This was the question she had been trying to find an answer to all these years.
Had Ying Heng truly died?
The two faced each other, and there was no trace of a smile on Ji Cang’s face.
“Two months ago, the Beast Realm suddenly attacked the Immortal Realm. You gained assistance from the Demon Beast Realm, and your forces grew significantly, but this time, your assault seems somewhat unusual.”
Ji Cang asked indifferently, “What do you mean by that?”
“The Jade Gate was attacked, the Immortal Realm was defeated. By your usual style, you would have pressed the advantage. Why did you retreat to defend the Jade Gate, taking only the Kongsang Territory? Beyond the Jade Gate lies a thousand miles of fertile land, including the Xianyou’s Secret Realm, which is far richer in spiritual veins than Kongsang Territory. Why didn’t you continue the assault?”
“Oh, I just didn’t feel like continuing. What’s so strange about that?”
“There is something strange,” Sang Dai said. “Ji Cang, you are greedy and bloodthirsty. It’s impossible for you to give up richer spiritual veins. So, your invasion this time wasn’t for the veins but for some other purpose, wasn’t it?”
“For example, to kill me. Or perhaps, because there’s something you want in Kongsang Territory.”
Sang Dai, as a primary combatant, always fought on the front lines of the Immortal Realm, intercepting most of the Beast Realm’s forces.
And Kongsang Territory—just a hundred miles westward—was the border of the Demon Beast Realm. Years ago, Ying Heng was killed near that area.
“I don’t know why you’re trying to kill me, or what it is about me that makes you so wary, that you’d go to such lengths to eliminate me, even chasing me to Bairen Alley, luring me into a trap with Immortal Velvet Grass and a Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root.”
“But, two months ago, you captured Kongsang Territory. Coincidentally, two months ago, someone presented Immortal Velvet Grass and a Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root at Bairen Alley. The timing is too perfect to be a coincidence. Did you… see my master?”
Sang Dai gripped her sword tightly, her lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes slightly reddened. “Even if it was only his corpse?”
“Ji Cang, give me an answer. Is my master truly dead?”
The room was very quiet, with only the candle flames flickering.
Ji Cang looked at her coldly. Under the lamplight, the sword cultivator’s gaze was stubborn, tinged with a trace of sadness.
“What if I did see him?”
“Tell me, is he dead?”
“He’s dead.”
Ji Cang’s response was so swift that Sang Dai couldn’t process his words for a moment. Her mind went blank, and all she could hear was a buzzing in her ears.
It seemed as if she could no longer hold her sword.
Ji Cang said coldly, “Sang Dai, he’s dead. I can tell you this.”
He straightened his posture, withdrawing the demonic energy around him. His dark red robes, like blood, hung heavily as he gazed at Sang Dai, who was holding her sword not far away.
“Sang Dai, the answer you’ve been seeking all these years—I’m telling you now. Ying Heng is dead.”
“Oh, and his corpse is still with me. The Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root was extracted by Fu You, and the Immortal Velvet Grass was something I found on his body. After the Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root was removed, his corpse decayed rapidly. Now, all that’s left for you is a set of white bones.”
Ji Cang stepped closer to her, his tone nearly cruel. “Sang Dai, do you want his bones?”
Sang Dai still wore an expressionless look. If not for the redness in her eyes betraying her emotions, Ji Cang might have thought she didn’t care at all.
Her voice even managed to remain steady: “How do you know my master’s corpse was near Kongsang Territory? Back then, the Four Realms searched for it but never found it.”
“I will only answer that one question for you, Miss Sang. You mustn’t be greedy.”
Sang Dai lifted her gaze and nodded. “Alright.”
Before coming here, Su Xuan had told her that she needed to learn one thing first:
Let go of the hypocritical principles and rigid rules of the Immortal Realm. There’s no need to always act by the book.
She slashed her sword forward, forcing Ji Cang out through the window, pinning him as they teleported into a wide forest clearing, her sword hilt pressed against his neck.
Ji Cang’s expression turned completely cold. Before he could recover, Sang Dai twirled her sword and struck straight at his life gate.
He cursed inwardly. Spending too much time with Su Xuan had evidently influenced her demeanor—she acted just like Su Xuan, starting a fight the moment things didn’t go her way.
