The Massacre of the Sect (Part One)

The sonorous toll of bells echoed as the cloud chimes rang.

Incense smoke curled through the air, while clouds gathered above the Heavenly Secret Hall.

Today was the Ancestor Worship Ceremony of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect. All its disciples had gathered together, led by Xin Ranzi, to pay their respects to the sect's founders.

Since ancient times, the Heavenly Mechanism Sect had produced countless great masters.

But now they had all fallen to dust, and in the end, only their sacrificial stars remained above the Heavenly Secret Hall. Flecks of starlight circled overhead, forming a sea of stars. Each shining star represented a great master, all gathered above the hall into a brilliant firmament.

There were so many great founding masters that even calling out their names would have been a luxury.

Xin Ranzi bowed reverently three times to the empty air. "Xin Ranzi, seventy-first sect master of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect, leads the disciples in paying respects to all the founding masters! May your spirits in heaven continue to protect our Heavenly Mechanism Sect..."

After the sacrificial prayer, the sect's uncles and the disciples took turns paying their respects.

For the Heavenly Mechanism Sect, this happened every year. It had become a ritual, so there was nothing particularly unusual about it.

Feng Buting even nudged Zhao Longguang with his elbow. "Senior Brother, last night's evening lesson was too exhausting. Since everyone's gathered for the ceremony today, couldn't we skip tonight's lesson for once?"

Zhao Longguang, however, was as stubborn as they came. He glared at Feng Buting. "All you ever think about is slacking off. No."

Feng Buting shut his mouth in dismay.

Watching from beside them, Xin Xiaoye chuckled. Her laughter reached Xin Ranzi, who glared at his daughter. Xin Xiaoye obediently lowered her head.

She stole a glance at Ning Ye, only to find him frowning as if deep in thought.

Puzzled, Xin Xiaoye whispered to Ning Ye, "Hey, what are you doing?"

Ning Ye made calculations with his fingertips and answered quietly, "I don't know why, but I can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen."

Xin Xiaoye curled her lip. "Stop pretending to be a fortune-teller. Your mastery of the Heaven Asking Art is still far from enough. And I'm warning you, don't go spouting nonsense on such an important day. Or else, watch out—I'll beat you up, Senior Sister or not!"

When it came to the Heaven Asking Art, Xin Ranzi was naturally the strongest. Since even her father hadn't sensed anything wrong, Xin Xiaoye didn't believe Ning Ye could have noticed something.

But although Ning Ye's mastery of the Heaven Asking Art was still lacking, he had the Kunlun Mirror. Using it to divine the future, he could actually achieve more than Xin Ranzi. Xin Xiaoye had no idea about that.

At that moment, Ning Ye ran calculation after calculation, yet the unease in his heart only grew stronger.

By then, all the disciples had paid their respects. Next came the divination.

Every year, the Heavenly Mechanism Sect performed a divination during the ancestor worship ceremony, both to follow Heaven's mandate and to ask their founders for protection.

Under the Heaven Asking Art, the divination was never clear, but it could always point in a general direction. Whenever the Heavenly Mechanism Sect faced a crisis, it relied on the guidance of Heaven's divinations to make the right choice. It was a way to calculate fortune and misfortune and guard against disaster before it struck.

Xin Ranzi raised the divination tube high. Inside, eighteen Wordless Heaven Divination Sticks rattled. As they shook, wondrous characters appeared upon them.

Unlike the country folk's methods of divination, the Heavenly Mechanism Sect's art was far more mysterious. As the sticks tumbled, one suddenly rose into the air and spun. The writing on it grew brighter and brighter, until it shone with a red glow.

Ning Ye's sense of danger surged. A sudden feeling seized him, and he blurted out, "That stick must not fall!"

What?

Everyone turned to look at him at once.

Ning Ye shouted again, "Master, that stick must not fall!"

But Xin Ranzi acted as though he hadn't heard. He stared intently at the glowing stick and shook his head. "Heaven's will is already set. Whether it falls or not will change nothing. Open!"

At his words, the divination stick shot upward, spun in midair, then descended. It never touched the ground, instead hanging suspended in the air as a huge character appeared before them:

Death!

A deep red, like fresh blood!

"Disaster!" everyone in the Heavenly Mechanism Sect cried out at once.

