“Holy shit, what is going on? What happened?!”
After Huo Wei and Zhuge Buhuo realized something was wrong, they ran all the way down from Copper Bell Mountain. Hurrying as fast as they could, they finally returned to the main branch, only to see the mansion gates half open and blood splattered all over the courtyard.
The Spirit Supervision Bureau’s vehicles were parked haphazardly all around. The people who had been inside them were nowhere to be seen. From where they stood, they could only see the shadows of distant trees and flickering lights faintly visible beyond the rooftops.
The air was filled with chaotic yin energy, its concentration so astonishing that it was enough to trigger the instinctive fear of Nether Path spirit masters.
Huo Wei swallowed hard.
Her body’s instincts told her that she couldn’t go any closer, that there was something ahead she couldn’t handle. But reason drove her to keep moving forward because she knew there were important people there.
The two chatterboxes, Huo Wei and Zhuge Buhuo, rarely fell silent. They didn’t even argue with each other. Without needing to say anything, they hurried together toward the place where spiritual light was bursting forth.
“Hey! You can’t get any closer! Yunling Mountain Residence is at the center of the yin energy outbreak. We don’t know what will happen next. Entering recklessly could cost you your lives!”
Someone wearing a Spirit Supervision Bureau uniform stepped forward to stop them, but Zhuge Buhuo shoved him away forcefully.
“Are you kidding me?! My younger brother, my dad, my mom, and my grandpa are all inside! I have to go in and find them!!”
“Buhuo!”
The call coming from a certain direction made Zhuge Buhuo freeze.
He turned to look and saw Zhuge Mingya walking toward him from not far away.
Zhuge Mingya wasn’t very tall, standing more than half a head shorter than her eldest son. She was thin, but she didn’t look frail or weak. Instead, she seemed full of strength. Her appearance was neat and practical.
Her long hair was twisted up behind her head with a pencil. She wore a work jumpsuit and a pair of short hiking boots. Judging from her face alone, she couldn’t exactly be called a stunning or delicate beauty, but she naturally possessed a heroic air. Now that she was older, her facial features and bone structure appeared even sharper.
She strode over with the wind at her back and looked him up and down. Only after confirming that he hadn’t lost any limbs and wasn’t injured did she breathe a sigh of relief. But she immediately frowned and asked:
“Where’s your younger brother?”
“I don’t know!” Zhuge Buhuo had no idea how to explain everything to his mother, so he could only start with the most urgent details.
“I separated from Buyi this morning. When we parted, he was at Jiangchen Residence. I told him to keep in touch with me, but I just tried calling him, and his phone wouldn’t go through…”
“Jiangchen Residence?” Zhuge Mingya frowned. “Why did you take him to Jiangchen Residence? Isn’t that where that what’s-his-name is being held?”
“Uh, that’s a long story. Let’s not get into that. Anyway, what exactly happened here…?”
Zhuge Buhuo still hadn’t figured it out. He had merely left the family residence with Huo Wei for half a day to pick some flowers outside. It was the New Year, and everything had been going so happily. How had things suddenly fast-forwarded to underworld spirits holding a group gathering, a massive resentment outbreak, and the end of the world?
“I’m not entirely sure either. As soon as the twelve o’clock bell rang, large numbers of high-rank underworld spirits poured into the main branch and began attacking indiscriminately. Those underworld spirits were at least fourth-rank. Fortunately, everyone in the family reacted quickly, and the Spirit Supervision Bureau also sent reinforcements in time. After taking stock, there haven’t been any major casualties so far. We’ve already conducted three rounds of search and rescue in the core area. Someone also went to check Jiangchen Residence, but there was no one inside. We initially wondered whether that what’s-his-name had caused all this. But now you’re telling me Buyi was with him too?”
“Impossible!” Huo Wei couldn’t help interrupting.
“This couldn’t have been San You’s doing!”
This commotion successfully attracted Zhuge Mingya’s attention. She looked at Huo Wei.
“And this is…?”
