When the white mist dispersed, a massive stone city appeared before Cui Xun’s eyes. The city was surrounded by towering walls that reached the clouds, making it resemble an inescapable prison. Cui Xun stared at the wooden sign hanging in the city. Three large characters were written in bright red, with sweeping strokes: “City of Wrongful Deaths.”

Was this… the City of Wrongful Deaths?

Were his fifty thousand comrades in the City of Wrongful Deaths?

Cui Xun’s feet unconsciously moved toward the city gate. When he reached it, several stone gates opened with a rumbling sound. After passing through the final gate, he saw rows of narrow, cold prison cells. The cells were constructed of heavy stone bricks with only one iron door for entry and exit. The iron doors had small iron-grated windows embedded in them, through which countless ghosts’ wailing could be heard, sending chills down one’s spine.

The iron door to Cui Xun’s left suddenly opened with a creaking sound. He looked in the direction of the opening door, and at the sight, he was greatly alarmed and quickly walked inside.

The moment he entered, the iron door closed behind him, completely isolating him from the outside world.

But Cui Xun was completely unaware of this. He only hurried to the young man who was bound in chains. Weak light filtered through the grate, making the young man’s features faintly visible in the darkness. Cui Xun spoke with a trembling voice: “Cao Wu!”

In the Tianwei Army, Cao Wu had been close to Cui Xun in age, and the two had been the best of friends. Cao Wu’s body still bore criss-crossing wounds from Turkish blades. His four limbs were tightly bound by iron chains as thick as bowls, which snaked into the stone walls, rendering him immobile. Cao Wu knelt on the ground with his head lowered, seemingly neither alive nor dead.

Cui Xun knelt on one knee and attempted to cut the chains binding him. As the chains rattled, Cao Wu raised his head in confusion and murmured: “Young Master Seventeen…”

Cui Xun’s eyes had already reddened. He nodded and said, “It’s Young Master Seventeen. I’ve come to rescue you.”

He struck at the chains binding Cao Wu with his sword blade, but even using all his strength, the sword edge became blunted while the chains remained without even a nick. Cao Wu shook his head: “Young Master Seventeen… It’s useless…”

“No, it must work.” Cui Xun swung his silver sword, striking down hard. When the silver sword rebounded, it numbed his hand and caused needle-like pain in his old wrist injury. The intense pain made him lose his grip on the silver sword, which fell to the ground. Cui Xun stared blankly at the fallen sword. Indeed, he was no longer the Young Master Seventeen of the Tianwei Army who could draw a three-stone strong bow. Now he was just a weak, broken body that couldn’t even cut through iron chains.

But even so, he had to save Cao Wu.

Gritting his teeth, he bent to pick up the silver sword from the ground, but Cao Wu called out: “Young Master Seventeen!”

He looked up, and Cao Wu smiled bitterly: “Young Master Seventeen, no matter how you cut, it’s useless.”

Cao Wu continued: “These are chains that bind resentment. Ordinary weapons cannot cut them.”

“Resentment…”

Cao Wu nodded: “We were innocently killed, dying horribly at Luoyan Ridge. Everyone’s resentment soared to the heavens, wanting to transform into vengeful ghosts to seek revenge on those who harmed us. The Prince of Gu City, to prevent us from causing harm to the living, imprisoned us in the City of Wrongful Deaths, chained us, and suppressed our resentment. It’s not just me; every member of the Tianwei Army is like this.”

In other words, all fifty thousand soldiers of the Tianwei Army were imprisoned in the City of Wrongful Deaths in this manner.

Cui Xun knelt before Cao Wu, his hands propping him up on the ground. With his head lowered, overwhelming grief engulfed him: “I’m useless. I haven’t been able to clear your names, which is why you’ve been imprisoned in the City of Wrongful Deaths for six years. You were all so good to me, and I’ve let you down…”

Cao Wu said, “No, Young Master Seventeen, you’ve tried your best. You’ve done well. It’s just that heaven isn’t on our side. But now we have a chance.”

Cui Xun looked up in confusion, and Cao Wu said, “Young Master Seventeen, if you wish, the Life-Borrowing Lamp can be yours. In this world, who doesn’t fear death? Who doesn’t want immortality? Once you possess the Life-Borrowing Lamp, you have everything. Even emperors and ministers will kneel before you, begging for their lives. Then, clearing our names would be just a matter of one word from you, wouldn’t it?”

Cui Xun murmured: “Life-Borrowing Lamp…”

Cao Wu nodded: “Yes, the Life-Borrowing Lamp. Young Master Seventeen, we’ve waited for six years. Finally, we don’t have to wait anymore. Aren’t you happy?”

Cui Xun stared at him blankly, then suddenly shook his head: “No, you’re not Cao Wu.”

He muttered: “You are… the demon obstacle. You are… my inner demon.”

His greatest inner demon in this life was the tragedy at Luoyan Ridge. Unable to overcome this demon, he had transformed himself into a rakshasa of hell, his hands stained with blood, becoming an existence that even he despised.

