Chapter 46

#May I be granted a good companion, to hold hands and walk together, from dawn to dusk, never parting until our hair turns white.

“Could the Lord God of the Undying City… be corrupted by the evil aura?” I asked Xie Zhuo. “Can we trust him?”

“No.” Xie Zhuo replied firmly, as unwavering as his footsteps. “When the Undying City was first established, to prevent himself from being influenced by the evil aura, the Lord God of Que Mountain in Northern Wastelands offered his life as sacrifice—he gave up his body, refined his soul power, and turned himself into a trace of spiritual awareness. It resembled the evil aura, allowing it to infiltrate unimpeded, yet followed another path to resist the evil.”

He refined himself…

I looked at the black-armored soldiers below, heart trembling.

“To prevent himself from being tainted, he simply abandoned his body… So he turned himself into something like the evil aura and can now control other people’s bodies?”

“He chooses those with clear minds to help him resist the evil aura within the Undying City… until that person too is devoured, and becomes a demon.”

“Then he just finds someone else…”

I suddenly remembered the massive gate outside the Undying City. The inscription on it read: Exterminate all evil—undying, unyielding.

I had thought it was just a slogan. I didn’t realize that a mountain god had offered up everything to uphold it.

“Then why can’t we trust him…”

I didn’t even finish the sentence before I understood.

The Lord God of Que Mountain turned himself into a wisp of aura. He’s no longer susceptible to corruption—but no one knows whose spiritual awareness he has entered, or who he now fights alongside.

It could be an evil spirit pretending to be him. Or it could be…

That the body he currently inhabits is already on the verge of collapse…

So what Xie Zhuo said was: “He might be the Lord God of the Undying City.”

In this city, there is no trust.

“But why is he helping us?”

“There’s no time to figure it out.”

As Xie Zhuo spoke, he leapt forward and landed on an open patch of ground.

Just as he touched down, a crazed-looking man suddenly lunged out from the side, radiating murderous intent and yelling as he charged straight at me!

Xie Zhuo raised his sword to block him. With a metallic clang, blade met blade—and right after came the whistling sound of a silver spear slicing through the air!

Before I could even react, that spear pierced the man’s chest clean through—but…

Unlike before, no evil aura came spilling out from his body.

There was no black mist—only warm blood that sprayed from his wound, splashing onto my face, onto Xie Zhuo’s face, and trickling down our necks into our clothes.

True evil spirits, when slain, dissolve into black mist.

Cultivators mistaken for evil, when killed… bleed.

My eyes widened as I watched the man collapse.

He’d come to kill me. He thought I was the evil one.

His chest had been torn open, blood still pouring out. He convulsed on the ground, then the light faded from his eyes, and he moved no more.

By tomorrow, perhaps… he too would be strung up on the city walls by the evil spirits, used as a warning and a humiliation to cultivators…

Xie Zhuo had already told me about the horrors of the Undying City. I had seen the corpses on the towering walls, the white bones piled at their base.

But witnessing a real cultivator being mistaken and killed in his attempt to destroy evil… It stirred something complicated and painful in my heart.

If he had been in Kunlun, he might’ve been Mengmeng, or Wu Cheng, or one of my soldiers—or just someone who brushed past me on the street…

I gritted my teeth, clutching the burst of evil aura surging from the wound on my hand.

Xie Zhuo said nothing. He pulled me along as we continued running forward.

Ahead, the inner walls of the Undying City drew closer. I turned and looked back. The black-armored soldier on horseback had stopped beside the man he’d pierced.

He reined in his horse, pausing.

He lowered his head and looked at the fallen man. One man, one horse, standing still in the grey haze of the city—silent, as if mourning. But only for a moment. He gripped his spear tighter, tugged at the reins, and galloped toward us again.

I couldn’t imagine—if he truly was the Lord God of the Undying City, and he truly believed in the vow “Exterminate all evil—undying, unyielding”—what kind of heart did he bear after mistakenly killing his “comrades”?

It probably wasn’t the first time. And for him, likely wouldn’t be the last.

