Meng Ruji had never imagined that the talented daughter Madam Lin had mentioned earlier actually possessed enough talent to ascend and become a deity.

She studied Mo Yi before her, finding it strange: “Since you had already stolen the thousand gold, why didn’t you give it directly to Mu Sui?”

“Miss Meng.” Mo Yi looked at her, her expression identical to Ye Chuan’s when he fed the sheep daily—calm and indifferent. “The situation in the mortal realm has been decided. I seek Qianshan Jun to find a shortcut. And we wait here because we want to wait for an ending.”

“An ending?”

Mo Yi’s gaze swept lightly across Meng Ruji’s face, then settled on Madam Lin:

“Madam Lin, you want to find a rebellious person?” Mo Yi paused, seeming to search for the right words. “You do all this just to obtain an act of rebellion.”

Madam Lin’s eyes were bloodshot, yet no tears had ever fallen. She looked at Mo Yi with complex emotions, seeming both relieved and sorrowful: “You’re still very clever, always able to see what I want.”

Find a rebellious person who wants an act of rebellion…

Meng Ruji understood almost immediately. No wonder Madam Lin always made things difficult for others.

What Madam Lin wanted wasn’t someone obedient and compliant. Each of her excessive demands was meant to make others oppose her.

But the curse poison was coercion, the thousand gold was enticement—under such circumstances, how many would rebel, and how many could successfully rebel…

“But…” Meng Ruji was very confused. “Why?”

“Because she once raised an obedient and compliant daughter,” Mo Yi said. “She has regrets, I suppose.”

“No!” Rarely, Madam Lin immediately rebutted emotionally. “No…”

Her attitude seemed to surprise Mo Yi somewhat.

Madam Lin lowered her eyes, her voice hoarse: “My child brought me no regrets. You are good… You are already very good.”

Mo Yi’s mirror-like pupils moved slightly, and her calm emotions rippled after this apologetic statement.

“It’s been a long time. Madam Lin is quite different from before.” Mo Yi lowered her eyes, seeming to contemplate something. Her tone carried confusion: “Is it because… I killed you so that you became like this?”

Madam Lin fell silent, her expression growing even more sorrowful.

Meng Ruji, upon hearing this, looked at Mo Yi in shock.

She killed her?

Mo Yi… killed Madam Lin?

So that’s why Madam Lin came to the Land of No Departure…

Meng Ruji immediately tugged at Mu Sui.

At this moment, Mu Sui’s gaze was fixed only on the thousand gold in Mo Yi’s hand, his expression grave. When Meng Ruji tugged at him, he seemed to come back to his senses and turned to look at her.

Meng Ruji’s eyes were full of amazement as she whispered to share with Mu Sui: “The connection between this mother and daughter… is not simple!”

She was enjoying the drama…

Mu Sui was somewhat speechless.

“Could it be that Madam Lin being trapped in the Land of No Departure is also because of Mo Yi?” she asked.

Mu Sui glanced at Mo Yi indifferently: “There aren’t many obsessions that can keep people here. Only deities have such power. It must be her.”

Meng Ruji sighed inwardly upon hearing this, but then thought: “Did you guess this long ago? Their relationship?”

“When I learned that Madam Lin was kept here by obsession, I guessed she must be connected to a human deity. I just didn’t expect it to be this kind of relationship.”

Meanwhile, the mother and daughter, meeting after many years, no longer cast their gazes on Meng Ruji and Mu Sui.

Mo Yi had previously shown little concern for Madam Lin, but now she seemed curious about her:

“You are very good… You never said such things before. What exactly changed you?”

Meng Ruji looked at Mo Yi, finding it hard to describe the feeling Mo Yi gave her now.

She only felt that the human deity before her seemed to have witnessed all worldly affairs, becoming numb from coldness, yet when questioning Madam Lin, she was like a child, determined to get answers to all the world’s questions.

Clear-minded, cold, yet also obsessive.

The same obsession as Zhan Ye.

“You are very good. I have always thought so.” Madam Lin sat on the ground, her form dejected, her expression so aged she seemed truly hunched. “I just never told you before.”

But hearing Madam Lin say this, Mo Yi seemed even more confused. She tilted her head slightly, like a small animal seeing something difficult to understand.

“Has too much time passed, making Madam Lin forget the past? I can certainly help you recall…” Mo Yi waved her hand, and the surrounding atmosphere changed. The mist that had been blown away now slowly gathered again. “The relationship between you and me, to this day, really shouldn’t make me hear those words from your mouth.”

With Mo Yi’s words, the mist transformed. Just like in a dream world, the mist outlined scene after scene with varying depths and shades.

Meng Ruji saw the mist attach to the surrounding courtyard, replicating a scene almost identical to this small yard. If not for the two figures outlined by the mist appearing before her, Meng Ruji wouldn’t have noticed any changes in the surroundings.

