Chapter 488 460: Love and Hate in the Mortal World, Black and White are Indistinguishable

With Cloud Sea Stepping Waves, Song Ciwan flew nearly a hundred li over the mountain path in the span of a few dozen breaths.

In fact, she had already slowed down intentionally to accommodate the little girl beside her.

She even conjured a Primordial Energy Shield, which invisibly gentled the astral winds high above.

The gentle wind was like a light veil, brushing past both sides of the cloud and creating a strange, dream-like sensation. The little girl, who had been squatting on the cloud in terror, unconsciously straightened up. She finally uttered the first coherent sentence she had spoken since meeting Song Ciwan.

"I'm flying!" she first cried out in amazement. Then, she turned her head to ask Song Ciwan, "I'm flying in the sky! Immortal Master, are you an Immortal?"

A torrent of words came spilling out. "Immortal Master, our village has been struck by disaster! My father and mother fought those strange things… I don't know what happened to them. My older brother helped me escape, but we got separated. Immortal Master, I'm begging you, please save my parents and my brother, won't you?"

By the end, her childish voice was choked with sobs.

A wave of panic and distress belatedly washed over her.

The Heaven and Earth Scale received a ball of human desires: [Human desires: A mortal's panic, fear, and confusion. One jin, eight taels. Tradable.]

'A child's emotions may be intense, but their human desires are shallow.'

In a placid tone, Song Ciwan said, "Do not worry."

Those two simple words held a tranquil and gentle power.

The little girl's sobs ceased at once. She stood up straight on the cloud, full of curiosity, and leaned over to look down.

After flying another hundred li, the scenery ahead changed dramatically.

First, vast stretches of farmland and crisscrossing paths came into view, followed by wisps of gray smoke snaking and drifting from the silhouette of a distant village.

The little girl involuntarily leaned forward, shouting with delighted surprise from the cloud, "That's right, that's our village! That's it! This is wonderful! Immortal Master, my parents and my older brother can be saved now, can't they? You're willing to save them, right?"

Song Ciwan didn't answer right away. She just guided the cloud downward while, with a light flick of her finger, she activated a Golden Armor Talisman and placed it on the little girl.

From a distance, even before the cloud had fully descended, she could sense an extremely dense Blood Evil Qi emanating from the village.

It wasn't an evil aura, nor was it Demonic Qi—it was pure Blood Evil Qi.

If one could suppress and absorb this type of Blood Evil Qi, it would be an incredible tonic for a Martial Artist, a Body Refining Cultivator, or even a member of the Demon Race.

But if it were to come into contact with mortals, or appear in a place where they gathered, it would inevitably incite chaos, greed, and conflict.

Song Ciwan had a theory. 'The disaster that struck the village, the one the little girl spoke of, must be connected to this Blood Evil Qi.'

As she mulled this over, Song Ciwan decided to place a Spirit Calming Talisman on the little girl in addition to the Golden Armor Talisman.

Once the Spirit Calming Talisman took effect, the little girl on the cloud suddenly yawned. Sitting there on the cloud, she somehow grew drowsy and began to doze off.

Song Ciwan picked up the child with one arm, descended into the village, and began to survey her surroundings.

The village houses were heavily damaged. Dismembered human limbs and pools of blood were scattered everywhere on the ground, along with the tracks of rampaging beasts.

There were footprints of Demon Beasts on the ground. As Song Ciwan walked past them, she could sense the faint, chaotic Demonic Qi that still lingered within.

But it wasn't just Demon Beasts. There was another, even stranger, aura.

It was difficult to describe this aura. It felt human, yet not human. It was somewhat similar to the Blood Evil Qi that saturated the village, but it was also tainted with more resentment and darkness.

In the ruined village, aside from scraps of flesh and severed limbs, not a single living person was to be seen.

Just then, the strand of hair in Song Ciwan's hand—the one she had used for Divination—suddenly burst into flame of its own accord.

'This meant that everyone in the world with a blood tie to the little girl was, in fact, in this very village.'

'Neither her parents, who had supposedly "gone somewhere unknown," nor her older brother, who had "helped her escape," had actually managed to leave.'

'So, if they never left the village, where were they?'

'Were they all dead, turned into the scraps of flesh and severed limbs on the ground?'

'Or...'

Song Ciwan gave up on Divination, choosing instead to follow her instincts.

Holding the little girl in one arm, she walked with light steps toward the southeast corner of the village. Her pace seemed slow but was deceptively fast. With just a few steps, she crossed several village paths, and a building resembling an ancestral hall suddenly appeared before her.

Yes, an ancestral hall.

Every village had an ancestral hall; there was nothing strange about that in itself.

The strange thing was that this ancestral hall seemed both illusory and real. Though it stood under the bright daylight, it gave off a phantom-like impression, as if made of ash and smoke.

And the wisps of gray smoke Song Ciwan had seen from the cloud were coming from this very hall.

Song Ciwan did not rush into the ancestral hall. Holding the little girl, she stood quietly outside, a divine light flickering in her eyes.

In the next moment, it was as if her eyes gained the power to pierce through the world—

Just like that, with her naked eye, Song Ciwan pierced through the strange facade of the ancestral hall and saw the threads of causality deep within.

This was one of the unique abilities of the Body Refining Fourth Layer, Opening the Universe: to snatch chestnuts from the fire, and to see reality with one's own eyes.

Inside the ancestral hall, voices wailed and wept.

About thirty villagers were bound and scattered haphazardly throughout the ancestral hall's main chamber.