The Ninth Lady is a rebellious person.

Chapter 619 Self-blame and guilt, nearly triggering inner demons

Bagua City, this majestic border city that has stood for thousands of years, has now been completely reduced to a living hell.

Deathly energy, resentment, and fear transformed into a soaring demonic aura, like a massive black curtain that completely enveloped the entire city and the surrounding mountains. The banners that once fluttered on the city walls were torn to shreds, stained with dark red blood, and scattered among the ruins. The city walls had collapsed in many places, with traces of burning still emitting black smoke. At the breaches, the corpses of the defenders and alien warriors were piled up, their deaths gruesome.

Although it is the end of February, the border is still cold. Snow is falling heavily, and it has been snowing for an unknown period of time. The snow, mixed with blood, has frozen the corpses under the city wall into a mound of corpses, and many of the bodies inside are shriveled, as if all their life force has been drained away.

Inside the city, the scene was even more horrific. The streets were littered with the corpses of civilians, men, women, and children, none of whom had escaped. A soaring resentment rose from their bodies and merged with the black demonic energy, making it even more sinister and terrifying.

Some people, whose aura still lingers but have been assimilated and corrupted by demonic energy, wander around like zombies, constantly attacking all living things.

The air was filled with the stench of blood, and an indescribable, sinister, and eerie emptiness.

Wherever Lang Jiuchuan's gaze fell, everything was blood-red. She trembled all over as demonic energy enveloped her, like wisps of tentacles tightly binding her, making her aura increasingly cold and vicious.

Fengya noticed this, reached out and pressed down heavily: "Lang Jiuchuan, don't overthink it, it's not your fault!"

He knew her nature; he simply believed that she and Jiang Che had done good deeds but ended up doing bad things, unknowingly breaking the Demon-Suppressing Eye and taking away the Demon-Suppressing artifact, leading to the suffering of the people today.

But how could this be her fault!
The people who orchestrated this whole mess were clearly Tantai Wuji and the demonic Kong Jin; they were the real culprits behind it all!

Lang Jiuchuan's eyes were bloodshot. She took a deep breath and looked at the gaping hole. The emptiness below the hole was even stronger. She leaped down into the hole.

Deep underground, there is a small altar made of Vajra Mystic Stone, covered with Gangzheng Runes, but it is already covered with spider web-like cracks. If the runes break, the altar will be ruined.

The altar resembles an inverted bowl. In Taoism, this inversion symbolizes suppression, preventing vengeful ghosts and evil spirits from rising up and ensuring peace. Now that the bowl is cracked, it has naturally lost its power of suppression.

Lang Jiuchuan formed a hand seal and pressed it against the overturned, broken stone bowl. He closed his eyes slightly and forcefully poured spiritual power into the bowl to recall what had happened there, taking in the entire scene that had occurred there.

The next moment, she withdrew her hand, her face grim.

Fengya glanced at her and had probably guessed it. What they were speculating about was the truth. Seeing that her breathing was becoming unstable again, he said, "It's not your problem. Don't let this attract the demons to possess you and greatly damage your Dao heart. Otherwise, you will be playing right into the hands of the evil spirits."

Looking at the shattered runes, Lang Jiuchuan's voice was filled with indescribable pain and self-reproach as he said, "No, it's my fault. If I hadn't been so arrogant that day, allowing Jiang Che to dig up what was under this stele, it wouldn't have been used to take the imperial seal, sever his foundation, and draw out the suppressed demonic spirit, causing the two to merge. Perhaps they wouldn't have gone so crazy, directly leading the alien race to breach the city, creating this boundless carnage, turning this place into a dead city and demonic land."

She saw it all through the power of time travel: there was a black and red skeleton underneath, filled with evil and eerie demonic energy that was repulsive.

Now it's gone—no, it's broken free from this suppression, just like her, merging with Tantai Wuji's soul, becoming one with him, colluding with him. The overwhelming stench of blood outside made her nauseous. Thinking of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood outside the deep cave, the countless souls who died tragically because of her indirect actions, felt like the heaviest shackles, tightening tightly around her heart.

The sharp, stabbing pain in her heart caused her to bend her back slightly.

The overwhelming resentment and deathly aura were not only the power of the demon Tantai, but also transformed into an invisible curse, gradually impacting her Dao heart. She seemed to hear countless souls wailing in her ears, questioning why she did not stop it sooner, why she caused such a disaster because of a moment of pleasure, and why she did not see through the secrets of heaven earlier to save the world.

Feng Ya said coldly, "Lang Jiuchuan, you should stop thinking like that. If you think like that, you will fall into Tantai Wuji's trap. In this battle, you will only follow his calculations and you will surely be defeated."

Lang Jiuchuan seemed not to hear. The golden core that had just been formed and had not yet been fully solidified was trembling slightly, and the originally brilliant golden light on the golden core began to be covered with a layer of gray.

The pure and ethereal energy around her became disordered, and deep in her eyes, a trace of darkness, originating from the same source as the demonic energy, quietly began to grow—a sign that her inner demons were beginning to appear.

Extreme pity and self-blame, amplified and lured by the evil demonic energy at the bottom of the cave, are trying to drag her into an abyss similar to that of Tantai Wuji, one where she is swallowed by negative emotions.

She had been taught by him and should have ended up on the same path as him, albeit by different means.

Yes, she wasn't a good person to begin with...

Seeing her disordered breathing, Fengya was suddenly alarmed. He pulled out her little nine-tower and made the wooden fish strike it rhythmically, carrying the Buddhist aura of Master Basil, forcefully crashing into Lang Jiuchuan's soul.

"Lang Jiuchuan!"

A deep, resounding shout, like a booming bell, exploded in her mind.

Fengya grabbed her shoulder, his powerful soul force mixed with the vast fortune that had been initially refined, forcefully penetrating her nearly lost mind, preventing her from being affected by the remaining evil aura.

"Wake up." Fengya stared intently into her eyes, his voice as cold as ice, and said, "The culprit behind all this is that inhuman Tantai Wuji, who willingly fell into the demonic path. It is the demonic path that led the foreign races into the pass, slaughtered living beings, and caused people to kill each other. It is their heinous crimes that made them want to turn the world into a demonic land, not you!"

He lifted her up and rushed out of the deep cave, pointing at the mountains of corpses, his tone chilling: "Look carefully at these innocent people who died tragically. If you are taken advantage of by your inner demons now, and your Dao heart is clouded, you will truly be following the will of the demons, being led and assimilated by them. At that time, no one in this world will be able to defeat them, and you, this so-called martyr who is indulging in self-blame and guilt, will only become a puppet of the demons, causing the Dao of Heaven to collapse faster and beyond saving."

After being scolded by Feng Ya, Lang Jiuchuan trembled as if struck by lightning. The righteous thunderous intent cleansed her mind and forcibly pulled her out of the vortex of self-blame.

Realizing he had almost been lured into the clutches of his inner demons, Lang Jiuchuan's anger surged, his aura suddenly intensified, and chaotic energy erupted from his body, transforming into a massive ball of light that shot towards the deep cave.

boom!
(End of this chapter)