Chapter 102

She dived down from the Heaven’s Gate, startling the heavenly generals guarding it.

The heavenly realm hurriedly tried to pull her back. Many gods and immortals came and went through Heaven’s Gate, but none had ever exited like this, akin to a fierce woman from the mortal world jumping off a cliff. However, that demon’s speed was even faster than the general’s. When the general reached out, he couldn’t even grasp a corner of her clothes.

Many in the heavenly realm had already learned about the Heavenly Emperor’s affection. The gods, having lived for eons, no longer even remembered their own age. Their temperament had changed to either being disinterested in everything or getting excited over small matters, just like mortals celebrating the New Year. The news of the Heavenly Emperor bringing back a demon from the mortal realm had exploded across the divine realm that very day.

All the gods and immortals knew a new figure had appeared in the North Dipper Palace, but the Heavenly Emperor kept the person hidden, so the outside gods couldn’t see. They privately sighed that even His Majesty could act like a young lad. Now seeing with their own eyes, the general marveled that the rumors were indeed true – even her way of exiting Heaven’s Gate was completely different from others.

Su Heng passed through the powerful barrier between the heavenly and mortal realms, landing on a tree.

The weather in the mortal realm was nice today, with brilliant sunshine. She lay on a tree branch, stretching out her limbs.

The sunlight was already somewhat intense at this time. Mortals tended to avoid the summer sun, but for her, it was just right to nourish her.

Su Heng raised her hand and saw the vivid red mark on her wrist. The mark was gorgeous. Looking at it, flames of anger surged in her heart. She slapped the old tree beneath her with her palm. The old tree could not withstand her thrashing, its branches nearly falling off.

The old tree creaked and groaned. Su Heng scooped up the branch she had split with one hand, and with a wave of her palm over the fracture, it was whole again.

She gently patted the tree. “Sorry about that.”

The branches of the old tree rustled. There was no wind from any direction, so it was likely frightened by her strike.

After consoling the old tree for a while, she turned and left.

Despite being away for some time, the mortal realm still had not changed at all. For many years, she had played around in the human world, but even after so long, she hadn’t seen any changes. It seemed like no matter how many years passed, nothing changed in the slightest.

Su Heng found a tea stall and ordered a few cups of tea to drink in the outskirts. A few young men in white came to have tea. Seeing Su Heng, their expressions changed slightly. Sensing their gazes upon her, Su Heng glanced at the youths, gave a faint smile, and continued drinking her tea.

Those young men were already on pins and needles. They paid and hurriedly left. Not long after they departed, Su Heng sensed an intense ripping sound from above.

Without even raising her head, teacup in hand, she maintained her tea-drinking posture. She raised a hand to grab the knife-wielding hand, pressing on Mei Shuangshuang’s acupoint.

Su Heng looked up and saw Mei Shuangshuang in mourning clothes, eyes red and swollen, the blade in her hand brimming with intense cold intent.

Seeing Su Heng look over, Mei Shuangshuang grew even more agitated. “I never expected to run into you here!”

She exerted more force, wanting to stab with the blade in her hand. The hand gripping her wrist seemed ordinary, and Mei Shuangshuang herself didn’t feel much strength, but no matter how much force she used, she couldn’t break free.

“What are you trying to do?” Su Heng asked with a smile. She glanced at the other young disciples who had followed behind Mei Shuangshuang.

Seeing Mei Shuangshuang in her grasp, dangling in her hand like a cat or dog to be toyed with at will, those young disciples retreated a few steps, not daring to approach.

“What does my father’s death have to do with you?!” Mei Shuangshuang demanded, eyes blood-red.

“What could it have to do with me? That day I only went to cause trouble for Zhu Chi. It’s their own fault, father and son, for badmouthing Tan Ye. I waited for him outside, but who knew he’d be covered in the stench of blood the moment he came out.”

Su Heng looked utterly baffled. “You can’t be stupid enough to think I killed your father, can you?”

Mei Shuangshuang’s struggling hand paused for a moment. “Then why did you run?”

“You know that forbidden area yourself. Besides you and your father, no one else knows how to enter. If I had killed someone, it should’ve been inside, not waiting outside.”

Su Heng suddenly looked as if she had realized something. “I misspoke. Those who know how to enter your sect’s forbidden area aren’t limited to you and your father. The night your father died, weren’t you together with Zhu Chi? How can you be sure you didn’t tell him how to get in while under that tree?”

“Compared to me, he was the one anxious to steal your sect’s treasure.”

Su Heng didn’t see everything, as Zhu Chi showed nearly no tenderness toward Mei Shuangshuang, impatiently ravishing her under the tree. There was not a shred of romance, just him tormenting her half to death. She had no patience to watch this bestial rutting no different from animals mating. But it didn’t stop her from piecing together the scene based on the circumstances.

