With this reflection stone sky-curtain revealed, all of Tantai Wuji’s earlier claims that Lang Jiuchuan was a demon cultivator who had harmed the State Preceptor and the Holy Maiden — every slander and false accusation leveled against her — collapsed without a single blow. Using this ironclad recorded evidence, she had struck Tantai Wuji hard across the face and proved her own innocence.

Within Wu Jing, some eyes turned red. Some let out long, relieved exhales. And others ached with a grief too heavy to bear.

So that was what had truly happened. She had been the wronged party all along, yet she had been framed as the demon cultivator instead. The Tantai imperial clan — how had they dared?

And every member of the Tantai clan trembled in shock. They knew that an unwritten rule had existed since the founding of the Great Phan — the Emperor was determined by the State Preceptor personally calculating the birth characters. This was said to be for the flourishing fortune and enduring prosperity of the Tantai imperial line. Yet it had never occurred to them that the reason they had not been chosen was simply that they lacked sufficient fortune. Was that fortune or misfortune?

All misfortune!

They were nothing more than livestock being raised and penned, bloodline descendants who could be devoured and body-seized at any moment — a granary for that patriarch. No wonder a genius born only once in a century turned out to be the same person each time. And those ancestors who had their bodies seized — how utterly desperate must they have been?

And then there was the reigning Emperor, Tantai Yan…

The members of the Tantai imperial clan felt as though the sky had fallen. Having a patriarch who had lived a thousand years should have been cause for celebration. But now that patriarch was a malevolent demon with no trace of humanity, who had harmed so many people and great clans. Now that a golden core Zhenren had issued a talisman edict calling for his downfall — sharing the Tantai surname as they did — how could they expect a good outcome?

How could one person bring about such a catastrophe?

Many of the Tantai clan members felt as though their futures had been plunged into darkness.

Liuxiu’s face was filled with fury, the fierce killing energy around him climbing unceasingly. He turned to the Head of the Gong Family beside him and said: “What you said before was far too conservative. What he has done has enraged both man and god. To be so utterly deranged and still harbour delusions of ascending to ask the Way — it is sheer fantasy!”

“And yet he nearly succeeded!” The Head of the Gong Family looked toward Lang Jiuchuan, standing aloft in the sky, and her throat tightened. “When she was being offered as a living sacrifice — what was she thinking?”

Liuxiu also looked toward Lang Jiuchuan and said: “Someone whose heart is resolute, who is wholly devoted to the Way, who holds the Great Way of all living beings in their heart — even if betrayed and driven to the edge of a desperate abyss, they will not weep and wail or wallow in self-pity. They will exhaust every possible means to crush that person’s hope.”

“And so she chose to self-detonate her divine soul rather than remain shackled within that binding array — because the divine soul was the core anchor of the entire trap.” Feng Ya spoke quietly.

Self-detonating the divine soul. Both of them shuddered.

Liuxiu’s eyes held a deep respect — and also a measure of fear. If he had been placed in that same situation, would he have possessed such unflinching resolve?

Probably not.

“Truly — not everyone can achieve the golden core stage.” He gave a bitter smile.

The sky-curtain faded. Lang Jiuchuan paid no heed to how many people would be unable to sleep after seeing what the reflection stone had shown. Her voice — clear and resonant, wrapped in a majestic authority as though descending from the high heavens — accompanied the golden talisman edict written with her divine soul, and rang through the entirety of Wu Jing. Then, like ripples on water, with the capital at the center, it spread outward toward ever more distant lands.

“I, Lang Jiuchuan, having this day proven the Great Way of the Golden Core and bearing the mandate of Heaven, hereby make solemn declaration to the world: A thousand years ago, the patriarch of the Tantai clan, Tantai Wuji, failed in his attempt to breach a cultivation boundary. Driven by selfish desire and the wish to become the supreme master of the Great Way, he seized the bodies of his own descendants, murdered his disciples, stole fortune from the living, and plundered the nation for his own enrichment. He has now further fallen into the demonic path, butchering the living, seeking to overturn the mountains and rivers and plunge all sentient life into ruin. His crimes are too numerous to record on all the bamboo in the world, and have stirred the wrath of both man and god.

Today — forged from the soul, commanded through the talisman — I summon all righteous monks of virtue throughout the world, elders of every mountain, all those who carry in their hearts the will to subdue demons and defend the Way: sever the wicked, vanquish the demonic, and restore a world of clear skies and righteous order. Let truth be known!

Let this edict go forth. All who walk the righteous path, fellow cultivators — upon seeing this talisman, come as though seeing me in person. With one heart and united strength, execute the wicked and defend the Way. Edict!”

