Many people were curious about what Shu Sheng’s face looked like beneath his mask.

The Martial Inspection Alliance inspectors who spent their days with Shu Sheng, his adopted daughter Princess Chang Xi, Fang Hui, cultivators who admired Shu Sheng, Martial Academy students, and enemies who held grudges against Shu Sheng—all were curious.

Perhaps the only one not curious was Emperor Wen Xiu, who had seen Shu Sheng’s true face before.

At this moment, before Grievance Tower, the only one unconcerned with Shu Sheng’s appearance was Long Yu Ye, who had seen him before.

The huge shadow cast by the black skeleton completely covered Shu Sheng. Both he and Ming Li stood within this shadow, while Chang Xi and Song Tianjiu, lying fallen on either side, ignored all the changes around them and stared at Shu Sheng without blinking.

The mask shattered in an instant. The sound of fragments falling to the ground was ignored by everyone. Reflected in their eyes was a face covered with countless scars from being slashed by blades countless times and being soaked and cleansed by scalding water and raging fire, distorting his features into something ugly and ferocious.

Shu Sheng’s raised hand returned, as if to cover his face with his sleeve, but he paused midway and slowly lowered it.

No one could associate such a face with a Pilgrim who had mastered all eight meridians.

This face would frighten children to tears, leaving them too shocked to move; adults would also be startled, unable to stop feeling nauseous, unable to look directly at it. Even a glance would leave a lifelong shadow.

People could only form impressions of disgust, fear, contempt, and mockery toward this face, associating it with someone of the lowest status, not the Alliance Leader of the Martial Inspection Alliance, who stood second only to one person, nor a top cultivator of the continent.

Song Tianjiu’s gaze toward Shu Sheng became somewhat peculiar.

Shu Sheng’s words, actions, and pressure had left a deep impression on Song Tianjiu. Even with the mask, the image of Shu Sheng in his mind was very specific—a handsome noble young master skilled at feigning kindness.

Now, suddenly seeing his true face, Song Tianjiu couldn’t help but lie back on the ground, thinking “nothing matters anymore,” then said: “You should put your mask back on.”

Otherwise, he feared the female disciples at Dong Yang who admired Shu Sheng would have their hearts broken on the spot if they knew.

Chang Xi stared blankly at that face. Shu Sheng didn’t meet her gaze because those hideous, ugly scars distorted his features so much that his eyes were barely visible.

It looked like a piece of shriveled tree bark.

So that’s how it is.

Chang Xi thought that, after the initial shock and fear passed, only uncertainty and bewilderment remained.

Is this person my adoptive father?

Is this the strong and cold, occasionally gentle, adoptive father?

Ming Li gazed at the narrow slits of Shu Sheng’s eyes, glimpsing deathly stillness within. She saw how he withdrew his hand and paused, and mockingly said: “It seems even you can’t accept this face.”

Shu Sheng’s tone was icy: “There’s nothing I can’t accept. The mask was only to resist the Divine Oracle.”

“No one would believe that now,” Ming Li smiled slightly. “There aren’t many ways to resist the Divine Oracle, but there are several. If you truly wanted to resist the Divine Oracle, you should have asked me. I could have told you methods that don’t require wearing a mask.”

Ming Li spoke these words lightly, but each one stabbed into Shu Sheng’s heart.

“Or you could learn from Xiang An’ge, create your realm boundaries, hide from the world, and not worry about people seeing this face and saying or doing something to upset you.”

Shu Sheng seemed expressionless, though it was difficult to discern any expression from his face.

But everyone could feel his change.

Wearing the mask, Shu Sheng’s aura was composed, gentle, calm, yet with the pressure of a top expert.

Now, Shu Sheng was filled with coldness and deathly stillness, along with the most visible ugliness.

Shu Sheng slowly raised his hand again, pointing at Ming Li. Stellar power became violent and sharp, making Song Tianjiu and Chang Xi on either side raise their hands to shield themselves.

“You’re upset. It seems you care about your face,” Ming Li smiled. “That makes me have to say once more, your face is just like your heart—unbearably ugly, nauseating.”

“Rather than deceiving people by saying the Earth Ghosts are monsters, perhaps you are more of a monster.”

Before Ming Li could finish speaking, several Qi Flow Word Incantations shot toward her.

Divine Miracle Ability: All Methods.

Shu Sheng suppressed Ming Li’s Qi Flow Meridian, preventing anyone except himself from using Qi Flow Word Incantations.

Ming Li stood still, not moving. Star lines formed in alignment at her feet, and the formation blocked all the Qi Flow Word Incantations. “Angered by shame?”

