Pointing the Sword at the Heavens

"Impossible!" Duke Weiling's expression shifted dramatically. He couldn't believe that an edict from King Mingling could be so effortlessly intercepted and torn apart!

The blindfolded man spat a mouthful of blood and smirked. "Tch, if King Mingling himself wielded this, I wouldn't take it head-on. But you? Do you think you're qualified to spare my life?"

Duke Weiling was both furious and anxious. With his strongest attack broken, it became clear that he had no means to deal with Shi Yi.

"Master Gu, I, Xu, implore you to subdue this demon!" City God Xu bent his body at a 90-degree angle as he spoke.

All the ghostly deities present, except for Duke Weiling, understood City God Xu's intention.

After all, there were no other options left. Their only hope now lay with the enigmatic strength of Gu Ning'an.

Seeing their expectant gazes, Gu Ning'an stepped forward. Instead of attacking, he turned to the blindfolded man and asked, "Daoist Shi, allow me to ask—did you strip away the features of countless beings to nourish some other entity?"

This question sent shockwaves through the audience.

To the City Gods, if this True Demon was providing sustenance, it could only be for some malevolent entity.

But to Shi Yi, his intentions were far from that. In fact, the truth was the exact opposite.

"Sir! What have you noticed?" Shi Yi's tone grew agitated for the first time.

Gu Ning'an pointed at Shi Yi's head and limbs. "Did you know that gray threads are coiled around your head and limbs?"

The ghostly deities looked in the directions Gu Ning'an indicated, but as expected, they saw nothing.

Yet Shi Yi seemed to trust Gu Ning'an implicitly. Swallowing hard, he asked solemnly, "May I ask, sir, where do these gray threads lead?"

Gu Ning'an pointed toward the heavens. "They extend high into the sky, and beyond that, they vanish from sight."

"Could it be that I've been deceived?" Shi Yi's expression turned panicked. His demonic aura surged wildly, pulling back the spiritual energy that had surrounded the noodle vendor earlier.

Once the demonic aura returned to Shi Yi, his face grew increasingly pale. Bowing deeply toward Gu Ning'an, he asked, "Sir, what else did you see?"

"A fragment of your Heavenly Soul ascending along the gray threads." Gu Ning'an frowned deeply. In his eyes, the gray threads leading to an unknown destination were far more dangerous than the True Demon standing before him.

Thud!

The blindfolded man suddenly dropped to his knees. As everyone looked on in astonishment, he kowtowed three times to Gu Ning'an.

"Sir… I thought I had unraveled the secret of my shackles. Yet in the end, I've become nothing more than a tool in someone else's hands…"

Before Gu Ning'an could respond, the blindfolded man's body began to fade and turn translucent.

With a sudden boom, he exploded into pure demonic energy, scattering in all directions!

"The True Demon… self-destructed?" Duke Weiling's face was filled with disbelief.

Not only him, but everyone present was equally stunned. None of them had expected the incident to end this way.

A True Demon committing suicide? If written into a storybook, readers would likely scoff and call it illogical.

Why would such a powerful being end its own life without warning?

Meanwhile, Gu Ning'an stood in place, his left palm inexplicably holding a wisp of newly-formed Worldly Qi.

As he gazed at the Worldly Qi, he saw a vivid vision within it.

Amidst a torrential downpour, Shi Yi knelt in front of a shared grave, blindfolded, pointing to the heavens, and cursing in rage.

"Damn this unjust heaven! Why must you torment those of us who are already cursed with misfortune?"

"I am blind and cannot see. My wife is mute and cannot speak. Why, then, must our child be denied even the chance to live?"

At this point, Gu Ning'an only felt puzzled as to why such a scene would appear within the Worldly Qi, but as he continued watching, an unsettling feeling crept over him.

In the vision held by the Worldly Qi, Gu Ning'an, dressed in white, approached the blindfolded man and handed him a book. "In this world, fairness doesn't exist by nature. If you want fairness, you must fight for it yourself."

The blindfolded man stared blankly at the book for a few moments before bowing deeply. "This student, Shi Yi, pays respect to you, my teacher!"

The vision abruptly ended.

Gu Ning'an looked back to the spot where Shi Yi had self-destructed. He couldn't recall the events depicted in the Worldly Qi, nor did he remember ever having such a student or giving anyone a book titled The Path of Dao. Yet the emergence of the Worldly Qi confirmed one thing for him: the so-called True Demon, the blindfolded Shi Yi, had indeed been his student, tied to him by a profound connection.

It seemed that this student had been manipulated into making a grave mistake while trying to achieve some purpose, regretting it and ultimately leading to his tragic demise.

And the root of all this? It likely lay with whatever existed at the end of those gray threads.

Discarding these chaotic thoughts, Gu Ning'an stepped forward, picking up a strip of blue cloth that had fallen to the ground. He tied it carefully around the hilt of his Hongchen Sword.

Sensing its master's emotions, the Hongchen Sword unsheathed itself by three inches, emitting a resonant hum.

The sound startled the City Gods, who had been silently watching Gu Ning'an.

"An immortal sword!" Duke Weiling murmured in awe.

Marquis Lingyou, who could feel the intense fury emanating from that single hum, was puzzled. The True Demon was already dead—so who was the target of Gu Ning'an's wrath?

With a metallic clang, the Hongchen Sword was fully drawn!

Surrounded by a radiant glow of spiritual power, Gu Ning'an infused the newly formed Worldly Qi into the sword with a single palm strike, then raised it to the heavens.

Instantly, the skies lit up with vibrant rays of multicolored light, reflecting off the Hongchen Sword and illuminating it in hues of the rainbow.

"You dared to deceive my student. No matter how deeply you hide, I will cut you down!"

With a low declaration, Gu Ning'an swung the sword.

A deafening sword hum echoed through the heavens as an overwhelming beam of sword light, imbued with unstoppable force, pierced the skies!

The five gray threads that had been slowly retracting toward the heavens were severed inch by inch.

The sword light followed the threads like a trail, disappearing into the clouds. Though his eyes could no longer see it, Gu Ning'an closed them, sensing its continued presence as it sought its target.

Moments later, Gu Ning'an sheathed the sword. Bowing politely to the awestruck City Gods, he turned and began walking toward the Ansi Courtyard. Wherever he passed, a gentle breeze followed, and those citizens who had lost their facial features regained their original appearances as the breeze touched them.

The City Gods, observing this miracle, were filled with countless questions but dared not speak.

The memory of that heaven-cleaving sword strike was still fresh in their minds—who would dare provoke him now?

"Ah! My wontons are almost overcooked!" The clattering sound of pots and pans broke the silence as the flustered noodle vendor scrambled to scoop the wontons from his boiling pot.

Looking toward the table where Gu Ning'an and the blindfolded man had sat earlier, the vendor scratched his head in confusion. "Strange… When did Master Gu and that blindfolded man leave? Why don't I remember a thing?"