Xin Ranzi's face went deathly pale. "A great calamity is coming... No, it isn't coming. It's already here!"

As he spoke, a wild laugh rang across the sky like thunder. "Xin Ranzi, your plot has been exposed! Hurry up and accept your death!"

With the roar, boundless flames erupted, instantly spreading across the entire Heavenly Secret Mountain.

The crowd turned around in shock and saw a gigantic face made of flames in the sky, grinning viciously down at them. A fiery hand descended from the clouds, reaching for the Heavenly Secret Hall.

"Ancestor Yanrong?" Xin Ranzi cried out. He raised the Heavenly Secret Staff high, and the two stone-carved beasts before the Heavenly Secret Hall suddenly sprang to life. Together, they unleashed a dazzling divine radiance at the sky. The light blazed overhead, shielding the entire mountain.

These were the Heavenly Mechanism Sect's guardian constructs, each as powerful as an Immaculate Realm cultivator.

But just then, black mist rolled across the sky. A thousand eyes appeared within it, casting their gaze over the two constructs and pinning them in place. They could not move, and thrashed within the beams of light, sending out bursts of divine radiance.

"Eyeless Heavenly Demon?" Xin Ranzi was horrified.

It wasn't only because his enemies were powerful. Even more terrifying was that Ancestor Yanrong and the Eyeless Heavenly Demon belonged to two different Immortal Sects: the Haotian Sect and the Taiyin Sect, the two greatest Immortal Sects in the Evergreen Realm.

At that thought, Xin Ranzi knew the situation was dire.

Countless cultivators had already flown in from beyond the sky. Every one of them wore a mask of a demon's face, and the black robes they wore were embroidered with flames and skulls.

They were dressed in the standard garb of the Demon Sect.

The Haotian Sect and the Taiyin Sect were naturally no Demon Sects. They had only dressed this way to pin their actions on the Demon Sect.

Seeing this, Ning Ye realized what was happening. "They're going to wipe out the whole sect!"

There was no need to ask why. Ning Ye knew it had to be because the matter of the Thousand Mechanism Hall had been exposed.

The Immortal Sects of the Evergreen Realm would never give the Heavenly Mechanism Sect a chance to rise again.

Xin Ranzi understood as well. He shouted and flung out a Wooden Fish.

The Wooden Fish appeared, ringing out with a clear chime. Buddhist chants shook the air and swept toward the Immortal Sect cultivators charging at them. Wherever the chants fell, the cultivators staggered like candles in the wind.

A refined voice rang out just then. "Why go to all this trouble?"

Along with that voice, Heaven and Earth abruptly turned black and white. Even the flames turned black, while the lightning became white light.

Within the Black and White World, a black chess piece came spinning through the air. The whole of space and time seemed to freeze in its wake.

All things fell silent.

The black piece landed on the Wooden Fish with a clear chime. The Wooden Fish immediately cracked apart, piece by piece. As it split, the entire Black and White World shattered, transforming into a chessboard. Then countless black and white chess pieces flew toward them...

"The Black and White Divine Palace?" Xin Ranzi exclaimed in horror.

So the Black and White Divine Palace had come too?

Of the Evergreen Realm's nine great Immortal Sects, three had come at once. And the Black and White Divine Palace was considered the strongest of the nine. Xin Ranzi knew this battle was now impossible to avoid.

But even a trapped beast would fight. Xin Ranzi activated every mechanism and formation in the Heavenly Mechanism Sect.

In the next instant, countless mechanisms burst out of the Heavenly Secret Hall. Restrictions activated, spiritual power surged, and countless visions appeared in the sky: cranes, giant rhinoceroses, phoenixes, raging tigers, snow leopards, and dragon steeds. The myriad beasts fell silent as their boundless might swept forth. More treasures appeared in the air—***, canopies, enormous umbrellas, jade chimes, and all manner of others—spraying out multicolored light. Yet beneath the Black and White World, their colors turned pitch-black, their radiance dimming until even the sun and moon lost their light.

Xin Ranzi was startled once more.

"How could this be?"

He was shocked because the Heavenly Mechanism Sect's most important mountain-guarding formation had failed to activate.

Knowing something was terribly wrong, Xin Ranzi shouted, "Everyone, get out of here! Run!"

