“Still won’t talk?” Liu Lixue asked with a smile. “If Thirteen really starts working, those few lashes earlier will seem like nothing. You know the rules of the Beast Palace. Once you’re in the Discipline Division, no one walks out unscathed.”
The man hanging in the air trembled, his body covered in bloody wounds.
Liu Lixue glanced at Thirteen, who nodded in understanding and turned to pick up a blade.
The thin blade, sharp as a cicada’s wing, spun in his gloved fingers, casting shadows that seemed to carve directly into Su Yang’s chest.
He knew Su Xuan’s rules well. Once inside the Discipline Division, being flayed alive was considered merciful.
For the truly unlucky, even death wouldn’t end it. Their souls would be extracted and burned in Hellfire.
“I… I really don’t know…” Su Yang stammered.
Liu Lixue sighed.
Thirteen, understanding without needing further instruction, made a swift motion. The blade flashed, and a piece of flesh hit the ground.
Screams echoed through the interrogation chamber.
Liu Lixue frowned. As beautiful as this peacock demon was, he didn’t much care for this kind of place. However, the matter at hand was too important, and Thirteen wasn’t skilled enough with words to extract the information Su Xuan needed.
By the time the flesh had been flayed clean from one hand, Liu Lixue tapped his fan lightly. “Stop, stop. I think he’s about to pass out.”
Su Yang, who had always lived a life of luxury, couldn’t possibly endure this kind of punishment. He was used to flaying others alive, never imagining the tables would turn on him.
Liu Lixue looked at the prince, his head hanging as though he were about to lose consciousness. “The royal family has already been wiped out by our Miss Sang, and the royal palace burned to the ground. Think carefully. Whether you talk or not, there’s no turning back for you. If you talk, you might live. If you don’t…” He turned to Thirteen. “Thirteen?”
Thirteen nodded. “Understood.”
Liu Lixue had a knack for terrorizing people. He knew well that someone as spineless as Su Yang needed a combination of pain and intimidation to break.
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” Su Yang finally screamed as Thirteen prepared to strike again.
Liu Lixue raised an eyebrow, smiling warmly. “See, that’s much better. The Beast Palace is very gentle, you know. We’re just trying to scare you.”
Thirteen rolled his eyes, clearly wondering how Liu Lixue could say such a thing with a straight face.
Liu Lixue straightened up in his seat. “Why did Su Xiu collaborate with the Beast Realm?”
“…Because someone told Father… that this campaign could kill Sang Dai, seize control of the Kongsang Realm, and secure its spiritual veins for the Beast Realm. They also claimed Su Xuan would eventually die because of this.”
“…Why were they so certain Sang Dai could be killed?”
“…She said, this is the will of the heavens…”
Liu Lixue’s pupils contracted sharply. “…Why did you believe her?”
“Last year, she came to us proposing a collaboration… She told us there would be a flood in South City soon—it happened. She said Su Xuan would enter the Grand Ascension Stage after last winter—it happened. She said Father’s newly married consort would become pregnant in March this year—it happened.”
“Everything she said… came true.”
“She claimed that Sang Dai would die in this battle, that Su Xuan would go mad after coming out of seclusion and start a war with the Immortal Realm. And on the hundredth anniversary of Sang Dai’s death—”
Su Yang raised his head, his murky eyes locking with Liu Lixue’s. “He would die beneath heavenly lightning.”
Liu Lixue crushed the armrest in his hand.
Thirteen grabbed Su Yang by the collar, roaring, “How dare you! You curse the Beast King!”
Su Yang shook his head desperately. “I’m not lying… I’m not! Everything I’ve said is true!”
Thirteen raised his fist to strike, but Liu Lixue stopped him. “Do not touch him.”
Thirteen frowned and glanced at Liu Lixue, only to notice that the usually composed and elegant peacock demon’s face had gone pale as paper.
Liu Lixue took a deep breath.
Thirteen might not know the prophecy Ling Yin had revealed, but Liu Lixue did.
Ling Yin had said that Sang Dai would die in the great battle—a fate she had foreseen as decreed by the heavens.
No one but them knew about this. Ling Yin was trapped in the Burning Heaven Realm and couldn’t have leaked it. So how had the royal family learned of it? And how could they be so certain Sang Dai would die?
Which meant… Su Yang’s words were true.
In the original destiny, Sang Dai was supposed to die during the great battle months ago, and Su Xuan was destined to perish one hundred years later, on the anniversary of Sang Dai’s death, struck down by heavenly lightning.
That was the fate that should have unfolded.
Liu Lixue had no doubt. If Sang Dai truly died, Su Xuan would undoubtedly go mad and initiate a war himself.
Thirteen slowly released his grip, noticing that Liu Lixue’s demeanor was off.
Liu Lixue steadied his breathing and asked, “Who exactly was the person you collaborated with?”
Su Yang, panting heavily, struggled to reply. “It was… a woman in a pink dress. She had no spiritual roots, just a mortal body. She was accompanied by a boy in red, who obeyed her every command…”
At this, Liu Lixue nearly crushed the folding fan in his hand.