“I’m Zhuge Fusang’s friend! He was poisoned by a curse just this morning and was lying in bed half dead. How could he possibly have anything to do with this? Besides, he was originally brought into the main branch under false accusations. Now that something this serious has happened, nobody is allowed to pin the blame on him again!”
Huo Wei looked from side to side, then grabbed the collar of the Spirit Supervision Bureau staff member standing beside her.
“You! Can you let me in?!”
“…?”
The staff member stared at her in bewilderment and opened his mouth, about to say something.
But at that moment, a faint light suddenly illuminated Huo Wei’s eyes.
A rippling light rose from not far away and rapidly swept upward from the ground toward the sky, seemingly covering all of Yunling Mountain Residence.
This was…
A barrier.
“As you can see, miss, nobody can enter Yunling Mountain Residence now.”
The Spirit Supervision Bureau staff member explained at that moment.
“Too many high-rank underworld spirits poured into the main branch tonight. Even though we were warned in advance that this calamity would occur tonight, and had already deployed personnel and made all the necessary preparations, we still couldn’t stop it. You should have noticed that resentment is continuously pouring out from the direction of the mountain residence. If the underworld spirits that haven’t yet been apprehended absorb that resentment… things will only become even more difficult to handle. We must first keep the situation within manageable limits.”
“…”
Huo Wei looked at the barrier in front of her, then turned her head as though sensing something and looked farther away.
Sure enough, there was also a gauze-like layer above them, faintly reflecting the moonlight…
There was another, larger barrier enclosing the entire family mansion. They had trapped the high-rank underworld spirits together with the entire residence inside it to prevent this disaster from spreading beyond the area.
“Boom!”
Just as Huo Wei was lost in thought, the ground beneath her feet suddenly began shaking violently.
This time, she could clearly feel that the energy making the earth tremble was indeed coming from Yunling Mountain Residence not far away.
She instinctively looked in that direction.
In just a few blinks of an eye, the ground shook more and more violently, and the tremors grew stronger. She heard someone shout, “Get out of the way!” Before she could react, someone shoved her heavily to the side.
Huo Wei fell to the ground. When she recovered her senses, she saw that a huge crack had opened where she had been standing. The fissure was still growing and spreading, slithering toward the mountain residence like a water snake.
Everyone’s gaze was drawn along the crack into the distance. Following its path, they saw the tallest and largest building in the mountain residence, the Bu’er Hall, collapsing. After that came the ancestral hall, the family head’s residence… One by one, the imposing and majestic buildings of the past crumbled into ruins. In the night, dust surged into the air as the buildings sank into the ground.
“…Holy… shit? What is that?”
Zhuge Buhuo’s eyes widened. To make sure he wasn’t suffering from hallucinations because of his eyes, he even raised a hand and rubbed them.
The wall surrounding the mountain residence had already collapsed, and the trees were leaning at odd angles. This allowed him to clearly see the scenery farther away and deeper inside.
He saw that a huge pit seemed to have appeared in the central area of Yunling Mountain Residence, where the Bu’er Hall originally stood.
The ruins of the buildings continued rolling outward. In the middle of the pit, something was slowly rising.
Resentment so dense that it had almost solidified, black and dark red, surged out like a tsunami. Wave after wave slammed into the inner walls of the barrier, causing the entire structure to tremble.
Only later did everyone clearly see that a stone wall was slowly rising from the collapsed Bu’er Hall, emerging from the thick blood and resentment.
Moss and incantations covered the stone wall. A huge, deep-red opening split its center, resembling an eye from the abyss silently watching the human world.
No one could look directly at that eye.
After no more than three seconds, the pressure coming from the depths of their souls would force them to avert their gazes.
But three seconds was enough for them to see the crimson abyss behind the stone wall.
No one knew how much blood and resentment was hidden there. It had been suppressed for far too long and now that it had finally been unsealed, it rushed recklessly into the human world with unrestrained madness.
“Reinforce the barrier! Hurry! We don’t know how much resentment is behind that thing. If it breaks through the barrier and escapes, everything will be over!”
