Ch 72: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

Tianjizi stepped forward, and everyone else stepped back.

A madman wasn’t scary.

A madman who was also terrifyingly powerful—that was frightening.

“What are you afraid of?” Tianjizi said with a smile. “I won’t eat you.”

He stopped and looked at Ying Tianhai. “So eager to drag me out—did you find something out?”

Ying Tianhai leveled his sword at him, face full of fury at being deceived. “I don’t know about anything else, but what you did sixteen years ago—scheming against my newborn child—this debt, I will settle with you!”

This left many people puzzled.

That Sect Master Ying had a child was known to many. But that child… couldn’t possibly be sixteen years old yet.

Tianjizi’s blood-red eyes gleamed with mockery. Perhaps because he had fallen into corruption, his temperament had changed greatly.

The once cold, detached Tianjizi now spoke in a languid, venomous tone: “Why act so innocent, Sect Master Ying? Yes, I schemed against you—but are you yourself innocent?”

His voice was cold, like a viper ready to strike: “Because of a prophecy, you dug out your own child’s spiritual root with your own hands, cast him into the mortal world. That isn’t something just any parent could bring themselves to do.”

The crowd: ?!

The weight of those words was enormous.

Clearly, this wasn’t about the young sect heir everyone knew of.

So Sect Master Ying had another child. When that child was born, the master of Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion, for some reason, gave him a grim prophecy—and then Sect Master Ying dug out the baby’s spiritual root and abandoned him!

Immediately, many cultivators who themselves had children cast complicated looks toward Ying Tianhai.

Some even felt a chill—if he could be so ruthless to his own blood, how cold and hard must this man’s heart be?

And what if, one day, their own interests clashed with his? Wouldn’t he sell them out without a second thought?

Ying Tianhai was unmoved by these gazes.

He said in a deep voice: “I did it for the greater good! You lied to me—that child bore the fate of a Calamitous Lone Star, doomed to bring disaster to kin and companions. My own life I do not care about, but I have a Dao companion! I have the tens of thousands of disciples of Yudao Sect! I could not let my personal child endanger them all!”

These words brimmed with righteous grandeur, free of selfishness. At least, from Yue Fubai’s hidden vantage, he saw many righteous cultivators’ expressions soften with sympathy.

He clicked his tongue in disgust. “Hypocrite!”

Wuchang Jun asked him quietly: “That child—is it Mu Xing?”

Yue Fubai fanned himself hard to vent his rising anger, nodded. “Yes. My little Xingxing’s too pitiful. That old thief Ying Tianhai—couldn’t even find a good family in the mortal world to raise him? Do you know where I picked him up? A pile of beggars!”

The more he thought of it, the angrier he grew, fists itching for a fight. “A child crippled by having his root dug out, frail and abandoned outside. Ying Tianhai clearly wanted him dead!”

It was only to avoid bearing that devouring parent-child karma that he hadn’t killed with his own hand.

Wuchang Jun noticed the veins bulging on Yue Fubai’s hand gripping his fan. He said quietly: “Once this business here is done, I’ll help you beat him.”

Yue Fubai instantly beamed: “You understand me, Wuchang Jun!”

Tianjizi, too, clearly knew Ying Tianhai’s true nature. He gave a cold laugh: “For the tens of thousands of disciples? Tell me—are you trying to fool yourself, or these gawking fools?”

At that, many glared at him angrily.

But Tianjizi couldn’t care less.

In truth, for him to appear at all in this state meant he no longer cared about anything.

He smiled faintly at Ying Tianhai. “I know you went to him. And? Rejected utterly, wasn’t it? A chance that could have let your Yudao Sect rise higher, become first among the righteous sects—gone. Are you not furious?”

Ying Tianhai instead sheathed his sword, standing calmly. “Then tell me—why did you tell such a lie back then?”

Yue Fubai, originally preparing to leave, paused as well. He was just as curious.

Little Xingxing had no enmity with Tianjizi. Why would such a great power scheme against a child?

Tianjizi’s smile faded. He lifted his head, gazing blankly at the sky.

“My Dao heart,” he said slowly, “already cracked twenty years ago.”

At that, the crowd roared in shock.

Who didn’t know that the Dao cultivated by Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion was the one most suited for ascension, the one least prone to error?

For the Dao of Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion was one of detachment, without desire, closest to the divine.

Looking at their astonished faces, Tianjizi only found it laughable. “Unbelievable, isn’t it? That the one who sees the fate and future of others—Tianjizi himself—discovered that he has no hope of ascension at all!”

The disciples of Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion were thrown into panic.

Tianjizi sneered. “My life’s only desire was to ascend, to seek a higher realm. But even that last hope was denied me.”

At first, his Dao heart was only damaged. He had no other thoughts.

Until the Dao companion of the Yudao Sect Master became pregnant, and came to him seeking a rare herb found only on the snowy mountain, to cleanse the unborn child’s body and marrow.

Even through layers of mist, even before the child was born, Tianjizi saw dense violet qi—gentle and affectionate—coiling around him.

