Chapter 53

#Everyone… will become his vessel…

After meeting with Zhu Lian, I did manage to adjust my state of mind. I resumed my duties as an Immortal and once again took command of the Defense Army.

Kunlun had remained peaceful and tranquil. From the end of spring, it passed through summer without incident, then welcomed the beginning of autumn.

And then…

This world slowly began to change.

Queen Mother of the West and the other main gods hid the existence of the Undying City, planting spies like Old Qin across the world. Anyone who accidentally discovered the truth of the world would be captured and thrown into the Undying City.

Ever since I returned, there had been constant uproar inside and outside of Kunlun over this matter. The arguments never ceased.

At first, it was just rumors among the common folk. But soon, the Immortals themselves began to split, their opinions diverging. Some believed the main gods had done nothing wrong.

Others believed the main gods had inadvertently killed many innocent people, and that their crimes were comparable to those of the evil gods.

I never once voiced my opinion on this matter, and I strictly forbade any discussion of it within the Defense Army.

I had seen the horrors inside the Undying City. From my limited perspective, I could not judge whether the decision made by the main gods and Xie Zhuo to conceal the truth from the world had been right or wrong. All I could do was have the Defense Army hold onto the current peace.

But division does not disappear with silence.

The situation in Kunlun—or perhaps the world itself—changed abruptly one seemingly ordinary afternoon.

A street vendor in the west market got into a conflict with a customer. In the heat of the moment, the vendor accidentally killed the customer.

When he calmed down from his rage, he was overcome with fear… and then he—

Went mad.

He proceeded to injure dozens of people in the west market. When I received the report, I found it strange—how could an ordinary vendor cause such a commotion without being subdued? After all, those who came to Kunlun were not minor demons or low-level immortals.

But when I arrived with the Defense Army, I understood.

The vendor was surrounded by a crowd. Everyone kept their distance, wary, but no one dared to step forward.

Because the vendor’s eyes were pitch-black, his appearance terrifying. The black aura emanating from him was something all of us recognized far too well—

It was the aura of evil corruption.

The vendor was slain.

I was the one who did it.

Under my sword, he turned into a wisp of black smoke and vanished in an instant. Yet my hand, still gripping the sword, could not bring myself to sheath it for a long time.

That was when I realized something terrifying—

The aura of corruption had returned to this world.

I reported the incident to Queen Mother of the West.

Upon hearing it, her expression shifted. She ordered the reactivation of the Kunlun barrier. Though the Pangu Axe was no longer here to guard it, the barrier could still be supported temporarily through the numerous formations surrounding Kunlun to form a shield isolating it from the outside.

She commanded that no one from outside Kunlun be allowed in and ordered the other Immortals to thoroughly inspect the soul force and inner energies of all their subordinates.

Then, she told me something even more horrifying—

“Some time ago, Lord Ji of the Northern Wilderness sent a message,” Queen Mother of the West said, looking at me. “He said… new corpses have appeared on the outer walls of the Undying City.”

My jaw clenched tightly.

A chill sank deep into my gut.

“He originally thought someone dissatisfied with the main gods’ past actions had done it. But now… it seems the evil god has returned.”

I lowered my eyes, my hand at my side clenched into a fist. “The evil god was never truly eradicated.”

I steadied myself. “Zhu Lian must know something. I’ll go speak with him.”

Queen Mother of the West nodded. “Take Qin Shuyan with you. Be careful…”

So once again, I brought Old Qin and returned to that lava cave. When I left it last time, I thought I would never step into this place again in my life.

As we approached the mouth of the cave, I sensed something was off.

The aura at the entrance was far cleaner than before. The clarity… was reminiscent of that snowy forest, where all impurities had been purged.

Old Qin and I exchanged a glance and immediately stepped into the cave.

When I saw Zhu Lian again, I was stunned.

His entire body was snow-white. From his hair and eyelashes to every inch of his skin, he was so pale he looked almost transparent.

I could clearly see the blood surging beneath his skin.

Strange… his blood was still red…

“Zhu Lian,” Old Qin said coldly, stepping forward. He waved his fan from outside the cell, and Zhu Lian’s curled-up body was pulled apart by an invisible force. Old Qin glanced over him. “What did you do?”

