Split Zone No.13

Volume 5

307 I am a Devil

Our visitor was a monk.

No, calling him a monk seemed unbefitting for his rank.

He was an abbot.

I remembered seeing this abbot once, but he left after saying 'Amitabha'.

I snapped alert at his sudden appearance. Having been in the Split Zone for so long, sudden visitors like that usually spelled trouble.

This abbot, however, looked so merciful. He had a pair of eyes that seemed to emanate sorrow. He did not seem like a bad person at all.

While I was wondering why the abbot suddenly appeared, Ta Lai and Du Yue walked over with lowered heads.

I kept my eyes on them as I moved out of their way, wary of their movements and ready to counter any possible attack.

The two of them could not be bothered about me at all. Instead, they lowered their heads before the abbot as they greeted him. "Abbot Feng Zhu."

Abbot Feng Zhu? I was stunned when I heard this.

So this abbot was Feng Zhu. Feng Zhu was actually a monk?

Things seemed to be getting more and more complicated, but there was no suitable opportunity for me to speak.

Li Qing nodded at the abbot as she said, "It's been a long time, Feng Zhu."

This verified the abbot's identity for me. He was none other than Feng Zhu, the ruler of the Gate of Heaven.

Feng Zhu's kasaya seemed to emanate a calming light as he spoke. "It has been a long time since I've seen such an old acquaintance, Li Qing from the Gate of Exit."

Li Qing did not bother with the small talk as she steered the focus back to the topic at hand. "Your lovely disciples have great ability and they are also really efficient. They actually have the gall to eye someone on my side. I wonder if you were the one who taught them to do things this way?"

It might be because this abbot did not have much of temper that Li Qing was able to say things so directly. If it were anybody else, it would probably have led to an angry fight.

I wondered if it was because of his beliefs, but not only did the abbot not lose his smile, he seemed to turn even friendlier at what Li Qing said.

"I'm here today to discuss this very matter with the Gate of Exit's ruler. Also, don't you wish to meet Huai Du after such a long time, Li Qing?" His question seemed to have targeted Li Qing's weakness as I saw her brow furrow.

As someone who had lived with Li Qing for a long time, I knew she was someone who could hide her thoughts and emotions well. It was usually very difficult for anyone else to tell what she was thinking. She was always seen with a friendly smile, and I only saw her serious side during battles. That serious look of hers had the ability to scare many as well.

If Feng Zhu could cause Li Qing's brows to knit with just a single sentence, whatever happened between her and Huai Du was definitely complicated.

"Feng Zhu, let's put everything on the table instead of beating around the bush like this. How about we talk about everything right here in front of all these juniors?"

Feng Zhu seemed to be waiting for her to say something like this as he gave a satisfactory smile. "Things between the lot of you are way too complicated. I don't have any interest in all of that. What I'm concerned about is you, Li Qing. You've been known not to cross these boundaries between the areas, and you wouldn't come over on a whim. I'm sure you've travelled all this way because of certain goals. Would you be able to tell me who these people are?"

Li Qing did not look happy with those knitted brows, and at this moment, there was no hint of a smile on her face. She looked at Feng Zhu as she spoke. "I guess I'm just like a piece of cheap meat now that I'm here in your territory in the Gate of Heaven, am I?"

"Amitabha, have mercy. You're taking this way too seriously." The abbot paused for a moment before he continued, "No need for all that pretence, Li Qing. Since I'm here, let me just tell you that I'm here to solve this problem."

"Oh? How are you going to do that?"

Feng Zhu turned to me with a smile. "This girl has a unique constitution, and not only did she bring another personality into this world, her own personality makes it so that some other personality would be able to resonate with hers. You knew about her uniqueness from the start, didn't you? There's no way such a careful person like Mr Blond would be unprepared if such a weird entity arrived in the Split Zone.

"This is also why he left her in your care. Li Qing, I don't doubt that you are able to control this weirdo with your sense of justice and strong personality, and I'm sure you'll be able to prevent whatever catastrophe this weirdo might bring to the Split Zone. But to do that, you'd have to plan for such scenarios beforehand.

"However, you left this lady and didn't keep your promise of being by her side to watch her. This caused her to make decisions of her own and those decisions just so happen to contribute to things that aren't beneficial to this world."

"What are you talking about?" I couldn't help but shout at him.

Although they were speaking in general terms without naming anyone, I understood what this Abbot Feng Zhu was getting at.

He was saying that weird things have been happening around me ever since I've arrived in the Split Zone, and because of that, they've determined that I am the one who would bring destruction and catastrophe to the Split Zone. This was also the reason why they wanted to get rid of me.

But since the ruler of this place has not yet spoken, they can't just destroy me, the 'weirdo', just as they pleased.

This was why they were responsible for making sure that I would not turn out to be a weirdo after arriving here by taking care of me like I was a child who did not know anything.

They've put me in the care of someone reliable to prevent me from turning 'bad', and that reliable person was Li Qing.

They've chosen Li Qing to watch me from the very day I arrived here. To put it nicely, it was to help me develop a kind heart, but to put it bluntly, Li Qing was chosen to be the one to educate me on things because she was strong, reliable and she also had extraordinary abilities.

So I was the devil all this while. At least in their eyes, I was it.

Because of that, even though I had not done anything to jeopardize the Split Zone, they still planted someone near me to watch my every move. They even got this informant to show emotion, and it made me treat her dearly like I would a loved one.

I knew that I should not be so emotional about this, but everything that happened made me feel so disappointed. It felt as if there was no one who was willing to accept me, that there was no one around willing to help me get these things straight.

"She's been living well, whether I was by her side or not. If it were not for you people from the Gate of Ghost and Gate of Heaven who've been looking for trouble with her, would she have been pushed to the edge like this? She's been living well and I chose to leave temporarily because I wanted to prove that she was good. I didn't do it to prove that she was inherently evil."

Instead of arguing, Abbot Feng Zhu smiled at Li Qing's words. "All these people on her side now, one of them has already turned into a real devil belonging to the Gate of Ghost. One of them used to protect the Eastern District and was known for her cruelty, but she always had justice in her heart. All of them had changed because of her. Even Si Luo and Gaoqin Jiuye, both of whom used to be under me, have now switched sides to help her out. What do you think is a real devil?

"A real devil is not when someone is a demon. A real devil has the ability to cause others to switch sides, to cause others to turn on their friends and go against them. That is a real devil."

I was getting more and more confused by the second. What were they talking about?

They were calling me a devil.

I might have been a weirdo before arriving here, but I haven't done anything in the Split Zone to cause any uproar of sorts. Why was I the root of the problem now?

"Could you guys explain this to me?" I asked coldly.

Abbot Feng Zhu squinted as he smiled at me. "Child, you might not be inherently evil, but someone else had predicted that there would be a weirdo like you who'd arrive in the Split Zone one day, and that you'll affect a great change in this place. I wouldn't consider you to be a demon, but isn't there this phrase that people in your world love? That it's better to kill a thousand than to let one that is guilty go free.

(T/n: Translated literally, the Chinese phrase used here is 'to rather kill a thousand innocents than to let go of one truth'.)

"I can tell you think that you're innocent from how you're looking at me, and you haven't done anything wrong in fact. But like what I just said, the issue is not about how terrifying you may be, it's about how you could influence others. It could lead to your friends' deaths, or it could lead to the districts being destroyed and whatever else. The fact is that all the incidents were centered around you. Would you still say that you're good and not evil?"

Haha, what a joke. I'd take it if you said I was a weirdo or a demon, but how could you accuse me of being the harbinger of destruction when my friends end up dying and when the Western District ends up being destroyed?