ATEG Chapter 106.2

In the instant Xiezhi transformed from void to solid, a shadow of the Yellow Springs flashed and appeared. Xiezhi was not resting in the lake but hiding in the Underworld. This was also why when she came to the lakeside last time, she hadn’t seen Xiezhi. That blade light following Xiezhi had also been slashed from the Underworld. As for why Xiezhi was hiding in the Underworld, she had also seen clearly.

Throughout the valley, a layer of blood qi had always been present. This blood qi had almost no effect on the valley, so it was also difficult to detect. But in the instant Xiezhi revealed himself, this blood qi suddenly transformed into a net, pouncing to ensnare Xiezhi. Its momentum was even more dangerous than that vast blade light!

Blood qi was everywhere, and it had a deep and hidden connection with Xiezhi. He couldn’t avoid it at all. The blood qi took root on his body. When Xiezhi had just left the lake, his glazed eyes had still been clear, but now, touched by the blood qi, their divine light dimmed and his consciousness was no longer quite lucid. Xiezhi used this lake as an entry and exit point to hide in the Underworld to evade this blood qi produced by blood sacrifice.

And in the instant when Ding Qin’s many thoughts concluded, the blade light in the air had only just finished splitting the sky before dispersing. At the same time, from the lake surface that Xiezhi had escaped, a tall figure suddenly stepped forth.

Long black hair, pale white bone blade, ghostly qi majestic and severe with killing intent.

The blade light rose like furious thunder. Xiezhi turned to flee but was clouded in consciousness by the blood qi, a moment too slow. It looked like the blade light would strike him!

A crane’s cry suddenly rang out in the air. A pair of slender fingers caught the blade light.

Bai Hong had somehow already withdrawn from her confrontation with Wencha, inserting herself into the aerial battlefield in an instant.

The ink-wash-like feathered robes stirred by the momentum between the two, floating as if immortal. Bai Hong hung suspended in midair, the light of a crane’s beak hidden at her fingertips catching the edge of the white bone blade. Between her brows, a point of red was vivid and striking as she gazed at the suddenly appearing newcomer:

“Ghost King.”

That figure standing at the lake’s heart, rising with drawn blade amid the moonlight and blood waves with magnificent presence, was none other than the Ghost King Nu Xu from the Daqing Mountain range.

Nu Xu withdrew her bone blade. After seeing clearly that it was Bai Hong who caught the blade, she pulled back her force. This demon god who had sheltered the villages on both banks of the Jiuqu River for over a thousand years out of momentary compassion—though they had little interaction, she recognized her.

Nu Xu’s gaze shifted and she saw Ding Qin to the side. “It’s you.”

She also remembered Ding Qin. In Shuigu Town, due to the incident caused by the black dog Little General, they had met once. Moreover, she was also the divine messenger of that deity who had helped her see through delusion.

The severity and killing intent in Nu Xu’s brows had already softened. Her gaze swept once, and seeing the situation at the lakeside, she guessed what was taking place here. Xiezhi feared the Ghost King’s might and wanted to flee, yet was reluctant and worried about his blood kin, forcibly enduring the great terror between life and death. He landed at the shore, lowering his head with his single horn facing the Ghost King, a threatening growl coming from his throat.

“Why are you here?” Nu Xu asked, seeing that Xiezhi hadn’t fled far and not rushing to pursue.

“I brought her out traveling.” Bai Hong looked at Ding Qin, then turned to ask Nu Xu, “Why do you want to kill Xiezhi?”

Nu Xu turned her gaze toward Xiezhi standing before the villagers on the shore. Under her gaze, Xiezhi instantly tensed further, his front hooves stamping, growling in his throat.

Nu Xu’s gaze lightly withdrew as she said, “Someone is spying on the Underworld Yellow Springs. I’m removing his pawns.”

“You mean Xiezhi…?” Bai Hong looked at Xiezhi doubtfully. Seeing his unclear consciousness, fearful and rigid appearance, she couldn’t help but feel some emotion.

Xiezhi was a great demon whose name had been established long ago. Before Bai Hong was even born, he was already famous. Yet now, for some unknown reason, he had fallen to this state—it was hard not to feel sorrow.

“He isn’t yet, but he’s already walked onto that path.” Nu Xu put away her white bone blade and walked toward the shore, treading on the blood waves and moonlight on the lake. Though she had dispersed her severity when wielding the blade, Xiezhi remained extremely fearful. His four hooves stamped anxiously, as if wanting to flee yet reluctant to leave.

Wencha, closest to the lake, suddenly stepped in front of Xiezhi, forcing himself to shout at the Ghost King. “Stop!”

