443: Chapter 443 Gu Changkong Appears

Luo Li shifted from the Star Battle Song to the Delusion-Breaking Melody, increasing the interference with the Puppets' perception. This caused them to lose their sense of direction, with some beginning to attack each other while others spun in circles.

Yaoguang's healing power circulated among the eight, repairing the damage to their Meridians caused by the high-intensity consumption of Qi.

The eight figures advanced steadily through the tide of Shadow Puppets, like a sharp sword held by eight people, stabbing into the heart of the palace. They were getting closer and closer to the throne.

The tide of Shadow Puppets gradually thinned under the joint advance of the eight. The surging shadows, initially overwhelming, dwindled to twos and threes. After the last remaining Puppet was shattered by a sound wave from Luo Li, the area ahead became empty.

The scene in the deepest part of the palace was revealed to everyone.

It was a huge circular hall with a dome of immeasurable height, where the patterns of shadow crystals extended from the ground to the unseen heights above. There were no pillars or windows in the hall, only shadow lamps suspended in mid-air, with black flames burning silently. The floor was paved with solid obsidian, smooth as a mirror, reflecting the eight people.

In the very center of the hall, on a high platform, sat a throne. The back of the throne was pieced together from countless tiny shadow crystals, shaped like spread wings. The seat was covered with a dark red carpet, its edges worn and frayed.

A person sat on the throne.

He wore a black robe, the hem trailing on the ground, blending into the shadows. His long hair was loose, unbound by any crown, drifting gently in the void of shadow power. His face was as pale as paper, yet his features were extremely refined, his brows like distant mountains, his eyes like cold stars. Between his brows was a dark red vertical line, like an unhealed scar; it was the mark left by Qi Deviation and the core where the shadow power condensed within his body.

Gu Changkong — the Void Lord.

His cultivation was at the second level of Nascent Soul, but at this moment, the fluctuations of Qi around him were chaotic, as if he were trying hard to suppress something. The black Qi around him surged constantly, expanding and contracting, like a beast trapped in a cage.

He saw Gao Feng and the other seven, showing neither surprise nor anger. His gaze swept from Gao Feng to Luo Li, from Tianxin to Chu Lan, from Su Ning to Yaoguang, and finally fell on Lin Yue. Those deep black pupils reflected no light, but they also held no killing intent, only a bone-deep exhaustion.

"The fact that you were able to walk here means that Liu Ruyan has already dissipated." Gu Changkong's voice was not loud, but it echoed throughout the hall, every word carrying a hoarse reverberation. "Thank you."

Gao Feng stood at the very front of the team, his vajra sword already sheathed. He looked at the lonely figure on the throne and asked, "Since you knew that her dissipation was a release, why didn't you go to send her off?"

Gu Changkong was silent for a moment. He lowered his head to look at his hands, which were pale and withered, with faint black Qi lingering on his fingertips.

"Because I am afraid." His voice was very soft, so soft it was almost drowned out by the sound of shadows echoing in the hall. "I am afraid of seeing her final state. I am afraid of her seeing my current state. I am even more afraid — that if she saw me, she would feel regret. Regret meeting me in the Void Realm, regret eating that Immortal Fruit of Transformation, regret living in that palace for so many years."

He raised his head, looking at the endless darkness of the hall's dome.

"Back then, I was a Genius Disciple of the Wuxiang Sect. No, it wasn't called the Wuxiang Sect back then; it was called the 'Taixu Gate'. During the ancient times, it was the largest Sect in the Cultivation World. I achieved Core Formation at thirty and Nascent Soul at fifty. My Revered Master valued me, and my fellow Disciples respected me. I thought my life would continue like that."

He paused, his voice hoarse. "Until I discovered that my Revered Master had been secretly extracting my Qi, using forbidden arts to nourish his own Lifespan. He used me for a hundred years, a hundred years! My cultivation stagnated, and I thought my talent had been exhausted, so I cultivated bitterly day and night, not daring to slack off. It turned out he had planted a Spirit-Devouring Gu inside me, siphoning away my Qi bit by bit to extend his own life."

Chu Lan clenched her fists.

"I went to confront him, and he said — 'You are my Disciple; your Qi was always mine. I raised you all these years, isn't it only right for you to repay your Revered Master?'" Gu Changkong's mouth curled into a miserable smile. "I killed him. With one palm, I crushed his skull. His blood splashed onto my face; it was warm."

No one in the hall spoke.

"Then there was my Dao Companion. She and I were childhood sweethearts, cultivating together, traveling together. During those hundred years when my Revered Master was extracting my Qi and my cultivation was stagnant, she had an affair with my Junior Brother. After my Revered Master died, she feared my retaliation and took the initiative to report me to the Sect for killing my Revered Master. My Junior Brother brought people from the Law Enforcement Hall to arrest me. I asked him, 'Is what you and she have true?' He said, 'Senior Brother, you are crazy.'"

Gu Changkong closed his eyes.

"I suffered from Qi Deviation. The Qi inside me went out of control, and the shadow power devoured my reason. I slaughtered the entire Taixu Gate, from the Elders down to the servants, leaving no one alive. By the time I regained my senses, I was the only one left in the entire Sect. The corpses piled up into mountains, and the blood flowed into rivers. I stood in the middle of the mountain of corpses, looking at my hands, covered in blood. It couldn't be washed away."

