179: Chapter 179: The Ledger of the Ancient Battlefield

The wind in the Withered Bone Wasteland was not wind.

It was the shrieking produced by countless torn spirits rubbing against each other in the air, carrying an old, rotting stench of blood that drilled straight into one's bones.

The moment Shen Xingzhou and his group stepped into this ancient battlefield, the colors of the surroundings seemed to be instantly stripped away. Between heaven and earth, there remained only gray mist. Every inch of land they stepped on was covered in broken weapons and ghastly white bones. Those fractured swords and halberds stuck in the ground were like silent tombstones, pointing toward the firmament.

The Yin wind howled, and ghost shadows flickered. There was no vibrant green here, only suffocating deathly silence.

Shen Xingzhou wrapped his Daoist robe tighter around himself. However, the System interface before his eyes was not deathly silent like the surroundings; instead, it was like a massive machine suddenly connected to high-voltage electricity, operating frantically.

[System Connection: Withered Bone Wasteland Spiritual Vein Node]

Synchronizing historical data...

Retrieving Karma residuals...

Hum—

A massive amount of pop-up windows flooded Shen Xingzhou's vision like a waterfall. But this wasn't because there were powerful Yao Beasts here; it was because this land itself was a "dead ledger" so heavy it made one unable to breathe.

As soon as the System completed its initial scan, a yellowed virtual scroll, heavy with the weight of history, forcibly unfolded in mid-air.

[Historical Battle Record: One Thousand Years Ago · Battle of Gods and Demons · Battle of Withered Bone Wasteland]

Official Description: Standard victory case.

In this battle, our side fought bravely against the enemy, dealt heavy damage to the main forces of the Demon Race, and successfully defended the northern border. Despite minor sacrifices, it bought a thousand years of peace.

Source: Heavenly Court Historical Archives / Qingheng Sect Old Records

This line of text looked glorious, exuding the arrogance of a victor. But right below this line, the System's red correction cursor began to flash frantically.

The System ignored those pretty historical descriptions and instead violently cracked the "Yellow Springs Backend port" connected to this land. Immediately following, lines of shocking, true data seeped out from beneath that "Official Description" like black blood.

[System Retrieval: Yellow Springs Backend · True Death Registry]

Data Comparison:

Mortal Cultivator Deaths:

Official Record: 30,000

Actual Deaths: 52,400 (The extra 22,400 people were marked as "missing" or "deserters," but were actually abandoned on the battlefield)

Demon Race Deaths:

Official Record: 50,000

Actual Deaths: 104,000 (A large amount of war merit was falsely reported and claimed, causing the number of Demon Race undead to double)

Divine/High-Level Cultivator Deaths:

Official Record: 20

Actual Deaths: 36 (Including several powerhouses who should have been deified; after death, not even their names could be carved into the Spirit Monument)

Looking at these two sets of data, Shen Xingzhou felt a chill shoot straight to his crown.

Those extra numbers were not a normal black on the System interface, but flashed with a heart-stopping dark red. Every dark red number represented a life deliberately erased, representing a piece of history forcibly deleted.

"Is this what you call... a standard victory?"

Shen Xingzhou's voice floated slightly in the wind.

Just then, the fog all around began to churn violently.

Countless pale figures crawled out from the piles of white bones and drilled out from the broken weapons. They had no distinct facial features, only gaping black holes for mouths, emitting shrill, piercing roars.

"Aaaahhh—!!"

"Return my life—!!"

"Karma... my Karma—!!"

If it were an ordinary Cultivator, they would have likely drawn their sword to meet the enemy by now, viewing these as evil spirits that must be exterminated. But in Shen Xingzhou's System vision, this scene presented a near-absurd horror.

The System automatically activated the "Semantic Translation" function, converting the heart-wrenching wails of those vengeful spirits into cold data tags in real-time.

[Vengeful Spirit Voice Semantic Analysis]

Vengeful Spirit A (One with broken armor and limbs):

Original Sound: "Why is my name not there?! Why?!"

Translated Data: [Error: Unregistered Karma / Identity ID Lost]

Vengeful Spirit B (Headless Ghost General):

Original Sound: "I killed ten thousand Demon troops! Why does the Heavenly Court not recognize it?!"

