Chapter 30: Cause and Effect: I Am the Retribution, in Killing and in Mercy.

Chapter 30: Cause and Effect: I Am the Retribution, in Killing and in Mercy.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit opened its eyes wide.

It clenched its fists so tightly that crack, crack—its finger-grass stems pierced through its palm-grass stems one by one.

It stared intently at this scene.

Before Ghost Lingjun, Elder Xie was utterly powerless to fight back; his body flew backward through the air like a ragged cloth sack.

Ghost Lingjun blinked in and out of existence in the wind, his figure vanishing one moment and solidifying the next.

"Bang! Bang! Bang, bang, bang!"

A punch to the jaw, an elbow strike to the back of the neck, a knee lift shattering the ribcage, a reverse kick snapping the spine...

The white ghost mask swayed before Elder Xie's face as Ghost Lingjun grinned widely, emitting soul-piercing shrieks.

Toying, torturing, killing.

He was "playing."

Elder Xie gushed mouthfuls of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, his eardrums ruptured, hot blood flowing down and hanging from his earlobes.

His eyelids were caked with blood, his eyes narrowed to slits.

His longsword had already slipped from his grasp, his arm bones broken, joints bent.

He was still desperately forming hand seals, almost instinctively, his stiff, claw-like fingers spasming and twitching as he mustered his last bit of spiritual energy.

His dying consciousness teetered on the brink; he could no longer think, his actions driven purely by instinct.

This wisp of spiritual energy left Elder Xie's fingertips—weak, wavering, like a tiny flame in a fierce wind, drifting, drifting toward the tree.

Under the tree... there was a granddaughter... calling for her grandfather... to save her, he had to save her...

But he had no strength left. The spiritual energy he had summoned with his hand seals began to dissipate before it had even traveled halfway.

A whistling sob choked in the Foxtail Grass Spirit's throat.

It lunged forward, tripped over itself, and fell heavily. It didn't bother to stand up, scrambling on all fours, desperately reaching out with its hand—

A cold wind rustled through the grass hairs on its fingertips.

It opened its mouth wide, forming an "ah" shape, but it couldn't make a sound.

It watched helplessly as Elder Xie plummeted like a kite with a severed string, landing with a thud that kicked up dust, motionless.

That wisp of spiritual energy drifting in the air also dissipated like smoke. It couldn't grasp anything... couldn't grasp anything... couldn't do anything...

Suddenly, the collar of its robe tightened.

Fu Yu lifted it with one hand, swung her arm, and flung it—

The Foxtail Grass Spirit flew through the air, its wide white robe flapping in the wind like a great wing, bearing it upward on the breeze.

Just before that wisp of spiritual energy completely vanished, its fingertips touched it.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit sat dumbly at the base of the wall, cradling its own hand.

It sat with its two long, thin grass-stem-like legs splayed out, like a scarecrow someone had casually placed there.

Its eyes blinked only after a long pause.

Fu Yu left it to sit in silence.

She strolled over to the crime scene.

Ghost Lingjun signaled his subordinates to dispose of the bodies of the grandfather, granddaughter, and Elder Xie.

Fu Yu raised an eyebrow slightly.

So it wasn't that Ghost Lingjun had intentionally spared Elder Xie's life; he was simply confident enough in his own strength to disdain giving a final blow.

Fu Yu looked toward Ghost Lingjun's subordinates.

They were moving the "corpses" of the three—the grandfather was already dead, the granddaughter was dying, and Elder Xie still had one last breath left.

Not dead, but soon.

Fu Yu remembered the Foxtail Grass Spirit once saying that Elder Xie, severely injured and unconscious, was found not far from the sect, still breathing when discovered.

It seemed a certain anonymous good Samaritan had saved Elder Xie and returned him to the Qingyun Sect.

Fu Yu sighed with a smile. "Refrain from all evil, practice all good. To find a thread of life in a deadly calamity is surely the fruit of his good deeds."

