Chapter 015

Chapter 15: Heart Questioning Sword

The shadow froze. Ye Wan Wan’s tone stayed light as she said: “I bury my conscience. From now on, I am reborn.”

The shadow did not understand her words. The girl picked up the sword that had fallen beside the corpse. Lifting it, she walked step by step toward the phantoms. They were the citizens. They were also figures from her sect.

She raised the sword and brought it down. Kill.

Roaring demonic energy and shrill screams could not stop the girl who fought her way out of the blood mist.

“Guarding the city is his Dao,” Ye Wan Wan said as she stood in the falling blood rain. She looked back at the shadow and spoke calmly: “Killing you and Falling into Devilhood is their Dao. The Way of Slaying Demons and Upholding Right is my Dao.”

“I won’t ferry your heart, and I don’t know any method to save people’s hearts,” she added. “But I know this: justice is not decided by the side with more people.”

She pointed at the citizens and gave a soft laugh: “You see them as just. I see them as demons.”

The shadow stayed silent for a long time. At last its eyes turned red.

“Kill,” Ye Wan Wan whispered.

She lifted her left hand and drew with her fingers. Talisman Arts flashed into being. A great Mountain Suppressing Force fell from the sky and killed nearly a hundred in a blink. Among them was the phantom of Ji Chang Huai. The girl did not waver. Her sword cut again and again. One figure after another fell.

She stepped over a pile of bodies and crossed a Blood Sea, heading for the city gate that had been thrown open, forcing her way through this disciple checkpoint.

As she moved toward the gate, Sword Mountain boiled. On the Sword Peak, countless spirit swords trembled like mad. The surging demonic energy almost burst through the Sealed Grounds that held it down and threatened to swallow the mountain’s power. Bai Jian stopped her boxing forms. Li Wan Zhi and Fang He An froze where they were farming.

The mountain shook. The Mountain Guarding Grand Array woke on its own. The attack did not come from outside. It came from within.

“Sword Mountain is in trouble!” Bai Jian reacted first. Without hesitation she ran toward Sword Mountain. Fang He An and Li Wan Zhi dropped their tools and followed in a rush.

“Wait for me, I can’t fly!” yelled Li Wan Zhi, anxious. He might think Ye Wan Wan carried heavy secrets, but she was still their junior sister. He did not want her to meet with disaster.

Fang He An summoned a flying artifact and grabbed Li Wan Zhi, carrying him toward Sword Mountain. Noticing Li Wan Zhi staring at the artifact, Fang He An’s face darkened as he said: “What are you looking at? Never seen such a special artifact?”

“Never,” Li Wan Zhi muttered.

By the time they arrived, Bai Jian was already there. She was trying to break through Sword Mountain’s barrier to go inside. But the grand array was fully open now. Ten thousand swords rang. The earth’s qi shook. She could not get close.

Yan Ju arrived with a tight frown. Fang He An, spotting a savior, hurried him forward: “Young Senior Uncle, please take a look!”

Yan Ju gazed at the mountain where demonic air churned: “Who went in?”

“Junior sister,” said Bai Jian quickly.

Fang He An rushed to explain how the Sect Master Senior Uncle had sent Ye Wan Wan into Sword Mountain. Yan Ju looked puzzled: “She has been in Heavenly One Sect for such a short time. How could they dare let her enter Sword Mountain?”

“Is it not allowed?” Fang He An asked, worried. “But the Sect Master Senior Uncle said so.”

“It’s not forbidden,” Yan Ju said, eyes flashing. “The swords buried in Sword Mountain belong to grand senior uncles from many generations. Each holds a different Power of the Dao. If someone who enters is chosen by a sword that carries an ancestor’s Dao, then that person gains a legacy. It is an opportunity.”

“Then…” Fang He An glanced at the roaring vision on the mountain. “Is junior sister being chosen by a sword?”

Yan Ju thought for a moment, then said: “She is being targeted by all the swords.”

The three of them fell silent.

“What does that even mean?” Bai Jian asked, confused. Fang He An looked just as stunned. He had been inside Sword Mountain before, picked his own artifact, and left. He had never seen anything like this.

“Targeted by all the swords? Can junior sister even come out safe?” Fang He An whispered. The blades inside each hold a share of Dao comprehension. If they joined together to attack, the scene would be unthinkable. He only knew this: even a Nascent Soul expert could not withstand the sword qi array inside, let alone a little Qi Refining stage disciple.

Yan Ju, too, grew curious: “I also want to know what she did.”

The uproar at Sword Mountain drew peak masters from many summits. They paused their work and came to watch.

“It’s been years since we had such excitement,” someone chuckled. “Looks like the new seedlings we took in are interesting.”

“This damned demonic air scared my seedlings limp,” another grumbled. “Who brought back a devil cultivator? Pay for my seedlings.”

“Third senior brother,” a different voice said, “you are a spellcaster. Stop trying to farm. Leave it to people who are good at it.”

“You think I want to? Dang it-” A string of curses got censored.

All eyes turned to the blood red clouds over Sword Mountain. The Mountain Guarding Grand Array pressed them down, but they rose again and again, surging up to the sky. Pressed down, then surging, they would not stop.

“This child’s Devil Heart is heavy,” someone sighed.

“She may not pass the Heart Questioning stage,” another said.

“Passing is one thing,” a third muttered, “but I wonder if she can come out alive.” If you are slain by Heart Questioning, not even your Primordial Spirit remains.

While many doubted her, a voice inside a closed-door chamber spoke softly. Li Ming De said: “If this child passes this stage, she will soar.”

Another voice asked: “And if she does not?”

Li Ming De answered: “Soul scattered.”

Inside the illusion, blood had already soaked Ye Wan Wan’s sword. The shadow floated at her side, watching her cut down every person who had lifted a hand. None were spared. The demonic energy around the shadow began to crumble.

“It should be enough,” Ye Wan Wan said, tilting her head toward him.

“Is it really enough?” he asked.

“Since we already started,” she said, “let’s be thorough.” She looked out at the ten thousand Devil Soldiers beyond the city. “We’ll handle them too.”

“Wait,” the shadow blurted. “Are you the one falling into devilhood, or am I?”

Ye Wan Wan gave a low laugh: “You and I are no different. Here, you are me and I am you. Also, this is not falling into devilhood. We are reshaping the Dao Heart.”

She flicked the tassel on her sword and said: “Step forward and the sea is wide. Step back and you only grow more angry. So use one clean strike, clear your thoughts, and be true to your heart. This is my Dao.”

Her eyes were clear, with no trace of demonic air. With her stance, she proved that her killing was Dao, not devilry, and that what she slaughtered were not people but demons.

The shadow returned to the look of the young Daoist. He sat cross-legged in the air beside Ye Wan Wan and murmured: “So my killing was not wrong.”

Ye Wan Wan met his eyes and said: “The sword in my hand never cuts the innocent.”

The words drifted over the gate. As the blood mist thinned, all the fallen were people with blood on their hands, while those curled behind the walls were clean. The girl stood at the city gate. Light lay behind her, demons ahead. She stood between right and wrong, yet held fast to her Dao Heart. That was her Dao, both righteous and demonic.

Deep in Sword Mountain, a green longsword burst from the ground. It broke through the Sword Tomb and, under a thousand streams of sword qi, crushed every Sword Spirit blocking its way. With a thunderous roar, it came into the world.

Faces across Heavenly One Sect changed. Someone gasped: “Heart Questioning Sword!”

Even Yan Ju went still for a moment. He stared at the sky and said in a daze: “She actually awakened the Heart Questioning Sword.”