Chapter 52: 51、Heaven

51、Heaven’s Justice Is Clear, Retribution Is Inevitable

Zhou Chang handed the firewood axe to Bai Xiue.

He stepped aside, and the hostile glares and hateful words of the Bai Family Tomb villagers surged toward Bai Xiue like an unimpeded tide.

Along with their furious screams and curses came the various weapons and tools they held.

Yet facing these blades and tools aimed straight at her vital points, Bai Xiue’s eyes were blank, her limbs paralyzed: “I—I…”

“Because you’ve suffered injustice, you wait for a righteous magistrate to appear.

Because you’ve been wronged, you beg the spirits to judge right from wrong and avenge you.” Zhou Chang’s voice was cold. “From the moment you were born until now, you’ve walked this path.

Whether in marriage or death, others have always decided for you.

But don’t you remember? You once decided for yourself—when you chose to hang yourself before the Bride’s Pool rather than marry the city’s Young Master Wen.

You weren’t afraid of death, yet you fear harming a single hair of theirs?

They want to kill you—why can’t you kill them?!

Why let your heart struggle? Take control yourself—let them struggle instead!”

“Those who kill shall be killed!”

Once your heart awakens, today you kill them—tomorrow, if they get the chance, let them return the favor and kill you too!

—But better still, don’t give them the chance!

Act!”

Zhou Chang pressed his hand on Bai’s father’s shoulder—he neither shielded Bai’s father behind him nor abandoned him to die; he simply held him steady, keeping him at his side.

The villagers’ weapons swung toward the three of them.

Blades know no mercy; Zhou Chang and Bai Xiue each had ways to block the weapons, but Bai’s father, an ordinary man, had no chance against the chaotic flurry of spears, swords, and clubs.

As Bai Xiue watched the weapons frenzy upon her father, and as Zhou Chang barked orders beside her, the invisible string within her heart finally snapped.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Every blade, spear, and iron fork aimed at the three was tightly entangled by lotus filaments bursting from Bai Xiue’s fingertips.

With her ten fingers moving like threading a needle, the seemingly fragile yet incredibly resilient lotus filaments forced the weapons to reverse course—returning exactly as they came.

In the crowd, blossoms of blood erupted instantly!

In moments, several corpses lay sprawled on the ground.

After breaking the killing barrier, Bai Xiue felt her mind suddenly clear—the chaotic thoughts that had weighed upon her soul were washed away by the blood and wind.

Her fingertips moved faster!

Yet the villagers, who had been so fierce and fearless even before ghosts, now saw a ghost kill—and each one’s soul nearly fled their bodies, screaming and scrambling in panic to flee!

“Ah!”

“Ghost! Evil ghost!”

“Run!”

…

In no time, the villagers of Bai Family Tomb scattered like birds and beasts, leaving behind more than a dozen corpses.

The acrid stench of blood filled the night; bodies lay haphazardly across the ground.

Bai Xiue stood among the corpses, not a single drop of blood on her body; strands of lotus filaments, like silver light, retracted into her fingertips—now transformed, they had undergone a qualitative change from before.

Her father stood beside her, staring blankly at the grotesque corpses littering the ground.

Seeing her father’s expression, Bai Xiue lowered her head, timidly.

Then she heard her father’s booming laugh:

“Hahahaha!

Good kill! Good kill!

These Qing demons, these Nalan dogs—they destroyed half the Bai clan of this village, ruined our family… retribution!

Such sweet retribution!”

Bai’s father’s face flushed red with excitement.

He gripped Bai Xiue’s hand tightly, repeating: “Little daughter, you did well—you have this power, you should’ve done this long ago!

They killed you, you became a ghost—you were meant to come back and claim their lives!

Well done, little daughter!”

As her father spoke, he suddenly burst into tears.

He had seen his daughter wield inhuman power—he now firmly believed his daughter had become a ghost. Yet Bai’s father, a humble widower long oppressed in Bai Family Tomb, could not distinguish between ghost and demon; he only felt that now his daughter, as a ghost, was separated from him by the divide of yin and yang.

“Father…”

Bai Xiue softly comforted her father; her expression was gentle, yet a faint spark of defiance now glimmered in her eyes.

After comforting her father, she looked around—where had the young man Zhou gone?

…

On the other side.

At the moment Bai Xiue broke the killing barrier, Bai’s mother and her “adopted son” had fled with a group of villagers in panic.

The group ran in haste, utterly unaware that one outsider had slipped into their midst.

That person followed closely behind Bai’s mother and her adopted son; each time Bai’s mother turned back, she saw nothing amiss.

Only after they had traveled some distance and no more screams or voices reached them did Bai’s mother relax, slow to a stop, and stand still to catch her breath.

Her adopted son, Nalan Rongzhen, collapsed onto the ground, panting with his mouth open—worse off than Bai’s mother.

Nalan Rongzhen stared down the path they had come from; the road ahead was pitch black, nothing visible.

Yet he feared that the white-skinned Bai Xiue, covered in lotus holes, might emerge from that darkness, smiling as she pierced his throat with filaments—he struggled to rise, again and again, but failed each time.

Fortunately, someone lent him a hand, and he finally stood, still trembling: “Bai, Bai Xiue… she won’t follow, will she?”

“She won’t.”

The person beside him replied, his voice far calmer than his.

“Good, good.” Nalan Rongzhen eased slightly, turned to see who had helped him—and faced Zhou Chang’s pale, expressionless corpse-like face!

“Aaaah—”

Nalan Rongzhen instantly remembered this man!

This man had moved only once, yet Nalan Rongzhen had etched his face into his mind.

“Ghost! Ghost!”

Nalan Rongzhen shook like a sieve; to him, Zhou Chang was a great demon.

He tried to break free, but Zhou Chang’s hand gripping his arm could not be shaken off.

“Where’s any ghost?”

“Did Bai Xiue come?”

“Where? Where?!”

The others, hearing Nalan Rongzhen’s panicked screams, were terrified; they frantically grabbed weapons and scanned the surroundings—but ignored Zhou Chang, who held Nalan’s arm.

Only Bai’s mother, most concerned for her adopted son, noticed the side of the man’s face.

Her heart froze; after a moment of inner struggle, she snatched up an iron spear and thrust it toward Zhou Chang’s back.

“Crack!”

At that instant, Zhou Chang released his grip on Nalan Rongzhen’s elbow.

In the same moment, he shattered the man’s joint.

He turned sharply, facing Bai’s mother’s twisted face.

The “dead man’s face” grinned at her: “You struck first…”