Elder Xie was clearly a good person.

In this world, good people don't necessarily receive good rewards, but if they escape great danger, it's likely because they once planted seeds of kindness.

Fu Yu turned and looked toward Venerable Yunshang.

At that moment, Venerable Yunshang was clinging to Ghost Lingjun's arm, soft and boneless as she nestled against him, lifting a face full of vitality and delicate beauty, bathing him in her full charm.

She shook his sleeve, whining coquettishly. "It's all that wretched cultivator's fault, he made my heart pound with fear... Husband, quickly soothe it for me."

Ghost Lingjun reveled in it, the two of them sticking together like glue.

Venerable Yunshang wrinkled her nose at the pool of blood on the ground, so he bent down, scooped her up in his arms, and playfully tossed her upward, drawing a series of delicate shrieks.

"Husband, you're so bad!"

"Heh, your husband can be even worse!"

"..."

Fu Yu lowered her gaze, her smile icy.

She whispered softly, "Ignorance breeds fearlessness. Daring to sow seeds of evil, you truly have no fear of the bitter fruit."

In this world, evil people don't necessarily receive evil retribution, but since they've crossed paths with Fu Yu, she is their retribution.

Fu Yu slowly raised her finger.

Those threads of karma—that entire mass of black, squirming, densely tangled threads covering Venerable Yunshang's head and face—Fu Yu had found their source.

As her fingertip moved lightly, these threads of karma, strand by strand, wisp by wisp, gradually extended from Venerable Yunshang's face, pulling and stretching like silk threads, pointing to various corners inside and outside Yulong City.

Fu Yu's figure slowly rose into the air.

From a high vantage point, every strand of karma was clear as day.

The ruins scorched by fire.

The moat clogged with silt.

The mass graves piled with nameless corpses.

...

Each thread of karma was not a black earthworm, but one after another spirit of the wrongfully dead.

Fu Yu's gaze fell upon them, no longer feeling dizzy or having her teeth ache.

She focused her attention, seeing them clearly—

Thick, blood-black threads of karma extended from the depths of Venerable Yunshang's eyes like autumn waters, connecting to the fire-scorched ruins reeking of char.

They probed from Venerable Yunshang's jade-like nose, winding toward the icy moat.

They overflowed from Venerable Yunshang's rosy, alluring lips, layering and leading to the cemeteries and burial grounds outside the city.

At the base of the wall, the Foxtail Grass Spirit jolted back to its senses.

It blinked hard, staring in shock at Fu Yu suspended high in the air.

That figure was unmistakably its most familiar form, yet now it felt as unfamiliar as... as a god!

She lowered her gaze, like a compassionate Bodhisattva in a temple hall.

Her sleeves billowed without any wind, her fingers lightly tracing through the air, pulling at the myriad threads of karma.

She stood above myriads of living beings, casting a downward glance.

"M-Master..."

"I think I really... saw a god..."

"The god... she is so merciful..."

It stared up at her, dumbstruck, tears streaming down its face unknowingly, its chest surging with an indescribable, tumultuous warmth akin to deep emotion.

It staggered to its feet.

It began running clumsily toward her.

"Master... sob... Master... wu wu wu!"

Fu Yu was intently focused on her task.

A Diviner's handiwork rarely leaves a trace, for the most powerful weapon in her hands is karma itself.

Karma is of one's own making.

A High Priest could easily fathom the world's karmic threads, manipulate hearts, and control destinies.

Fu Yu was one of its foremost masters, unparalleled throughout history, with none who could surpass her.

She raised her hand, gently plucking at those pitch-black karmic threads, her fingertips brushing over them as if moonlight softly stroked zither strings.

If anyone could witness this scene clearly, they would see that the entire Yulong City had already fallen under the sway of her ten fingers.

She was like a floating puppeteer, pulling the strings from above, playing with the life and death of others in the palm of her hand.

