Mao City had fallen.

Under the most powerful assault of the Shijiu Zhou cultivators, tens of thousands of ghost cultivators in the Extreme Domain couldn’t even manage to escape in time before being obliterated under that bone-chilling, soul-burning spiritual power—their souls scattered to the winds!

The city, baptized by powerful attacks, was a scene of devastation.

The city towers had collapsed, tall buildings had toppled. Not a single intact street remained, nor half a complete door panel. Looking down from above, it was a sight of complete ruin.

The cultivators on the ground escorted captured or surrendered Extreme Domain ghost cultivators, walking through the ruins of half the city.

Xie Buchen swept past from the horizon, and after handling the frontline affairs and subsequent trivial matters, he headed toward Kunwu’s current temporary station in Mao City, leaving only a misty, ethereal figure like smoke and rain for the crowds below.

The building was half-destroyed, but cultivators always had miraculous methods of repair. So it still looked somewhat like a proper station.

When he landed, he happened to encounter Wang Que emerging from the main hall with a furrowed brow, and the two faced each other directly.

Wang Que ranked fourth among Master Hengxu’s disciples, and his talent had been first before Xie Buchen’s arrival. After losing to Jian Chou and losing his first place on the Fourth Heavenly Tablet that year, he had actually abandoned his original Hermit Sword Intent to cultivate anew—his dao heart could hardly be called unsteady, nor his actions indecisive.

Xie Buchen was far from being an arrogant person.

On the contrary, he possessed exceptional talent yet wasn’t conceited. He wasn’t very familiar with Wang Que, but merely from the profundity of the “Hermit Sword Intent” he had learned in the past, one could glimpse that his abilities were extraordinary, and his clarity of thought was among the very best.

But right now…

What matter could actually make this “Senior Brother Wang Que” frown as he emerged from Master Hengxu’s quarters?

Xie Buchen stopped in his tracks and bowed respectfully: “Senior Brother Wang Que.”

“Junior Brother Xie.”

Wang Que wore azure robes, but his expression no longer held that ethereal detachment that once made others’ hearts settle; instead, there was a certain gravity.

Normally, Xie Buchen’s relationship with him wasn’t close, and after such a greeting, there should have been nothing more to say. But at this moment, Xie Buchen sensed something unusual, so he stood and asked: “Seeing Senior Brother Wang Que’s expression seems different, has something happened?”

Wang Que raised his eyebrows and looked at Xie Buchen.

This junior brother, who had actually entered the sect less than a hundred years ago, ranked last among Master’s thirteen true disciples, but was undoubtedly the most exceptional genius Kunwu had seen in a hundred years. Even looking across the Shijiu Zhou, only Jian Chou of Yashan could surpass him by a margin.

His bearing was bright and clear, his manner luminous. He possessed noble elegance tinged with transcendent detachment, his divine bearing as lofty and clear as jade trees in a celestial forest. Whether in appearance or substance, he truly deserved the legendary title of “Heaven’s Favored Dao Child,” the one destined to save Kunwu from its hundred-year great calamity.

His thoughts had turned full circle in this brief moment. Wang Que’s furrowed brow didn’t relax, but recalling what he had just sensed as improper in Master Hengxu’s quarters, he paused, then finally said: “Though the recent battles have been victorious, and we’ve now broken through the Extreme Domain’s second line of defense with an attack on Bafang City imminent, Master seems… Junior Brother Xie, though you entered late, you truly deserve to be Master’s most favored disciple. Perhaps Master would place more weight on your words. I observe that Master’s heart no longer seems focused on the current realm war…”

Xie Buchen slightly lowered his eyes, showing no emotion.

Wang Que and he were quite distant, and today’s words already counted as the most he had spoken to Xie Buchen since his entry into the sect. But it was merely said in passing.

Some matters were beyond their worry or control.

So Wang Que hadn’t intended to hear Xie Buchen’s response from the beginning, and hearing no response now seemed normal. He only speculated inwardly that this Junior Brother Xie, with his superior talent and remarkable ability for overall strategic control, might not have failed to notice certain signs—it just depended on what he thought about it.

He said nothing more and walked directly past Xie Buchen.

Xie Buchen remained in place. After Wang Que passed, he raised his eyes again, a few traces of dark contemplation flickering in their depths, then walked toward the building.

But his steps were very slow.

From the front of the building to the entrance of the main hall, which seemed somewhat gloomy, took a long time. Finally, he stopped at the hall’s entrance.

Inside the hall, Master Hengxu wore dao robes, his fly whisk set aside on the table. He stood with hands behind his back, possessing the bearing of an immortal, but faced a snow-white phantom on the high wall.

The phantom resembled a totem.

Ten necks, nine heads, full plumage, colored like deep forest snow, but all eighteen bird eyes were fully open, and the moment Xie Buchen reached the hall entrance, they all turned to look at him!

