Chapter 717 - Dragon Tomb Broken Seal

Yan Tianhen said, “Don’t you know that Dao Zu loves face the most? Whenever there is anything improper, he will get to the bottom of it in order to improve it. If he’s already so concerned with even the smallest things, then you can imagine what he’d do if he knew that among his disciples, there is actually a monster who is out of step from the righteous path.”

Although Dao Zu had already reached the peak of Dao, created the Spirit Sect, recruited disciples from all over the world, and was admired and worshipped by thousands of people, he also had his own fatal flaws– or shortcomings.

As his disciple, it was always a difficult topic for Lingyu to talk about his master’s mistakes, but Lingyu didn’t approve of how Dao Zu cared too much about others’ opinions.

If Dao Zu had told the truth about Cangdi Fenglang’s crimes earlier, and then presented the evidence he had collected for everyone to see, then the person who ultimately suffered the most from this wouldn’t necessarily be Youshan Lingyu.

“But Dao Zu didn’t kill him. Why were you the one to kill him?” Lin Xuanzhi asked.

“Because Dao Zu discovered that he couldn’t kill Cangdi Fenglang.” Yan Tianhen took a deep breath and sighed. “At that time, Cangdi Fenglang’s cultivation was already ridiculously high, or he’d been hiding his true cultivation ever since you first picked him up. When cultivators in the same realm fight, evil Qi cultivators are practically invincible. Only evil Qi cultivators can kill other evil Qi cultivators. When Dao Zu discovered this, he asked me to do it for him.”

“You?” Lin Xuanzhi still looked calm on the surface. “Dao Zu was no longer his match, so how can you be? Moreover, at that time, you had already cultivated evil Qi?”

Yan Tianhen shook his head. “Dage, there are too many past events involved. I can’t explain it clearly. I can only tell Shixiong that Dao Zu knew from the beginning that I cultivated evil Qi. My cultivation wasn’t high enough to kill Fenglang, so Dao Zu gave me his cultivation.”

This was the starting point of all tragedies. Cangdi Fenglang died at the hands of his fellow Shixiong from the same sect. Youshan Lingyu fled after “killing” his master.

Evil Qi cultivators rose, and the Nine Lands fell into chaos.

Wrong… Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes suddenly sank. He glanced over a pool of lotus flowers and said, “What you said is wrong.”

Yan Tianhen was stunned. “What I said is the truth.”

“I’m not saying you’re lying, but there’s something in your words that doesn’t make sense.” Lin Xuanzhi guessed, “You just said that Dao Zu cared about face the most, and would rather execute Cangdi Fenglang in private than let people know that he is the wicked and cruel evil Qi cultivator that everyone wants to kill.”

“Yes, that’s what Dao Zu told me.”

“But you have to know, he had you kill Fenglang and also scattered all his cultivation, so that everyone in the world witnessed him dying at your hands. Then you defected from Spirit Sect and became the Demon Emperor.”

Lin Xuanzhi asked with a heavy voice, “Does all this leave Spirit Sect with any face? Killing the master and slaughtering fellow disciples — will this make Spirit Sect’s reputation look any better than merely exposing Cangdi Fenglang?”

“Little Yu ah, this world is about to turn chaotic. In the future, Spirit Sect will no longer be anyone’s refuge. I know I owe you a lot, but Little Yu, a chaotic era will begin, and the orthodox Dao will die. Someone must bear the burden in this world.”

“But why me? Just because I was forced to cultivate evil Qi?”

Dao Zu smiled. Those eyes, which were always full of wisdom, frightened Lingyu. “If a person is in love, they won’t regret dying for love, even if they die a hundred deaths.”

Yan Tianhen slightly hooked his lips. Nobody knew whether he was laughing or mocking himself.

Dao Zu saw through everything.

He saw through Lingyu’s feelings for Chang Sheng and knew that even if Lingyu stood at the top of the world, he could still spread his arms and die generously as long as his death would ensure Chang Sheng’s survival.

So he was the most suitable person to become the Demon Emperor.

Perhaps what Dao Zu was afraid of was not really the instant destruction of Spirit Sect’s century-old reputation. He had been paving the way for Lingyu to defect and flee from Spirit Sect ever since Lingyu killed Cangdi Fenglang.

Yan Tianhen said, “It’s always hard to guess Dao Zu’s thoughts.”

Lin Xuanzhi looked at Yan Tianhen and said, “I don’t understand one more thing.”

“Dage, say what you want to say. I will tell you what I can answer.”

Lin Xuanzhi said, “How can you be sure that Cangdi Fenglang is the one who slaughtered the seven sects?”

Yan Tianhen said, “He is an evil Qi cultivator.”

Lin Xuanzhi replied, “You are also an evil Qi cultivator.”

“Dao Zu once found that the sword marks left by the seven sect massacres are exactly the same as Fenglang’s.”

Lin Xuanzhi replied, “Swords can be stolen, and sword marks can also be imitated.”

Yan Tianhen paused and looked at Lin Xuanzhi. “Dage, do you suspect that Dao Zu and I killed the wrong person?”

Lin Xuanzhi said, “I just think it’s possible. Don’t you think that Dao Zu’s behavior that year was so secretive that people had to suspect there was anything odd about it? Even if he wanted to preserve the reputation of Spirit Sect and kept things secret from outsiders, why would he hide this from all of his own disciples except you?”

