After a pause, An Chengxi continued, “As for the birth chart he left in the official histories, from the first year of Linde, this junior also had someone calculate it. If calculated by that chart, it is an absolute top-tier fate for officialdom. For the rivers and mountains of the state, it is that of a once-in-a-millennium genius who can support a collapsing edifice.”
“When Meng Changsheng cultivated the Dao, he exhausted everything to seek immortality. When serving as an official, he would surely exhaust everything to climb upwards. Altering his birth chart to pave the way for a smooth official path in the future is something he would certainly do!”
Lin Wan’er felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing this. Her face paled as she murmured, “If that is truly the case, then in 1663, the grandmaster was actually only nine hundred and ninety-seven years old, with three years until his natural lifespan ended. My father and Wu Feiyan handled his funeral affairs according to his last wishes, which must have been a feigned death…”
“Exactly.” An Chengxi said, “Meng Changsheng would not let your father or Wu Feiyan know his true intentions and all his schemes. Feigning death ahead of time and deceiving his two disciples to buy himself three years to prepare the Blood Lake Hell where he could achieve dismemberment before death, that was his real purpose.”
With that, An Chengxi added, “This junior also examined the county annals around the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains. From 1664 to 1666, over those two years, the area suffered rare natural disasters, with vast numbers of displaced commoners becoming refugees, at least tens of thousands in number.”
Lin Wan’er looked at her and murmured, “These people, could it be that they were all harmed by the grandmaster?”
An Chengxi shook her head and said, “On this point, this junior has no direct evidence, but according to what that senior said, to set up the Blood Lake Hell formation requires a vast amount of blood and wronged souls as sacrifices. Moreover, this junior examined almost all the county annals in the surrounding hundreds and thousands of li of the outer perimeter of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains. In the same period, and in the one or two years following, no place has records of receiving large groups of refugees, nor of sudden surges in local banditry. Tens of thousands of refugees did not go to other towns, nor did they turn to banditry. So where exactly did they go?”
Upon hearing this, Lin Wan’er could not help but tremble violently all over, her eye sockets soon filling with tears.
She was a clever woman and knew that what An Chengxi had said, when connected, was sufficient to prove everything.
The Meng Changsheng whom her father revered immensely had long ago lost his humanity on the path to pursuing immortality.
Using the lives of tens of thousands to forge a hellish formation, all just so he could achieve dismemberment within it and avoid the annihilation of his primordial spirit, such methods were utterly cruel!
She wiped away her tears with her sleeve and choked out, “Grandmaster… oh no, Meng Changsheng! He killed so many people and prepared all this just to allow a person with the Soaring Dragon fate to appear in the world, then lure that person to the Blood Lake Hell in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains to seize the body, and borrow the flesh of the Soaring Dragon fate to be reborn… Scheming step by step, laying plans spanning hundreds and thousands of years, all for his own immortality. This… how is it any different from demons and monsters?”
An Chengxi sighed, “Even the demons and monsters in myths and folk tales rarely include someone with such great evil.”
Lin Wan’er asked again, “By the way, Madam Ye, since Meng Changsheng must achieve dismemberment in the Blood Lake Hell, does that mean he can never leave that Blood Lake Hell?”
“Yes.” An Chengxi nodded and said, “He was not meant to exist in the first place. Only by remaining in his Blood Lake Hell can he deceive the Heavenly Dao. If he leaves the Blood Lake Hell, he will surely be shattered to dust by heavenly thunder. But if he remains in the Blood Lake Hell, he is the sole god within it. As that Daoist priest said earlier, the tens of thousands of wronged souls in the Blood Lake Hell have long been refined by him into magical instruments. With such powerful instruments empowering him, no matter who enters, it would be hard to be his opponent.”
Lin Wan’er breathed a slight sigh of relief and said, “This means that as long as the young master never goes to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, never enters his home ground, he can never harm the young master, because he cannot leave his Blood Lake Hell, right?”
An Chengxi pondered and said, “In theory, yes, but this junior always feels that things might not be quite that simple!”
