Chapter 689: Just in Case

"There won't be a next time. This should be the last time you ever see me." Elder Chen smiled faintly, dismissing my words entirely.

"You two knew each other?" Realizing something was wrong from our exchange, the Hemp-Clothed Elder immediately stepped away from Elder Chen.

"It seems someone here still has a working brain." From across the grand array, my voice was steady—neither arrogant nor yielding, holding no fear or intent to beg. "This Elder Chen standing right beside you is the real culprit who slaughtered the disciples of the Five Great Upper Sects!"

"Slinging mud at this point... trying such despicable tricks, don't you think it's a bit too late?" Elder Chen hadn't expected me to say this, but he didn't show a hint of panic. He seemed entirely prepared.

"Mr. Chen, your fox tail has been showing for a long time." Gripping the Ten Directions Talisman Order in one hand, I looked up at the sky roiling with yang qi. "Both you and Chen Jiuge came from Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple. After he died, the Five Great Upper Sects found a scripture about usurping fate on his body. Don't rush to clear your name just yet. I don't mean anything by it; I just want to offer a reminder to the Celestial Masters of the Five Great Upper Sects."

My gaze swept over the gathered Celestial Masters before settling on Leng Qingxuan's Master and the Hemp-Clothed Elder. "I know you won't believe a word I say right now. So, I'm going to point you in the right direction and let you investigate for yourselves."

"Investigate what? The cause of Chen Jiuge's death? Or the man himself?" The Hemp-Clothed Elder was a shrewd man who had already harbored a bad feeling about Elder Chen. Prompted by my words, he voiced the question directly, making the skin on Elder Chen's face twitch violently.

Case analysis was my specialty. Right now, my goal was simple: guide the Five Great Upper Sects toward investigating the Two-Faced Buddha. "Sort out the timeline of the deaths first. Everything started with Chen Jiuge. He was the first casualty. If you can just figure out why he was murdered, many problems will solve themselves."

"If you aren't the killer, why run? And why set up this Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation to resist?" Xu Yinglong demanded, his voice steeped in murderous intent. He gritted his teeth. The entire second generation of disciples from the Golden Mountain Sect had been buried alive, their Life Lamps snuffed out overnight; he wanted nothing more than to eat the culprit alive.

"Everyone has their own secrets, their own side that cannot be brought into the light," I said slowly. Perhaps my calm tone infuriated Xu Yinglong, because he immediately followed up.

"You'd rather bear the blame for murdering several people just to hide your own secret? Do you really expect us to believe that?"

Listening to Xu Yinglong's words, I just smiled, the corners of my mouth turning up. Reaching into an inner pocket, I pulled out the half token engraved with the Eight Characters Divine Fiends.

"I am a Fate Usurper. Is that secret not enough?"

My light words made everyone present—including Elder Chen—draw a sharp breath.

"You're a Fate Usurper?!"

"Divine Fiends, destiny... that is a token interwoven with fate!"

"Impossible! Fate Usurpers are one in ten thousand, and the path of fate ranks first! You absolutely cannot be a Fate Usurper!"

Their faces were filled with shock. To most sect cultivators, Fate Usurpers existed only in legends. A true Fate Usurper turned destiny to their own use; even standing right beside one, you wouldn't notice a thing, unless they directly admitted it like I just did.

"Whether you believe it or not, don't you already know the answer in your hearts? Among you Celestial Masters, there must be those skilled in divination. Before pursuing me, someone among you definitely tried to calculate everything related to me. What did you calculate? And what does my future look like?" I stood near the edge of the grand array. Even in this life-or-death situation, I appeared completely relaxed, as if I had already made peace with death.

Hearing this, the others all looked toward the Qingcheng Taoist Priest and the Hemp-Clothed Elder. The two of them seemed to be experts in this path.

"He isn't lying. As soon as I arrived in Jiangcheng, someone sent me his birth Eight Characters. Divining along the way, the results were different every time. It actually damaged my divine sense severely; I cannot see his fate clearly." The Qingcheng Taoist Priest shook his head and cupped his hands toward the Hemp-Clothed Elder. "Perhaps my skills are lacking. What were your results, Daoist Brother?"