“It’s not what I did.”

Zhu Lian looked listless, his voice faint, as if he might vanish at any moment. Yet he still wore a smile on his lips. “You should be asking what the evil god has done.”

“Cut the nonsense,” Old Qin said, his face icy, a thousand-year-old fox now baring fangs. “I know you seek death, but in my hands, I have more than one way to make your life worse than death.”

Zhu Lian let out a dry laugh, as if he’d just heard a joke. “No need to force me. I’ll tell you.”

He looked at me beyond the bars. “Little sister-in-law, come here.”

Old Qin turned back. “Be careful—it could be a trick.”

I activated a protective seal on myself and stepped forward two paces.

Zhu Lian said, “You know about that stone on Xie Zhuo’s neck, right?”

I was silent. Of course I knew. Xie Zhuo never took it off. When he decided to sever his bond of love, he’d once tried to use the stone, and that had caused no small amount of trouble…

“Thousands of years ago, the chief of my clan used an ancient forbidden technique to summon back the evil god. He channeled the power of mountains and rivers, gathering all the filth and impurities of the land into one spot, to recall a sliver of the evil god’s soul.”

“As a result, that land became the purest place in the world. For the next thousand years, any corrupted spirit or ghost that stepped foot there would be scorched and driven away by its purity.”

I looked toward the lava cave behind us. The colors of the cave floor were slowly fading, much like Zhu Lian’s current state…

I gritted my teeth and glared at Zhu Lian. “You’re trying to imitate the snow wolf clan chief—sacrificing yourself and this land to bring back the evil god’s soul!?”

Zhu Lian chuckled lightly. “I’m not nearly that capable. Like I said—it was the evil god.”

He went on, “The stone on Xie Zhuo’s neck was taken from that land. With its power, he created the wind and snow barrier around the Undying City, and with its power, he sealed me here.”

“Later, he absorbed all the corruption in the world into himself. Then, he returned all the filth to the land. That’s how the world’s evil aura disappeared. That stone disappeared too, and his seal on me naturally faded…”

Zhu Lian glanced at the bars around him. “That’s why they could only trap me with this worthless scrap metal.”

“If this junk can restrain you, then it proves you’re nothing but a cripple now,” Old Qin said coldly. “I’m asking you—where did the new corruption come from?”

“No rush.” Zhu Lian’s gaze remained fixed on me, smiling faintly. “Before Xie Zhuo took you through time, neither he, Queen Mother of the West, nor the other main gods knew this truth. That’s why they couldn’t resolve the world’s corruption. But Xie Zhuo went back five hundred years… and found a way. Aren’t you curious when exactly he discovered it?”

I looked toward Zhu Lian, but my mind kept running through everything Xie Zhuo and I had been through since we traveled back five hundred years.

Thinking back, I realized—we’d been together almost the entire time. The only time we were apart…

Was when he split the timeline a second time. He found Xie Xuanqing before I did, made his arrangements, got injured, and then set up a trap for me…

During those few days, Xie Zhuo had Wu Cheng intercept me. He contacted Qin Shuyan and arranged for her to take a female fox demon to rescue Xie Xuanqing.

And…

He was injured…

According to how things were supposed to unfold, Xie Xuanqing would chase Zhu Lian to Kunlun. They would fight, both get seriously injured, and then Xie Xuanqing would seal Zhu Lian here. After that, he would head to the Snow Bamboo Grove and meet me.

But we returned to the past, and changed it.

So, to stop Xiaxia from meeting Xie Xuanqing, Xie Zhuo intervened in Xie Xuanqing and Zhu Lian’s battle.

I don’t know exactly what he did, but somehow he managed to trap Xie Xuanqing in an icy cavern, seal Zhu Lian, and then—wounded—fled to the Snow Bamboo Grove, where he “met” me…

The only time he and I weren’t together was during those few short days.

Did he comprehend something in that time?

Zhu Lian watched the thoughtful expression on my face, and the smile at the corners of his lips grew more and more twisted. “You’ve figured it out, haven’t you? That moment.”

