Chapter 460: Saying Sins

The Sin Lord sat on the ground. The raven feathers between his black robes resembled ashes from a fire. His long, slender fingers were his pen, as intricate runes formed at their tips.

Ning Changjiu sat down before him, observing the symbols the Sin Lord was drawing.

It was a circle, and at its center were two entwined, embryonic figures with sharp teeth and lizard-like tails.

"What is this?" Ning Changjiu asked.

The Sin Lord replied, "This is the primal sin of humanity."

Ning Changjiu pondered for a moment, then said, "In a certain creation myth, the ancestors of mankind offended the supreme God-Emperor. Consequently, from birth to death, all humans thereafter are engaged in a process of atonement. Because humans are sinful, they are destined to die; yet, they can never fully expiate their sins, making death an inevitable outcome."

The Sin Lord paused his hand from drawing runes and asked, "Do you believe such a claim?"

Ning Changjiu shook his head, saying, "I find it quite absurd."

The Sin Lord said, "I once firmly believed in it."

"I'd be glad to hear more," Ning Changjiu replied.

Grey mist churned beneath the black robe, and raven feathers continuously drifted down. These feathers transformed into actual ravens, soaring above the divine palace and cawing raucously. Inside the palace, a series of shadowy images began to emerge.

These were the Sin Lord's experiences before his apotheosis.

The scene revealed a dark forest, within which stood a crude tower made of piled stones. Upon the tower, the full moon cast a stark, pale light.

This forest, known as the Corpse Forest, lay within a vast rift valley. All the corpses and remains from the wars between demons and gods in the mortal realm were cast into this chasm, and the animals of the Corpse Forest fed on the decaying flesh.

Though rife with poisonous miasma and rampant plagues, life also emerged from these damp, filthy crevices.

They were snakes, insects, centipedes, and rats that scurried everywhere.

Among these lowliest, most humble creatures, many developed intelligence. Some managed to climb out of the great rift valley and journey to the chaotic mortal world, but most simply eked out a meager existence within the valley, feeding on the corpses thrown down from the walls.

It was a night of the full moon, and all life in the Corpse Forest converged towards the central stone tower.

A crow stood atop the stone tower.

The crow was massive, resembling a vulture more than a bird. Many of its feathers had fallen out, revealing rotting, festering flesh beneath. Its beady, green eyes furtively surveyed the Corpse Forest. As the cold, converging creatures approached, it nodded.

Tonight was the full moon, and as was customary, the crow was to conduct a ceremony here.

"You are born bearing heavy sins."

The crow donned a crown made of black copper and commenced its monthly discourse.

"You are creatures born in the Corpse Forest, feeding on decaying corpses. These bodies nourish you, yet they are steeped in sin—as I've told you before, death and sin are interconnected. Those burdened with sin are bound to die, whereas beings of pure essence can achieve eternal life."

"By feeding on these sinful corpses, you too become tainted with their iniquity, and shall never achieve transcendence for all eternity."

Below the stone tower, murmurs of agitation arose.

A small mouse timidly stepped forward and asked, "Lord Crow King, from where do the sins of these corpses originate?"

The crow shrieked, "Their sins are innate!"

"Innate?"

"Yes. In ancient times, the progenitors of all spirits offended the supreme God-Emperor. They committed transgressions, and so their descendants must atone for them for generations. Those who fully atone for their sins will be called saints; they will be immortal and indestructible, becoming perfect beings akin to the God-Emperor, while creatures unable to atone for their sins will be erased by death."

The crow's sharp tone echoed throughout the Corpse Forest. No creature dared to speak, as if repenting for their innate sins.

Yet the little mouse asked again, "Newly born spirits are incredibly pure. Are they also sinful? If not, then according to your words, wouldn't they directly become immortal and indestructible saints?"

The crow glared at the small mouse, feeling a surge of anger. However, under the watchful eyes of the gathered creatures, it suppressed its wrath and explained patiently.

