The malevolent aura controlled by Zhan Ye had come to this village. This wasn’t a place for conversation, so Mu Sui led everyone to a place with a clear aura, beside a small lake.

They built a campfire, prepared food, and everyone filled their stomachs before listening to Meng Ruji’s slow account.

“After I brought Zhan Ye back from the ice lake to Hengxu Mountain, I treated him the same as other children. They had their rooms, lived together, and looked after each other. It’s just that Zhan Ye was cleverer than the other children. I taught everyone breathing techniques and cultivation methods, and he was indeed the most talented among them. He also helped me a lot—helping me take care of the younger children, teaching them to read and write, and assisting me in building Hengxu Mountain’s protective formation…”

“It sounds like he was a very studious and kind child. What did you do to him that caused his character to become twisted?” Tuzi asked sincerely.

“It wasn’t what I did—it was that Zhan Ye himself understood some things that I never expected.” Meng Ruji sighed deeply. “Have you ever heard of the Wandering Maze Mountain?”

Tuzi shook her head.

Ye Chuan kindly explained: “During the great war between immortals and gods, the primordial soil was disturbed, causing it to form into the Wandering Maze Mountain. Every few decades, it would emerge from underground and wander the world, causing earthquakes and making countless beings suffer. Over a thousand years ago, this Wandering Maze Mountain was fixed in place by the combined efforts of various immortal sects, thus sparing the common people from suffering.”

Meng Ruji nodded: “Zhan Ye began to change from this incident.”

Meng Ruji still remembered that Zhan Ye had been her disciple for several years by then. His cultivation was already on track, and he often researched magic on his own. While Meng Ruji had gained extraordinary power through the Inner Core, she was still learning when it came to formation research.

Zhan Ye was clever, so she often discussed formations and magic with him.

That year, the Wandering Maze Mountain emerged. Many immortal sects were calculating the mountain’s path, and finally determined that this year’s Wandering Maze Mountain would pass through the area surrounding Hengxu Mountain.

Meng Ruji knew that besides herself and the children she had taken in, there were villages not far from the mountain. If the mountain passed through and caused earthquakes, casualties would be inevitable.

Before the mountain’s arrival, she began thinking of countermeasures early.

Seeing her constantly frowning and staying up all night reading and pondering, Zhan Ye also joined her research.

Finally, they discussed a method: to set up a great formation in advance where the mountain would pass, trap the mountain, and turn it into a real “mountain” that wouldn’t move anymore, thus completely solving the problem of the wandering mountain.

Both Meng Ruji and Zhan Ye were very happy, too excited to sleep. The next day, they began leaving Hengxu Mountain to contact other immortal sects.

Because… this great formation wasn’t something they and the children of Hengxu Mountain could accomplish alone.

Meng Ruji traveled extensively. The immortal sects affected by the Wandering Maze Mountain were all willing to help, but the more distant sects were hesitant.

At that time, Meng Ruji wasn’t yet the “Demon Lord”—she was just a demon who occupied Hengxu Mountain, and the most despised type: half-human, half-demon. She didn’t have that strong of an influence and couldn’t sway the decisions of the most powerful sects.

For this matter, Meng Ruji suffered many rejections. But the Wandering Maze Mountain was already moving, the situation was urgent, and Meng Ruji couldn’t stop—she had to continue persuading.

Zhan Ye was always by her side.

He witnessed all the humiliation and embarrassment that Meng Ruji endured—things too difficult to speak of in detail.

After experiencing many “rejections,” Zhan Ye gradually became taciturn. He would ask Meng Ruji, “Why are there people from immortal sects who won’t help?” He couldn’t understand. “Isn’t this for everyone’s good?”

But immortal sects also had their different interests.

Most sects they could contact were willing to do what was “good for everyone,” but those unwilling to come had their various reasons.

Creating this great formation was dangerous and would consume the spiritual power of cultivators within the sects. Some sects had enemies and were unwilling to take risks.

Some sects were too small and felt it didn’t concern them. Even if the mountain passed through their territory, they just needed to temporarily avoid it.

