The cause of the matter was mostly clear. Old Zheng remained silent for a long time, and his old face showed some relief: “It’s strange to say, I’ve kept this hidden for so many years, afraid that these things would be exposed to the public. But now that it’s been found out, I actually feel a lot more at ease.”

Others: “…”

One couldn’t help but say that this person’s face was incredibly thick.

Fang Yan couldn’t help but sneer: “I wonder if the friends of Bihai Taohua Island will feel as relieved as Senior Zheng after knowing this.”

This matter was related to the safety of the entire cultivation world, so of course no one would keep it a secret for the sake of Zheng Old’s “conscience.”

Old Zheng’s face turned awkward, and he fell silent again.

Chu Xinghui was still thinking about the next steps and continued to ask: “You said everything you did with Cultivator Baiyun was to solve the problem, so what exactly did you do, and how do you plan to resolve the current situation?”

Cultivator Baiyun had sealed his mouth when driving him out of the sect, and their plan afterward should not have been covered by the seal.

Upon hearing the question, Old Zheng’s eyes darted, and a clear hesitation appeared on his face.

Xie Liufeng immediately saw that he had some plans and sneered: “What? After all this time, Senior Zheng still thought there was a chance for his plan to succeed?”

Old Zheng opened his mouth, seemingly anxious to explain something.

But Xie Liufeng didn’t want to hear him talk nonsense. He slowly threatened: “Relax, Senior Zheng. You almost managed to escape today, and I believe you and Yue Yao still have some unused backup plans. But if you don’t explain things clearly today, I guarantee you’ll never have the chance to explain again. I believe that no matter the plan, if all the executors of the plan are dead, there’s no way it can continue, right?”

Cold sweat began to drip down Old Zheng’s face, and he finally nodded: “I can speak, but I have one request.”

Xie Liufeng directly interrupted him: “Senior Zheng, it seems that your current situation doesn’t give you the qualification to make requests.”

“…It’s not a bad thing. I just hope that Yue Yao hears these words today.” Old Zheng choked for a moment, his old face turning red. He said directly: “Back then, I left the island with my junior sister, and not a single word was left for this child. Now, since everything has been exposed, even if you all disagree with my request, I still hope the person in charge of Bihai Taohua Island will know the full truth, so they won’t blindly walk down the path to destruction.”

He spoke with emotion, as if the person who had really forced Bihai Taohua Island to the brink of destruction wasn’t him.

The three of them were unmoved by his performance and began discussing the current situation.

Regardless of whether Yue Yao was trustworthy, to control the impact Bihai Taohua Island had on the entire cultivation world, they indeed needed to communicate with Yue Yao first.

However, Yue Yao had been elusive lately and hadn’t appeared in public for a long time. No one knew where she had gone.

Chu Xinghui tried to send a message to Yue Yao.

Fortunately, Yue Yao’s voice came back quickly: “Oh, isn’t Cultivator Chu newly married? What made you remember me today?”

Chu Xinghui didn’t waste time on pleasantries. He asked her: “Cultivator Yue, are you still in the Beiyue region?”

Yue Yao looked around and answered: “Yes, I’m here. I ran into someone from your sect on the way. It seems they brought me to a very interesting place. I plan to avoid your sect’s people and take a look inside.”

Chu Xinghui: “…”

Fang Yan felt this was highly disrespectful to the disciples of Beiyue Sword Sect, so he spoke up: “Cultivator Yue.”

Yue Yao was stunned for a moment: “Hmm? Sect Master Fang is also here? Is there some sort of gathering?”

Chu Xinghui directly asked her: “Are you at your master’s residence?”

Yue Yao finally realized something was wrong: “…How do you know?”

Chu Xinghui briefly explained the situation and continued: “Stop looking around, your uncle is looking for you.”

Yue Yao seemed confused but agreed: “Okay, I’ll be there shortly.”

*

Yue Yao quickly arrived.

She habitually raised a smiling face, but Chu Xinghui interrupted her, directly explaining what Old Zheng had just said.

With a “crack,” Yue Yao forcefully broke the fan in her hand.

She smiled and said: “Master Uncle’s difficulties… must have been many. He must have been very wronged these years, huh?”

Even though she had vaguely guessed many things during her years of investigation, hearing it truly now still made her burn with anger.

How absurd… the cause of all this was so ridiculous.

She glared at Old Zheng.

When truly confronted with the victim, Old Zheng subconsciously shrank back.

Yue Yao took a deep breath and closed her eyes: “Please excuse me for a moment, there are too many people here for me to do anything.”

“Wait,” she assessed the situation, forced herself to calm down, then looked back at Chu Xinghui, and added calmly: “Currently, the situation of Bihai Taohua Island is special. To prove my innocence, I shouldn’t be alone with this person. I ask Cultivator Chu to stay for a moment as a witness.”

Chu Xinghui nodded.

…

Xie Liufeng and Fang Yan stepped outside, and Yue Yao began to deal with Old Zheng.

Today, Chu Xinghui learned that Yue Yao was also somewhat skilled in martial arts.

He silently cast a protective shield on himself to prevent blood from splattering onto him.

Yue Yao controlled herself and beat Old Zheng to the brink of death. She then pried open his jaw to feed him a spirit pill to prevent him from fainting, before finally calming down. She cleaned up the blood on the floor, opened the door, and called everyone back inside.

Everyone pretended not to see Old Zheng’s battered and broken body and sat down in a place.

Yue Yao directly asked the most important question regarding Bihai Taohua Island: “Master Uncle, since you sold out the entire Bihai Taohua Island, you should be able to tell me how the disciples of our island helped the Book of Fate steal the fortune of this world, right?”

After being beaten, Old Zheng looked much more honest: “The power of the Book of Fate is within us. As long as we are in this world, the fortune of this world will slowly gather around us and then flow into the body of the Book of Fate.”