Cui Xun’s hands slowly clutched the scattered straw on the ground: “I will overcome this inner demon… I will…”

Cao Wu suddenly became enraged. He tried to grab Cui Xun’s shoulders, but his limbs were firmly bound by chains, unable to move even slightly. The chains made a loud clanging sound. Cao Wu angrily said, “How am I an inner demon? Is my imprisonment in the City of Wrongful Deaths not real? Or is He Jiu and the others’ imprisonment not real? Fifty thousand people! All fifty thousand of us! All locked in this dark City of Wrongful Deaths for six years! Even if Pei Guanyue and the others die, we still can’t get out! Why? Because our resentment is too strong, so strong that even the Prince of Gu City can barely suppress it! Young Master Seventeen, we can never be reborn! We will be trapped here forever!”

Cui Xun was stunned, and Cao Wu’s voice grew increasingly agitated: “Have we not been good to you? Or are you unwilling to help us seek revenge? You’re still alive, but we’re all dead! Even my mother is dead! Our entire Cao family is gone! I joined the army at fourteen, served loyally, and protected the country. Is this the end I deserve? Young Master Seventeen, tell me, tell me!”

Tears spilled from Cui Xun’s eyes: “No, this is not the end you deserve. This is not the end any of you deserves!”

“Since you know this, why do you still care about those commoners outside? What have they ever done for you? What have they ever done for me? They only blindly curse people. They call you a traitor who surrendered to the Turks, and us failures who sought glory recklessly. They blame us for losing the six prefectures of the Guannei Circuit. But what did we do wrong? We were wronged! We fought until the very end without surrendering. Even before I died, I killed three Turkish soldiers! We shed our last drop of blood to protect these people, but what did they do? After my death, they bullied my mother, bullied Yunting’s sister Ah’man, and bullied everyone’s parents and relatives whom we cared about. Young Master Seventeen, do you know why our resentment in the City of Wrongful Deaths keeps growing stronger? Isn’t it because of this? How can we not hate? Do you want to disregard our grievances for the sake of these people?”

Cui Xun was stunned, unable to utter a word. Tears fell one by one onto the hard stone floor. Cao Wu softened his tone: “Young Master Seventeen, don’t worry about them. You never cared about them before, so why care about them now?”

Cui Xun knelt on the ground, his heart twisted with pain. The pain was like a sharp knife, stabbing deep into his heart with each thrust, making it almost impossible to breathe. He clenched his fingers, his nails digging deep into his palms. After a long while, he finally looked up, staring at Cao Wu’s young face. Cao Wu’s age would forever remain at seventeen.

This best friend of his, this brother with whom he had shared his heart, would never return.

The demon obstacle in his heart grew heavier, like a black fog swallowing his entire heart.

But just as he was about to sink into the demon obstacle, the gentle figure of a young woman suddenly appeared before him. Her expression seemed both sad and compassionate, as if saying, “Cui Xun, don’t succumb to the demon.”

She said, Be human, don’t be a ghost, and don’t be a demon.

Cui Xun suddenly jolted and came to his senses.

He looked up, vaguely staring at Cao Wu, his voice very soft: “Cao Wu, I was wrong before… I’ve already made too many mistakes. I don’t want… to continue making mistakes… I can’t sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people because of my hatred… The real culprits are Pei Guanyue and the others, not these common people. Even if they’ve cursed me, cursed you, they… don’t deserve to die. Cao Wu, I promise you, I promise all the brothers of the Tianwei Army, I will clear your names, help you escape from the City of Wrongful Deaths, and allow you to be reborn without resentment. One day, everyone in the world will know that the Tianwei Army was not a group of failed generals, but the most valiant sons of the Great Zhou. All the people of the Great Zhou will be proud of you.”

He slowly picked up the silver sword from the ground: “And I… will no longer let my inner demon control me. I no longer wish… to be a rakshasa of hell.”

The silver sword decisively pierced through Cao Wu’s chest. Cao Wu, with the silver sword through his heart, strangely smiled. His voice was no longer Cao Wu’s, but a shrill, cackling laugh: “Don’t rush, there’s still the karma obstacle… waiting for you.”

The karma obstacle, due to the five rebellions and ten evils, becomes the karma obstacle.

The karma obstacle is the fruit of evil.

Cao Wu and the City of Wrongful Deaths had disappeared. Cui Xun looked around in confusion. He had served as the Deputy Director of the Investigation Department for three years, acting as a hound for the imperial family. The evil he had done was undeniable, inexplicable.

He didn’t know whom he would encounter, but he vaguely guessed that this karma obstacle would be the most difficult of the three obstacles for him to overcome.

In front of Cui Xun appeared a dark, winding river. Mist swirled over the river’s surface, and not a blade of grass grew on either bank. A small boat was docked at the riverside, with a ferryman standing on it, holding a pole. Cui Xun walked forward and asked: “Boatman, what river is this?”

The ferryman looked up and said calmly: “The River of Oblivion.”

