Chapter 0177

In the middle of the lava cavern, a tear in space opened to reveal a handsome middle aged man with thick disheveled black hair, pale white complexion marred by two black panda eyes caused by fatigued and worry.

The wind in the caverned whipped his black robed around his body, slightly pushing him back towards the space tear. It was a warning from Cardis, telling the man to go back to the Heavenly Mountains, that he doesn’t belong in the Magus Alliance and especially the Emblemic Mountain Range.

The black robed man disregard the warning and set out to search the area, scanning the area with his divine sense.

The black robed man wrinkled his brow, a worried look marred his handsome visage. “My disciple fought a battle here.”

“I know.” Cardis emerged to confront the black robed man. “I also know it wasn’t an accident your disciple showed up here. Your Heavenly Spirit Sect is despicable as always. Any trouble you can’t handle, you send it to the other realms and become the fisherman in troubled water.”

“My disciple appearing here was an accident. He is capable of creating space tears. His inner demon took advantage of my inattentiveness and escaped here.”

“Xi An Kong, your excuse can’t convince a five-year-old.” Cardis sneered. How often have the Heavenly Mountains pawned their problems on the other realms, Cardis knows all too well.

Xi An Kong couldn’t meet Cardis’ jeering gaze. He above else knew all too well the sects in the Heavenly Mountains propensity to ‘export’ their problems to other realms as he is the medium they used to do so.

For a long time, he tried to justify his actions through false righteousness and bravado. He had saved lives, that much was true. He saved the lives of the cultivators of the Heavenly Mountains. He had not considered the lives of the people who received his ‘package’ at all. In fact, Xi An Kong thought he was sending the evil beings back into the chaotic void where they belong. It was this man who opened his eyes to the truth of his actions.

Those ‘packages’ he sent out to the other domains were sent back to him en mass, healed, stronger and tougher than ever before.

Thousands of cultivators from the Heavenly Mountains died when the demonic beings suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slaughtered everything in their wake. Millions of mortals died and entire sects were wiped out.

The cultivators in the Heavenly Mountains were helpless against their onslaught.

The issues only settled down when the hidden Ancestors of the major sects appear to hunt down the demonic beings that some sort of peace was restored, though not without its cost. Four of the hidden Ancestors died in the process while six of the demonic beings died and the other seventy escaped to the other realms.

The Heavenly Mountains tried to pursue the issues but the other domains weren’t having any of it and fought back with revenge as the excuse. They provided irrefutable proof of the sects’ wrongdoing and demanded justice for the people who died because of the sects too inept to handle their own problems.

The sects denied their wrongdoings and did everything in their power to suppress the incident and they succeed. The other domains didn’t pursue the issue considering the damage the demonic beings did to the Heavenly Mountains and the fact that those demonic beings were actually legitimate cultivators in the other domains.

Afterward, the sects continued as if the attacks never happened.

The entire event was known as the Disgraced Secret.

Xi An Kong was never persecuted for the part he played.

No one wanted to admit they created the demonic beings with their false justice and hypocrisy so no one investigated the background of those demonic beings, except the man before him, Cardis Gourd.

Cardis Gourd ripped the blinds off his eyes and made him face the consequences of his actions.

Xi An Kong had repented, never showing his face to the outside world unless it was an emergency.

He could not face the people of the other domains until his beloved disciple disappear while fighting his inner demons.

“It was not intentional.” Xi An Kong murmured softly. It wasn’t soft enough as Cardis caught the excuse.

“Does intent matter after one is dead?”

“Cardis, I did not come here to fight you or cause trouble. I only want to take my disciple back.”

“Your disciple is precious but my Successor isn’t?” Cardis’ statement put Xi An Kong on edge.

There were rumors about Cardis taking a Successor. The girl was said to be a True Daughter of Storm. Her potential was better than even the Dao Child groomed by the big sects. As long as she lived long enough, she was guaranteed to become an immortal.

Due to her elements, even the heavenly tribulation all cultivators must undergo to become an immortal was nothing to her.

Xi An Kong scanned the area again with his divine sense.

“Don’t bother,” Cardis spoke harshly. “I intervene in time.”

Xi An Kong exhaled in relief. He would risk his life to kill the bastard to harm his disciple. There is no telling what Cardis would do if his Successor was harmed. The entire Heavenly Mountains might have to change its name to Volcanoes Mountains instead.

“I understand harm was done and I am willing to pay recompense.”

“Two chaotic rifts.” Tempest would pitch a fit if she was present. Her life was worth more than the treasures from two chaotic rifts. She had the treasures of an entire chaotic rift in her mage robes, thank you very much.

Tempest would beat Cardis half to death for valuing her so little. She would have demanded all the treasures often chaotic rifts before she was satisfied.

