Chapter 185: Ancestor of the Hatred Heaven

Hearing Su Han’s final words, Zhen Qin’s eyes turned red. She wanted to stop him, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

Su Han continued his instructions: “I will only pass my cultivation to you. After I die, burn my body to ashes. Remember to take my storage pouch—everything related to the Nightshade Ghost Mother has already been discarded…”

Blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth. Soon, his eyes and nose started bleeding as well. The crimson streaks on his pale face stood out vividly, especially against the snowy landscape, making him look even more striking.

Watching as Su Han’s eyes turned completely blood-red, Zhen Qin felt an unbearable ache in her heart. Tears streamed down uncontrollably.

Her robes began to flutter as her cultivation surged wildly.

“The Reverse Fate Divine Art is highly prone to inner demons, but this technique was always meant as a sacrificial inheritance. Once passed on, the energy becomes pure, even refining one’s body, washing the marrow, and rebuilding the foundation…”

“Junior Sister… Thank you for still remembering me…”

Su Han’s voice grew weaker.

Zhen Qin felt an unprecedented heaviness in her eyelids. Her vision blurred—she could no longer see her senior brother’s face clearly.

“Tell Master… I’m sorry… I disappointed him… He helped me build my foundation… yet all I did was bring him trouble… I never got the chance to repay him…”

“This life… though extraordinary… is filled with too many regrets…”

Zhen Qin’s consciousness fell into complete darkness.

The snow fell heavier, as if mourning the heavens and the earth.

…

It was unclear how much time had passed.

Zhen Qin’s awareness slowly resurfaced, and she jolted awake as if waking from a dream.

She found herself lying in the snow, and beside her lay another person—her senior brother, Su Han.

She immediately scrambled to check on him, but as soon as she flipped him over, she recoiled in horror.

Su Han was dead. His entire body had turned purple, skin clinging tightly to his bones as if all his flesh and blood had been drained away—a terrifying sight.

“Senior Brother… it shouldn’t have ended like this…”

Zhen Qin sat on the ground, staring blankly at Su Han. She could feel an overwhelming surge of power coursing through her body, yet she felt no joy.

Suddenly, she threw herself onto Su Han’s body, wailing in grief.

As she turned him onto his back, she noticed that despite his ghastly appearance, the corners of his lips were faintly curved, as if he had died without pain.

A long time passed.

After venting her emotions, Zhen Qin slowly stood up, tears still streaking her face, but her expression had grown colder than ever.

She raised her right hand, and with a flick, Su Han’s golden ring floated into her palm.

She could sense the immense power within it—so vast that even with her reborn body, it still made her heart tremble.

This must be a Grand Ascension-stage artifact!

Her gaze returned to Su Han. She bit her lip, hesitation filling her eyes.

With trembling hands, she raised her right palm, summoning a Spiritual Fire.

“You really have the heart to burn the master who passed his cultivation to you?”

A voice suddenly came from nearby, startling Zhen Qin. She turned sharply to see a white-clad little figure squatting on a tree branch, wearing a mask. ℝàƝÒΒĘＳ

She froze for a moment before exclaiming in surprise, “Mountain God!”

Immediately, she dropped to her knees and repeatedly kowtowed.

Gu An looked down at her, speaking in a deliberately lighthearted tone, “What are you doing?”

Zhen Qin lifted her head and quickly said, “Please, Mountain God, save my senior brother!”

“He has killed so many people—why should I save him?”

Hearing this, Zhen Qin panicked. “How many people has he killed? Look at this world—what high-level cultivator doesn’t have blood on their hands? The cultivation world has always been a battle for survival! My senior brother never wanted to kill, but people forced him onto this path!”

“He practiced the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword—legend says that the greater one’s hatred, the stronger the sword intent. But my senior brother never became invincible using it, proving that his hatred was not as deep as others claim!”

“He also cultivated the Reverse Fate Divine Art of the Nightshade Sect, a technique that allows one to steal another’s cultivation. If my senior brother had no bottom line, his cultivation would have been far higher!”

Her voice grew more impassioned, her grievances finally erupting.

She felt injustice for Su Han.

He had lost his mother at a young age, and his father died too soon. Carrying a blood feud, he entered the Taixuan Sect. The Hatred Heaven Divine Sword he practiced was passed down from his father—what crime had he committed?

When others hunted him down, was he not allowed to fight back?

Su Han had never killed ordinary mortals. Even in his pursuit of strength, his targets had always been fellow cultivators.

The so-called righteous sects—could Zhen Qin really believe that their grandmasters had never slain innocent cultivators?

Gu An looked down at her and said, “The path of cultivation is vast. He must bear the consequences of his own choices. Do you know the fairest thing the heavens grant to all beings? Death.”

“For every person he has slain, his own death is inevitable.”

Zhen Qin wanted to argue, but she feared offending the Mountain God.

Gu An continued, “You believe he had no other choice, and so did he. But think carefully—was that really the case? You two came from the same sect, so why are you still alive while he is not?”

Zhen Qin slowly calmed down.

“If you truly believe your senior brother was blameless, then you will follow in his footsteps. But that is not what he would have wanted to see,” Gu An’s voice turned ethereal.

“The dead cannot be brought back to life. I am merely a Mountain God, not an all-powerful being. However, I can take your senior brother’s body and leave you with a sliver of hope. What do you think?”

Zhen Qin did not answer immediately.

After a long silence, she gritted her teeth and said, “Then I beg the Mountain God to take him. One day, I will find you again—I will search for a way to bring him back!”

Gu An did not object. If Zhen Qin had a goal, she would cultivate even harder in the future.

