“You knew all along?” Bujiang suddenly looked toward Zanxing. “What do you mean?”

Under the vast sky, at the end of the star river, the woman did not speak; only remained silent.

Gu Baiying pressed his lips together as he gazed at her. The young man slowly, word by word, spoke: “Did you know all along?”

Zanxing lowered her eyes and sighed softly.

She had known all along.

In the two days after the Qixi Festival in Heishi City, she learned from Ming Jing that the major sects of Duzhou had all shown signs of spiritual vein depletion in recent years. That night, Zanxing had a dream.

She dreamed of herself floating alone in vast floods.

The floodwaters were vast and towering, sweeping everything toward her. She could no longer see a single familiar figure beside her. Heaven and earth had turned into an ocean, devouring everything.

She suddenly remembered the ending of “Nine Heaven Summit.”

Ever since she arrived at Gufeng Mountain, the longer the time passed, the less Zanxing could remember about the plot of “Nine Heaven Summit.”

At first, it was because she had changed the “Heavenly Way”—everything experienced in this world was no longer the same as in Zanxing’s memory. Later, no matter how hard she tried to recall, the future direction of this story always seemed covered by a layer of gauze, blurry and unclear.

Zanxing had always thought it was because too much time had passed, and she couldn’t remember. Until that night, when she woke from a nightmare and suddenly remembered that ending.

In the final volume of “Nine Heaven Summit,” Duzhou faced a heavenly tribulation. Heaven and earth collapsed, and all hundreds of millions of living beings in this place perished. Only Mu Cengxiao and his wives ascended to the upper realm, beginning his new journey.

For Mu Cengxiao, Duzhou was merely a brief episode in his future, endless cultivation career. The entire story was just one distant and plain volume in the vast collection. But for Duzhou, for the living beings of Duzhou, this was their ending.

That night, with fine rain falling softly, Zanxing alone carried a lantern to the bank of the Mingming River, gazing at the black dragon fish rising from the river waves, finally realizing this terrifying secret.

She couldn’t remember the story’s future direction—perhaps it wasn’t because her memory was flawed, but because in the darkness, an invisible giant hand had covered her eyes. Only at the final moment, when she could no longer turn back, would it remove the long cloth and let her glimpse this cruel ending.

She had seen the beginning but couldn’t guess the ending.

The black dragon fish silently floated on the swaying river waves, its gaze toward her seeming to hold faint compassion.

Had this black great fish that once leaped through the Dragon Gate also witnessed—no, perhaps carried countless cultivators like her toward that chess game destined to be unwinnable?

She looked at the dragon fish and spoke softly: “Xiao Shuang said you are a carp that leaped through the Dragon Gate from the immortal mountain. Since you’ve already leaped through the Dragon Gate, why haven’t you transformed into a dragon?”

“What… exactly does the immortal mountain look like?”

The sound of water rose and fell, waves surged, but the black dragon fish never answered.

What were immortals? What was the heavenly realm?

Nine Heaven Summit, above the firmament—what exactly was it?

It was the Heavenly Way.

Above the nine heavens was the Heavenly Way. It was cold, numb, without seven emotions and six desires, without joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. It was the most fair, yet also the most unfair. It obliterated everything as easily as crushing an ant.

The lifelong struggles of ants appeared humble and laughable in the eyes of the vast Heavenly Way.

It could overturn everything with ease.

“Yang Zanxing,” Gu Baiying gazed at Zanxing, his tone calm, but in his eyes, it seemed as if a great storm was churning. The young man spoke: “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Zanxing didn’t speak.

That night, he had come through the rain and sat beside Zanxing. She had turned and embraced him, burying her head in his chest.

The young man’s embrace was soft and warm. He was busy holding the umbrella over her, afraid the rain would wet her shoulders, yet he hadn’t noticed her reluctant expression.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t felt fear and hesitation. Zanxing also wanted to bury her head in the sand and pretend she knew nothing. However, some things ultimately couldn’t be made not to happen by pretending.

She said to Gu Baiying: “In our place, there’s a custom—if you make a wish to a carp, it will come true.”

In the rainy night, she secretly made a wish to the black dragon fish.

“I hope… I can change this ending,” she said softly in her heart.

Shaoyang Zhenren’s voice rang out in the great hall: “Over twenty years ago, I divined with Qinghua. The divination showed that Duzhou would face a heavenly tribulation in the future, and only a destined person could save all living beings.”

Gu Baiying was startled: “Destined person…”

When he and Zanxing were in the painted secret realm of Li’er Kingdom, they had heard Qinghua Xianzi mention this. They had always thought the so-called heavenly tribulation referred to the Demon Lord’s resurrection and the demon clan’s rebellion, but it turned out to be the return of the catastrophe from a thousand years ago—Duzhou was about to face an ending that had been written long ago.

“Qinghua waited for you in the secret realm,” Shaoyang Zhenren looked at Zanxing, “You are that destined person.”

“Ridiculous!” Before Shaoyang Zhenren could finish, Bujiang interrupted him. The woman in red robes had cold features, and for the first time, her beautiful eyes that always smiled were tinged with faint killing intent. She stared at Shaoyang Zhenren, “The so-called destined person just has to die for nothing for you? On what basis? On what basis should my daughter save people? On what basis should she sacrifice herself for the world?”

“You righteous sects of the cultivation world, always claiming to care for all people—can’t you find a single living Buddha willing to sacrifice for the world?”

She spoke viciously: “You know everything, have everything under control—why don’t you go take the Xiaoyuan Pearl yourself, become that stone for mending heaven, achieve merits lasting a thousand generations, fame flowing through ten thousand ages?”

“We are demons, not Buddhas!”

In an instant, Heavenly Demon power flowed from the Demon Empress. Her silk-like long hair seemed stirred by this towering killing intent, dancing wildly in the wind.

Shaoyang Zhenren looked at her calmly, a trace of reluctance flashing through his eyes.

He said: “It’s useless. The Xiaoyuan Pearl is a stone for mending heaven and also an ancient demon stone. It’s destined to be possessed only by the demon clan and can only be found by the demon clan.”

“The Heavenly Way arranged it thus for profound reasons.”

“So when the Demon Lord found the Xiaoyuan Pearl years ago, wanting to use it to revive the depleted spiritual veins of Heishi City, he only tried to refine it, never thinking of anything else.”

It had nothing to do with anything else—the demon clan and human clan were born different. The human clan always produced great benevolent people; cultivators cared for all living beings, taking the people’s hearts as their own hearts. But the demon clan was different. The demon clan was selfish, shrewd, and cruel—a people dwelling in the darkest places, indulging in pleasure, never willing to sacrifice themselves for others.

The Heavenly Way had never intended to give Duzhou the slightest chance of survival, so this was a dead game.

Duzhou was destined to collapse, and though the Heavenly Way seemed to leave behind a stone for mending heaven, this stone could only be possessed by the demon clan. Like Gui Diao Tang in the past, any demon clan member who obtained the Xiaoyuan Pearl would desperately try to refine it.

So the Demon Lord failed to refine the Xiaoyuan Pearl and ultimately fell into madness.

So Gui Yansheng also failed to refine the Xiaoyuan Pearl and instead sacrificed his soul.

In this world, there would never be a demon clan member who wanted to save all living beings.

The last stone for mending heaven would never return to its original position.

This was the Heavenly Way’s trap.