Ji Cang’s black robes billowed as he closed in on Sang Dai, surging demonic energy threatening to engulf her.
“Changmang!”
The artifact Binding Ribbon responded to her call, transforming into a broad curtain that absorbed the demonic energy entirely.
Sang Dai pressed her attack step by step, forcing Ji Cang to abandon any trace of frivolity in his heart.
She had just repaired her golden core, her natal sword was broken, and her mental state had greatly declined. How could she still fight him to a standstill?
And then there was that Heaven-Grade artifact named Changmang. Whatever it was made of, it could even swallow his demonic energy.
Ji Cang parried her sword, gritting his teeth. “Sang Dai, are you trying to kill me?”
“I’m not trying to kill you,” Sang Dai replied. “I just want to ask you something.”
Her words were so cryptic that Ji Cang was momentarily stunned, unable to grasp her meaning.
In the next moment, Sang Dai gave him the answer.
The Binding Ribbon, which had been joyfully devouring demonic energy, suddenly darted out from nowhere, swiftly wrapping itself around Ji Cang.
Breaking free wasn’t an issue, but just as Ji Cang was about to tear Changmang to pieces, Sang Dai’s long sword pierced through his shoulder, pinning him brutally to a tree trunk.
Ji Cang coughed up a mouthful of black blood. Su Xuan’s natal sword carried an overwhelming killing intent, and the malevolent energy on the blade seeped into his wound. At the same time, something else followed…
Even as his body was pierced, Ji Cang maintained his composure. But when he sensed what was flowing from the sword into his meridians, his expression turned grim.
“Sang Dai, how dare you use Soul-Seizing on me?!”
Soul-Seizing Arts—a secret technique of the Beast Realm, exclusive to its royal bloodline.
Ji Cang finally understood.
Sang Dai hadn’t come here to interrogate him at all. All her talk had merely been a distraction to lower his guard. From the very beginning, her true goal had been to use the Soul-Seizing technique on him.
That sword bore Su Xuan’s Soul-Seizing incantation!
“Sang Dai!”
Sang Dai retracted Changmang, casually wrapping it around her wrist. She asked coldly, “Ji Cang, is my master truly dead?”
Ji Cang clenched his teeth, mustering all the demonic energy in his body to resist the Soul-Seizing incantation.
The Nine-Tailed Fox Clan’s Soul-Seizing Arts were no ordinary spells, especially…
Su Xuan was a Grand Ascension Stage demon cultivator, while Ji Cang was merely a Nascent Soul Stage demon cultivator.
His pupils gradually dilated, and the spiritual energy around him began to dissipate.
“Ji Cang, answer my question.”
—
The vast residence was almost entirely torn apart by Su Xuan.
Hellfire ignited, burning the weaker ghost cultivators to ashes.
Fu You, with his clothes in tatters, raised his sleeve with difficulty, looking at his torn robe with a face full of distress. “This outfit cost me three thousand high-grade spirit stones… Su Xuan, you truly are—cough, cough—damnable!”
Fresh blood clogged his throat, and Fu You coughed violently.
Ghost cultivators feared hellfire, and Su Xuan’s hellfire was pure spiritual flame. The burns it inflicted on Fu You’s body weren’t something spiritual energy could heal. The flames scorched his meridians, and his entire body ached unbearably.
Su Xuan looked down at him from above, his gaze indifferent as he pulled out an embroidered handkerchief to wipe his hands.
The beating was enough; Fu You had been pummeled within an inch of his life and wouldn’t recover for months.
Though his anger still wasn’t fully vented, Sang Dai had explicitly warned him not to kill anyone before he left.
The jade pendant at his waist glowed faintly blue, capable of transmitting messages over vast distances to the silver feather Sang Dai carried.
He knew Sang Dai was fine.
She was always strong.
The previously cold expression on his face softened slightly, and a faint smile curved his lips.
She should be about done by now.
Su Xuan tucked away his smile, a lotus imprint surfacing in his glass-like eyes, and his silver hair was tousled by the heat of the hellfire.
He cast a cold glance at the disheveled and coughing Fu You on the ground. “Fu You.”
