In her last moments, Luo Hongyan's eyes were clear.
She looked at Changqing gently, an expression Changqing had seen for many years, and each time he saw it, he felt an exceptional revulsion.
But he knew it was her expression of deep love.
He seemed to remember that something important was slowly dissipating with the passage of time, yet also slowly becoming more profound.
Finally, the hand he had placed on Luo Hongyan's neck slowly relaxed, transforming into an equally gentle caress.
He stood up, drew the longsword from behind him, and pointed it at the Evil Lord.
"Devil Head, do not spout nonsense! Today, I shall slay all of you on behalf of the Righteous Path!"
......
At the old Family Head's funeral, all the major leaders of the Righteous Path, various Families, and Schools—all the influential figures—came to attend.
The newly appointed Family Head, Luo Hongyan, publicly announced Changqing's great achievements in this battle between good and evil: how he turned the tide, saved the Luo Family from peril, and personally executed several Evil Lords.
Many years later, the two naturally became husband and wife, jointly managing the Family's affairs.
On their wedding night, Luo Hongyan was truly beautiful, as if a Fairy from the Nine Heavens had descended to the mortal world.
Changqing sat beside his wife, who was adorned in red and wearing a Phoenix coronet, his expression still as calm and unruffled as ever.
He hadn't smiled or cried for an untold number of years.
Luo Hongyan cupped his face, feeling only the hardness of his expression.
Yes, hard—if that word could describe a person's expression, then Changqing's expression had been unyieldingly hard for years.
Like a stone.
"Changqing, do you know?" Luo Hongyan cupped his face and slowly began.
"That moment, when I woke you from the Hundred Flowers Cave, I think I fell in love with you." She spoke very slowly, syllable by syllable.
She was very different today from her usual self; her face, usually bare of makeup, was now heavily painted, losing some of its usual elegance but gaining a more vibrant beauty, her red lips looking as if they could drip blood.
"Through all these years, we've advanced and retreated together, shared life and death; the more we've experienced, the more I feel that my love for you has not changed."
"Changqing, hold me tight."
Changqing embraced his beautiful wife like a puppet on strings, holding her very tightly, afraid that if he relaxed even slightly, he wouldn't be able to resist pushing her away.
That night, his revulsion and hatred for Luo Hongyan reached their peak.
The bitterness, resentment, desire for slaughter, and suppression of his true self in his heart were also nearing their limit.
He knew it wasn't Luo Hongyan's fault; he was the one at fault.
He was a monster, with a beast hidden within his heart.
He had once fantasized that if he peeled off his skin and turned it inside out, he might see the face of a malevolent ghost.
But why he had become this way, he couldn't remember clearly.
He only knew that love was hate, and hate was love; he loved Luo Hongyan, so he hated Luo Hongyan.
Love was wrong, hate was right, so he couldn't love, couldn't become a beast, couldn't be wrong.
He had to be with Luo Hongyan; this was hate, and hate was right.
......
Since then, his Cultivation had not advanced an inch; he spent every day with Luo Hongyan, retreating behind the scenes to help her handle various trivial matters of the Family.
After taking charge of the Family's Enforcement Hall, he established the Shadow Guard, specifically to apprehend Cultivators of the Evil Path in the surrounding areas, whom he would personally interrogate; those Evil Path Cultivators often regretted ever being born into this world after his torment.
From these individuals, he could harvest fleeting moments of joy.
Gradually, he also earned a notorious nickname among Evil Path Cultivators: "Living Yama."
Some rumored that his Cultivation had not advanced for years, leading to a twisted mentality, and that he found pleasure in tormenting Evil Path Cultivators; although his actions were righteous, he was still scorned by some.
Only he himself knew what was truly happening.
What Righteous Path or Evil Path? Evil Path Cultivators were also born of mothers and fathers; what he did to those Evil Cultivators made him seem more like an Evil Cultivator than they were.
But he didn't care about any of that.
Sometimes, Luo Hongyan would still share a brief moment of intimacy with him.