Still other sects weren’t afraid of the consumption, but these sects would send people to protect the common folk whenever the Wandering Maze Mountain emerged, gaining either reputation or practical benefits… Once the mountain was fixed in place, they would lose this opportunity that came every few decades.

The reasons were extremely complex.

Meng Ruji didn’t know how to explain this to Zhan Ye, so she could only say: “Everyone thinks differently. We can only unite those willing to trust us.”

Hearing this, Zhan Ye said nothing.

Later, Meng Ruji still found people who could set up the formation, over a thousand cultivators in total.

The process was arduous, but there was hope.

They set up the formation on the path where the Wandering Maze Mountain would arrive. Meng Ruji and Zhan Ye drew the formation, and the cultivators each guarded their assigned positions.

The three strongest cultivators would hold down the formation cores distributed in three locations. When the mountain arrived, they would cast spells together to trap the mountain.

Meng Ruji was one of the three, holding down one formation core, while the other two were guarded by leaders of the two other sects.

On the day of implementation, everything went smoothly at first. The Wandering Maze Mountain entered their formation, everyone worked together, and they were about to trap the Wandering Maze Mountain in place.

But…

One of the sect leaders was ambushed. A magical attack came from an unknown direction, immediately rendering the leader unconscious.

The formation instantly became unstable. The moving mountain tried to squeeze out from the formation core that had lost its suppressing power, and everyone frantically poured their spiritual energy into it.

Meng Ruji had no choice but to use a method that harmed her own body, nearly exhausting all her blood to perform a blood sacrifice ritual, finally suppressing the Wandering Maze Mountain.

The Wandering Maze Mountain quieted down, and their goal was achieved.

But Meng Ruji fell into a coma that lasted three months.

When she woke up, Zhan Ye had changed.

Through others, Meng Ruji learned about many things that had happened during those three months.

First, after the injured sect leader was brought back to his sect for treatment, the physician discovered that his injuries were caused by magical artifacts from the top-tier immortal sects.

This proved that at least one of the top sects was very dissatisfied with their method of trapping the Wandering Maze Mountain, even wanting to sabotage it, to the point of striking viciously at the crucial moment, not hesitating to use the lives of over a thousand cultivators as the price…

If not for Meng Ruji’s blood sacrifice and Inner Core power, she wouldn’t have been able to save everyone’s lives.

Then, another sect leader who had held down a formation core, seeing Meng Ruji fall into sleep, claimed to the outside world that he had been able to hold the formation core and trap the Wandering Maze Mountain because he had controlled the overall situation—that he had drawn the formation and saved everyone from danger.

Some people believed him, and that sect leader took the opportunity to rally some cultivators who were dissatisfied with the aristocratic immortal sects.

Those above and the challengers who had gathered new forces below seemed about to have a conflict that would stir up the winds and clouds.

The atmosphere between the immortal sects also became tense.

And the sleeping Meng Ruji, except for a few people close to her, had no visitors.

The outside world was full of turmoil, but Hengxu Mountain was like a forgotten corner.

Even when Zhan Ye went out to seek medicine for Meng Ruji, he encountered the same difficulties Meng Ruji had faced before.

Cold stares, mockery, and embarrassment.

Zhan Ye tasted them all.

Some said Meng Ruji was truly useless—another sect leader had borne the hardships, yet she had still collapsed.

Others said she might be injured, but how could it be so severe? She hadn’t been ambushed, so why would she need such precious spiritual medicines?

Still others said, Meng Ruji still wanted to seek medicine from other immortal sects? Her trapping of the Wandering Maze Mountain had disturbed the peace between sects—she should kowtow to everyone from all the immortal sects.

When Meng Ruji woke up, she saw deep fatigue and hatred in Zhan Ye’s eyes.

“I almost thought you wouldn’t wake up,” he said to Meng Ruji.

“I’m tough to kill,” Meng Ruji answered hoarsely, then asked, “Is the Wandering Maze Mountain fixed? Does it not move anymore?”

“No one cares about that,” Zhan Ye said. “They’re fighting each other endlessly.”

“So, it’s fixed?”

“…Yes.”

