IS Chapter 100

“I thought that person would be Yun Xiangxi.” Yin Ye suddenly said.

“?”

“Those three hexagrams.” Yin Ye smiled slightly and said, “The Upper Purity Mountain wanted me to come out and speak, placing Illusion Sword Manor in a dangerous situation. I thought, since that’s the case, why not go with the flow and force Yun Xiangxi to take action?”

“–Forcing Yun Xiangxi to rebel, he would storm the Upper Purity Mountain and expose all those demons and monsters to the world. So, I spoke to the world and told those three hexagrams.”

“But in the end, the Upper Purity Mountain is still there, Illusion Sword Manor is gone, and Yun Xiangxi ascended—everyone is gone, leaving only you. I realized that I was being presumptuous and made a wrong move.”

“Palace Master Ye, I feel guilty towards you.”

“No need,” Ye Zhuo said.

Yin Ye looked at him. His smile and those frivolous expressions were gone, staring straight at Ye Zhuo.

He felt that Ye Zhuo should hate him.

He pretended to be a diviner, while Ye Zhuo was sharp and exposed. Ye Zhuo should pierce his heart with his sword, just like when they first met in Embracing Green Valley. That feeling was good; since losing his six senses, he had even forgotten the feeling of pain.

Yin Ye didn’t like this immortal path; he wanted to destroy it.

So he had been waiting for that person to appear and enter his chess game. It would be the purest person in the world, like snow, like crystal, like the autumn wind and white dew.

But even with all his calculations, he still miscalculated fate.

In the end, that person crawled out of the sea of blood of Illusion Sword Manor and came before everyone. Their past relationship was like the sea, a deep blood feud, and he himself was one of the instigators.

For twenty years, only when he heard news of the Second Palace Master Ye in the martial world would that forgotten, painful feeling appear in his heart like a needle prick.

Why could Wei Sheng Xian befriend him so purely? Why could even Su Yizhen of the Upper Purity Mountain discuss the Dao of swords with him in such an upright manner? Why could even that dragon, who came from who knows where, righteously stand up for him?

But he couldn’t.

–The person he had waited for so many years was destined to hate him forever. Yin Ye had always thought so.

Then hate me. The past, grudges, and grievances will all be revealed to the world one day, and right and wrong will eventually be settled.

Then come and hate me.

But now he heard Ye Zhuo say, “No need.”

So there wasn’t even hate. There was nothing.

Everything he had done had left no trace on this person.

“Why did you say ‘no need’?” Yin Ye said softly.

In fact, Ye Zhuo couldn’t quite understand what Yin Ye was thinking, nor did he understand why Yin Ye was so insistent on asking about his attitude. He thought Yin Ye might be crazy. This was very common; sometimes Wei Sheng Xian would go crazy like this, but Wei Sheng Xian would adjust himself.

“Because there really is no need,” Ye Zhuo said. “No one owes me anything.”

Yin Ye: “Really? But you want to kill me; I felt it.”

Ye Zhuo: “I will kill you, but not for these things.”

Perhaps because he was about to die, Yin Ye felt like he could finally hear Ye Zhuo’s tone of voice, like the sound of ice and snow, just as he had imagined.

“In Cangshan Town, there is a family that lives by selling fish. The mistress of the house is named Zheng Guanyin. She was injured and died, turned into a ghost, and then returned to life, which was noticed by the Micro-Snow Palace. Was this your doing?”

“So it was this. Palace Master Ye, you truly have keen insight,” Yin Ye slowly smiled. “That’s right, it was me.”

“The Ghost Realm is about to descend, and the Upper Purity Mountain is desperately lacking spirit meridians, so they will inevitably collude with the Ghost Emperor. I am unable to support myself alone and plan to pull the Micro-Snow Palace into the game,” Yin Ye slowly explained.

“I heard that the Micro-Snow Palace and the Upper Purity Mountain have been at odds this year, and I don’t know if Palace Master Wei Sheng can detect the Ghost Realm matters. In short, the Upper Purity Mountain summoned the various sects, and your palace may not come. Therefore, I used some tricks to lead you to discover this matter. Given Brother Wei Sheng’s character, once he discovers it, he will definitely come. Sure enough, you came.”

Wei Sheng Xian: “Even if you didn’t do it, I would still come.”