Mei Shuangshuang’s face turned deathly pale. How could she not have considered what Su Heng said? But when she went to find Zhu Chi, imprisoned in the dungeon and on the verge of death, he told her it definitely wasn’t him. She still remembered that mangled face and his affectionate words.

She knew he was the prime suspect, but still withstood the pressure from Yaoguang, only saying they lacked the most critical evidence and hadn’t let the elders completely execute the father and son pair. They were just imprisoned in the sunless dungeon.

Mei Shuangshuang kept telling herself, there were two people back then, so it might not have been Zhu Chi. She kept convincing herself, using various hearsay, persuading herself it wasn’t Zhu Chi. In the end, she even shifted the blame onto Su Heng.

However, at this moment, the arguments she had used to convince herself were ripped apart by Su Heng’s few blunt words.

Su Heng gripped her hand, seeing Mei Shuangshuang’s face devoid of any color. She snorted derisively. “Seems I hit the mark. You weren’t completely ignorant yourself. Or are you saying you simply refuse to accept that you caused your father’s death and don’t believe the man who was passionately entangled with you would turn around and use the secrets he coaxed out of you to kill your father?”

Su Heng spared a glance at the disciples behind Mei Shuangshuang. When searching for her previously, Yaoguang had made a big show of it. As a result, when she was found, quite a few people saw Mei Shuangshuang in a disheveled state. And afterward, those above also didn’t immediately stop the disciples from privately spreading the matter, so nearly everyone knew, whether they had helped search or not.

“Shut up!” Mei Shuangshuang roared. Her eyes were blood-red now, her chest heaving violently, her breathing clearly unstable.

Seeing this, Su Heng laughed. “What, can’t bear to hear the truth?”

She released the hand holding Mei Shuangshuang. “Your father was killed by you and Zhu Chi together. From the look of you, you already know it in your heart. Don’t tell me you’ve been lying to yourself, thinking it has nothing to do with you, or nothing to do with Zhu Chi? You’re wrong. It was him who killed your father.”

“Nonsense! Even the Yaoguang Elder initially wanted to catch you!”

The magic weapon in Mei Shuangshuang’s hand pointed at Su Heng.

Su Heng rolled her eyes. She had been confined in the heavens by the Heavenly Emperor. She never expected that upon descending, she would encounter such a self-deceiving little fool.

“Go ask the Yaoguang Elder yourself. She wanted to catch me because I could come and go from your Danxun Valley like entering an uninhabited area. Even she didn’t believe I killed your father.”

“What else do you want to say at this point?” Su Heng’s eyes were full of mockery, her words like blades, drawing blood with every strike, determined to stab the person until they bled out. “You caused your father’s death. Even now, you still want to deceive yourself. Don’t you think you’re ridiculous?”

“Is it that you can’t accept you caused your own father’s death, or that you can’t accept Zhu Chi actually used you to kill your father?”

These words were too merciless, like a sharp blade directly impaling someone. Mei Shuangshuang raised her hand, lifting the blade to stab at Su Heng.

That blade was forged by Mei Luo before his death, using a good portion of his own cultivation and rare Ninth Abyss iron. It brimmed with Mei Luo’s spiritual power.

That murderous move was caught by Su Heng as she raised a hand. She exerted no effort, quite easily grabbing Mei Shuangshuang’s wrist. With a slight tug, she dragged Mei Shuangshuang’s entire body in front of her.

Su Heng looked at Mei Shuangshuang’s scarlet eyes and smiled. “There are some principles your father never taught you and didn’t have time to teach you. So let me personally instruct you.” Her hand pressed on the acupoint on Mei Shuangshuang’s wrist. The momentary force compelled Mei Shuangshuang’s hand to loosen, the blade falling to the ground.

“If you want to find fault with someone but lack evidence, then you must seize their weakness. Either pester them relentlessly or be stronger than them.”

“If you have even one of these two, you can prevail. But if you have neither…”

Su Heng’s fingers twitched slightly, and the willow leaf blade on the ground instantly fell under her control. “Then you need to learn to be a turtle hiding its head. Otherwise, the consequences are hard to say.”

She clenched her hand, and the willow leaf blade was tightly crushed in her grip. Then, under Mei Shuangshuang’s dumbfounded gaze, it turned to ashes.

She opened her palm, her fingertips moving slightly to let the fragments in her hand completely fall out.

Mei Shuangshuang let out a piercing shriek, so sharp it was unbearable, but Su Heng remained unmoved.

“Do you see the consequences?” Su Heng had never thought of finding fault with Mei Shuangshuang, but since the person had delivered herself to her, she didn’t hold back in using her as a punching bag.

“Don’t think I will show you any mercy. I’m not your parents. When I’m in a good mood, I might leave you a way out. If I’m in a bad mood, I’ll treat you however I want. You think you’re facing your father and I won’t do anything to you?”

