Chen Zhou stood beside her.
"It was all prepared specifically for you, and for Xiaoyun as well,"
he said.
"Won't you go and see?"
The mummified corpse leaned her body outward.
She looked at the patch of ground being reclaimed as a flowerbed, at those green plants she had never seen before, at Su Xue's gentle movements, and at Tuoba Feng's mud-stained hands.
Her eyes were filled with longing.
She wanted to go; she wanted to touch that sand and soil, to see how those seedlings were planted.
But her feet never crossed that threshold.
"I cannot,"
the mummified corpse explained in a small voice.
"I cannot go out."
"I am the god's remains. If I go out, heavenly punishment will descend."
"Even more people in the Western Region will die..."
She lowered her head, her voice growing fainter.
"I... just taking a look from here is enough."
"This is already very good."
Chen Zhou looked at her and smiled, his black robe fluttering slightly in the wind and sand.
"It won't happen."
"Now, the entire Gloomlight Province is my territory."
"North, South, East, and West."
"The four regions and the entire province—I have the final say."
"When a true god permits it, who dares punish you?"
The mummified corpse was stunned.
When a true god permits it... who dares punish you?
She stared blankly toward Chen Zhou.
For a long, long time.
Then, she lowered her head.
She hugged the eyeballs in her arms a little tighter.
Perhaps... she really could?
Under Chen Zhou's encouraging gaze, the mummified corpse gripped the doorframe and slowly stood up.
Then, she took a small step forward.
Outside the tomb, the wind and sand remained.
The yellow sand struck her face, stinging slightly.
It did not show her any gentleness just because she was the god's remains.
Nor did divine punishment descend from the heavens just because she was a monster.
The mummified corpse shuddered all over.
She took another step.
This time, she stepped onto the sandy ground.
The soft, warm grains of sand sank into the gaps between her shriveled toes.
It didn't hurt.
It didn't hurt at all.
No heavenly thunder fell, no earthly fire surged; absolutely nothing happened!
A massive surge of joy welled up within her, making her entire body tremble.
She had truly come out!
Overwhelmed by joy, she grew bold and took another step forward, wanting to completely leave this god's tomb that had imprisoned her for tens of thousands of years. She wanted to walk toward Su Xue, toward Xiaoyun, and toward that garden that was about to be born.
But as this step landed, the sinful karma within her body suddenly surged violently.
As if pulled by something.
The sinful karma erupted from her chest, spreading in all directions along her fingertips.
Not far away, the group of heroic spirits let out a collective muffled groan, their soul-bodies beginning to smoke.
Scalding oil bubbles suddenly burst from the gaps in the armor of many heroic spirits.
The other half of the heroic spirits saw their forms suddenly distort, as if struck by invisible blades and axes.
All the soul-bodies clutched their heads and screamed in agony, rolling on the ground as if they had been thrown onto a mountain of blades or cast into a boiling wok.
Tuoba Feng spun around abruptly.
He saw Xiaoyun curled into a ball, her expression filled with unbearable pain as she clutched her chest tightly.
Fine blade marks were already appearing on her small body.
Each cut went deep enough to see the bone.
The mummified corpse stood frozen in place.
She looked down at her hands.
Sinful karma seeped from her fingertips like chains, like umbilical cords.
One end was connected to her, and the other was connected to all the Grave-keeper heroic spirits.
This was the price they paid for suppressing her for generations.
It was a curse she could never break free from.
"No... no..."
The mummified corpse's voice cracked.
She retreated desperately, stumbling back into the tomb door.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
She collapsed by the threshold, clutching her head tightly.
Bloody tears welled out from her hollow eye sockets.
"I'm not going out... I won't go out..."
"I'll never go out again..."
She wailed and apologized incessantly.
"It's me... it's all me..."
"It's all my fault... I shouldn't have come out... I shouldn't have been greedy..."
She kowtowed repeatedly toward all the suffering heroic spirits.
Her forehead struck the stone bricks with a rhythmic thudding sound.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
"If you want to punish someone, punish me..."