As that single word of edict fell, the immense golden talisman edict condensed in the sky shook with a resounding boom, then shattered into countless fine threads of golden flowing light that shot in every direction, disappearing into the horizon. The sound shook the world.

This edict was unleashed through her power as a golden core Zhenren, and could reach all cultivators, so that each one would see the talisman and hear its call, feeling it resonate within their hearts.

The instant the talisman light vanished, the world trembled.

Lang Jiuchuan looked again upon Wu Jing, the first place to be poisoned by the demonic energy. She watched the townspeople whose eyes had gone bloodshot, stripped of rational thought, and unhooked the Dizhong bell from her waist — now more sacred after its refinement. She channeled her intent into the bell’s body. A single resonant strike rang out.

Her lips parted, and a passage of sacred chant reached the ears of all — the Great Compassion Mantra. The sacred sound mingled with the vibrations emanating from the bell’s body, colliding into the hearts of the watching world, forcibly driving out the inner demons and wrathful energy that gripped them.

A single person chanting — yet those sutras reached every corner of Wu Jing, falling clearly into the eardrums of everyone present. Those with resilient hearts instantly came to their senses, looked down at their own hands, and asked themselves — what were they doing?

Some, looking at the bodies around them, let out sharp and wretched screams. They had killed their own kin, their own friends. How could this have happened?

As the bell’s resonance carried further, the abbot of the Huguo Temple, far away, pressed his palms together and recited a Buddhist invocation. He climbed to the bell tower and personally struck the great bell, joining his voice to the sutras carried on the air, chanting the Great Compassion Mantra together with it.

The sutras of merit and virtue could drive out the darkest and most shadowed inner demons from the human heart.

More and more people came to their senses. The murky demonic energy that had blanketed Wu Jing seemed unable to resist the meritorious righteous energy of the sutras, and was washed away and dispersed.

Some wept in the aftermath of surviving a calamity. Others, upon seeing the wrongs they had committed in a moment of impulse, could not hold back their broken sobbing, grieving as though they wished to die.

Liuxiu and the Head of the Gong Family exchanged a glance, both eyes filled with compassion.

Lang Jiuchuan withdrew her posture and stepped down from the void. She turned to the two of them and said: “I will go seek out Tantai Wuji myself. But the chaos he has stirred up must be suppressed by all of you. The Tantai clan cannot cause much more trouble. When it comes to the arcane clans, it is the Gong Family that has the deepest foundations — I will leave this matter to you, Head of the Gong Family, to oversee and coordinate.”

The Head of the Gong Family clasped her hands respectfully. “I will not fail your intentions. However — a nation cannot go a single day without a sovereign. Tantai has proven himself unworthy of the throne, the so-called State Preceptor capable of managing the broader situation is already dead, Tantai Wuji is in hiding, and the rest of their clan cannot go on dreaming of ascending to the imperial seat. Yet the governance of the Great Phan cannot halt. Without a sovereign to preside, hearts will be unsettled — and I fear that before the demonic energy even needs to do anything, people will be at each other’s throats over the throne, each scheming for themselves.”

“The court will continue operating as it did before. I will first find Ministers Shen Qinghe and Zeng Guangchuan and have them lead the Secretariat and the Six Ministries to govern and stabilize the nation. I have already divined it — the wise and rightful sovereign will appear at the latest by next year. Until then, let the ministers take charge. As for whether anyone might exploit their position for personal gain — I will place my divine sense as a commanding presence within the Hall of Majestic Virtue. Whoever dares to abuse power and bring chaos to this land — heh… then I shall use them as the sacrifice to usher in the new sovereign!”

She was a golden core Zhenren, yes — but she was no merciful bodhisattva vowed to non-killing. She intended to stabilize the nation, and if others sought to throw it into disorder — no matter who they were — death.

The Head of the Gong Family let out a breath of relief. Having witnessed what Lang Jiuchuan had just displayed, anyone who valued their life would suppress whatever intentions they harbored.

“Then you must move quickly. Shen Qinghe spoke up to defend you and contradicted Tantai Wuji to his face — he was given fifty strokes of the cane as a result. Even with medicinal elixirs keeping him alive, a full recovery will not come easily. And moreover, the members of his household have already been sentenced to exile — they have likely already departed Wu Jing and are somewhere on the road.”

Lang Jiuchuan turned to Feng Ya: “This body of yours happens to be the original form of that old ghost Tantai — you may as well act as master of the imperial palace for now and keep those people’s arrogance in check. I will be back shortly.”

Feng Ya: “……”

Whose patience was this meant to wear down, exactly?