A Grand Vow

The sun sank toward the west, and the appointed hour drew ever closer.

Chen Ye, who had long since prepared a way out, was the one growing restless. Princess Hongyu, by contrast, looked utterly calm, as if she didn't care whether she lived or died.

Her composure surprised Chen Ye.

He had seen plenty of people on the verge of death, and in this life, he had even killed someone with his own hands.

But few had been as calm as she was.

"Your Highness truly doesn't care in the slightest whether you live or die," Chen Ye remarked.

Princess Hongyu said, "My life has never had any meaning. If Xiao Shitou hadn't survived, I would have ended it years ago. I suppose that demon saw through me. He deliberately spared Xiao Shitou's life, knowing I wouldn't be able to resist raising her, wouldn't be able to resist saving her. And so I no longer wanted to die."

Chen Ye tried to comfort her. "There's no need to be so pessimistic. You were controlled by evildoers before, and had no say in what happened."

Princess Hongyu gave a bitter smile. "Even if I killed my own younger siblings with my own hands, watched them be refined into pills, and then had to eat them myself? Besides those younger siblings, I also harmed many people in the palace to escape."

"If it wasn't for my own sake, why would I have dragged those children into it? In the end, it was because I still didn't want to die. Even so, can I say I had no choice? If I couldn't stand firm even at the cost of death, how can I fool myself into believing I have a clear conscience?"

Chen Ye had no answer.

He had never endured that kind of torment, so he couldn't casually judge what was right or wrong.

Entangled karma was a sin. Perhaps, in her eyes, only her own death could bring that karma to a perfect end.

Princess Hongyu gazed at Lan Shi in the distance, who was still prying into a bird's nest without the faintest idea what was happening, and smiled faintly.

"My life was short, but at least I let Xiao Shitou live happily. All the sins are mine. Once I'm dead, she can live on in place of me and my other brothers and sisters."

Chen Ye finally understood. She had never planned to survive, not from the very beginning.

To Princess Hongyu, the sins of her past were a torture, tormenting her every moment. Unable to see any hope, she had carried on like a walking corpse.

Now that she could glimpse a trace of hope, she instead wanted to be free as soon as possible.

The sun was nearly down. As the afterglow faded, bursts of light flared across Princess Hongyu's body, and pain twisted her face. In the distance, Lan Shi, who had been prying into the bird's nest, cried out and nearly fell to the ground.

That old demon planned to spare neither of them. Even if he could possess only one, he would kill both sisters.

Chen Ye sighed. In the end, he hadn't managed to wait for Su Chunyi's sword light. The first thing to arrive was the old demon's possession attempt.

Princess Hongyu said without hesitation, "Do it."

Seeing the resolve in her eyes, Chen Ye placed a spirit talisman in her hand, then grabbed the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and gave it a forceful shake.

Yin winds howled, and ghosts wailed.

The formation he had spent several days setting up activated. Lan Shi, still unaware of what was happening, had already fainted. The evil-curse runes on her body peeled away like fluttering butterflies and flew toward Princess Hongyu.

Chen Ye's calculations had been flawless. Breaking the curse and transferring it had gone off without a hitch.

As the evil curse was lifted from Lan Shi, the expression on half of Princess Hongyu's face changed. She glared at Chen Ye with a contorted visage and growled, "What junior dares ruin my plans? I'll rip out your tendons and skin you alive..."

According to the plan, Chen Ye should now have used the secret art to drag Elder Tianwu's soul out of the body.

If he could pull the old demon's soul out, he could bind it fast, just as he had with the monk Ku'e, and Princess Hongyu would survive.

She should still be able to hold on to herself. She only needed to endure for a little while—for just a moment—and things could still turn around.

Unfortunately, a mass of black flames flared in her palm. Her flesh charred in an instant, and the evil flames that used flesh and blood as fuel consumed her whole body in the blink of an eye.

The Blood Burning Curse spirit talisman was one Chen Ye had obtained from the monk Ku'e.

It wasn't anything special, nowhere near as good as Su Chunyi's sword talisman. But it took only an instant to burn an ordinary person's body.

Originally, the talisman had been meant as a last resort to take them both down. They had agreed not to use it unless they reached the very end.

But Princess Hongyu hadn't waited until the end. Perhaps she had already waited long enough.

The black flames reduced flesh and blood to ash, leaving Elder Tianwu's soul without a body to inhabit. He became a wandering ghost.

He looked so withered he resembled a skeleton. Sure enough, his lifespan was nearly over, and the power of his soul seemed even weaker than the monk Ku'e's.

His possession had failed, and the body he had prepared for so long had burned to ashes. Elder Tianwu let out a venomous roar.

He raised his hand to cast a spell.

Even as a lone wandering soul, a Tongxuan Realm cultivator still had the power to fight. Even one move would be enough to take Chen Ye's life.

But Chen Ye was faster than Elder Tianwu.

As Princess Hongyu activated the spirit talisman, Chen Ye had already used his last sword talisman.

Brilliant sword light cleaved into the old demon's soul, splitting it in two in an instant. The edges cracked like shattered glass. The invisible soul was broken into fragments by the sword light, leaving it unable to cast spells.

But Chen Ye didn't stop. Seven beams of sword light shot from the Sword Box on his back, piercing the remaining fragments without holding anything back.

Even so, the fragments continued to wriggle, as if trying to knit themselves back together.

Without a second thought, Chen Ye shook the Ten Thousand Soul Banner again. A lump of flesh flew out and turned into ghostfire, colliding with Elder Tianwu's remnant soul in a burst of flames that filled the sky.

Amid the shrill wails came the monk Ku'e's frenzied shouts: "Die! Die with me!"

