Chapter 68: This Venerable One Can’t Bear It

Chu Lan was dead, but the illusion continued.

Dawn was still hours away; the long nightmare not yet over. The

survivors returned to the governor's residence, preparing to leave for Putuo

Mountain as soon as morning broke.

It was hard to believe that someone could carry on after suffering that

kind of pain. Truth be told, it really did seem like all that remained of Chu

Xun was a walking husk, his soul long since gone.

As Mo Ran moved through the city, he heard many people fretting.

After all, Chu Xun had suffered so much. Putting aside the possibility that he

would hold a grudge, in his current state, even if he was willing to lead

everyone away from the city, their chances were significantly diminished.

Not everyone thought only of themselves. There weren't a lot of them,

but at least a few people were genuinely sad for Chu Xun.

They all stewed in anxiety as they waited for the sky to brighten.

What arrived before the rising sun was that cold and now-familiar

voice, rupturing the heavy night sky and reverberating above the barrier. This

time the ghost king addressed not Chu Xun, but everyone else in Lin'an.

"The sun will soon rise. This venerable one knows you plan to leave

once day breaks. But have you really thought your plan through? Putuo is a

long way from here, and you'll never make it there in a single day. Once night

falls, you'll have to depend on Chu Xun for safety. Do you think he'll protect

you?"

"Mommy—"

A child started crying from fear at the terrifying voice, burrowing into

his mother's arms. Everyone stared up at the sky.

Only Chu Xun, standing in front of the governor's residence and

leaning against the haitang tree, had his eyes closed, as if he heard nothing.

"His wife and son are dead because of you. Do you really think Chu

Xun will defend you? He likely has something else in mind—something to

avenge his family, something to make you all wish you were dead. It's only

human nature, after all… This venerable one was once human, too, you know.

Sure, there are kind people, but they're only kind for their reputation.

Humans are vile by nature; any so-called good person is just trying to get

something in return for their deeds. Let's be honest: once forced into a

corner, they won't care whether other people live or die."

The ghost king's eerie voice echoed above them.

"This venerable one said it before: I never intended to take all of your

lives. In fact, the living can serve us ghosts. If you don't believe me, just look

at him—"

As he spoke, a black cloud billowed toward the barrier with Xiaoman

standing on top of it. Next to him was a kindly man of about forty or fifty.

"That's Xiaoman's father!" someone cried out in surprise.

"It's Xiaoman's father! Didn't he die?"

"Even though his body was dismembered—everyone saw. How could

this be?!"

The ghost king continued, "As one of the nine kings of the underworld,

even if this venerable one does not exert control over life and death like

Emperor Yanluo, it is but a simple matter to restore the appearance of the

dead. If you serve me, I will grant you the lasting company of your deceased

loved ones. However, if you oppose me, you'll end up like your Chu-gongzi,

watching your wife kill your child with your own eyes, powerless to do

anything to stop it."

All were silent within the barrier.

"Will you really trust him? Trust that he won't take revenge for his

wife and child? Do you really think he'll take you from here all the way to

Putuo?"

Someone glanced toward Chu Xun, their eyes already flickering with

malice.

Chu Xun finally looked up from where he stood under the flowering

tree, his quiet gaze level with theirs. He honestly didn't know what to say at

this point. A long while passed before he finally said, "It already is what it

is. What would be the point in harming you now?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The ghost king's ghastly laugh echoed from

above the barrier. "Very good, very good. He says he won't harm you. If you

believe him, then go ahead and leave with him. But if you believe me—"

His voice roared with increasing intensity, as if it might pierce their

eardrums and straight into their hearts.

"If you believe me, you will be rewarded. I can bring back your

families. All you have to do is hand over Chu Xun. You just have to…hand

him over to me! I bear a grudge against him, not any of you. Hand him over,

and you won't have to abandon your homes. Hand him over, and you can

reunite with your families. Just hand him over, and it will all be over."

The ghost king's voice grew faint.

"I will wait at the City God Temple till sunrise."

The voice faded away.

The deadly silence slowly gave way to a rising clamor as all eyes in

the crowd turned toward Chu Xun. Chu Xun looked back at them with a calm,

even expression.

"What should we do?" someone started muttering helplessly.

"What should we do, my husband? I'm so afraid…"

"Mommy, I'm scared. I don't wanna get eaten!"

"The ghost king isn't wrong…" someone else said in a low voice.

"These supposedly kind people always have ulterior motives. We've seen

plenty of their sort before. Chu…Chu-gongzi may not have done anything yet,

but look at him. Half-dead as he is, who's to say he won't do something crazy

in the future?!"

"You're right," whispered someone who heard his words, in full

agreement. "For all we know, he's nursing that grudge and just waiting to get

us all killed! Treachery at the eleventh hour is hardly unheard of…"

A rough-looking man suddenly stood up from the crowd. "Grab him!"

he yelled. "If we hand him over, we can live!"

