Chapter 348: Redemption

"Stop!" Song Min struggled.

In the room with only two of them now, Anji’s condition worsened. Her physical body was now closer to a glued-together porcelain vase.

Anji heard the pleas but shoved them to the back of her mind. There were more important matters to attend to. She was already at the cusp of the final breakthrough to achieve the Heavenly Core. However, as expected, her feeble body was unable to contain the magnitude of her soul.

The Transcendent Core enhanced Anji’s hard-earned qi and spiritual control mastery, enabling her to repurpose the artificial cores and seals in her body into a temporary container for the energy. Without them, she would have disintegrated into nothingness before she could become a being of pure energy in the Heavenly Core stage. The assimilation of one’s astral self with the physical body was a task similar to a sage’s ascension, never meant to be permanent.

Yet, in this very instance, Anji walked on the tightrope between two realms.

The golden eyes now shone brilliantly as Anji embraced her spiritual body, feeling it replenish with natural energy at the resonance of her true calling. At this level, Anji finally felt full for the first time in her life. All this time, she had been crawling on dry land like a fish out of water. Returning to the upper realm was like returning to the ocean. With a complete astral body, Anji could finally recover her speck of divinity left from Zhong Kui’s soul.

Divinity was a different kind of energy that even the sages did not truly understand. Song Min was a ghost general, but even he did not truly understand the mysteries of those called Gods. The reason the gods were entities of absolute power was their divinity, a type of energy that could never change form, even if it were completely exhausted.

This very energy could be said to be the foundation of planes and realms. It created reality, and when it returned to its roots, it controlled the shape of existence. Gods used it to shape the world and more, bending reality in ways inferior beings could never understand.

Today, Anji would use what little divinity she had left to rewrite history.

"Why are you doing this?" Song Min struggled in the spell. Even with his knowledge, undoing the living sage’s spell would take him a long time.

Stabilising her form in the Heavenly Core stage, Anji’s eyes shone like the sun. Even Song Min could no longer look at her directly.

"Do you believe in karma?" she asked.

Song Min did not know how to answer. He used to understand what karma meant. It was written in religious texts, and even spiritual teachings explained it as a way to calculate good and evil actions.

"What’s the point in asking all these now?" he croaked. "You’re going to die."

Of course, Anji already knew that. However, she made a promise to herself to save Song Min and his foolish soul. A man as intelligent but stubborn as Song Min cannot be saved unless he learns the full truth.

"Because there is always a price attached," Anji calmly explained. "I’m asking if you know how much debt in karma you owe if I were to invest in your soul."

Invest in his soul? Song Min reeled. Why would a fallen God who had once been deeply respected invest in the soul of a villain like him? She had already won. The ghost army will not win, and there is less than an hour until daybreak.

"I don’t understand," he pointed out. "There’s no merit in helping someone like me. People won’t mourn me when I’m gone, but you have so many people around you who are doing their best just so you can live."

Anji’s life flashed before her eyes, including the unlived future. Song Min was not wrong. However, there was one thing he got wrong.

"A thousand years ago, a third-place scholar was executed because he attempted to thwart and expose corruption in the system," Anji stared directly at Song Min, causing him to close his eyes from the overwhelming brightness. "That scholar was dragged across all the streets and died a horrible death. His body was so mangled that it was fed to pigs and tossed into a mass grave without a funeral to make an example to the people."

It was Song Min’s history. The ghost general froze. What use was bringing up the tragedy of his death now?

According to the new knowledge Anji gained from accessing her divinity, Song Min’s story did not end there. However, due to heavenly laws, Anji could not reveal the aftermath until Song Min made his decision.

"King Yama wanted me to bring this scholar back for judgment," she confessed. "However, for years like a fugitive on the run, I never got to tell him the result of his incurred karma."

Blinking, Song Min slowly laughed. The trap holding him was almost ready to be dismantled. If Anji was trying to buy time, she was too late.

"No need for that," he smiled and lifted his head to stare directly in the blinding light. "Whatever karma there is, I would never be able to repay it with all the crimes I’ve committed as a ghost. Even if my soul were torn to shreds, there is no recompense for it. Stop being foolish right now. You won’t be able to save me with that broken body and lifespan."

It was a close race, and even Anji could not disagree. However, there was something Song Min had to understand, even if she were to die today.

"That is not for you to decide," she informed. "Only Gods are allowed to pass judgment. The ledger for karma is not that straightforward. There will always be a way to account for debts. Don’t tell me you’re too afraid to face the music now that you’re apprehended?"

Face contorting with an ugly expression, something in Song Min finally broke.

"Judgment?" he laughed bitterly. "Who is afraid of that? A man will take responsibility for their actions. But there is no way for someone like me to ever repay that debt. I’ve committed heinous crimes that there is no salvation fit for me. Even if my soul returned to nothingness, it won’t erase the sufferings I caused through my stubborn foolishness! Why is someone like you throwing away everything for a nobody like me who has gone beyond redemption?!"

Duty? That wasn’t quite it. Anji once thought of it as her duty to uphold. However, something about her current life with a loving family taught her something else.

"For the same reason that my parents and shifu sacrificed everything to see me live a few more years than expected," she explained. "In this vast world, the only other person who remembers your real face and name is me. Don’t you think that is enough reason?"

Connection and fate were strange things. Although fickle, it could create meaning out of nothing.

If anyone asked, Song Min and Zhong Kui had nothing in common. However, that could not be further from the truth. While they were very different in thinking and methods, at core, Anji saw how they were each other’s mirrors, who had chosen different routes plotted by circumstances.

"If our positions were reversed," Anji finally stood up and approached the golden scale, reversing the formation to release the containment array. "Would you not have done the same for me?"