They had barely arrived in hell, and already, they could no longer endure it. Worse still, this was only the beginning. Centuries of torment still lay ahead.
Despair took root.
For the first time, pain so deep it pierced their souls brought with it a wave of true regret.
As time dragged on and the punishments intensified, their regret deepened.
If only they hadn't been so greedy and arrogant.
If only they hadn't clung so stubbornly to their twisted beliefs.
But there was no turning back.
~
In the world of the living.
Feng Jinwen's sudden death, the rapid loss of spiritual power among all Eternal Life Society investigators, and the severe decline of many SEIU members' cultivation stirred up a storm.
Before the SEIU headquarters could make sense of it all, hundreds of missing youths escaped from the West Suburb Sanatorium and exposed the Eternal Life Society's crimes online.
When the SEIU investigated the sanatorium, they discovered it was the main base of the Eternal Life Society. All elderly residents suspected of being involved had died—at nearly the same time, under nearly identical conditions. No wounds, no poison. Just sudden death.
Clearly, something was wrong.
The deaths were too abrupt. Much of the Eternal Life Society's internal documentation remained intact.
Through these documents, the SEIU finally realized that the members whose cultivation had vanished or spiritual platforms collapsed were all internal informants. Each one had senior relatives among the Eternal Life Society's core.
These people had used a spiritual artifact called the "Death Talisman" to steal life force from others. Dozens of mummified corpses were found beneath the sanatorium—all victims. And the core members of the Eternal Life Society, whether inside the sanatorium or embedded within the SEIU, had all died of sudden causes. Not one escaped.
Their entire scheme unraveled.
Their original plan had been to kidnap Song Miaozhu to obtain Spirit-Converging Dolls and accelerate their cultivation. After that failed, they detonated explosives to fake Feng Jinwen's defection and sent him into the SEIU to continue producing more Death Talisman.
The public saw the Eternal Life Society's demise as well-deserved. Their end was a cause for celebration. But their method of death demanded investigation.
Science revealed nothing. No poison, no external force. And since the dead were high-level cultivators with ties to the spiritual community, the possibility of a spiritual artifact being used couldn't be ruled out.
All case files were transferred to SEIU headquarters under a Level-1 Sealed Emergency classification.
That afternoon, inside the secure central conference room in Ling City, the core leadership of the SEIU gathered.
The atmosphere was grim.
For the first ten minutes, no one spoke. The silence was thick with implication. Most of them had seen the files. All of them were thinking the same thing.
Finally, someone said it.
"It was Song Miaozhu."
A murmur passed around the room.
"No one else could've done this. No one else had the grudge, the skill, or the guts."
"The deaths were too clean. She's a Qingling Stage cultivator—the only one in existence. We don't even understand what that means yet."
"The surveillance footage showed nothing. No energy signatures, no movement, no spiritual burst. She vanished, and they died."
"Exactly. She escaped that massive explosion unharmed. There's no way she only has the spiritual tools we know about."
"That's why I say we need to take control of all dangerous spiritual artifacts. Cultivators should be banned from privately creating or using them. It's too dangerous. The Eternal Life Society had it coming, sure, but what if someone like her targets innocent people next? Even professional judges make mistakes, let alone rogue cultivators."
"And how would we know when someone creates a dangerous spiritual item?"
"Make them use Xiezhi Seal contracts. Require registration and immediate handover once such items are made."
"Wouldn't that kill all interest in researching spiritual artifacts? That could set our whole nation's cultivation scene back compared to other countries."
"We still don't understand how spiritual artifacts are born, right? I think it's random. Banning or allowing them won't change their emergence."
"But you need to nurture dangerous spiritual tools to unlock their power!"
The debate grew louder and more intense.
Zhao Huoyan, who had rushed back from Lingcheng by plane just for this meeting, finally lost his patience:
"Enough! Do you honestly believe that if we say cultivators must turn in all dangerous spiritual artifacts, they'll just hand them over like good little children? We can't predict what spiritual tools will do, and we certainly can't predict the potential of those who wield them.
Take Master Song Miaozhu as an example. Do you think the artifacts in her hands are something you can just demand?
Let me remind you: from her perspective, what has the SEIU looked like?
You wanted to use her ability to cross into the underworld and demanded she take our agents with her. You saw the value of her Grade-Four Paper Clothes and forced her to supply them exclusively to us, meeting every ridiculous custom request.
You pushed ahead with the Underworld Project against her repeated warnings.
You signed a top-level contract with her, failed to protect her, and let the Eternal Life Society blow up her home.
You claimed it was a tactical decision but still gave Feng Jinwen a dozen Spirit-Converging Dolls to train with after he bombed her house.
Let's say, even if she really was behind this, what now?
She wiped out the Eternal Life Society single-handedly, yet we want to strip her of her self-defense tools? Would any of you agree to that if you were her?
Let me spell it out: we didn't do her any favors. She's the one who has been putting up with us.
If she gets fed up, she can just quit being a contracted elite.
And even if she still needs to sell spiritual tools to earn hell coin and keep traveling between worlds, she doesn't have to sell them through the official vault. One shout online, and every cultivator who joined the SEIU for access to Spirit-Converging Dolls will walk. One artifact is all it takes to start her own sect.
You want to get tough with her now?
Do you even know where she is?
She managed to kill every core member of the Eternal Life Society without anyone noticing. Don't you worry that you might just drop dead at home before even getting a word in?
Times have changed. Cultivators' power is something we must take seriously. You can replace a politician, but not someone like her. If you don't show capable cultivators the respect they deserve, they will keep drifting farther and farther away from us.
And when that happens, you still think you'll be able to control them?
Keep dreaming.
The days of imperial decree scaring off modern firepower are over. And your politics can't control real cultivators either."