“Whether you come or not is your business. Whether I do it or not is my business. This Daoist can glimpse the will of heaven, but I never wait for it. The way of man lies in ‘action’; since I can act, why should I stand still?”

Ye Zhuo: “So, you killed her.”

“Not killed, but exchanged,” Yin Ye said.

Li Yuan listened to their conversation.

The schemes and calculations, the causal connections of the human world, unfolded before his eyes like a tangled web, spreading from beginning to end.

A year ago, Lou Ke visited Cangshan and poisoned Ye Zhuo. What seemed to be a sudden surge of inner demons was actually the Upper Purity Mountain secretly fanning the flames.

This spring, Zheng Niangzi died and turned into a ghost. What seemed to be a coincidental encounter between humans and ghosts was actually Yin Ye’s move to convey the secrets of heaven and draw the Micro-Snow Palace into the game.

And the Ghost Realm affairs, the Guanhua Cave affairs, the Illusion Sword Manor affairs, all kinds of human affairs. The Dragon Realm was an ocean, while the human world was a deep ravine, with invisible undercurrents beneath the surface.

This was where Ye Zhuo was born and grew up, the place he went to Spirit Mountain but had to return to.

“Does Second Palace Master Ye know how to exchange the secrets of heaven?” Yin Ye said with a smile.

“That Zheng Niangzi, when I learned about her, fate dictated that she would die fifteen days later. Guess how she would die? In the chilling spring, she was fishing on a boat when a mischievous child stepped onto the ice and fell into the lake—she heard the sound and went into the water to rescue him, dying in the lake with the child.”

“So, this Daoist took her life fifteen days early, had her soul return after death, and subtly warned the child’s mother through a fortune teller to save his life.”

“Five days later, Palace Master Ye went down the mountain and noticed this matter. Palace Master Ye, you sealed Zheng Guanyin Niangzi’s corpse, allowing her to walk in the world for another ten days. It turns out that ten days later, when her soul dissipates and her corpse is being buried, it will be the time when that child narrowly escapes death and is reborn.”

“Thus, merits and demerits are offset, karma is cleared, the Dao of Heaven does not know, and Palace Master Wei Sheng cannot know either. Palace Master Ye, this is ‘exchange’.”

Ye Zhuo nodded slightly: “I understand.”

Then, he raised his hand.

The smiling expression on Yin Ye’s beautiful face suddenly froze completely.

After a few breaths, he slowly lowered his eyes to look at his chest.

He saw a beautiful hand, with a string of bright red, dripping Buddhist beads wrapped around the wrist, and behind it, covering the ethereal lotus red sleeves. That hand was being withdrawn from his chest.

It didn’t seem to be the hand that held the sword.

–He raised his head and finally saw that person’s face clearly for the first time.

Ye Zhuo withdrew his hand.

This palm strike was not because of the Spirit Sealing Formation, nor for the Illusion Sword Manor.

“According to your words, a life for a life, karma cleared,” he said.

Yin Ye’s corpse fell backward, heavily hitting the ground, silent. The Resentful Surprise Sword broke in response.

In the silence where a pin could be heard, a hearty laugh suddenly rang out.

“Good! Good!” Jun Shaoliu clapped his hands and laughed, “Such wonderful people, such a wonderful matter, truly opened my eyes and made me ashamed of my inferiority!”

Wei Sheng Xian smiled helplessly: “You flatter us.”

“No, no, no, I am sincerely convinced.”

Li Yuan: “Are you still going to interfere in the affairs of the human world?”

Jun Shaoliu looked at him, then at Ye Zhuo, with pain in his eyes.

“Little Crown Prince, do you think I still dare to interfere?”

Li Yuan: “What did you call me?”

Jun Shaoliu repeatedly apologized: “It just slipped out, please forgive me.”

“Alright,” Wei Sheng Xian said, “Now that this matter is over, gentlemen, shouldn’t we go back?”

Yu Lou and Yu Hu were both dead, and the glazed lamp that had trapped them had also been opened by the formation. There was nothing else in the dark red sky. Ye Zhuo looked over and didn’t seem to see the crack that Dragon Li Yuan had created.

But he remembered that when he first arrived in the Ghost Realm, the sky was pitch black, and only the ground was red.

…It seemed like something else was going to happen.

