The Last Breath of a Sinner

After the great battle, all the clamor finally subsided into silence.

A bleak autumn wind swept across the scarred wilderness, carrying with it a low, mournful sob.

The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth and nose. Her vision grew increasingly blurry, with figures seemingly swaying before her, though she could never quite make them out.

Was she going to die?

Bai Yuan thought this, attempting to raise a hand to rub her eyes.

However, this small movement provoked the sword qi within her body to stir once more. It transformed into countless threads, seeping into her muscles, bones, and sinews, initiating another round of frenzied destruction.

A thousand cuts, ten thousand slices—Bai Yuan finally understood the true taste of such torment.

Pain, an endless agony.

It felt as if countless bamboo splinters were piercing her body, then violently twisted and pulled out, leaving their barbs embedded in her flesh. Then they would stab in again and twist—a ceaseless, unending repetition.

“Hiss—”

Bai Yuan bit down hard, striving to suppress any sound, yet her body instinctively curled up, convulsing and trembling uncontrollably.

“Bai Yuan!”

The familiar voice finally reached her ears.

Her body was carefully cradled in someone’s arms.

However, this embrace brought forth an even greater torment. Even though Bai Yuan tried her utmost to endure, she couldn’t help but let out a low groan.

Warm, gentle internal energy flowed ceaselessly into her body from behind, helping to resist the encroaching sword qi.

That agony lessened slightly—though, of course, only slightly. It was merely a transition from being stabbed by bamboo splinters to being cut by a blunt knife. Still, it allowed Bai Yuan a few more breaths of respite.

This embrace, she realized, was familiar to her.

“Yang Xuan, is that you?”

She murmured, her voice faint.

“…It’s me.”

That deep voice seemed to hesitate for a moment, but ultimately, it responded, though the emotions within it sounded remarkably complex.

“Yes, it’s you. Then I can rest easy.”

Bai Yuan’s body gradually relaxed.

“Wu Sheng is dead, Ji Yuan is dead, Chi Tian is dead, and the armies of the Scorching Flame Ghost Prison are almost annihilated by us. Bai… Yuan’er, we… we won!”

Despite the news of victory, his voice held no discernible joy. Instead, it began to tremble, a particular emotion stubbornly seeping through his forced suppression, overwhelming everything else, and finally, overflowing.

“We won, huh…”

Bai Yuan let out a soft laugh. It was a laugh imbued with wistfulness and a hint of regret.

After a brief pause, she gathered her remaining strength and struggled to lift her hand again. “Right, where’s Ling Yun? Where is Ling Yun?”

“Bai… Aunt Bai, I, I’m here.”

Another slightly hoarse voice came from nearby, seemingly carrying suppressed sobs.

The hand, which had been so arduously extended, paused, then strained to reach toward the direction of the voice. After a breath or two, it finally touched a face.

Her slender, powerless fingers trembled, delicately tracing the young face, the eyebrows and nose bridge that bore a seven or eight-tenths resemblance to her own, attempting to wipe away the dust and tear stains.

However, such a simple action now lay beyond her capabilities.

In but a moment, her arm, as thin as a withered branch, fell limply, to be caught by a large hand.

“In the end, you still weren’t willing to call me ‘mother,’ were you?”

A bitter curve touched Bai Yuan’s lips.

After a moment of silence, a sound seemed to reach her ears. Whether it was loud wailing or heart-wrenching cries, she couldn’t discern. She could only mumble to herself.

“Indeed, a sinner like me, whose hands are stained with blood from countless heinous crimes, is unworthy of being your mother. In the future, just forget about me…”

Crack—

Suddenly, the sound of something breaking emanated from deep within her body.

It was… the sound of her Dao Foundation completely shattering.

Within her Inner World, the once impregnable and majestic Demonic City was now reduced to nothing but shattered walls and ruins.

At this moment, the crisscrossing fissures on the high cliff where the Demonic City once stood gradually widened. Finally, they began an irreversible collapse, plunging into the drying sea of blood below.

The warmth flowing from her back could no longer sustain her utterly broken body.

Streams of viscous, bloody liquid continuously welled from her mouth and nose. Her vision was tinged with a faint red, becoming even more indistinct.

She wanted to cough, but she lacked even the strength for that.

She truly was going to die.

As Bai Yuan thought this, she felt her body growing lighter and lighter, as if she would soon float away.

Then, she used her last ounce of strength, struggling to lift her head and gaze at the figures before her, which were now completely indiscernible.

“After I die, burn my body. Then, scatter my ashes anywhere. Just pretend I… never existed in this world…”

Her voice gradually faded. The wind around her, however, suddenly grew boisterous, as if weeping, as if wailing, swirling around her, lifting her, and carrying her ever upward.

