Chapter 119 (1/2)
For a little more than half an hour they lingered, before Xiao Chen and Yu Yifeng rode on the latter’s sword as they flew to the Hall of Celestial Authority, once the abode of Perfected Immortal Qingxuan who was the head of the sect during his time. They glided further down to the Immortal-slaying Platform; it was there where he was once bound to the massive column of stone that used to stand in the center of the square that served as the execution post for wrongdoers about to meet their fate. The column was no more; broken into halves, its grandeur spent, as it laid half-submerged in dirt and filth.
Xiao Chen sighed heavily, his wearied steps slowly bringing him to the edge of the Platform, a precipitous crag that hung precariously to such abyssal depths that even an Immortal would perish if thrown off the cliff and plummet down; hence its name, the Cliff of Fallen Divinity.
It was here where he and Hua Weiyang had leaped to their death, he remembered, as the recollections of his former life began to revisit him in his first return after thousands of years, unreeling before his very eyes as if it was yesterday.
“Xiao Chen! How dare you plot against your own Senior and Junior Brothers with those of the Devil’s Practice! What have you to say in the face of concrete evidence!”
At a loss for words, Xiao Chen, with his face ashen and white, could only manage to stutter as he shook his head in vain denial, “No! Impossible… I am not in league with them… I did not kill one of our own…”
“We of the Immortal-saving Clan are the witnesses! Together with the evil woman of the Devil’s Practice, they had infiltrated our stronghold to make off our treasure and regalia, the archean zither and had killed 13 of our guards!”
Xiao Chen jeered wickedly in response, “The Immortal-saving Clan… You of the Immortal-saving Clan!”
“Xiao Chen, the traitorous disciple of the Mystic Cyan Sect, has conspired with evil folks of the Devil’s Practice and has committed the murders of his own kin! He is hereby sentenced to the destruction of his Nascent Soul and will remain incarcerated forever! Let the judgment commence!”
“Wait!” A shrill, cold voice boomed from behind. A young lady in white had stormed in, wielding a powerful artifact that could only be a treasure of the Devil’s Practice.
“Evil demoness! How dare you barge through the doors of the Mystic Cyan Sect! Apprehend her!”
Xiao Chen turned back to see who it was, and found Hua Weiyang trampling past the defenses, her face stern and fearless even as she came alone, walking towards the sturdy column of the Immortal-slaying Platform.
“The thirteen deaths from the Immortal-saving Clan, the twelve deaths from the Mystic Cyan Sect, and the eighteen deaths from the Gorge of the Lofty Breeze… all of these deaths are my doing! Me, Hua Weiyang! Take me or kill me! Here I am, yours for the taking!”
An uproar erupted instantly around her; four Elders threw themselves at her and without any effort, they pinned her down and had her chained to the stone column on the Platform. One by one, they drove fourteen Stakes of Excruciation into her body, subjecting her to excruciating pain and coerced her to disclose the location where the Devils’ sects were hiding.
As the fifteenth Stake of Excruciation was driven into the Hua Weiyang’s flesh, the young woman thrashed once in agony and all hell broke loose. Xiao Chen, succumbing to the urges of his emotions, tapped into the dark side of his powers and butchered three Elders of the Immortal-saving Clan with another seventeen disciples added to the toll, before he left with Hua Weiyang in his arms.
His mentor, Ling Yin, had not expected things to have taken such a dire turn. It was too late now; for Xiao Chen, in his frenzied state, was beyond anyone’s control, even his teacher’s. It took the master of Mystic Cyan Sect, Perfected Immortal Qingxuan, who sensed the tumult and upheaval raging outside the chamber where he sealed himself for solitary retreat, returned with all the haste he could muster. In his fury, he cast a blow at Xiao Chen, only to have Hua Weiyang enchant herself with the Three-Life Soul-Breaking Spell, an Ancient Forbidden Arts which should never be used unless under critical need, and took the blow for Xiao Chen. As life ebbed out of her, she crumbled into Xiao Chen and whispered gently to him, “You still owe me one last favor… And this I command you… Live well for me…” With the final iota of her strength, she shoved him away and cast herself off the Cliff of Fallen Divinity.
Her selflessness drew Xiao Chen back to consciousness and reality as he watched his beloved hurtling off the cliff to her doom. Devastated beyond salvation, he leaped off the jagged rocks of the precipice and followed her down the chasm of their end, where he caught and wrapped his arms around her tightly as they braced themselves…
Ling Yin was subsequently able to rescue him and tricked him into consuming a Love-killer Pill, causing him to lose all memory of the person he once loved, Hua Weiyang. Still, there was no evading judgment for the slaughter he had wrought in his berserking madness and he was sentenced to death. Still, unbeknownst to everyone, Ling Yin was able to preserve his Soul by using mystical and powerful methods heretofore unknown to others.
…
“Our stay here is delaying our journey, Chen. Shall we return?” Yu Yifeng’s voice rang in Xiao Chen’s ears, disrupting his train of recollections.
The mountain breeze howled and lashed relentlessly, as if the countless souls of those who had plummeted to their deaths from the top of the Cliff were wailing at him. Xiao Chen turned, and his eyes set upon the broken columns of the execution post now half-buried in the ground. He could still see Hua Weiyang being brutally chained to the monolithic granite pillar as she endured the throes of suffering when the fourteen Stakes were driven into her.
And this was all the doing of one person—Qianyu Nishang!
It was discovered that the numerous deaths were caused by techniques of the Yaoguang School. He had only shared his studies of the techniques of the Yaoguang School with her. She had meticulously schemed to procure membership into the Mystic Cyan Sect and devised such a plot to frame him! Could she also be a pawn in a bigger and wider web of deceit?