The mist formed the shape of a small girl practicing swordwork, her lips already cracked from practice. She looked toward the woman beside her—a young Madam Lin.

“Mother… thirsty…”

But Madam Lin’s expression was stern. Compared to the old woman now, Madam Lin of that time was more similar to the current Mo Yi.

Madam Lin told the little girl, “You have talent, so you must not waste it. You are different from ordinary people. You have no parents, and you must not have bodily desires. You cannot be tired, you cannot be hungry, or cold. Familial bonds and emotions must all be kept outside your body. Greed, anger, ignorance, worry, and fear—none may be shown even slightly.”

The little girl swallowed her saliva with great difficulty.

But this only earned her a light “Continue” from Madam Lin.

The little girl said nothing more, only continued swinging her sword numbly.

Meng Ruji watched with alarm.

She couldn’t help but look at Mo Yi before her.

Mo Yi said, “You made me call you Madam Lin. You said I would be your most proud creation in this life.”

Mo Yi turned her hand, and the scene before them changed. Dark clouds pressed down from the sky, immortals and deities battled in the air, magical techniques flew about, clouds and mist surged. Mo Yi, covered in wounds, stood in the bloody rain. She seemed already exhausted, her sword fallen to the ground. Her form trembled as she fell backward.

But at this moment, a bloodied hand supported Mo Yi’s back. Madam Lin stood behind her, saying almost ruthlessly: “You cannot retreat. In the war between immortals and deities, there is no retreat. If the heavenly gods are not destroyed, cultivators will ultimately walk toward extinction. Mo Yi, you cannot retreat.”

Madam Lin sent her spiritual power into Mo Yi’s body.

Madam Lin told her almost ruthlessly: “You must become a deity.”

But receiving spiritual power forcibly in such a weakened state nearly shattered Mo Yi’s meridians. She gritted her teeth against the pain, but still listened to Madam Lin’s words, taking a step forward without retreating even half a step.

Then, in the bloody rain, after she killed a heavenly god who was equally dying and had fallen to the lower realm, divine light broke through the heavy clouds and shone upon Mo Yi.

The world’s first cultivator to become a deity through human ascension had ascended.

She became a human deity, a god completely on humanity’s side.

The world spoke of ascension so gloriously, but in this memory scene, Meng Ruji saw a person with shattered bones and meridians, bloody and mangled, who, in the final moment, with the will to survive, sought the last opportunity, absorbing all the spiritual energy possible to complete her body’s reconstruction.

“This isn’t ascension at all,” Meng Ruji murmured. “It’s survival.”

Mu Sui, beside her, didn’t respond.

His gaze lingered on the sea of clouds in the scene.

Meng Ruji glanced at Mu Sui sideways, suddenly remembering that he had once said he was a heavenly god, later stripped of his divine status, falling from deity to human, banished to the lower realm to sleep in an ice lake.

Seeing the scene of the war between immortals and deities now, perhaps in his eyes, it held a different flavor entirely.

Meng Ruji reached out and grasped Mu Sui’s palm.

The warmth seemed to awaken Mu Sui, and he turned to look at Meng Ruji beside him.

Meng Ruji didn’t look at him, only said softly: “I might be overthinking, but I feel like you need comfort.”

Mu Sui was stunned.

Only then did Meng Ruji turn back and smile at him: “Don’t worry, no matter what happens, I’ll always keep part of my attention on you.”

He should have said “unnecessary.”

He should have pulled his hand away and sneered at her coldly.

What use was her attention? Did holding hands count as comfort?

These hurtful words—he should have spoken them all.

But at this moment, Mu Sui found himself surrendering to the softness in his palm.

He accepted the attention, felt the comfort, as if the mountain of corpses and sea of blood shown in the scene had truly been wiped away of some of its crimson by her at this moment.

He was clear-headed, so he knew Meng Ruji was also clear-headed at this time.

But he still gripped Meng Ruji’s hand in return.

For the first time, in her “flirtation,” he gave a confirming response.

Unfortunately, Meng Ruji didn’t pay much attention to this response, thinking it was only natural.

The scene formed by the mist before them shifted again, and she was once more drawn to the past between Mo Yi and Madam Lin.

The mist outlined a figure completely identical to the current Mo Yi, walking through the courtyard gate.

In the yard, Madam Lin sat drinking tea at the stone table.

The scene was the same as now, and the people were the same as now. If not for the real Madam Lin and Mo Yi still standing nearby, Meng Ruji would have thought this was Mo Yi and Madam Lin performing this act before her—

Mo Yi, bloodstained, walked to sit across from Madam Lin at the stone table.

Only after Madam Lin set down her teacup did she look up at her. Mother and daughter regarded each other coldly, as if they had never known each other.

“I heard you killed several sect leaders of cultivator sects. Mo Yi, having become a human deity, have you lost your human heart?”