Yan Tianhen hesitated. “However, when I was guarding Heaven’s Wail in the Tomb of Youshan, after you left, the evil Qi broke through the air and cracked the ground. It was indeed under the orders of Cangdi Fenglang that they turned into evil spirits and slaughtered all the people in Youshan. I saw that person’s face. It was indeed him. Moreover, after I became the Demon Emperor, I had several evil Qi cultivator subordinates who came from another world. They all called Cangdi Fenglang their Master, so there should be no mistake about that.”

After that, Yan Tianhen asked, “The reason Dage asked this — is it because Cangdi Fenglang said something?”

“He said he was just an evil Qi cultivator who had never done anything harmful, yet he was betrayed by you and fell into a miserable state, which was why he wanted to avenge himself.” Lin Xuanzhi frowned slightly. “That’s why I suspected that there might be some kind of misunderstanding here.”

Misunderstanding?

How can there be a misunderstanding?

Cangdi Fenglang personally shattered his Dantian Qi Sea and pushed him down the bottomless cliff. Even now, he still couldn’t forget Cangdi Fenglang’s malevolent and happy smile at that time. However, that smile also didn’t resemble Cangdi Fenglang at all.

Was it really a misunderstanding? Even if Cangdi Fenglang could become a person who will destroy the world, it still wasn’t impossible for him to have been framed by others.

This… could also be possible.

At the thought of this possibility, Yan Tianhen was suddenly flustered.

Before Cangdi Fenglang died, he looked at Lingyu in disbelief. Tears were shining in his purple eyes as he opened his mouth and asked him silently, “Shixiong, why?”

“Why would I kill you — don’t you already know?” With a cold face full of rage, Lingyu pulled out his bloodstained sword and said, “You forced me into cultivating evil Qi and harmed others. It’s better if you die.”

In the many years after that, whenever he closed his eyes, what he saw wasn’t Chang Sheng, but Cangdi Fenglang’s shocked and tearful expression asking him sadly, “Shixiong, why?”

“How could it be?” Yan Tianhen took two steps back unsteadily, shook his head in disbelief, and mumbled, “Impossible. Dao Zu wouldn’t possibly lie to me. There’s no reason for him to lie. Why would he lie?”

Seeing that he was emotionally unstable, Lin Xuanzhi grabbed him by the shoulder and reassured, “It’s also possible that Cangdi Fenglang was lying, but it’s hard to tell the truth now.”

The incident of Cangdi Fenglang was like a boulder pressing on Yan Tianhen’s heart, which always made him feel unstable. He was afraid of killing the wrong person.

What’s more… Dao Zu clearly knew that he had killed the wrong person, but he still wanted to deceive him and the world. It was hard for anyone to imagine the reason hidden behind this deception.

There were still some things that he couldn’t understand, no matter how much he racked his brains. Yan Tianhen simply stopped thinking about them. After he rested properly and sat up, he made a decision. “Dage, can we find Cangdi Fenglang and have a long talk with him?”

Lin Xuanzhi replied, “It’s not easy to find him.”

Yan Tianhen’s eyes moved slightly. “I know how to find him.”

Lin Xuanzhi looked at Yan Tianhen and seemed to want to say something. But before he could speak, he heard a loud noise rising from the sky.

Boom!

A loud noise was heard, and the whole palace tottered on the edge of collapse.

They both looked at each other and saw the astonishment in each other’s eyes at the same time. They immediately set off and rushed out of the door. It turned out that millions of evil spirits were rushing out from the opened Dragon Tomb. Amid the rolling purple clouds, a man in black was standing in it. His purple eyes were deep and cold. He was like a living spectre, looking down at the common people whom he regarded as playthings.

“Evil spirits… obey me!” Cangdi Fenglang waved his hand and pointed forward. “Kill everyone!”

A silver dragon suddenly rushed out of the Dragon Tomb. With a howl, the dragon froze all the evil spirits in its vicinity, and then slashed a claw down. The frozen evil spirits shattered into ice and fell down.

Then, Hai Kuanglang who shouldn’t have appeared from there, fell down and rolled over in the air, just like a lightning bolt, and rushed towards Cangdi Fenglang. Cangi Fenglang remained motionless, but Lord Yuxu rushed up and fought with Hai Kuanglang.

“Not good!” Yan Tianhen went pale. If there was anyone who understood Heaven’s Wail best, it would be him. Even Cangdi Fenglang had to stand back.

If the Dragon Tomb explodes, the entire Sata City would be reduced to ruins first, as if it had suffered a great disaster. Then, within tens of thousands of miles, it would be shrouded by evil Qi, and nothing would grow for hundreds of years.

Not to mention, the most terrible thing was the infectious power of evil Qi.

If evil Qi entered the body, the best result was death. The worst result was that the infected would turn into evil spirits, losing their thoughts and consciousness as human beings. They would indulge themselves in self-pity and self-resentment, and become evil spirits with endless malice and hatred. They would become killing machines whose subconscious wish is to slaughter this tragic and unfair world and stain it with blood, trying to destroy all the good things in the world.

The city would erode, the world would end.

Yan Tianhen’s scalp felt numb. Ten thousand years ago, he used all kinds of methods and exhausted half of his cultivation to seal the beginning and the end of Heaven’s Wail into a small world. Only then would the entire Nine Lands escape this catastrophe.

However, at this moment, the evil spirits had reappeared. All of the evil Qi previously sealed were roaring out of the broken Dragon Tomb’s seal and trying to break through the line of cultivators.

Lin Xuanzhi also saw that something was wrong with the situation. He immediately cast three big seals from a distance, trying to mend the tear in the Dragon Tomb, but the effect was not satisfactory. The tear seemed like it was in another dimension and wasn’t affected at all.