Raising his right hand, he took Su Han’s corpse, shrinking it to an incomparably small size. Only a storage pouch was left behind, falling onto the snowy ground.

Watching such an extraordinary divine ability, Zhen Qin—though grieving—did not let herself be distracted.

She stood up and asked, “Mountain God, why are you here?”

Gu An disappeared from the tree branch, leaving behind only a cryptic response:

“Who says a Mountain God can only stay in one place? Besides, I am not just a Mountain God.”

Hearing this, Zhen Qin grew solemn, believing that this Mountain God must hold an extraordinary status among the immortals.

She wiped her tears away and infused her Spiritual Power into the golden ring. The barrier vanished instantly.

Sensing the aura of Ye Lan and the others, she hurried toward them. They had scattered, moving swiftly, clearly searching for her.

…

Inside the Xuantian Cave Dwelling.

Gu An placed Su Han’s corpse on a stone table, gazing at the face of his fallen disciple with a dazed expression.

He recalled the past—how, in the forests of Xuan Valley, he had once guided Su Han in the way of the sword. The young Su Han had readily handed over his family’s sword art, the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword, as tribute.

He remembered the attack by demonic cultivators on Xuan Valley—how Su Han had, without hesitation, stood before him, shielding him from harm.

He did not feel that he owed Su Han anything, but in truth, Su Han had never wronged him either—they had simply chosen different paths.

Gu An used his own power to encase Su Han’s body in ice, preventing his physical form from decaying while also keeping his soul temporarily within.

He had no means to bring the dead back to life—this was the best he could do.

“Hmm?”

As he sealed the ice, Gu An suddenly sensed something and raised an eyebrow.

Su Han had passed on only his cultivation to Zhen Qin, yet the sword intent of the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword remained within his body.

Gu An could feel that this sword intent carried a deep web of karma, and one particular thread was immensely complex—its source reached the level of a Scattered Immortal.

How could Su Han have come into contact with a Scattered Immortal?

Could it be… the creator of the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword?

Raising his other hand, Gu An extracted the sword intent from Su Han’s body, forming a swirling mass of blood-red energy in his palm.

Once Su Han was completely sealed in ice, Gu An stepped aside and began analyzing the sword intent.

Even back in the Nirvana Stage, Gu An had already been able to perceive karma and glimpse the past ten years of weaker beings. Now, his ability to sense karma had grown even stronger.

Before his eyes, threads of karmic energy wove together into a single line. The thread belonging to the Scattered Immortal shot out from the Xuantian Cave Dwelling, stretching rapidly toward the distant horizon.

Gu An turned and used his divine sense to track it.

His awareness traveled across towering mountains, swept over vast oceans, and ultimately landed on a massive island.

This island housed hundreds of human settlements, and thirty percent of the population were cultivators—many of whom were immensely powerful.

There were seven cultivators at the Grand Ascension Stage, one at the Nirvana Stage, and most alarmingly—one at the Scattered Immortal Stage!

That Scattered Immortal was hiding deep underground, sealed within a complex formation.

At that moment, an abrupt notification appeared in Gu An’s mind:

[The Ancestor of the Hatred Heaven harbors hostility toward you. His killing intent is rising. Would you like to perform a lifespan inquiry?]

Hmm?

How does he know about me?

Gu An was startled. Without hesitation, he crushed the Hatred Heaven Sword Intent in his hand, then chose to perform the lifespan inquiry.

[Hatred Heaven Ancestor (Scattered Immortal, Second Layer): 14,809 / 25,000 / 28,000]

Scattered Immortal, Second Layer!

Gu An hesitated for a moment—then vanished from where he stood.

—

Seated cross-legged on a cushion, the Hatred Heaven Ancestor wore ashen robes, his eyes closed and brows tightly furrowed in deep meditation.

“Mountain God…”

He muttered to himself, his voice laced with suspicion.

“Who is playing tricks in the shadows? I never expected that continent to still be hiding such a figure…”

Slowly, the Hatred Heaven Ancestor opened his eyes. They were completely blood-red.

He had a unique ability—through the sword intent of the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword, he could perceive all those who practiced it.

However, because Su Han was too far away, his vision of events had been delayed.

But now that the Mountain God had taken Su Han, something felt off.

And worse still, the Mountain God seemed to be tracing his karma.

“He disguises himself as a Mountain God… Is he avoiding the Seven Star Spirit Realm, or… is he actually from the Seven Star Spirit Realm?” The Hatred Heaven Ancestor frowned.

Su Han’s death had infuriated him.

The number of people willing to cultivate the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword was already dwindling. The entire cultivation world now knew of its dreadful price, severely disrupting his plans.

That was why he had turned his attention toward that distant continent.

Unfortunately, in less than ten years, even in that foreign land, the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword had gained a terrible reputation.

It had taken so much effort to find someone to inherit his sword art—of course, he was paying close attention!

The Nightshade Ghost Mother and the Thirteen Fiends of the Nine Nether Path were also thorns in his side. He had even considered exterminating them, but he was wary of drawing the attention of the Seven Star Spirit Realm.

And now, no one in the entire continent was practicing the Hatred Heaven Divine Sword.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became—his killing intent surged.

“No! I must go there myself and personally spread my Dao!”

The Hatred Heaven Ancestor clenched his fists.

But he knew he couldn’t be reckless. He had to wait.

Only after the Demonic Cataclysm had passed could he secretly infiltrate the continent.

He had long noticed that the Seven Star Spirit Realm had begun fostering another human empire.

At that moment—

A hand suddenly pressed down on his shoulder.

His eyes snapped open in shock.

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