Elder Su was actually willing to believe him?
No… Elder Su had always been aware of Shen Zong’s plight.
“Since you refuse to confess and insist on demanding evidence.”
Elder Su said, raising his long sword to point straight at Wen Zhihan, “Let everyone witness the proof of how you were coerced by Shen Zong.”
“What?”
Elder Su harbored no hostility; when the tip of his sword lunged forward, Wen Zhihan instinctively dodged, sustaining not a single scratch, though his outer garments were suddenly torn open.
Layers of white bandages were exposed to the air.
The bandages across his abdomen, the bandages on his arms, which had been properly wrapped moments before, now unraveled on their own, revealing wounds that had not yet thoroughly healed.
“Peak Master Wen, the moment I produce my luopan compass, it will immediately prove that the injuries on your body were all inflicted by Shen Zong.”
Elder Su put away his long sword and demanded directly,
“Do you still require me to go this far? Or do you possess some new explanation or argument to prove that this rebellious disciple of yours never coerced you, never committed insubordination?”
Wen Zhihan instinctively covered the bite mark on his forearm. Disconcerted by the sudden turn of events, he momentarily forgot how to respond.
He turned back to cast a glance at Shen Zong.
He could not let them drag the person away like this.
Slowly, Wen Zhihan loosened his hand covering the wound, exposing the pink bite mark to the air.
“I can prove it.”
At that exact moment, however, Shen Zong struggled even more fiercely, the clanging of metal ringing out, nearly allowing him to break free.
Amidst their exchange, the final tribulation lightning of the Golden Core breakthrough was about to descend.
Wen Zhihan turned to rush forward and block it for him.
Elder Su, however, suddenly flashed forward to block his path. Two long swords collided, neither yielding an inch. Elder Su’s tone and pitch turned stern in an instant,
“Wen Zhihan! Where is your reason?!”
Reason?
I have always been rational. I know what I am doing, I know the whole truth, I—
“Do you truly believe you can block everything for him?”
Elder Su was always calm; he seemed immune to having his emotions swayed by anything, possessing the mindset of an unfeeling dao. Yet at this very moment, he could not avoid displaying a hint of anxiety—
Anxiety, rather than anger.
He seemed as though he were blocking Wen Zhihan from shielding his disciple against the tribulation, yet also as though he were speaking of something more.
In a daze, Wen Zhihan seemed to hear the voice of the lingering soul once again.
Arrogant, conceited, standing high above, treating everything in this plane as insignificant and believing that a single individual could represent the Heavenly Dao.
He suddenly recalled that voice stating that Shen Zong would never die.
So that was it…
All of Bai Chixin’s plans and schemes were built upon a blind reliance on the Heavenly Dao.
Despite claiming to be a transmigrator who looked down upon everything in this world, he placed greater faith in the power of the Heavenly Dao than anyone born here, treating fate as an irrefutable, correct answer.
Ha…
So that was how it was.
Wen Zhihan had not expected that he too could occasionally measure others by his own yardstick.
He had subconsciously assumed that everything Bai Chixin did was solely to plot against Shen Zong, because the lingering soul’s malice had been so obvious.
In reality, Bai Chixin perhaps cared little for Shen Zong. Causing harm, leading an encirclement, and framing him were merely mandatory plot points of the original story that this villainous master had to execute.
He had forgotten to ponder what Bai Chixin truly desired.
Taking advantage of the current chaos, why had Bai Chixin specifically come here and blended into the crowd?
He was Wen Zhihan, Shen Zong’s master, and he—was Bai Chixin’s true target.
Not Shen Zong, but the identity known as Wen Zhihan.
Elder Su had reminded him.
Wen Zhihan himself did not know how Bai Chixin had sneaked in, but Elder Su knew where Bai Chixin was and knew that this sudden intruder who had blended into the crowd was problematic, which was why he had deliberately come over to remind him under the guise of persuasion.
He grew calm instantly, his thoughts clearing once more.
The thunder tribulation was not the most critical issue right now; if he truly wished to save Shen Zong, he could not afford to lose his head, lest he play right into Bai Chixin’s hands.
“Wen Zhihan, do you know what you must do now?”
Elder Su stood before him, reminding him once again.
He nodded. As their gazes met, the tension finally faded from Elder Su’s eyes.
With a slight flick of his fingers, Wen Zhihan recalled the Leaving-Man Tree’s cutting from Shen Zong’s person.
The roar of thunder descended. In an instant, countless plant roots burst forth from the soil like a birdcage to block the lightning strike.
Many of the Leaving-Man Tree’s branches were charred black, and it wailed loudly.