The crow declared, "Sin is a river that has flowed from the progenitors down to this very day. Children are flesh cut from their mother's body, and naturally inherit their mother's corrupted flesh. Tell me, how can a defiled being give birth to a pure spirit? The innocence and goodness of young spirits are merely deceptive; once they gain power, they will reveal their innate sinfulness! Furthermore, many young spirits die as soon as they are born. According to the God-Emperor's decree, sinless life is immortal and indestructible. The very fact that young spirits die precisely proves they bear the burden of sin!"

Startled by the crow's glare, the little mouse recoiled. It found itself unable to refute the crow's words, convinced that defiled beings truly could not birth pure spirits. It was just as when it had tried to envision the God-Emperor; its humble existence simply could not conceive of a perfectly divine being.

The crow surveyed its audience, satisfied that no one else was refuting it, and resumed its sermon.

According to the crow, the souls of living beings were immortal, but their physical bodies were a punishment from the God-Emperor to the progenitors of all spirits—a vessel for sin. Thus, the soul controlled the cumbersome body as it moved through the world, and the rest of its life was a process of atonement.

The God-Emperor, pitying all beings, had, in dispensing death as punishment, also created a path to atonement: cultivation.

Cultivation could prolong life and delay death, thus it was considered the sole path to atonement. The crow, possessing wings, had ventured to the outside world and observed that cultivators preferred to reside on high mountains. They did so to distance themselves from the defiled mortal realm and maintain the purity of their bodies.

Someone else cautiously asked, "But we are already burdened with so much sin, more than we can ever wash away in a lifetime. What, then, are we to do?"

The crow was quite pleased with this question.

It finally began to articulate its core belief: "The God-Emperor granted all spirits the ability to cultivate, so they might atone. But what are the creatures outside doing? They are slaughtering each other! Slaughter is the gravest sin. Living beings have already defied the God-Emperor's will; they show no repentance and continue their monstrous crimes. The God-Emperor dislikes such a world."

The crow removed the black copper crown and declared, "Last night, I dreamed of the God-Emperor; I cannot possibly describe its perfection to you. The God-Emperor bestowed two things upon me: this black copper crown, and this Bottle of Purity!"

The crow informed them that the black copper crown embodied sin; once sin was atoned for, it would transform into gold. The Bottle of Purity, on the other hand, could contain all pure souls. The crow itself would become a saint, and then lead them all to the Land of Eternal Life. All they had to do was believe in it.

For a while, on every full moon night, the crow would fly in with a head in its beak, telling them it belonged to a tribal chief from outside—a chieftain of sin.

It placed the black copper crown on the head of the sinner, and everyone could clearly see the black copper crown absorb dark blood from the skull like a sponge.

This continued for a long time. Each time it brought back a head, the crow would recount how powerful the head's owner had been, explaining that they had committed sins through slaughter, and that it, acting on divine mandate, had easily slain them.

The creatures of the Corpse Forest had never seen the outside world and were far less powerful than the crow. Over time, their curiosity about the world and their worship of power led them to firmly believe the crow's words. The very few who disbelieved were publicly burned to death by the crow.

The crow also sold its feathers to them, claiming that consuming them could atone for a portion of their sins. In exchange for the feathers, they offered inner elixirs, flying swords, and other magical artifacts scavenged from the corpses.

Several years later, the base of the stone tower was piled high with skeletal heads. All creatures revered the crow as a holy child, and the crow, devouring their power of belief, grew larger and larger.

Even the perpetually wavering little mouse, after years of indoctrination, now firmly believed in the crow. It believed that the great Crow God was the saint who could lead them to eternal life.

Another full moon night arrived.

By now, the crow was even taller than the stone tower.

Tonight, it again carried back a head, a human head. The crow told them it was the head of a human king, whom it had slain. All the wicked chieftains outside had been executed. Tonight, it would become a saint and lead everyone to the God-Emperor's realm.

