Lang Jiuchuan intended to search his soul.

The moment Zhengyang Zi heard those words, his primordial soul shrank inward. Soul-searching was an enormous drain on one’s mental energy and vital essence, and without sufficiently powerful cultivation, it was simply impossible to trace back memories. How could she possibly do it?

But then again — could she really not?

Had she not already struck him — a half-step Foundation Establishment cultivator — completely dead, and seized even his soul in her grip?

His physical body was already destroyed. His primordial soul had been ground nearly to nothing by the soul-devouring formation carved within the Diamond Pagoda. If she searched his soul on top of that, and succeeded, he would be completely obliterated — scattered and extinguished from the world entirely.

Zhengyang Zi panicked. “If you’re willing to spare me,” he blurted, “I’ll answer anything you want to ask — I’ll hold nothing back, say nothing false.”

Lang Jiuchuan was unmoved.

She gave the Dizhong a slight shake. Thunder-pattern runes rose to the surface, and golden light blazed with the intensity of divine flame, searing through the soul she held clenched in her fist. Zhengyang Zi let out a piercing, wretched shriek.

“I’ll talk — I’ll talk! Just stop burning me!”

“Seeing it myself will be more reliable.” Lang Jiuchuan gave a cold, mocking laugh.

“If you send me to the ghost gate, I — Zhengyang Zi — swear upon the Zhengyi Dao and upon my own soul: if a single word I speak is false, may I never be reborn, and may the Zhengyi Dao never see the light of day again.”

A low rumble of thunder rolled through the air.

Only then did Lang Jiuchuan release him and ask, “Speak. Who is the true owner of that spirit tablet? Don’t try to deceive me — deceive me and I light you up again.”

“The young master of the Rong Family,” Zhengyang Zi answered without a moment’s hesitation, and quickly continued, “Fourteen years ago, the young master was four years old. For reasons unknown, her Dao roots had grown somewhat unstable, and her cultivation showed signs of falling short. She was the only Dao heir of the next generation of the Rong Family. By the family head’s order, the Five Elements Nine Revolution Grand Formation was devised to make offerings and sacrifices in order to stimulate spiritual energy and life force — to nourish and sustain the young master.”

As he spoke, his tone carried a trace of contempt. “It’s not without reason that the Rong Family sits at the bottom rank. Every ounce of the family’s glory rested on a single little girl’s shoulders. They poured countless resources into her — heaven-grade materials, earth-grade treasures beyond measure — pushing her forward step by step until she climbed to Foundation Establishment. If she hadn’t been so impatient and had instead cultivated steadily and carefully, she never would have fallen short of success and failed her tribulation crossing.”

Lang Jiuchuan and A’Piao exchanged a glance. “Tribulation crossing? Wasn’t the Rong young master said to have suffered a cultivation deviation during the Ghost Gate’s opening last year?”

“You could say that. After all, she was only at the half-step Foundation Establishment realm — to charge through to Foundation Establishment would require crossing a tribulation, but her spiritual power hadn’t yet reached the point of overflow. So she had no choice but to take advantage of the night when a hundred ghosts walk freely, absorbing and refining ghost energy to push against her spiritual power…”

A’Piao’s ghost energy suddenly surged, flooding the entire room. “She was refining ghosts? Your Rong Family really is as vicious and underhanded as ever — always doing these things that desecrate the natural order. Heaven is truly blind if it hasn’t sent a bolt of lightning to strike down that Rong Huanxuan.”

His ghostly energy was cold and dense, which inadvertently benefited Zhengyang Zi — he took the chance to breathe in a few wisps and thought to himself that if he ever escaped this demoness’s grasp, he could still live on as a ghost. With his aptitude, becoming a Ghost King wasn’t out of the question.

Lang Jiuchuan sent another spell formula crashing into him, and Zhengyang Zi let out another shriek.

“Behave yourself. I don’t mind letting you have a taste of what thunder-fire scorching feels like.” Lang Jiuchuan said coldly. “Keep talking.”

Zhengyang Zi shrank back. “As I said — she was far too impatient. Under all the heavens, how many truly heaven-defying geniuses are there? Someone like the National Preceptor’s disciple, who achieved Foundation Establishment at thirteen or fourteen — that is a one-in-ten-thousand genius found nowhere else in the world. She thought herself strong enough, yet she didn’t understand that a tower built by heaven-grade materials and the efforts of countless people is the easiest kind to collapse.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s brow gave a sudden twitch. “Someone achieved Foundation Establishment at thirteen or fourteen? The National Preceptor’s disciple?”

