Confronting the Master

“I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. It’s like a cryptic heavenly riddle—I have no answer.”

Zhuang Xun spun a lie, then passed the question to someone else.

“Sect Master, perhaps you could consult an elder of the sect, like the Grand Elder or your master…”

“They have vast experience and profound cultivation. They’re far more versed in such matters than I.”

“…”

Ziyin puffed out her cheeks, seemingly annoyed, and grabbed Zhuang Xun’s wrist, dragging him toward the palace.

“Sect Master! What are you doing?”

“Taking you to see my master.” Ziyin said, a bit miffed.

“Isn’t that inappropriate?”

“I’m just an outsider to the sect. How can I meet a reclusive powerhouse like Lingxu Zhenren?”

He had been the one to play dirty on the Ascension Path,

scheming against many renowned prodigies of the cultivation world.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with Lingxu Zhenren’s reputation.

That was the most famous former Saint Lord of the Qing Domain’s most prestigious sacred land.

Though the position had changed, her strength remained undeniable.

If she found out he had once tricked her beloved disciple…

…the very girl pulling his hand now, out of her immortal artifact and destiny…

Wouldn’t she hunt him down?

With his current cultivation and body, he couldn’t withstand a single set of her immortal techniques.

“Less talk!”

Ziyin’s eyes turned serious. “Ever since I returned from the Ascension Path, Master has been in and out of seclusion…”

“Her temper has become strange. She doesn’t want to interact with outsiders and often mutters to herself…”

“Even on the day I founded the sect, she only gave me some cultivation manuals through a special passage in the lesser realm…”

“She didn’t appear in person at the founding ceremony.”

“And I once overheard her mention the words ‘demon seed’ in the lesser realm.”

“So I think, since you’re the key figure in this artifact’s prophecy, you must know something.”

“Also, I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before. You seem familiar.”

“…”

“Sect Master, what are you saying? This is only our second meeting…”

“Maybe I just have a common face.”

“If you have a common face, then every female cultivator in the world would be short of a Dao partner.”

As she spoke, Ziyin quickly arrived at a cloud-sea cliff that stretched beyond sight…

The spiritual energy surged. Two suns and moons hung high in the sky, creating an endless, mystical state of yin and yang mutually repelling and generating.

Ziyin summoned a small spirit boat and forcibly pushed Zhuang Xun onto it.

“Hey… Sect Master, why are you taking me to see Lingxu Zhenren?”

Zhuang Xun was genuinely panicking.

Meeting a senior face-to-face—that was like walking on the edge of a blade.

“Confrontation.”

“Perhaps it will answer some questions that have plagued me for years.”

As she spoke, the space around the spirit boat rippled, and it shuttled into the endless void.

Ziyin pressed one hand on Zhuang Xun’s shoulder, preventing any resistance.

…

Boom!

In a pitch-black void, a muffled thunderclap suddenly exploded, bursting forth with multicolored divine light…

It seemed to be continuously evolving stars and cosmos… heaven and earth… flowers, birds, fish, and insects…

As if a complete universe was being born here.

“Master, it’s time to wake up.”

A faint, indifferent voice sounded.

The multicolored light directly transformed into a murky, gray light of annihilation, erasing everything that had appeared in the void…

…

Until a pair of pure white, jade-like feet stepped down, as if walking on water, leaving ripples of immortal resonance…

The surrounding void then fully transformed into an endless, azure grassland.

An elderly man with white hair, eyes red as a beast’s, long, black nails, and disheveled hair…

Knelt on the grass, panting heavily, roaring and tearing at the grass around him…

“Ah!”

“Why can’t I enter the immortal gate!”

“Why am I not qualified to become an immortal!”

“I was the rarest cultivation genius in the Qing Domain in a thousand years!”

“Topped the Heavenly Fate List for hundreds of years!”

“They are all ants! A bunch of useless fools!”

“I was clearly the first to reach the immortal gate!”

“Why!”

“…”

The woman wore an elegant, mysterious black dress. Her silver hair cascaded to her waist, and her purple eyes were as clear as amber, as if a galaxy swirled within…

Revolving according to the Dao…

She watched the old man from afar, sighed softly, her eyes filled only with regret.

“Alas…”

“The demon seed has matured, corroding the heart.”

“A walking corpse… beastly and savage… life force draining… a life ruined…”

“Even though that person was astonishingly talented—cutting immortals, creating paths, and slaying heavenly demons…”

“He never expected that such a cunning demon seed would scatter across the myriad worlds. Truly, it must be heaven’s will…”

Then, with a flourish, she conjured a pure white snow lotus that hovered over the old man’s head, absorbing billowing waves of violent, hateful black energy…

“…”

“If only I could see him again, that would not waste the hundred lifetimes of sibling bond in the cycle realm.”

…

The spirit boat shuttled through the boundless dark void.

Zhuang Xun, looking drowsy, yawned.

“Ha~”

“Sect Master Ziyin… how about telling me about Lingxu Zhenren’s life?”

“That way, I won’t be completely clueless in front of him.”

The silent, dark environment was making Zhuang Xun sleepy.

Plus, the sect master kept pressing on him, as if afraid he’d escape with some technique.

It was really boring.

“…”

Ziyin was silent for a moment, then said, “Master never liked my senior sister and me talking about her past…”

“Especially her experiences on the Ascension Path, which once made her so depressed she couldn’t cultivate.”

“I’ve heard a bit about that too…”

“Is it because eighteen thousand years ago, on that Ascension Path, Lingxu Zhenren was the only cultivator to first step into the immortal gate, yet was cast back into the mortal realm?”

“At the time, she was ridiculed by many.”

“Yes. Because of that, Master’s heart was nearly shattered, and she almost fell into demonic cultivation.”

As she spoke, Ziyin sighed deeply with regret.

“Alas…”

“At that time, Master was at the height of her fame, held in high regard by many fellow disciples and elders…”

“But after that incident, the name of Taiqing Sacred Land became a joke in the cultivation world…”

“Although the Grand Elder later suppressed the matter with force… the reputation was already damaged. People didn’t dare speak openly, but behind the scenes, they fabricated countless stories…”

“Master faced strange looks and remarks even when going out…”

“It makes me furious just hearing about it.”

Crack! Crack!

Zhuang Xun could hear Ziyin’s knuckles tightening. She was genuinely angry.

He dared not speak and simply listened quietly.

“But… the Ascension Path nine thousand years ago was quite fair.” As if talking about something that pleased her, Ziyin’s tone lightened.

“The immortal gate was shattered by a mysterious prodigy named Mu Chongyang, preventing anyone from ascending…”

“It made all those who had mocked Master experience falling from the immortal path. That was satisfying.”

“But that person’s behavior was truly atrocious!” Ziyin’s tone shifted again.

“He left romantic ties everywhere, entangled with most of the women on the Stunning Beauty List…”

“And he often deceived fellow cultivators with sweet talk, used his strength to cheat them, and took nearly seventy percent of the treasures on the Ascension Path…”

“Wherever he went, there were screams and cries…”

“Worst of all, he vanished after the Ascension Path closed—no trace of him in this world.”

“He’s truly an inscrutable villain!”

“Don’t believe the street tales that make him out to be a carefree, immortal-like good person.”

“He’s pure evil to the bone! Utterly rotten!”