“The River of Oblivion?” Cui Xun was puzzled. After crossing the River of Oblivion, one could be reborn. Why had he come to the River of Oblivion?

Through the mist, another slender figure in a red and white dress approached—it was Li Ying.

Li Ying walked directly toward the small boat. Her expression was very light, as if she were about to fulfill a long-cherished dream. The ferryman muttered, “She has come to cross the river.”

“Cross the river?”

But his uncle was still alive, so how could she cross the river?

The ferryman said: “She discovered that her killer was Wang Ranxi. Wang Ranxi is dead, so she has come to cross the river.”

Cui Xun suddenly understood. This wasn’t the present, but when he and Li Ying had first met, when he had tricked her into going to the underworld.

At that time, he hadn’t wanted to help Li Ying. He hadn’t wanted to offend the Empress Dowager, and he hadn’t wanted Li Ying to continue entangling with him. So even though he knew Wang Ranxi wasn’t her killer, he had still deceived her, letting her happily go to the underworld to be reborn.

She must have suffered greatly in the underworld, but in the end, she had forgiven him. She said he had helped her investigate, had taken a hundred lashes, and nearly lost his life, so they were even. From then on, she truly never mentioned the underworld affair again. She also never spoke of how she had escaped, but his guilt had never ceased despite her silence. In the middle of the night, he even asked himself: were they even?

She had caused him to receive a hundred lashes, but that was unintentional, not her wish. He had almost left her stranded in the underworld with no return, which was deliberate, his intention. He couldn’t pretend nothing had happened just because of her kindness and magnanimity.

In his daze, Li Ying had already walked to the small boat. As if she couldn’t see Cui Xun at all, she said to the ferryman: “Boatman, I want to cross the river.”

Cui Xun was alarmed. He tried to grab her sleeve to stop her from crossing the river, but his fingers passed through her sleeve. He couldn’t touch her at all; in front of her, he was just an illusion.

Cui Xun awoke as if from a dream. Making him witness the consequences of his evil deeds—this was his karma obstacle.

He trembled slightly with fear as he stood in front of Li Ying: “Bright Moon Pearl, don’t cross the river. I deceived you. You can’t cross the River of Oblivion at all.”

But Li Ying was completely unaware. Instead, she lightly jumped onto the small boat and said, “Boatman, I’ve waited for thirty years to finally be reborn. I didn’t do a single bad thing in my past life. Tell me, should I be reborn into a good family?”

The ferryman remained silent, only pushing the pole as he prepared to cross the river. Cui Xun became anxious. He wanted to stop Li Ying, but his body was trapped in place, unable to take a step forward. He pleaded with the ferryman: “Boatman, don’t let her cross the river. She will die!”

But the ferryman only calmly said, “If she dies, isn’t that your karma?”

Cui Xun was stunned. The ferryman gave a light laugh, pushed the bamboo pole, and the small boat drifted toward the opposite bank of the River of Oblivion.

But when they reached the middle of the river, the water suddenly surged into huge waves, causing the small boat to rock violently. Li Ying turned pale: “What’s happening?”

The ferryman said: “Because Cui Xun deceived you, your killer wasn’t Wang Ranxi. Thus, you cannot be reborn at all; you cannot cross the river at all.”

Li Ying’s eyes widened: “Cui Xun… deceived me? Why would he deceive me? Why?”

Her questions eventually became accusations, each word filled with blood and tears.

Li Ying in the river was inexplicably grief-stricken, while Cui Xun on the shore was wracked with remorse.

Amid the terrifying waves, the small boat suddenly capsized. Li Ying sank into the River of Oblivion, her soul devoured by the ghostly beast Bo’er Xiang. Crimson blood gradually dyed the entire river, even overflowing onto the banks, seeping to Cui Xun’s feet.

Cui Xun’s teeth ground together. His knees gave way, and he collapsed to the ground, his fingers digging deep into the blood-red soil at the river’s edge.

He knew clearly that this was an illusion created by the Life-Borrowing Lamp, the last of the three obstacles—the karma obstacle. Unlike the other two obstacles, this one didn’t try to confuse him into mistaking the illusion for reality; instead, it directly told him that this was something that had happened in the past, that it wasn’t real. Yet, he couldn’t overcome this obstacle.

She had truly nearly died in the underworld, been devoured by the ghostly beast Bo’er Xiang, all because of his lie.

He had almost killed her.

His karmic debt could never be repaid in this lifetime.

The white mist disappeared, and Cui Xun suddenly realized he was back at the altar, his fingers still pinching the wick of the Life-Borrowing Lamp.

But he didn’t extinguish the wick. Instead, his fingers loosened, and the Life-Borrowing Lamp slipped from his hand, rolling down to the bottom of the altar.

The dim candlelight grew increasingly bright.

Cui Xun had already fallen to one knee, a mouthful of fresh blood spurting from his throat, spilling onto the wooden altar.

Because of Li Ying, he had passed the disaster obstacle and the demon obstacle, but also because of Li Ying, he could never pass the karma obstacle.

He couldn’t extinguish the Life-Borrowing Lamp.