Rustle, rustle-rustle, rustle-rustle-rustle!

The ruins stirred, the silt shifted, the loose soil moved.

*Crack!*

The first pitch-black, rotting skeletal hand suddenly burst through the soil!

It clenched its fist heavily at the sky, then firmly, firmly gripped the land it had once lived upon.

Venerable Yunshang awoke with a start in the dead of night.

She reached out to touch the spot beside her—the bed and covers were already ice-cold.

"Husband?! Husband!"

Her beautiful face twisted for an instant. She abruptly rose, threw on her robe, and swept out of the bedchamber.

The night wind hit her face, carrying a thick, ominous stench of decay.

Venerable Yunshang detected nothing unusual around her. Her expression was grim, her heart filled with nothing but bitterness and rage: "Before that vixen came, my husband was never like this! She must have used some fox-spirit trick to snare my husband, that bitch, bitch, bitch! I'll kill her!"

She swept past several moon gates.

Behind her, continuous, faint rustling sounds grew increasingly irritating.

She completely failed to notice that there were no attendants in the corridors, the vast courtyards were deserted, and along her entire path, she was utterly alone.

She stepped into Ghost Lingjun's courtyard.

On the window paper, a graceful, beautiful silhouette flickered faintly.

"I knew it was that bitch again!" Venerable Yunshang gritted her teeth until they nearly shattered.

Suddenly, her vision blurred.

Row upon row, window after window of carved latticework began reflecting identical, beautiful silhouettes.

One, another, yet another...

Like the revolving palace lanterns on the Lantern Festival streets, each panel depicted a peerless beauty dancing.

Blinded by fury, Venerable Yunshang swept her sleeve without a second thought, releasing a surge of spiritual energy that shattered the entire row of carved windows with a *boom*.

*Crreeeak—*

The window frames fell like fishbones, one dragging down the next.

The candles were extinguished, and cold moonlight poured down.

From the pitch-dark room, a dense chorus of rustling sounds slowly began to emanate.

*Rustle, rustle!*

Venerable Yunshang's eyes flew wide, her pupils contracting sharply.

The sound of the tide grew closer.

A fine, all-encompassing rustling.

*Slap.*

Suddenly, a decayed hand gripped the threshold, slowly, ever so slowly, dragging half its body into the moonlight outside the eaves.

A mud-caked, desiccated corpse.

Seeing the sight before her, Venerable Yunshang's pupils trembled violently, and she shrieked: "Ah—Husband! Husband!"

"Whoosh—Crash!"

A chilling, bone-deep gust of wind swept through the hall, violently flinging open the rear window.

*Clatter! Bang!*

The wooden window shutters slapped against the frame, one after another, as though to mock her—the room was empty. Her husband had left with that woman, abandoning her.

"Husband? Husband!"

Venerable Yunshang rushed forward to chase after them, but she froze in her tracks.

Something... had grabbed her.

Her eyes trembled violently once more. Disbelieving, she slowly lowered her head to look at the thing clamped around her ankle.

A hand, blackened by char and caked in mud.

*Gasp*—"Ahhhhhhh!"

She jumped up, momentarily forgetting to use her cultivation, screaming shrilly and kicking her feet wildly. "Get away! Get away! Husband, save me! Husband, save me!"

The charred corpse slowly raised its head, grinning at her.

"Ahhhhhhh! Don't come any closer!"

Venerable Yunshang kicked and struggled, finally shaking the charred corpse loose, only to have her back collide with something else—cold, terrifying, making her scalp crawl.

Holding her breath, she turned to look.

A charred corpse clutching an infant was pressed tightly against her back.

The infant in the corpse's arms was also charred. It grinned at her, revealing a dark, hollow maw, and giggled.

"Ah... ah... ah!"

Venerable Yunshang flailed her arms, staggering backward, stumbling and dodging toward the corridor, trying to get away from this revolting, horrifying family of charred corpses.

