Chapter 124: The Madman Blocking the Way Is the God Who Must Be Slain

The figures in black robes stood frozen as if struck by a paralysis spell. They stared in astonishment at Wen Jingge, who had returned from the dead. After a moment of hesitation, as if confirming something, they knelt down once more. "We welcome the Ancestor's return!"

"If anyone says that to me again," Wen Jingge remarked with an uncomfortable click of her tongue, "I’ll beat them so hard their own mother won't recognize them."

"Who is 'Mother'?"

"Your birth mother!"

"I have no mother," Lu Wei said.

Wen Jingge took a deep breath. She didn't know how to explain it to him for the moment, but then he continued, "I suspect they don't have one either. They don't seem like beings that exist in this world. And..."

Lu Wei gazed up at the sky with a troubled expression. "The so-called Heavenly Ladder—even after you had been dead for so long, I still haven't seen it."

"There never was a Heavenly Ladder."

"Hm?"

"I only learned of the legend of the Heavenly Ladder after I arrived here."

"Indeed," Lu Wei agreed. "This is the origin of the legend. If it never appeared here, how could outsiders believe it ever existed at all?"

"That 'god'..." Wen Jingge crouched down, looking at Wen Xueshan’s decapitated corpse on the ground, then nodded at Lu Wei. "Did you kill him?"

"He committed suicide."

"Oh, he has a bit of a conscience, then."

Wen Jingge remained as devil-may-care as ever. Dying once had left no negative impact on her; if anything, her presence made Lu Wei feel uneasy.

"Do you think I should resurrect him?"

"So..." Lu Wei pointed at the tree behind her. "You died, your soul was absorbed by it, and you learned something?"

"I didn't learn anything!" Wen Jingge waved her hand dismissively. "They certainly wanted me to learn something, but I chased them all away in the end."

"I remember..." Lu Wei’s mouth opened. How did that line—the one a monk was supposed to say—go again?

"Why is it that you follow a Buddhist mantra with a display of overwhelming, mountain-crushing force?"

"Oh, that!" Wen Jingge spun her hands rapidly, forming a seal in her grasp. "It’s just more imposing when you shove it out like that."

Lu Wei: ...

Lu Wei had to admit that his mind could never keep up with Wen Jingge’s thought process, so he decided to find something else to do. "Aren't you going to tell them to stand up?"

"They’re the ones who want to kneel. What does that have to do with me?" Wen Jingge picked up Wen Xueshan’s head and body and leaned against the ancient ginkgo tree.

She had emerged from the trunk earlier, showering Lu Wei in wood shavings, but now the tree had restored itself, as if she and the debris on the ground were nothing more than an illusion.

"This tree is bizarre."

"Even a commoner could see that, couldn't they?" Lu Wei’s rebuttal lacked conviction. "Even a demon could barely tell."

"Pfft!" Wen Jingge couldn't help but laugh. She draped her arm over Lu Wei’s shoulder. "Why have you become so timid? You weren't like this before!"

Seeing that he wouldn't speak, she teased him even more, tugging on his reddening ears. "Hey! Why are your ears turning red? Look at you, you even entertained the idea of being buried with me. We're both single..."

"I am not!" he snapped, walking aside.

Wen Jingge lost her support and nearly stumbled, but there was no disappointment on her face, only realization. "Oh... so you have a sweetheart! Tell me about her! Is she pretty? Is she as good-looking as me? Why are you hiding? You’re a demon who participated in the War of Gods and Demons, after all!"

Lu Wei was agitated and wanted to escape, but no matter where he went, Wen Jingge’s agility allowed her to keep cornering him and witnessing his embarrassment.

"Oh, come on, brother, tell me!"

"Ancestor!" Lu Wei shot her a glare. "You are surely many generations older than I am!"

When he first awoke, he had been jealous of Wen Jingge’s talent, but now, as her true strength was revealed... he suddenly realized that the Wen Jingge he knew, the Wen Jingge the Xuan Yun Sect knew, and even the one the diviner knew, had perhaps never been the real her.

If this person were an enemy, she would be terrifying.

Everyone has their inner demons, but she lived without a care in the world. Her occasional moments of seriousness were even more absurd; though they could fool people, her facade would inevitably crumble over time.

The tree hadn't taken her life; it clearly wanted to impart something to her, yet she had fled—and fled with such nonchalance, showing no concern for those past memories whatsoever.

If it were him, Lu Wei thought, if he had a single chance to know what had happened back then, he would never have given it up.

"That..." Wen Jingge bit her lower lip, suddenly turning serious.

The black-robed figures naturally dared not make a sound. Since Wen Jingge hadn't told them to rise, they remained kneeling on the ground, motionless.

The rustling of leaves overhead returned, the silence settling in now that their bickering had ceased. It should have been a peaceful scene, but the rare solemnity in Wen Jingge’s expression made the atmosphere heavy.

"What is it..." Before he could finish the syllable, he saw Wen Jingge grin with a wide, blood-thirsty smile, like an old hag.

"I’m old enough to be your mother, right?"

Lu Wei felt his head go numb; he wished he could just pass out.

This was Wen Jingge, after all! How could he have expected anything remotely sensible to come out of her mouth?

"If you're going to be like that, I'm leaving!"

"You’re a soul-body; you can't get out on your own. You have to stay with me and let me carry you out."

Wen Jingge blinked at him, her dark eyes swirling, giving her a momentary air of innocence—like a naive girl who would help count the money after being sold.

Forced by the pressures of survival, Lu Wei had no choice but to follow in her footsteps. "What did you learn inside the tree?"

"A bunch of overreaching..." She paused, choosing her words carefully, "ants, nothing more. They can't change anything."

"Change..."

"That 'god'..." Wen Jingge placed her hand on Wen Xueshan’s brow. "You can come in now."

"Hm?"

"Take this chance while I'm weak; it's the perfect moment for you to possess him. If you miss this, you’ll never get out."

"Are you joking?"

"No," Wen Jingge said, then added, "I originally thought I wouldn't save him and would let you use his body, but then I suddenly remembered where your own body is."

Lu Wei’s heart skipped a beat. He looked at the tree again and asked tentatively, "It told you?"

"Asking gods, seeking gods... hehehe..." Her eyes were filled with sarcasm. "It’s a good thing I was an atheist before. If I’d actually believed in that nonsense, only to find out that the 'god' was me all along, I would have had to kill myself."

Lu Wei: ...

"We're hijacking this."

Her gaze swept across the plaza. The wind chimes on the altar swayed, as if someone were arriving with the wind.

The breeze lifted the leaves and tugged at her sleeves. She called out, "Come up!"

Lu Wei seized the chance and merged into her body. Her meridians were full, far better suited for habitation than Qiao Yu’s body; they were vast and expansive, like the growth rings of a tree.

He even had an immoral thought: if the fires of war were to erupt again between the worlds of humans and demons, and Wen Jingge were to turn to the demonic path, this vessel would likely be able to hold countless demon souls.

"That madman blocking the way," she said, "was the only 'god' who needed to be killed."