"Father!"
Staring at the closed gate, Xin Xiaoye cried out in anguish. She tried to rush outside, but Ning Ye held her back with all his strength.
"Let go of me!" Xin Xiaoye slapped Ning Ye across the face. He didn't fight back. With a wave of his hand, countless vines burst from the ground, winding and twisting over in dense layers until they bound both her and Qing Lin.
"Wood Wheel Armor Dance Art?" Qing Lin roared furiously. "Bai Yu, you're actually using magic against us?"
Ning Ye waved his hand. The vines dragged the two of them quickly toward the inner hall. His voice was low and grave. "The Three Immortal Sects have joined forces to attack. There's no point in going out. We have to obey Master's dying wish and leave at once."
Xin Xiaoye was beside herself with anger. "Have you no conscience? The sect is in danger, and all you can think about is running away?"
Ning Ye dragged them onward. "This is what Master wanted. There's a teleportation array in this side hall. It can break through the Black and White World's confinement. It's a secret of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect, and only the Heavenly Secret Staff can activate it."
Xin Xiaoye and Qing Lin stared at him in astonishment. How did he know?
Could it be that Ning Ye had known all along...
"Yes, I knew the Heavenly Mechanism Sect would be destroyed. I wasn't the only one who knew; Master knew too," Ning Ye said bluntly. "That's why he made arrangements in advance. Only Master and I knew about this secret."
"How could that be?" Xin Xiaoye was in tears, unable to understand. "If Father knew, how could he still be here...?"
"Because he only knew disaster was coming, not what kind of disaster it would be," Ning Ye replied.
Qing Lin understood. "The Kunlun Mirror?"
Xin Xiaoye was confused. "The Kunlun Mirror? The Thousand Mechanism Hall? What on earth is going on?"
Only then did Qing Lin tell Xin Xiaoye the secret of Ning Ye and the Thousand Mechanism Hall. Now that things had come to this, there was no need to keep it from her any longer.
Ning Ye continued. "A year ago, I finally achieved a minor mastery of the Heaven Asking Art. I used it with the Kunlun Mirror to perform a divination..."
Qing Lin's heart tightened. "What did you see?"
What had he seen?
At the question, Ning Ye's heart sank.
He drew a deep breath. His voice was low, like a cold wind rising from an abyss. "I saw myself reaching the Hualun Realm. And on that very day, disaster struck the Heavenly Mechanism Sect."
What?
Only then did the two of them understand.
No wonder Ning Ye had never wanted to reach the Hualun Realm. According to the heavenly divination, the day he ascended would be the day disaster befell the Heavenly Mechanism Sect.
After that, Ning Ye performed divination many more times, but unfortunately, he never saw anything else.
Heaven's secrets were impossible to fathom.
The Heaven Asking Art offered only one chance.
What you saw, you saw. What you didn't, you didn't.
And even if you saw something, that didn't mean you could understand it.
Ning Ye hadn't seen who would attack the Heavenly Mechanism Sect. He couldn't even see the details of the disaster. He only knew that on the day he ascended, heaven and earth would change color, disaster would descend, and then everything would vanish.
From that day on, he never dared to attempt ascension again.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Qing Lin demanded angrily.
"The Kunlun Mirror's divinations are hard to interpret. They reveal both disaster and a chance of survival—it's the Nine Deaths One Life Gambit. I told Master, and he believed there was still something we could do: we had to search for that one chance of survival. For the past year, we've been looking for it. We thought that if I didn't ascend, the disaster could be delayed, giving us time to find a way out. But now Master and I both understand... some things simply can't be escaped."
As he spoke, Ning Ye sighed helplessly.
Though he had glimpsed heaven's secrets, he was powerless to change them. Even by delaying his ascension, all he had done was postpone this day.
Just as Master had said, Heaven's will was already set!
By then, Ning Ye had reached the inner part of the side hall. He walked straight to a row of bookshelves and took down a book. A round hole was revealed behind it.
Ning Ye inserted the Heavenly Secret Staff into the hole. The hall's wall opened by itself, revealing a secret passage.
He dragged the two of them inside and continued, "Only now have Master and I understood. The so-called Nine Deaths One Life Gambit didn't mean there was a chance to turn things around. That one chance of survival meant us..."
Nine deaths and one life didn't mean there was a chance to reverse the situation. It meant that, from the entire Heavenly Mechanism Sect, only one in ten would survive.
Qing Lin and Xin Xiaoye felt as if they'd fallen into an ice pit.
"No! No! No!" Xin Xiaoye shook her head again and again. "If that's the case, why can't everyone leave? Why only the three of us?"
"Because there's a traitor in the Heavenly Mechanism Sect!" Ning Ye shouted. His tiger eyes brimmed with tears, and his words shook them once again.
They stared at him in disbelief. Choking back a sob, Ning Ye said, "Haven't you noticed? The enemy chose their moment with perfect precision. They attacked during the ancestor-worship ceremony, ensuring that every member of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect was on the mountain. And just now, Master activated the Star Divination Divine Mechanism Formation, but our mountain-protection formation never activated!"
