Old Man Zheng’s expression shifted as he ground his teeth: “I told you… I’ve been silenced. I can’t reveal these matters. I have nothing to say.”

Fang Yan instinctively felt that the old man was dodging the issue: “Senior Zheng, it’s too late for this kind of excuse. There’s no need to bring it up now.”

Old Man Zheng opened his mouth but didn’t manage to say anything. In the end, his face turned pale with anger, and he muttered: “It’s not a lie, it’s the truth.”

His behavior didn’t seem like he was lying. Xie Liufeng furrowed his brow and confirmed: “Who silenced you?”

Old Man Zheng sneered: “Who else could it be? Of course, it was my dear junior sister, Biyun.”

At this point, Chu Xinghui suddenly realized the biggest issue in Cultivator Biyun’s journal.

Old Man Zheng’s wrongdoings were logical in his choice to hide them.

According to Cultivator Biyun’s journal, she despised the mess her senior brother had created so much that she even expelled him from the sect. So why would she silence him? And why did she leave alone?

Based on the current information, it seems that initially, Cultivator Biyun was, in a way, an innocent and unlucky victim who had no reason to hide anything.

If these events were made known to the immortal cultivation world, it would certainly affect the reputation of the Bihai Taohua Island. However, by gathering ideas from different sects, it would likely be a better option than the current mess they were in.

Let’s assume, even if the fear of the Heavenly Ladder’s potential to cause turmoil in this world was valid, informing a few trusted high-level cultivators could still be a solution.

Unless… there was something else hidden in the prophecy Cultivator Biyun saw, giving her a valid reason to choose to hide the truth with her senior brother.

This would imply that Bihai Taohua Island, in some sense, was not entirely aligned with the rest of the immortal cultivation world.

Chu Xinghui recalled the details of Cultivator Biyun’s prophecy once more.

Perhaps it was because of the shock from the Heavenly Ladder’s collapse that they all overlooked another seemingly insignificant part—Bihai Taohua Island sinking, with Cultivator Biyun’s death being part of it.

But the collapse of the Heavenly Ladder… didn’t seem to have any direct connection to the sinking of Bihai Taohua Island.

Old Man Zheng could not speak openly, but that didn’t stop Xie Liufeng from trying to clarify things: “Since you can’t say it directly, let us take a guess.”

He sorted through all the information they had gathered so far and made a rough guess: “The reason why no one has ascended for nearly two thousand years is because the Book of Fate, which records the fates of everyone in this world, somehow made its way to the upper realm. Those in the upper realm can use it to steal the luck of this world… but because the two realms don’t directly interact, this issue remains somewhat hidden for now.”

“Because no one in this world knows the truth about the inability to ascend, and because you happened to have aspirations for ascension, unable to accept a fate where no one could ascend, you tried to solve this problem. You guessed that the reason no one could ascend was because the ascension passage was malfunctioning, so you did certain things that caused the originally one-way Heavenly Ladder to have a loophole, allowing people from the upper realm to come down through special methods—this is the true story behind the ‘Divine Descent’ event five hundred years ago.”

Old Man Zheng closed his eyes, revealing a deep exhaustion on his face: “After that… the upper realm remained silent, and I thought… I thought nothing would happen.”

He was not unaware that he had made a mistake, but he genuinely believed nothing would go wrong.

The barrier between the upper and lower realms was so solid, how could things go wrong so easily?

Xie Liufeng continued to lay out the development: “So, when the ‘God’ who had a deal with the Xie family appeared, you realized that things had spiraled beyond repair, and you went to the Old Island Master for help… or perhaps it wasn’t your choice, but the Old Island Master discovered the problem, leading to a series of changes on Bihai Taohua Island.”

He looked at Old Man Zheng, his tone calm, and continued: “Later, the Old Island Master died for your mistake, and I killed the ‘God’ from the lower realm. You thought everything was settled and spent the next few hundred years at ease, until Biyun saw the new heavenly signs and you realized nothing had truly been resolved—am I correct?”

Old Man Zheng became agitated and defended himself: “The cause of everything was not me! Everything… started with the Book of Fate. I didn’t know anything. I just wanted to ascend… so many people want to ascend, is it wrong of me?”

When people commit irremediable mistakes, they often instinctively remove themselves from the blame, placing the cause of the error on an external factor.

So, Old Man Zheng blamed it all on the Book of Fate and that damned fate.

This emotion, accumulated over many years, had become an inseparable part of his thinking—a sort of mental affliction.

Arguing with someone like him was utterly meaningless.

Thus, Chu Xinghui didn’t try to debate with him. Instead, after letting him vent, he asked a new question: “Senior Zheng, do you know why, in Cultivator Biyun’s prophecy, Bihai Taohua Island will eventually sink?”

Old Man Zheng suddenly froze, staring at him in silence.

Chu Xinghui roughly confirmed: “Senior Zheng can’t speak… so it must be related to what you did back then.”

When Chu Xinghui brought this up, Xie Liufeng had a new guess: “Although Senior Zheng was once a child of heaven, one person alone wouldn’t be able to affect the Heavenly Ladder. So, Senior Zheng must have used some other power, right?”

He casually mentioned something related to this matter: “For instance… the Book of Fate?”

Fang Yan was a bit confused: “But isn’t the Book of Fate in the upper realm?”

Xie Liufeng casually continued mixing together related elements in his speculation: “Although the Book of Fate is in the upper realm, it originally came from Bihai Taohua Island. It wouldn’t be strange if Senior Zheng found a way to accidentally tap into their power, right? For example, their semi-complete array used to reverse fate.”

