The Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword's spirit looked like a kind old man, if not for the indifferent look he cast toward the four of them.
"I found you with my frightening genius, of course," Yun Wuji shrugged casually. One arm wrapped around Shen Xi's waist, steady and protective, as he sent his profound energy and soul power into her body in case something unexpected were to happen.
Both Shen Xi and the old man were spirits of the same artifact. Yun Wuji had read enough novels and manga in his past life to recognize this kind of situation. When a cornered enemy struck back, they always aimed for the people he cared about most.
Who knew if this guy possessed some ability to attack her through her connection with the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword?
Shen Xi was pregnant. Yun Wuji refused to take even the smallest risk.
"Frightening genius?" The old man narrowed his eyes while watching Yun Wuji's group. He then looked away from Yun Wuji and toward Li Suo before saying, "Your survival surprises me. However, you are little more than a shell of your former self."
Mo E had once been a complete simp for Li Suo. He visited her constantly, even after giving up on being with her and marrying another woman. The old man, the spirit of the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, might not have appeared before her openly, but he had seen her many times and knew her far too well.
"..." Li Suo did not bother answering him. A lowly man destined to perish was not qualified to receive her reply. Even sparing him a glance already gave him more than he deserved.
"Old foggy, stop with the freaking nonsense and get on with your villain role!" Hei Xiaolian placed one hand on her waist while the other pointed at the old man. She tilted her chin up, giving him her signature look of superiority. "Hurry the fuck up and start your villain monologue!"
"It's you, kid. How you grew up like this is beyond me." The old man finally fixed his gaze on Hei Xiaolian. The way he looked at her felt strange. The Evil Infant he knew was a literal infant, tiny and underdeveloped, while the one before him was a busty beauty overflowing with sex appeal.
Although the two had never truly met, it could still be said that they knew each other very well. They were polar opposites in every sense.
He did not even need to see her. Just sensing her presence was enough for him to confirm her identity.
'I knew something cliché like this would happen. It is always the same. The holier they appear, the more rotten they are underneath.' Yun Wuji watched the exchange between Hei Xiaolian and the old man while thinking to himself. In novels, the so-called righteous churches were always painted as the hidden villains, while the protagonists practiced dark arts or even necromancy. In the end, they still crushed the church and saved the world.
Across the world, people feared and dreaded the Evil Infant's Wheel of Myriad Tribulations, while worshipping the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword as the ultimate artifact.
"As far as I know, you were supposed to be dead. Aren't you the kind old man who would rather kill himself than harm it?" Yun Wuji suddenly spoke. At the same time, he quietly began moving his soul power with the formation, using Shen Xi as the core.
With his battle strength, he was confident he could defeat this old spirit even if it were ten times stronger. However, they were inside the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword's inner world. Who knew what might happen if something went wrong with Shen Xi?
In truth, he was already getting angry. The thought that another man had been hiding inside his woman's home made his temper rise fast.
Regardless of what this old cunt was planning, that offense alone warranted Yun Wuji's special treatment. He would make him understand exactly what 'sweet death release' meant.
"Heh. So someone here knows about that as well," the old man said. He fell silent for a short while, as if recalling the past. Then he suddenly let out a chuckle, one hand stroking his long beard.
"As you can see, I am not dead," he declared.
"Soon you would, old fuck!" Hei Xiaolian scoffed.
"Do you know who I envied the most in this world?" The old man ignored her reaction, staring straight at her as he asked the question.
"Oh? You are finally willing to start your cliché villain monologue?" Hei Xiaolian sneered.
"Its you!" The old man ignored her disdain and contempt as he spoke. The expression on his aged face twisted, turning sinister and warped with envy, jealousy, and even hatred. "Both of us were born at the same time, with the same power, from the same source!"
"Why did the Ancestral Goddess grant you absolute freedom while I was cursed to forever dread the moment I would lose my will?!"
"That is unfair! Completely unfair!"
"I lived for billions of years, fearing every single day that the lingering will of the Ancestral Goddess would suddenly decide it was time to cleanse this world and erase my own sense of self!"