Qing Lin sucked in a breath.
That was why Xin Ranzi had only told the three of them to leave.
Xin Ranzi didn't know who the traitor was.
Ning Ye couldn't be the traitor; after all, he was the true master of the Thousand Mechanism Hall. Qing Lin couldn't be either, since he had been the first to learn about the Thousand Mechanism Hall. If he'd wanted to betray them, he would have done so long ago. And Xin Xiaoye was Xin Ranzi's daughter. As a father, Xin Ranzi could never bring himself to suspect her.
Apart from the three of them, Xin Ranzi didn't dare trust anyone else.
So even though he knew most of the sect members were innocent, Xin Ranzi could only abandon them.
That moment must have been agonizing for him, too.
Perhaps that was why Xin Ranzi gave up on saving himself.
He had resolutely chosen to go to the underworld alongside his disciples.
Qing Lin trembled with agitation. "Who could it be? Who? It makes no sense. Only the three of us knew the secret of the Thousand Mechanism Hall. It wasn't me! I didn't!"
"I know you didn't." Ning Ye looked Qing Lin in the eye. "If Master didn't trust you, he wouldn't have saved you. Actually, besides you, Master, and me, there was one other person who knew about the Thousand Mechanism Hall."
"What? Who?" Qing Lin gaped.
"Senior Brother Zhao Longguang," Ning Ye replied. "Once, Master used my Kunlun Mirror while divining heaven's secrets, and Senior Brother happened to walk in on him."
Qing Lin shouted, "No! It couldn't have been Senior Brother!"
"I didn't say Senior Brother betrayed us." Ning Ye sighed. "But he's a straightforward man, not someone who can keep a secret. Who knows when he might have let something slip? It might not have been him who revealed the secret, either. It could have been me, or you, or even Master... Master didn't dare take that gamble, so he could only choose to save none of us."
For Xin Ranzi, making that choice must have been a source of great pain, too.
As he spoke, Ning Ye shut his eyes in anguish.
Compared with Qing Lin, Xin Xiaoye was far more agitated.
She screamed with all her might. "I don't care! Let me go! I want to go back! I want to be with Father!!!"
Ning Ye spoke softly. "Senior Sister, I understand how you feel, but believe me, it truly would be pointless."
Pointless?
Ning Ye's cold words shattered their defenses. Both of them trembled violently, and Xin Xiaoye's whole body went limp.
Ning Ye continued. "Death isn't the most terrifying thing. What's terrifying is how much harder it can be to keep living. What's terrifying is that even when you face the worst possible circumstances, even when your whole world changes into something completely unfamiliar, a world you don't recognize, you still have to find the strength to live on. What's terrifying is that you can't find any purpose or meaning in life, yet you still have to keep striving to live like a human being..."
Qing Lin stared at Ning Ye in shock. "You..."
Ning Ye let go of him. "Senior Brother, haven't you always wondered where I came from?"
Qing Lin nodded blankly.
Ning Ye's origins had always been a mystery. Though he claimed to have lost his memory, both Qing Lin and Xin Ranzi knew he was lying.
He had never lost his memory.
But neither Xin Ranzi nor Qing Lin had made things difficult for him because of it. Instead, they had carefully nurtured him.
Until now.
Ning Ye said, "You might not believe me, but I'm not from this world. The Thousand Mechanism Hall brought me here."
At those words, Qing Lin and Xin Xiaoye stared at him in shock.
Ning Ye spoke earnestly. "This is my greatest secret. My real name is Ning Ye."
Qing Lin wasn't surprised to learn that Bai Yu was an alias. After all, Xin Ranzi had pointed it out back then. "So all those stories you told me were true?"
Ning Ye nodded gently. "I've been through far more than you can imagine. I've experienced betrayal and treachery, and witnessed the most impossible miracles. I'm grateful to the sect. You could have killed me and taken the Thousand Mechanism Hall, but you didn't. Master and all of you are my benefactors—and the only people in this world I trust and care about. If my death could save the sect, I wouldn't hesitate. But you know that's impossible... They won't leave behind a seed of revenge."
Qing Lin and Xin Xiaoye stood trembling, speechless.
Ning Ye continued. "Life is like a great dream. All we can do now is stay clearheaded, no matter what kind of dream we find ourselves in! The Heavenly Mechanism Sect is down to just the three of us. Only if we survive can we avenge the sect!"
By then, he had emerged from the secret passage. Before them lay a formation that shimmered with rippling light.
It was the teleportation array.
Ning Ye inserted the Heavenly Secret Staff into the formation and began to activate it. Then he dragged the two of them into the array and said, "There are mechanisms here. Once we leave, they'll detonate. The Black and White Divine Palace won't be able to find us for a while."
"It's no use." Qing Lin shook his head. "The three top Immortal Sects have plenty of ways to track us down."
If he could, he would rather fight his way out, even if it meant perishing alongside the Three Immortal Sects.
But Ning Ye said, "Master has made his own arrangements."
As he spoke, he activated the formation. A flash of rippling light swept over them, and the three of them vanished. The next instant, the entire hall erupted with a thunderous blast.
