The Price of Salvation

A few mocking laughs echoed, and the demon’s voice suddenly drew near, so close it felt as if it were whispering beside her. Su Mo glanced sideways, realizing the demon’s voice was coming from within the Colorless Longsword. It chuckled:

“You don’t seem to understand. The pain and memories inside the sword haven’t completely devoured you because the sword hasn’t shattered. Once you unleash this sword to break the Ascension Sacrifice, then the sword will shatter… And what if you do break the sacrifice? The power within the sword will backlash and kill you.”

This was the price. Was it out of kindness that the demon deliberately left such a loophole, offering a chance to disrupt the Ascension Sacrifice?

Certainly not. The information the Colorless Longsword had subtly leaked during its transformation was merely a twisted game, designed to toy with human minds.

One moment, it told her that striking the demon’s blood-red eye with the Colorless Longsword, with sufficient force, would save everyone.

The next, it revealed that if the Colorless Longsword shattered the blood-red eye, the sacrifice would break, but so too would the sword. The overflowing, uncontrolled power within it would then backlash against the one who broke it.

Whoever broke the sacrifice would die!

“Your意思是… if I dare to shoot, I’ll die?” Su Mo asked, uncertain. She was caught between pulling the bowstring and releasing it.

As the saying went, ‘once the arrow is nocked, there’s no turning back.’ She had already poured all her power, condensing it onto the longbow, and now she could hardly bear it.

Her fingers reddened from the strain, Su Mo pressed her lips together, fearing to release the bowstring.

Even with her naturally stubborn disposition, prone to decisive action, she dared not shoot recklessly when faced with a matter of life and death.

‘Why shouldn’t she shoot haphazardly? After all, if she missed the demon’s blood-red eye, the Ascension Sacrifice wouldn’t break, and neither would the sword.’

She felt countless presences materialize around her—ordinary citizens, passing merchants, and even cultivators.

These were lives leading ordinary days, suddenly cut short by the sacrifice.

They had lent their pain to Su Mo; in turn, she had to bear the karmic responsibility.

In a daze, beneath the black-leafed tree, countless phantoms stood behind Su Mo. Children, elders, and youths alike extended a hand, as if lifting her up.

“Little girl, you still don’t intend to give up?” Even the demon was astonished, marveling that she was indeed one with a pure, white heart.

Truly, she was different!

“I… I can’t let go,” Su Mo gritted out, understanding that she had to shoot today, and she had to hit the demon’s blood-red eye.

Otherwise, even without the sword shattering and backlashing, the resentment from the Path of Suffering alone would be enough to kill her.

To wear the crown, one must bear its weight.

An ancient, immutable truth.

Fortunately, Su Mo had a backup plan, though she wasn’t certain it would work.

‘Treat a dead horse as if it were alive…’ With a thought, she followed the golden light within her heart, attempting to contact the Ghost General.

That divine-like being in the Underworld had enlightened the wisdom of its ghosts.

His promise would surely save her life… wouldn’t it?

“Hello? Hello? Can you hear me, General?” Su Mo’s words tumbled out like a machine gun. Her fingers ached, and suppressing such immense power was becoming unbearable.

Yet, no matter what she said, there was no reply from the other side!

In her haste, she hadn’t even considered if the communication was one-way.

She couldn’t worry about such details; she simply couldn’t hold on any longer!

“Ghost General, I’m going to die! Help me—!” With that, Su Mo released her hand. The bowstring snapped back instantly, unleashing an earth-shattering ‘arrow’.

In the Underworld, the Ghost General slowly produced a question mark:

“To ‘die,’ what does that mean?”

****

“Boom—!” Under the might of that single arrow, the sky turned into a blinding expanse of white.

The previously flickering electric arcs, empowered by the pain of an entire city, swelled into colossal lightning dragons.

Purple-blue lightning serpents erupted from the soaring Colorless Longsword, crashing down onto the ground with a thunderous roar.

From a distance, it resembled several chains of thunder, linking heaven and earth, trapping everyone within their grasp.

Yet, this strike was not for slaughter or imprisonment; it was for salvation.

It was to unleash the wrath of all innocent departed souls.

“Buzz… buzz… buzz…” Throughout Dangyang County, the streets once bustling with pedestrians were now filled again, but with human phantoms.

All cultivators ceased their actions, gazing in astonishment at their surroundings. The phantoms, in gratitude, looked up at a single figure.

Their gazes converged in the sky, making Su Mo, beneath the myriad black leaves, the most dazzling… ‘Immortal’.

She was Su Mo.

“…Is that a Nascent Soul cultivator?” someone murmured, dumbfounded.