The creatures in the Corpse Forest fervently clustered around it, letting out cheers that sounded like roaring mountains and surging seas.

The purification ceremony was simple: cremation. The flames would burn away their sinful bodies, leaving only pure, eternal souls.

For years, the crow had been describing to them the joy of souls returning to heaven after their bodies were incinerated, portraying the beauty of the divine realm. Thus, everyone was filled with anticipation for the burning, seeing nothing wrong with it. They were grateful to the crow for bestowing wisdom upon them and leading them out of this rift valley that never saw daylight.

The great fire ignited. Squeezed within the crowd, the little mouse suddenly felt a flicker of clarity the moment the flames began to burn. However, this clarity was swiftly drowned out by the fervent, uniform shouts and cheers of all the surrounding creatures.

It couldn't make a sound, able only to cheer along with them.

The flames began to burn from the edges. Arthropods popped and crackled in the fire as their souls peeled away from their bodies, flying into the crow's bottle and transforming into liquid.

The crow stared at the bottle, muttering fervent prayers to the divine lord, its expression equally fanatical.

The flames spread towards the center, and many creatures had already fainted. The little mouse, whose magical power was decent, barely managed to hold on.

Just as this grand ritual was about to conclude, and the lives in the Corpse Forest were on the verge of being purified by the God-Emperor in the sacred ceremony...

A sudden anomaly occurred!

From the cliff beside the Corpse Forest, a monster leaped down.

It was a bluish-grey wolf, clutching something in its mouth, running wildly.

It was in flight!

The giant bluish-grey wolf ignored the sacred ceremony and charged straight towards them.

The crow watched it in terror, then began to loudly denounce its sins in the name of the God-Emperor.

But the grey wolf ignored it. It leaped over, directly stomping on the holy child revered by all spirits, crushing its body to a pulp, and then continued its relentless escape forward.

The crow was crushed so severely that its intestines burst.

This was a scene the little mouse would never forget.

It vividly remembered the giant bluish-grey wolf. It had never seen such a powerful creature; the great holy child had simply been...

The little mouse felt a lump in its throat. Then, several more dark figures dropped from the high cliff.

They dashed past, trampling out the surrounding great fire and crushing countless lives to death.

Even a creature as powerful as the giant wolf was being pursued by other beings!

They trampled right over this place.

These powerful beings were merely passing through, engaged in a pursuit; they cared nothing for what the other creatures were doing, nor for their lives or deaths.

It was a sudden, unforeseen catastrophe.

The powerful beings came and went swiftly, leaving behind corpses strewn across the land.

The little mouse miraculously survived. It looked around, assailed by the reek of burnt flesh and gore. Its paws were covered in the blood of its trampled companions. It gagged for a long time before finally struggling to its feet and staggering forward in a daze.

The crow, its body utterly crushed, was astonishingly not entirely dead.

It propped itself up with its wings, crawling through the muddy blood, inching closer to the Bottle of Purity.

Most of the soul liquid in the Bottle of Purity had spilled, leaving only a shallow amount.

Seeing the little mouse approach, it uttered with difficulty, "Bring it... give it... to me to drink!"

"Yes, Holy Child," the little mouse replied obediently, picking up the bottle and bringing it to the crow's beak.

The crow saw a glimmer of hope. It struggled to extend its beak to drink, but its beak became stuck in the bottle's opening, unable to reach the soul liquid at the bottom.

The crow's eyes were bloodshot, agitated and furious.

The little mouse sat cross-legged and said, "Lord Holy Child, doesn't this resemble the story you used to tell us—the crow drinking water?"

The crow opened its beak wide and asked hoarsely, "What... what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry, I will help you, Lord Holy Child," the little mouse said, still appearing humble. It picked up small pebbles from the ground and dropped them into the bottle.

The crow extended its beak again, but it could only touch the hard stones. The liquid, hidden within the crevices of the stones, remained out of reach.