Translated Data: [Error: War Merit falsely claimed by superiors / Individual reduced to ownerless vengeful spirit]

Vengeful Spirits (Collective wailing):

Original Sound: Shrill crying

Translated Data: [Warning: Deleted war losses / Unbalanced accounts / Audit mechanism failure]

Every wail was not mere ghostly screaming.

That was a line of erased bookkeeping entries, the error sound after a data overflow. These vengeful spirits were not monsters; they were living "System bugs," the most direct victims of this rotten ledger.

"So that's how it is."

Shen Xingzhou looked at the data tags flying across the sky, his eyes gradually becoming sharp. "This isn't some ancient battlefield; this is an abandoned 'data junkyard.' The more you kill, the greater the merit, but the people who truly bled became this pile of unclaimed trash."

At the end of the group, Peak Master Luo Qingyi suddenly stopped in her tracks.

She didn't draw her weapon in vigilance like the others, but stood blankly at the edge of a cliff. There was a stone tablet there, weathered to the point where the handwriting was illegible, half-buried in the soil and covered in black moss.

Peak Master Luo Qingyi reached out, her fingertips gently touching the cold stone tablet, actually trembling slightly.

"This tablet..." Her voice was hoarse, as if rusted iron were stuck in her throat. "I remember it."

The System reacted immediately. A blue beam scanned Peak Master Luo Qingyi's body, then swept over the stone tablet, finally completing a shocking match in the historical database.

[Historical Identity Match: Success]

Target Battle: Battle of Withered Bone Wasteland

Associated Personnel: Peak Master Luo Qingyi

Historical Position Record:

This battle · Vanguard Battalion Executive Officer: Peak Master Luo Qingyi

Post-war War Loss Signature Confirmation: Peak Master Luo Qingyi

Remark:

That day, she used this bloody data to trade for her promotion at the time. She thought it was glory, but only now did she realize it was a contract of indenture she had signed with her own hand.

"So... I am also on the ledger."

Peak Master Luo Qingyi lowered her head, looking at the hand holding her sword, and smiled bitterly. There was not a hint of joy in that laugh, only endless desolation.

The surrounding vengeful spirits seemed to sense something and gathered toward her one after another. They did not attack her, but circled around her, emitting that buzzing sound of "Unregistered Karma," as if questioning, or perhaps seeking help.

Shen Xingzhou watched this scene. On the System interface, that "Core Function" area, which had always been gray, suddenly lit up with a red light.

That was the forbidden Domain the System had always wanted to attempt but had never dared to touch lightly.

[Abnormal Data Flow Detected]

Environment Analysis:

This location contains large-scale unsettled war losses and ownerless Karma.

Conventional cleanup (killing ghosts) cannot solve the fundamental problem and will only cause the vengeful spirits to respawn.

System Suggested Action:

Trigger [Karma Debt Recalculation] mechanism.

Two huge option boxes floated in the center of Shen Xingzhou's vision.

[Optional Action]

Option A: Maintain Status Quo

Action: Only kill vengeful spirits, do not touch the accounts.

Result: Safe (temporarily), but the vengeful spirits are endless, the mission will surely fail, and the whole group will likely die here.

Option B: Perform "Small-Scale Karma Debt Recalculation"

Action: Use System privileges to forcibly correct the Yellow Springs Backend accounts, return the Karma owed to the vengeful spirits, and resolve their obsession.

Result: Extremely dangerous.

This will directly alter the Yellow Springs Backend ledger.

There is a 99.9% probability of triggering Heavenly Dao Audit and countermeasures.

The System's cold narration added on the side:

[System Note]

Recalculation will directly touch the interest chain of the Heavenly Dao. You are helping it balance the books, and also slapping it in the face.

This is the first time moving the knife to the Heavenly Dao ledger.

The wind sounded like crying; ghost shadows were heavy.

Those deleted names danced wildly before Shen Xingzhou's eyes. That was the lives of over twenty thousand mortal Cultivators, the stolen war merit, the lifelong knot in Peak Master Luo Qingyi's heart.

Shen Xingzhou looked at that lit-up "Recalculate" button and took a deep breath. What if it was Hell difficulty? Since it was a ledger, it had to be balanced.

"If it isn't balanced, this battle cannot be fought."

Shen Xingzhou's fingers hovered over that dangerous button, his eyes firm.

On the System interface, the light of the "Recalculate" button grew brighter and brighter, like a sharp blade about to be unsheathed, piercing through this dim ancient battlefield.

[Perform experimental recalculation on the local battlefield?]

Yes / No