Reflection

Zi Ji looked at Xuan Qing with concern in her eyes. He lay there, staring blankly at the sky, and didn't speak for a long time.

"Senior, are you all right?"

Xuan Qing came back to himself and shook his head.

"I'm fine. I've just figured some things out."

He sat up and brushed the dust off himself. His eyes had grown clearer.

He had figured it out.

Why was it that the Azure Dragon, relatively gentle among the Four Sacred Beasts, had a weapon so overbearing—ignoring defenses, doubling damage, binding itself to its master, and making anyone who tried to steal it die?

He remembered a saying from his previous life.

Even the Buddha had the wrath of a Vajra. A bodhisattva lowered their eyes, a Vajra glared in fury—both were acts of compassion.

Or, put another way: killing to protect life, killing those who deserved to die and saving those who deserved to be saved.

Now he understood why the Azure Dragon commanded both the eternal spring of life and the world-ending thunder.

Wood ruled over benevolence; thunder ruled over killing.

Benevolence alone could not bring lasting peace. Sometimes, the thunderbolt was the truest form of compassion.

Xuan Qing looked at Zi Ji and suddenly asked a deeply philosophical question.

"Zi Ji, what do you think the meaning of life is?"

Zi Ji visibly froze. She hadn't expected him to ask that. She thought carefully before answering.

"This junior doesn't know. Apart from Bi Ji, who's an outlier among outliers, we Soul Beasts are born into a world where the strong prey on the weak."

"Either you grow strong and eat other Soul Beasts, or other Soul Beasts eat you. It's that simple."

Xuan Qing smiled, but his smile was complicated.

"Yes, Soul Beasts have it that simple. But Soul Beasts and humans are both simple, really."

"To live is to be born and keep living. But some people live in a way that leaves no room for others to live."

He paused. His voice turned cold, carrying a hint of killing intent.

"Then they shouldn't be alive."

Xuan Qing looked at the corpses strewn across the ground and held out his hand. A ball of flame sprang to life in his palm.

He flung it out. The flames spread across the entire village, blazing fiercely until the corpses, bloodstains, and wreckage were all consumed.

"Dust to dust, earth to earth. May you rest in peace."

Xuan Qing reached out again. Earth-yellow Soul Power surged in his palm, burying every charred trace underground.

"Let's go. Back to Sunset Forest."

Zi Ji nodded and used her Soul Power to lift Xuan Qing. The two shot into the sky and flew toward Sunset Forest.

Xuan Qing remained silent the whole way, lost in thought about life and killing.

Half an hour later, they returned to Sunset Forest and landed inside the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. Hearing the commotion, Dugu Bo came out to check.

"Young master, you're back."

Only then did Dugu Bo notice that Xuan Qing looked a little off.

Xuan Qing said nothing. He went straight to a corner, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating with his eyes closed.

Dugu Bo looked at Zi Ji and lowered his voice.

"Senior, the young master... seems a little different?"

Zi Ji nodded. She didn't hide anything, recounting what had happened along the way, from their encounter with the Fallen Ones to Xuan Qing's killing spree.

She described what he had said afterward, as well as his final decision to burn down the village. She went into detail and left nothing out.

After listening, Dugu Bo fell silent. The Fallen Ones deserved to die; that was only right. He had killed plenty in his youth and had never gone easy on them.

But that line—"Some people live in a way that leaves no room for others to live. Then they shouldn't be alive."

Those words carried great weight, but they were also right. Dugu Bo followed that line of thought, and the further he went, the more shaken he became.

Those who denied others the chance to live were no different from the Fallen Ones: nobles, empires, royal families.

The Heaven Dou Emperor was Xue Ye. He appeared benevolent, but he'd done plenty of dirty things behind closed doors.

Slave trading was common in Heaven Dou. Some nobles even treated it as entertainment. Weren't those slaves people too?

They wanted to keep living, but nobody cared.

Dugu Bo suddenly realized that he had never thought about any of this before. He had lived for decades with his eyes fixed only on cultivation, growing stronger, and protecting his granddaughter.