Chen Ye had finally resorted to one of the Ten Thousand Soul Banner's usual functions. It tortured a soul until it lost its mind, then released it believing Elder Tianwu was its enemy. Naturally, it would do everything it could to drag him down with it.

As for the lump of flesh, it was a temporary body Mo Ci had spent several days refining. It wasn't much use, but it was enough for the monk Ku'e to use as fuel and burn himself and Elder Tianwu together.

The two vicious demons grappled with each other as flames consumed flesh and soul alike, until they finally shattered completely.

Chen Ye shook the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. Countless vengeful spirits surged out and swallowed every last remnant, leaving no possibility of rebirth.

After Elder Tianwu was finally dealt with, Chen Ye looked elsewhere. Princess Hongyu's soul was floating above the body that had turned to ash.

Chen Ye said, "Enter my Ten Thousand Soul Banner, and there's still a sliver of hope."

Princess Hongyu glanced only once at the sleeping Lan Shi, then shook her head and said to Chen Ye, "Thank you for your kindness, Daoist. But I should go keep my brothers and sisters company."

A gust of wind swept by. The ashes of her body scattered, and Princess Hongyu's soul vanished into the breeze.

Chen Ye remained silent for a long time, until Mo Ci's voice reached his ear. "Wretched disciple, how long are you going to mope?"

Chen Ye came back to himself and shook his head. "Master, there's no need to worry. I was just reflecting a little."

Mo Ci scoffed. "Reflecting my ass. You've known that young lady for only a few days, and you haven't even slept with her. What could she possibly have to do with you? There are plenty of people in this world who've had it worse. She didn't want to live. No one could save her."

Chen Ye shook his head again. "You misunderstand, Master. Since she was determined to die, I naturally don't blame myself."

Mo Ci asked in confusion, "Really? Then why were you spacing out?"

"I was just thinking: if someone else is also steeped in sin but doesn't want to die, what should be done? Should we pretend nothing happened, or help them settle their debts?"

"Wretched disciple, are you using this to take a jab at your master?!"

Mo Ci felt that Chen Ye was clearly calling him out. The only person steeped in sin who didn't want to die at the moment was him, after all.

He had thought Chen Ye would make an excuse as usual, but this time, Chen Ye nodded and admitted it. "Master, you've certainly committed plenty of sins, but I don't mean just you. There are so many sinners under heaven. If two beggars on the verge of starving to death fight over a bun, and the one who wins survives, does that count as murder too?"

"This princess was controlled by a demon from childhood. She killed people simply because she didn't want to die. Does that make her utterly evil? You became a demon because your entire family was slaughtered, and you were trying to stay alive."

"Just like me. If I hadn't been afraid you'd kill me to cultivate your techniques, I wouldn't have bowed my head and become a little demon myself. Luckily, you didn't force me to kill anyone, so I can face Miss Su with a clear conscience. But what if you really had forced me to kill? If I'd killed an innocent person to survive, would I have had no choice but to atone with my death?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't agree to that either."

Mo Ci fell silent for a moment, then asked, "What exactly are you trying to say, you wretched disciple?"

Chen Ye said, "The desire to live is instinctive, but it can't be used as an excuse to harm the innocent. So shouldn't there be some way to weigh right and wrong, and let those steeped in sin make amends?"

Since crossing into this world, Chen Ye had never before pondered such a profound question.

Those whose crimes didn't merit death should face some other punishment, not death as the only answer. Mortals had laws, but those laws were not always fair, and mortal laws couldn't reach cultivators.

Even the great orthodox sects had their own rules. They didn't even agree on what was right and wrong.

But there had to be some standard. They couldn't simply leave the matter alone because it was hard to define.

The innocent victims deserved a chance to start over, perhaps even a chance to take revenge with their own hands, instead of being left to drift away on the wind.

Chen Ye couldn't help thinking of the Ksitigarbha Vow Sutra in his hands. Perhaps the Six Paths of Reincarnation had been established so that all living beings could have a chance to begin anew. Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's vow not to become a Buddha until the hells were empty must have been meant to give these vengeful spirits a chance to reform as well.

Mo Ci merely sneered coldly. "What does any of that have to do with you? You're a tiny Qi Sea Realm cultivator, an ant among ants. Is this really something you should be thinking about?"

Chen Ye countered, "Master, isn't it only natural for young people to have lofty ambitions? Perhaps my edge will wear away after I've stumbled through a few hundred years and death is knocking at the door, but what's wrong with thinking about it now? If I don't make this grand vow, how will I know I'm set on immortality? I don't just want immortality. I also want to draw a path for this world, so that all mortals and cultivators will have to follow my rules from now on."

He was a transmigrator, after all. It would be too dull to become an immortal and find the world unchanged, as if he had never made a difference. Having his name added to the list of Immortal Venerables and Demon Venerables would hardly be enough.

He was only at the Qi Sea Realm and already thinking about becoming an immortal. And immortality wasn't enough; he wanted to keep every cultivator under his thumb.

Chen Ye was like someone holding an unhatched egg and imagining himself the richest man in the world. He knew it was unrealistic, but couldn't help dreaming anyway.

Mo Ci roared, "You arrogant fool! And you're defying your master again, you wretched disciple! Do you think I can't hear what you're really saying?"

Chen Ye laughed and hastily changed the subject. "Master, we've packed everything. Let's go."

Mo Ci wasn't really angry. His wretched disciple had defied him so often that he was used to it. Seeing that Chen Ye was no longer brooding, he asked, "Where to? Weren't you waiting for your Miss Su?"

"She'll find me. There's no need to wait here. Princess Hongyu and that demon died together, but there's still a little demon running free, isn't there? Everyone else is dead and buried, so why should he get to live?"

"I'm in a bad mood. I'm going to root out evil to the last sprout!"

I'll finish writing this section in one go. After that, it's on to stories about cultivators.