Zhuge Mingya immediately gestured to issue orders, then rushed to the front and began forming hand seals and chanting incantations to strengthen the barrier formation.
Huo Wei remained kneeling on the ground, momentarily at a loss.
It wasn’t until Zhuge Buhuo came over to help her up that she reacted.
“Hey, get up quickly. If another crack opens beneath your butt, I won’t be able to shove you out of the way again. You’ll be going on a one-day tour of the Earth’s core.”
“Can you wish me something good for once?” Huo Wei rolled her eyes slightly, then frowned.
“No… Look.”
“Look at what?”
Zhuge Buhuo followed Huo Wei’s gaze toward Yunling Mountain Residence.
He narrowed his eyes.
What was she trying to get him to look at?
Apart from the masses of resentment that looked like billowing black fog, what else could there…
“Is there a human figure inside?”
…
Fu Sang awoke amid the ruins filled with dust and resentment.
He coughed twice and shook his head with his eyes closed. Only after the countless overlapping images before his eyes settled and his vision became clear again did he tighten his grip on the snake-bone nail and use it to support himself as he stood up.
Something seemed to be running down his forehead. It was warm and itchy.
Fu Sang raised a hand and wiped it, only then realizing that it was all bright red blood.
At Cui Xing Gate, he and Liu Dongfeng originally planned to return the way they came, using the secret passage to get back to the archive room and then leaving the archive room to return to the surface.
But who could have expected the underground passage to suddenly collapse halfway through? At the last moment, Liu Dongfeng used an artifact to shield them, preventing the two of them from dying underground after witnessing an absolutely spectacular show.
Fu Sang nudged a nearby stone with the tip of his foot, but didn’t see anything beneath it or nearby that looked like Liu Dongfeng.
Everyone had their own fate.
If Liu Dongfeng had been crushed to death, there was nothing he could do about it.
Fu Sang endured his dizziness and relied on his vague sense of direction to force himself toward the mountain residence’s exit.
Something was making a rumbling sound behind him.
He subconsciously turned to look and discovered that Cui Xing Gate had actually grown out of the ground.
The original fissure, which was only two finger-widths wide, had widened to the width of two people, and it looked as though it would continue expanding. Resentment mixed with other things was continuously pouring out of it. The sensation made Fu Sang uncomfortable from head to toe.
It looked as though the world wasn’t far from destruction.
But what did that have to do with him?
He turned his gaze away and continued walking unsteadily, one deep step and one shallow step at a time.
Some underworld spirits caught his scent and coveted his flesh and body. They lurked not far away, itching to make a move, but they were also wary of the Crimson Evil aura on him.
Fu Sang had no time to bother with them. He simply continued alone toward a more distant place.
He sensed the changes in the surrounding forces and knew that the resentment had become so dense because it was trapped in a sealed space and couldn’t spread outward.
Looking up, he saw lights and human figures flickering in the distance. Presumably, people from the Spirit Supervision Bureau had arrived in time and joined forces to set up a barrier formation, trapping these things here.
But what use was trapping them here?
The resentment inside Cui Xing Gate had accumulated for nearly a thousand years. What had escaped so far wasn’t even one ten-thousandth of what it contained. Once this small barrier was filled, and it could no longer withstand the impact of the resentment and shattered completely, these things would eventually gain their full freedom.
Everything happening now was merely humanity’s futile struggle.
Fu Sang’s mind wandered through a mess of thoughts.
Later, he heard someone’s voice echo through the air, somewhat distorted.
“Who are you? Why have you appeared in Yunling Mountain Residence? What is that stone wall inside?”
The tone was very cold and formal. It reminded Fu Sang of his unpleasant first meeting with Liu Dongfeng in the Spirit Supervision Bureau’s interrogation room.
He opened his mouth but couldn’t be bothered to make a sound.
“He’s my friend!”
Then came Huo Wei’s voice.
“It’s too dangerous inside! Let him out first!”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly.
Wasn’t this person tricked into going out to look for that flower? Why was she here?