Everyone went silent. A few moments passed before a young woman

stepped forward and put herself in front of the man. "How could you be so

ungrateful?" her voice was soft but determined. "Have you no dignity as a

man?"

"Piss off!" The man kicked the woman to the ground and spit on her

face. "You're a stupid whore who sleeps with men, no family to speak of.

The hell you running your mouth for? I have to take care of both young and

old—I ain't gonna let my own family go through this shit! Chu-gongzi, you're

just gonna have to understand!"

With that, he made to seize Chu Xun.

He hadn't taken a step before his leg was firmly grabbed. He looked

down and roared furiously, "Still getting in the way, you dumb whore? Go

die by yourself if you want. How dare you try to drag everyone else down

with you?!"

The woman was no less enraged. "I may be a prostitute, but at least I

can tell right from wrong. If even cats and dogs know to repay kindnesses,

how could we humans not?!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

The man drove his boots down on her head until her entire face was

mottled with bruises. By then, the rest of the crowd had also approached and

formed a circle around Chu Xun. A few in the crowd tried to stop the rest,

like the woman from the brothel had tried before, but their efforts were futile,

like a single leaf caught in a raging current, swallowed in no time at all.

"Gongzi! Gongzi, hurry and get out of here!" an old woman yelled

shakily toward Chu Xun. "Chu-gongzi, go! Just go! Don't stay for the sake of

these animals! Go!"

There was also the tender voice of a young child. "Stop fighting,

Mommy, Daddy. Don't hurt the gongzi, don't hurt him—"

A maelstrom of commotion, disorder and chaos.

Chu Xun stood alone in the rain. He felt as if he was staring at a horde

of ghosts who had crawled out of the very depths of hell. For a moment, he

wanted to leave.

Then his gaze landed on the people, those living, breathing, crying

people. He saw the young child bawling as he tried to stop his parents. He

saw the young woman who had been the first to stand up for him, whose face

was now bruised and swollen. He looked at the old woman shaking in the

rain, and the other dozen or so people standing with their backs to him, trying

their best to stop the others.

The foot that was about to leave paused. They had done nothing wrong.

If he took down the barrier, these people would die too.

So, it turned out that the most disgusting thing in this world was not

ghosts or demons, but those cowardly, worthless beasts who wore human

skins and hid in the crowd, willing to say and to do anything in the name of

their own survival. At the end of everything, they would say, "I only wanted

to live. I'm pitiful and powerless—I've done nothing wrong."

Chu Xun had thought that the people he protected were helpless, good

people. He was wrong. Now those beasts shed their human skins, revealing

their ugly, snarling, bloodred faces… They had been so well hidden… So

well hidden.

He no longer wanted to cry and bleed for those beasts in human

clothing. They had been so sly, concealed so well amongst the good, kind

people, their faces laughing at him, delighting in his powerlessness.

You have no choice but to save us. If you drop the barrier, we'll take

the people you want to save—the people actually grateful to you—together

with us to hell.

You have no choice, however much it sickens you. You chose to be

virtuous. You chose to be a good person.

Since that's the choice you made, it's your duty to sacrifice yourself

to save everyone else. If you refuse, then you're a swindler, a pretender, a

fake, worse than a beast.

It was as if he could hear those people howling, could hear their shrill

laughter:

You have no choice. You have no choice!

In that frenzied pandemonium, in the tempest of rain and wind, Chu

Xun slowly lifted his head toward the heavens. Dawn was finally about to

break.

The relentless downpour had washed the blood from the stone steps of

the City God Temple. Chu Xun and those who had tried to protect him were

tied up and walking toward the structure.

The scene was both sorrowful and laughable. The people had bound

Chu Xun tightly and were smugly pleased that they had captured such a

powerful person. They were completely unaware that Chu Xun could have

easily turned the ropes to ash with but a single spell.

Yet he didn't. Nor did he take down the Shangqing Barrier. Enough

blood had been shed in Lin'an. He didn't want any more innocent people to

die purely for his own revenge.

So it was that the thin layer of light protected them all, both the

thankless beasts who had turned on him and the people who stood sincerely

by his side. They arrived at the temple, but the ghost king did not appear.

Instead, they found a candle giving off black smoke that twisted into a dark

silhouette.

"Why have you not dispelled the barrier?!" The moment the silhouette

spied Chu Xun, that voice exploded with rage. "Dispel the barrier!"

"Over my dead body," Chu Xun said serenely.

The black smoke let out a shrill shriek. "Chu Xun, you must be mad!

You…you lot, kill him! Or I'll take all your lives as soon as night comes!"

Daybreak. The first light of day illuminated the endless night. The

ghost king, unable to maintain his form in sunlight, fled into the darkness. The

candle emitting the black smoke flickered and went out.

Chu Xun pulled himself together. The City God Temple stood on high

ground. From there, he could see the morning mist gently shrouding the

mountains and rivers, hiding their scars from view, and for a moment,

everything looked like it had in the days of old. It was a beautiful spring.

