Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The news Wu Linyuan brought was even more sickening than I had imagined.

Fourteen years ago, Shuo Xuanjin and the Old Palace Master of the Crimson Abyss Palace-Han Zhaoye’s biological father-had secretly joined forces. They intended to activate the Heavenly Balance Array, using two children born with innate spiritual bones as the array eyes to forcibly pry open the so-called Ascension Gate.

The reason Floating White City was destroyed was that my mother, a descendant of the Lamp-Guarding Lineage, discovered their plot and refused to hand me over.

Han Zhaoye’s mother, on the other hand, had a change of heart the night before the array was completed and tried to flee with her son.

Consequently, both sides struck at the same time, turning the entirety of Floating White City into a crematorium to silence all witnesses.

“If the two ladies hadn’t temporarily altered the array that night, using the Shared Life Lamp to swap you out, neither of you would have lived to see today.” Wu Linyuan placed a Memory Stone in front of me. “The Young Master has been investigating this for years, which is why he’s been hunted by the Old Palace Master’s men all this time.”

I gripped the Memory Stone, my palms turning cold. “Why did Shuo Xuanjin raise me?”

“Because he discovered the Lamp Wick inside you hadn’t been extinguished,” Han Zhaoye answered for Wu Linyuan. “He wanted to wait for you to grow up, for you to forge the finest sword, and then send you back into the Heavenly Balance Array.”

For a moment, I was speechless.

My Master had taught me how to hold a sword, how to uphold the Way, and how to be a pure, focused cultivator of the righteous path.

It turned out he wasn’t raising a disciple.

He was raising a sacrifice.

Wu Linyuan added, “The Old Palace Master is the same. All these years, he has allowed the world to blame the Crimson Abyss Palace for the massacre of the city, all just to wait for the Young Master’s Demonic Bone to fully awaken before sending him into the array.”

I looked up at Han Zhaoye.

His expression was excessively calm, as if he had long since grown used to being nothing more than an object fought over by various factions.

Seeing me look at him, he actually managed a small smile. “What? Does Sword Lord Jing think I’m pitiful?”

I didn’t answer.

I just suddenly remembered the Immortal Sect Assembly years ago. Han Zhaoye had charged into the formation alone, defeating three Elders with a single strike, yet he had inexplicably pulled back his strength by thirty percent the moment he saw me. Afterward, everyone called him arrogant, but I was the only one who felt, for some strange reason, that I had seen that look before.

It turned out he had remembered all along.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

Wu Linyuan said, “Seven days from now is the Ascension Ceremony at Clear Sky Peak. It is also the day the Heavenly Balance Array will be activated once more. If you want to live, you must destroy the Array Core before then.”

“Where is the Array Core?”

“Clear Sky Peak, Asking Heaven Terrace.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the cellar above us shook with a thunderous boom.

The pursuers had arrived.

Before Wu Linyuan turned to head out, he cast a glance at Han Zhaoye. “Young Master, I will hold off the Old Palace Master’s side for you. As for Young Master Jing… whether he can be trusted or not is for you to decide.”

After he left, only Han Zhaoye and I remained in the cellar.

I looked at the Lamp Mark on his wrist. I suddenly felt that there was nothing more absurd in this world than the fact that the nemesis I had spent years hunting was the only person who, like me, was being pushed onto the sacrificial altar.

Han Zhaoye tilted his head to look at me and asked softly, “Jing Guichen, do you still want to kill me?”

My hand tightened on my sword and then relaxed. Finally, I only said, “Let’s survive these seven days first.”

He smiled.

It was a very faint smile, but it was as if the snow that had been weighing down for over a decade had finally begun to scatter.