“I know you’re disappointed in West Continent.”

“But… if you truly consider yourself a ‘Goddess,’ then you should go out there even more.”

Yuan Yang said, “Trapped in the Secret Prison, you can’t do anything.”

Meng Xizhou was very calm. “Hand over the *Saint Book*, and that’s when I truly won’t be able to do anything.”

She knew very well how powerful the *Saint Book’s* infectiousness was.

The number of *Saint Books* currently held by the Guang Ming Church wasn't enough to incite turmoil... but if they were allowed to obtain a few more pages, the situation would be different. These people would not consider the consequences and launch a war against South Continent, ultimately converting a large number of believers.

Trapped in the Secret Prison, she indeed couldn’t do anything.

But the only thing she had managed to do was guard the *Saint Book*.

“Since everything exists, it has its reason…”

Yuan Yang sighed and said, “The Ancestor left such pages in the Forbidden Book Tower, which means he knew that one day we would be able to use it.”

“Is this what believers of the Light should do?”

Meng Xizhou said, “I have my own principles regarding this matter.”

Yuan Yang was silent.

“I know I can’t convince you.”

He smiled. “So the original plan was… I would be imprisoned in the Secret Prison and tortured in front of you. Then Yao Jin would use my life as a bargaining chip to exchange for a page of the *Saint Book*. If you agreed, then there would be the next threat.”

Meng Xizhou felt a twinge of bitterness in her heart.

She hadn't expected that her mentor, whom she had trusted for so many years, would be willing to collude with Yao Jin in such a deception.

“I know this is very bad.”

The voice from the Hei Yin Secret Prison sounded very distressed. “But if we can successfully retrieve the remaining *Saint Books*, the Secret Prison will let you leave… so I am willing to carry out this mission.”

“But you were exposed.”

Meng Xizhou took a light breath, trying to keep her voice cold. “Yao Jin doesn’t care about the success of this mission at all. He doesn’t care about the *Saint Book* as much as you think.”

There was a brief silence.

Yuan Yang laughed. “Perhaps it’s because he’s been in the darkness for too long, he wants to stand in the light, to stand there a little longer.”

He could actually understand Yao Jin’s actions.

Twenty years ago.

When the shadows cultivated by the Temple were just children.

He had gone to Xi Hai Ferry to see those children struggling to cultivate under Mu Xin's guidance. The last ray of sunset would be absorbed by the "Divine Mountain," so the long nights came early at Xi Hai Ferry. These children had very little time to see the light, and they all hoped that they could grow up quickly and go to the City of Light, full of miracles. But they didn't know that the moment they arrived in the City of Light, their lives would truly be shrouded in darkness.

Yuan Yang remembered the changes in the children's eyes.

He knew what was hidden deep in Yao Jin’s eyes.

After dealing with the Secret Prison day and night for so many years, even an ordinary person would become a madman.

“So, you’re changing your strategy now?”

Meng Xizhou’s voice was very calm. “Or… was being exposed just part of the plan?”

Yuan Yang was stunned.

He just chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Some things, once destroyed, cannot be rebuilt.

After Yao Jin said those words, the master-disciple relationship of the past twenty years no longer existed. No matter how many words he said, he couldn’t make up for it.

Meng Xizhou was a smart person, and her will was extremely firm.

In order to protect the *Saint Book*, she would no longer believe a single word he said.

“Perhaps, this is indeed a part of Yao Jin’s plan.”

Yuan Yang closed his eyes and said bitterly, "When the Secret Prison mission began, my identity was brought down to rock bottom. In this dark place, he changed the previous plan and imprisoned me deeply as well… Then, the ‘torture,’ ‘interrogation,’ and even ‘coercion’ could be carried out legitimately.”

The plan had changed, but it hadn’t changed either.

In order to make Meng Xizhou willingly hand over the *Saint Book*, Yao Jin directly revealed Yuan Yang’s intentions.

The things that followed were the same as before.

But the difference this time was… Yuan Yang was no longer acting.

“……”

Meng Xizhou bit her lip.

She asked herself, if Yao Jin really wanted to torture her mentor and use the *Saint Book* as a threat, could she remain indifferent?

Or rather.

Could she not care about herself, but could she completely not care about others?

At this thought, Meng Xizhou felt as if she had been pricked by a needle in her heart.

“You’re thinking about that person, aren’t you?”

Yuan Yang murmured softly, “The Gu family delegation will definitely cross over to West Continent this time. Before I entered the Secret Prison, the Five Continents Council received Gu Nanfeng’s request to cross continents.”

The withering Goddess of the secluded prison closed her eyes.

Her fingers clenched tightly, trembling slightly.

……

……

The Secret Prison fell silent again.

Yuan Yang, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, raised his head with a hollow look in his eyes. He suddenly felt unprecedentedly relaxed.

Yes, it was relaxed.

He had lived for more than seventy years, which was considered a long life among mortals, but in the world of transcendents… this age wasn’t anything. His vitality was still strong. If he could rest and recuperate in the years to come and keep his mental strength intact, he could easily live another thirty years.

However, the longer he stayed in the Temple, the more tired he felt.

It wasn't like this a long time ago.

Yuan Yang thought of his past when he was young. At that time, the Temple was newly established, and his eldest brother treated him extremely well. He could do whatever he wanted to do. The world was vast back then. There was no *Deep Sea* connection, and it took a very long time to get to a place.

He and his fellow disciples traveled east together, preaching everywhere.

However… those brothers of his died one by one later.

It turned out that the lifespan of a transcendent wasn’t necessarily longer than that of a mortal.