In the Undying City, as long as evil cannot be distinguished, confrontation, mistaken killings, and distrust will never end.

This Undying City… is a city of death.

A city of despair…

The thought lasted just a second, but I saw the black evil aura rising again from my neck.

I knew it—my neck must have been ruptured just like my arm, the surging evil aura within me breaking through the skin.

“Don’t let your emotions take control,” Xie Zhuo was still pushing forward, restraining his feelings—I could sense it. “Fu Jiuxia, it’s not your time to die yet.”

I tried to lift a hand to cover my neck, but my whole body was weak. I couldn’t summon any strength. Even the pain had begun to fade.

I could no longer cling to Xie Zhuo’s neck—my body slipped downward.

He reached behind to hold me, bent down slightly, and tightened the rope around his waist, binding me more securely to him so I could hang on his back.

But carrying me like this restricted his movement—his pace slowed significantly. If we were attacked again, Xie Zhuo would struggle to defend us while burdened with me.

Behind us, the pursuers hadn’t stopped. And up ahead—there were enemies blocking the path.

Blocked front and back. No way forward or back.

And yet, through my blurred vision, I could see the inner city wall ahead. The gate was still intact, tightly shut. So close, yet the distance between it and us felt impossible to cross.

“Xie Zhuo…” I used the last of my strength to whisper into his ear. “You still have spiritual energy… Leave me. Go. Don’t pull that whole ‘if you don’t go, I won’t go’ drama. It’s not worth it.”

“I told you—it’s not your time to die yet.”

He still wouldn’t let me go.

Behind us, the overwhelming evil aura was drawing closer. In front, enemies blocking the road had already come into view.

Xie Zhuo suddenly halted. He glanced behind.

The black-armored soldier on horseback was helping fend off several evil spirits, cutting down the fastest ones. Black mist swirled around him. He seemed to sense Xie Zhuo’s gaze and looked back.

Inside the helmet of his armor, there appeared to be nothing but darkness. I couldn’t see his face, but Xie Zhuo seemed to lock eyes with him.

Suddenly, Xie Zhuo turned toward the black-armored soldier.

The soldier seemed to understand his intent. His spear swept out to drive away the evil spirits clinging to him, then he urged his horse forward at full speed toward us.

I saw what Xie Zhuo was planning, and bit out, “What if—”

“We gamble.”

Carrying me, Xie Zhuo had no hope of breaking through. But if they could borrow the soldier’s horse… maybe they could still reach that city gate.

Before entering the city, Xie Zhuo had warned me over and over not to trust anyone inside.

But now, for my sake, he said—

“Let’s gamble.”

If this black-armored soldier was an evil spirit, if he had been plotting for this very moment… then with me and Xie Zhuo caught in a pincer attack like this, there would be no hope of survival.

My body hung limply on Xie Zhuo’s back, letting him bear all my weight.

He didn’t have to take this risk. He could’ve escaped on his own.

Rationally, I knew I should’ve persuaded him to make a calculated decision—to run. A sliver of hope for one is still better than both of us dying here.

But as he resolutely carried me toward the unknown, I couldn’t explain why, yet I felt an odd sense of peace. As if through his actions, he was telling me: no matter what inferno lies ahead, he would break through it with me.

Strangely enough, in this moment filled with the howling of evil spirits and surging black mist, pressed close against Xie Zhuo, I seemed to hear a calm and gentle voice softly chanting in my ear—

May a good man take my hand, walk with me through every dawn and dusk, and never leave even when our hair turns white.

I thought about it for a long time—thought back to five hundred years ago, beneath the glow of red candles, when Xie Zhuo and I sat facing each other, holding hands and whispering that vow.

But so much time had passed since then, so long that I’d almost forgotten those words until today…

All the strength I had left was barely enough to curl my fingers, to grab hold of his clothes on his back.

In front of Xie Zhuo, the black horse had already picked up speed, wind curling around its form as it charged forward. I looked at the black-armored soldier with his silver spear—like I was looking at a final judgment.

And yet, my heart was finally at peace.