Chapter 611: Nine Evils, One Virtue

The Rock Python was just about to step into his territory when Pang Jian's words stopped him in his tracks.

Lifting his head, he glanced at the White Fox in a silent plea for help.

She was wise and cunning. Perhaps she could find a way to help him preserve the last remaining head of their Forefather.

"It's difficult to deceive a human race True God," the Fey King White Fox said, having since transformed into an elegant woman with delicate brows, an enchanting demeanor, and a graceful figure.

Like Absolute Heaven, only the area around the lifeless World Tree remained untouched by the bizarre mist.

The White Fox's captivating figure hovered in this silent, empty expanse.

Suddenly taking a step forward, she effortlessly passed the motionless corpse of the Ice Sculpture Beast and landed atop a branch as thick as a mountain range.

Her eyes, brimming with intelligence, gazed at Pang Jian's powerful Immortal Divine Soul.

"Since he's already figured it out, let's just reveal the last head for him to see," the White Fox said calmly.

The Rock Python hesitated. "This head is different from the other nine. If this head is severed as well, Forefather will truly die."

"Trust me, let him see it," the White Fox gently persuaded.

"Alright."

The Rock Python's ashen gray and thousand zhang long body slithered forward.

Arriving before Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul, the Rank Nine Rock Python opened its mouth and flicked out its forked tongue.

Its tongue unfurled like a flat, fleshy platform, and atop it lay the final surviving head of the Nine-Headed Bird.

The bloodied fibers of its neck were fused with the Rock Python's tongue, drawing nourishment from the blood and flesh of the Rock Python to remain suspended in life.

This final head of the Nine-Headed Bird radiated an aura far different from the nine that had been severed.

Its eyes were unusually calm and filled with compassion.

It clearly possessed intelligence, but unlike the others, it lacked an overwhelming presence. Instead, the neck had rooted itself into the Rock Python's tongue like a tree in soil.

The head gazed at Pang Jian's towering Immortal Divine Soul, bathed in resplendent multicolored radiance.

"You're Pang Jian, aren't you?" Its eyes shone with kindness, and its voice was gentle and melodious. Before Pang Jian could speak, it apologized, "I'm sorry. It seems I've caused you quite a bit of trouble."

Pang Jian was taken aback.

The Nine-Headed Bird that broke through the astral winds and appeared before him exuded an aura that made him feel deeply uneasy. They gave off an impression of malice, cruelty, and ruthlessness.

It was a treacherous monster, one that repaid kindness with betrayal.

That feeling remained unchanged when he encountered it again in Misty Swamp.

In his mind, the Nine-Headed Bird embodied all forms of wickedness.

It would stop at nothing to achieve its goals. Despite forming an alliance with Luo Hongyan, it still ambushed Pang Ling. It was an untrustworthy, ungrateful, and venomous aberration.

He naturally assumed its final head would be no different.

The subversion of these preconceived notions left Pang Jian staring in stunned silence at the final head, with its benevolent aura, kind gaze, and warm words.

"Those heads I encountered before...weren't anything like you," Pang Jian finally said, face filled with astonishment. "If it had been like you, I would've likely spared its life."

"The hearts of all beings harbor both good and evil, but I'm unique in that I have individual consciousnesses that are strictly separated into one of these two sides," the final head patiently explained. "I had ten heads, but for most living beings, nine is the limit. The nine heads you severed were my nine evils, each representing the many sins I have committed.

"I've survived in this world both as one virtue among nine evils and as one evil among nine virtues.

"Many years ago, when your father rescued me, I was suppressing my one evil head with nine virtuous ones, ensuring that the head representing my darkness would never emerge.

"My actions earned your father's recognition. He ended up carving out this world for me and even transplanted the last dying World Tree of the Fifth World here.

"A group of unfortunate young members of my Fey Race found refuge here, where we lived in peace for many years."

The Nine-Headed Bird's last head let out a bitter sigh.

"I wanted to do more for the Fey Race, so when I became powerful enough, I ventured out into the Abyss. I was killed more than once. My balance of good and evil would become distorted each time I perished and regrew my heads.

"Sometimes, I could suppress my one evil head with nine virtuous ones. Other times, all the new heads were evil.