“Done.” Xi An Kong immediately agreed to the conditions set forth by Cardis and opened two chaotic rifts. Once he did so, he freed his disciple from the lava cage and opened a space rift to his home.

“Master?” the madman whispered.

“You won against your inner demons?” Xi An Kong asked in surprise when he set foot in an immortal abode.

The Heavenly Mountains has a list of over 24 million names of cultivators who fought with their inner demons. Only 326 people had fought and won against their inner demons. 326 out of 24 million people! That is less than a 1% survival rate! Yet his disciple was awake and coherent. Xi An Kong was overjoyed he nearly cried.

Xi An Kong never held any hopes his disciple would against his inner demons. He couldn’t kill his disciple while he was still fighting against his inner demons, but once his inner demon took full control of the body, Xi An Kong knew he had no other choice.

Despite the odds, his disciple won. He won! The burden in his heart was finally lifted.

“I saw her, master. I saw my wife. She was crying. I’ve never seen her cry before, not even when she got stung by a Tormented Bee. She got right back up the next day, ordered me to bait the Tormented Bees out while she stole the honey. Tormented Bee stings are very painful, master. I’ve cried when I was stung but she never did.

“I saw her crying. I saw her crying because of me. She ran away when she saw me like I was a high-level magical beast out to eat her. Her tears pierced my heart so painfully. It hurts so much master. Moreso because I was the cause of her tears.

“How much of a monster must I be for her to cry at the very sight of me? I don’t want to be the monster that scares her, master. I would never harm a single hair on her silly little head.

“It’s how I won my inner demons. I couldn’t let it win because if it takes over my body, I’d look like a monster and my silly little treasure hates ugly monsters. She’d beat me until I look like a pig. She doesn’t like how a pig looks but she said she’d make an exception because she likes to eat pork belly and she can’t hate the pig that gave her delicious pork belly. If I became ugly because of my inner demons then I’d be beaten every day. I can also forget about my wedding night. My silly little treasure won’t be sleeping near an ugly man or a pig man.”

“You had your wedding night already.” Xi An Kong hastily pointed out, trying to divert his beloved disciple’s attention. The boy doesn’t like to talk much. Although he wasn’t cold to his senior brothers and sisters, his actions couldn’t be considered warm or friendly either. Luckily, his beloved disciple spent most of his time cultivating. This is the first time in a long while Xi An Kong had heard his disciple ramble so.

It lightens his heart to hear his disciple talk freely. It meant his disciple did defeat his inner demons.

“Master!”

“Yes, disciple?”

“You know I haven’t done anything to my silly little treasure. She’s too young.”

“That is to say you’d do something to her when she’s older.” Xi An Kong teased his disciple.

“Of course,” said disciple righteously replied. “My silly little treasure is very beautiful. If I don’t make her mine right away, she’d be lured away by that bastard merchant. He’s been eyeing my silly little treasure for as long as I’ve known him. Like hell will I give him the chance. The first thing I’d do is kill…”

Xi An Kong’s disciple started bawling his heart out.

“Don’t cry.” Xi An Kong repeated over and over again as he tried to console his disciple. Xi An Kong knew his disciple never got the chance to mourn her.

All he knew about the incident was from his disciple’s incoherent rambling as he asked what it meant if a Jade Life Token broke.

The subsequent screams of denial shook the Shattered Space Peak and his disciple's rage made a mess of the twelve peaks of the Heavenly Ascension Sect.

His beloved disciple stretched his divine senses to its utmost as he portal himself to Orinet through a space tear but it was all to no avail. He couldn’t find his little wife anywhere.

The people of the town mentioned his missing mother-in-law disappearance and the subsequent trek the little girl made with a merchant friend she knew but that was all they could tell say about the family.

His beloved disciple flew into a rage than his inner demon manifest. Xi An Kong had no choice. He imprisoned his beloved disciple and watched over him with a heavy heart.

“Master, she is dead, isn’t she?”

Xi An Kong couldn’t completely destroy his beloved disciple’s spirit so he said, “There are other reasons why the Jade Life Token broke. No one said she died and you haven’t found a body, so there could be a chance, albeit slim, that she is alive.”

“Thank you, master.”

“You must not lose hope. If she is alive, you can find her. If she is dead, you can find a way to resurrect her. If you can’t resurrect her, then you can find her soul and she cultivates as a ghost. There are ways to find the living and the dead. You need time and resources, beloved disciple, and resources are something our Shattered Space Peak can easily get!”

“Master is right. I mustn’t lose hope.” Xi An Kong wiped the tears from his beloved disciple's eyes and saw despair replaced by determination.

He knew his beloved disciple’s inner demon had completely vanished but now he had another problem to worry about - how far would his beloved disciple go to reunite with his wife?