Right, when did all of this begin?

Once upon a time, she was merely a humble transmigrator, terrified and distressed by what had just happened to her.

“I am the Heavens’ Protagonist Hunter System. From today onward, you are my master.”

“As long as you continuously hunt protagonists and seize their destiny, you will become the protagonist of this world!”

“Restore your male body? That’s nothing. As long as you kill enough and seize enough destiny, I can fulfill all your wishes!”

Once upon a time, she defeated all the young talents of the ten prefectures in Longyou and Hexi, relentlessly pursuing prodigies with destiny potential.

“Excellent, you have slain a potential protagonist. Your cultivation has improved.”

“Very good, you have eliminated another individual blessed with destiny. Your cultivation has made significant progress.”

“Superb, you have successfully killed a Daughter of Destiny. You are one step closer to your goal.”

In those days, she had been high-spirited, looking down on all heroes, ruthless and uninhibited, believing that the Xiantian realm was within her grasp, easily attainable.

Alas, she was too young then, and did not understand that every gift of fate had long since been marked with a price.

“You seem to have had a minor setback, but it’s alright; you can try again.”

“You seem to have failed again. You must pull yourself together and prepare for the next time.”

“I’m sorry, you have completely failed. You have utterly become a stepping stone for the protagonist. Therefore, I must leave.”

“Where to? To find a new host, of course. Oh, and as the price for using me all this time, I will be taking all of your cultivation.”

“My dear, useless master, I wish you good luck.”

Amidst mocking laughter, she finally tasted the bitterness of failure, falling from the sky and plunging into the mud.

Hate-filled fists rained down heavily upon her body.

“Weak, too weak. Bai Yuan, how can you be so weak? All my bitter cultivation for so long, just to fight you, was wasted!”

“This punch is for Ying’er!”

“This punch is for Uncle Hu!”

“This punch is for…”

Punch after punch, each one searingly painful, shattering her pride and self-esteem.

She was trampled underfoot by her past enemies, while the clansmen who had once benefited from her completely abandoned her.

“Grandmaster Yang, Bai Yuan is arbitrary and self-willed, arrogant and tyrannical by nature, and her clansmen have long been dissatisfied. Now, she dares to challenge the grandmaster’s divine might. This outcome is truly her just deserts. Please, Grandmaster Yang, punish her as you see fit. As a s*ave or servant, a maid or concubine, she is yours to command. Our Bai family has no objections whatsoever.”

She endured humiliation, biding her time, concealing her claws.

Her once rigid spine finally bent: “Bai Yuan knows her wrongs. From now on, she will turn over a new leaf and start anew.”

She was bewildered and confused, panicked and lost.

Amidst the pain and exhaustion, loud cries reached her ears—the joy of new life.

“Congratulations, Fifth Madam, it’s a healthy baby boy.”

She strove to cultivate, yet never achieved anything significant. Her mindset grew increasingly twisted and narrow, leading her astray.

“Bai Yuan, you’ve disappointed me too much!”

“Bai Yuan, you venomous woman! Shuang’er treated you so well, yet you tried to harm her!”

“You’re not fit to be Ling Yun’s mother! You’ll only make Ling Yun a second you!”

“Lock her up!”

Ultimately, she succumbed to the demonic path.

“Bai Yuan, how dare you commit such heinous sins!”

“Bai Yuan, I won’t forgive you even as a ghost!”

“Bai Yuan, may you die a terrible death!”

By the time she awakened from that nightmare, everything was already too late.

“Yang Xuan, do you think it’s still not too late for me to turn back now?”

When she asked that question, a tiny glimmer of hope still lingered in her heart.

However, there was no response from the other side.

So, she chuckled softly, feeling a sense of relief. “Never mind, I understand. Then let me show you my sword one last time. A single strike, prepared for you for a full decade.”

An unprecedentedly brilliant sword light bloomed forth.

Sharp and desolate, utterly pure and refined.

The violent sword qi tore through everything in its path, severing the seamlessly integrated and indestructible Nine Nether Demonic Array, leaving an unhealable scar in the seemingly endless tide of scorching flame ghosts.

The end of the scar pointed directly at the master of the Scorching Flame Ghost Prison—the Scarlet Heaven Ghost King.

“Go, all of you. This is… the last thing I can do for you.”

She dropped her broken-bladed sword, not looking at the astonished people opposite her, but slowly turned and stumbled toward the setting sun.

Her previously blurry vision suddenly cleared.

Bai Yuan saw it—saw that solitary, gaunt figure trudging through the blood-red twilight, stopping, and slowly collapsing.

This was the final outcome.

‘Die a terrible death, huh? So be it. Everything has ended.’

She thought this, and wearily closed her eyes.