A trace of compassion flashed through Bujiang’s eyes: “People often say the Heavenly Way is fickle and full of traps—how true indeed. Back then, I thought that by sealing your Demon King bloodline and hiding you in the human world, I could preserve a thread of life for you. But look, after all these years of going in circles, we still can’t escape the destined outcome.”
Gui Diao Tang’s resurrection was impossible—even immortals couldn’t bring the dead back to life. And with Zanxing having lost all her cultivation, it was even more impossible for her to surpass Gui Diao Tang’s Demon King essence. Wanting to break the seal and awaken her Heavenly Demon bloodline was nothing but wishful thinking.
But did she have to do as Bujiang said—stay put and wait for some illusory hope that might never come? What difference was that from self-deception?
Zanxing looked down at Mimi in her arms. Even if she could wait, could Mimi wait?
She didn’t want to sit and wait for death.
In the ice caves, countless shadowy figures sat silently, their gazes converging together and falling on this disheveled woman.
Bujiang was still speaking: “The Heavenly Way is what’s destined to happen. No matter how you struggle, the outcome won’t change.”
Someone propped herself up with a stick and slowly stood up from the ground.
Her fox fur was covered with tiny ice crystals, her long hair singed into a mess by fire, and her face bore deep scars that obscured her original features. Her hands gripping the azure stick were swollen and red from being burned by fire and then frozen by ice, like scarred turnips dripping with pus and blood.
Zanxing looked at the woman locked by massive chains and said word by word: “I insist on changing it.”
The Five Thunder Platform in Duzhou was a place that struck fear throughout the cultivation world.
The demon realm had the Abyss of Extreme Ice—it was said that no one thrown into the Abyss of Extreme Ice could crawl out alive. Demon King Gui Diao Tang had designated the Abyss of Extreme Ice as a prison to specifically imprison demon race members with heavy sins.
The cultivation world had the Five Thunder Platform. If a sect cultivator committed an unforgivable great crime, they would be bound to the Five Thunder Platform to suffer heavenly lightning punishment. Ordinary sect cultivators who made mistakes were usually dealt with internally by their sects, unless they had angered everyone and all the major sects jointly decided to send them here for punishment. The last person in Duzhou to be punished at the Five Thunder Platform was a sect master from several decades ago who secretly practiced evil arts, deceiving and abducting innocent children as cultivation materials. When the matter was finally exposed, he was bound to the Five Thunder Platform and tortured for forty-nine days before finally turning to ash and dust.
After many years, the Five Thunder Platform finally welcomed another prisoner.
The youth’s snow-white brocade robes had been stained red with blood. His usually smooth ponytail had lost its crimson hair ribbon and become disheveled. His entire body was covered with wounds and bloodstains. If there was anything the same as before, it was his eyes, bright as always.
From his chest to his spine, an iron chain had pierced through, nailing him firmly to the ground so he couldn’t break free. This was the Yinfeng Sect’s Heart-Piercing Lock—once penetrated, neither gods nor demons could escape. Having already lost half his primordial soul, despite his profound cultivation and exceptional talent, he couldn’t withstand five heavenly lightning strikes daily. He had long lost his former spirit and become disheveled.
In the night, a figure secretly snuck in from outside.
“Gu Baiying, Gu Baiying!” The person softly called his name.
At first, he showed no reaction, but later his ears moved slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes to see who was before him.
Putao knelt beside the Five Thunder Platform. She couldn’t enter the formation and could only stay at the edge of the platform. Seeing the wounds on Gu Baiying’s body, her eyes immediately reddened as she asked softly: “Are you alright?”
“Why did you come?” Gu Baiying asked. When he spoke, his expression was still impatient, but combined with his current disheveled state, he no longer had his former arrogance and seemed somewhat strained.
“I…” Putao bit her lip. “Your fellow disciples are all under watch now and can’t go out. That little junior brother called Mendong asked me to come see you. How are you? Can you still hold on?”
Gu Baiying snorted: “It’s just five lightning tribulations. Perfect for absorbing heaven and earth essence—I’ll treat it as cultivation.”
“Stop being stubborn!” Putao anxiously stepped forward but was struck by a heavenly lightning bolt at her feet, stopping her advance. She had to halt and speak urgently: “I overheard the sect masters talking. This matter involves the demon race—the major sects won’t let you go. Even if Shaoyang Zhenren wants to protect you, all those Chihua Gate disciples died at that demon’s hands. Now that you’ve let the demon escape, Daoist Lingxin is blaming you for everything. How could he let this go?”
Gu Baiying frowned: “The Chihua Gate disciples weren’t killed by her.”
“With so many witnesses, could it be false?”
“Did you see it with your own eyes?”
“I…”
“I already said, if you didn’t see it with your own eyes, then spreading rumors everywhere—what’s the difference between you and those gossipmongers?”
Putao had always been favored in the Xiangling Sect. Being mocked by Gu Baiying repeatedly like this, she also felt angry and spoke without thinking: “I don’t need to see it with my own eyes. On all of Gufeng Mountain that day, only she was present. Besides, the Demon King mark on her head isn’t fake. A demon race member, plotting carefully to join a sect—who knows what she was planning?”
Gu Baiying didn’t speak, only looked at her coldly.
Another heavenly lightning bolt struck down, pressing the youth’s back down further. He groaned, and a trace of fresh blood spilled from the corner of his lips.
Putao’s heart tightened. No longer caring about her earlier anger, she softly persuaded: “Now all the major sects are watching. If you still insist on protecting Yang Zanxing, you can only continue enduring on the Five Thunder Platform. If this continues, you’ll be reduced to ash and dust! Just say something conciliatory—say you had no relationship with Yang Zanxing, that you were just bewitched by her. This way, I can persuade my aunt again, and at least get you temporarily freed from lightning punishment.”
Gu Baiying raised his hand to wipe the blood from his lips and asked in return: “Wouldn’t such words confirm Yang Zanxing’s guilt?”
“What time is it, and you’re still thinking of her!” Putao was anxious and frantic. “I just don’t understand—with so much evidence right in front of you, why do you still believe her?”
“So much evidence?” Gu Baiying murmured, then suddenly lowered his head and smiled. “What evidence are you talking about?”
Just because the Chihua Gate disciples died when Yang Zanxing was present, and the only witness, Zi Luo, was also dead, with no one to testify, and Yang Zanxing happened to be a demon race, so they could conclude she was the murderer?
Because of different positions, predetermining identity, then adding guilt, anything could become evidence. This kind of unreasonable “case-solving,” this crude and senseless conclusion—what difference was it from the Merfolk case in Li’er Kingdom forty years ago?
Ever since discovering that Yang Zanxing was a demon race, countless times he had recalled in his mind, trying to see clearly what kind of person Yang Zanxing was. He wasn’t someone whose eyes were blinded by personal feelings while disregarding his sect brothers’ lives. He had desperately tried to find evidence of Yang Zanxing harboring ulterior motives and wild ambitions, but he had failed. Setting aside all personal feelings and emotions, he had repeatedly gone through every detail of the past, trying to find evidence of her ill intentions from various minute details… but there was nothing, absolutely nothing.