"You still think you can run?" The refined voice in the sky gave a cold snort. "This place has been sealed off by us. Without my permission, who can escape? Xin Ranzi, hand over the Thousand Mechanism Hall, and the Heavenly Mechanism Sect may yet survive."

The Thousand Mechanism Hall? What was going on? Everyone was baffled.

Xin Ranzi shouted, "Yue Xinchans, do you think I'll believe your lies? You came here disguised as the Demon Sect. It's obvious you mean to exterminate us and wipe out my entire sect!"

So it was Yue Xinchans, Hand of the Chess Player?

Everyone was shocked.

He was the foremost of the Black and White Divine Palace's Twelve Heavenly Dippers, the City Lord of Chess, a peak Immaculate Realm master ranked fifth in the Black and White Divine Palace. He alone could wipe out the entire Heavenly Mechanism Sect, let alone with Ancestor Yanrong and the Eyeless Heavenly Demon helping him.

Flames surged upward, forming a gigantic head. Its mouth opened and closed as it spoke. "I told you this was completely unnecessary."

It was Ancestor Yanrong.

Yue Xinchans did not appear, but his voice rang out all the same. "He was never the one we needed to fool. We are righteous cultivators, after all; we still have to mind appearances. Whether our excuse convinces anyone doesn't matter. It's enough that we have one. Since you won't hand it over, Xin Ranzi, we'll kill you and search for it ourselves."

"Fight them!" A Heavenly Mechanism Sect elder charged out. He was Xin Ranzi's junior brother and one of the sect's elders. As he rushed forward, he unleashed the strongest divine art of his life at the sky. Five-Colored Wheel Light surged, powerful enough to flood the sun and moon.

But the radiance wheeled around, and flames blazed. A torrent of scorching fire burst forth. In the next instant, the Heavenly Mechanism elder was wreathed in flames from head to toe, howling in agony.

Overcome with grief and anger, Xin Ranzi knew the Heavenly Mechanism Sect had already lost. He cried out, "Fight them!"

"Fight!" Everyone shouted at once. They charged out of the hall without a thought for their own safety and attacked the sky. Even if they were mantises trying to stop a chariot, they would still fight to the death.

Ning Ye did not move.

Neither did Qing Lin or Xin Xiaoye—they had been caught by Xin Ranzi.

"Come with me," Xin Ranzi said.

Qing Lin and Xin Xiaoye stared at him in a daze, wanting to say something, but Xin Ranzi acted swiftly. He sealed them both, led them around behind the hall, and headed toward a side hall. Ning Ye followed as if he had been expecting this. In no time, the four of them reached the side hall.

Xin Ranzi shoved the Heavenly Secret Staff and a mustard seed bag into Ning Ye's hands. "From this moment on, you are the sect master of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect."

What? Xin Xiaoye looked at Ning Ye, confused, then turned to Xin Ranzi. "Father, you..."

"Silence!" Xin Ranzi pointed toward the side hall. "There's an escape route here. Bai Yu knows what to do. The three of you must leave at once."

As he spoke, he pushed the three of them into the hall.

"Father!" Xin Xiaoye cried out. Ning Ye grabbed her, stopping her from moving, and stared at Xin Ranzi without a word.

In that moment, Xin Ranzi and Ning Ye met each other's eyes. Master and disciple understood each other's thoughts.

Then Xin Ranzi gave a bitter smile. "At last, I understand... Only by breaking can we build anew. The future of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect rests with you."

Looking at the face of a man who had already accepted his death, Ning Ye could no longer hold back. Tears streamed down his cheeks.

He fell to his knees. "Master..."

"Don't disappoint me." As Xin Ranzi spoke, he slammed the door shut.

He turned and charged back toward the Heavenly Secret Hall. Before him, the disciples were being slaughtered.

Xin Ranzi cried out through his tears, "Founding masters above, I, Xin Ranzi, have failed you. I have disgraced my position as sect master. I could not lead the Heavenly Mechanism Sect back to glory; instead, I have led it to ruin. Yet I have never forgotten the aspirations of our founders. The day the Heavenly Mechanism Sect rises again will come. Today, I will forge a chance at life with my blood. One day, the Heavenly Mechanism Sect will surely rise again!"

With that, he charged forward without hesitation.