“You seek your own death!”

Sang Shoudao’s stubborn resistance finally exhausted the Ghost Venerable’s patience. Though she wore Guan Xuelan’s face, her expression was twisted, a mask from the Nine Nether Underworld.

She raised a hand.

A spectral claw erupted toward the old man, wreathed in sinister fog and the wailing of a thousand damned souls.

Sang Shoudao frowned. He did not flinch. He simply released the string of his empty longbow.

Thrum!

There was no physical arrow nocked upon the string. Yet, as the string vibrated, a terrifying, invisible projectile screamed into existence.

The Ghost Venerable sneered. A physical attack without spiritual energy? Useless against a spirit.

But her sneer froze instantly.

She tried to retreat, her form blurring with ghostly speed. She was fast, but the arrow was faster. It ignored space, ignoring defense, and slammed directly into her left shoulder.

BOOM!

The shoulder of the intangible ghost exploded.

The Ghost Venerable shrieked, clutching the gaping wound in her spectral form. She stared at the old man in pure horror.

“You’re insane!” she screamed. ” To wound me… you severed your own soul?”

She couldn’t believe it. This old man was a Void Refining expert. He had vast reservoirs of power. Yet he chose not to use his cultivation. Instead, he had literally sliced off a piece of his own soul to fashion a weapon.

“My path is obstructed. My lifespan is nearly at its end,” Sang Shoudao said, his voice as calm as a stagnant pond. “What use do I have for this soul?”

He waved his hand.

The arrow that had pierced the Ghost Venerable suddenly wheeled around in mid-air. It locked onto her aura and charged again.

“Madman!” The Ghost Venerable fled, weaving through the air, roaring in fury. “If you die naturally, you can enter the cycle of reincarnation! You could even cultivate the ghostly path like me! But if you sever your soul until it shatters, you will be erased! No afterlife! No reincarnation!”

Sang Shoudao acted as if he hadn’t heard a word.

He drew the bow again.

Thrum!

A second piece of his soul was ripped away, forged into an arrow, and unleashed.

Two Soul-Severing Arrows now hunted the Ghost Venerable, tracking her like maggots burrowing into rotten bone. They would not stop until they—or she—were destroyed.

“Crazy! You are crazy!”

The Ghost Venerable, previously so arrogant, was now disheveled and terrified. She was a Ghost Venerable; ordinary methods couldn’t touch her. But the suicidal wrath of a Void Refining expert? That was a force even the heavens feared.

She dodged frantically, her voice cracking. “The person inside is just a Foundation Establishment ant! For a mere junior, you would trade your existence? You would destroy your very soul?”

Sang Shoudao didn’t answer immediately. He looked at his trembling hands, then at the sky.

“I have lived for three thousand years,” he murmured, a faint smile touching his lips. “My Dao has seen many forks. I have known soaring ambition. I have tasted the beauty of the mortal world. I have suffered the betrayal of kin and witnessed the seas turn to dust.”

He looked at the Ghost Venerable, his eyes clear and bright.

“This old man…”

“Has lived enough.”

Thrum!

The third arrow.

As it left the string, Sang Shoudao’s face turned the color of ash. His eyes glazed over, the light within them dimming dangerously.

To sever the soul three times… even a Venerable would be on the brink of death.

But Sang Shoudao merely shook his head, trying to clear the dizziness.

“Five hundred years ago, a young boy with fire in his eyes guarded me for three bloody days,” he whispered to the wind. “His courage allowed this old man to steal five more centuries of life. Do you think I cannot guard him in return?”

“Today, I stand here. And I swear… this gate shall not fall!”

The three Soul-Severing Arrows descended upon the Ghost Venerable like divine judgment.

Within moments, the entity was riddled with wounds. The thick, sinister ghost fog that protected her was shredded until it was thin as paper.

Witnessing this, the lesser spirits and demons of Cloud Firmament City—drawn by Gu Xiu’s soul reconstruction—shivered in terror. They dared not advance a single inch.

They saw the resolve of the City Lord. He was not just killing an enemy; he was making a statement. He was burning his very essence to terrify the darkness.

“Madman!”

“Sang Shoudao, you are a lunatic!!!”

With a final, curdling scream, the Guan Xuelan-shaped ghost was torn apart by the three arrows. Her form shattered, dissipating into nothingness.

The Ghost Venerable… was dead.

Or so it seemed.

Sang Shoudao swayed. The three cuts had dealt him fatal damage. He propped himself up with his longbow, standing like a statue before the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion.

With the last of his strength, he formed a hand seal.

Click.

The defensive formations of the entire Cloud Firmament City shifted. The vast power of the city’s arrays rushed toward the pavilion, forming an impregnable shield around Gu Xiu.

Five hundred years ago, he had used the city to save a boy. Today, he did it again.