"Husband! Husband! Husband, save me!"

They swayed and lurched, chasing after her.

With each step, large, suspicious, sticky black fragments fell from their bodies.

They raised their hands toward her, one after another, as though trying to claw at her face.

Venerable Yunshang clutched at her chest, gasping for air.

"Save... save..."

Inside the room, the desiccated corpse on the threshold had crawled all the way out.

There were three charred corpses in the courtyard.

Venerable Yunshang had no choice but to flee outside.

The sound of the tide grew even closer.

In the depths of the darkness, densely packed shadows surged, jostling shoulder to shoulder, rising and falling in waves.

Venerable Yunshang stumbled back in terror.

Her escape route was completely cut off.

She took deep, shuddering breaths, raised her hand, and formed a trembling hand seal.

Just as she was about to fly away from this terrifying courtyard, a glimpse from the corner of her eye caught something that made her blood run cold—shadows, countless squirming shadows.

To her front, back, left, and right—nothing but overlapping, wave-like shadows.

She looked up, her eyes trembling.

The entire courtyard wall was already densely covered with surging corpses. Outside, it was all corpses too!

"Ah—Ah—Ah!"

Venerable Yunshang was on the verge of collapse. Her hands formed chaotic seals, wildly releasing bursts of spiritual energy.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Corpses were blasted away, some arms torn off, others heads sent flying.

But they knew neither pain nor fear. Like an inexorable tide, they advanced toward her, slow and steady.

Hand after hand stretched straight toward her face, as if to tear the skin from it alive.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit arrived at the courtyard gate.

It walked among the crowd of corpses, unafraid.

It could tell at a glance that these corpses were all innocent people who had been wrongfully killed by Venerable Yunshang in life.

More importantly...

The Foxtail Grass Spirit raised its head and looked toward its master.

She floated in mid-air like a deity, gazing down with compassion.

Under her watchful gaze, it knew it had nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.

With a flick of her master's fingers, vengeful souls were summoned back from hell.

With her help, they had all come to seek revenge on Venerable Yunshang.

This was slaughter, yet it was also an act of mercy.

"Ahhhhh—"

Venerable Yunshang surged spiritual energy to repel the corpses assailing her, only to have her long hair snagged by a skeletal hand reaching from behind.

She shrieked, shattering the bony fingers gripping her hair. No sooner was her scalp free than her shin was savagely bitten.

"Ah—Husband!"

Countless hands grabbed at her robes. Blinded by panic, she made a critical error in her terror.

She formed a hand seal, intending to soar into the air and escape, but she underestimated the weight dragging her down.

The instant her body left the ground, she was violently yanked back down!

In that split second, she glimpsed the dense mass of corpses behind her—the countless hands reaching for her were like a forest of bones stretching from hell.

"Thud!"

Her back slammed against the ground.

One corpse after another piled onto her like a human pyramid.

"Ah... Get off! Get off! Help!"

"Impossible... Impossible! My husband is a Divine Lord of the Divine Court! How dare you mere commoners harm me! I'll kill your families, kill all your families!"

"Husband—Husband!"

Soon, a mound piled up in the center of the courtyard.

Occasionally, a few corpses were blasted away, but they quickly scrambled back on.

The scent of blood gradually permeated the air.

Dense threads of karma tangled into a massive ball.

Cause and effect, beginning and end.

The cycle of karma, retribution is certain.

Venerable Yunshang's screams grew increasingly shrill, then increasingly faint.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit stood to the side, watching unblinkingly. "Not blinking, Master, I'm not blinking."

Fu Yu had landed back beside it at some point. She raised a hand and patted its shoulder.

"It's not over yet. We should go."

The Foxtail Grass Spirit's vision blurred as it was pulled out of the Illusion Array.

Light suddenly returned before its eyes.

Fu Yu, holding the spirit's shoulder, quickly scanned their surroundings.

