The Infant Soul

[Viewing this information will consume 1,000 Heavenly Secrets Value. Confirm?]

"Confirm!"

Su Li agreed without hesitation. He'd even worried that the Heavenly Secrets Value required would be too low!

If it was too low, that meant the matter wouldn't have much impact, and there'd be little to gain from it.

This time, the cost was the same as the deduction about Hua Ziyan four days ago. In other words, this event's impact was probably no smaller than that of the Heavenly Town Soul Stele.

As Su Li pondered, his gaze fell on the information beneath Fang Yueheng's name.

In an instant, the information below Fang Yueheng's Life Archive expanded before Su Li's eyes, revealing far more details.

The information rippled like strands of water, transforming into streaks of light that flew into Su Li's eyes.

[On September 3, 3030, at 2:20 p.m. on the Yunhuang Calendar, Fang Yueheng received a message from the Fang family. His mother, Qin Xiangwen, had died after succumbing to her injuries.]

[On September 3, 3030, at 2:59 p.m. on the Yunhuang Calendar, Fang Yueheng returned to the Fang family in Junlin Town. His father, Fang Yuanhao, went alone to the Liu family to demand justice for Qin Xiangwen, but Zheng Xueyan beat him severely and tossed him into the street.]

[On September 3, 3030, at 3:03 p.m. on the Yunhuang Calendar, Fang Yueheng and his elder half-brother, Fang Yueyu, went to the Liu family together. Fang Yueheng wounded several members of the Liu family and badly injured Zheng Xueyan, who had a grudge against Qin Xiangwen. At 3:12 p.m., Zheng Xueyan's son, Liu Songquan, had just returned from the Xuanming Holy Land. He challenged Fang Yueheng to a Life and Death Duel, and the two signed a death pact.

[On September 3, 3030, at 3:15:15 p.m. on the Yunhuang Calendar, just as Liu Songquan was in mortal danger, Liu family elder Liu Sansi forcibly intervened, but his interference failed.

[On September 3, 3030, at 3:15:16 p.m. on the Yunhuang Calendar, Fang Yueheng and Liu Songquan were suddenly assassinated by Fang Yueyu at the same time. Fang Yueyu framed Liu Sansi for the murders, killed him on the spot, and gathered all five elements' spirit bodies...]

Su Li stared at the information, finding it hard to believe.

Fang Yueheng seemed like such an innocent, sweet boy. His past had been so pure and sunny. Ever since he was chosen to enter the Wanli Holy Land at the age of nine, he'd devoted himself to cultivation.

Every year, he sent part of his cultivation resources back to the Fang family, bringing great benefits to the entire clan!

Fang Yueyu in particular had once had his cultivation crippled. Most of the resources that enabled him to cultivate again had come from Fang Yueheng giving up his own share!

And this man had actually plotted a massacre—sending his adoptive mother, Qin Xiangwen, to her death, then his father, before personally staging a killing that claimed his younger brother and Liu Songquan?!

His treachery and cruelty were plain to see!

But that alone shouldn't have cost 1,000 Heavenly Secrets Value, should it?

With a hint of regret and confusion, Su Li continued reading.

[On September 3, 3030, at 10:22:22 p.m. on the Yunhuang Calendar, Fang Yueyu gathered the Yin Yang and Five Elements Array Diagram and the souls of the seven Yin Yang and Five Elements spirit bodies. Inside the Nine Desolations Tower in Changhe Town, he activated the Nine Desolations Altar, only to be killed by his master, Yaolan, who blood-sacrificed the Yin Yang and Five Elements souls. Yaolan failed to transform into an infant soul. The Nine Desolations Altar mutated, and Fang Yueheng's dormant second soul—the Soul of Demise—awoke. It became an unparalleled malevolent spirit, unleashing a Soul Calamity of Demise that, in a single night, wiped out all 760,000 people in nine towns, including Junlin Town, Leluo Town, and Changhe Town...]

After reading this, Su Li couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

"Fang Yueyu was that vicious? He went after the chickens, only to lose the rice too?"

Su Li rubbed his chin and pondered for a long while.

Then he opened Fang Yueyu's Life Archive and studied it carefully.

When he finished, Su Li's expression was extraordinarily complicated.

Fang Yueyu's life had certainly been eventful.

His mother, Chu Yulian, had been a maid. Wanting a life of wealth and status, and hoping to use the Fang family to embark on the path of cultivation, she seduced Fang Yuanhao and deliberately made sure everyone found out. She nearly caused Fang Yuanhao and Qin Xiangwen's engagement to fall apart.