This was a child blessed by the Great Dao. He had not yet entered the world, and Tianjizi didn’t even need to deliberately divine his fate to “see” the brilliant, dazzling destiny awaiting him.

Resentment and jealousy are born in a single instant.

Tianjizi chuckled softly: “Why is it that I cannot even brush against the threshold of ascension, while he, a child not yet formed, is a natural-born immortal fetus?”

Ying Tianhai’s grip tightened around his sword, knuckles white.

Even if he had suspected, to hear Tianjizi personally name the child a “natural immortal fetus” stirred uncontrollable waves in his heart.

A natural immortal fetus, blessed by the Dao itself. How many years had it been since the cultivation world—no, since all under heaven—last saw a true ascendant?

If such an immortal were to rise from Yudao Sect…

Then across the world, righteous or demonic, who could possibly contend with them?

Yet Tianjizi had destroyed it all!

Ying Tianhai glared at him, wanting to speak—but another moved faster.

A streak of dark-crimson spiritual light, sharp with unhidden killing intent, shot straight at Tianjizi.

He sidestepped, but the murderous aura still sliced away a strand of his white hair.

Yue Fubai’s face was blank with fury: “Tianjizi, you lunatic!”

Tianjizi’s expression wasn’t much better upon seeing him. “Yue. Fu. Bai!”

All his carefully laid plans—ruined by this demonic cultivator!

Through gritted teeth, Tianjizi snarled: “If not for you, Mu Xing would already have fallen as I intended—descended into darkness, the true Calamitous Lone Star!”

At first, he had clung to hope, attempting to alter fate with accumulated merit.

But soon he knew—it was impossible.

After that, his schemes were driven only by malice, by the desire to destroy Mu Xing.

If he himself was denied ascension, then the one chosen by fate would also be denied.

But the moment Yue Fubai discovered Mu Xing, the entire plan was cut short.

Yue Fubai’s ability to hide him was too great—Tianjizi never even caught sight of the boy.

By the time he learned of Mu Xing again, that pitiful beggar child had already been raised into a clear-eyed, perceptive cultivator—walking the very same path destiny had promised, cultivating the true Dao of Ruthlessness.

Any attempt to interfere again was too late.

And Tianjizi’s Dao heart collapsed completely.

By now, the onlookers finally pieced the story together.

Their gazes darted among the three men, marveling at the twists of this spectacle.

But for the ones involved, not a single heart was light.

Tianjizi seethed with fury and despair, his every calculation ruined.

Ying Tianhai grieved over the priceless treasure lost from his hands and burned with hatred toward Tianjizi.

And Yue Fubai—

He lifted a hand, pointing at Tianjizi. “Born of envy, steeped in spite, hiding behind shadowy tricks—you are unworthy of the name cultivator!”

Then he jabbed his finger at Ying Tianhai. “Selfish, cold, heartless—you don’t deserve to be called a father!”

A cold laugh escaped him. “My little Xingxing, what terrible luck, to meet the likes of you two wretches!”

He didn’t just want to curse them—he wanted to kill them.

But just as he was about to act, Yue Fubai felt something. His eyes swept the crowd, and sure enough, among the onlookers was a familiar face.

That disguised figure met his gaze—and even cheerfully waved.

That damn brat!

Conveniently, Ying Tianhai seized the chance. He needed to posture before his fellow righteous sects, to “cleanse the sect’s honor.” He declared loudly:

“Yue Fubai, this is a matter between me and Tianjizi, a private affair of the righteous path. Do not interfere.”

Yue Fubai feigned anger—and under countless eyes, really did step back.

Ying Tianhai was a bit puzzled, but his hatred for Tianjizi burned hotter, and he drew his sword, charging in.

Yue Fubai slipped into the crowd, changing his face with a minor spell, disappearing without a trace.

Like a fish through water, he wove his way to the familiar figure.

“You little brat,” he muttered, “don’t you know how dangerous it is if that corrupted madman notices you?”

Mu Xing tilted his face up, all innocence. “But Master will protect me.”

Yue Fubai was instantly silenced.

He reached out to ruffle his disciple’s hair. “Didn’t I tell you to stay put at home? What are you doing here?”

Mu Xing whispered: “The whole cultivation world heard about Sect Master Ying splitting the Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion barrier. I thought, Master definitely wouldn’t miss such a good show—so I came too.”

He wanted to watch the show as well.

“Then why call me down here?” Yue Fubai still sounded unwilling.

He had really wanted to smash those two old bastards.

Mu Xing answered matter-of-factly: “Let them fight, we watch. Why should you join in? After all that time healing your wounds, what if you got hurt again—wouldn’t that be a loss?

As for those two, if they get hurt, what’s that to us?”

Yue Fubai glanced at him—and saw the boy’s eyes fixed with interest on the duel.

He had just heard everything: Tianjizi’s schemes, his own father’s cold selfishness. And yet, it hadn’t shaken him in the slightest.

This heartless little rascal! Yue Fubai huffed softly—but his eyes betrayed a smile.

Good.

His little Xingxing shouldn’t waste sorrow on such vile, disgusting people.

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