But as his consciousness faded, his perception dulled. He did not notice the faint, black shadow that slithered out of the dissipated ghost mist.

It crept behind him.

Just as the array activated, the shadow lunged, drilling straight into Sang Shoudao’s body.

A chilling voice echoed in his Sea of Consciousness.

“Sang Shoudao, you are old.”

“I am a Ghost Venerable. I am a fragment of a Supreme’s soul! Did you truly think three arrows could kill me?”

Sang Shoudao’s dilated pupils snapped into focus for a second, only to be flooded with agony.

Possession.

“Your body is old and decaying, but it is still the vessel of a Void Refining expert,” the Ghost Venerable sneered inside his mind. “Rest assured. I will make good use of it.”

“But first… I am curious. Who is this little cultivator that makes you sacrifice everything?”

The ghost’s influence spread through his memories. “Let me… take a look!”

Fragments of a life flashed through Sang Shoudao’s dying mind.

“Shoudao, Shoudao… What is the Dao you guard?”

“Sang Shoudao! You have been bewitched by that witch! I order you to kill her immediately to prove your Dao Heart!”

“Rebellious disciple! Look at the path you have chosen!”

“If you betray the sect, you are an enemy of the Lancang Sacred Land! That witch is dead, why are you so stubborn?”

“This is the Valley of Hundred Flowers. You can see the stars and the ocean… I will build a city here. I will build a grave. I will guard one person.”

Then, a shift. A tavern. A jar of wine.

“Old man, what are you staring at? Drink!”

“I’m telling you, the people I admire most are those who can guard something. In the future, I want to be like you, City Lord. Even if the road is dangerous, I will walk it!”

“Uncle Sang, the Master sent me to take your life!”

“Since this kid has entered the game and called this old man a friend… even if my strength is meager, I want to try. I will guard him for three days!”

“Ouch, ouch, ouch! Old man, you have no idea what I went through these past three days! But listen… this Cloud Firmament City is my second home now. When I come back, you better open the door for me!”

“Senior Sang, the mountains are high and the road is long. We will meet again!”

A lifetime is long. Long enough to forget so much. A lifetime is short. Short enough to view in a single heartbeat.

In the backyard of the City Lord’s Mansion, beside the stone chair where the old man often drank alone under the moon, a grave suddenly began to glow with starlight.

Deep inside his Sea of Consciousness, the tiny, golden figure of Sang Shoudao was being swallowed by a massive black tide.

Suddenly, the golden figure opened its eyes.

Starlight drifted in from nowhere, manifesting as thousands of butterflies.

“How long have you lived?” the old man asked softly, watching the butterflies.

The black ghost paused, confused. “What?”

“I have lived for three thousand years.”

“So?”

“Compared to me,” Sang Shoudao sighed, looking at the malevolent spirit, “you are just a child.”

The golden figure struggled to stand up.

“Impossible!” The Ghost Venerable shrieked. “I have suppressed your soul! How can you move?”

“Move?” Sang Shoudao shook his head gently. “You are mistaken. I am not moving.”

The Ghost Venerable froze. Then, a terror beyond description seized it. It tried to flee, to escape this dying mind, but it was trapped.

This old man…

After severing his soul three times… he was doing it again!

The Supreme only severed herself three times. Sang Shoudao was severing everything.

The Fourth Cut.

Inside the Sea of Consciousness, Sang Shoudao’s soul raised a hand. His form became translucent, fading into the light.

The severed soul energy did not dissipate. Instead, it ignited.

WHOOSH!

Soul Fire.

Infinite, burning, purifying fire engulfed the Sea of Consciousness, latching onto the intruder.

“AAAAHHH!!!”

The Ghost Venerable screamed, thrashing in the flames. “Let me go! Let me out!”

But the fire only grew hotter.

The Fifth Cut!

Sang Shoudao did not stop at four. He severed the final remnant of his existence.

He was not just choosing death. He was choosing erasure. He was burning away his reincarnation, his past, his future, and every trace of his mark on the world, just to drag this monster into oblivion with him.

After today, there would be no Sang Shoudao in the heavens or the earth.

The Ghost Venerable wailed, cursing the madman, struggling futilely as it was reduced to ash.

Sang Shoudao’s soul was now fully transparent. Even his physical body outside began to dissolve into particles of light.

In his final moment, he leaned back against his longbow.

He looked at the void, and he sang. It was not a song of sorrow, but a song of a general laying down his sword, a song of ultimate freedom.

“Who says our youth is gone forever? The streams out front still flow to the west! Let not white hair mock the passage of time… For this mortal world… was worth the journey!”

“Hahahaha!”

Laughter, bold and unburdened, echoed through the Cloud Firmament.

And as the laughter faded into the wind…

Inside the room, Gu Xiu’s eyes snapped open.