I stared at Zhu Lian without a word, walking straight toward the cage on the rock.
Lao Qin was somewhat surprised and tried to stop me.
I brushed his hand away and took two steps to reach the front of the cage.
Zhu Lian gazed at me coldly through the black iron bars of the cage. His pupils were much lighter in color than Xie Zhuo’s, truly gray like a wolf’s.
There seemed to be whirlpools in his eyes that could draw out the deepest fears and terrors from one’s heart.
Facing him, I raised my hand…
My fingertips were trembling almost uncontrollably, but I still reached into the cage and grabbed Zhu Lian’s collar.
Under Zhu Lian’s astonished gaze, with a loud “clang!” I pulled him to the front of the cage, making his body crash against the bars with a tremendous noise.
I glared at him, gritting my teeth: “What did you do to him?”
Anger suppressed all other emotions in my body. I yanked his collar and slammed him hard against the cage again.
“Tell me!”
With two loud “clangs,” Zhu Lian was hit rather hard. He coughed, unable to speak.
Lao Qin, behind me, seemed stunned as well.
After a moment, Lao Qin spoke to persuade me: “Uh… why don’t you… Let him catch his breath first?”
My hand gripping Zhu Lian’s collar was shaking with force. After a moment, I controlled my emotions and threw him away forcefully.
Zhu Lian was physically weak. When I threw him, he staggered back two steps until he leaned against the rock behind the bars, finally stabilizing himself.
Having been struck by me, far from being angry, he looked at me with amusement.
“Sister-in-law, during these last hundred years since you married him, I never noticed that you had such deep feelings for him.”
At these words, I fell silent for a moment.
“How would you know about me and Xie Zhuo?”
Zhu Lian smiled: “I have eyes outside.”
He paused, “Or rather, the evil god has eyes outside.”
My expression darkened: “So you also have a connection with that evil god’s soul.”
“Of course.” Zhu Lian spoke frankly, “Thousands of years ago, my tribe’s chief used an ancient forbidden technique to recall the evil god’s soul. Under the evil god’s guidance, my tribe’s chief selected a woman from our tribe whose essence was compatible with the evil god’s aura, and had her give birth to a vessel prepared for the evil god, so that the evil god could return to the mortal world.”
What Zhu Lian said, I had already seen in my dreams. Thinking of those scenes, I remained silent.
“My mother gave birth to a vessel for the evil god. From then on, my tribe collected soul power from across the world to nurture the ‘evil god’s vessel,’ so that one day, he could bear the evil god’s power.”
Using the entire tribe’s power to nurture Xie Zhuo…
Now I finally understood why Xie Zhuo had such strong power, enough to wield the Pangu Fu in his demon form and cleave through space and time…
From childhood, he was raised as a vessel meant to contain the evil god’s power.
“This continued for over a hundred years, but one day…” The smile disappeared from Zhu Lian’s lips, and his expression turned gloomy. “Xie Zhuo forcibly drew the evil god’s soul into his body and, in his frenzy, slaughtered the entire tribe, including… his mother and me.”
My throat tightened as I recalled what Xie Xuanqing had told me before—
“Slaughtering the entire tribe, killing his closest kin, it was all true.”
I remained silent, listening as Zhu Lian continued: “That day, I happened to be away. When I returned, what I saw was Xie Zhuo in a frenzied state amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood. He had already slaughtered the entire tribe, but he still wanted to kill me!”
Zhu Lian lowered his head and covered his face, as if very frightened, saying pitifully, “I fled for a long time, very far, finally escaping the Northern Wilderness, but he kept pursuing and trying to kill me…”
I interrupted him with a grim face: “Xie Zhuo would not slaughter the entire tribe without reason, nor would he pursue and try to kill you without cause.”
Zhu Lian lowered the hand covering his face, no longer pretending to be pitiful, and looked at me with a sinister smile.
This smile made me feel somewhat chilled. Through him, I seemed to see again that ever-changing, shape-shifting person from my dreams.
“You do understand Xie Zhuo. Indeed, he wasn’t pursuing me, but rather…” Zhu Lian paused, then smiled eerily, “The evil god’s soul in my body.”
My breath caught.
The evil god’s soul was in his body!?
Seeing my fearful expression, Zhu Lian laughed heartily, as if causing me terror was something that gave him great pleasure.
“The evil god’s soul has already disappeared,” Lao Qin came up behind me and patted my shoulder with his fan. “All the malevolent energy in the world has disappeared.”
Yes, the malevolent energy had already… disappeared… along with Xie Zhuo…
I glanced at Lao Qin and steadied myself.
Zhu Lian in the cage seemed to have laughed enough. He looked at me composedly:
“Xie Zhuo killed everyone in the tribe, including his mother. At that time, Xie Zhuo probably wanted to perish together with the evil god’s soul in his body, but I came at just the right moment, and the evil god’s soul escaped into my body.”
Zhu Lian played with his loose hair, speaking as if indifferent, “Then, I fled with the evil god’s soul.”
My fist clenched at my side: “It was you who brought the malevolent energy out from the Northern Wilderness and spread it throughout the world.”
“It was me.” Mentioning this, Zhu Lian smiled somewhat mockingly, “Xie Zhuo, together with the Northern Wilderness deity, established the City of Immortals, vainly attempting to trap me, the evil god’s soul, and the growing malevolent energy in the Northern Wilderness…”
“He succeeded.”