Outside Heavenly Secret Mountain, Xin Ranzi looked back at the blasted ruins and smiled with relief. He murmured, "The future is in your hands now."
Then he threw back his head and roared, "I command the powers of heaven and earth!"
A vast surge of energy shot into the sky.
"The Heaven Stealing Art?" Yue Xinchans cried.
The Heaven Stealing Art wasn't a spell for defeating enemies. It concealed Heaven's secrets, preventing the other Immortal Sects from using divination to find the disciples of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect.
At the same time, Ning Ye, Qing Lin, and Xin Xiaoye appeared outside Heavenly Secret Mountain.
The Kunlun Mirror hung high in the sky, reflecting everything that had happened on the mountain.
When he saw the light of the Heaven Stealing Art rise, Qing Lin knew Ning Ye had been right. Xin Ranzi had placed all his hopes on them.
If they went back now, that would truly be letting him down.
"Father!" Xin Xiaoye could no longer hold back her grief and burst into tears.
When the first ray of dawn appeared on the horizon, the fire finally burned itself out.
The once-grand Heavenly Secret Hall had become a wasteland of rubble, its grounds strewn with broken walls and the corpses of the dead.
The wind wailed mournfully, carrying desolate cries and a plaintive, grief-stricken song.
Amid the boundless desolation, masked figures roamed the halls and buildings without mercy. With weapons or spells, they struck down every corpse, making sure not to leave a single survivor.
A middle-aged scholar in a black-and-white robe patterned with a chessboard stood before the ruins of the grand hall.
On either side of him stood two figures. One was an old man wearing a crimson cloak, his face covered in oozing sores, hideous to behold. The other had a pair of horns on his head, scales covering his body, and a chainsaw-like tail trailing behind him. Though he had a human shape, he was plainly no human at all. His eye sockets were empty.
These were the three leaders sent by the Three Immortal Sects. The middle-aged scholar was Yue Xinchans of the Black and White Divine Palace. The old man in red was Ancestor Yanrong of the Haotian Sect. The last was the Eyeless Heavenly Demon of the Taiyin Sect.
A disciple hurried over and knelt. "Report! We've searched everywhere, but we haven't found the Thousand Mechanism Hall."
"Worthless fools!" shouted Ancestor Yanrong, whose temper was as fiery as ever.
The Eyeless Heavenly Demon chuckled. "Perhaps it's better that we didn't find it. If the Heavenly Mechanism Sect's treasure really fell into our hands, first, we'd have trouble dividing it, and second, we might not even be able to use it."
Yue Xinchans nodded. "Indeed. The Thousand Mechanism Hall has been missing for ten thousand years. Perhaps it's best to let it stay missing. The only thing I fear is..."
He paused, then suddenly asked, "Have you checked the number of disciples? Are any missing?"
A figure emerged from behind Yue Xinchans. His entire body was shrouded in black smoke, making his face impossible to see. He answered respectfully, "We've checked them all. Three are missing."
"Who?"
"Xin Ranzi's fourth disciple, Qing Lin; his daughter; and his eighth disciple, Xin Xiaoye, as well as his youngest, ninth disciple, Bai Yu."
"Bai Yu? The one who joined three years ago?"
"Yes."
"Wasn't the Thousand Mechanism Hall found three years ago as well?"
"This disciple doesn't know. Xin Ranzi kept the matter deeply hidden. Almost no one knew about the Thousand Mechanism Hall. I only learned of it by chance."
"Did Qing Lin, Xin Xiaoye, and Bai Yu know about it?"
"This disciple doesn't know."
"Alas, what a nuisance," the Eyeless Heavenly Demon sighed. "If that old dog Xin hadn't used the Heaven Stealing Art, all we'd have to do is get something they'd touched and calculate their whereabouts."
Ancestor Yanrong scoffed. "With that old man's Heaven Stealing Art, he can only hold out for five years."
What could the Heavenly Mechanism Sect's survivors possibly accomplish in five years?
Yue Xinchans drew a deep breath. "We mustn't be careless. Search for them. We have to capture all three."
The Eyeless Heavenly Demon said in a sinister voice, "If we really can't catch them, it's no problem. They haven't gone far yet. In that case, just kill everyone in the surrounding area."
Hmm?
Yue Xinchans and Ancestor Yanrong looked at the Eyeless Heavenly Demon.
Yue Xinchans said, "Brother Eyeless, we're members of the orthodox sects. Massacring innocent people... doesn't seem appropriate, does it?"
The Eyeless Heavenly Demon chuckled. "The orthodox sects can't do it, of course. But the Demon Sect can."
Yue Xinchans and Ancestor Yanrong nodded together. "Exactly!"
Yue Xinchans said, "In that case, hurry things along. Don't let a single person escape. Otherwise, if they get away, all those lives will have been wasted."
Ancestor Yanrong sneered. "You're the only one who has so much pointless compassion."
Yue Xinchans' expression was calm, his righteous indignation undimmed. "Every blade of grass and every tree has a spirit, let alone a human being. As a man of the righteous path, I must cherish life. How could I slaughter indiscriminately?"
Before you continue