“Then our original goal was achieved.” Meng Ruji breathed a sigh of relief. “It wasn’t in vain. This year, I, you all, the people at the foot of the mountain, and the animals in the mountains won’t have to be chased around by that mountain.”

“But I… regret it.” Zhan Ye looked at Meng Ruji, with heavy shadows under his eyes. “The Wandering Maze Mountain shouldn’t have been trapped, you and I shouldn’t have participated, or… when that sect leader was ambushed, you shouldn’t have performed the blood sacrifice.”

“Zhan Ye…”

“Meng Ruji, I think they all deserve to die.”

Meng Ruji was silent for a long time, then could only comfort him: “It’s enough that our goal was achieved. The matter is finished—we can’t fully understand all the various interests involved. No need to investigate further.”

“What if I insist on investigating?” Zhan Ye said. “Don’t immortal sects say they must guard their dao heart and protect the world? Didn’t they make vows at the beginning of cultivation? Why don’t they keep them? Meng Ruji, I want to keep them. I refuse to accept the baseness in their hearts—I find it disgusting…”

The campfire burned.

Everyone looked at Meng Ruji in silence.

After a long time, Tuzi finally spoke: “I think… this Zhan Ye you’re talking about wasn’t wrong…”

“At that time, I didn’t think what he said was wrong either.” Meng Ruji looked down, poking at the campfire. “But later, the thousand cultivators who had participated in trapping the Wandering Maze Mountain began dying mysteriously one after another. At first, everyone thought it was coincidental, but when there were more deaths, everyone said that sealing the Wandering Maze Mountain would bring a curse, and some began blaming the sect leader who had ‘saved’ everyone.”

Meng Ruji smiled self-mockingly.

“Then that sect leader began saying that everything was my doing—I was the leader, I made the decisions, I held down the formation core… But no one cared anymore, because soon that sect leader died too.”

“I felt something was wrong and began paying attention to Zhan Ye. I discovered he began disappearing frequently, becoming increasingly cold and secretive. Until that day… I had gone out on business, and when I returned, the stairs of Hengxu Mountain were already soaked with blood. Blood flowed down from the mountain like a waterfall. He had killed forty-five people… all children I had taken in at Hengxu Mountain.”

Both Ye Chuan and Tuzi were shocked.

Mu Sui remained silent.

“His reason for killing them was that some children were dissatisfied with me. They complained to Zhan Ye that I seemed too busy and didn’t have time to accompany them. So Zhan Ye killed them all.”

“What… what kind of logic is that…” Tuzi was stunned. “How could it come to that…”

Meng Ruji spoke in a low voice, trying to sound emotionless:

“Zhan Ye told me he despised them because they were people I had saved, so why weren’t their dao hearts firm? He believed they all had flaws, so they all deserved to die. Just like how he killed those cultivators who had participated in the Wandering Maze Mountain formation.”

“He did all of it…” Tuzi couldn’t believe it. “Where did he get such power…”

“Malevolent aura.”

Mu Sui lowered his eyes, maintaining his composure, saying nothing.

“The day Zhan Ye killed those forty-five children, he told me that he had once waited to die on the ice lake, but in his delirium, he seemed to receive a divine oracle. A god had given him divine power to destroy the world. Because the immortals and humans in this world were all base and didn’t deserve to live.”

“After I took Zhan Ye in, he said he felt that divine power seemed unnecessary to use—he thought the god’s words were wrong. But later, after experiencing all those things, he again felt the god’s words were correct.”

“Humans are base—whether immortals or ordinary people, the dark ravines in human nature can never be erased. So the gods should destroy the world. Only by destroying the imperfect can one recreate the perfect, flawless, true humans.”

Meng Ruji imitated Zhan Ye’s voice, speaking these words without any emotion.

Both Tuzi and Ye Chuan felt chills down their spines.

Meng Ruji looked at her wrist, where the injury Zhan Ye had left had been healed by Mu Sui.

“Zhan Ye once said he was becoming a perfect person, and in his eyes, I was the only person besides himself who could become ‘perfect.'” Meng Ruji smiled. “What a pity—I’m not. I even killed him. I never expected… he wasn’t completely dead…”