“Yes. It was precisely upon hearing of this that the Rong young master became consumed with impatience — and yet, she didn’t even manage to draw down the heavenly tribulation before she first fell into deviation. Her meridians shattered, her Dao bones crumbled, her spiritual power flooded outward, and her Dao heart suffered grievous damage.”

Lang Jiuchuan and A’Piao exchanged another glance. This matched what the deer spirit had known — with a minor discrepancy here and there, but the broad strokes were correct.

“With the family’s sole heir having her Dao heart damaged and her Dao roots severed, this absolutely could not be allowed to spread beyond the family — if it did, the Rong Family would be finished. So only the top three elders and the family head knew the truth, and they buried it completely. During those months, the Five Elements Nine Revolution Grand Formation consumed untold numbers of young boys and girls to extend her vital fortune and life force.” Zhengyang Zi let out a long sigh. “But keeping it buried was no solution. If the young master’s meridians and Dao bones couldn’t be reconnected, there would be no more talk of cultivation for her.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s heart suddenly began to pound rapidly. The loop was closing.

“We were desperate in those days, turning over countless ancient Dao scriptures and treatises in search of a solution — until the Fourth Madam went to the family head. We don’t know exactly what she said, but within two days, the family head announced that through the Great Divination Method, he had divined that the young master’s destined chance lay with the ninth daughter of the Lang Family of Wu Jing…” Zhengyang Zi’s words faltered. He looked up at Lang Jiuchuan, who was now emanating a dense black aura from every inch of her body, and his knees gave out beneath him. He dropped to the ground. “I’m already dead — killed by you. That can be considered settling the debt owed to this body.”

The murderous energy surrounding Lang Jiuchuan receded slightly. “Continue.”

Zhengyang Zi went on. “The ninth young miss of the Lang Family had always lived at the Lang Family’s estate, which made things convenient for us. But this matter could not be allowed to come to light — after all, the Rong Family still presented itself to the world as part of the righteous path.”

A’Piao let out a cold, contemptuous snort. “A ‘righteous path’ wearing a demon’s skin is all it ever was — every last one of them, cut from the same rotten cloth.”

Zhengyang Zi said nothing in his own defense and went on. “By the family head’s orders, we originally only intended to take the spiritual bone and meridians from this body — and the plan was to extract them the moment she breathed her last breath. But the Fourth Madam objected, saying the dead were inauspicious, so it was done while she was still alive.”

He thought of the Rong Fourth Madam’s expression during that time and shook his head. “The cruelty of women knows no bounds. That child’s eyes were far too beautiful — even in her most desperate moment, not a single trace of light left them. Every last drop of her hatred blazed and burned. The Fourth Madam personally gouged out both of those eyes. The moment she did, something none of us had anticipated — that child had been born with a Heavenly Eye. That was an unexpected windfall.”

Zhengyang Zi spoke with a note of genuine regret. “What a pity, a constitution like that. She was a natural-born Dao vessel. Had someone led her into the path of cultivation from an early age, her achievements need not have been any lesser than the Rong young master’s…”

“You all deserve to die!” Lang Jiuchuan lunged forward and seized him by the throat in one hand. Spiritual power flooded into her grip, and a searing heat blazing like living flame erupted across Zhengyang Zi — a heat that ignited him where he was held.

The killing energy emanating from her entire body thickened and rose, the fury of someone on the very edge of descending into demonic madness.

A’Piao rushed forward and wrenched Zhengyang Zi free. “Don’t lose control — keeping him alive is more useful than killing him.”

Zhengyang Zi nodded in terrified, frantic agreement. That had been close — truly close. He had genuinely believed he was about to be reduced to scattered ash.

So death wasn’t the end of everything. As long as the soul still had awareness, the terror a ghost felt toward a Heaven Master was something that shook him to the very core of his being.

A Heaven Master — this woman must have cultivated the great path of a true Heaven Master!

Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze raked over him, cold and heavy as the bottom of a frozen abyss — her eyes black as a still, lightless pool, as though they might swallow a person whole. “So then — to reconnect the meridians and bones for Rong Huanxuan, you sliced this child open while she still lived, stripped her bones, severed her meridians, gouged out her eyes, and bound her soul. How remarkable — the Rong Family.”