Never mind. Her voice sounded full of vigor, so she probably wasn’t in any serious trouble.
In the next second, a violent wind swept over again, making Fu Sang narrow his eyes. His body swayed, and he nearly fell to the ground.
“The barrier is about to break! Hurry! We need more people!”
…
“Let him out! He’ll die!!”
“His identity is unknown. We didn’t see him during any of the three rounds of search and rescue just now, yet now he’s appeared alongside that stone wall. Until we confirm that he poses no danger, we can’t let him out! I have to be responsible for the safety of everyone outside the barrier!”
“That’s Zhuge Fusang!”
“Zhuge Fusang? Zhuge Fusang is the prime suspect in this case!”
“You damn…!”
…
“Get more people over here! It doesn’t matter if they’re old or young, male or female! Anyone who can lend a hand, come help! If this barrier breaks, not a single one of us outside will survive!”
“Hurry up…!”
“…We can’t hold on any longer!!!”
Fu Sang listened expressionlessly to the chaotic voices. Standing in the wind, he felt as though he were dreaming, his mind wandering in a daze.
The next moment, he felt a familiar, cool sensation winding around his wrist.
He instinctively lowered his head and saw wisps of black mist seeping out of the snake-bone nail. The yin energy gathered and took shape in the wind. Another small wave appeared in the storm, and Qi Changying’s long black hair and crimson robe fluttered together in the wind.
People outside the barrier were shouting in surprise and screaming, but those voices seemed very far away from Fu Sang, indistinct and difficult to hear clearly.
At that moment, he seemed to suddenly understand something.
He looked at the snake-bone nail in his hand. The seal of the ghost-blood whip was still completely intact.
Everyone said that, as a ghost, a seventh-rank Crimson Evil possessed the ability to overturn Heaven and Earth.
Once he recovered all his power, the mere seal of the ghost-blood whip naturally couldn’t restrain Qi Changying.
Perhaps in the past, he chose to obey and cooperate because he didn’t want to provoke Fu Sang, obediently staying inside the seal and letting Fu Sang believe that he had always held a rope with which to control him.
“…So you’ve been playing me for a fool?”
Fu Sang curled his lips coldly and raised his eyes to meet Qi Changying’s gaze.
“What did you come out for? Do you think the charges against me aren’t numerous enough and want to add another one in front of everyone?”
Amid the wild, biting wind, Qi Changying’s gaze as he looked at Fu Sang was as gentle as a still pool of water.
He smiled softly.
“You don’t care about those things.”
“Of course I don’t.”
Looking at Qi Changying like this, Fu Sang had a vague premonition in his heart, but he was unwilling to investigate what it actually was.
At a very inappropriate moment, he unexpectedly remembered what Zhuge Lin had said to Zhuge Heng not long ago.
—“You’re conceited and arrogant. You want to scheme and control everything, yet you never thought that the people you schemed against and controlled were living human beings. They have their own thoughts. They suffer, and they resist. When they’re pushed into a corner and their patience reaches its limit, what they give you is no longer obedience, but a knife.”
Zhuge Heng had controlled Zhuge Mingyun her entire life. When she could no longer endure it, she had struck back after reaching her breaking point, delivering a fatal blow to Zhuge Heng.
Coincidentally, scheming and control were also Fu Sang’s favorite things, so these words applied perfectly to him as well.
Then Fu Sang couldn’t help wondering: Qi Changying, who had always appeared obedient and without a temper, had endured humiliation for so long. Now that he had completely dropped the act and revealed his true intentions, the forces around him were all things he could use to his advantage, while he(Fu Sang) stood here, battered, wounded, isolated, and helpless. What would he do?
Would he take revenge on him?
Would he kill him?
Fu Sang was actually very excited about these possibilities.
He hoped Qi Changying hated him, hated him so much that he couldn’t sleep at night, hated him so much that he wanted him dead thousands upon thousands of times, hated him so much that he dreamed of eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Fu Sang would also gladly die at Qi Changying’s hands for the sake of that hatred.