“This is where you end,” Shu Sheng said, glancing at the fallen Song Tianjiu, not sparing even him.

Song Tianjiu was once again pursued by Life and Death Binding. Clutching his wounded shoulder, he flash-stepped to distance himself: “Silencing witnesses? There’s one more!”

Chang Xi, mentioned by Song Tianjiu, shakily stood up from the ground, but neither All Methods nor Life and Death Binding targeted her.

Only Ming Li’s afterimage remained in the formation. Her flash-step speed exceeded Shu Sheng’s Eye Meridian. The dual mirrors fell like winter snowflakes, constantly turning.

Shu Sheng frowned slightly. From the corner of his eye, he sensed Ming Li behind him and turned, operating his Body Technique Meridian to its limit as he engaged her.

“I think I understand now why Emperor Wen Xiu said those things before he died,” Ming Li’s tone was inscrutable, gentle as the wind yet mixed with a coldness that could kill unseen.

Shu Sheng: “What could you understand from the words of a madman?”

Ming Li tilted her head toward Chang Xi’s position. When shattered mirrors appeared around Chang Xi to launch an attack, they were all destroyed by Shu Sheng’s Qi Flow Word Incantations.

A soft laugh reached Shu Sheng’s ears. Ming Li disappeared from his sight again, her speed exceeding the Eye Meridian, forcing Shu Sheng to remain vigilant without the slightest relaxation.

Slender green vines extended from Ming Li’s bow, entangling Shu Sheng’s hands, only to be instantly shredded by Life and Death Binding. The vines attacked and entangled again from all directions.

As Shu Sheng flash-stepped and changed positions, his foot stepped on the star lines of Ming Li’s formation. He coldly said, “Bei Jing Gui Yuan is itself a massive Eight Meridian Formation. Do you think your formation is that powerful here?”

“It’s worthless.” As Shu Sheng’s words fell, he crushed the formation with one step, causing the floating star lines to fall and disappear.

Shu Sheng again shredded the vines, entangling his hands with Life and Death Binding: “Blinded by anger and hatred, attacking irrationally—is this your limit?”

Ming Li flash-stepped before him. Without the support of her formation, Shu Sheng barely caught her speed this time, his fingertips pointing out several Heaven Wall Guardian formations.

“What, trying to use Heart Meridian: Clever Incitement to make me lose my rationality?” Ming Li mocked.

Shu Sheng nodded slightly. In this moment, his posture was commanding, making people overlook his face, mentally replacing it with the elegance when he wore the mask: “Everyone thinks my main Stellar Meridian is the Qi Flow Meridian, and my strongest Meridian is also the Qi Flow Meridian, but they’re all wrong—wrong because they’re all influenced by my Heart Meridian.”

Ming Li flash-stepped to distance herself from Shu Sheng. She could feel the change in Heaven and Earth’s Qi Flow. Bright light shone through the narrow slits of his eyes, revealing the Divine Radiance Illusion World.

Shu Sheng stared at the retreating Ming Li. In the suddenly descending darkness, he had already pulled Ming Li into his Divine Radiance Illusion World.

*

The illusion from a formation differed from that of the Heart Meridian. The Heart Meridian illusion felt completely real, and the affected person’s world was extraordinarily authentic. Everything experienced could be arbitrarily altered, the five senses were real, and the sense of time passing was genuine.

With formations supporting the Heart Meridian illusion, even a Pilgrim would find it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood. Or rather, given enough time, they would gradually be devoured by the illusion, merged into the false reality, driven mad, and self-destruct.

After spending a brief time in darkness, Ming Li opened her eyes to see swirling snow, black sandy ground mirroring massive snow mountains. On the ground were many Martial Inspection Alliance inspectors, as well as slaves in tattered clothes with chains clanking at their feet, working lifelessly beneath the snow mountain.

The cold air Ming Li breathed in brought a bone-chilling coldness. She looked down to see a thin layer of frost covering her fingertips.

This was the Divine Radiance Illusion World controlled by Shu Sheng.

Ming Li heard Shu Sheng’s voice coming from above: “Because of Zhou Zixi, you’re very angry, gradually losing rationality. But if you were to witness with your own eyes the pain he once suffered, how would you react?”

With his calm, gentle voice, Ming Li found herself standing on a riverbank, watching a young man crushed to death by Shu Sheng’s foot beneath the snow mountain opposite.

The young man’s eyes stared emptily at the gloomy sky. Snowflakes silently fell on his eyes and melted. The lifeless young man suddenly struggled with his hands and feet, trying to rise.

Ming Li only glanced once before looking away, staring at the masked Shu Sheng and answering his question coolly: “You will die more miserably.”