Through gritted teeth, he said, “Bi Fang. Shi Yao.”
Bi Fang obeyed Shi Yao.
The one who wanted Sang Dai dead wasn’t just the person behind the scenes—it was also Shi Yao.
From the beginning, Shi Yao had been working alongside that hidden figure.
—
Liu Ying had been dead for over a century. Her soul was so weak that only Tan Huai’s cleansing Buddhist rites could prepare it for passage to the Underworld. Otherwise, with such a fragile soul, she wouldn’t even make it through the Reincarnation Seal.
The ritual took a long time.
By the afternoon, neither Sang Dai nor Su Xuan had seen any sign of Tan Huai emerging from the chamber.
Sang Dai took a sip of tea and glanced at the little fox across from her. “How about we eat something first?”
Su Xuan had been sitting still for most of the day without drinking a single drop of water. Watching him made Sang Dai’s heart ache.
The little fox’s long lashes trembled slightly, and he raised his eyes to look at her.
Sang Dai clutched her stomach, furrowing her brows slightly. “Oh, I’m so hungry. Master Tan Huai will probably be busy for a long time. Why don’t the mighty Beast King accompany me for a meal?”
Su Xuan turned his head and chuckled softly. The fox, who had been holding a stern expression all day, finally showed a hint of a smile.
Sang Dai felt a wave of relief and took his hand. “Let’s go eat. Young Master Liu has probably finished his business as well. I asked Cui Shao to prepare a lot of crispy fish for him—he’s worked hard too. Let’s all eat together.”
Su Xuan squeezed her hand gently. “Alright.”
The little fox was easy to placate, requiring almost no effort.
When the two of them arrived at the dining hall, they found that a certain peacock demon was already seated at the table.
Cui Shao brought out a large plate of crispy fish. In the past, Liu Lixue would have dug in without hesitation. He had always treated the Beast Palace as his own and didn’t wait for Su Xuan, knowing at most he’d earn a glare.
But now, Liu Lixue’s expression was unusually somber. Even Cui Shao noticed something was wrong and stood silently to the side, not daring to move.
Sang Dai felt a pang of unease and said to Cui Shao, “Cui Shao, you can go rest now. There’s no need to serve us here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cui Shao replied and left, closing the door behind her.
Sang Dai turned to Liu Lixue. “Young Master Liu, you may speak now.”
She sat down at the table, and Su Xuan took the seat beside her.
Liu Lixue’s face was dark as he spoke. “The one who incited the collaboration between the Beast Realm and the Demon World was Shi Yao.”
Su Xuan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What?”
Liu Lixue continued, “The one who worked with the man in black wasn’t Bi Fang—it was Shi Yao. Bi Fang was merely following her orders.”
Sang Dai remained calm and asked, “Do you have solid evidence?”
“Su Yang said it himself. But the most unsettling thing isn’t Shi Yao’s connection to Bi Fang—it’s this.”
Liu Lixue picked up his tea and drained the cup in one go. “Shi Yao knows about destiny. Not just yours, Miss Sang, but many people’s destinies, including… the Beast King’s.”
“My destiny?” Su Xuan asked.
“Yes, your destiny. According to destiny, Miss Sang was supposed to die in the battle several months ago. You were delayed in leaving seclusion, and by the time you emerged, Miss Sang was already dead. You went mad, declared war on the Immortal Realm, and fought for a full century before finally… dying under heavenly lightning.”
Su Xuan’s expression remained calm, though his brow furrowed slightly. While it sounded bizarre, it was indeed something he would do. If Sang Dai were truly dead, he would undoubtedly lay waste to the Immortal Realm.
But how could Shi Yao know this?
Liu Lixue, having finished speaking, suddenly noticed how unnaturally calm the two of them were.
Su Xuan seemed completely indifferent, as if he cared little for his own fate. Sang Dai, on the other hand, seemed as though she already knew. Otherwise, given how much she cared about Su Xuan, she would not have been so composed.
Su Xuan also noticed the overly calm demeanor of the sword cultivator.
Both pairs of eyes turned to Sang Dai, who sat quietly, her gaze lowered as if lost in thought.
Su Xuan’s expression darkened gradually. “Dai Dai, what exactly do you know? When Senior Ling Yin spoke of your destiny, why did you already seem to know about it?”
Sang Dai was still holding Su Xuan’s hand, the little fox clearly tense, gripping her hand a bit too tightly.
“Dai Dai, answer me.”
Only then did Sang Dai react.
She turned to look at Su Xuan.
Their eyes met, and Sang Dai recalled the description of Su Xuan in the original story.
The little fox who had ascended to the Tribulation Stage was killed in a joint assault by the Heavenly Dao and Shen Ciyu.
He died.
Su Xuan died.
Sang Dai spoke slowly, “What he said is true. You died one hundred years after I did, on the anniversary of my death. You went to the rear mountain of the Sword Sect… and were killed by Shen Ciyu and the Heavenly Dao. At that time, you had already reached the Tribulation Stage.”
