The Yao Ming Hall was brightly lit with lamps and lanterns.

In the spacious grand hall, the black-robed woman looked Zanxing up and down thoroughly, carefully examining her from head to toe. Still finding it hard to believe, she spoke: “Are you Zanxing?”

Zanxing sighed: “I am, Mother.”

Nearly an hour had passed. The demon clan members of Heishi City had almost all gone to sleep, yet Bujiang still seemed unable to fully believe this fact.

“But back then at the ruins of the Golden Gate, before the Immortal Ascension Platform, I watched you leave with my own eyes.” Bujiang grasped her hand, once again confirming that the person before her was not an illusion. “All these years, I used soul-seeking formations everywhere to search for your primordial soul, but found not a single trace.” If not for this, how could she have poured all her resentment onto Shaoyang Zhenren?

And now, Zanxing stood perfectly fine before her eyes. Not only that, but her expression and appearance were the same as in the past, as if the years of disappearance had been nothing but an illusion.

Bujiang’s suspicious gaze swept toward Gu Baiying nearby: “You couldn’t have used some evil technique to create a puppet, could you?”

The human race places great importance on love and affection. Some would even make wooden puppet doubles identical to their deceased Dao companions, eating, drinking, and sleeping with them daily. Gu Baiying appeared calm as usual—could it be that after Zanxing left, he went mad with love and became an unreasonable lunatic?

Gu Baiying’s brow twitched as he gritted his teeth: “…I didn’t.”

Zanxing remained silent for a moment before explaining: “I truly am real. Back then, before the Immortal Ascension Platform, I used my divine soul to mend the heavens, but in the end, I still left myself a thread of survival.”

Bujiang: “Survival?”

Gu Baiying also looked at her—this was his confusion as well.

“When my identity was exposed on Gufeng Mountain, before the Ten Thousand Kill Formation, Gu Baiying split off a fragment of his primordial soul to help me block the ten thousand killing strikes. Within my primordial soul, there was a wisp of his primordial soul that fused with me as one. This was the first reason.”

“And when I finally mended the heavens, Gui Yansheng also sacrificed his body to the heavens.” Speaking of this, Zanxing paused.

When she finally dispersed, she saw Gui Yansheng’s shadow rushing toward her. In that final moment, Zanxing had no way of knowing what Gui Yansheng was thinking. A demon who spoke constantly of destroying the mortal world—why did he ultimately use his own body to save the billions of lives in Duzhou? Perhaps he sought liberation; living without hope was more painful than death. Or perhaps it was for Xiao Chun—if Xiao Chun were still alive, being able to resolve the flood disaster might have been her greatest wish.

Good and evil, separated by a single thought. Wrong causes need not necessarily create wrong results.

Gui Yansheng had once possessed the Xiaoyuan Pearl, and later献给自己gave himself to the Xiaoyuan Pearl. Although the Xiaoyuan Pearl was ultimately taken by Zanxing, in a certain sense, Gui Yansheng was also a heaven-mending stone. He cultivated the Way of Ten Thousand Ghosts Devouring Hearts, swallowing vast amounts of primordial souls, yet through a twist of fate, these filled the gaps in Zanxing’s soul.

A fragment of Zanxing’s primordial soul managed to break free from that vortex.

“Because of Gui Yansheng, I retained a wisp of primordial soul. Originally, this wisp should have dissipated as well, but due to Gu Baiying’s primordial soul being within it, it wasn’t annihilated.”

Their two fates were connected. As long as Gu Baiying didn’t die, Zanxing would retain a thread of survival.

“There was also Qin Chong,” Zanxing said.

“Qin Chong?” Gu Baiying looked at her.

“When I was in the Extreme Ice Abyss, Qin Chong sprouted and grew into a tree, blooming and bearing fruit before withering. I thought it had disappeared, but it hadn’t. The Qin Chong fruit remained within my spiritual roots. When my spiritual roots were damaged, the fruit would transform back into a seed. Qin Chong naturally has restorative effects—all these years, it has been repairing my broken primordial soul.”

Zanxing paused before continuing: “However, relying on these alone still wasn’t enough.”

Bujiang stared at her and asked: “What did you do?”

Zanxing raised her head: “I once cultivated the ‘Peerless Heart Sutra’ written by Yushan Shengren. The cultivation method within it differs from ordinary practices. Neither demon nor immortal, possessing spirit but no primordial essence—it suited my circumstances at the time perfectly. Back then, before ascending Jianmu, I guessed what might happen, so I scattered my life soul and primordial spirit in advance, not gathering them all in one place.”

Ordinary people cultivating immortality, whether demon clan or human race, always emphasized the character “gather.” Gather strength, gather primordial soul, gather Golden Core. But Yushan Shengren did the opposite, not seeking to gather but to scatter.

Scattered between heaven and earth, everywhere in heaven and earth is me.

These coincidences, one after another, finally allowed Zanxing to find a thread of survival within a death trap through a twist of fate.

Bujiang still didn’t understand: “If that’s the case, why couldn’t we find any trace of your aura despite searching everywhere all these years? And why are you only appearing now?” She glanced at Gu Baiying meaningfully: “It made me feel every time I heard news of your lover here, that our Heishi City owed him greatly.”

Demon clan members are most feared owing to debts of gratitude. The longer Gu Baiying waited, the more uncomfortable Bujiang felt.

Zanxing had departed with a wave of her sleeve, leaving such a mess for whom to clean up.

Gu Baiying: “……”

Zanxing said helplessly, “I would have liked to appear earlier too, but when I first awakened, I found myself in the Ashura Ghost Path.”

Gu Baiying’s expression stirred: “Ashura Ghost Path?”

Zanxing nodded: “I don’t know if it was because of Gui Yansheng, but when my primordial soul awakened, it was in the Ashura Ghost Path.” Speaking of this, Zanxing still felt somewhat indignant. “Although my cultivation was still intact at that time, having a fragment of primordial soul thrown into such a hellish place—getting out was truly not an easy task.”

The Ten Thousand Ghost Ashuras devoured all living things, whether human or demon. Her fragile wisp of primordial soul nearly got torn apart by the Ashuras within. During many life-and-death, dangerous moments, Zanxing gritted her teeth and endured through sheer force of will.

She always felt that, having come this far, if she didn’t persist, giving up halfway would be too regrettable.

Each time she defeated an Ashura, her primordial soul would become somewhat more substantial. Fighting her way out from the depths, she finally repaired that broken primordial soul until it approached completeness.

It was then that she suddenly understood something of what Gui Yansheng had felt in this place back then.

This place was cold, dangerous, and devoid of any vitality. Everywhere was blood and killing intent, no different from the Avici Hell. Those who fought their way out from the lowest depths did so only because there were people they wanted to see and things left undone waiting outside the gates. With hope as support, they wouldn’t fall.

The Gui Yansheng of old did it to gain powerful strength and kill his way back to Heishi City.

And she simply didn’t want to disappoint those who were waiting, so she had to persist until the end.

At the entrance to the Ashura Ghost Path, countless pale arms stretched out from the corridor behind, trying to drag this fragile primordial soul back into the bottomless hell. The great gate was within reach, yet countless evil ghosts and Ashuras were about to catch up from behind.

Although she had repaired her primordial soul to completeness, she ultimately lacked a physical body for support.

Just when Zanxing thought she would be dragged back in once again, the heavy gate before her opened from the outside.

Someone had opened this gate.