"I couldn't calculate it. There are billions of stars in the sky, and not a single one corresponds to him. It is as if this man doesn't exist at all. He has likely mastered some method of Fate Cultivation," the Hemp-Clothed Elder said. He waved a hand at Leng Qingxuan's Master and took a short strand of hair from the Straw Doll. "Body, hair, and skin are gifted by one's parents..."

He pulled out a piece of yellow paper, sketched a few strokes on it, then clasped the hair and closed his eyes in deep thought for a long while. "His destiny is hazy. Every calculation points to great disasters and calamities. If the results are correct, I truly don't know how this person has survived to this day."

"You're truly a Fate Usurper?" Out of all the Celestial Masters, Daoist Priest Mei was the most shocked, because his disciple had very nearly become friends with a Fate Usurper.

"Do I have any reason to lie to you?" I gave a carefree laugh. "If I dare tell you I'm a Fate Usurper, then I don't plan on leaving here alive. I just don't want to become someone else's scapegoat."

"The true culprit behind the scenes is someone else?" The Celestial Masters still hadn't stepped out of their earlier shock.

"Exactly." I raised my arm, pointing straight at Elder Chen. "This old gentleman standing among you holds countless identities. He is a famous philanthropist, a university professor, and a Celestial Master of Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple. Any one of these identities alone is enough to win respect. But who would have known he has one more, deeply hidden identity!"

I spoke almost word by word. "Just like me, he is also a Fate Usurper!"

The air seemed to freeze. No one spoke; the only sound was the fierce collision of yin and yang qi around us.

"Daoist Chen is a Fate Usurper? Isn't this joke a bit much?"

"Do you even believe your own attempts to sow discord?"

"Impossible..."

Although the sect's Celestial Masters said this, every one of them was incredibly shrewd. Without drawing attention, they quietly backed away from Elder Chen.

"Fate Usurper..." Elder Chen muttered the words, his head lowered. He looked up a moment later, seemingly adjusting his expression—he had nearly lost control just now. "Fellow Daoists, you wouldn't really believe what he says, would you?"

"Naturally we don't, but he speaks so convincingly that it inevitably invites speculation." Daoist Priest Mei was the one who defended me the most among those present; after all, I had been friends with his disciple, and I had spared his disciple's life at the final juncture. Perhaps in his eyes, I wasn't an utterly irredeemable villain.

"This Gao Jian is merely slandering me. I admit I knew him previously, but that was because his ex-girlfriend was lying comatose in a hospital bed, and I wanted him to cooperate with me to treat her. That is all..."

"Stop making excuses. The Five Great Upper Sects aren't fools, and your reasoning simply doesn't hold water." Giving Elder Chen no chance to say more, I cut him off. "Chen Jiuge was your disciple. Why would he have a Fate Cultivation scripture on him? And when the Five Great Upper Sects first arrived in Jiangcheng, why didn't they rescue the victims at the scene first, but instead threw everything into besieging me? I'm afraid you were the one who pushed for that."

I paused, then continued speaking to the Celestial Masters. "And consider what he just said: after capturing me alive, he planned to be the first to interrogate me, using the Dream Dao to restore the truth. The Dream Dao is bizarre and unpredictable, completely different from other Daoist schools. You wouldn't be able to detect what he actually intended to do inside a dream. Under those circumstances, do you really believe he would restore the truth?"

Changing my tone, my voice gradually rose. "He just wants to hide this secret. He planned to eliminate me without anyone noticing, then forge a fake memory to fob you off and divert your attention. That way, you would never find the true culprit, and his identity as a Fate Usurper wouldn't be exposed. Killing three birds with one stone: erasing the crisis of his exposure, obtaining the Fate Cultivation method on my body, and selling you a favor at the same time. Elder Chen truly is a famous philanthropist. What a brilliant scheme!"

"Gao Jian, your ability to sow discord and invert black and white is truly not to be underestimated." Elder Chen didn't respond directly, but took a few steps forward, bypassing the Celestial Masters to stand entirely alone before the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation. He carried an indescribable, overbearing aura. "Fellow Daoists, rest assured. Once Gao Jian is captured alive, I will hand him over for you to handle. However, I advise you to speed things up. This young man seems dead set on dying. If he dies here, I won't ever be able to clear my name even if I jump into the Yellow River."