Now, Zhuge Lin was already dead, without even a trace left. Although Fu Sang hadn’t personally caused it, that didn’t matter. He knew that the bastard Zhuge Lin had spent his entire life losing things and had never known a moment of happiness until his death. Now his three souls and seven spirits had scattered, and he would never be reincarnated. That was enough.
His hatred has been greatly satisfied. It was only right to let Qi Changying experience that satisfaction once, too.
“Fu Sang, you’re truly a very difficult child to teach.”
Qi Changying sighed softly.
“…You like hurting other people, and you like hurting yourself even more. My time with you hasn’t been particularly long, but it hasn’t been particularly short either. I thought I could change you, even if only a little. But later, I realized that I had been presumptuous. I couldn’t make you a better person.”
The aura of the Crimson Evil dispersed the surrounding underworld spirits, and the chaotic resentment gradually quieted down. It even lowered its head of its own accord and submitted to him.
This was a Crimson Evil.
The true Crimson Evil he had raised with his own hands.
Blood from his forehead flowed into his eyes, making Fu Sang feel uncomfortable. Waves of dizziness washed over him, causing him to stagger and fall to his knees.
When his shaking vision finally stabilized again, he saw Qi Changying walking toward him.
Why bother saying so many trivial things? If he wanted to kill him, then just do it.
Fu Sang had no intention of resisting, nor did he have the ability to resist.
If he could even ignore the seal on his life-bound artifact, then crushing him to death would be as easy for this ghost as crushing an ant.
During this time, it must have been quite a grievance for Qi Changying to put on an act in front of him, humbling himself and acting obedient. He must have gritted his teeth and endured it for a long time, finally holding out until this moment when resentment had wreaked havoc upon the world, waiting for inexhaustible power and complete freedom.
But…
After a brief silence, Qi Changying stopped in front of him. What he offered Fu Sang was not pain or harm, but a single sentence.
“…I’m sorry.”
“…?”
Fu Sang was stunned.
After a moment, he raised an eyebrow and slowly lifted his eyes to look at Qi Changying.
A faint sadness lingered between Qi Changying’s brows and eyes, like broken moonlight scattered across a lake on a clear night.
He sighed softly and told him:
“I should have stayed with you for a very, very long time.
“Even if there were things I could never accomplish, I should have done everything in my power to try, until the moment I completely ceased to exist.”
“But I’m sorry.”
The two consecutive apologies suddenly reminded Fu Sang of a day not long ago, when, during a brief moment of tenderness after they had released their desires, Qi Changying held him, buried his face in the crook of his neck, and told him “I’m sorry” twice.
Before that, he had just finished telling Qi Changying about his terrible experiences and vile thoughts. He had unreasonably blamed Qi Changying, asking why someone like him, a sage, hadn’t appeared when he was at his most desperate and helpless, shining brightly and saving him.
So Fu Sang always thought that those two apologies back then were simply Qi Changying going along with his complaints and apologizing for them.
But now, it seemed that everything had shifted slightly away from what he had imagined.
Didn’t he hate him?
Wasn’t he going to kill him?
Didn’t he despise his terrible personality, hate his authoritarianism and desire for control, and detest the repeated harm and humiliation he had inflicted on him?
Then why was he still apologizing to him now?
Why did he still want to stay with him until the end of his life?
Fu Sang fell into a brief state of blankness and confusion.
It was then that Qi Changying raised a hand to hold his face. Then, slowly, he knelt on one knee and leaned toward him.
His lips touched something icy cold.
His left eye was burning.
The kiss was as light as a dragonfly skimming the water, touching him and then immediately pulling away.
Afterward, he heard Qi Changying’s voice gently fall beside his ear.
The surrounding noise was loud and chaotic, and his words were mixed with the howling wind, yet Fu Sang heard every word clearly.
“I don’t hate you.
“I hope someone will appear by your side and make you a little happier, help you treat yourself a little better, and let you feel even the slightest bit of love. I regret that this person can’t be me. But it’s okay if it isn’t me.”
