Deep in the dense forest, old crows suddenly took flight, their spread wings like a pitch-black cage, wrapping people so tightly that no air could pass through.

Xiao Chun—for Gui Yansheng to cross the river, she had found a way to steal demon pills from a demon crossing the river in the dense forest. She had hurriedly urged Gui Yansheng to quickly cross the river and leave, while being unwilling to follow herself, because she feared that when the demon discovered the theft, they would realize someone had crossed the river and give chase, ruining Gui Yansheng’s important matter.

She would rather stay in place herself to buy Gui Yansheng time.

The young girl who had always lived among the human race knew the dangers of human hearts, but didn’t know that demons were equally ferocious.

Not long after Gui Yansheng crossed the river, she was found by the demon who had lost their belongings. A mortal woman facing a ferocious and terrifying demon—the outcome was predictable.

The youth held the girl before him. Her body had become stiff, lacking the usual warmth and gentleness. No matter how he called to her, she would never wake again.

They had traveled through hardships and dangers, crossing mountains and rivers to reach Heishi City, all to find his father.

She had gone through countless hardships to steal a bag of demon pills so he could cross the river, and ultimately lost her life because of it.

And what about himself? He hadn’t even been able to see what Gui Diao Tang looked like, only seeing his father’s soon-to-be bride, high and mighty, untouched by the world’s countless sufferings.

Like a homeless dog, he was chased, expelled, and brought deadly trouble by this very identity. He had given everything and gained nothing, like a joke.

Those longings for the future on rainy nights, greedy fantasies, beautiful dreams of living a good life after reuniting with family—all were cruelly shattered one by one.

Why?

Why was the world so unfair?

Why should he have to endure everything?

Why, just for being a half-demon, should he live like an ant under someone’s foot, base and lowly, at the mercy of fate?

Intense anger surged from his heart. Unwillingness and hatred were like lit torches, instantly surging wildly through his limbs and bones. A pitch-black mark climbed up along his spiritual meridians, and at his brow center, an eerily beautiful black begonia suddenly bloomed.

Suddenly, a bone-piercing pain came from her heart cavity, and Zanxing bent over sharply.

The youth holding the girl turned back, his golden pupils like a piercing abyss, hiding invisible madness.

He looked toward the opposite shore of the Mingming River, toward the direction of Heishi City, and spoke word by word: “Gui Diao Tang, I will surely kill you.”

“Rumble—” Countless broken fragments flashed before Zanxing’s eyes.

She saw Gui Yansheng bury Xiao Chun’s corpse, leave this place, and go to the distant south.

In the south was a desperate place called the Asura Ghost Path, which hid tens of thousands of asura evil spirits—a supremely sinister place that neither demons nor cultivators were willing to enter. Ordinary people who entered had a one-in-ten chance of survival. However, this Asura Ghost Path was the fastest place to cultivate demonic power. If one could emerge from this place, it would surpass a hundred years of cultivator training.

Gui Yansheng went to the path alone and cultivated for many years. In this place, he killed all ten thousand ghosts and slaughtered all the asuras, finally awakening his Heavenly Demon bloodline.

Many years passed, and the human world had long since changed. He had wholeheartedly wanted to return to Heishi City and personally execute the Demon Lord, but when he emerged from seclusion, he learned that the Demon Lord had been slain years ago at the Ruins of the Golden Gate.

He had given everything to emerge from the Asura Ghost Path, all just to obtain the world’s most powerful force and demand back from Gui Diao Tang everything he had lost.

However, the person he had hated for half his life was no longer there.

That night, he sat under the cliff where he and Xiao Chun had once sheltered from rain, gazing at the falling rain in silence for an entire night.

The hatred had not disappeared; he could not find peace. The pattering mountain rain was like lovers’ whispers, soaking his robes. He stood at the cliff’s edge, looking up at the dark and gloomy blue sky above.

What exactly was the Heavenly Way?

Was it established rules, or an absurd coincidence? If everything was predestined, why make him experience all the world’s sufferings? If he was destined to suffer, why give him endless hope, only to reveal fate’s fickleness at the very last moment?

The begonia on the youth’s forehead was black as ink, his golden pupils glowing with an eerie light.

If Heaven wished to destroy him, then he would defy Heaven.

If he hated the rules, then he would become the maker of rules.

He would obtain the world’s most powerful force and become fate’s master. He would never be an ant drifting with the current, just one among all living beings.

Zanxing felt the severe pain in her heart cavity growing more and more intense, as if someone were using a sharp blade to gouge the flesh from her heart.

She saw Gui Yansheng find his destined spirit artifact and refine it into the shape of an umbrella. The Ashura Umbrella could capture souls and devour primordial spirits. Every person who died would have their shadow reflected on the umbrella’s surface, making it both sinister and magnificent.

He searched everywhere for the whereabouts of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, because refining the Xiaoyuan Pearl could grant power to look down upon the three realms. He wanted to kill his way to the Heavenly Realm and rewrite everything in the world.

In the Wulun Pagoda, the Xiezhi statue at the entrance immediately stepped aside upon seeing him. The spirit beast that judged fairness was startled by his overwhelming murderous aura at that moment and couldn’t help but voluntarily submit. This world had never been about good triumphing over evil, but about the strong being supreme.

In the final trial, the Eight Sufferings of Samsara, he became Master Jingshan and experienced that pitiful person’s entire life. In the end, when all the people in the city knelt and pleaded, that golden-robed youth burst into loud laughter. He laughed until he bent over, laughed until tears came. In the void, someone tirelessly repeated to him again and again: “Let go, let go. Put down the butcher’s knife and you can become Buddha.”

The tip of the Ashura Umbrella pierced through the chest of the person before him, and he said coldly, “I was born to be a demon. Why become Buddha?”

If a demon ascended to the Heavenly Realm, the demon would be Buddha.

The question that had puzzled Master Jingshan his entire life held not the slightest hesitation for him. What did all living beings matter to him? What did the world matter to him? Good people never had good endings—this was an unchanging truth since ancient times.

Zanxing was in so much pain that she gasped heavily, her hands gripping her robes, almost tearing the fabric. Gu Baiying grasped her arm, frowning as he asked: “What’s wrong with you?”

Inside the Wulun Pagoda, with a “creak” sound, the small prayer wheel held in the monk’s palm seemed to have exhausted its strength. Its spinning slowed gradually, yet it stubbornly refused to stop, still struggling to rotate forward bit by bit.

Ming Jing gripped his prayer staff tightly with both hands, with thick yuanli continuously flowing from the staff’s tip, clustering and flying toward the slowly rotating Buddha wheel. This tug-of-war was extremely difficult. Sweat began to seep from his forehead, and his body, already injured by heart demons, grew increasingly weak. He looked about to collapse.

Just then, with a “thud,” two more people fell from the void. Meng Ying and Mu Cengxiao had passed the Buddha pagoda’s test. As soon as they looked up, they saw the scene before them.

“Fellow Cultivator Meng, Fellow Cultivator Mu,” Ming Jing’s heart filled with joy as he hurriedly said, “The young master and the others have entered the Buddha pagoda. Quick, quickly help me hold the Buddha wheel—we cannot let the Buddha wheel continue turning.”

“Otherwise, everyone will die here!”