Chapter 77: I’m Killing You for Your Own Good. It Was All Wrong from the Start.

Chapter 77: I'm Killing You for Your Own Good. It Was All Wrong from the Start.

Li Xueke frantically signaled the Paper Effigy Boy with his eyes.

'End this already!'

If Fu Yu stayed here any longer, he was genuinely afraid this four-year-old would jump up and challenge the three armies' commander to a fight to the death.

The Paper Effigy Boy understood perfectly.

The Paper Effigy Boy asked aloud: "Has anyone found the answer to this layer of the secret realm?"

The Paper Effigy Boy answered itself: "That's right! Venerable Wuyang and her disciples set an ambush in the valley, intending to kill the Diviner to silence her! Level clear!"

Wu He looked up at the sky, speechless: "...At least go through the motions before making it so obvious."

The battlefield scene twisted and dissipated before their eyes.

Their vision refocused, and the group found themselves in Guangling.

Guangling was a warm, fertile land rich in fish and rice. In the distance, they saw Venerable Wuyang walking down the main street with her three disciples.

Passersby stopped in their tracks, cupping their hands in respectful salute to this esteemed head of the Yu family.

The Scarecrow pricked up its ears, catching the voices carried on the wind.

"Little Yuqing is telling Venerable Wuyang that the Zhuotian Divine Sect's assassination attempt on the Diviner failed. The Yu clan sent three clansmen to tag along on that suicide mission, and all of them died in battle."

Little Fuyu was staring, transfixed, at the candied fruit skewers by the roadside.

A four-year-old might not have a mind for romance, but the sight of candy immediately rooted her to the spot.

A dignified Divine Shaman couldn't just outright say she wanted to eat that.

Seeing her suddenly freeze, everyone's hearts couldn't help but tense slightly.

The Scarecrow lowered its voice and whispered, "Is there something special about this Zhuotian Divine Sect?"

Lesser Shangqing waved a hand dismissively: "It was wiped out long ago... Huh?"

He narrowed his eyes, recalling something. "Among the current Divine Court Seven Sages, there's a Venerable Zhuotian. No one knows his origins."

The Divine Court Seven Sages: three above, three below, with the Holy Maiden in the center.

The Upper Three Sages were all genuine old monsters. The Lower Three Sages were led by Emperor Wugu, followed by Venerable Zhuotian, with Purple Light Star Lord He Yingkong being the last.

The Scarecrow suddenly understood: "Could Venerable Zhuotian be the sole survivor of that sect?"

Wu He turned his head listlessly: "Have some common sense—a good one is called a 'sole survivor,' a bad one is called a 'remnant scourge,' got it?"

That single "got it" made the Scarecrow instantly jump.

Watching these two weirdos start fighting in the street yet again, Lesser Shangqing's mouth twitched, utterly exasperated.

He rubbed his temples and moved closer to Little Fuyu.

Little Fuyu struggled to tear her gaze away from the candied fruit skewers.

The shiny, translucent red, string-pulling syrup had glued itself to her brain, making her speech slow and drawn-out: "Your mother and your senior brother, right in front of you, loudly plotting?"

Lesser Shangqing: "..."

He glared hatefully at his past self.

He saw his former self, Yu Xiao, acting like a spoiled playboy, slouching and grinning cheekily as he walked down the street, touching this and looking at that, completely oblivious to the heavy tension between his mother and senior brother.

Regret and a hidden pain rose in his heart.

If he hadn't been so frivolous back then, if he had noticed something was off with his mother, could he have had a chance to stop her from making mistake after mistake?

But time cannot be turned back.

A thousand words surged to his lips, ultimately condensing into nothing but a sigh: "Ah!"

Fu Yu told him: "The Zhuotian Divine Sect had some grievances with me. I deliberately lured them to come kill me."

Back then, she noticed Jun Bu Du was always following her, constantly stepping in to deal with her 'unwanted admirers.'

So, she simply bundled up her enemies and delivered them right to him.

The two of them took on dozens of people together in the secret realm, slaughtering until rivers of blood flowed.

Thinking about it now, Jun Bu Du probably thought back then that she had set a trap, using herself as bait, pretending to be seriously injured... to lure and kill him.

Fu Yu looked utterly despondent, gazing at the sky, muttering under her breath: "No wonder my Life-bound Sword stopped right behind my back."

Her frantic intuition screaming danger at the time wasn't wrong.

He was indeed preparing to stab her back then.

When she proposed marriage, he must have thought it was a honey trap she was using to save her life.

"..."

Little Fuyu came to an abrupt halt.

White steam puffed angrily from her nostrils, and smoke seemed to rise faintly from the top of her head.

She was furious!

