Even the sword in his hand was trembling.
“Ah Xuan, Bai Yu…”
Weisheng Xuan smiled faintly, casually wrapping the newborn child in a piece of cloth.
“Brother, she’s a girl. Her name is Weisheng Sang.”
Sang Dai wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes.
Ying Heng, covered in blood from his journey up the mountain, drew his sword, preparing to rush out.
“I’ll help Bai Yu!”
Weisheng Xuan stopped him. “It’s useless. We can’t all die here. You can tell, these people are disciples of Cangwu Taoist Temple, but their cultivation has suddenly skyrocketed. They don’t even recognize Bai Yu, and they’re nearly identical to the ones we saw in the Guixu Immortal Realm. They’re already insane. Their cultivation has been pushed to its limits by the Four Sufferings.”
She wept while holding Sang Dai and pleaded with Ying Heng, “Take her away, please, take her away. I beg you, take her away.”
Sang Dai was pushed into Ying Heng’s arms.
Weisheng Xuan wiped away her tears and picked up the brocade pillow in the room. She transformed it into an illusion of an infant, identical to the newborn Sang Dai.
She opened her chest, and blood dripped onto the illusory child. It started to cry, carrying Weisheng Xuan’s aura.
Weisheng Xuan pushed Ying Heng. “Go quickly!”
Ying Heng took a deep breath, wrapping the child in cloth and securing it in front of him.
“I know. The people at the back mountain have all been killed by me. I’ll leave now using teleportation. I swear, as long as I live, I will protect her.”
Ying Heng leapt out of the window, glancing back at her.
Weisheng Xuan held the fake child and whispered, “She’s a girl. I told my husband that if it’s a girl, her nickname will be Ah Dai.”
“She is Ah Dai.”
Ying Heng left with the child.
Weisheng Xuan looked at the fake child in her arms, tears falling one by one.
Sang Dai knew what she was about to do.
Bai Yu could no longer escape unscathed, and Weisheng Xuan could not abandon him. If she left, the child would always be hunted, and would eventually be found again.
The only thing Weisheng Xuan could do was create the illusion of a fake child, so that their family of three would die here today.
She opened the door. All the spirit beasts in the courtyard had been killed.
Bai Yu knelt at the door, a long blade pierced through his chest, blood dripping from the tip.
He was still alive, struggling to look at Weisheng Xuan in the courtyard.
Weisheng Xuan met his gaze and suddenly smiled. It was a silent understanding between them, confirming that the child had been taken by Ying Heng.
She raised the crying fake child in her hands and said fiercely, “You want to take the Weisheng family’s seal? My child can die, but she will never fall into the hands of thieves for your use!”
Weisheng Xuan exerted force, crushing the “fake child” in her hands.
Blood splattered, and it seemed as though Weisheng Xuan had truly killed her own child.
Without a corpse, no one would know that the child she killed was merely a puppet.
She took one last look at Bai Yu before slamming her palm onto her chest, shattering her heart’s pulse.
Without witnesses, even soul-searching wouldn’t reveal the truth.
As Weisheng Xuan collapsed, Bai Yu’s lips curled up slightly.
His head drooped, his body weakly falling to the ground.
The death of his partner led him to follow her into death.
Sang Dai covered her eyes, crying out in pain. She knelt on the ground, wailing. She had never imagined that Weisheng Xuan would take her own life.
She knew she wouldn’t survive. She had shattered her own heart pulse, taking the truth with her to the underworld, a secret known only to her, Bai Yu, and Ying Heng.
One blow to shatter the heart pulse, even though she was weak, she was still a high-level cultivator—who else could have killed her in one strike?
Only herself.
“Ah Dai.”
The distant, hollow voice came from behind her.
Sang Dai, her vision blurred by tears, looked over.
She found herself in a vast darkness, a place eerily similar to the disorienting power of the Snow Owl, with nothing but void.
The spiritual forms in the distance made it difficult to breathe.
Just as she had seen before, Weisheng Xuan in a bloodstained green dress, her disheveled black hair, and Bai Yu in tattered purple robes, covered in blade wounds.
Sang Dai staggered to her feet, blinking uncertainly.
“Mother, Father…”
Bai Yu smiled softly, “You truly are a girl. I always hoped you would be. Your mother likes girls, and now that you’ve been born, she’s happy.”
Sang Dai covered her face, crying uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop the tears. Though she had never truly spent time with them, seeing them die because of her guilt overwhelmed her.
She ran towards them but passed right through their embrace.
Weisheng Xuan sighed, “Ah Dai, this is the realm of the Chunyu Hairpin, the soul-bound artifact of the first head of the Weisheng family. It contains the disorienting power of the Snow Owl. What you saw earlier were past memories. These are just remnants of your father and mother’s souls. Only your consciousness was pulled in, so you cannot touch us.”
Sang Dai looked at them both, confused.
Weisheng Xuan raised her hand, gently patting her head from afar. “You’ve grown so much, Ah Dai. You’ve reached the Tribulation Stage, with a Heaven-grade spiritual root. Our Ah Dai is truly amazing.”
Bai Yu raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “It seems like you’re married too. When I pulled your consciousness in, I sensed the marriage contract in your sea of consciousness.”
Weisheng Xuan was surprised. “Married?”
Sang Dai held back her tears, forcing a smile. “Yes, I’m married. He also has a Heaven-grade spiritual root, and he’s the Nine-Tailed Fox Beast King.”
Sang Dai’s life outside had been unknown to Weisheng Xuan and Bai Yu. Upon hearing this, they fell silent for a moment.