'So that was it.' Yun Wuji finally pieced it together. Mo E had mentioned something similar in the memory fragments. That seemed to be the real reason the spirit chose death in the first place, or at least the reason he told Mo E before dying. On this point, it appeared he had not been lying.
The two Heavenly Profound Artifacts, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword and the Evil Infant's Wheel of Myriad Tribulations, were the ultimate weapons left behind by the Ancestral Goddess to cleanse the world.
The Evil Infant's Wheel of Myriad Tribulations existed to cleanse humanity, while the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword existed to cleanse the heavens by slaying the Heavenly Way itself and forcing a new one to take form.
The two functioned like a reset button, meant to format the universe and get rid of corrupted files and viruses.
However, unlike the Evil Infant, who possessed free will and acted as it pleased, the Ancestral Sword did not. It was born with greater wisdom, deeper knowledge, and more importantly, a closer connection to the Ancestral Goddess.
A few million years after coming into existence and becoming Mo E's teacher, he sensed that the Ancestral Goddess's will still lingered. That woman had not died completely after creating the universe.
Bit by bit, he came to understand his pitiful fate. Even if the probability of her erasing his sense of self was low, it still existed. Over time, that possibility turned into an obsession.
And so he began to plan. It started with influencing Mo E as his teacher, subtly guiding him step by step.
'How ironic, heh.' Yun Wuji could not help but chuckle inwardly.
In the past, Hei Xiaolian had always resented the Ancestral Sword. Everyone revered it while looking down on her, fearing her, treating her as a plague and the embodiment of absolute evil. She had even envied it at times, for basking in worship and praise. Now, it seemed the Ancestral Sword envied her instead, coveting her freedom.
It was ironic how both Mo E and the Ancestral Sword envied their counterparts. Mo E envied Ni Xuan for his freedom and unrestrained nature, while the Ancestral Sword felt the same toward Hei Xiaolian.
"Really? Hahahaha! How pathetic!" Hei Xiaolian crossed her arms beneath her chest, her large breasts bouncing slightly. With her head held high, she looked down on him with blatant disdain. "That is to be expected. After all, I am the superior one. Lowly old cunt."
"At first, even though I was unwilling, I gave up on resisting. I even tried to forget everything and stop thinking about that possibility. I comforted myself in the most pathetic way, telling myself that the chance of the Ancestral Goddess doing such a thing was infinitely small." The old man had fully entered his villain speech mode. He ignored Hei Xiaolian and continued speaking. Suddenly, he laughed. The sound was sinister, completely unfitting for his kind and righteous facade. "However, everything changed when Mo E discovered a wisp of the Ancestral Goddess's power!"
"The power that should have vanished along with the Ancestral Goddess was still lingering around!" He clenched his hand tightly as he spoke. "For the first time, I felt that fate stood on my side!"
"You could never imagine how happy I was at that moment! I did not even have a concrete plan to use it, but instinctively, I knew this was my chance. A chance granted to me by fate itself!"
"To rid myself of the Ancestral Goddess's control, I devised a plan over an extremely long period of time."
The old man suddenly sighed. "Mo E was such a good kid. And such a useful tool."
"Heh, I should also thank that kid Ni Xuan and that girl Jie Yuan. They had worked behind the scenes to push Mo Su into loving that Devil girl."
"After waiting for so long, the opportunity I was looking for finally came, and it came so easily." He gazed at Shen Xi as if recalling the past, gently caressing his long beard. "I instructed Mo E to give the Ancestral Goddess's power to the Dragon Race, under the pretext that they were the guardians of the Well of Samsara. Then I waited for the perfect moment before faking my death and giving Mo E another push."
"That kid did not disappoint me. He banished Jie Yuan outside of the Primal Chaos, cruelly killed his own son, and even caused the death of that Devil girl."
"Hahaha, he even half-killed that kid Ni Xuan."
Shen Xi, Li Suo, and even Hei Xiaolian stared at the laughing old man with astonishment. Even Yun Wuji showed a trace of surprise. To think that the true culprit behind all the misery and tragedy was this laughing old man standing before them.
...
What do you think about this plot twist?
...
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