“If someone like that appears in the future… Fu Sang, stop saying the opposite of what you mean and stop hurting his feelings… All right?
“Even if these are things you don’t need or want to hear, still…”
Qi Changying gently brushed Fu Sang’s cheek with the pad of his finger. However, he accidentally rubbed away the drops of blood splattered across it, smearing them into a glaring streak of red.
He sighed softly and finished the last half of his sentence.
“…Zhuge Fusang, I love you very much.”
It was as though something struck Fu Sang hard in the chest along with a certain word. After a moment of violent weightlessness, the only thing that surged up was pain.
What was this?
Was it a method this ghost had specially developed to deal with him and torture him?
Fu Sang clutched his chest, unable to catch his breath for a long time.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that ghost walking away.
He was heading toward Cui Xing Gate.
The vague premonitions in Fu Sang’s heart gradually became clearer. He seemed to understand why Qi Changying had appeared at this moment and what he intended to do next.
“…Come back.”
He slowly raised his eyes and stared at Qi Changying’s retreating figure.
“I’m telling you to come back!”
Qi Changying’s footsteps paused slightly.
The ghost which had always obeyed him and submitted to him did not even turn around this time.
With unwavering determination, he walked toward the deep-red door that resembled an abyss, carrying a wind formed from resentment and blood.
Qi Changying knew what Zhuge Heng wanted him to do.
He had known all along.
Fu Sang suddenly laughed.
His shoulders shook. He wanted to laugh out loud, but not a single sound came out.
He laughed so hard that he could no longer even remain kneeling and could only support himself with his arms.
Eventually, his laughter gradually faded. He raised his eyes and looked at Qi Changying, who was getting farther and farther away.
His excessively long hair and bloodstains almost covered his eyes, but they could not conceal the coldness in their depths.
He raised his hand, and the ghost-blood whip responded to his summons, winding back around his fingers.
He formed a hand seal, and four blood threads shot forward like lightning, transforming along the way into four chains that tightly locked around Qi Changying’s neck, both arms, and left ankle.
But the ghost’s movements were halted for only a moment.
Just for a moment.
Soon, he lifted his foot and continued forward. The chain around his left ankle shattered instantly.
The copper ring broke apart, and the blood thread snapped.
With his life-bound artifact damaged, Fu Sang suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground.
Even so, he continued to pull desperately on the remaining three blood threads.
“Stop fighting, Fu Sang. Let go…”
Qi Changying’s voice was very low, but Fu Sang heard him.
Fu Sang did not answer. His response was to slowly curl his fingers, silently continuing to drag the chains toward himself.
So Qi Changying took another step.
The chains around both his wrists shattered as well.
A wave of pain originating from his soul suddenly poured down over him. Although Fu Sang gritted his teeth tightly, he still couldn’t stop a muffled groan from escaping.
He clenched his fingers and instinctively tried to crawl forward, wanting to grab that uncontrollable figure.
The five senses of an underworld spirit are far more acute than those of a living person, so Qi Changying naturally heard the movement behind him.
But he did not turn around.
He lowered his head, and thick, ink-black tears fell from his eyes.
“Qi Changying… How dare you…”
Whenever that person called his name, his voice was always cold and arrogant.
He rarely showed such weakness.
He never allowed himself to be so weak, either.
Qi Changying thought that perhaps everything had been destined to turn out this way.
There was a barrier between underworld spirits and living people. Even though he was a seventh-rank Crimson Evil, feared and dreaded by everyone, he could not understand the speech of any living person other than Fu Sang.
In his world, there was only Fu Sang.
However, that day, in the endless Gobi Desert, the car stopped, and he had a brief opportunity to be alone with Huo Wei.
He listened as Huo Wei told him a story about Fu Sang. Later, Huo Wei looked at him and said that it was too pitiful for him to be unable to understand what other people said, and too troublesome to have to use a spell every time they communicated with him. So, with his (Qi Changying’s) permission, she inscribed a simple spell mark on him. She told him that from then on, he would be able to understand whatever other people said and would no longer be isolated from the world.