Shu Sheng said, “Perhaps you’ll lose your rationality first. I can sense that in the depths of your heart, you became sad when he died.”

Across the snow mountain, the scene replayed of Shu Sheng making young Zhou Zixi die repeatedly years ago, just to research his strange shadow. But Zhou Zixi bit his teeth each time, refusing to reveal anything. The boy’s still childish face was extremely stubborn, his black eyes revealing emotions sometimes of pain, sometimes of hatred.

The young man was pierced by Qi Flow Word Incantations, enduring again and again, suppressing groans, until he could no longer bear it and let out miserable screams.

Ming Li watched and listened with a calm expression.

“If you’re trying to provoke me this way, it’s rather low-level,” Ming Li looked up at the sky disdainfully. “It seems your humble birth and experiences have determined that no matter how many years you studied under Emperor Wen Xiu, you could never become like him. No matter what level of cultivation you reach, you cannot change the low-class and humble nature in your bones.”

As a Heart Meridian expert herself, even trapped in Shu Sheng’s Divine Radiance Illusion World, Ming Li could sense the “intent” between heaven and earth. Since shattering Shu Sheng’s mask, she had been sensing and probing the deepest fears and weaknesses in Shu Sheng’s heart.

The two were probing each other.

Shu Sheng detected Ming Li’s “love” for Zhou Zixi and assumed Zhou Zixi was her weakness, seeking a breakthrough there, attempting to destroy Ming Li’s inner heart.

But Ming Li detected Shu Sheng’s “ruthlessness” and “hatred” toward himself, from the abuse scars on his face, his style similar to Emperor Wen Xiu’s, and his unusual concern for Chang Xi—all secrets Shu Sheng had hidden deep in his heart, unable to bear the light.

These secrets would drive him mad and could destroy him.

The truth Ming Li perceived left Shu Sheng silent, unable to respond for quite some time.

Beneath the snow mountain, only the young man’s screams could be heard.

Yet Ming Li remained completely unaffected.

Shu Sheng said gravely: “Everything you’ve obtained is only because of your talent.”

“Awakening eight meridians already makes you outstanding in the human world. Seven meridians innately at full boundary puts you just one step away from becoming a Pilgrim.”

“You cannot understand the determination and effort of cultivators who bet everything on cultivation. You can’t see ordinary people who spend their entire lives just to break through one meridian, one boundary.”

Shu Sheng’s tone was judgmental: “Your existence is unfair to the world’s cultivators.”

After listening, Ming Li curved her lips slightly: “Talent.”

She said softly, “I’ve seen many who cultivate diligently and earnestly. They focus only on themselves. Even if they awaken seven meridians, six meridians, or even five or four, unable to become Pilgrims, they still aim to find their limits, never giving up or criticizing others’ talents, never using others’ talents as the reason for their failure.”

“You rely on Long Yu Ye and Mind Awakening Marrow for a second awakening, becoming an Eight Meridian Full Boundary Pilgrim, yet here you are, envious of others with better talents who cultivate faster. Such ugly thoughts—is this what people mean by ‘appearance reflects the heart’?”

Ming Li’s final mocking tone made Shu Sheng’s voice deepen: “It’s not unfair to me, but to the people of the world.”

“Using the people as an excuse—are you afraid to face your own dirty heart?” Ming Li asked him.

Shu Sheng said, “I am an Eight Meridian Full Boundary Pilgrim, at the peak of cultivation in this continent. I have power that others don’t possess, incomparably strong power. My responsibility is to maintain order and fairness in the human world.”

“Hey,” Ming Li raised an eyebrow lightly, “you consider yourself a savior, believing you’re the master of this continent?”

Shu Sheng continued: “Those with ability must bear more responsibility, make more contributions, and guide this world toward the correct future.”

Ming Li said, “Is this your excuse for colluding with the Divine Oracle?”

Shu Sheng said gravely: “The existence of the Life Meridian, like your talent, affects the fairness of this world.”

Ming Li looked at the young man dying once again beneath the snow mountain, her expression cold: “Is it because, no matter how many times you used Mind Awakening Marrow, you couldn’t awaken the Life Meridian, that you feel it’s unfair?”

“Everything you can’t obtain, you consider unfair.”

Shu Sheng, standing beneath the snow mountain, slowly raised his head to look at Ming Li across the river, pointing at her: “If you didn’t have that admirable talent, would you still have the right to say such things?”

In an instant, heaven and earth turned upside down, the snow mountain vanished, and Ming Li smelled the fragrance of roasted sweet potatoes in winter, saw a familiar courtyard, and heard the conversation between her father and elder brother.