He used the wooden staff to support his body. Blood traces he hadn’t had time to wipe clean remained at the corner of his lips. Just now, when the Ghost King slashed out from the Underworld with a single strike, though it hadn’t hit Xiezhi, it had shattered the sacrificial momentum. As the chief sacrificer, Wencha had already suffered backlash. His arm supporting the staff kept trembling. To block Xiezhi’s front, he had already stepped into the lake water, but he couldn’t care about that now.

A pair of hands suddenly supported him. Da Wu stood beside him, also blocking Xiezhi behind them, watching the Ghost King warily.

The villagers at the shore had already recovered from the shocking change. One by one they gathered beside Xiezhi, silent, fearful, yet resolute.

Nu Xu stopped walking. Looking at the crowd full of hostility, she said, “You’re acting as if what I’m about to do is evil. But his becoming like this now is precisely the result of your actions. Letting him continue this way will only turn him into a puppet in someone else’s hands.”

“What do you mean by that?” Old Grandmother asked.

“You want to save his life with blood sacrifice, but every blood sacrifice helps the one who set this trap to control him. His unclear consciousness now isn’t because of severe injury, but because of the blood sacrifice’s influence.” Nu Xu said.

“This is impossible!” Wencha vehemently objected.

Bai Hong had already returned to the lakeside, landing beside Ding Qin. Nu Xu’s gaze fell on them. “Perhaps you know more?”

She had just come here from the Underworld. What she said was only based on what she had briefly observed, and she didn’t know the more specific situation.

Ding Qin looked at Xiezhi surrounded in the middle by the villagers. Among his kin, Xiezhi was much calmer, but that layer of heavy blood qi clung to him like a disease deep in the bones. Her gaze filled with pity as she sighed. “I think I’ve guessed it.”

From when Bie Chunian taught the village the blood sacrifice method… or perhaps from even earlier, this had been a trap.

The blood sacrifice method ostensibly sustained Xiezhi’s life, but secretly it was controlling Xiezhi’s consciousness. Xiezhi could enter the Underworld. The person behind the scenes wanted to use Xiezhi’s ability to act in the Underworld Yellow Springs. But Xiezhi’s nature was upright and firm, and he could perceive and distinguish—he couldn’t be persuaded or deceived. To use him, they could only completely control him.

The Mingdeng Sect’s heart flame was bright and transparent and wouldn’t obstruct the divine ability of Xiezhi’s bloodline. They couldn’t see through Bie Chunian because Bie Chunian had long since betrayed the Mingdeng Sect and learned other evil methods. Ding Qin had once seen Bie Chunian’s silhouette in karmic threads—he had very deep karmic connections with Changpu and Yang Cang. Though at that time, due to backlash, she had only glimpsed it briefly, based on the fragments she saw then combined with what she had seen and heard now, she could already deduce Bie Chunian’s identity.

The one who could set Xiezhi into a trap was likely the master who had betrayed Yang Cang back then, causing his death.

This trap was set very cleverly. Though simple and crude, it was very effective. Xiezhi’s nature was firm and difficult to break through, yet he had a deep and affectionate connection with his clan. The villagers cherished their totem, their natures similar to Xiezhi’s, yet they would spare nothing to save Xiezhi’s life.

If you wanted to drive a being whose nature was so firm he could refuse all benefit temptations, whose mind was so transparent he could see through all schemes—when joy, anger, sorrow, and fear were all insufficient to move him—then use love to drive the people he cared about, make them offer themselves to him with reluctant attachment. Wouldn’t that become the most difficult trap in the world to resist?

The villagers could never coldly watch the totem perish. So no matter what, they would try the blood sacrifice method.

But the fact that Xiezhi became a totem and had a clan was an extremely deep secret. The villagers had been passed down for countless generations, yet no one knew they were Xiezhi’s people. Their divine ability wouldn’t manifest any anomaly on their bodies. Hidden in the deep valley, even if they left they would never publicize what their totem was. They wouldn’t even openly declare they possessed innate divine abilities.

That Bie Chunian could know this and use it to set such a trap was truly a terrifying thing.

But his scheme had failed.

The villagers inherited Xiezhi’s bloodline and divine ability, and also inherited his character. Even enduring the pain of cutting flesh and letting blood, they had only ever used their own blood and flesh to try to preserve Xiezhi’s life.

The villagers were willing, and the blood sacrifice had never been stained with a single drop of an outsider’s blood. So in these repeated blood sacrifices, only blood qi was produced, but no resentful evil.

Blood qi planted itself in the body, resentful evil occupied the soul. The blood qi from blood sacrifice clouded Xiezhi’s consciousness, but his soul remained clear, which was why he actively hid in the Underworld.

If one couldn’t control Xiezhi’s soul, there was no way to turn Xiezhi into a puppet to be manipulated at will.

So the High God said this was an abandoned scheme.

“I want to try. Maybe he can still be saved?” Ding Qin said.

Since Xiezhi’s soul still belonged to himself, perhaps he could still break free from this trap.