Huo Wei’s original intention was to make his long, boring, lonely life a little more interesting. Who would have thought that a butterfly flapping its wings would turn into a gust of wind that traveled into the future, inadvertently allowing Qi Changying to hear everything Fu Sang and Zhuge Heng discussed?
Cui Xing Gate would be destroyed by someone, and the resentment accumulated over nearly a thousand years would pour out in full force and wreak havoc across the world.
Countless innocent people would lose their lives because of it.
But there was still a way to turn things around.
As long as he was willing to sacrifice himself.
For Qi Changying, this would always be a worthwhile deal.
When he was alive, he was willing to go on an expedition to pacify the north for the people of Great Li. In fact, every member of the Qi Army was willing to sacrifice their lives for peace throughout the world.
Now, after being dead for a thousand years, he was still willing to burn himself away for the sake of everyone in the world.
Perhaps a seventh-rank Crimson Evil should never have existed in the first place.
An ordinary man was innocent, but he became guilty by possessing a precious treasure. As long as he, Qi Changying, existed, others would continue to live in apprehension and fear. They would keep trying every possible way to target Fu Sang for keeping him by his side.
And with Fu Sang’s competitive nature, he would never allow others to covet what belonged to him. He would never hand him over to anyone else. He would only keep resisting and fighting for him.
If things continued this way, it was easy to imagine that one day Fu Sang would stand against the entire human world, fighting desperately and getting injured again and again.
He should have died a thousand years ago. This long life of a thousand years that he had obtained for free, along with this relationship that had lasted neither too long nor too short a time, would come to an end today, regardless of whether it had been right or wrong.
He had done right by others, and he had done right by himself.
The only person he might have wronged was Fu Sang.
Another tear fell, and the chain around his neck snapped as well.
He heard that person’s cry of pain, heard him frantically shouting his name as though he had gone mad.
“…Qi Changying!!!”
But Qi Changying did not turn around.
When he raised his eyes again, he stared at the crimson abyss before him, his tear-filled eyes now filled with determination.
He took a step forward and entered it.
A violent wave of energy suddenly swept outward. The resentment raging within the barrier paused for a moment before abruptly pouring back into the gate!
Fu Sang trembled as he struggled to prop himself up.
But the person’s figure had already disappeared from before his eyes.
Later, he gently curved his lips into a smile.
This move was truly ruthless.
This ghost had to leave him in such a decisive, tragic manner, severing their lives from each other so that it could pursue its righteous cause, while turning him into a joke with absolutely nothing left.
Fu Sang slowly got back to his feet.
He did not know whether the blood on his body had flowed from his wounds or spilled from his mouth. His life-bound artifact had been completely destroyed, and his soul had suffered a devastating blow. All seven openings on his face were stained bright red, and there was hardly a single clean patch of skin or clothing left on his body.
Yet apart from the dull pain in his chest, he could no longer feel pain anywhere else.
The violent wind lifted his hair and the hem of his clothes.
Fu Sang slowly raised his leg and walked forward.
But he was not walking toward the barrier and all the living beings outside.
He was walking toward the gate that had swallowed that ghost.
For the first few steps, Fu Sang staggered, his movements unsteady and weak. But gradually, his steps grew more determined. His slow walk became a brisk walk, then a jog, and finally a desperate sprint.
Some people could be alive or dead, but they absolutely had to be his.
Even if Qi Changying became a ghost and died a second time, he could never, ever leave him.
The two of them, one human and one ghost, were meant to be entangled with each other for an entire lifetime, in this life and the next.
If Qi Changying insisted on leaving first, if he intended to escape him completely at the cost of shattering his soul and spirit, then he would play along with him.
He did not know where the strength came from, but Fu Sang ran through the wind.
From far away came someone’s heart-wrenching cry of “San You!”
Amid the countless cries of shock and screams from people outside, and under their gazes, Fu Sang leaped into the air and resolutely jumped into the crimson void.