The little mouse surveyed the scattered remains on the ground and slowly said, "The stories were all lies, Lord Holy Child. Ignorance is the true origin of sin..."

The crow could no longer bear it. It tried to stab the mouse with its beak, but the mouse deftly dodged.

The little mouse drank all the soul water from the bottle, then placed the crown on its own head.

It looked at the crow and, enunciating each word, delivered its first judgment in this life: "You are guilty."

"That black copper crown and the Bottle of Purity are both precious magical artifacts. One can draw the power of faith, much like the golden bodies of mountain and water deities, while the other can refine souls, transforming them into pure and potent spiritual energy. Unfortunately, this crow was just one step away from achieving the Five Paths."

The Sin Lord raised a hand, and the images faded.

Ning Changjiu and the others withdrew their gaze.

He looked at the Sin Lord and said, "Back then, you no longer believed in original sin. What are you judging now?"

The Sin Lord said, "After that, I suddenly gained immense power, devoured the crow, climbed out of the chasm, and entered the wars of the mortal world. For a long time, I scoffed at the idea of original sin, believing that human will could triumph over destiny. But now, I believe in original sin again."

"Why?" Ning Changjiu asked.

The Sin Lord said, "Because humans need to survive, and survival is the most powerful desire of all living beings; every other desire is built upon it. Survival is the primal sin! To better survive, living beings will inevitably encroach upon the existence of others. Since the dawn of life, slaughter and conflict have never ceased—this is the strongest evidence."

Ning Changjiu thought seriously for a moment, then said, "This is an unchangeable fact, which is why intelligent beings established morality and rules."

The Sin Lord shook his head, saying, "It's useless. Life cannot suppress its craving for survival. Even within a specific order, mutual oppression is unavoidable. The victors will become oppressors, and the defeated will become the oppressed. When the victors possess power, they also gain the authority to interpret rules. If, from then on, rules can only govern the defeated and not restrain the victorious, do they still hold any meaning?"

At this point, the Sin Lord sighed faintly and said, "This is an unchangeable truth within the kingdoms established by living beings. Humans cannot suppress their desires, and thus are destined to be corrupted."

Ning Changjiu asked, "If that's the case, then how do you believe all this can be changed?"

The Sin Lord replied, "By having beings of absolute goodness and justice maintain order."

Ning Changjiu shook his head, stating, "You just said that's impossible."

The Sin Lord said, "It was impossible before, but now it is possible."

Ning Changjiu watched him quietly.

The Sin Lord extended a long, withered finger, pointing upwards. "The being of absolute goodness and justice is the God-Emperor. Previously, the God-Emperor was a mere illusion, but now... it is directly above the sky!"

"Do you want the Dark Lord to dominate this world?" Ning Changjiu asked.

"Yes!" The Sin Lord affirmed, "Back then, the crow depicted a world where humans are born sinful. Once a person commits evil and reveals their sin, they will be condemned by the God-Emperor, either punished or put to death. Everything proceeds under absolute justice... This is my ideal realm."

Ning Changjiu remained silent for a long time. He looked at the Sin Lord's dark divine robe, watching the continuously falling raven feathers, and said, "This is nothing but a fantasy."

The Sin Lord asked, "Why?"

Ning Changjiu said, "The Dark Lord is not your ideal God-Emperor at all. All it desires is to remove 'evil,' and in that process, it will annihilate all living beings."

The Sin Lord also fell silent for a long time, then said, "But the Dark Lord created the stars and the divine realm. It possesses the power and means to maintain order. You can transform it, making it a qualified God-Emperor."

Ning Changjiu shook his head, saying, "I cannot do that."

The Sin Lord stated firmly, "If you cannot do it, then no one can."

Ning Changjiu calmly said, "The risk of doing so is too great; it's not worth it."

"Not worth it?" the Sin Lord said. "To establish an ideal world where the good are immortal and indestructible, and the wicked are utterly destroyed—isn't such an ideal worth risking everything for?"