Fu You instinctively looked up.
His gaze met a pair of golden eyes, the lotus imprint within them lifelike, radiating an unsettling, soul-stirring power.
A sense of foreboding struck him, but it was already too late.
Su Xuan’s direct application of the Soul-Seizing technique was far more potent than the incantations he had left on artifacts.
Fu You’s pupils lost focus.
—
The night had finally passed.
When Sang Dai returned to the inn, Su Xuan was already waiting inside.
He stood by the open window, hands behind his back, framing the brightly lit Bairen Alley within its small frame.
At the sound of her arrival, Su Xuan turned around to look.
The two locked eyes across the short distance.
Su Xuan asked, “You’re back?”
Sang Dai nodded. “Mm.”
She closed the door behind her with a reverse motion, walked forward, and handed the sword to him. “The Qingwu Sword is yours.”
“Mm.” Su Xuan took it and casually placed it on the windowsill.
The night wind was a bit chilly. As it brushed against Sang Dai’s face, her mind cleared somewhat.
She came to the window and stood shoulder to shoulder with Su Xuan. The thousands of lanterns outside reflected in her eyes as well.
“Sang Dai, you’ve found out, haven’t you?”
“Mm.”
Sang Dai leaned on the windowsill and took a deep breath. The cold wind filled her lungs, yet she didn’t feel cold.
“Su Xuan, before Ji Cang passed out, I asked him five questions.”
Su Xuan remained silent.
Sang Dai said, “The first question, I asked him: who made the deal with them? He told me he didn’t know; the person’s identity was unknown.”
“The second question, I asked him: why do they want to kill me? He told me it’s because fate demands my death.”
No matter how many times she asked, Ji Cang remained in a dazed state, mumbling the same phrase over and over:
“Fate demands your death.”
“The third question, I asked him: whose Immortal Velvet Grass and Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root were they? He said they belonged to my master.”
At this point, Sang Dai paused for a long time.
“The fourth question, I asked him: have you ever seen my master? He said he hadn’t.”
Su Xuan still did not respond.
Sang Dai took another deep breath and continued, “The fifth question, I asked him: is my master truly dead? His answer was…”
Her hair was tousled by the wind. The warm, golden light from the hanging lanterns above Bai Ren Valley illuminated her face, softening the features of the sword cultivator.
Her lips curved into a smile, her shoulders trembling as the smile deepened, a trace of mirth spreading across her brows and eyes.
She looked up at Su Xuan and said, “No.”
—”Ji Cang, is my master, Immortal Lord Ying Heng, truly dead?”
—”…No.”
After asking five questions, Ji Cang succumbed to the Soul-Seizing technique and fainted. The strain of Su Xuan’s Grand Ascension Stage Soul-Seizing was far too damaging to the soul.
But it was enough.
She turned around and looked at Su Xuan.
Tears brimmed in her eyes, threatening to spill.
“My master isn’t dead.”
At that moment, a single tear fell.
Sang Dai’s lips trembled, but no sound came out. She struggled for a long time before finally finding her voice.
“Su Xuan, did you hear? My master isn’t dead.”
Ying Heng was still alive. Even though his Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root had been taken, he was still alive.
The moment she heard that Ying Heng wasn’t dead, she no longer cared about who wanted to kill her or why. Her mind was entirely consumed by Ji Cang’s words.
Ying Heng isn’t dead.
Her master isn’t dead.
“Su Xuan,” Sang Dai choked out, her voice trembling, “he’s alive…”
Su Xuan leaned forward and gently wiped away her tears, a soft smile appearing on his lips.
He spoke with calmness and warmth, “Mm, Fu You also told me—your master isn’t dead.”
Fu You had revealed that he and Ji Cang were acting under someone’s orders. They had never met Ying Heng and didn’t know his whereabouts; their only mission was to kill Sang Dai.
Fu You also said that the person who had ordered them claimed Ying Heng was still alive.
“Sang Dai, right now, perhaps only the one pulling the strings knows where Ying Heng is. But as long as he’s alive, we can find him.”
Su Xuan knew how important Ying Heng was to Sang Dai.
Closer than family.
And Ying Heng—he was still alive.
Sang Dai still had family.