Ahhh it hurts so much, it hurts so much!
Wen Zhihan you bastard, this is extra help! The reward must be doubled! Doubled!!
Wen Zhihan also went along with the ruse, pretending to have fallen out with Elder Su. Violently swinging his long sword, he recklessly engaged in a fierce battle with his former fellow sect member.
Recalling the plot beats he had observed in the original novel, he simply mimicked their tone, feigning an unstable Dao heart as he swung his sword wildly without form, shouting out several cynical and rebellious remarks at the top of his lungs,
“Pompous and self-righteous! Do the lot of you spend your days in diligent cultivation simply to rely on sheer numbers to reverse black and white?!”
His words left no room for courtesy, further infuriating the onlookers. Wen Zhihan, however, paid them no mind, trading blow for blow with Elder Su in an evenly matched struggle that brought him ever closer to the crowd of lofty immortals.
“Heh… immortal cultivators, you say? Are you not equally hypocritical and steeped in atrocities? And demonic cultivators? They live far more open and straightforward lives than hypocrites like you!!”
“Wen Zhihan! Cease your wild ravings!”
With a clanging ring, swords clashed. Seeing no end to the chaos, another individual from the Profound Heaven Sect stepped forward, imploring the assembled senior peers to hold their attacks and leave the mess created by Wen Zhihan for them to handle internally.
The sound of a zither suddenly rang out, causing Wen Zhihan’s figure to stall as he was driven back slightly by Elder Su.
A sound cultivator…
This technique could influence a person’s intellect and soul to achieve the effect of repelling an enemy.
Wen Zhihan immediately went along with the momentum, letting his gaze go slightly out of focus and pretending to suffer an unstable soul and shattered Dao heart as he secretly bit the tip of his tongue to cough up a mouthful of blood.
“Peak Master Wen…”
Even Elder Su lacked the heart to press the attack further upon seeing him like this, instinctively reaching out a hand to steady him.
“I said… I am the true mastermind behind all of this. Why will you people not let me confess, why will you not arrest me?!”
Pale-faced, Wen Zhihan knelt upon his sword high in the sky, presenting a precarious, crumbling spectacle falling short of a proper Nascent Soul expert’s caliber. Looking up at the dark, oppressive crowd of people resembling storm clouds, he uttered half-truths with a bitter smile on his lips.
Anticipating this exact moment, Bai Chixin must have plotted for a long time.
In an unobserved corner, a slender and fragile trace of spiritual consciousness finally seized the opportunity to crawl over, wrapping around Wen Zhihan’s limbs like the tender tendrils of a dodder vine.
Wen Zhihan kept his head lowered, feigning ignorance while maintaining perfect clarity beneath his half-closed eyelids.
He had taken the bait.
Spiritual energy erupted violently across Wen Zhihan’s body as his consciousness counter-attacked, seizing the lingering soul’s aura with a death grip while forming a hand seal to condense spiritual energy into a sharp sword edge that plunged straight into his own body.
The spirit sword pierced his flesh instantly, blood spraying as the sword body dissolved into nothingness.
At the exact same moment, amidst the ranks of the encircling immortals, an unfamiliar cultivator shrieked aloud, vomiting a mouthful of blood.
“Bai Chixin!”
Enduring the agonizing pain of his severe wounds, Wen Zhihan managed a smile. “Found you.”
Bai Chixin’s greed was insatiable, plotting to attempt another possession at this opportune moment, entirely unaware that the instant their souls connected, he had exposed himself.
Wen Zhihan had deliberately taken the risk, establishing a connection between Bai Chixin’s lingering soul and his own physical body. Only by doing so could the heavy injuries sustained by this vessel be synchronized directly to Bai Chixin’s lingering soul.
Relying on this synchronization of wounds, he had accurately pinpointed Bai Chixin’s hidden form among thousands of cultivators, proving the existence of the forbidden art of body possession before everyone’s eyes.
Realizing his possession attempt had failed, Bai Chixin prepared to flee immediately.
“Seize him!”
Wen Zhihan shouted instantly, “That is a ghost cultivator! He just used a possession technique on me!”
At that very moment, however, several bolts of lightning fell from thin air, granting Bai Chixin an opportunity to escape.
No matter how slow their reactions or how numerous their doubts might be, even those who failed to spot the exposed ghost cultivator now realized something was amiss, and several individuals drew their swords.
Grave injuries wracked Wen Zhihan’s body, yet the power of his consciousness remained undiminished as he maintained a death grip on Bai Chixin’s lingering soul, drawing his sword to give chase.
As long as the distance was not widened too far, Bai Chixin could no longer escape.