Ning Changjiu said, "That is a paradise in your eyes, but it is hell in mine. What's more..."

Ning Changjiu looked at the Sin Lord and said, "As you just said, the desire for survival is humanity's primal sin, and I too cannot escape this primal sin. For the sake of survival, I cannot take any idle risks. What's more, that is not the world I desire at all."

The Sin Lord looked at the runes he had drawn on the ground and said, "Then living beings will forever remain ugly."

Ning Changjiu said, "This is the price of survival... Besides, in my eyes, most of them are quite beautiful."

Although Lu Jiajia, who was nearby, could not understand their conversation, she sensed that the negotiation had apparently broken down.

The Sin Lord unfurled his mythical form.

A terrifying body emerged from the black cloak, the gaunt, sin-shaped figure revealing itself. Bone wings unfurled, their membranes gleaming, and tangled lightning coalesced in his palm, forming a brilliantly crimson lightning spear.

Ning Changjiu's eyes remained perfectly calm.

He gazed steadily at the Sin Lord's mythical form, then spread his hand.

Liu Xihuan transformed into a snow-white sword, flying over in an instant.

Just as it had been years ago at Broken Realm City, this battle unfolded within the divine realm.

Intersecting lightning bolts streaked across the sky, tangled elements swirled into vortices, and the ceaseless roar of thunder filled the air.

Sword and spear hummed in the sky. The hurricane generated by their battle was like an unyielding blade, cleaving the divine realm directly in half!

It was a grand and powerful battle, yet one that held no suspense.

The battle lasted for a day and a night.

Back at Broken Realm City, Ning Changjiu had been cut to a skeletal, inhuman state. Now, his sword pierced precisely into the Sin Lord's mythical form.

The moment the Sin Lord completely collapsed, Siming and Lu Jiajia flew out simultaneously, drawing agile curves in the air, severing the Sin Lord's wings from left and right.

The Sin Lord plummeted into the fractured land of the divine realm.

Ning Changjiu landed before him.

The Sin Lord slowly rose from the ground and walked towards his grave.

His divine throne had vanished, leaving only a black cross-shaped gallows.

He walked onto the cross-shaped gallows, spread his arms, and closed his eyes.

Ning Changjiu did not stop him.

Flames ignited, and he burst into fire like dry wood.

This was a fire 3,700 years overdue. Though it hadn't claimed his life during that 'sacred ceremony,' now he would finally return to the flames.

In the Sin Lord's understanding, the divine soul was not pure, nor was the body inherently sinful, and fire likewise had no power to purify everything. He believed that survival itself predestined sin, and that he was destined to perish. Rather than being killed by Ning Changjiu, he preferred to destroy his own existence.

Death was the way to eliminate everything, whether one was evil or good.

The flames roared fiercely.

The Sin Lord opened his eyes and said, "I have judged humanity's primal sin; they will continue to slaughter for generations, never stopping."

Ning Changjiu said, "Without your judgment, slaughter and oppression will not cease. This is inevitable, and I cannot change it."

The Sin Lord smiled triumphantly, like a child who had successfully pulled a prank: "So my judgment will continue forever and ever."

Ning Changjiu looked at the Sin Lord's face, twisted in the fierce flames, and offered no reply.

The Sin Lord still seemed unsatisfied.

He stared at Ning Changjiu and said, "I also pass a death sentence upon you: you will be killed by something from beyond the heavens!"

Ning Changjiu's eyes were incredibly calm. "I know," he said.

The Sin Lord's face furrowed. "Do you truly know what I'm talking about?" he asked.

Ning Changjiu nodded. "I know."

"But I will not die. As I depart, so shall I return."

Ning Changjiu turned around.

The great fire completely consumed the Sin Lord. Thick smoke soared skyward, and the divine palace collapsed with a roar.

The Sin Lord's divine realm was thus annihilated.