The room fell into silence.
Liu Lixue asked, “…Is this true?”
“It is.”
No one spoke again.
The situation was too strange; they didn’t know how to respond.
After a long while, a single tear fell from Sang Dai’s eye. The sour ache and heartache she had been suppressing for so long finally spilled over.
She asked softly, “Su Xuan, you had already reached the Tribulation Stage. Why would you accompany me to death?”
The other two in the room remained quiet. Only Sang Dai spoke, finally voicing the thoughts she had buried deep inside.
“In the past, I always hit you. I injured you badly, and then I forgot about you. I treated you so poorly, yet why would you go to such lengths for me?”
Becoming a warlike tyrant, plagued by inner demons, waging war for a hundred years without rest, surrendering to death under heavenly lightning, and accompanying her to the underworld.
“Su Xuan, I treated you so badly. When I died, you should have laughed, forgotten me, and focused on being a great Beast King. Why did you end up like this?”
These were words she thought she would never get to say.
Liu Lixue turned his head away, downing several cups of tea in one go, his chest feeling stifled and uncomfortable.
These revelations about destiny far exceeded his understanding. To him, Su Xuan was so powerful that no one could possibly kill him. How could he die under heavenly lightning? Yet, the words were impossible to dismiss.
The Heavenly Dao had decreed his fate—to die a hundred years later.
Su Xuan pulled the sword cultivator into his arms, his breathing faintly trembling. “You never owed me anything. Everything I’ve done for you has been of my own free will. Dai Dai, none of that has happened, and it never will.”
He held Sang Dai tightly, fully aware that her emotions were on the verge of collapse.
He had no idea how long she had been carrying these thoughts. The deeper their feelings for each other grew, the more this burden suffocated her. He had never realized she had been hiding so much.
The sword cultivator remained quiet, but even her breathing made Su Xuan’s heart twist painfully. He couldn’t bear to see her upset, especially when it stemmed from guilt toward him. She had done nothing wrong, from beginning to end.
He comforted her, then locked eyes with Liu Lixue.
Sang Dai quickly regained her composure, wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes. The little fox gently patted her back.
Some things feel lighter once spoken aloud.
She wrapped her arms around Su Xuan’s waist, her voice muffled and hoarse. “Su Xuan, I’ve tried to tell you about these things before, but I couldn’t. Now, it wasn’t me who told you—it’s something you all discovered on your own.”
“In the moments before my death, fragments of… destiny appeared in my mind.”
She couldn’t bring herself to say the word “plot.”
Sang Dai had once tried to speak of it when she was alone, even to write down the events of the book in her mind, but she couldn’t. Some force prevented her.
The “plot” couldn’t be spoken. It could only exist as a book in her mind, one she could flip through but not share.
The “plot” couldn’t be written either. Anything she wrote disappeared the moment it was finished.
Even now, she couldn’t reveal it. It seemed that the book in her mind was forbidden to anyone but herself.
So she phrased it differently: “Those fragments of destiny are just as I described earlier. I died, and you died. I don’t know if you believe me, but it’s the truth.”
At this point, the situation, no matter how bizarre, carried weight because Sang Dai was the one who said it.
Sang Dai didn’t lie. No matter how absurd her words, they had to be true.
Su Xuan and Liu Lixue would believe her without question.
Su Xuan responded calmly, “Alright. I understand. I believe you.”
Sang Dai stepped out of Su Xuan’s arms and turned to Liu Lixue. “It’s indeed possible that Shi Yao did this. Something very strange happened a long time ago.”
She paused for a moment and then asked, “The Bi Fang Clan used to live in the Northern Region, correct?”
Liu Lixue nodded. “Yes.”
“When were they wiped out?”
“…It should have been about 120 years ago.”
Sang Dai’s gaze deepened. “I remember now. When Shi Yao was in her teens, she went to the Northern Region. When she returned, she brought back an injured spirit crane. Because Shi Yao had picked it up, Sang Wenzhou used many precious pills to save it. After the crane recovered, Shi Yao said she had released it back into the wild. That was precisely 120 years ago.”
One hundred and twenty years ago. The Northern Region. A spirit crane.
Su Xuan asked, “Shi Yao saved a Bi Fang?”
Sang Dai shook her head. “It’s probably not that simple. At the time, Shi Yao went to the Northern Region alone without informing anyone. Normally, Sang Wenzhou would have sent dozens of guards to protect her because of her frail health, but she snuck out by herself.”
“As Young Master Liu said, Shi Yao knows destiny—she knows the fates of many people. So, I speculate that Shi Yao knew the Bi Fang Clan would be annihilated on that day. She deliberately went there to save Bi Fang. But she’s not a kind-hearted person.”
“She saved Bi Fang likely because Bi Fang had something she needed, or perhaps because Bi Fang could help her greatly—”
Sang Dai exchanged a look with Su Xuan, her lips pressing into a thin line before adding in a low, steady voice:
“For example, in killing me.”