With every movement, she wielded power capable of reshaping heaven and earth.

“I once witnessed a sect elder’s strike, at the early Nascent Soul stage, and it was nowhere near this power,” another person stated, feeling a chill run down their spine.

Su Mo’s twin-tailed strength, augmented by Skinny Horse and Stillness Sword, combined with the Path of Suffering’s terrifying boost drawn from an entire city.

All these factors compounded, strengthening her power almost exponentially.

This strike, comparable to one from a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, had utterly surpassed the limits of the Ascension Sacrifice.

Moreover, with the Colorless Longsword used as the weapon, the conditions were met, and the ancient pact began to take effect.

“Good, good, good! After so many years! Such a scene finally reappears!” The demon laughed heartily, immensely pleased with this spectacle.

However, the cultivators below were bewildered, even Xu Qingzhu.

He had always believed that the sacrifice could only be stopped either by killing everyone within it or by brute force from outside.

He hadn’t known there was a method to forcibly halt the Ascension Sacrifice by using a ‘key’.

Why?

Almost all Ascension Sacrifices ended with a single ‘survivor’.

Driven mad and brainwashed by the agony, these survivors, after touching the Colorless Longsword, naturally disregarded the ‘foolish method’ of ‘solely stopping the sacrifice’.

After all, having chosen to become demons and engage in frenzied slaughter, would they still bother with such a foolish act?

Keeping silent about it was practically their unspoken agreement.

Indeed, it was a little-known secret.

Xu Qingzhu had only heard rumors, never personally participating. The most terrifying instance saw an Ascension Sacrifice’s range come within half a meter of him.

He had some understanding, but it wasn’t complete.

“Brother Xiaozhu, she…” Lu Yanling’s eyes were complex as she gazed at Su Mo, who hovered in the sky, calm as ever.

She had touched the Colorless Longsword and had spent enough time with it to understand the ‘only method of breaking it’.

But she couldn’t do it. She feared the solitude of death.

She also feared that after her death, Brother Xiaozhu and Su Mo would end up together.

With so many beautiful things she wasn’t willing to give up, how could Su Mo have shown so little hesitation in such a difficult, decisive battle?

That arrow was drawn decisively… it was just that gathering the power had taken too long.

“I am not as good as you.” Lu Yanling felt her worldview shifting, all her perceptions of the ‘demoness Su’ crumbling.

In a daze, she suddenly felt that the time Su Mo took her to the Fragrant Cloud Pavilion must have been out of good intentions, to introduce her to Brother Xiaozhu.

Not to lead her into the malice of numerous cultivators.

“So, she’s already this powerful?” Xu Qingzhu muttered, suddenly finding his previous proposition incredibly foolish.

“Become my wife, and I’ll ensure you reach the Nascent Soul realm.”

How laughable. If someone could unleash the power of a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, would they still be swayed by his promise?

‘Next time, I’ll give you an offer you can’t refuse,’ Xu Qingzhu thought to himself.

He looked again, and the demon’s body in the sky began to collapse, revealing the bright moon and the infinitely beautiful starry sky behind it.

In that instant, he felt the freedom of a fish returned to the ocean.

This wonderful sensation was entirely brought about by Su Mo.

What he didn’t know was that Su Mo, who gazed at the same starry expanse, was currently enduring a terrifying backlash in both body and soul.

The agony, worse than death, had already numbed her.

Had it not been for the Path of Suffering, had it not been for the lonely souls of Dangyang County, who were doing their utmost to help her resist the backlash, she wouldn’t even be able to maintain her flight.

“Boom! Boom!!” The residual power raged on, and the Colorless Longsword, having shot into the sky, shattered completely.

The lightning, empowered by the Path of Suffering, spiraled out of control after Su Mo suffered the backlash.

It began to erupt, the exploding thunderbolts igniting the sky’s clouds, making them as bright as the sun.

“…” In the distant mountains, all the ghosts and monsters prostrated themselves, trembling amidst the roaring thunder.

In Dangyang County, the cultivators present were already shaken by the thunder, their internal spiritual energy circulation disrupted.

Breathing became difficult, forcing them to calm their energies with all their might.

However, the tyrannical lightning continued to undergo uncontrollable transformations.

As the source of all that power, Su Mo had already sensed something amiss.

Yet, she couldn’t move. The backlash from the Ascension Sacrifice was ferocious; her clenched fists had long since dug her fingers into her flesh, drawing blood.

“Quickly… get away…” Su Mo’s bitten lips forced out a few words.

Her warning was directed at Lu Yanling and him, who stood beneath the uncontrolled lightning.