A person, no matter how fiery their light is, only burns for a short moment.

“… Ah.”

Yuan Yang changed his position and lay completely on the cold, dark ground of the Secret Prison. He looked at the deep blackness above his head and let out a long, sad, and lost sigh.

When did it all start?

Everything began to change.

It seemed to have started with the war in North Continent… After the fall of the Red Emperor, the war in North Continent ended. This should have been a happy thing, but his eldest brother wasn’t happy. Later, he learned that the Guang Ming Temple had “bet” on that war, but they had bet wrong. The young girl from the Lin family not only defeated the invincible Red Emperor but also successfully fused with the Tinder of War.

Many people died in the City of Light during that war, and those people were destined not to have their own names.

Among them were his close and familiar fellow disciples who had preached together.

The secret that the Church had funded the Red Emperor had to be kept.

The remains of those people were also burned.

After destroying these secrets, the Meng and Lin families formed a marriage alliance. This war actually made the relationship between the City of Light and the Lin family even better—because West Continent sent a large number of believers to treat the refugees during the war.

As long as the war in North Continent ended.

No matter who won, they would express their gratitude.

The Guang Ming Church had saved the lives of many of their people.

The relationship between the City of Light and the Lin family was still close. His eldest brother even went to attend the new emperor's enthronement ceremony with a smile and presented a grand gift. That day, Yuan Yang worshiped alone in the cemetery of the City of Light. The cemetery was empty. All those who had followed his brother north to participate in the war had died, but not even a single bone was brought back.

From that day on, Yuan Yang began to feel that his eldest brother was a stranger.

The healing of West Continent was fake, and the congratulations on the new emperor's enthronement were also fake.

During the War of Subjugation against the Red Emperor, these believers spread their faith in the land of North Continent and did many shameful things… The instigator of these things was his brother. If the Red Emperor had ultimately won, then the Guang Ming Church would have gained one-fifth of the area of North Continent as a land of faith, but the Red Emperor was defeated.

That female emperor of the Lin family, after fusing with the Tinder, was stronger than ever before.

There was no way that the Guang Ming Temple could sign such an unequal treaty.

He had also rushed over to question him angrily.

But this matter ultimately came to nothing.

His brother said that he had suffered a serious illness and needed the blood of an “Undying.”

And the Divine Seat had also suffered damage and needed a large amount of faith… The war in North Continent was a family matter of the Lin family. West Continent had not instigated the incident, but had only seized some benefits from it. If they didn’t do this, he would die.

The Divine Seat might also die.

It was also from that day on.

Yuan Yang embarked on a path leading to darkness. He personally collected "Undying's Blood" for his brother and, for the sake of faith, transmitted the spiritual methods of cultivating believers.

The first person he contacted was Toze Shozo.

After many years, lying in the Secret Prison, Yuan Yang realized that he had been walking in the darkness for a long, long time.

This was a road that, once started, there was no way to turn back.

And in these long twenty years, he had only seen a different kind of hope in the Guang Ming Goddess. He cultivated Meng Xizhou, supported the Meng family, and knew that Meng Xiao was the “Undying” needed by his brother, but he still strongly supported him and helped the latter ascend to the position of Holy Son… Only in this way could he avoid the fate of "being drained of blood."

But in the end.

This ray of light was still blocked by the darkness in his heart.

Yuan Yang quietly looked at the ceiling.

He actually knew where his brother’s “illness” and the Divine Seat’s “injury” came from and why they arose.

But his brother didn’t say it, and he didn’t mention it either.

The Guang Ming Church’s proudest achievement in the past hundred years was “defeating” the Underworld King head-on. If people knew that the Grand Elder of the Temple had been devoured for half of his body and the Guang Ming Divine Seat had also paid a heavy price, then this victory would lose its meaning.

They wanted a great victory, not a pyrrhic victory.

They wanted to tell the world that light would surely crush evil.

But was it really good to do this?

Yuan Yang only knew that the current Temple was different from what it used to be.

Just as Meng Xizhou said, this was clearly the place where the world’s radiance reached, but there wasn’t a trace of light to be seen.

If he was given another chance to choose.

Back to that year.

He might have made a different choice…

He had lived seventy years in vain. His brother criticized him for being stubborn, foolish, reckless, and inflexible.

He wished he really was like that.

“Xiao Meng…”

Yuan Yang closed his eyes. He hesitated for a long time after calling out this name.

In the end, he didn’t reveal the truth about the battle against the Underworld King that year.

In the final analysis, he was just a coward.

When the Temple went to war with the Underworld King that year, he didn’t dare to charge forward personally and face the calamities and ominousness.

Later, when his brother went astray, he didn’t dare to force him back with his own life.

Then… his disciple was imprisoned in the Secret Prison for upholding justice, but he didn’t dare to save her. Instead, he resorted to deception.

Until now, he had clearly made up his mind to give everything, but in the end, he didn’t dare to uncover the Guang Ming Temple’s false glory and let Meng Xizhou see the Church’s scars.

In this extremely quiet darkness, he saw his cowardly and hypocritical face clearly.

It was so hateful.

He thought he had a morality to uphold, but looking back, every thing he had done in his life was on a path that contradicted it.

No wonder he was so tired, tired to the extreme.

What an absurd thing it was. After Yao Jin exposed his plan, he actually felt incomparably relaxed…

“Xiao Meng ah—”

Yuan Yang stretched out two fingers and gently pressed them against his forehead.

In the end, all that was left in the Secret Prison was a long sigh filled with endless regret.

“After you get out, go see the light.”

……

……