"Chu-gongzi, sorry."

"It's not that we're cruel or heartless or anything, it's just that the ghost

king holds a grudge against you for ruining his eye… We have no other

choice…"

"What're you all still yammering for?! Don't drag it out. We don't

want any surprises. I've got a family back there who want to live! Who's

more important, this one guy or all of us? The righteous put the people before

the self—his words, not mine!"

Chu Wanning stood in the distance, looking at this person whose

relation to him was unknown, his feelings complicated. A pair of hands

suddenly covered his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Chu Wanning whispered.

"Not letting you watch."

Chu Wanning paused. "Why?"

"You'll be sad."

Chu Wanning was quiet for a while, his eyelashes trembling against

Mo Ran's palms. "I won't. I was the one who said it: every one of them is

already two hundred years dead."

Mo Ran sighed softly from behind. After a long pause, he said, "You

little dummy. Then why are my palms wet?"

Chu Wanning didn't know how much time passed, half an hour, two

hours, or only a split second. Time blurred in the madness, the chaos.

When he opened his eyes again, the Shangqing Barrier had dissipated.

Chu Xun lay in a crimson pool, surrounded by people and by ghosts—by

demons wearing human skin, inhaling the scent of fresh blood.

Ecstasy and guilt. Calamity past, the rest of their lives now lay open.

Agony and sin. The hearts of people were indistinguishable from those of

beasts.

The air of the mortal realm smelled like death. Or perhaps this was

hell. It was difficult to tell.

The crowd slowly dispersed. There was no reason to fear ghosts

during the day, so they went to find food, to rest, to wait for the ghost king to

return when night fell. He would inspect the body in the temple and reward

them with the reunions he had promised with their deceased loved ones.

Eventually, only a dozen or so people remained in the temple, weeping

in grief. The young woman from the brothel was there, as was the white-

haired old woman. The young child, and his parents who had listened. A

beggar, a scholar, a storyteller, the son of a once-wealthy family, a widow

holding her infant son, a teacher, and a farmer. No one else.

As they wept over his body, the man lying dead in a pool of his own

blood slowly opened his eyes.

"Gongzi!"

"Chu-gongzi!"

Mo Ran's heart quivered. Unable to bear it, he said: "No…this is…"

This spell was a lost art in the modern age. He hadn't expected to see

it being used in an illusion.

"The Lingering Voice spell. He's dead, but he used this spell on

himself before he died." Chu Wanning paused. "He still had matters yet

unattended. Things he was worried about."

Sure enough, Chu Xun's eyes were blank, their pupils dilated, and his

voice was flat as he spoke. "Demons and ghosts are treacherous; you must

not believe their words. Without the Shangqing Barrier, they will overrun the

city once night falls and slaughter at will. Please leave this place and head to

Putuo."

"Gongzi…"

"I have died and will be unable to accompany you. However, I have

concentrated my entire lifetime's worth of spiritual power in my spiritual

core. Bring it, and the ghosts will be unable to approach you."

They wept even more sorrowfully.

Mo Ran and Chu Wanning's blood ran cold. His spiritual core. It was

a crystalline formation within one's heart…

Chu Xun's body slowly lifted its hand, which had not yet gone stiff,

and under the control of his spell, it grasped the knife buried in his chest to

pull it out. Then—

"Gongzi!" The people around him cried out with grief, their voices

twisted and hoarse, soaked with tears. "Gongzi, what are you doing?!"

With his own hands, Chu Xun ripped open the gash in his chest, dug

into his flesh, and grabbed his no-longer beating heart. Slowly, inch by inch,

he tore it out.

Blood dripped from the heart, which was enveloped in a golden-red

flame. It was Chu Xun's spiritual core, the last flare of light from a candle

that had burned out.

"Take…it…" He lifted the flaming heart and held it out in front of him.

"Take it…take…it…"

Droplets of blood fell only to become so many red haitang blossoms,

flaring brilliantly as they drifted downward.

"The road ahead is long and unpredictable. My life ends here, and I

can do no more. Please…please take care…of…yourselves…"

As the scene unfolded before Mo Ran's eyes, he broke out in a cold

sweat. He felt like thorns were digging into his back.

The scar… That scar! He had suddenly remembered that, on Chu

Wanning's chest, where his heart lay—there was a scar.

That same spot on Chu Wanning was extremely sensitive. How could

Mo Ran forget it? Whenever he licked that pale scar as they lay entwined in

bed, Chu Wanning's usually impassive face would reveal a hint of the desire

that he kept suppressed. That expression only stoked Mo Ran's own desire

even higher, so he had always particularly enjoyed humiliating the person

beneath him in this way.

In his past life, he had never cared about Chu Wanning's history and so

had never asked how he'd acquired that scar, all the way until his death.

Now, in this life, he no longer had the right to ask.