Nu Xu looked at her hopeful eyes, then at the pleading gazes of those villagers, and said, “Then let’s try.”

Ding Qin walked to Xiezhi’s side. The crowd surrounding him parted a path. They looked at her, their gazes heavy with weight.

Xiezhi’s blood-clouded eyes also looked at her. He didn’t quite seem to understand what was about to happen, but felt it wasn’t bad, so he didn’t struggle or avoid. He raised his head, not facing her with the horn on his forehead, and bent his legs to be level with her.

Ding Qin placed her hand on his forehead below the horn. Warm, clear divine power flowed into Xiezhi’s body.

She saw it—that blood qi entangled in Xiezhi’s flesh and blood, congested in his consciousness, clouding his spirit.

Divine power surged into his consciousness like a clear spring, dispersing the turbid blood qi. A thread of divine consciousness arose from the mind and merged with the spirit. Xiezhi’s mind instantly cleared.

In the instant his consciousness cleared, Ding Qin seemed to see many fleeting memories and thoughts, like a dream in the time it takes to cook millet, like ages in the span of a finger snap. In this brief instant, she and Xiezhi became acquainted.

But that turbid blood qi still clung around the consciousness. As soon as the divine power in the consciousness dispersed, it would once again cloud Xiezhi’s awareness. If she couldn’t completely expel the blood qi from Xiezhi’s body, Xiezhi’s problem still couldn’t be resolved.

But when Ding Qin tried to remove Xiezhi’s blood qi, she discovered it had already become deeply entangled with Xiezhi’s flesh and blood. This blood qi came from bloodlines of the same clan as Xiezhi. It had merged into Xiezhi’s body without any obstruction, becoming part of his life. Xiezhi had been on the verge of death from severe injury when blood sacrifice pulled him back to life. Without the power of this blood qi, his life would have long since dissipated.

Expelling the blood qi meant killing Xiezhi. Ding Qin tried using divine power to replace the blood qi, healing each wound at the same time as clearing each area of blood qi. But in this blood qi, besides the villagers’ bloodline, there was another kind of power. That was what Ding Qin had seen above the village, a power similar to the Locust King’s power.

That was “Aberration.”

Ding Qin had seen this kind of power when facing the Locust King, but had never observed it so closely. Only now did she discover the terrifying aspect of Aberration—it possessed a fundamental nature almost equal to divine power!

Even though only an extremely minute part of that fundamental nature was mixed in, it still gave this power a certain unchangeable quality. Under its influence, Xiezhi was being transformed into an Aberration like the Locust King. And this transformation… was irreversible.

“Little girl, give up.” She heard that firm yet peaceful voice say.

Xiezhi’s eyes no longer showed the turbidity of blood qi. His dark blue eyes were transparent as glazed glass. He had long known his own condition.

Nu Xu stood silently to the side. She had long known this was an irreversible matter. But people held hope—what harm was there in trying?

Xiezhi could no longer accept the influence of other powers. Even if blood sacrifice stopped here and now, he would still gradually transform into an Aberration under the influence of the power in his body. Even if his soul remained pure, so what? By then, his body would no longer belong to him. His consciousness would be forever sealed in his mind, able only to spend his days in confusion acting on instinct. And an Aberration’s instinct…

Gelowa squeezed through the crowd and tugged at Ding Qin’s sleeve, looking up anxiously to ask, “Sister Ding, what’s wrong with the totem?”

Gemawa was behind him. Just now, the Ghost King’s first strike had shattered the sacrificial momentum, and the commotion here had spread out. Many people were awakened. Gelowa heard that the disturbance came from the lake and insisted on coming to see.

He hadn’t yet figured out what was happening, but already felt uneasy.

Ding Qin didn’t speak. Her eyes had already filled with tears. In that instant in Xiezhi’s consciousness, it had been as if she had passed through countless ages, and in this snap of the fingers spanning eras, she had come to know Xiezhi more deeply than anyone else.

“Is there truly no other way? Can’t it just be like this now? He’s still alive, still conscious—can it be like this?” Old Grandmother looked at Ding Qin, then at the Ghost King, pleading.

Xiezhi looked at the clanspeople surrounding him. From their intentions he saw guilt. “Such a trap was set when I was severely injured and near death during the tribulation. What does this have to do with you? Human hearts change. When I first left behind bloodline, I wanted to try whether with my power, I could cause human hearts to change. This was the choice I made. You’ve already done very well.”

Gelowa couldn’t hold back and began to cry. More and more weeping arose from the crowd. That was the totem who protected them, their blood kin, their closest elder. Was there truly no other way? Xiezhi was also moved by reluctant sorrow.

“I have a suggestion.” Nu Xu stood on the waves of the lake, her gaze falling on Xiezhi. Her killing intent was pure and clear as she said word by word:

“When death is fitting, accept death.”