Yue Yao couldn’t help herself and immediately stood up to slap him again.

Good, just great.

As long as Bihai Taohua Island remained in this world, the Book of Fate would steal the fortune at a much faster rate, and he had the audacity to conceal this for so many years.

After a hundred years, she suddenly felt some empathy for how her master must have felt when he learned the truth back then.

In such a way… even if she broke through the sky, she still wouldn’t be able to resolve the issues with Bihai Taohua Island.

If it hadn’t been exposed in advance, she had to admit to herself that she might have done the same as Cultivator Baiyun back then and kept this matter hidden forever.

Fang Yan, fearing that someone might be killed on the spot, temporarily changed the subject: “Now that Fellow Cultivator Yue is here, should Senior Zheng talk about your plan with the Immortal Biyun?”

Under the intense gaze of everyone, Old Zheng couldn’t help but revert to his usual timid posture. He explained: “Actually… our plan is to resolve the most pressing issue at hand—the problem with the Heavenly Ladder, to prevent people from the upper realm from descending to this realm.”

“This matter was originally unsolvable, but there was still a variable left in the dark,” he said, not daring to look directly at Xie Liufeng, sneaking a glance at him: “When the Sword Master killed the god, he had already passed the ascension thunder tribulation and was refined by the tribulation into a divine bone… In the end, though, he neither ascended nor died. Instead, he was trapped in this realm and his name was removed from the Book of Fate. And the Sword Master’s divine bone… can be used as material for the Heavenly Ladder.”

Then he looked at Chu Xinghui: “The Son of Heaven carries the imprint of the Heavenly Dao, and his soul can be used to inject the power of the Heavenly Dao into the Heavenly Ladder, allowing it to regain the recognition of the Heavenly Dao. In this way, the Son of Heaven cannot sever the Heavenly Ladder as prophesied, and the Heavenly Ladder will have the materials needed for repair. It’s a two-for-one deal.”

Finally, Old Zheng turned to look at Xie Liufeng: “Moreover, the Sword Master’s name is not recorded in the Book of Fate, so it might be able to block the Book of Fate’s perception of this realm. In that case, both problems troubling this realm would be solved.”

Although it sounded plausible, Chu Xinghui felt he should care about the safety of himself and his Dao partner: “So, after this plan is carried out, what will happen to me and Xie Liufeng?”

Old Zheng said righteously: “Sacrificing a few people to protect the safety of this realm and preserve the ascension path of this realm—could this not be a very profitable deal?”

Chu Xinghui understood then.

So in the end, they still planned to have him make the sacrifice first.

This time, they also added Xie Liufeng.

Chu Xinghui suggested: “How about adding another soul? Your soul looks quite good.”

Old Zheng sighed and looked troubled: “I’ve been tortured by my conscience for all these years. If possible, I would of course be willing to be part of the sacrifice, but… but I’ve never ascended, and I’m not the Son of Heaven. My life has no use to the plan.”

Xie Liufeng was happy to resolve his dilemma: “It’s fine. We can tailor a new plan for you, with the core being how to make use of your life. How about it?”

Everyone except Old Zheng agreed with Xie Liufeng’s suggestion.

Old Zheng: “…”

He lowered his head and dared not speak.

Fang Yan was recording his testimony and couldn’t help but glance at Ming Xiao, who was still lying beside them: “So, who are the six ‘sacrifices’ you’ve prepared?”

Old Zheng explained vaguely: “Well… Although the materials have been determined, those who haven’t ascended need to borrow some other powers to approach the Heavenly Ladder. These six people are used to activate those powers.”

Yue Yao suddenly realized something.

She walked step by step toward Old Zheng and asked: “So, are you planning to borrow the power of the Book of Fate again?”

Before Old Zheng could answer, his pupils suddenly shrank: “Yao Yao, you—”

Yue Yao directly drew a short knife and stabbed it into his shoulder.

Bright red blood flowed from his body.

Yue Yao didn’t find what she wanted, so she stabbed again.

She stabbed three times in a row, and gradually, among the bright red blood, black mist began to mix in—a mist that closely resembled the composition of Immortal Biyun.

Seeing this scene, everyone was shocked.

Yue Yao threw the short knife aside: “It looks like Master Uncle chose the same path as my master.”

She coldly looked at Old Zheng: “Let me guess. For someone like Master Uncle, who values his life and ascension, why would he choose this path? Is it because the power of the Book of Fate you’re planning to use comes from Bihai Taohua Island?”

The power of the Book of Fate was powerful enough to alter the ascension path, as had been proven years ago.

But they no longer had another Bihai Taohua Island to offer.

So this time, they chose to use… the power of the Book of Fate that was used to sustain the lives of the disciples of Bihai Taohua Island.

Old Zheng covered his wound, his face pale as he defended: “If Bihai Taohua Island is destined to sink… then why not make everyone’s departure more meaningful, and settle the karmic debts of the island over the years?”

Yue Yao almost couldn’t stop herself from killing him directly: “Then why did you go to such lengths to free yourselves from the Book of Fate’s restraints?”

What karmic debts? Just because a few animals came out of the sect, does the entire sect have to pay the price?

Old Zheng was silent for a moment, then muttered: “Now that Biyun and I are here, this… this plan can’t be carried out anymore. And the Heavenly Ladder is such an important thing. Without it, people from this realm can never ascend. What hope do the cultivators have?”

As someone prophesied to sever the ascension path, Chu Xinghui couldn’t help but speak: “Why are you so obsessed with preserving this ascension path?”

He sincerely expressed his confusion: “Not to mention that the upper realm is obviously off, but is the upper realm the one that people from this realm are supposed to ascend to?”

 

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