"About that, you don't need to know." After saying this, Yang Zhai shifted his gaze toward Wan Xui and continued,
"Wan Xui, I gave you my word that I would help you take your revenge. Gu Dan and the entire village that wronged you both have already been wiped out. Only this Jang Tang remains…"
The moment Yang Zhai spoke these words, Jang Tang's eyes widened with terror. His body trembled, and a cold shiver ran down his spine.
"No! Don't! Don't kill me!!!" Jang Tang shouted, his voice breaking as he begged for his life.
But there was no answer from either Yang Zhai or Wan Xui. The silence itself was heavy and suffocating.
"Before that…tell me, why did you do this to us? We never harmed you, we never wronged you…" Wan Xui's trembling voice broke the silence as she turned her gaze toward Yang Zhai.
Yang Zhai stared at her in silence, his expression unreadable. Then, after a long pause, he finally spoke a single word.
"Nothing."
"Then why…why did you send Wen Bo after me? Didn't you promise that you would protect him?" Wan Xui asked, her voice cracking with grief.
"I did," Yang Zhai replied calmly. "I gave you the choice. From the very beginning, you had the chance to use the Death Warrant and take your revenge, or to wait for tragedy to strike. His shield was you. Your shield was the Death Warrant. But you chose to protect them instead. In doing so, you killed him with your own hands. They ate your brother alive, yet you still wanted to save them?"
"But…but…what about Gu Dan and Jang Tang? They would have killed him anyway…"
"No, they wouldn't have," Yang Zhai cut her off. "Tell me, how did you kill Gu Dan?"
"With…"
"With the Death Warrant? Exactly. And now, with the same Death Warrant, you can kill this man too. If you had only insisted, if you had only chosen differently, you could have bought enough time to finish them. Even if your lifespan was consumed and you aged, you could have killed them without the Death Warrant at all."
"But—"
"But where, tell me, where was I wrong?" Yang Zhai's voice was sharp. "You had every piece of the puzzle in your hands, yet you refused to use them. As for why I sent him here…he came of his own will."
Wan Xui lowered her head, her body trembling. "I understand now. I see why you did all of this. The more I used this ire, the stronger it grew. Wasn't all of this just to strengthen it? You sacrificed us for this…"
Yang Zhai stayed quiet for a while, then finally replied, "If you don't wish to take your revenge, hand that ire back to me. I will leave this island, and your brother's killer will remain with you. But with your condition, do you truly think you can kill him? Even if he cannot kill you, he can still escape." Yang Zhai took a slow step forward.
Wan Xui's eyes hardened. "When did I ever say I wouldn't kill him? I will, but not because of you. I will kill him because I must avenge my brother with my own hands. But remember this—" her voice cracked with rage and sorrow, "you are a monster. If you are ever let loose, I fear for what would happen to this world. And so I curse you…curse you to face this ire at least once in your lifetime—the same ire for which you sacrificed me and my brother. As for this man, he would die in pain."
With those final words, she activated the Death Warrant one last time. Jang Tang's limbs exploded one after another, blood spraying across the ground, though Wan Xui deliberately spared his head and torso, leaving him alive in unbearable agony.
"Remember this. Even though I live on a deserted island, I know this much—the world won't allow someone like you to liv—" Her words cut off as her body went lifeless. The light in her eyes faded. She hadn't died of age; the Death Warrant had claimed her for sparing Jang Tang.
Jang Tang's screams tore through the village, endless cries of torment. His limbs and organs were destroyed, leaving him a mangled, bleeding husk. The pain drove him insane, yet he clung to life, his voice hoarse with suffering.
Yang Zhai walked forward, his expression unmoved. He bent down, picked up the Death Warrant, and hung it at his waist. Then he turned toward Jang Tang to end him, but paused. Blood covered the ground, and Jang Tang's voice had faded. He was on the brink of death, barely breathing.
Without hesitation, Yang Zhai activated Earth Release Ka, forming several compressed air balls. He aimed them at Jang Tang's face and fired. The blast struck, and Jang Tang's head burst apart, his life ending instantly.
I cannot afford risks, Yang Zhai thought coldly. Just because he was close to death doesn't mean he would die. He might have possessed a hidden cultivation method, a way to come back from the edge. I am not foolish enough to give him that chance.
With that, Jang Tang's life was erased completely.
Yang Zhai's eyes then shifted to the Eleca, already refined, floating in midair about seven feet high. Slowly, he approached and extended his hand.
The ire was small, no larger than three inches, shaped like a transparent heart. Inside, clear liquid pulsed faintly, and within that liquid, a thread of red color swam, refusing to mix, like a fragment of blood suspended in purity. Yang Zhai studied it carefully, his gaze unblinking.
"I wonder…after I decided to add the Aurora's aura, did it alter this ire? I can already sense its power, the ability to teleport by sacrificing a part of my body. But has it changed in some other way?"
After a moment, he opened the inheritance ground and tossed the ire inside, leaving it behind. Without looking back, he departed, leaving the island silent and littered with corpses of the cultivators.
He waited until the sun set, and only then did he truly leave the place.
Summoning Ina Ya and Yah Yan, he ordered them to explore the nearby waters. After confirming there was nothing lurking around, Yang Zhai carefully dove into the ocean once more, continuing his endless journey. By day, he trained and rested. By night, he pressed forward across the ocean.
But as he traveled, something stirred.
"Not good," Yang Zhai muttered, his eyes narrowing. "It's an undercurrent…and it's massive."
Before him, the ocean twisted violently. The water rotated at a terrifying speed, swallowing everything in its reach.
It was so vast that even with his four yellow lines active, his sight stretching five miles, he could see no end to it. And what he saw was only the edge—the ripples born from the monstrous undercurrent at the edge.
"If I get any closer, I'll be dragged in without a shred of resistance. Sigh…even if I manage to avoid the beasts, the ocean itself remains a terrifying enemy," Yang Zhai thought bitterly.
He activated the seal ring, opening the inheritance gate. Without hesitation, he leapt inside and disappeared into inheritance space for the night.
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