The Fang family's old clan leader, Fang Bianmian, thought Chu Yulian immoral and wanted to drive her out. Only then did he discover she was pregnant with Fang Yuanhao's child. So he told her to keep her identity secret and make amends by giving birth to the child.

Fang Yueyu showed great talent from birth. Fearing Chu Yulian would lead him astray, the Fang family sent people to seize custody of the child from her and gave her a sum of Spirit Stones.

Unwilling to accept this, Chu Yulian went to confront Fang Yuanhao, but the Fang family threw her out. She didn't even get to see Fang Yuanhao.

After Chu Yulian left, her Spirit Stones were stolen. Then, after being assaulted, the shock drove her mad, and she developed a deranged illness.

Afterward, Chu Yulian wandered the streets. A group of beggars tricked her into going to the Nine Desolations Tower in Changhe Town, where she was subjected to all manner of abuse.

Once she came to her senses, Chu Yulian couldn't bear the humiliation. She hanged herself inside the Nine Desolations Tower.

The day Chu Yulian died was the very day Fang Yuanhao married Qin Xiangwen as his legal wife.

That day, the Fang family's wedding was grand and lively. Everyone in the family beamed with joy.

A year later, Fang Yueheng was born. When his Dual Spirit Body talent was discovered, he became the Fang family's hope for rising to greatness. The family's resources began pouring into him, while Fang Yueyu was gradually pushed to the margins.

Unwilling to accept this, Fang Yueyu took the chance to spar with Fang Yueheng when he was ten and severely injured the eight-year-old boy. Enraged, Fang Bianmian crippled Fang Yueyu's cultivation on the spot and expelled him from the Fang family.

After Fang Yueyu was expelled, his origins were exposed. His relatives and friends turned against him, and others took advantage of his misfortune, jeering and mocking him. After an argument, he was beaten half to death. Then a group of beggars seized him and dragged him into the Nine Desolations Tower.

Inside the Nine Desolations Tower, the beggars humiliated and tormented Fang Yueyu. Under the crushing weight of shame and fury, his dormant second soul was stirred by the infant soul, Yaolan, within the tower, and began to awaken.

From the beggars, he learned about his mother's past, and hatred for everyone in the Fang family filled his heart.

He secretly killed every beggar and stacked their heads into a tower inside the Nine Desolations Tower. Using his newly awakened soul power, he activated the ancient array on the altar and obtained a Short Sword.

Inside the Short Sword was an ancient infant soul. It deceived him, forged a false "master-recognition" pact with him, and taught him to cultivate.

Half a year later, he returned to the Fang family, knelt before Fang Yueheng, and apologized. Fang Yueheng forgave him and pleaded with clan leader Fang Bianmian, allowing Fang Yueyu to return to the family.

Seeing that Fang Yueyu had turned over a new leaf and mended his ways, Fang Yuanhao and Qin Xiangwen began to nurture him.

After that, Fang Yueyu kept an extremely low profile and worked diligently. His standing in the Fang family rose higher and higher.

Over the next few years, the Fang family's elders kept encountering one mishap after another, dying without a body left intact. In truth, Fang Yueyu had secretly tortured them to death, then piled their heads on the inner altar of the Nine Desolations Tower...

After finishing Fang Yueyu's Life Archive, Su Li went on to review the archives of Chu Yulian, Qin Xiangwen, Fang Yuanhao, Liu Songquan, Liu Sansi, Zheng Xueyan, and Yaolan.

Most of their lives had been rather uneventful. Yaolan's, however, was extraordinarily legendary!

Su Li could only see a small part of Yaolan's Life Archive.

But even that little was enough to leave him utterly shaken.

Yaolan was more than nine thousand years old. She had lived from the previous era into the present one.

The previous era had been called the Era of Demise.

Or perhaps this "Yaolan" was already dead. She had died during the Era of Demise, after enduring a terrible ordeal. But the infant soul born from her nascent soul had not perished. Instead, it had persisted in a three-inch-long Short Sword, a Nine-Star Sacred Artifact, sealed within itself.

And that sacred Short Sword was the very one Fang Yueyu had stumbled upon at the altar in the Nine Desolations Tower when he was ten!

As Su Li read, his heart suddenly lurched, and a wave of dizziness washed over him!

At that moment, deep in his mind, an apparition seemed to appear: a blue-robed woman with blood streaming down her face, scarlet eyes, and long, loose hair.

It was as if, while he was reading her Life Archive, she had fixed her bloodshot eyes on him from across the endless void!

Thank you to the reader "人在梧桐下" for the generous 5,300 Qidian Coins! Thank you so, so, so much~ And please keep those recommendation votes coming~~(*▽*)~~