Above Wealth Village, thunder roared, tearing through the clouds.

Song Ciwan, however, was utterly immersed in that unspeakable past. Grief, anguish, resentment, indignation... a storm of powerful emotions raged in her heart. Faced with such a history, who could refrain from hate?

Hate! Hate! Hate!

The thunder’s ire and the lightning’s fury, heaven’s grief and humanity’s tears.

Calling stars and summoning ghosts to the feast, a chill runs down one’s spine as the Mountain Charms dine.

With such fiends walking the Mortal World, it’s no surprise that demon dens spawn between heaven and earth.

How could one ever see past this suffocating rage? How could it ever be overcome?

So many of the world’s aberrations, it turned out, were born from humans. By becoming an aberration, he had already Fallen into the Demon Realm. Putting herself in his place, Song Ciwan felt as if she were a character in his story, sharing his fury, hating what he hated, seeing the suffering he saw, and entering the same demon realm he had. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

This was the very peril of the Void Illusion Demon Sword. A single thought could wound, and one person’s sorrow became another’s.

Of course, as the one wielding the technique, Song Ciwan did have a crucial advantage.

During the Beginner stage of Cultivation for the Void Illusion Demon Sword’s First Layer, Heart Demon Illusion, an illusory Heart Demon Seed had been planted in her Dao Heart. This Demon Seed, as its name suggested, fed on Heart Demons.

If she could overcome a Heart Demon, the Demon Seed would grow. In turn, the growing Demon Seed would purify her heart and mind, safeguarding her spirit.

As one waxed, the other waned, which also served to restrain the Heart Demons themselves.

Currently, Song Ciwan’s Insight Technique panel displayed: Side Door Taoist Skill: Void Illusion Demon Sword, First Layer, Heart Demon Illusion (Skilled 328/1000).

At the Skilled Level, her Heart Demon Illusion had allowed the Heart Demon Seed within her Mud Ball Palace to grow to about the size of a fingernail.

It was small but refined, hazy and illusory, with a hint of translucence.

A faint, pure light radiated from it, shining upon Song Ciwan’s Divine Soul. It was this light that allowed her to retain a sliver of clarity, even as she was consumed by indignation and boundless fury.

’I am not Pang Shougui, nor Pang’s wife. I am not a single person from Wealth Village. Nor am I one of the ungrateful southern refugees, or one of those beasts in human skin who preyed on the weak. The evil of others would not be the cause of my own punishment!’

Amidst the peals of thunder, the Giant Village Chief—now a tusked boar—reared up on his hind legs. He threw his head back toward the sky, wreathed in gray mist. Muffled, human words boomed from the beast’s head, his tone laced with infinite grief, indignation, and resentment.

He was questioning the heavens, but he might as well have been questioning the Heart Demon—questioning Song Ciwan. "What did I do wrong? I pitied the weak and helped the suffering. Was it wrong to rescue refugees from a distant land?"

Serpents of lightning still danced across the sky, as if in answer.

The intangible Sword of Heart Demons strained between the realms of illusion and reality.

Song Ciwan said, "To pity the weak, aid the suffering, and save those in peril—in that, you were not wrong."

The boar continued in his human voice, "I worked from dawn till dusk, toiling without rest to provide for my family. I cared for my fellow villagers and did my best to be fair when settling disputes. Though I was only a humble village chief, I never showed favoritism. Was I wrong in this?"

Song Ciwan replied, "To work hard for your family and act with justice, in that you were also not wrong."

Her validation seemed only to fuel his fury. "Then what about taking in my mother’s saviors? Being filial to my elders and treating them with kindness at every turn? Was that wrong?"

Song Ciwan’s voice was somber. "Of all virtues, filial piety is chief. That, in itself, was not wrong either."

The boar pawed at the ground, its head straining to break free from the gray mist, its resentment growing unbearable. "If I did nothing wrong, then why did the heavens treat me so? I took them in with a good heart! Why did they turn around and slaughter my people?"

"My Xiaoya... she was... eaten by those swine!" the boar howled, its human words dissolving into incoherent sobs.

"It’s true I don’t have a son, but it’s not like we couldn’t have another. I saw someone else’s grandson was a fine boy and just offered a few words of praise, that’s all! I never told him to bully Xiaoya!"

"My wife, oh, my wife... why did you have to be so rash?"

"Mother..."

"Celestial Lord, I am filled with Resentment! I cannot rest in peace! Even as a ghost, I would devour those wicked people!"

"I may be a ghost, but aren’t those... things... more wicked than any ghost? What’s wrong with taking my revenge?"

"Why? Why is it that in the end, I’m the one trapped here, unable to move on?"

"I don’t accept it! I won’t accept it!"

The boar’s long, mournful howls echoed as serpents of lightning writhed across the sky. An ashen-gray dome hung over the small village, which was lost in a crevice of time and space. On closer inspection, the dome looked exactly like a cage.

In that instant, Song Ciwan understood. After the tragedy, the people of Wealth Village had transformed into aberrations and, in turn, devoured the very refugees who had massacred them.

But that wasn’t the end. It was, in fact, a different kind of beginning.

A Deceitful Realm had formed. To any outsider who stumbled upon it, this place was a living Purgatory, a hopeless land of terror. But for the original villagers of Wealth Village, was it not also a Purgatory-like cage from which they could never escape?

And so they hated. Hate, hate, hate. Only an infinite hatred could even begin to express a fraction of what they felt.

"Why?" The Giant Village Chief, in his boar form, was still howling at the sky. Each cry was like a sledgehammer pounding on Song Ciwan’s heart. "Why in the world? Why have the heavens wronged me so? I won’t accept it! Kill! Kill! Kill! All of you, just die! DIE!"

He began to charge about wildly, the gray smoke billowing around him.

And within that ferocious, roiling smoke, something even more terrifying seemed to be struggling, gestating.

Song Ciwan mustered the last of the True Qi in her Dantian, her movements becoming light and evasive as she dodged.

The Giant Village Chief’s overwhelming hatred still affected her, yet her thoughts seemed to break free from the turmoil of this sinful, hateful sea. Like a landscape under a bright moon, her mind became a sheet of ice-cold clarity.

Her words came in a torrent, fast yet perfectly ordered. "Pitying the poor and aiding the suffering was not wrong, but overestimating your own ability was a grave error. Neglecting your own people to favor outsiders was an even greater one!"

"As village chief, you knew that the stream of refugees from the north was endless and that conflicts were escalating everywhere. Yet you insisted on letting wolves into your home. Are you truly without fault?"

"As a father, you were so focused on providing food and clothing that you never once paid attention to her actual life. She was being bullied and beaten for a long time, yet you saw her every single day and noticed nothing. Are you truly blameless?"

"As a son, you thought blind obedience to your mother was filial piety, but you turned a blind eye to her favoritism. Is that true goodness?"

"Why is it that you died and became an aberration, while your wife—who killed several people before taking her own life—is not here? Why did she not become one as well? Have you ever considered the reason?"

The phrase "your wife did not become one as well" seemed to flip a switch. As the words left her lips, the roiling gray mist churned, and the Giant Village Chief’s beastly head snapped to the side. He was no longer staring at the sky. Instead, his eyes were fixed, glaring at Song Ciwan.