"Virtue and evil are ever-changing and beyond my control. In recent years, evil has dominated. It was also during this time that I ascended as a Fey God.

"With only one virtuous head, I could not possibly restrain the nine evil ones," the final head said with a sigh.

Pang Jian had originally intended to deal with this matter swiftly, eliminating this final head to prevent future trouble and making room for the Giant Abyssal Serpent to rise to a Fey God. However, after hearing these words, he fell into silence.

After a long pause, Pang Jian asked solemnly, "My father...?"

"When he was still here, the malice of my nine evil heads remained relatively restrained. Then, one day, he said that he sensed the Abyss was on the verge of a catastrophe, a disaster unlike any before.

"He said he had to investigate the matter and find a way to counter it, so he left.

"Once he left, he never returned.

"Even back then, he could see that my other nine heads harbored malicious intentions. He suppressed those nine heads from the moment he identified them as being born of evil.

"The nine evils would normally rule over the one virtue, but his presence kept them in check.

"Meanwhile, I, the lone virtue and the one he trusted, was in control.

"After he left, the power suppressing the nine evils slowly faded. Eventually, the nine evils broke free, and I, the lone virtue, was sealed away as nothing more than a contingency for the nine evils to be reborn after death.

"It's better if you kill me, eradicating this aberration that blurs the line between good and evil. I have no control over whether my regrown heads will be of virtue or evil. Instead of leaving such things up to fate, it's better to let those more capable of leading the Fey Race take my place."

With that, it positioned itself in complete surrender, ready for execution.

The Rock Python kept its mouth open, allowing Pang Jian to see the head on its tongue. He and the White Fox could only hope Pang Jian would show mercy.

Pang Jian could not help but hesitate. After a moment, he said, "First, retrieve Yuan Qi's eyes and bring them to me."

"Please give me a moment to retrieve them." The White Fox vanished in a swift blur, returning in just a few breaths. Handing over a blue glass bottle, she respectfully said, "The eyes are inside."

A sweep of his divine sense confirmed that the glass bottle contained Yuan Qi's gouged-out eyeballs.

After accepting it, he pondered briefly before reaching out to communicate with the Bee Sovereign, instructing it to send a bee over.

A bee from Absolute Heaven in the Second World started its descent.

At the same time, Pang Jian reached out to the black turtle in the Resolute Expanse.

His ability to perceive and connect with the beings linked to him had greatly increased since ascending as an Immortal Realm God, though it could still significantly drain him in circumstances like this, where the bizarre mist separated them.

After establishing a connection with the black turtle, he relayed everything the last surviving head of the Nine-Headed Bird had told him, word for word.

He did not trust the Nine-Headed Bird, but he trusted the black turtle.

I can't discern the truth either,

the black turtle replied.

My lifespan surpasses that of the Celestial Phoenix, Long Xiao, and the Primordial Serpent. I'm one of the oldest members of the Fey Race.

I've witnessed the rise of foreign races, the struggle of the human race, and countless inexplicable events.

Still, I have yet to recover my bloodline to Rank Ten and reclaim all my lost memories. I remember that Nine-Headed Bird, but my impression of it isn't particularly strong, which is strange in and of itself.

I know it had ten heads in total, but I have no recollection of this notion of nine evils and one virtue, or nine virtues and one evil.

I should remember a Fey Race this unique.

Peculiar, truly peculiar...

Deep beneath the Resolute Expanse, the black turtle strained to search his memories. Flickering streams of recollection flashed before his eyes.

My memories of the Nine-Headed Bird overlap significantly with those of the previous World God. There are legends of the Nine-Headed Birds in the Abyss, but I've never encountered the one described in those myths.

But that's not possible.

The Nine-Headed Birds from those legends likely existed in the same era as me, so why do I have no recollection of them? The only Nine-Headed Bird I remember is the one before you now, and it appeared alongside your father.

The black turtle's words carried a certain haze of uncertainty.

There are legends of a Nine-Headed Bird in the Abyss, but the black turtle, an ancient Fey God with his long lifespan, has no recollection of it,

Pang Jian pondered.

Could this Nine-Headed Bird be an outsider?

Did my father bring a Nine-Headed Bird into this world from beyond the Abyss? Like the Nether Abyss Spirit Bees?