Old Man Zheng suddenly raised his head, looking at Xie Liufeng like he had seen a ghost.

Chu Xinghui observed Old Man Zheng’s expression and furrowed his brow.

Reversing Fate… everyone’s fate is recorded in the Book of Fate, and the Book of Fate can be modified.

So, the real purpose of that array… was it actually related to the Book of Fate?

Xie Liufeng didn’t expect that his haphazard guess would seem to actually touch upon something significant. He exchanged a glance with Chu Xinghui, sat up a little straighter, and spoke with a more serious tone: “Since it’s about borrowing the power of the Book of Fate… it stands to reason that without some form of collateral, it would be difficult to borrow it. Let’s continue guessing—what exactly did Senior Zheng put at stake in order to borrow the Book of Fate’s power?”

He fixed his gaze on Old Man Zheng’s expression: “Earlier, our friend Xingxing mentioned something that had been overlooked—the fact that Bihai Taohua Island will sink… So, could it be that the former ruler of Bihai Taohua Island once used the entire island as collateral? If it’s related to the Book of Fate… could the collateral have been the entire list of disciples of Bihai Taohua Island?”

For the major sects, the disciples’ roster itself was a constantly changing spiritual artifact, closely tied to each disciple of the sect. When a certain person entered the sect, when they broke through, when they fell, when they ascended, or when they left the sect for some special reason… all of these would be recorded.

Before the incident, Old Zheng had always been regarded as the heir to Bihai Taohua Island. The old island master was already nearing retirement at that time, and it was no problem to say that Old Zheng was the actual person in charge back then.

Chu Xinghui suddenly remembered what Yue Yao had said the first time she talked to him in detail about the Book of Fate.

Yue Yao wanted to destroy the Book of Fate… Although he didn’t know how much Yue Yao truly understood, the root of her desire to destroy the Book of Fate probably lay here.

Because everyone on Bihai Taohua Island, including herself, was bound to the Book of Fate.

So, what exactly was the so-called “reverse destiny” formation used for?

Chu Xinghui recalled Qin Yuwen from back then.

Before Chu Xinghui was born, Qin Yuwen had first used a demon beast to harm Qin Xueyi, which indirectly caused Chu Xinghui to be born poisoned and abandoned… It was probably at this time that Qin Yuwen stole part of his fortune to conduct the initial operations.

But later, Chu Xinghui had directly avoided Lingxiang Sect and never interacted with Qin Yuwen again. Qin Yuwen could no longer steal fortune from him to pay the Book of Fate, and thus fell silent.

So… whether it was obtaining power from the Book of Fate or wanting to alter the Book of Fate, the price was clear.

It was fortune.

The fortune of all the people whose names were recorded in the Book of Fate.

So, the so-called formation that “reversed destiny”… was actually used to absorb the fortune of those who were sacrificed.

Perhaps this wasn’t a failure or a half-complete formation at all, but a complete one.

Xie Liufeng had obviously thought of the same thing.

He continued to stare at Old Zheng: “Senior Zheng, I remember you once said that the strange array pattern was a tradition of Bihai Taohua Island… But is this tradition the sign of gathering the bones of the same sect, or did this tradition turn them into bones?”

Old Zheng suddenly covered his ears, interrupting him with a painful expression: “Stop talking! Don’t say anymore! I didn’t want to harm anyone. I just didn’t know back then… I didn’t know it would turn out like this. It was clearly a failed formation. I didn’t know why the holy object activated it… Now, new disciples on Bihai Taohua Island no longer study this mark… it has been stopped…”

His appearance made Xie Liufeng pause for a moment.

No wonder when he first met Old Zheng, Old Zheng said that the younger disciples of Bihai Taohua Island might not recognize this mark, and only slightly older disciples would know about this tradition.

It turned out that after realizing the problem, they had deliberately stopped teaching the new disciples.

He had just felt that the people of Bihai Taohua Island were too evil, so he had guessed something sinister.

But seeing Old Zheng’s reaction… it was really true.

Moreover, the so-called holy object was actually a necessary condition to activate such an evil formation. What kind of bizarre things were they using as holy objects on Bihai Taohua Island?

Chu Xinghui thought carefully but still felt something was wrong.

If it were just like this, the disciples of Bihai Taohua Island would be the victims of this matter and wouldn’t stand opposed to the entire cultivation world.

The true threat to this world was the Book of Fate in the Upper Realm.

The only problem was… Old Zheng had sacrificed the entire Bihai Taohua Island disciple roster to the Book of Fate back then.

Chu Xinghui suddenly had a flash of insight and guessed: “Senior Zheng, after you sacrificed the disciple roster of Bihai Taohua Island, the disciples of Bihai Taohua Island now rely on the power of the Book of Fate to sustain their lives, and the Book of Fate is one of the important channels for stealing the fortune of this world, right?”

Old Zheng suddenly raised his head, his eyes red as he stared at him.

After a long while, he closed his eyes, nodding painfully: “It has come to this. I beg everyone not to spread this matter. It was all my fault… The disciples of Bihai Taohua Island are innocent.”

He rarely felt guilt or conscience for the sect that raised him.

The Book of Fate was in the Upper Realm, and people in this world had no chance of destroying the Book of Fate.

So… if the people in this world knew the truth, many might choose to kill all the disciples of Bihai Taohua Island to protect themselves.

And once the Heavenly Ladder broke, cutting off the connection between this world and the Book of Fate, the disciples of Bihai Taohua Island would still be doomed without the Book of Fate’s support.

This was the truth behind the prophecy that Bihai Taohua Island would sink.

For Bihai Taohua Island, from the day Old Zheng took action, it was an unsolvable deadlock.

 

 

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