He opened his eyes. "I detonated my Golden Core, wanting to end my life. But I didn't die. My resentment was too heavy, and my soul condensed in the Void Realm, unable to dissipate, drifting for who knows how many years. I devoured countless spiritual objects and countless Cultivators who mistakenly entered the Void Realm. I took on human form, built this palace, and continued to devour. I wanted to prove one thing — that people are selfish, kindness is hypocritical, and human nature is inherently evil. My Revered Master's kindness to me was for my Qi, my Dao Companion's kindness to me was to relieve her loneliness, and my Junior Brother's kindness to me was to take my place. No one cared about me; no one treated me sincerely."

"What about Liu Ruyan?" Gao Feng's voice was not loud, but it was like a sharp sword piercing into Gu Changkong's heart. "Was her kindness to you also hypocritical? She drifted in the Void Realm for a thousand years, hating no one, only wanting to hear those seven people who betrayed her say 'sorry'. She ate the Immortal Fruit of Transformation you gave her, lived in the palace you built for so many years; does she hate you? Do you know what the last sentence she said before she dissipated was?"

Gu Changkong did not answer. He knew. That silver-white mark transmitted Liu Ruyan's final thought before she dissipated to him — "Thank you." Only two words: "Thank you."

Luo Li placed the flowing sound zither across her lap, rested her fingers on the strings, and plucked them gently. She was not playing the Requiem, the Delusion-Breaking Melody, nor the Star Battle Song, but a piece she had composed herself, which she had never played in any setting. The melody held no Battle Intent, no soothing comfort, only longing. She infused the notes with the image of Liu Ruyan waiting in the Void Realm for her seven enemies to apologize, with the tears of General Zhao Wuji kneeling before the broken monument, and with the peace talisman on Yang Tiezhu's windowsill.

Golden sound waves spread from the strings, not as an attack, not as suppression, but simply casting those images into Gu Changkong's Sea of Consciousness.

The black Qi around Gu Changkong surged violently. The images in Luo Li's music — Liu Ruyan standing under the old banyan tree watching that twelve-year-old child go to study; Liu Ruyan putting down that bag of rice on the old woman's stove in the fishing village; Liu Ruyan saying "Stop gambling" outside the tent of the gambler Old Man Wang Si — every act she had done before dissipating was clearly illuminated by Luo Li's music.

Gu Changkong stood up from the throne. The black Qi around him began to surge rapidly, like boiling water, and shadow power poured in from all directions of the Shadow Palace, shrouding the entire hall in a pitch-black mist.

"Impossible! Human nature is inherently evil; these are all fake!" Gu Changkong's voice echoed in the hall.

Tianxin took a Clear Heart Talisman from her sleeve and stuck it on her chest. The blue-white flame from the burning talisman amplified her heartbeat several times, right in front of Gu Changkong — the sound of her heart beating steadily in her chest, neither fast nor slow, neither panicked nor flustered, like a war drum that could not be shaken by any external force.

"Feel my heartbeat; is it fake?" Tianxin's voice was not loud.

Chu Lan crouched down, took a pale golden seed from her bosom, and planted it into a crack in the obsidian floor. It was a "Flower of Sincerity," a type of Spirit Plant that could reflect the good or evil in the human heart — if anyone present had malice in their heart, the petals would turn black and wither; if their hearts were pure, the petals would bloom and emit a faint fragrance. Chu Lan injected her Qi into the seed, and vines broke through the soil, growing stubbornly under the erosion of the shadow power. The leaves were tender green, the buds were just forming, and it slowly bloomed in front of Gu Changkong. The petals were a pure gold, without a single speck of impurity. The fragrance was elegant, permeating the hall. The blooming petals proved that there was no malice in the hearts of everyone present, including those who had accompanied Liu Ruyan through seven lifetimes before she dissipated.

Gu Changkong looked at that golden flower, watching it bloom before him, unfading. His body began to tremble.

"I was wrong..."

Gu Changkong's voice was hoarse and choked with sobs. "I have always been wrong... Human nature has evil, but it also has good. Kindness is not hypocritical; sincerity exists. Ruyan's kindness to me was real, and your help to me is also real." The black Qi around him dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his cultivation plummeted from the second level of Nascent Soul — second level of Nascent Soul, first level of Nascent Soul, ninth level of Golden Core.

After the black Qi dispersed, Gu Changkong stood in the center of the hall like a withered tree drained of moisture. His face remained that of a young man, and the dark red vertical mark between his brows had dimmed significantly. He looked at Gao Feng, looked at Luo Li, looked at Tianxin, looked at Chu Lan, looked at the blooming Flower of Sincerity, and looked at his own hands, which were no longer entangled by black Qi.

Gao Feng took the silver-white mark from his bosom, and when Gu Changkong saw it, his eyes suddenly lit up. It was what Liu Ruyan had left for him, her final thought before she dissipated. The moment his fingers touched the mark, Liu Ruyan's voice came from within: "I do not hate you. I never have. You were just too lonely."

Gu Changkong's tears finally fell. He knelt down.

The Shadow Palace began to collapse behind him, fragments of shadow crystals peeling off from the dome, crashing onto the floor and shattering into powder. The Shadow Puppets lost control and fled in all directions. Amidst the deafening roar, no one spoke.