“Have I not yet told you,” Mo Yi began, “on the day I became a deity, I saw my fate. Six characters.”

Madam Lin was somewhat surprised: “How can a heavenly god have a fate?”

“Human becomes god, all things perish. That is my fate.”

Madam Lin’s expression changed slightly: “Mo Yi, have you gone mad?”

Mo Yi shook her head: “I am very clear-headed.”

“In the war between immortals and deities, I ascended to become a deity and saw my fate. In that war, I led the cultivators to victory over the gods of heaven. The heavenly gods were defeated, and I intended to negotiate peace with them. But most cultivators were unwilling. Some, hiding from me, hunted down the defeated heavenly gods. Some bore grudges against the heavenly gods, and some simply wanted to exterminate them completely to prevent any possibility of their revival. And some people…”

Mo Yi’s eyes lowered slightly, seeming to feel repulsion for what she was about to say.

“And some people… thought I ascended to become a deity because I killed a heavenly god. They also wanted to ascend, to become gods.”

Seeing this, Meng Ruji glanced at Mu Sui again, then gripped his hand tightly.

But when Mu Sui heard these words, his emotions remained undisturbed. This time it wasn’t because of Meng Ruji’s comfort, but because he had never held high expectations for human nature to begin with.

In the scene, Mo Yi continued speaking to Madam Lin: “From that time, I often wondered what the war between cultivators and heavenly gods was really for…”

“Mo Yi.” Madam Lin told her coldly, “You were once a cultivator. No matter what, you should stand on humanity’s side.”

“I told myself the same thing. After the war between immortals and deities ended, unwilling to walk toward my destiny, I descended to the lower realm to find reasons to protect the people. I seemed to find one—I made a friend, a nightmare demon. He said he would join me in opposing the void of fate.”

“You said before that greed, anger, ignorance, worry, and fear should all be abandoned, but he didn’t abandon them. He had greed, anger, and ignorance, had worry and fear, would laugh, and occasionally felt sad. I thought, if there were such people in this world, then I shouldn’t walk toward my fate, at least shouldn’t personally destroy this world.”

“I agreed with him—if one day I must walk toward my destiny, he could kill me with his own hands. I gave him the power to kill me. I thought I had made complete preparations, so I returned to the divine realm to struggle against the malice growing in my heart. But I… I finally suppressed the malice, I descended to the lower realm to find him, I…”

The Mo Yi in the mist showed some madness in her expression, malicious energy rising around her.

Black aura danced like chains from hell, wrapping around her, trying to drag her into the abyss.

“I learned that he was dead. Surrounded and hunted by those cultivator sects, exhausted, he died on the road. Even his bones couldn’t be found. Because… they… they knew he possessed my power. When they couldn’t get what they wanted, they ground even his bones to powder and made them into pills!”

A chill ran through Meng Ruji’s heart.

So… after Mo Li had given her the Creation Inner Core…

His end was actually like this.

Listening to Mo Yi’s words, Meng Ruji could almost see those so-called great masters of cultivator sects dividing up Mo Li’s bones.

Greedy, foolish, ugly…

It seemed people had never successfully abandoned these aspects of human nature.

“Mo Yi.” But Madam Lin, outlined in the misty scene, remained calm: “Worldly affairs, worldly people—this is how they are. You cannot change them. You can only restrain yourself. Your current appearance shows you have gone mad.”

These words seemed calm, seemed rational.

But they were more like a spark igniting the wasteland in Mo Yi’s heart.

“Right.” Mo Yi nodded. “Worldly affairs, worldly people—this is how they are. Restraint exists because change is impossible. But if…” Mo Yi raised her head, looking at Madam Lin. In her black pupils, like dead, still lake water, empty and numb, without ripples, yet emanating a cold light.

“But if I can change things.”

She stood up.

“Before, when I cultivated, I was very obedient, listened to your words, and became a human deity. Now, I should listen to fate’s arrangement.”

Madam Lin looked at Mo Yi in shock.

Mo Yi turned her hand, and from the room, a rusty sword suddenly flew out—the very one she had gripped daily to practice swordwork in her childhood.

This sword in her hand was like a child’s toy, but her palm’s caressing motion was still skilled.

“Human becomes god, all things perish.”

Mo Yi casually sent forth the sword in her hand.

The sword moved in complete silence, seeming not even to cut through the wind, yet it directly pierced through Madam Lin’s chest.

Madam Lin was stunned. She looked at Mo Yi, then at the sword in her chest. Wanting to say something more, blood gushed from her mouth as soon as she opened it.

“As you said, I have no parents, no family ties, and I abandon emotions. I come from the human race, yet I exist alone in this world. When I was a deity, I had even less connection to the world. The former heavenly gods were right, and my destiny was right too. I should kill everyone, and among the latter ones, you are the first.”