Chapter 99: Wu Gou: He is A-Ke
Gao Ze looked at Wu Gou.
The clean-cut monk held the silver-haired Yao Lord in his arms, his gaze honest, filled with determination and pleading.
“Alright, I understand,” Gao Ze said. “I intended to investigate the truth behind the Liuyun Sect’s extermination anyway. Now that I’ve found the sect, I must investigate it thoroughly.”
Gao Ze picked up the Leiming Sword from the ground, his gaze falling on the skull.
He and Bai Wanru were close friends, so he naturally knew who this sword belonged to.
On the way here, he had seen charred skeletons scattered all over the Liuyun Sect.
They bore the lingering aura of Fox Fire.
From this point of view, the one who burned Bai Wanru and these disciples must have been Ning Ke himself.
Gao Ze’s expression turned cold, but he didn’t jump to conclusions.
He walked to the center of the palace and touched a broken stone monument, of which only the base remained.
He used his spiritual sense to explore it carefully.
Then, his eyes widened slightly.
Because he felt a very faint trace of Mo energy remaining at the base of the stone monument.
Gao Ze knelt down and gathered the scattered pieces of the stone monument, piecing them together. He found faint talismans carved on them.
Stone monuments, talismans, Fox Fire burning corpses…
A thought flashed through Gao Ze’s mind.
Could it be that the Great Mo suppressed beneath the Liuyun Sect broke the seal, causing the entire sect to be demonized three years ago, and Ning Ke happened to arrive and killed them all to end their suffering?
But if that were the case, why would Ning Ke harm Lou Yunxiao?
And why did he intentionally refrain from explaining, letting the humans misunderstand him for three years?
Gao Ze couldn’t figure out that question.
He could only wait for Ning Ke to wake up and ask him.
However, that young disciple Wu Gou said Ning Ke sensed a powerful aura in this palace, and he only detected Mo energy under the stone monument…
Could it be that the Great Mo Ning Ke killed three years ago didn’t actually die but was hiding in this palace?
And now, seeing powerful experts like them and knowing he couldn’t win, he fled through the ground?
Thinking of it this way, it actually made sense.
Gao Ze stroked his chin, feeling like for the first time in his hundreds of years of life, he was actually quite smart.
He shared his theory with Wu Gou.
Wu Gou also thought it was reasonable.
“If that’s the case, it means that the Great Mo, who is at least at the Dacheng stage, is still hiding in this Demon Realm,” Wu Gou said. “We haven’t found Benefactor Lou yet. If he encounters that demon alone, he might be in danger.”
“That eldest disciple of mine is indeed too impulsive.” Gao Ze had already learned from Wu Gou that Lou Yunxiao had entered as well, so he was naturally worried.
But looking at the darkening sky, he waved his hand and said, “However, there’s no need to rush to find him.”
“Right now, the Yao Lord is unconscious and your cultivation isn’t high. I can’t let you two be in danger. We’ll rest here for today and wait for the Yao Lord to wake up before making further plans.”
“Alright.”
Wu Gou agreed.
When night fell, Gao Ze started a fire.
Wu Gou leaned against the palace wall, sitting on the ground, still holding Ning Ke in his arms.
He held a handkerchief and wiped away the cold sweat seeping from the man’s forehead.
Gao Ze asked Wu Gou curiously, “A junior like you shouldn’t have had many chances to interact with the Yao Lord. How are you so familiar with him?”
“Because he isn’t just the Yao Lord.” Wu Gou’s gaze landed on Gao Ze.
He could see the karma surrounding Gao Ze.
This person was trustworthy.
With that thought in mind, he revealed Ning Ke’s other identities to Gao Ze.
“He is also your disciple A-Ke, and our Buddhist sect’s Ming Xin.”
“The Great Mo in the underground palace was sealed by him at the cost of his life. Lou Yunxiao was saved by him several times. The reason Lou Yunxiao’s eyes were restored was also thanks to him gouging out his own eyes as a sacrifice.”