He actually thought she had surrendered?!

He really thought she couldn't beat him?!

She just wasn't being serious!!!

Little Fuyu gritted her teeth, mentally gnawing on Jun Bu Du's face as if it were a candied hawthorn: "Just you wait, you just wait for me..."

The Scarecrow soon gathered new information from the wind.

"The deaths of the three clansmen are hard to explain. Little Yuqing suggests pinning several old, unsolved cases on the Diviner and using that as a pretext to mobilize the entire clan's strength to kill the Diviner."

As it spoke, it became stunned itself. "Master... you had it so rough!"

Little Fuyu waved a hand dismissively, unconcerned: "Too many people wanted to kill me. When you owe many debts, you stop worrying."

She never directly confronted the Yu clan.

Because she soon married Jun Bu Du. She entered the Daoist Sect as its mistress, gaining countless disciples and grand-disciples overnight. The scheming Little Yuqing had no choice but to lie low. Fu Yu tilted her head back and asked Lesser Shangqing: "Didn't you realize your second senior brother was no good?"

Lesser Shangqing was flustered for a moment, then, as if remembering something, his eyebrows shot up and he glared, raising his voice: "What do you mean I didn't notice! Him and me now, we're like fire and water—completely irreconcilable!"

Wu He: "Isn't that because you can't win against him in competing for the training grounds?"

Lesser Shangqing: "..."

That damn Turtle Ten, always running his mouth!

He covered his mouth and coughed a few times, explaining dejectedly: "Second Senior Brother, he is the last living descendant of an old friend of my mother's. Perhaps you've heard the name 'White Celestial Master.'"

Fu Yu looked up: "Celestial Master Dam?"

"Yes!" Lesser Shangqing heaved a long sigh. "That very White Celestial Master."

The boundary wall once collapsed in the East Sea.

As a cataclysmic tsunami was about to occur, White Celestial Master sacrificed himself, using his divine soul and physical body to seal the sea eye, constructing a towering dam that reached the sky.

It held back the immense waves.

The survivors all called it the Celestial Master Dam, in memory of that Demi-god, White Celestial Master.

"When my mother rushed to the scene upon hearing the news, White Celestial Master and those with him had already perished in the East Sea, leaving only this orphan, about two or three years old. Alas!"

"So, he is the descendant of a hero." Fu Yu nodded. "A fine bamboo producing a bad shoot."

Lesser Shangqing: "...Sigh..."

Fu Yu clapped her hands and summoned the Paper Effigy Boy.

It held a candied hawthorn stick, bounced over to Fu Yu, all smiles: "A fine bamboo producing a bad shoot—correct! Reward!"

It handed the candied hawthorn stick to Fu Yu.

Fu Yu was delighted!

Indeed, it pays to have your own people making the rules.

Biting into the candied hawthorn, Fu Yu and the others followed the Paper Effigy Boy's steps and saw how Venerable Wuyang sank deeper and deeper into the mire until there was no turning back.

Under the sunlight, she was a respected, fair, and flawless elder.

In the dark of night, she tossed and turned, terrified every moment that the "dam" would collapse with a thunderous crash.

Lesser Shangqing was beyond sighing: "My mother truly hoped to witness a golden age of widespread cultivation, but unfortunately, she had already ended up on the opposite side."

In designing Li Daoxuan's death and the ambush in the tomb targeting Fu Yu and her husband, Little Yuqing had played a major role.

Fu Yu nodded gently: "It shows your esteemed mother was utterly exhausted."

Venerable Wuyang should have walked a completely different path.

That path was her true heart.

It's just that in this mortal world, we are not masters of our own fate.

On the eve of the longevity banquet, Little Yuqing arranged the final master plan for Venerable Wuyang.

"Master," Little Yuqing said with a bitter smile, "Jun Bu Du's cultivation is already peerless. Our people are dead, crippled, dwindling and waiting to be slaughtered... we have no retreat left... Our only remaining option is a last resort..."

"That is, to destroy the Celestial Master Dam, frame Jun Bu Du, and make him the public enemy of the world."

"Master, this task, only you can accomplish it. And only your prestige can rally the world's heroes to condemn Jun Bu Du together!"

Venerable Wuyang sat in a daze on her grand chair, silent for a long, long time.

Across life, death, and time, Lesser Shangqing gazed into her eyes from afar.

"Mother, don't say yes to him..."

Back then, the carefree Yu Xiao happened to return, dripping with sweat.

Unaware of all that had transpired.

He cheerfully approached Venerable Wuyang, pulling out a candied hawthorn stick bought from the street, and insisted she take one too.

