They retreated from the village to a place with clear aura, beside a small lake. They built a campfire, prepared food, and ate before Meng Ruji began her slow account.
"After I brought Zhan Ye back from the ice lake to Hengxu Mountain, I treated him like the other children. They had rooms, lived together, looked after each other. Zhan Ye was cleverer than the others. I taught everyone breathing techniques and cultivation methods—he was the most talented. He helped me care for younger children, taught them to read and write, assisted in building the protective formation. He seemed like the perfect student."
"Then what did you do to twist him?" Tuzi asked sincerely.
"It wasn't what I did—it was what Zhan Ye understood that I never expected." Meng Ruji sighed deeply. "Have you heard of the Wandering Maze Mountain?"
Tuzi shook her head.
Ye Chuan kindly explained: "During the war between immortals and gods, primordial soil was disturbed and formed into the Wandering Maze Mountain. Every few decades it emerged underground, wandering the world, causing earthquakes and countless suffering. Over a thousand years ago, various immortal sects combined efforts to fix it in place, sparing the common people."
Meng Ruji nodded. "Zhan Ye began to change from this incident."
By then, Zhan Ye had been her disciple for several years. His cultivation was progressing well, and he researched magic independently. Meng Ruji, while powerful through her Inner Core, was still learning formation research—so she often discussed such things with this clever student.
That year, the Wandering Maze Mountain emerged. Immortal sects calculated its path and determined it would pass near Hengxu Mountain.
Meng Ruji knew villages nearby would suffer if the mountain passed through. Before its arrival, she began thinking of solutions.
Seeing her constantly frowning, staying up nights reading and pondering, Zhan Ye joined her research.
Finally, they developed a method: construct a great formation in advance on the mountain's path, trap it, and transform it into an immobile "mountain." A permanent solution.
Both were thrilled, too excited to sleep. The next day, they left Hengxu Mountain to contact other immortal sects.
Because this formation couldn't be accomplished by just Hengxu Mountain and the children there.
Meng Ruji traveled extensively. Affected sects were willing to help, but distant ones hesitated.
At that time, Meng Ruji wasn't yet the "Demon Lord"—she was just a demon occupying Hengxu Mountain, and the most despised kind: half-human, half-demon. She had little influence. The most powerful sects wouldn't listen to her.
For this matter, Meng Ruji suffered many rejections. But the Wandering Maze Mountain was already moving, the situation urgent, and she couldn't stop—she had to keep persuading.
Zhan Ye was always at her side.
He witnessed all the humiliation and embarrassment she endured—things too difficult to speak of in detail.
After many "rejections," Zhan Ye gradually became taciturn. He would ask her: "Why won't immortal sect members help? Isn't this for everyone's good?"
But immortal sects had different interests.
Most sects were willing to do what was "good for everyone," but those unwilling came with reasons: Some had enemies and couldn't risk spiritual depletion. Some felt too small to be concerned. Some weren't afraid of consumption, but these sects gained reputation and practical benefits whenever the Wandering Maze Mountain emerged—once fixed, they'd lose that opportunity that came every few decades.
The reasons were complex.
Meng Ruji didn't know how to explain this to him. She could only say: "Everyone thinks differently. We can only unite those willing to trust us."
Zhan Ye said nothing.
Later, Meng Ruji found enough people—over a thousand cultivators in total.
The process was arduous but hopeful.
They constructed the formation on the mountain's path. Meng Ruji and Zhan Ye drew it while cultivators guarded their positions.
Three strongest cultivators would hold formation cores in three locations. When the mountain arrived, they would cast spells together to trap it.
Meng Ruji was one of the three, holding one core. The other two were guarded by leaders of the other sects.
On implementation day, everything went smoothly at first. The Wandering Maze Mountain entered the formation, everyone worked together, and they were about to trap it permanently.
Then—
One sect leader was ambushed. A magical attack came from an unknown direction, rendering him unconscious immediately.
The formation became instantly unstable. The moving mountain tried to squeeze out from the core that had lost its suppressing power. Everyone frantically poured spiritual energy into it.
Meng Ruji had no choice but to use a method that harmed her own body, nearly exhausting all her blood to perform a blood sacrifice ritual, finally suppressing the Wandering Maze Mountain.
The mountain quieted. Their goal was achieved.
But Meng Ruji fell into a coma lasting three months.
When she woke, Zhan Ye had changed.
Through others, she learned what happened during those three months.
First: The injured sect leader's physician discovered his injuries came from artifacts belonging to top-tier immortal sects. At least one had been so dissatisfied with their method that they'd tried to sabotage it, striking viciously at the crucial moment, not hesitating to use the lives of over a thousand cultivators as the price.
If not for Meng Ruji's blood sacrifice and Inner Core power, everyone would have died.
Then: Another sect leader who had held a formation core, seeing Meng Ruji fall into sleep, claimed to outsiders that he had controlled the overall situation—that he had drawn the formation and saved everyone.
Some believed him. That sect leader rallied cultivators dissatisfied with aristocratic immortal sects.
Conflict seemed imminent.
The atmosphere between immortal sects became tense.