The golden dharma manifestations maintained by the collective effort of the crowd at the horizon finally dissipated, and the chains binding Shen Zong vanished as well.
The inner demon flexed its somewhat stiff and aching body, picked up the long sword from the ground, raised its head to locate Wen Zhihan’s figure, and gave chase on a flying sword.
Though Bai Chixin possessed weak combat strength as a ghost cultivator, he inexplicably wielded extraordinary treasures. Surrounded by high-level experts from various sects, whenever someone came close to capturing him alive, he would hurl countless rare treasures to repeatedly slip away just short of success.
Teeth gritted, Wen Zhihan gave chase, ignoring the interference and anxiety of his fellow sect members, summoning eighty-nine sword shadows to stab toward Bai Chixin.
The next second, a bizarre teleportation formation materialized out of thin air in mid-air. Scrambling into it in a panic, Bai Chixin vanished entirely.
Some followed closely into the array to investigate, and Wen Zhihan followed suit.
“Wait, do not all of you go; leave some people behind to guard this place with me.”
Elder Su intercepted several fellow sect members and members of other sects, speaking calmly, “I fear this is a trap.”
Yet the next second, another dark shadow bypassed everyone, plunging through at the very final instant before the array vanished.
Elder Su turned around in astonishment. “Shen Zong?!”
“It matters not.”
The white-haired master of the Profound Heaven Sect patted him on the shoulder and said, “In my view, that child Shen Zong will soon clear himself of these unwarranted crimes. Let him go.”
…
Transported away by the array, Wen Zhihan felt the scenery shift violently before his eyes. When he looked again, the shadow of the ghost cultivator Bai Chixin was nowhere to be seen.
The immortals participating in today’s encirclement numbered several thousand, with hundreds following him in pursuit of Bai Chixin, yet after the array teleported them, only a few dozen stood here alongside him.
Wen Zhihan frowned slightly, finding it hard to believe that this man could still escape under such circumstances.
Behind him, the cultivators began to discuss in low murmurs.
“Where is that ghost cultivator?”
“Gone.”
“What do we do now? Should we wait here for the seniors to rendezvous with us?”
“We managed to lose him even like this?”
“How did no one hold Peak Master Wen back… that was terrifying just now.”
“It seems this is not the sole teleportation array,”
He overheard someone analyzing, “Peak Master Wen need not worry; surely other fellow daoists teleported to the same location as that ghost cultivator, so he will certainly not escape for real.”
“You, on the other hand, have sustained such heavy injuries; you should treat them promptly.”
Wen Zhihan recognized none of these individuals, shaking his head mutely while the sense of unease refused to disperse.
Suddenly, another figure was teleported over.
Sensing something, he turned back to look, his eyes widening slightly.
“Shen Zong…”
The others turned to look as well.
“Ah… so, what on earth is this Shen Zong…”
“Why did they let him follow them over as well?”
“This master and disciple pair, oh dear…”
Covered in wounds with a profound, gloomy expression, Shen Zong gripped a long sword as he walked step by step toward Wen Zhihan.
Amidst the chaos, he had successfully undergone tribulation, ascending to become a young Golden Core cultivator.
Having experienced such turmoil, no one questioned whether his Dao heart remained stable, nor did anyone think there was anything amiss with Shen Zong’s gloomy aura, anyone framed in such a manner would hardly be in a cheerful mood.
Assuming he truly was innocent.
“Master.”
Controlled by the inner demon, Shen Zong’s voice sounded somewhat hoarse. As he drew closer step by step, the surrounding cultivators grew slightly apprehensive, instinctively clustering together to enclose the master and disciple in the center.
No final consensus had been reached regarding who the true mastermind behind the unorthodox cultivators was. With the ghost cultivator lost, the gazes directed at the pair once more carried faint hints of suspicion.
When all practitioners gathered together, obeying orders solely from their seniors, they thought nothing of it as long as their masters, elders, and sect masters remained silent.
Yet with only a few dozen people standing here now, doubt inevitably crept in; though they said nothing aloud, a portion remained willing to believe Shen Zong was innocent.
After all, he looked so wretched, so pitiful.
Wen Zhihan looked at his disciple, assuming he was merely deeply aggrieved. “Do not be afraid. You will not be convicted; Master knows that you are innocent.”
Those who already pitied Shen Zong and believed in his innocence immediately nodded among the crowd. “Indeed, Shen Zong, do not be too agitated either. If your conscience is truly clean, you have no need to fear the sect’s interrogation.”
“Why?”
Shen Zong let out a light laugh, raising his long sword to point straight at the person who had just spoken. “By what right must I be hauled away for interrogation?! Who doesn’t know that once I go in, things will no longer be up to me?”