Su Heng’s hand gripped Mei Shuangshuang’s neck. “Remember this well. If you act like this again in the future, the result might be even more cruel than you imagine.”

Mei Shuangshuang tightly grasped her hand, glaring at her.

Su Heng glanced at the disciples behind her. The disciples behind Mei Shuangshuang didn’t dare make a sound. Although many had come, not a single one dared to step forward.

She flung the person in her hand. Mei Shuangshuang fell to the ground, covering her neck and coughing her heart out. But what hurt the most was that her father’s heirloom had been destroyed by Su Heng. She crawled a little but couldn’t get up.

The surrounding disciples maintained an eerie silence.

Su Heng picked up the tea on the table and finished the remaining water.

She left the money on the table and left on her own. When those disciples saw her coming, they all retreated to both sides, making way.

Su Heng walked through without ceremony. Seeing the alarmed expressions of those young men and women, she even kindly praised them for being sensible.

Su Heng played in the mortal realm for two days when she suddenly remembered she hadn’t fully avenged herself on Zhu Chi and his father. The scenery of the mortal realm, which originally held the most allure for her, strangely held no interest at this moment.

She stayed in the mortal realm for a few days, finally lying on the grass, staring at the night sky above. The night sky was so clean it was translucent.

Su Heng recalled Tan Ye had once told her about the arrangement of stars in the sky and the trajectories of the celestial bodies. She sat up, gazing at the night sky. Even now, she still couldn’t fully distinguish what the differences were. She couldn’t identify the stars in the sky at all.

“A Heng.” As she was straining to look up, a white figure appeared in her field of vision.

The Heavenly Emperor had changed into ordinary clothes, looking at her with a smile in his eyes. He had concealed all his sharpness, exuding a gentle affection that enveloped her entire being.

For a moment, Su Heng seemed to see Tan Ye.

“Still not planning to return?” the Heavenly Emperor asked with a helpless sigh and a smile.

He was like a gentle and attentive husband coaxing his wife who had stormed out in a fit of anger.

“Return?” Su Heng sneered. “Return where? The divine realm is lofty. I can’t reach that high.”

The Heavenly Emperor simply sat beside her upon hearing this. Su Heng stretched out a hand, exposing her fair wrist entirely to his eyes. “Get rid of this for me.”

The Heavenly Emperor gently grasped her wrist, his finger rubbing the mark. After a moment, his lips fell upon it.

“Scram!” Su Heng raised her hand. The Heavenly Emperor didn’t dodge. Su Heng’s hand struck his face, making a loud sound.

Su Heng froze, quite surprised. She quickly sneered again. “What are you trying to do? A ruse to gain sympathy?”

“I won’t show you any pity.”

“You have anger in your heart. It’s better to let it out than keep it bottled up.” The Heavenly Emperor was the same as always, but the more he was like this, the more Su Heng’s anger soared.

“You think this can do anything?” Su Heng raised that arm in front of him. “Branding me with your mark, so no matter where I go from now on, you can sense it.”

As Su Heng said this, she suddenly fell completely silent. The Heavenly Emperor slightly furrowed his brow at her abrupt, eerie reaction. The next moment, her hand transformed into a blade, directly chopping at her own wrist.

The Heavenly Emperor tightly restrained her hand that was about to chop down. “Even if A Heng cuts off this hand, it will be futile.”

She had already anticipated this result, but hearing it with her own ears, she still became exceptionally furious. “At least if I chop it off, I won’t feel irritated looking at it!”

She was used to being free and unrestrained, like a flower or weed drifting with the wind, going wherever she wanted. Now branded with this, no matter where she went, he would know her whereabouts.

Su Heng was thus enraged beyond words.

“In that case, let me replace it.” He held her hand that had already turned into a blade, lightly touching it to his heart.

His entire hand covered the back of hers, gradually applying force. Su Heng felt the layer of power originally enveloping his divine body vanish without a trace.

She could usually sense an extremely domineering force surrounding the chief of the gods. It was fine with normal contact, but when trying to harm him, it would completely repel the person.

“Let me help you.” His eyes were full of affection as he looked at her, his hand guiding hers to apply force inward.

Su Heng sneered, but the sensation of piercing through flesh made her expression change. Then she touched something hard.

She knew it was bone.

She no longer cared about anything else, desperately pulling her hand back.

But the hand pressing on hers still did not lighten in the slightest. She quickly dispelled the illusion on her hand. The sticky, warm sensation of her fingertips on bone…

She felt the force on her palm abruptly push forward. She swiftly withdrew her hand.

“You’re insane!”

The next moment, she was tightly embraced.

The Heavenly Emperor’s clothes at his chest were already soaked through with blood. Hearing her words, a few soft laughs emerged from his throat.

“So what?”

“You only realize that now?” He laughed again. “I’ve long been like this.”