And the sleeping Meng Ruji, except for a few close people, had no visitors.
The outside world churned while Hengxu Mountain became a forgotten corner.
When Zhan Ye went out seeking medicine for Meng Ruji, he encountered the same difficulties she had faced before.
Cold stares. Mockery. Embarrassment.
He tasted them all.
Some said Meng Ruji was useless—another sect leader had borne hardships, yet she'd still collapsed.
Others questioned: hadn't she been simply injured? How severe could it be? She wasn't ambushed, so why seek precious spiritual medicines?
Still others: Meng Ruji sought medicine from immortal sects? Her trapping of the Wandering Maze Mountain had disturbed the peace between sects—she should kowtow to everyone.
When Meng Ruji woke, she saw deep fatigue and hatred in Zhan Ye's eyes.
"I almost thought you wouldn't wake up," he said.
"I'm tough to kill," she answered hoarsely, then asked: "Is the Wandering Maze Mountain fixed? Doesn't it move anymore?"
"No one cares about that," Zhan Ye said. "They're fighting each other endlessly."
"So, it's fixed?"
"…Yes."
"Then our goal was achieved." Meng Ruji breathed relief. "It wasn't in vain. This year, you, I, the people at the mountain's foot, the animals—none of us will be chased by that mountain."
"But I regret it." Zhan Ye looked at her, shadows heavy under his eyes. "The Wandering Maze Mountain shouldn't have been trapped. You and I shouldn't have participated. Or when that sect leader was ambushed, you shouldn't have performed the blood sacrifice."
"Zhan Ye—"
"Meng Ruji, I think they all deserve to die."
She was silent for a long time, then could only comfort him: "It's enough that our goal was achieved. The matter is finished. We can't fully understand all the various interests. No need to investigate further."
"What if I insist on investigating?" Zhan Ye said. "Didn't immortal sects make vows to guard their dao heart and protect the world? Why don't they keep them? Meng Ruji, I want to keep them. I refuse to accept the baseness in their hearts—I find it disgusting..."
The campfire burned. Everyone looked at Meng Ruji in silence.
After a long time, Tuzi spoke: "I think... this Zhan Ye you're talking about wasn't wrong..."
"At that time, I didn't think what he said was wrong either," Meng Ruji replied, looking down, poking at the fire. "But later, the thousand cultivators who had participated began dying mysteriously one after another. At first, everyone thought it coincidental. But when there were more deaths, everyone said sealing the mountain had brought a curse, and some blamed the sect leader who had 'saved' everyone."
Meng Ruji smiled self-mockingly.
"Then that sect leader began saying everything was my doing—I was the leader, I made decisions, I held down the formation core. But no one cared anymore, because soon that sect leader died too."
"I felt something was wrong and began watching Zhan Ye. I discovered he was disappearing frequently, becoming increasingly cold and secretive. Until that day..."
Her voice dropped.
"I had gone out on business. When I returned, the stairs of Hengxu Mountain were soaked with blood. Blood flowed down like a waterfall. He had killed forty-five people... all children I had taken in."
Ye Chuan and Tuzi both froze.
Mu Sui remained silent.
"His reason was that some children were dissatisfied with me. They complained to Zhan Ye that I seemed too busy and didn't have time for them. So he killed them all."
"What... what logic is that..." Tuzi was stunned. "How could it come to that..."
Meng Ruji's voice became carefully emotionless: "Zhan Ye said he despised them because they were people I had saved. So why weren't their dao hearts firm? He believed they all had flaws. They all deserved to die. Just like the cultivators who participated in the Wandering Maze Mountain formation."
"He did all that..." Tuzi couldn't believe it. "Where did he get such power..."
"Malevolent aura."
Mu Sui lowered his eyes, maintaining perfect composure, saying nothing.
"The day Zhan Ye killed those forty-five children, he told me he had once waited to die on the ice lake. In his delirium, he seemed to receive a divine oracle. A god had given him divine power to destroy the world—because immortals and humans were all base and didn't deserve to live."
"After I took him in, he said that divine power seemed unnecessary. He thought the god's words were wrong. But later, after experiencing everything, he felt they were correct."
Meng Ruji imitated Zhan Ye's voice, speaking without emotion: "Humans are base—whether immortals or ordinary people, the dark ravines in human nature can never be erased. Only by destroying the imperfect can one recreate the perfect, flawless, true humans. Gods should destroy this world."
Both Tuzi and Ye Chuan felt chills down their spines.
Meng Ruji looked at her wrist, where Zhan Ye's injury had left marks—now healed by Mu Sui.
"Zhan Ye once said he was becoming a perfect person. In his eyes, I was the only person besides himself who could become 'perfect.'" Meng Ruji smiled without warmth. "What a pity—I'm not. I even killed him. I never expected..."
She paused, looking into the fire.
"...he wasn't completely dead."
The flames crackled. The campfire smoke drifted up toward the indifferent stars, carrying with it the weight of a thousand years of regret—the understanding that the greatest kindness, once twisted, becomes the cruelest violence. That saving someone from death can only delay their becoming a monster, never prevent it.
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