Hua Lang and the other three, along with Li Xueke, were huddled by the threshold, clutching their faces and trembling—time was distorted within the array, and they had only emerged moments ago.

Venerable Yunshang and her two maidservants remained deeply trapped in the illusion.

Venerable Yunshang's eyes were tightly shut, her face etched with terror and agony, her forehead beaded with cold sweat.

"She... she..."

Li Xueke stammered in horror, "She's a man-eating old demon! She sucked my face! So terrifying!"

Hua Lang and the other three gasped sharply, nodding frantically. "Yes! That's right! I died, and I came back to life! Venerable Yunshang is so sinister, so vicious! She's a malevolent ghost!"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit trembled all over. "You finally realize she's a villain!"

"Calm down first."

At Fu Yu's calm voice, everyone immediately fell silent, their gazes fixed intently on her, awaiting their leader's instructions.

Fu Yu said, "We've incurred a fatal disaster."

Only then did the group snap out of their shock, only to be doused with another bucket of cold water. "Ah... right, yes."

Having witnessed such a secret, they were bound to be silenced.

Just how sinister and evil Venerable Yunshang was, they had personally experienced and witnessed with their own eyes.

This was absolutely not something that could be settled with a handshake.

"What do we do? Senior Sister Xie, what do we do? Run?" Hua Lang had one foot already over the threshold.

Fu Yu sneered. "She'll wake up any moment. Can you outrun a Nascent Soul Cultivator?"

The group gasped sharply, shaking their heads vigorously.

Fu Yu glanced at Venerable Yunshang struggling within the Illusion Array and calmly reminded them, "If you want to live, we have only one path right now."

Everyone held their breath for a moment, their expressions gradually turning grave.

Li Xueke murmured dazedly, "...Better a fellow Daoist die than this poor Daoist."

Hua Lang: "Strike while she's weak."

The other three: "Fight her to the death!"

Fu Yu raised an eyebrow.

This wasn't actually the worst group she'd ever led.

"But..." Hua Lang swallowed hard, lowering his voice, "She's at the Nascent Soul stage. Even if her spirit is disoriented, we probably can't break through her personal defenses."

Xu Shuangqing solemnly reminded, "Right. If we can't inflict a fatal blow in one strike, once she wakes, it's all over."

Le Zhou: "An artifact capable of harming a Nascent Soul... do any of you have one?"

They looked at each other, shaking their heads one after another.

Of course, no one did.

Zhao Qing: "She herself has them, but her artifacts are surely soul-bound. We can't wield them."

If they can't even breach her defenses, how can they kill her? With their heads?

The Foxtail Grass Spirit was already beside itself with excitement, all reason gone. "Master is mighty, Master is invincible, Master must have a way!"

The corners of everyone's mouths twitched slightly, and their gazes snapped in unison toward Fu Yu.

Fu Yu reminded, “This matter concerns the life and death of each one of us. Every single one of us is in this together.”

“Right!” Everyone nodded vigorously. “If the sky falls, we’ll hold it up together!”

Fu Yu gave a slight nod.

She glanced meaningfully at Venerable Yunshang. “Do you remember she has the Holy Maiden’s token on her?”

After a brief recollection, the others said, “Yes, that old man at the entrance did say that Venerable Yunshang carries a token personally bestowed by the Holy Maiden, which allowed her to enter the secret realm smoothly.”

Fu Yu smiled.

Catching her drift, everyone quickly scanned the venerable and her two maids. Soon, they spotted an object in the palm of the yellow-clad maid on the right.

It was wrapped in cloud-patterned silk.

Seven inches long, one and a half inches wide, and eight-tenths of an inch thick.

Fu Yu’s pupils contracted imperceptibly—this shape looked all too familiar!

Before the thought fully formed, her heart began to race.

She raised an eyebrow slightly as Hua Lang snatched it from the maid’s hand, flicked his sleeve, and offered it up to her.