Venerable Wuyang raised her hand to block the candied hawthorn, she asked, her voice low: "Xiao'er, if doing one wrong thing lets you be a good person forever, tell me, should it be done?"

Yu Xiao was shocked.

He didn't know which of his mischievous misdeeds his mother had found out about again.

He quickly put on a playful grin to speak for himself: "Then as long as one becomes a good person, the wrong deeds... are forgiven and forgotten! Forgiven and forgotten!"

Venerable Wuyang fell silent.

After a moment, Venerable Wuyang nodded: "I understand. You may leave now. I have matters to discuss with your Second Senior Brother."

Lesser Shangqing felt as if struck by lightning.

Fu Yu quickly raised her hand and tugged his sleeve.

She solemnly told him: "It's not your fault. Whatever you said back then would have been useless."

After a long while, Lesser Shangqing let out a deep sigh: "Alas... I understand."

By this point, everyone already knew the answer in their hearts.

The Paper Effigy Boy wobbled out, clapped its hands: "The mystery is revealed! Killing Venerable Wuyang was to prevent her from committing a monstrous mistake—final scene! Begin!"

A group of bizarre-looking fellows appeared at Venerable Wuyang's longevity banquet.

When Jun Bu Du quietly walked in with his sword, the four-year-old Fu Yu couldn't help but step forward, to provoke this arrogant fellow up close!

Angrily, she brandished the nearly-finished candied hawthorn stick, forcefully poking it at him.

"Heaven spirits, earth spirits, curse you..."

Looking up, her pupils trembled.

Jun Bu Du had come to kill.

The aura around him was one of pure, unadulterated slaughter.

Calm, detached, compassionate, inhuman, almost divine.

The moment Little Fuyu was stunned by the fresh, breathtaking beauty, he stepped past her, this little turnip, and stopped before Venerable Wuyang.

"Hey, hey, hey—"

Little Fuyu strained backward, craning her neck to get a look at his expression.

He stood with his back to everyone. That day, no one knew he had shared a very brief conversation with Venerable Wuyang.

It was only now that Little Fuyu saw it for herself.

Jun Bu Du lifted his hand slightly from within his sleeve.

His pale, slender fingers held a bloodstained object—a divine artifact, the Star-Shifting Plate.

The moment she saw the Star-Shifting Plate, Venerable Wuyang’s pupils trembled slightly. Her lips trembled, and her complexion rapidly turned ashen.

She knew. This man knew everything.

She opened her mouth, as if she had many things to say, but in the end, it all ended in a sigh.

He said, “I kill you for your own good.”

He stated a fact calmly.

As Nine Crossroads Dust pierced her heart, Venerable Wuyang had neither the ability nor the will to resist. As her eyes glazed over, she mouthed soundlessly, “I know.”

At this point in the secret realm, the entire mystery had been unraveled.

The Paper Effigy Boy patiently waited until everyone had finished their sighs, then grinned and clapped his hands. “Secret realm, close!”

Little Fuyu raised the sugar-coated hawthorn stick in her hand and crunched down on the last piece.

She lowered her eyelashes, quietly waiting.

A moment later.

Paper Effigy Boy: “Secret realm, close!”

The secret realm did not close.

Paper Effigy Boy: “???”

It jerked its arms and legs in shock, commanding once more, “In the name of the rules, I order this secret realm to close!”

Everyone exchanged bewildered glances.

The Paper Effigy Boy contorted its body frantically, hopping furiously on the ground. “Secret realm, end! Secret realm, close! Secret realm, clear! Clear, I said clear! Don’t you understand? I said clear!”

The monkey warily stared at Lesser Shangqing. “Old man, are you up to something?”

Fu Yu tossed away the bamboo skewer.

She patted the monkey, nudging it aside, then grabbed the Paper Effigy Boy, which was thrashing about like a live fish.

She said, “Rules, oh rules. Once you enter a secret realm, you must abide by the rules.”

The Paper Effigy Boy blinked its eyeless sockets. “?”

Weren’t the rules set by it?

“The rule is to find the truth.” Little Fuyu rubbed the sticky sugar off her fingertips. “You were going easy on us—one answer is wrong.”

“Huh?!” Everyone was stunned. “Which answer is wrong?!”

Fu Yu smiled. “The first one.”

No sooner had she spoken than a terrifying storm erupted within this frozen banquet hall!

“Boom—hum—”

The carved pillars vanished, the floor tiles vanished, the ceiling vanished.

Everyone stood in a vast, empty void. A dreadful hurricane swept past them, coalescing into a colossal, sky-piercing gray skull of resentment, shrieking shrilly at the crowd.

A faint glimmer flickered within the skull.

Fu Yu finally revealed a delighted smile. “My ashes, found.”