Elder Chen stood with his back to the sect's Celestial Masters, and a very bizarre scene played out upon him.

The sounds coming from his mouth were completely different from his lip movements. I didn't know how he did it, but reading his lips, I could roughly understand what he really wanted to say—you are dead.

I glared at Elder Chen. "What is the use of threatening me? I don't need the sect cultivators to believe a word I say; I just need to plant a seed in their hearts, and they will investigate on their own. I don't know if you really are that Two-Faced Buddha, but I do know one thing: to usurp fate, you people show contempt for everything. In the corners of Jiangcheng and Xinhu City, there are countless wronged souls waiting for you to pay with your lives!"

As I spoke, I was backing away. I had to leave. Just now, the Fate Ghost had sent me a message: the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation had been pushed to its limit.

"Trying to run? You had better stay!" To capture me alive, the Celestial Masters of the Five Great Upper Sects began driving the Ten Directions Annihilation Grand Formation without regard for the consequences. Rolling yang qi crushed downward, and the range of the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation constantly shrank, violently crushing all living things along its edges.

Without the Fate Ghost presiding over it, and with the grand array inherently unstable, I had lost all hope of turning the tables.

I withdrew the Fate Ghost back into the Ghost Ring and cast a glance at the tunnel behind the shrine.

If I went to save Wang Shi, the grand array would collapse instantly. Even if I luckily escaped through the earth vein, without the grand array blocking them, how could the Five Great Upper Sects just watch me leave?

"Time to go." I didn't even grab my leather suitcase. As soon as I left the main hall, Elder Chen happened to spot me. His eyes were pitch-black and stark-white, as if the karma of good and evil were rotating within them, capable of seeing through everything.

"You really did leave yourself a way out!" Elder Chen was expressionless, his eyes locked onto me. He advanced step by step alongside the bloodstained yang qi.

'Crap, this old bastard knows the Underworld Live Show exists! He might have already anticipated the talismans on me!' I was startled; slipping away right in front of Elder Chen would be harder than scaling the heavens.

Watching him slowly close in, I was forced to detour around the back of the Three Yin Sect's main hall. 'The grand array's perimeter is still shrinking; I must leave immediately!'

"You can't escape!" Elder Chen was about to say something else when he suddenly planted his raised foot back down. Frowning deeply for the first time, he turned to look north.

Between the two mountains, upon the great river that had flowed for a thousand years, a boat seemed to be approaching.

Ye Qingqiu, who was presiding over the grand array, also sensed it and turned to look.

Wind and clouds were surging over the once-calm river. That speck of a black silhouette was slowly growing larger; it seemed to be preparing to force its way into the Ten Directions Annihilation Grand Formation!

"The Five Great Upper Sects are subjugating a demon here! Halt your step!" several Celestial Masters shouted loudly. However, the boat's speed increased instead of slowing, as if it completely disregarded the Five Great Upper Sects.

"Insolent! Who goes there?!" Ye Qingqiu's expression was incredibly ugly; this was the second time the Five Great Upper Sects had their faces slapped in Jiangcheng. "You're courting death!"

Boiling with rage, he was just about to draw on the power of Jiangcheng's feng shui grand formation to suppress that person. However, before he could strike, a massive wave from the great river surged over.

Between the water and the sky, the wind and clouds transformed into dragons and tigers. Seeing this posture, the Hemp-Clothed Elder abandoned all other concerns. He immediately rushed onto the ritual altar, stopped Ye Qingqiu, and then actually cupped his hands in salute toward the great river. "Fellow Daoist, please quell your anger. We are subjugating demons here; we hope you can grant us this convenience. If we have offended you in any way, please forgive us."

Lowering himself by a generation, his expression was grave. "The sects of this world share the same breath and branches. If it is convenient, could you provide your name? Perhaps our Dao traces back to the same roots."

The river water surged, and the silhouette of the small boat gradually grew clearer. At the same time, an overbearing voice rang out across the great river. "When the earth reaches its limit, the sky becomes the boundary; when a mountain is climbed to its peak, I am the summit! You want to ask about my Dao? Are you worthy?"

A lone skiff sailing straight down, a figure in white crossing the river—in front of this person, the Ten Directions Annihilation Grand Formation practically existed in name only!