wounds.”

“The travel expenses I received from the Xuan Nv Sect were painstakingly saved by him, bit by bit, from the meager scraps he could afford.”

“He simply tried to survive with such humility and effort… What fault could he possibly have committed?!”

“When I received the family letter, I had expected greetings from my brother… but the letter said… he was dead?”

“Beaten to death!”

“They claimed… he stole something? That he hid some forbidden trinket? Or perhaps a myriad of other miscellaneous charges…”

“The latter half of the letter was soaked through, the handwriting blurred beyond recognition.”

“Tell me… Your Highness,” “Lin Wan’er” lifted a tear-filled face, gazing at Ji Xue with utter despair. “Was my brother truly guilty?”

During this tearful accusation, the torrent of anger that had surged between them had imperceptibly dissipated.

By the time their conversation concluded, they had both resumed a seated posture.

In a corner of the room, which now felt suddenly vast, they sat shoulder-to-shoulder, leg-to-leg, supporting each other as they huddled together.

It was as if the world had shrunk to just the two of them, a solitary, warm reliance.

“I’ve confided in others before, but they only laughed, asking why I cared so much about a man.”

“Your Highness… why, in this world… must men endure such suffering?”

“Can he not simply live a good life, live equally?”

Ji Xue, unsure how to comfort Lin Mo, spoke softly.

“Perhaps it’s connected to the ‘Calamity of Yin Scourge’.”

“The Calamity of Yin Scourge? What is that?”

Ji Xue appeared somewhat surprised.

However, upon reflection, it wasn’t impossible for Lin Wan’er, hailing from a poor family and lacking access to schooling, to be unaware of this historical period.

“The first great catastrophe originated from beyond this realm.”

“A millennium ago, in the far northern lands, a rift in the heavens tore open, unleashing corrupt demonic energy and countless fiendish creatures to wreak havoc upon the human world.”

“Their power was immense, threatening to overturn this entire realm.”

“During this time of peril, the previous Sect Master of the Xuan Nv Sect—Xuanji Zhenren—her heart filled with concern for all living beings, overcame all dissenting voices and assembled the elite cultivators of the righteous path from across the land.”

“At that time, the Xuan Nv Sect wielded formidable power, and a genius emerged, whose brilliance overshadowed all other contemporary prodigies, forcing them into supporting roles.”

“This individual, with unparalleled talent, suppressed all other formidable cultivators and became the cornerstone and leader of a special task force.”

“Simultaneously, to prevent the failure of this team, various factions pooled their strengths to collectively construct a great defensive wall behind them, known as the Heavenly Abyss.”

“Should the Heavenly Abyss fall, it would undoubtedly lead to untold suffering and devastation for all life.”

‘The previous Sect Master? Wasn’t that the master Mu Qingli spoke of?’

Lin Mo mused, careful not to interrupt Ji Xue’s narration.

Ji Xue’s voice deepened, and she continued to narrate slowly, tinged with reverence:

“They journeyed to the Outer Realm battlefield, a truly perilous and desolate domain.”

“One bloody, arduous battle after another ensued, the heavens and earth changing color, mountains and rivers weeping in sorrow.”

“Xuanji Zhenren, with unparalleled grace and cultivation that pierced the heavens, wielded her divine sword, leading the charge and slaying three demon generals, yet she too sustained mortal wounds.”

“Ultimately… this team, bearing the hopes of billions of living beings, after paying an unimaginably tragic price, finally sealed the Demonic Abyss rift, severing the source of the demonic tide… but they were also almost completely annihilated.”

“The final news relayed back was that… led by Xuanji Zhenren, all the heroic souls of the Xuan Nv Sect had perished on that desolate battlefield!”

“Only a few severely wounded and dying male cultivators, relying on the desperate efforts of their comrades who carved out a path of survival, managed to escape.”

“And the Xuan Nv Sect, ever since losing this genius Sect Master, has been in decline, as if its luck had run out, continuously falling into disarray.”

“Its glorious reputation was no longer what it once was.”

“It wasn’t that the Xuan Nv Sect did anything wrong; rather, no one of such extraordinary talent as the previous Sect Master had ever appeared again.”

“No new geniuses had emerged since.”

“Ahem… I’ve strayed from the topic.”

“I merely find it peculiar, as if the Xuan Nv Sect is allergic to geniuses.”

Having reached this point, Ji Xue composed herself, steering the conversation back to the main subject:

“This war to protect the Dao should have been the supreme glory of all survivors, and an eternal monument forged in blood and fire by those who sacrificed their lives!”

“The entire cultivation world was immersed in profound grief and immense reverence for the fallen.”

“The remaining male cultivators were regarded as witnesses to the war, inheritors of the sacrifices’ will.”

Ji Xue’s face suddenly darkened, as if frozen, the trace of reverence she held for the fallen moments ago completely vanished, replaced by a bone-deep hatred!

“However! Who could have imagined… that this trust, this glory, would become the fertile ground for an even more sordid, more heinous catastrophe, utterly devoid of human decency!”

Her voice suddenly rose, sharp with accusation.

“Ten years after the great calamity! Just as everyone was slowly recovering from their wounds and harboring gratitude towards those heroes, an abyssal darkness truly descended!”

“They exploited the prestige and influence garnered by the war survivors, secretly weaving a vast black web!”

“They began large-scale, organized coercion and abduction of female cultivators, and even mortal women possessing weak spiritual roots!”

“Their methods were so cruel and despicable that they defied description!”

“They would infiltrate sect strongholds and aristocratic families under the cover of night; they would masquerade as escaped demons, causing chaos before abducting people.”

“Even more atrociously, they exploited public trust, using high-sounding pretexts such as treating the wounded or selecting disciples to lure unsuspecting and isolated female cultivators!”

“Once they fell into their clutches…”

“Their fate was to be imprisoned within foul Yin-gathering arrays.”

“Those male cultivators, like the most ravenous maggots, forcibly extracted their life essence and spiritual root origins through sinister magic!”

“Young cultivators would instantly wither, their faces aging prematurely, their lives painfully extinguished like candles flickering in the wind; mortal women, moreover, transformed into desiccated corpses, utterly devoid of all vitality…”

“Their shrill, agonizing cries echoed day and night, coalescing into a boundless resentment powerful enough to shatter the heavens!”

Her voice trembled with rage, imbued with an uncontrollable sorrow.

“And this was merely the beginning! …To what extent had their madness driven them?!”

“To cultivate some utterly evil and Yin-aligned demonic art, to enhance the power of that demonic array, they even… they didn’t even spare children, who were utterly defenseless!”

“Sacrifice! Large-scale blood sacrifices!”

“Innocent boys and girls, like blooming flowers, were placed at the array’s core, sacrificed alive to fiends, all merely to borrow a sliver of putrid, foul demonic power!”

“Corpses lay strewn across the fields, blood flowed like rivers!”

“How many villages and towns transformed into lifeless ghost towns overnight!”

“The terror in the children’s eyes before death, their innocent gazes, became the deepest curse upon this world!”

The air seemed to solidify, heavy enough to suffocate.

Ji Xue took a breath, forcing herself to calm her mind, but the chill in her tone intensified.

“This catastrophe was not brought to light by the victims themselves.”

“Because the targets, whether cultivators or mortals, mostly vanished without a trace.”

“The demonic arrays obscured heavenly secrets, allowing these atrocities to fester in the darkness.”

“The one who truly ignited this movement and exposed the truth to the public was… a person ‘returned from the dead’!”