He had rarely cared about the world outside. Now, one sentence from Xuan Qing had jolted him awake, making him realize just how complicated this world really was.

The world wasn't black and white. It was gray.

Dugu Bo smiled bitterly. "I never thought that after living this long, I'd still have a narrower outlook than a child."

Zi Ji said nothing. She only watched Xuan Qing. She felt that he had changed somehow, but couldn't say exactly what was different.

Was it his eyes? His presence? Or something deeper?

The next morning, after waking, Xuan Qing didn't continue cultivating. Instead, he sat in a daze atop a large rock.

His mind was still on Red Dust Heart Inquiry. Surely what had happened yesterday counted as an inquiry of the heart?

He had killed those who deserved to die, saved those who deserved to be saved, and understood what was right. Wasn't that enough?

He scratched his head, feeling irritated. Red Dust Myriad Phenomena, the myriad faces of the human heart—there had to be other aspects to it.

The matter of killing alone definitely wasn't enough. He needed to experience more and see through more.

A thought suddenly occurred to Xuan Qing: if he became a great fiend, would the Azure Dragon bring down thunder to strike him dead?

It really wasn't impossible!

The Azure Dragon symbolized auspiciousness and integrity. It embodied the removal of evil and the protection of the righteous. It naturally favored justice and would never tolerate evil.

The Qilin was the same. Its core symbolism was peace and benevolence. If the one who inherited its power became a great fiend, these two would probably come and purge their own ranks themselves.

Xuan Qing shuddered. Good thing he wasn't that twisted. Otherwise, he could die without even knowing how.

He was beginning to understand why the trial had no time limit.

If you couldn't pass this stage, you'd remain stuck here indefinitely. There'd be no point in attempting the trials that followed—you'd only be throwing your life away.

But what exactly did Red Dust Heart Inquiry ask?

Was it asking about good and evil? One's true nature? One's choices? Or... the Dao?

Xuan Qing scratched his head. The more he thought, the more confused he became. He stood up and wandered around the medicinal garden.

His thoughts were a tangled mess. He forced himself to calm down and slowly sort them out.

Suddenly, he thought of a fundamental question: Who am I, really?

Was he the wage slave who worked overtime every day? The Xuan Qing of this life? The Azure Dragon's incarnation? Or simply himself?

It was a philosophical question, but one he had to answer. If he didn't even know who he was, what the hell was the point of asking about his heart?

Xuan Qing sat by the spring and began to think it through carefully.

His memories of his previous life were clear: working overtime, quitting his job, getting hit by a car, then crossing over to this world and becoming Skinny Monkey.

After awakening his Martial Soul, he inherited the legacies of the Azure Dragon and the Qilin. He had made it this far, killing people and saving people along the way.

But those were experiences, not answers. It was Xuan Qing, but it wasn't Xuan Qing.

The Azure Dragon's incarnation was an identity, not an essence. So what was his essence?

A person. Someone who wanted to keep living, to live comfortably, and to live a life with meaning!

Red Dust Heart Inquiry was asking about one's true nature. What was his true nature?

It was his most genuine thoughts, his deepest desires. And what were those deepest desires?

The other side of himself? The dirtiest, most depraved part of him?

Every living being had desires. Those without desires simply hadn't yet encountered something they wanted.

Xuan Qing admitted that he was just an ordinary person. He wanted power, wealth, beauty, and strength.

But he had limits. He wouldn't stoop to anything to get what he wanted. That was the morality he had brought from his previous life, and the line he still upheld in this one.

Suddenly, something clicked. He conjured fire and drew a Taiji symbol on the ground: yin within yang, yang within yin.

Red Dust Heart Inquiry wasn't about right and wrong or good and evil. It was about recognizing yourself and accepting yourself.

Accept your kindness, and accept your darkness. Even the darkest, dirtiest version of you is still you.

Accepting your imperfections was what made you truly yourself. But was that enough?

No! Absolutely not.