I stared at him. “What are you trying to say?”

“Five hundred years ago, Xie Zhuo and I fought. At the critical moment, a man in black appeared. The techniques he used were exactly the same as Xie Zhuo’s.

If I’d stayed locked in combat with Xie Zhuo, I wouldn’t have had the chance to strike back. But the man in black disrupted him and gave me a moment to breathe. I followed the evil god’s command from inside my body, drew on the power of the earth and mountains, and condensed a wave of malevolent energy to attack the man in black. That was the only time I ever used the evil god’s sorcery.”

I stared silently at Zhu Lian. His words were peeling back layer after layer of fog in my mind.

“But my body couldn’t bear the evil god’s power. Though I gravely injured the man in black, he still managed to seal me away while I was drained.”

And that injured man in black—was Xie Zhuo from five hundred years in the future, who later arrived in the Snow Bamboo Grove and “reunited” with me.

And Xie Xuanqing, under Xie Zhuo’s arrangement, was rescued by the fox demon. But in the end, fate intervened, and Xie Xuanqing still met Xiaxia.

“After I was sealed, I didn’t know who the man in black was…” Zhu Lian’s words pulled me back again. He bared his teeth in a terrifying grin. “But did you think… the one inside my body didn’t know?”

The one inside him…

The evil god. He knew even back then that the man in black was Xie Zhuo from five hundred years later?

“He knew! At that moment in time, there were two Xie Zhuos in the world—one the ordinary Xie Zhuo, and one from the future. He’s been waiting—waiting for this very day!”

Zhu Lian’s voice grew nearly deranged. “The evil god knew that once Xie Zhuo saw the forbidden sorcery, he’d comprehend the way to eradicate all the malevolent energy in the world. So he waited. For five hundred years, he’s waited for Xie Zhuo to return to the past. He knew that once Xie Zhuo went back, he’d come back choosing to sacrifice himself to cleanse the world!”

Upon hearing this, both I and Old Qin shuddered.

The evil god had known all along what Xie Zhuo would do. He’d foreseen Xie Zhuo’s disappearance along with all the evil energy. Which meant… he had five hundred more years to prepare than Xie Zhuo did.

“These past five hundred years, sealed inside here, I’ve wanted to die every second. Not because I lost to Xie Zhuo—but because the evil god has been constantly altering my body.

He used the outside world’s malevolent energy to drive Xie Zhuo mad—and tortured my soul from within.

He had it all planned. If Xie Zhuo went mad, he’d use his body to return to the mortal world. If Xie Zhuo didn’t go mad… and died—then I…”

As Zhu Lian spoke, his complexion turned even paler. Right in front of me and Old Qin, the blood flowing in his body began turning white.

Suddenly, I felt the ground tremble beneath my feet. A thunderous sound came from outside, and the Kunlun Defense Army badge on my waist suddenly shattered.

I knew… the temporary barrier over Kunlun—was broken.

“And I would become the chance for him to return to the world… Just a sliver…” Zhu Lian’s voice turned dry and raspy, as though all life was being drained from him. “The malevolent energy will never disappear. It lives in your hearts… One tug, and no one will escape the evil god’s calamity…”

Old Qin closed his folding fan, but Zhu Lian inside the cage had already turned completely white. The ground beneath him, the walls of the cave—all began to lose color.

This place was turning pure and cold, just like the snow-covered forest.

“All will become his vessels. But in this world… there will be no Xie Zhuo left…”

In the air, Zhu Lian left behind one final sentence, and then—fell utterly silent.

I stared at Zhu Lian, who had turned into something like an ice sculpture. My heart twisted with indescribable emotions. I couldn’t speak, and could only let Old Qin seize my arm and yell, “We can’t stay here!”

He dragged me away from the cave.

Riding the wind, we flew out of the cave. In front of us, the Kunlun barrier was shattering from above. And beyond it, a wave of malevolent energy like a sandstorm in the sky was surging toward us.

Zhu Lian’s final words echoed like a curse in my ears.

“All will become his vessels…”

“But in this world… there will be no Xie Zhuo left…”

Author’s Note:

New map next chapter

I promise your doggos will show up.