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“Senior Brother, who is this?” Lu Chongyun stood beside Yao Jiuxiao, looking very upset. He was handling sect matters on the main peak when Yao Jiuxiao suddenly summoned him. He thought his senior brother wanted to ask him about parenting advice again and was ready to tease him when he saw the ordinary black coffin lying on the floor.
Lu Chongyun’s expression turned grave, and he had a bad premonition.
Yao Jiuxiao stood in the ice chamber, gazing at the black coffin in the center of the room. His face was as cold and frosty as his surroundings, even colder than the room’s temperature. “You should know about this, too.” He said solemnly. As he formed a complex seal with both hands, a dense aura surged into the coffin.
After a moment, a faint image formed from the remains in the coffin.
“Second Uncle!” Lu Chongyun exclaimed in shock, his composure lost. He staggered a bit, unable to believe his eyes.
The hazy image of Lu Yuandao looked just like how Yao Jiuxiao remembered. He stood suspended in mid-air, seemingly watching Yao Jiuxiao and Lu Chongyun, but also seemingly gazing into nothingness. “Xue’er, Nie Rongling is Chi Jialing of the devil race. He is the real culprit. The sect is in danger…”
Before he breathed his last, Lu Yuandao left behind a strand of spiritual consciousness. However, this strand was already very weak and could only convey a few words, and even Yao Jiuxiao couldn’t stop it from dispersing.
A heavy silence enveloped the ice chamber.
Yao Jiuxiao’s voice slowly rang out, “Although the Abyss is full of danger and Master was seriously injured, he still had enough ability to survive. However, he was eager to return and inform us of this news, and he couldn’t take the time to heal properly. In the end… he perished within the Abyss.”
Yao Jiuxiao held the jade pendant, and in the next instant, the pendant emitted a radiant but not glaring light. A silk handkerchief floated down from mid-air and landed in his hand. On it was a letter written in blood, detailing the truth that Lu Yuandao had discovered.
Lu Yuandao couldn’t leave the Abyss, so he had tried to leave a message, hoping that someone would eventually bring it out.
Unfortunately, it was 1,183 years too late. All the wrongs and hurts had already been done, weaving into an unbreakable knot. It was already… too late.
If Lu Yuandao hadn’t fallen into the Abyss and had brought out the truth earlier, perhaps everything could have been saved, but…
It was too late.
Time couldn’t turn back, and the dead couldn’t return.
Lu Chongyun staggered to the side of the coffin, seemingly on the verge of tears. “Second Uncle…”
Yao Jiuxiao didn’t say anything more, his gaze distant.
Lu Chongyun’s father, Lu Yuanxing, was the previous sect leader of Guiyuan and also the elder brother of Lu Yuandao. When Yao Jiuxiao was just born, strange phenomena occurred, attracting the attention of passing members of the devil race. The devils wiped out the entire Yao Village and killed all of Yao Jiuxiao’s family members. However, Lu Yuandao, who happened to be passing by, rescued him from the devils and brought him back to the sect. Seeing the infant’s exceptional aptitude, Lu Yuandao directly took him in as his only personal disciple.
Although Lu Yuanxing and Lu Yuandao were brothers, they had different beliefs and often argued. Lu Yuanxing firmly believed in eradicating devils and upholding the Dao, and he held the view that those from other races were different in nature and should never be trusted. Lu Yuandao, on the other hand, believed that good and evil should not be distinguished by race but by one’s character. He hoped for a day when the conflicts among the three races could be resolved and they could live in harmony.
Lu Yuanxing devoted himself to eradicating evils and upholding the Dao, neglecting the upbringing of his daughter. By the time he realized this, his daughter, Lu Chongxue, had already been ‘misguided’ under the tutelage of his younger brother.
Lu Chongxue had once been forcibly ‘corrected’ by Lu Yuanxing, and the two brothers nearly had a fallout because of this.
Later, the appearance of Yao Jiuxiao diverted Lu Yuanxing’s attention and caused him to abandon the education of his daughter. Instead of his daughter, he decided to groom Yao Jiuxiao as his successor.
The disciple that his younger brother personally rescued and took in met all Lu Yuanxing’s requirements, being an infant and with exceptional aptitude. Naming him ‘Jiuxiao’1 was also in line with Lu Yuanxing’s ambition, who hoped that the child would one day grow up exterminating all devils and demons, reaching the highest realm and becoming a true immortal.
Therefore, even though Yao Jiuxiao was Lu Yuandao’s personal disciple, he was taught by Lu Yuanxing, who was his martial uncle in name, since childhood. Lu Yuanxing did not want Lu Yuandao to influence Yao Jiuxiao in any way, fearing that he might lead him astray. As a result, outsiders always assumed that Lu Yuanxing was Yao Jiuxiao’s master.
Initially, Lu Yuandao disagreed with this arrangement, but Lu Yuanxing gave him two options: Lu Chongxue or Yao Jiuxiao. In the end, Lu Yuandao acquiesced.
Yao Jiuxiao grew up under the expectations of Sect Leader Lu and was indoctrinated with the idea of exterminating devils and demons since he was a child, starting to learn swordsmanship even as he had just learned to walk.
Lu Yuandao and Lu Chongxue felt that they owed Yao Jiuxiao. While they didn’t overtly interfere with Lu Yuanxing’s teachings, they often visited Yao Jiuxiao privately. However, they didn’t dare to openly instill their beliefs in him, hoping that Yao Jiuxiao would develop his own discernment and not be overly radical.
Yao Jiuxiao achieved Foundation Establishment at the age of eighteen, Golden Core two years later, and Nascent Soul in three years. He was undoubtedly a prodigy, but he always felt guilty for not living up to Master’s teachings and becoming what Master had hoped for.
Although Master did not fully fulfill his duty as a teacher, his influence on Yao Jiuxiao was profound.
Right and wrong weren’t simple black-and-white matters.
As for Lu Chongyun, he was Lu Yuanxing’s son born much later. Witnessing too many tragic events when he was young, he harbored a deep hatred for the other races, especially the devil race, believing that they had destroyed everything in the sect and caused him to lose all his loved ones.
Yao Jiuxiao, feeling inadequate to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the sect, focused on raising Lu Chongyun, hoping he would become a qualified sect leader. In turn, Yao Jiuxiao became the strongest pillar of support for Guiyuan.
“Senior Brother, who brought Second Uncle back?” Lu Chongyun had regained his composure, with only a slight redness in his eyes. This was a stroke of luck in their misfortune; at least, Second Uncle would no longer have an empty grave. They had finally found… his remains.
As for the truth that Second Uncle mentioned, they had long known it. When the sect was on the brink of extinction, all the truths had already been revealed.
Thinking of Nie Rongling, Lu Chongyun’s eyes filled with anger and hatred.
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Thank you so much for translating those chapters
I feel so sad that Lu Yuandao had learned the truth much earlier than the others, but couldn’t deliver it in time to prevent certain tragedies from happening, since he was trapped in the Abyss. We finally get some backstory, though, so it’s great!
Thanks for another great chapter! 😀