The air began to boil with tension. Morning sunlight poured across the land, warm and serene, yet for Mu Chen...poisoned within.....it held no comfort, no use. He had never once imagined that today, here of all places, he would come face to face with Patriarch Wen Huan....the man he regarded as his greatest enemy.
With a sudden motion, Mu Chen unsheathed his broken sword. Even fractured, its edge screamed as it tore through the air, its cry echoing through the forest. For a heartbeat, it felt as though the world itself had fallen silent. Mu Chen leveled the blade straight at Patriarch Wen Huan, his crimson eyes burning, his fury surging as though the heavens themselves must decide....either he lives, or the man before him does not.
"You two never miss a chance to provoke me!" His voice thundered, raw and seething. "If not for the accursed pact that bound me to the academy, your pure white robes would already be soaked in your own blood! Since the day I was forced to join with you, I have learned nothing but hatred.....for myself, for walking alongside the murderer of my mother. Were it not for necessity, I would have burned this world to ashes!
And you.....always pretending that you understand everything. Where does your wisdom vanish when the poor are trampled? Where does your compassion hide when the innocent are condemned? When men and women are left with no choice but to steal, simply to eat a single meal a day.....tell me, Wen Huan! What else should they do but turn to theft? Answer me!"
His words struck like thunderbolts, piercing the mountain's very heart. The peaks shuddered, the wind itself halted, and a dreadful stillness spread. Yet Mu Chen was not done.
"This," he spat, voice ragged with pain, "this is why I loathe men like you.....the wealthy, the high-born! Yes, call me a villain if you wish. I am a villain! Poverty made me one, the slaughter of my innocent mother made me one! And as for helping Heng Yao Ren...forget it! Do not even dream that I will raise a hand in his aid.
I have only one truth I hold to myself: if the world forces you to become a demon....then become one without hesitation!"
With those words he turned, intent on leaving.
But before he could take another step, Patriarch Wen Huan's voice rumbled like an ancient curse. He unleashed his greatest sealing art. At once, countless threads.....fine as hair, glimmering with the brilliance of gold....shot forth and wrapped around Mu Chen's body. They tightened, binding him inescapably, until he was trapped, suspended, caught within the Patriarch's most powerful seal.
Shenzu Wey Mountain.
A land once defined by sacred serenity and unmatched beauty, yet within this tranquil scene, a terrifying turn was unfolding.
Suspended in midair, Mu Chen hung helplessly within the intricate net of Patriarch Wen Huan's grand sealing art. Golden threads of the formation coiled around him like a cage of light, holding him aloft, immovable. Below, Wushi Taoyi and Patriarch Wen Huan stood gazing upward at him. Yet despite his anger, despite the venom in his eyes, Wushi Taoyi still looked at him with the same respect she had from the very first day.
Her voice, soft and gentle as silk, rose in reverence:
"My honored Shu An(Master)… Hoi Ye Shi… please, calm yourself. Father wishes to speak with you of something important. We know what you feel in this moment, but I beg you.....at least once, still your fury and listen to us, my master."
But Mu Chen's eyes remained crimson, blazing, unyielding. Not a flicker of peace surfaced within them. Wen Huan, however, understood. After all.....Mu Chen was the son of his own great teacher.
Slowly, carefully, Wen Huan lowered Mu Chen back to the ground. The golden threads loosened, releasing him to stand once more upon the earth. Without delay, the Patriarch spoke. Wushi Taoyi stepped back, folding herself into silence, standing as still as a carved statue....readying herself for the storm this truth would bring.
A breeze swept between them just as Wen Huan's heavy voice began. It was a voice deep with gravity, steady with assurance, yet carrying the weight of a man speaking not to an enemy, but to the son of an old friend.
"Do you know why this mountain's name echoes your mother's?" Wen Huan asked, each word laden with solemnity. "It is because the history of this mountain belongs to her. Your mother.....Wey Zu Shen.....was the one who uncovered its greatest secret. She discovered the hidden library buried within these cliffs, and only she knew its precise location.
And I believe… it was this discovery that led to her death.
When word spread across the realm that a secret library had been found, immense pressure fell upon her to open it. But she had already seen what lay inside. She warned us of a cursed tome sealed within....that it contained the imprisoned soul of the last great Demon Trader, Patriarch Peng Zhi. Betrayed through deceit, trapped by greed, he was bound within that very book.
It is said… whoever opens that cursed tome will inherit the mantle of the Demon Trader. That power is what many sought to claim. Yet the key to the library was held only by your mother....Shu An(Master)..… Wey Zu Shen. Perhaps… that is why she was murdered."
The Patriarch's voice faded, heavy silence pressing against the mountain air. He believed such a truth might soothe Mu Chen, might open his eyes, might douse the fire of his rage.
But instead....it ignited it further.
Mu Chen's fury blazed to the heavens. His voice ripped from his chest, raw and thunderous, shaking the air with disbelief and wrath:
"Oh… so this is your truth?! Then where were you.....WHERE WERE ALL OF YOU...when my mother and father lay sick, when we starved with nothing to eat, when the world abandoned us?! Where was your noble righteousness then?!
This story...save it for someone else!"