Fu Yu pressed her lips together, lifted a finger, and peeled back the silk cloth—it was indeed Jun Bu Du’s Shoushan Stone Paperweight.

Slowly, she reached out and grasped it firmly. It felt heavy and cold in her hand.

A wave of complex emotions washed over her: *Well, well. Jun Bu Du’s relic has become the Holy Maiden’s token. Using his possession as a key to deceive her watchdog.*

*—What a Holy Maiden! What a Divine Court!*

Fu Yu’s voice turned icy. “Form the array! Channel your spiritual energy to me!”

“Right!” Everyone nodded in unison and sprang into action.

Fu Yu strode forward, gripping the Shoushan Stone Paperweight with a reverse hold.

She stopped in front of Venerable Yunshang.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit tiptoed close behind her, tightly pursing its lips and puffing out its chest.

A moment later, Fu Yu felt a sudden push against her back from behind.

She knew the others were transferring their spiritual energy to her. Centering herself, she formed a seal with her left hand, drew a spell with her fingers, and brushed it over the Shoushan Stone Paperweight.

“Heavenly Origin Decree, All Spirits Fall Silent—Law Breaker!”

This Shoushan Stone Paperweight had once helped Jun Bu Du turn the tables on and kill the head of the Jun Clan. Empowered by Fu Yu’s terrifyingly potent Law-Breaking Blessing, dealing with a mere Nascent Soul cultivator was no challenge at all.

Fu Yu held it, lowered her gaze, and remained motionless in silence.

Time seemed to stretch for a century.

Gradually, a chorus of frantic heartbeats rose around her, *thump-thump-thump-thump!*

*Why isn’t she acting yet? If she doesn’t act soon, she’ll wake up! Her eyelids are twitching! Her fingers are moving!*

*Why isn’t she moving?!*

Everyone grew frantically anxious.

It was clear to all that Venerable Yunshang was about to wake up—once she “died” within the Illusion Array, she would break free from the illusion and open her eyes.

Cold sweat dripped from everyone’s brows as they swallowed hard, their throats dry.

Each was frantic with worry, yet no one dared to utter a word of urging, for this was… killing a Nascent Soul cultivator!

*Senior Sister Xie, my little life is entirely in your hands now. Please don’t play games with me.*

*Incense guides above, Celestial Steps tread below. I beseech, I beseech, I beseech divine aid, I beseech the Emperor Witch Fate Master—the divine name Fu Yu—huh?! Fu Yu?!* Li Xueke belatedly realized something seemed a bit off.

Suddenly, Venerable Yunshang opened her eyes!

“Hiss—!”

Everyone’s scalps prickled violently, their hearts feeling as if gripped by a tight fist.

She’s awake—she’s awake—she’s awake!

We’re done—we’re done—we’re done!

At the same moment, Fu Yu finally moved—the Shoushan Stone Paperweight in her hand lashed out without warning.

“Thud!”

Venerable Yunshang cried out in pain. Just as she regained her senses, the agonizing memory of being bitten and torn by countless victims still lingering throughout her body, she received a heavy blow to her forehead. For a moment, her vision went dark, and the world spun.

“Hus… husband, save…”

“Thud! Thud! Thud-thud-thud!”

The hearts of everyone around them stopped beating as they held their breath, frozen.

Countless pairs of trembling pupils clearly reflected Fu Yu’s figure.

Her face held no extra expression.

Utterly calm, utterly rational.

She had waited for the perfect moment, methodically performing a single task—raising her hand, bringing it down, raising her hand, bringing it down…

Blood splattered across the room.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit bit its lips, whimpering and laughing through its sobs.

A long time passed.

Fu Yu lowered her gaze to look at Venerable Yunshang’s mangled face. Dust returned to dust, earth to earth; the faint, tangled threads of dark karma dissipated into ashes before her eyes.

Slowly, she straightened her posture, the Shoushan Stone Paperweight still in her hand. Her expression was serene and detached—a mercy born of slaughter.