Yang Chen: Niangniang, Your Path of Reincarnation Also Owes Karma!

Houtu's gaze pierced through the thick stone walls of Pingxin Hall.

Her sight traveled past the tribal borders, over the wild mountains and rivers, finally settling on the silent, dead land perpetually shrouded in endless resentment and overwhelming bloody malevolence.

The Netherworld Blood Sea.

At that moment, the domineering and savage nature belonging to an Ancestral Witch in her eyes quietly receded like a ebbing tide.

In its place was a magnanimous compassion, almost divine in nature.

And even more so, a resolve to burn herself to ashes to illuminate the eternal darkness.

"My condition is..."

Her voice was soft, and with each word she uttered, it felt as if she was expending all her strength, carrying a weight heavy enough to crush the ancient heavens.

"If, in the future, I become Reincarnation, and create a path to rebirth for the countless lonely souls and wandering ghosts in this Primordial World..."

BOOM!

The instant her words fell, the steady, profound pulse within Pingxin Hall, one that had merged with the very earth, suddenly became chaotic for a moment!

The Pangu Creating Heaven mural on the stone walls distorted, as if the great axe that split Chaos had trembled.

What an astonishing, world-shattering aspiration!

She had just now, in this very place, revealed her ultimate secret of becoming Reincarnation in the future to Yang Chen, the greatest variable, the one whose bloodline bore the imprint of an ancient enemy!

This was no longer a game of chess.

It was a gamble that risked everything.

She had transformed her most hidden Dao, the fate of the entire Witch Clan's future, into heavy chips and unhesitatingly, forcefully pushed them onto the gambling table before Yang Chen.

Houtu withdrew her gaze, which seemed to have seen through life and death, and once again looked at Yang Chen.

Deep within her gentle eyes, there was no longer any trace of probing, only an undisguised plea and entrustment.

"I hope you will act to protect my Witch Clan."

Her voice carried a tremor that was difficult to detect.

It wasn't fear, but the deepest concern of a mother about to depart, for the children behind her whom she could not bear to leave.

"So that after I leave, they won't be settled by other forces and end up... with the fate of annihilation."

Yang Chen quietly watched her.

He did not speak.

The entire Pingxin Hall fell into a silence more ancient than the wild land outside.

The luminous pearls embedded in the ceiling emitted a cold, faint light. The light pierced through the dust motes suspended in the air, casting two solitary and opposing shadows that stretched and distorted silently on the rough stone walls.

Yang Chen's fingertips tapped rhythmically, once, twice, thrice, on the large, rough stone table.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The sound was not loud, yet it penetrated the profound aura within the hall, which was connected to the pulse of the earth, and struck Houtu's mind with pinpoint accuracy.

Each beat seemed to measure the cracks in her Dao Heart.

After a long while.

A faint trace of admiration flickered deep within Yang Chen's eyes.

The future Lord of the Earthly Dao.

This foresight into the future, this resolve to sacrifice herself for her clan, this grand compassion that bore the suffering of all beings.

Indeed, it was enough to make the Six Sages, seated high in the nine heavens, appear insignificant.

A sliver of respect had indeed arisen in his heart.

However, respect was respect.

Business was business.

Yang Chen smiled.

He gently shook his head.

This movement did not stir the slightest ripple of magical power, yet it caused Houtu's eyes, which had always been as gentle as the earth, to contract sharply.

The steady aura around her, which had merged with the entire Witch Clan's land, showed a subtle, almost imperceptible disturbance.

The light within the hall seemed to dim.

"Niangniang, this deal of yours sounds very worthwhile."

Yang Chen's voice finally broke the suffocating stillness.

His tone carried a hint of playfulness, a smile that was utterly unfathomable, echoing lightly in the vast hall.

"Using a vague, ethereal future, an uncertain promise."

"In exchange for my protection, real and tangible, at this very moment."

His words, devoid of any overt aggression, were like an invisible scalpel, precisely dissecting the most naked, essential core of her transaction beneath her grand aspiration, while Houtu was caught completely off guard.

Houtu's heart sank abruptly.

"But..."

Yang Chen's tone shifted suddenly.

The playfulness, the smile, receded like a tide, vanishing without a trace.

In its place was an absolute sharpness that pierced through eternity, pointing directly to the origin.

"You, who will merge your body with Reincarnation and complete the heavens and earth, this merit is indeed so immense it could shake the entire Primordial World."

"But likewise, this is also Karma, a Karma so great that even a Saint would retreat three steps and hesitate to approach!"

His voice was not loud, yet each word he uttered transformed into a solid hammer, smashing fiercely against Houtu's Dao Heart, which was harder than divine iron!

Houtu's breathing momentarily ceased.

"You want to establish the Underworld!"

"You want to delineate life and death!"

"You want to preside over Reincarnation!"

Yang Chen's speaking speed was not fast, but each step was pressing, every word carrying a crushing pressure that could shatter everything.

"This is equivalent to starting a new stove outside the order already established by the Heavenly Dao, creating your own realm!"

"Niangniang, do you think..."

The corners of Yang Chen's mouth slowly curved into an arc of extreme coldness.

"That Heavenly Dao, looking down from on high, would easily allow you to succeed?"

"I fear that before other forces even move to settle scores with your kin, the obstacles and tribulations sent down by the Heavenly Dao alone would be enough to cause your painstakingly crafted grand aspiration to utterly fail and turn into nothingness!"

Before his voice even faded.

Yang Chen stood up.

He picked up the earthenware wine bowl, larger than a human head, and walked slowly towards Houtu, step by step.

The distance between them rapidly closed in silence.

Less than three feet.

The pungent smell of wine emanating from him, mixed with an aura of finality more ancient than Chaos and more desolate than the void, rushed towards her.

Houtu's vital energy, which had always been integrated with the earth and embraced all things, involuntarily contracted inward at this moment, forming a most instinctive defensive barrier.

Her Dao was in fear!

Yang Chen's gaze directly met her eyes, which were already stirred by immense waves, taking in all her shock and disbelief.

He spoke word by word, his voice so clear it was as if carved directly into the depths of Houtu's Divine Soul with a blade's edge.

"Therefore."

"It is not I who need the protection of your Witch Clan."

"But it is your incredibly arduous path of Reincarnation, a path destined to contend with the heavens for its very life, that needs me."

"Needs me, this 'variable' that even the Heavenly Dao fears and the Six Sages try to appease, to escort you!"

The moment his voice fell, Yang Chen raised the wine bowl in his hand.

He raised it in a toast towards Houtu from afar.

His posture was not that of an equal ally.

It was more like a creditor, looking down from on high, appraising his property.

He looked at Houtu's face, drained of color and pale as paper, his smile dazzlingly bright.

"Niangniang, you miscalculated."

"From the very beginning, it was not I who owed Karma to your Witch Clan."

"It is your path of Reincarnation that owes me a tremendous Karma!"