Tuoba Feng had already rushed to Xiaoyun's side.
He picked up his daughter, trying to cover the wounds on her body with his hands.
But those blade marks were a curse, not real physical injuries.
He couldn't stop them.
He could only watch helplessly as ethereal blood poured from his daughter's illusory body.
Xiaoyun did not cry.
She curled up in pain in her father's arms, staring into the void.
It seemed to hurt, yet it also seemed not to.
She didn't remember her life, nor did she remember how many times she had been punished after death.
She just felt very tired; it felt as if she had died the same way in her previous life.
Chen Zhou frowned, his expression instantly darkening.
He immediately summoned the Judgment Whisk.
The pure white silk tassels hung down, their tips lightly touching the ground.
Before Chen Zhou, the phantom of the judgment platform slowly emerged.
Bones served as the foundation, sinful karma as the steps, and Yin-Yang Decrees as the beams.
Chen Zhou ascended the high platform, and the whisk transformed into a brush.
He began to write, and what his brushstrokes traced were the life stories of these Grave-keeper heroic spirits.
Tuoba Mu, twenty-seven years old.
Born in the Western Region, raised in the yellow sands.
Performed his first blood-letting sacrifice at fifteen, married at twenty-six, and had a son the following year.
Died at thirty-two during a black spot tide.
Tuoba Sang, nineteen years old.
Skilled at singing folk songs, possessed a clear and resonant voice.
Started guarding the god's tomb at thirteen and died at nineteen during a blood-letting ceremony.
Tuoba Dan, forty-three years old.
An old craftsman of the clan, skilled at forging blades.
Had polished weapons for seven generations of Grave-keepers and fought against black-spot monsters until his strength was exhausted. Before his death, he forged one last long blade and handed it to his young son, Tuoba Feng.
Tuoba Shan, twenty-two years old.
Tuoba Feng's childhood friend.
They once promised that one day they would leave the Western Region together to travel the world with their swords.
Died at twenty-two during a black spot tide.
Stroke by stroke.
Life by life.
Chen Zhou finished writing the life stories of all the Grave-keeper heroic spirits.
Then, he set down his brush and looked down at that heavy register of sinful karma.
Chen Zhou understood.
This was an extremely malicious guilt by association curse.
Based on the god's remains' sinful karma and bound by bloodline, it was carved into the very souls of the Grave-keepers.
The caster's realm was incredibly high.
At least an eighth-stage Siming stage.
Chen Zhou's gaze darkened as he looked at the mummified corpse's gouged-out eyes and sewn-shut lips.
He suddenly remembered a certain superstitious saying from his previous life.
If you are afraid of being haunted by a malevolent ghost, gouge out the corpse's eyes.
That way, even if it becomes a malevolent ghost, it won't be able to see the face of its enemy.
Then, sew the lips shut.
Even if it reaches the Underworld and stands before the King of Hell, it won't be able to speak of its grievances.
How did that apply to this world?
An evil spirit could not be killed.
There would always be a day of resurgence.
So the person behind this had used such a sinister and malicious method.
Coupled with the sealing blood of the Grave-keeper clan.
Using bloodline as a lock and sinful karma as a chain.
Did they want to trap her in the Western Region forever?
As long as the curse remained, the generations of Grave-keepers would undoubtedly do their utmost to suppress the god's remains to avoid suffering the collective punishment.
Were they also afraid of the retaliation from the resurgence of a true god?
Chen Zhou paused his brush.
No.
It didn't need to be forever.
It only needed a general timeframe.
The Grave-keepers would dwindle through the generations and their bloodline would thin; the perpetrator should have been able to calculate all of that.
The god's remains had been suppressed for tens of thousands of years and only began to revive a thousand years ago.
So that deadline was already very close.
Chen Zhou immediately thought of another temporal milestone.
A hundred years from now.
The realm barrier would shatter.
Central Province's Sky-Monitoring would arrive, and the gods would descend.
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