He greatly loathed it, yet also greatly cherished it.
Later, Luo Hongyan became pregnant and gave birth to a son and a daughter.
Watching the children come into the world, so adorable and exquisitely formed, his revulsion and hatred once again reached their peak.
He handed over the Enforcement Hall to Luo Hongyan's management and disbanded the Shadow Guard.
Because he worried that he would lose himself in his revulsion for the children and the joy he harvested from those Evil Cultivators.
Sometimes he would ask himself why he did all this, why he persisted, wasn't it better to follow his true self?
He vaguely remembered a time when he dared to love and hate, living only for himself.
Whenever he thought of these things, he would violently shake his head inwardly.
He knew what was right and what was wrong, what was good and what was bad.
Hate was right, enmity was right, resentment was right, suffering was right.
Later still, his children grew up, and their children had children, and their children's children had children; he was now old and frail.
Many years ago, to better control himself, he had stopped cultivating.
Now, his wife Luo Hongyan's Cultivation had reached the Half-Step to Sainthood, and she was about to advance to Desolate Heaven, while he remained Thousand Autumn Venerable.
Since he grew old, Luo Hongyan also deliberately stopped maintaining her youthful appearance; a woman adorns herself for her beloved, and by his sickbed, she, with white hair and a face full of wrinkles, held Changqing's hand.
In a daze, Changqing seemed to see a man walk in from outside the room; the man was high-spirited, tall, with a resolute face, and he stood not far from the bed, quietly watching him.
"Huo... Nine Heavens..." Changqing looked at the man and murmured.
"Mm..." The man nodded, his expression somewhat complex.
After a long while, the man finally asked.
"Tell me, how did you do it?"
"Mm...?" Changqing was momentarily dumbfounded, somewhat dull.
He was very old, and his mind naturally didn't work as quickly as when he was young; after a long pause, he suddenly understood.
"Ah... I remember now." A glint appeared in his cloudy eyes.
He suddenly laughed; he hadn't laughed for many years, but this laugh, like those in his youth, was uniquely his—a standard, slightly smug, slightly mocking, yet very faint smile of triumph.
"So... have I passed your test?"
The man nodded, then shook his head.
"I set this test originally to see how someone driven mad by the Inverted Yin-Yang could survive and find a way to detoxify themselves."
"I found that you are inherently cold-blooded, indifferent to everyone, treating everyone as if they were flowers, plants, and trees—without sorrow or joy, without love or resentment."
"So I made you live with the only person you loved, granted you a successful life and a complete existence, all so that one day, when you lost control and fell into madness, you would personally kill them, to break you and further destroy your spirit."
"But you have suffered the torment of the Inverted Yin-Yang your entire life; don't you hate them? Those whom you should have loved."
Changqing first nodded, then shook his head.
"You... this poison, it's still not strong enough."
"It only makes me unable to distinguish between joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, but I can still distinguish between right and wrong."
"I am I. What I want to do is decided by me, and will not change because I like, I dislike, I love, or I hate."
The man pondered for a moment, still somewhat puzzled.
"But isn't what a person wants to do decided by their heart? Your heart tells you joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; how did you manage to live without a heart?"
"What I want to do is not decided by the heart; it's decided by me." Changqing shook his head, then somewhat helplessly added, "I know nothing about philosophy, so don't ask anymore; my mind is already very confused."
"Just assume that what sustains me is responsibility and will."
"Mm..." The man seemed thoughtful, then relaxed.
"This Legacy was left to find someone who could break the Inverted Yin-Yang, so that this Cultivation Technique would not be lost, and future generations would not repeat the mistakes of the past."
"You passed."
"Is that so?" Changqing smiled faintly, "Thank you."
"However, there's an awkward problem." The man scratched his hair, "I originally thought that passing this Legacy trial would be extremely difficult, with perhaps one person in millions of years succeeding."
"But now, two have emerged at once."
Changqing was startled, not quite understanding his meaning.
"Moreover, although you passed the trial, your performance was not as good as the other person's, so I cannot give you this Legacy."
