At last, I laughed.
“Master, close your eyes.”
A glimmer of moisture shone in Immortal Venerable Chang Yan’s eyes, as though he could already see himself breaking through to the Great Emperor realm and soaring to the heights of bliss.
“All right, all right, all right. Master won’t look.”
He closed his eyes indulgently.
The next instant, a dagger smeared with Dragonbane Poison plunged straight into his vital point.
I raised the blade, then struck his dantian and heart meridian.
One stab, two, three, four, five… Blood streamed across the palace floor.
Dragonbane Poison was an ancient, rare toxin, taken from the ring that held Sở Trần’s remnant soul.
This poison was made to bring down Great Ascension powerhouses. Applied to the vital point, it would taint the flesh and blood with demonic energy and drain the sea of consciousness until its victim died.
“You… ungrateful… wicked… creature…”
Immortal Venerable Chang Yan struggled to grip my hand, his eyes filled with boundless hatred.
I raised the knife again, slashed his face to ribbons, then cut out his tongue.
“Ugh…!”
Seeing him on the verge of death, Meng Zhang transformed into a half-dragon, bit his head clean off, then tore his body apart and devoured it.
Yet the familiar warning that the pursuit had failed still didn’t sound.
I slashed my wrist, used my blood as a catalyst, and burned my spiritual power to unleash the Phoenix True Flame.
Blazing flames surged into the sky, engulfing the entire main hall.
“Aahhh!”
A harrowing scream rang out from the eaves. The last remnant soul of Immortal Venerable Chang Yan turned to ash and vanished completely.
【Warning! Warning! Pursuit failed!】
After devouring the body of a half-step Great Emperor, Meng Zhang sprouted two dragon horns, and her scales gleamed gold.
She gave a few low growls, then licked my still-bleeding wrist.
“Not yet, Meng Zhang. The real show is only just beginning. I’ll give you a proper feast.”
Feeling the surging Great Ascension power within me, I left, satisfied.
From that day on, I became a fugitive hunted by the entire cultivation world, infamous far and wide.
They cursed me for betraying my fellow disciples and murdering my master, saying my crimes were so heinous that even death couldn’t atone for them.
I was unmoved by all this; in fact, I almost laughed.
They were right. I really had killed all those despicable people.
And not only did I kill them—I used their flesh and bones as food for my dragon.
So the pursuers came after me like rabid dogs, heedless of their own lives, sniffing me out everywhere in the name of “upholding heaven’s justice.”
【I hear that slut is a master in bed. She sucked Immortal Venerable Chang Yan dry, and that’s what caused his fall.】
“Die!”
【The empress is in danger. If I help her at the most critical moment, I’m sure I’ll win her heart and she’ll repay me with her body!】
“Die!”
【What’s wrong with a lowly farm girl who keeps house? If I had those treasures, I’d have ascended long ago.】
“Die!”
Bastard!
I killed until my eyes ran red, until my spiritual power was spent. I lost count of how many times I unleashed the Phoenix True Flame.
Meng Zhang transformed into a half-dragon and fought by my side in one bloody battle after another. Her body was stripped bare of scales.
Every time I killed someone, I cut off their nose and mouth, gouged out their eyes and ears, and carved away two ounces of flesh from beneath their groin.
I burned all those filthy things to ash.
“Well done, Meng Zhang. Eat them all.”
The half-dragon immediately devoured the remaining corpses, chewing them up—skin and bones alike—and swallowing them whole.
She loved eating wicked people most of all. They were incredibly nourishing.
【Warning! Warning! Pursuit failed!】
【Warning! Warning! Pursuit failed!】
【Warning! Warning! Pursuit…】
The endless days of slaughter dragged on. I fought from dusk till dawn, from early spring until the end of winter.
Until the mound of white bones Meng Zhang spat out had piled up at my feet into a towering hill—and rain poured from the sky.
“Meng Zhang, go.”
As soon as I spoke, the half-dragon beside me shot straight into the ninth heaven, coiling through the rainy mist until she slowly disappeared.