“Furthermore, in Beiyou City, if he hadn’t discovered that the Mo attack was meant to destroy the array suppressing the demons and reinforced it in time, the people of the entire city would have died.”
“I learned of all his identities, which is why I’m willing to stay by his side and support him. Because I believe that the ultimate goal of everything he does will never be to harm people.”
“After all, Sect Leader Gao, you also know the Yao Lord’s strength. If he really wanted your life or Lou Yunxiao’s life, he would have dropped the act in Ning Village. Why would he drag it out for so long?”
Gao Ze was stunned.
Receiving so much information at once took him a long time to process.
“A-Ke…”
Speaking that name, he thought of that cheerful youth who was always covered in gold and silver jewelry.
He had entered the Sword Sect with countless treasures, cherishing his junior sisters, taking care of his senior brothers, and getting along with all the disciples.
Not only was his talent extraordinary, but his personality was also great. Gao Ze had secretly planned to make him the successor to the sect leader, but he had died in the secret realm while sealing the Great Mo.
Thinking back now, the Yao Lord was skilled in transformation. That young disciple A-Ke must have been a transformation of Ning Ke’s tail.
If Gao Ze had realized from the start that A-Ke was the Yao Lord, he definitely wouldn’t have let him enter the sect.
But now that A-Ke was dead, Gao Ze looked back at everything the young disciple had done in the sect and found that he had never harmed a single person.
The only thing he brought to the sect was warmth, and he was a role model for the disciples.
He had even given Lou Yunxiao a pair of eyes in the end.
Allowing Lou Yunxiao to see light again.
And according to Wu Gou, the Yao Lord had also turned into the Buddhist disciple Ming Xin.
He remembered that Abbot Wu Jue also spoke highly of Ming Xin.
It was clear that when the Yao Lord used the identity of Ming Xin, he also didn’t harm any Buddhist disciples.
And that battle in Ning Village…
Ning Ke was falsely accused of killing the villagers, yet he didn’t strike them down…
All the signs indicated that the Yao Lord… really never had the heart to harm anyone.
Gao Ze’s thoughts aligned with Wu Gou’s.
For a moment, all his hostility toward Ning Ke vanished.
He only said in confusion and sorrow, “But I really don’t understand. What benefit does he get from doing all this?”
Wu Gou reached out and gently pried open Ning Ke’s teeth, which were biting his lower lip due to a nightmare. He held Ning Ke tighter and sighed softly.
“He said that he just wants to go home.”
…
Ning Ke had many dreams.
He dreamt of that night in Aké River City when Lou Yunxiao told him that he had something to say to him after they defeated the Great Mo.
He saw the man passing by a stall and hiding something in his spatial bag.
He kept asking him what he bought, but Lou Yunxiao kept hiding it from him.
Until… on the battlefield, at the end of his life, he threw that little fox sachet to him and said “I’m sorry” before exploding into a mist of blood and dying tragically in front of him.
He dreamt of Bai Wanru smiling and saying she wanted to live to see him and Lou Yunxiao get married. But in less than half a day, she had died in his arms…
Jiu Yuan fell into a deep sleep to save Lou Yunxiao’s soul.
Ning Ke stayed by the bed day after day, year after year…
He waited for so long, so long…
So long that his memories of the real world became blurred, making him unable to tell which world he was truly born in…
In the middle of the night, he curled up on the bed, clutching that sachet, in tears many times.
And many times, he watched the small figure of the man’s reincarnation from afar, not daring to approach…
And the day he finally met him was also the day he personally took away everything Lou Yunxiao cared about, taking the lives of thousands of people in the Liuyun Sect…
Ning Ke felt that everything he experienced here was like an endless cycle of harm and torture.
Harming others, and torturing himself.
Now, only completing the mission was the meaning of his existence in this world.
And when the plot was finally completed, dying and leaving would be the best relief for him…
Translator’s Note:
Glossary: Dujie (渡劫): Tribulation Transcendence stage. Mo (魔): Demon. Yaoli (妖力): Yao power.
Recommended Reads
![[ABO] After Accidental Marking, I Became Everyone’s Darling](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ABO-225x300.jpeg)