“This is really good, all good children, really well-matched.” Weisheng Xuan paused for a moment, then suddenly spoke again. “Ah Dai, I’m sorry, your parents couldn’t even be there to officiate your marriage.”
Sang Dai felt a sharp pain in her heart, choking back tears. “I should be the one apologizing. It should have been my…”
She apologized repeatedly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, parents, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry…”
Sang Dai always liked to apologize, even when she knew it wasn’t her fault. The guilt, though, still made her heart ache.
Weisheng Xuan couldn’t touch her, couldn’t hold her, couldn’t offer comfort, and could only watch her cry, feeling as though this mother of hers was crying along with her.
Bai Yu sighed, pulling her into his arms. “I know you’re upset, but we won’t last long. Some things need to be said now, so that Ah Dai can survive.”
Sang Dai looked up, wiping her tears, and asked, “What do you mean by ‘won’t last long’? What does that mean?”
Bai Yu answered, “Ah Dai, we exist due to our obsession. The Chunyu Hairpin keeps us sleeping here. When you touched the Chunyu Hairpin, its spirit sensed the Weisheng family’s seal and awakened us. But once awakened, our vitality is being consumed.”
Sang Dai quickly said, “You’re still sleeping, I’ll go out now. I’ll find a way to save you.”
Bai Yu stopped her. “Ah Dai, our bodies have turned to bones, and our souls are nearly scattered. There’s nothing you can do.”
Sang Dai turned her head, closing her eyes.
Weisheng Xuan wiped away her tears. “Ah Dai, time is short. You saw the martial arts of those people earlier, didn’t you? Those disciples were from Cangwu Taoist Temple. They went to suppress the Guixu Immortal Realm during the turmoil caused by Guixu, and died there. But now, it seems they didn’t die at all. They don’t even recognize your father anymore. Their humanity has been devoured.”
“…Yes.”
“Since you’ve discovered this, do you know about the Four Sufferings?”
“I know.”
“Does the Heroes Conference know?”
“They know.”
Weisheng Xuan’s gaze deepened as her voice lowered. “At the Heroes Conference, we were taken to Guixu. What we saw was the Heavenly Dao—”
“All four realms would be completely destroyed, and everyone would be devoured by the Four Sufferings, except for those with the Weisheng family seal. And this person would destroy Guixu.”
“She is the only one who can possibly destroy the Four Sufferings.”
Sang Dai suddenly looked up.
Weisheng Xuan continued, “At that time, all six of us, except me, were consumed by the Four Sufferings. I had already made a dual-life marriage contract with your father, which you know about. This type of marriage contract can’t be undone, and it was only a matter of time before your father went mad. Once he died, I would certainly die as well, but the Weisheng family’s seal cannot be left without a successor.”
“We six didn’t dare to meet each other. In fact, it was because of me. Your father, Ying Heng, Mu Qing, Shao Xi, Wu Hanshu, and I declared to the outside world that I had died, having perished in the Dream Butterfly Realm. This was to protect my identity.”
Because Weisheng Xuan was the only one with the Weisheng family seal at that time, it was necessary to keep her safe.
“They told the world that there was a conflict in the Dream Butterfly Realm, that I died in their struggle. Because of this, they broke their friendship, and so, for many years, they didn’t meet in public. One reason was to make people think I was dead, and the other was to prevent drawing attention to the Heroes Conference.”
Back then, they were inexplicably taken to the Guixu Immortal Realm for training, and the mastermind behind it had never been uncovered. The six of them had already become famous because of the Heroes Conference, and the six most powerful members were close friends. If they met, their relationship would have gradually been spread among the people.
The final trial of the Heroes Conference, the Dream Butterfly Realm, would inevitably raise questions about where it took them, and Weisheng Xuan’s “death” would surely be brought up.
To prevent suspicion, they severed their relationships openly. Even though they all eventually succumbed to madness and death due to the Four Sufferings, no one would pay attention to them.
Unnoticed, the death of an unknown person would go unnoticed.
Later, Weisheng Xuan knew that she would die with Bai Yu, so they secluded themselves and had Sang Dai, passing the family seal to her.
Sang Dai finally understood. Wu Hanshu, with his untold destiny, had been revealed through the lingering obsession of Weisheng Xuan.
She was not bound by the laws of the heavenly path; she could speak.
Sang Dai then asked, “What exactly is the Weisheng family seal, and why does it have such immense power?”
Weisheng Xuan replied, “Ah Dai, the Weisheng family seal can channel the purest Guixu spiritual energy, and the Guixu spiritual energy can cleanse the Four Sufferings.”
“But now there is no Guixu spiritual energy… no, there is, I still have it.”
In her sea of consciousness, the Guixu spiritual energy left by the Snow Owl remained.
Sang Dai raised her gaze and asked again, “But with only that little bit of Guixu spiritual energy, how can it cleanse the entire Guixu spiritual vein’s Four Sufferings?”
Bai Yu smiled at her question, his gaze soft as he looked down at his grown daughter.
He spoke gently, “Ah Dai, some things you will come to understand in time. You don’t need to cleanse the Four Sufferings from the Guixu spiritual vein. What your mother and I truly wanted you to do—”
“Is to destroy all of Guixu.”
Sang Dai’s pupils contracted sharply.
The figures of Bai Yu and Weisheng Xuan began to fade. Their fingers were tightly intertwined.
“Ah Dai, your parents showed you so much, but they actually wanted to tell you something else.”
Weisheng Xuan’s eyes curved with a smile.
“Your parents were very in love. Your birth was anticipated from the very beginning. The entire Weisheng family was waiting for you.”
“Now, it seems your husband is in trouble. Ah Dai, go help him.”