“It will not happen.”
Wen Zhihan stepped forward, hastily shielding that person as he gently checked Shen Zong’s sword. “I will—”
“Master!”
Shen Zong abruptly and intensely interrupted him. “Have you not done enough to me already?!”
Stung by his gaze, Wen Zhihan opened his mouth. “That is not…”
“What about unorthodox cultivators? Why must you still put on a hypocritical facade of benevolence at this late hour?!”
Shen Zong sneered. “Do you think yourself very kind and noble? Wen Zhihan, just how much longer will you play the fool?!”
“Shen Zong—”
“I killed them! But they deserved to die! What wrong did I commit by killing them?!”
Shen Zong interrupted him once more, roaring aloud before the crowd, “And what of colluding with demonic cultivators? If I had not colluded with demonic cultivators, I would have died long ago!!”
The crowd drew a sharp breath of cold air.
Shen Zong had confessed!
“Cease putting on a good act before me! I do not need you to take the blame for me!”
With a sweep of his long sword, Shen Zong bypassed Wen Zhihan before him. Channeling his spiritual energy, he launched a vicious attack against the crowd.
“Careful!”
Expecting him to possess merely early Golden Core cultivation given his recent breakthrough, they were caught entirely off-guard when a single sword strike unleashed the overwhelming pressure of the late Golden Core stage, genuinely wounding them.
Shen Zong sneered, pivoting the blade to thrust straight toward Wen Zhihan’s vital points.
With a clang, Wen Zhihan’s natal treasured sword drew itself automatically to block the blow.
“No…”
A cold sweat broke out all over Wen Zhihan’s body. “It is not like this.”
Something was wrong.
A strong sense of incongruity welled up within him, yet try as he might, he could not comprehend why Shen Zong was deliberately uttering such words. He had already striven his utmost to clear his name, so why had things still turned out this way?
Why confess?
Being framed, being splashed with filth, being expelled from the sect, were these not the greatest grievances in the original novel? Now that there was hope of overturning the verdict, why give it up?
Why intentionally display a lack of respect for his elders before the crowd?
That was fundamentally not something Shen Zong would say.
Panic gripped Wen Zhihan’s heart, turning his mind into a chaotic mess as he attempted to extract an answer from the overwhelming mass of information to explain Shen Zong’s sudden change, but Shen Zong’s onslaught came with redoubled ferocity, granting him no time to reflect.
He must have missed something…
“Wen Zhihan!!”
Veins bulging in his temples, Shen Zong surged forward with a torrent of violent spiritual energy, driving him back. “You deliberately trapped me in Dragon Valley, was it not simply to capture me alive?!”
“That was not my purpose!”
Wen Zhihan refused to counterattack, unwilling to fight his disciple. Gripping his long sword, every single move he executed remained purely defensive.
While blocking Shen Zong’s sword, he remained mindful of his surroundings, permitting no one else to intervene for fear they might injure Shen Zong.
He could not allow the scene of Shen Zong being battered by the crowd from the original novel to repeat itself!
“Shen Zong! Stop this instant!”
Wen Zhihan retreated into the distance, but his disciple could no longer take in a single word he uttered.
As they clashed, their combat carried them further and further away until a careless retreat brought them out of the forest.
Catching sight of the landscape beyond the trees, Wen Zhihan’s heart sank instantly.
He finally recognized this place…
“Cliff of Returning to Heaven…”
This was the very precipice where Shen Zong had been heavily wounded during the encirclement and fallen in despair in the original novel.
According to the plot of Homeward Journey, it was from this cliff that Shen Zong fell before descending completely into demonic cultivation.
The inner demon recognized the location as well, though it merely chuckled softly.
In his previous life, Shen Zong had been slain precisely at this Cliff of Returning to Heaven; this time, he would retaliate and kill in return.
Shen Zong’s sword struck toward Wen Zhihan once more.
Kill him.
At this juncture, the intent to kill had become the inner demon’s sole obsession.
Deepest within his mind, the intense volition belonging to Shen Zong himself transformed into a shriek echoing in his ears, harmonizing at this moment with the inner demon’s intent.
He would kill Wen Zhihan, would confess to every single crime, and would care nothing for the consequences.
Since this Wen Zhihan would inevitably rot and deteriorate sooner or later, transforming into a sickening, despicable villain, he might as well die at his hands today and be forever remembered in his finest form by everyone and by this world.
That way, he would not tread the path of his past life to repeat old mistakes, nor would he be forced to watch everyone slowly forget his master’s original appearance.