Ancestor Sui Bian fumed: “What, what, what! They can devour other people’s fortune and become half-immortals? Then what about unlucky folks like us who get our fortune devoured, how is that fair?”

The goddess slowly shook her head: “The Fortune Devouring Art is not the kind of wanton robbery you imagine among the dark arts. Its true purpose is to harmonize the world’s fortune and mend gaps in the laws. Cultivators who practice it do not keep all the fortune they absorb. Part of it is used to aid those who lack fortune. For instance, if a cultivator is about to break through but falls short on fortune, a blessing can grant them fortune and help them pass the bottleneck. In this way their fortune rises and the fortune of heaven and earth becomes more balanced.”

Everyone stared, stunned.

Ancestor Sui Bian scratched his head: “That sounds sort of reasonable, but why do I feel like something is off.”

Yu Zhao sank into thought. She recalled Ye Cong Xin’s deeds, and her doubts only deepened: [If the Fortune Devouring Art is as the goddess says, why did Ye Cong Xin’s version look exactly like a dark art? Did I misread it, or is the technique she cultivates only similar rather than the same?] She could not help asking: “If the Fortune Devouring Art is meant to harmonize fortune, then why would someone use it to plunder others’ fortune even to the point of killing them? How do you explain that?”

The goddess’s eyes darkened: “The person you met is not from Donglai Immortal Isle, or else a turncoat from the isle. He tampered with the rules of the Fortune Devouring Art and turned it into a predatory evil art. In short, that is not the true Fortune Devouring Art.”

Yu Zhao’s gaze sharpened: “And you? Are you practicing the true art?”

The goddess was at a loss for words.

Ancestor Sui Bian slapped his forehead and blurted, gloating just a little: “Right, you were so high and mighty just now, yet the first thing you tried was to seize our spiritual power. That proves you are not any better.”

“The name Fortune Devouring Art doesn’t sound proper to begin with,” Old Black Daoist muttered with a curl of his lip.

His jab struck a nerve. The goddess cried out hoarsely: “Do not insult the Fortune Devouring Art. It is the supreme art under heaven. It is an immortal art.”

Everyone was taken aback by her overreaction.

Yu Zhao quickly linked what the goddess had said with how she was acting: “Your mother hails from Donglai Immortal Isle and cultivated the Fortune Devouring Art to the half-immortal realm. She later came to the Middle Thousand World and gave birth to you. Under her influence, you took Donglai Immortal Isle as your faith and regarded the Fortune Devouring Art as an immortal art. Yet for some reason you could not go to the isle. Your version of the art is incomplete, and afraid of backlash, you hid your primordial spirit in the statue and sent a body double to face the world.”

The goddess stared at Yu Zhao in shock and managed a single word: “You…” Then she swallowed the rest. She clearly did not want to pursue the topic. Yu Zhao’s words had only been conjecture, yet the goddess’s instinctive reaction confirmed them.

Ancestor Sui Bian asked with curiosity: “But that doesn’t add up. Your mother is the one who cultivated this art. Why wouldn’t she teach you?”

The goddess clamped her mouth shut.

Ancestor Sui Bian looked her up and down: “You weren’t picked up off the roadside by your mother, were you?”

The goddess’s expression changed at once. She glared at him with ferocity: “What do you know. Only those born on Donglai Immortal Isle can cultivate the true Fortune Devouring Art. As for me… I inherited only half my mother’s bloodline, so I cannot refine the complete immortal art through spell cultivation.”

Her voice carried naked hatred and unwillingness. It was a wound that would never heal.

Ancestor Sui Bian was startled by her vehemence: “I was just talking offhand. Did you have to get that worked up?”

She continued to glare.

Old Black Daoist tugged at his messy beard: “How come I have never heard of a place called Donglai Immortal Isle. Who knows whether it even exists.”

“Frogs at the bottom of a well know nothing of how vast the sky is. Donglai Immortal Isle is a sacred land beyond the dusty world, not a place mortals like you can pry into,” the goddess snapped.

Hearing how highly she revered the isle, Yu Zhao could not help growing interested: “Where is Donglai Immortal Isle, and how does one find it?”

“Aside from those of the isle, no one knows where it lies. Even I have never set foot upon that sacred land,” the goddess answered.

Ancestor Sui Bian clicked his tongue and shook his head: “So after all that talk, you have never been there yourself. And you brag like this?”

The goddess nearly coughed blood in anger. She tried to say more, but Old Black Daoist had already run out of patience: “All right, enough of the pointless talk. Since you do not know where the isle is, speak to what is right in front of us. You just called the Fortune Devouring Art an immortal art, so why were you doing something as low as plundering other people’s spiritual power?”

Choked by his words, the goddess fell silent for a moment before speaking slowly: “My art is incomplete, but I never intended to take my devotees’ lives. As for you…” She gave a cold laugh: “You coveted my Jade Core and came provoking me. If I had not fought back, would that not have been exactly what you wanted?”

Yu Zhao and the others exchanged looks. They had to admit there was some truth in that.

Yu Zhao asked the final question: “You mentioned backlash. What is it exactly?”

“To plunder fortune wantonly violates the laws of heaven. Once heaven takes notice, it will mete out thunder punishment. The heavier the sin, the stronger the punishment.”

Yu Zhao frowned, remembering Ye Cong Xin’s lightning ordeal in her previous life. Everyone had thought Ye Cong Xin was facing the ascension tribulation to the Middle Thousand World. [But what if it was not a tribulation at all, only thunder punishment from heaven?] Ye Cong Xin, as a puppet, bore the punishment while the real culprit escaped the heavens and went on carefree. What a calculation.

By now Yu Zhao was almost certain that what dwelled within Ye Cong Xin was not a malevolent spirit at all, but an old monster in command of the Fortune Devouring Art. She did not know how he had persuaded Ye Cong Xin to cooperate, but having grasped his nature, she felt a measure of calm.

At that instant, a terrible oppressive aura fell over them from above. Their shoulders seemed to suddenly grow heavy. Their bodies trembled as if all resistance had been stripped away, and even moving became difficult.

The goddess went ashen, despair crowding her eyes. She murmured: “It is backlash. The backlash has come.”

Backlash?

Thinking of what the goddess had tried just now, the four traded odd looks.

Ancestor Sui Bian blurted, half aghast and half mocking: “You have got to be kidding. That backlash is way too fast, isn’t it?”