A long dragon’s roar echoed through heaven and earth as an Azure Dragon tore through the void and soared overhead.
The sky split open, dazzling spiritual light blazing forth.
Meng Zhang carried me toward the distant stairway that connected to the heavens.
After killing countless pursuers, I had absorbed enough spiritual energy to break through to the Great Emperor realm.
And so I became the first person in the Nine Provinces to ascend.
On the path to enlightenment, along the stairway connecting to the heavens,
Heaven’s will appeared and asked me:
【What is the Dao you have realized?】
“The Dao of Slaughter. Anyone who blocks my way will be tortured with a thousand cuts.”
Heaven’s will probed my heart. So long as an ascender had a clear conscience, they could climb one step.
My conscience was clear, so I climbed one step.
【Do you know that the whole world despises you?】
“Beast, snake-hearted wretch, slut, cruel, vicious, whore, wicked creature… So what?”
I smiled faintly. I had never bothered to defend myself against an empty reputation.
With a clear conscience, I climbed another step.
【How many people have you killed? Surely they couldn’t all have deserved to die.】
“Anyone who schemes against me deserves to die.”
I stood tall, making no attempt to hide it.
Meng Zhang coiled around my wrist and let out a resounding dragon’s roar.
With a clear conscience, I climbed another step.
【Your heart is clouded by demonic obstacles. Even if you become an immortal, you will only be a fallen immortal.】
“A fallen immortal is still an immortal. I’m content with that.”
I laughed aloud, my shoulders shaking despite myself.
With a clear conscience, I climbed another step.
【You have committed a grave wrong.】
“I did nothing wrong.”
This was the ninety-ninth step. One final step, and I would ascend to immortality.
With a clear conscience, I stepped forward…
【Do not take another step!】
Heaven’s will suddenly spoke in anger, and the endless stairway to the heavens vanished from beneath my feet in an instant.
【Your sins are piled high. You must suffer heavenly punishment.】
【I grant you thirty years of mortal life. You must return to the mortal world as a filthy, hideous monster. If someone shows you compassion and trades their life for yours, I will allow you to ascend.】
Hearing this, I raised an eyebrow and pointed my longsword straight at the azure sky.
Are you going back on your word?
But before I could refuse, the world around me dissolved into nothingness.
When I opened my eyes again, all the spiritual energy in my body had vanished, and I had truly become a hideous, terrifying monster.
I was imprisoned beneath an ancient tree deep in the mountains of the mortal world, while Meng Zhang transformed into a dragon tattoo coiled around my wrist.
“There’s a monster in the mountains that eats people!”
“I hear it’s venomous and cruel, and absolutely terrifying!”
“The monster needs someone to die in its place. Don’t go near it!”
Everyone in the mortal world knew there was a monster beneath this ancient tree, so they fled in terror.
I spent my days resting beneath the tree, drinking dew and eating the wind, living a quiet life.
Spring came with blooming flowers; autumn passed with falling leaves. The swallows returned, winter departed, and spring came again.
The first year, nothing happened.
The second year, nothing happened either.
The third year, it was still the same…
Those peaceful, uneventful days spent waiting to die made me feel wonderfully content.
So this was how peaceful a world without pursuers could be.
I was no longer a little fish on a chopping board, waiting to be butchered, nor a piece of meat in the jaws of a ravenous beast.
Empress? Ascending to immortality? It was nothing more than a fleeting dream.
From beginning to end, all I wanted was to kill every one of those vile pursuers, and…
And what?
I realized I seemed to have forgotten something incredibly important.
The day I entered the Chang Le Sect, Immortal Venerable Chang Yan had used a jade hairpin to pin up my hair, then drawn a strand of white thread from my life gate.
What was it?
What had I forgotten?
I thought about it day after day, until my hair slowly turned white and my back began to stoop.
On the last day of my thirty years of mortal life, an old woman with snow-white hair came beneath the ancient tree.