The Nine-Headed Bird’s remnant soul!

In that instant, Xie Buchen felt as if his deepest secret had been completely seen through. Had he not been naturally calm and cold, and had he not witnessed this more than once, he would surely have been terrified.

Entering from outside the hall, he bowed respectfully: “Disciple greets Master.”

Master Hengxu stood motionless, positioned in the rather cold depths of the hall, only gazing at the Nine-Headed Bird remnant soul totem he had brought back from his visit to the Eighteen Layers of Hell after breaking through Ghost Gate Pass last time. After a long while, he finally said: “The hundred-year great calamity approaches. The calamity arises from variables, but I wonder… from where do these variables arise…”

The corner of Xie Buchen’s eye twitched slightly.

On the Nine-Headed Bird remnant soul phantom, eighteen bird eyes flickered with tiny red glints, slowly moving away from his face and turning back toward Master Hengxu.

Nine sharp beaks opened and closed, their voice carrying ancient vicissitudes.

“Most demonic, most evil, variables emerge…”

“What has my old friend thought of?”

Even as the supreme evil great demon, he could not fathom Jian Chou’s current thoughts. Fu Chaosheng merely heard her mention “seven parts of the soul” and was already somewhat surprised, so he couldn’t help but ask.

Jian Chou slowly flattened her fingers, but her breathing was still difficult to calm, just like the turbulent emotions in her heart at this moment that were impossible to settle!

“Just a sudden thought that came to mind…”

An unprecedented, inconceivable thought.

Fu Chaosheng watched her, waiting for her to explain.

Jian Chou asked: “You’ve also been to the mortal isolated island. Have you ever heard the story of ‘benevolent soul, evil soul’?”

Fu Chaosheng shook his head: “I haven’t heard of it, and I can’t imagine how souls could be divided into good and evil.”

“Precisely because of this, for thousands of years, all the mortals on the isolated island have regarded it as merely a story.”

Jian Chou’s eyes flickered as she told him the story.

“Strange and supernatural matters—the sage does not speak of them. But since such things exist in the world, there are inevitably people who record these tales of the bizarre.”

“Among them was a volume that recorded one incident.”

“In the past, there was a scholar who studied with a friend in a temple. The friend returned home and died suddenly, but the scholar didn’t know and continued studying as usual. That evening as he slept, he saw his friend push open the door and enter, saying he had died of sudden illness and was now a ghost, coming to see the scholar only to entrust him with unfinished business. The scholar was initially frightened, but after conversation, seeing that though his friend was a ghost, his appearance was no different from before, he spoke to retain him for further talk. After recounting their lives, it was finally time to part. The friend bid farewell, saying: ‘I must go.’ But after rising, he stood without moving, his eyes staring wide, his appearance gradually becoming ugly and corrupted, showing a fierce and evil countenance.”

“The scholar became afraid, but couldn’t drive him away.”

“In panic, he could only flee through the door, rushing into the night, while his friend’s corpse-ghost pursued him. Finally, because the stiff corpse couldn’t climb walls, when the scholar climbed over the wall, he escaped disaster.”

On the surface, no matter how one looked at it, it was just a common ghost tale from the isolated island.

However, after she had slain Emperor Jiang’s evil soul back then, she realized there was indeed truth within it.

Jian Chou looked back at the charity house by the riverbank, and seeing no one emerging from it, slowly continued: “The author of the book, after this story, used the words of a knowledgeable person to say: Human souls are benevolent while souls are evil, human souls are spiritual while souls are foolish. When the friend came, one spirit remained undimmed, the soul attached to the soul and moved with it; when the friend left, his heart’s wish was fulfilled, the benevolent soul scattered while the evil soul remained, thus it acted viciously and wanted to devour people. When the soul is present, it is still that person; when the soul departs, it is no longer that person.”

Fu Chaosheng was no dull person either. After listening and thinking carefully, recalling Jian Chou’s earlier mention of “Heaven’s Way tends toward good,” and that Xie Buchen had always been known as “Heaven’s Favored Dao Child,” then thinking of the perpetually unsolvable “kill Xie Buchen, sever seven parts of the soul,” he finally vaguely guessed her thoughts.

“My old friend believes that—”

“I must deceive Heaven!”

Jian Chou didn’t let Fu Chaosheng finish his words, only sighed thus, as if wanting to expel that surge of shock from her heart. Though her face was calm, the slight tremor in her voice still betrayed her complexity and amazement.

“If it’s all him, he could be called an absolutely peerless hero…”

But did Heaven’s Way truly have good and evil?

Even taking a step back, if Heaven’s Way truly had good and evil, and things were as she suspected, then was the good and evil considered by the mundane world the same as Heaven’s Way’s good and evil?

For Heaven’s Way…

What constituted good, and what constituted evil?