“Go?” Jun Shaoliu revealed a mysterious smile. “I’m afraid you gentlemen will have to stay in my realm for a while longer.”

“May I ask why?” Wei Sheng Xian asked, frowning slightly. “There seems to be the aura of a prehistoric beast.”

“Please follow me,” Jun Shaoliu said.

Walking on the undulating dark red ground, the sky and the ground were the same color. In the front, a slightly bulging crack was vaguely visible.

“What’s that sound?” someone suddenly asked.

Listening attentively, faint, slow heartbeats could be heard from all directions.

Jun Shaoliu conjured a fan from who knows where and fanned himself leisurely as he walked. “The human ancestors of you gentlemen secretly left a formation in my Ghost Realm back then. To be honest, we in the Ghost Realm don’t quite understand these complicated spells. But after all, it’s not good to leave other people’s things on your own territory.”

“–So, the ancestors of my Ghost Realm devised a way to attract three ancient prehistoric ‘Heart Beasts’ that have survived to this day and placed one in each of the three places where they felt something was wrong.”

“This strange beast is called ‘Heart Beast’. It usually sleeps, and only wakes up when there is a big commotion. Earlier, a distinguished guest whom I couldn’t afford to offend crashed through the boundary wall, and then you gentlemen had a big fight in Listening Heart Town. With such earth-shattering events, the Heart Beast naturally woke up.”

“You gentlemen see the sky, right? In fact, this sky and the ground are one entity, all Heart Beast. The Heart Beast has awakened and has quietly incorporated all of us into its body.”

Wei Sheng Xian: “May I ask, how do we get out?”

“These Heart Beasts were originally deep-minded old ghosts who were brought here to guard against the human world. Once you come in, they don’t intend to let you out,” Jun Shaoliu sighed. “Now it’s good, even I am trapped inside. I truly regret it.”

Li Yuan: “Stop pretending.”

Jun Shaoliu: “…”

“To escape from the Heart Beast’s mouth, there is only one way: wait until it is full and goes back to sleep, then the sky will naturally fall, and we will naturally come out,” Jun Shaoliu honestly said.

Wei Sheng Xian: “Oh? Then what does it eat?”

The one who answered him was Li Yuan.

Li Yuan said, “Heart Beasts feed on hearts, hence the name, but not the physical heart, but the inner demons in the heart.”

“Not bad,” Jun Shaoliu said. “Heart Beasts eat hearts, valuing essence over quantity. We are now heading towards the ‘eye’ of the Heart Beast. When we reach its eyes, the Heart Beast will identify the person among us with the deepest demons and the heaviest obsessions, and invite him to its inner realm to taste his inner demons.”

“Once in the inner realm, the Heart Beast has its own divine power to trace back to the source and evolve thousands of inner demon illusions, tasting them carefully from the side.”

Wei Sheng Xian frowned: “What will happen to that person?”

“Naturally, he will be completely immersed in the inner demon illusion, unable to escape—until he has experienced all the inner demons one by one. Oh, sometimes even after experiencing them all one by one, the Heart Beast is still not satisfied. It will evolve again, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, until it feels it has had enough, and then it will release the person.”

“And then?”

Jun Shaoliu revealed a profound smile: “Then, that person’s mind will probably be destroyed.”

As he said this, the group had already arrived in front of that deep, towering crack.

Inside the narrow slit was a huge, scarlet object like an eyeball, rotating up and down with the slow heartbeat. This was the Heart Beast’s “eye.”

“Alright,” Jun Shaoliu said, “Gentlemen, please decide on an order and step forward one by one to let the Heart Beast see the depth of you and me.”

Li Yuan quietly looked at the Heart Beast’s pupils, not knowing what he was thinking, perhaps wondering if he had inner demons, or perhaps just thinking about Ye Zhuo.

The next moment, he heard Ye Zhuo say faintly: “No need.”

Then, this person, with his sword, stepped past everyone and stood calmly in front of the Heart Beast, meeting its gaze.

The Heart Beast’s eyeball stopped rotating the moment he stepped out.

The scarlet eyeball stared straight at Ye Zhuo.

“Thump.”

“Thump.”

“Thump thump thump thump.”

Everyone heard—the Heart Beast’s huge heartbeat was like a drumbeat, densely and continuously sounding.