The old woman sat on a tree root to rest and drink some water.
She asked, “Why are you here?”
She shared a ladle of cool, clear spring water with me, and my spirits immediately lifted.
I said, “Looking for someone.”
I was looking for some foolish soul with a kind heart, willing to trade their life for mine.
The thought amused me, and I burst into giggles.
The old woman broke off a piece of hard bread, softened it in water, and stuffed it into her nearly toothless mouth.
She seemed surprised too. “I’m looking for someone as well… Who are you looking for?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. What about you?”
The old woman sighed. “I don’t know either.”
The sun was about to set, my life was nearing its end, and my breaths grew weaker by the moment.
She set a bowl of softened bread in front of me and began to mutter.
“I once had a dream. In it, I had a sweet, obedient daughter, but I accidentally lost her.”
“When I woke up, I couldn’t remember her face. I only remembered her saying that one day she’d make something of herself and come back for me.”
“I don’t know why, but that dream feels so real. I have to find that girl and get to the bottom of it.”
I carefully swallowed the bread, savoring its sweet, rich taste as it went down my parched throat.
The bread was so good that I couldn’t help laughing again.
“Maybe you really did have a daughter, but after she made something of herself, she enjoyed wealth and glory, left you behind, and forgot all about you long ago.”
The old woman grew angry at that and slapped me.
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
“I’m going down the mountain to look for my daughter somewhere else.”
She rose, her back hunched, and left the tree.
But after only a few steps, she hesitated, took two things from her bundle, and set them in front of me.
A piece of pork knuckle wrapped in several layers of oiled paper, and a floral outfit.
“You’re truly pitiful.”
“Even a monster has parents who gave birth to and raised it. If your mother saw you like this, she’d surely be heartbroken.”
“I’d saved this for my daughter to eat, but you can have it. I can buy more.”
As death drew near, all I felt was an overpowering hunger and a bone-deep chill.
I hurriedly snatched up the pork knuckle and stuffed it into my mouth, then draped the clean floral outfit over my shoulders.
Before leaving, the old woman suddenly stopped and asked one more question:
“Monster, I still don’t know your name.”
I spat out the bone, chewed the tender meat, and smiled, my eyes curving like a crescent moon.
“Phu Ngoc. My name is La Phu Ngoc.”
15.
After ascending to immortality, I split off a fragment of my soul. It crossed the void in search of a way home.
16.
In a small village called La Gia, deep in the mountains and forests.
A four-year-old girl in a floral jacket sat on a large rock at the village entrance, savoring a candied hawthorn skewer one bite at a time.
A strange, heavily built man wearing a conical hat appeared outside the village.
He seemed to have traveled over mountains and through rivers for a very long time before finding this place. The moment he saw me, he started laughing.
“Thwack!”
In an instant, his head was sliced off.
The old dog that guarded the village rushed out, grabbed his corpse in its jaws, and ran straight into the forest.
A few wisps of strange fire flared up, burning every last trace of blood and flesh from the ground.
“Phu Ngoc, come home for dinner! Your mother’s braised pork knuckle is ready!”
A man carrying a hoe across his shoulder called loudly from the fields, waving at me.
I finished my candied hawthorn skewer, smiled innocently, and skipped home.
“Yes, Father.”
At the doorway, my uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters were starting the fire to cook dinner. When they saw me come back, they were shocked.
“Phu Ngoc, did you bring home a snake?”
I giggled, my childish voice clear and bright.
“It’s a dragon! Meng Zhang is a little dragon!”
A woman carried a pot of tenderly braised pork knuckle out of the kitchen. When she saw me, she beamed, her eyes curving like the spring sunshine.
“Phu Ngoc, you’re home.”
Spring sunlight spilled over us as I hugged my mother tight, my smile growing brighter still.
“Mother, I’m home.”
【Warning! Warning! Pursuit failed!】
【An anomaly has been detected! This target cannot be pursued!】
【The world's danger level has risen. Pursuers, leave immediately!】
【Run!】
The End.