In the Inheritance Sword Realm.
Xue Mingyuan sat cross-legged under the pine tree again, staring calmly at the shadow on the ground, and said quietly, "The heart sword cannot kill you, but it can weaken you. That's enough."
The heart sword was pinned in Xue Chenjing's chest, eroding the demonic nature in his body. The shadow writhed violently, its fingers carving crisscrossing furrows in the rocky ground.
He cried and begged, "Brother, I was wrong. I shouldn't have summoned those demons. Please spare me this time, I beg you to forgive me. I don't want to die. It hurts so much, brother. We are one, you will feel the pain too..."
Xue Mingyuan remained unmoved. He knew his nature too well, or rather, he knew all too well how vile and despicable his other side was.
The more pitiful and humble he cried now, the more vicious he would be once he gained the upper hand and turned against him.
He was born a demon seed, able to attract demons to come and worship. If he were allowed to grow strong, the world would never know peace again.
Xue Mingyuan would not show him the slightest mercy.
"No, I didn't summon them, they came on their own. If I didn't devour them, they would have devoured me," Xue Chenjing struggled to raise his hand to grab Xue Mingyuan's sleeve, crying, "I don't want to kill people either. I can control myself. I won't be influenced by them anymore. Please don't kill me..."
Xue Mingyuan pulled back his sleeve and patted it, as if it had been contaminated by something he couldn't tolerate.
Xue Chenjing's features instantly contorted into a ghostly visage, his shadow almost losing human form, completely transforming into evil spirits.
He struggled desperately to break free from the heart sword, sneering, "What's wrong with being a demon? Demons are the most lovable things in this world. At least they won't be like the Ji family, imprisoning me in the mountain's belly, worshipping me on one hand while cutting flesh and drawing blood from my body to satisfy their inflated ambitions on the other."
Xue Mingyuan's calm expression showed a moment of emotion, before he forced himself to calm down again, not to be misled by his words.
Xue Chenjing knew how to hit his sore spots. He knew that Xue Mingyuan had once been imprisoned in a mountain temple, repeatedly hurt by the people he wanted to protect.
They enshrined him like a god, prayed to him, begged for his protection. At first, they only sought a little strength to survive, but in the end, their ambitions grew more and more inflated.
Prayers turned into demands, and the people who were supposed to be protected by the god ended up imprisoning him.
"White Taisui, haha, you hate this name too, don't you? You ended up hating those Ji family members who treated you like livestock, didn't you? Otherwise, how could my power have grown so quickly, and finally taken control of this body?"
"It was me, it was me who killed those depraved Ji family members and rescued you from there, yet you betrayed me in the end!"
Xue Chenjing's voice echoed on the cliff, crying and laughing, mixed with the howling wind on the cliff, truly like the wailing of ghosts and wolves.
"Do you really think you're a god? Gods have long been extinct. You and I are nothing but remnant ashes left on the battlefield of gods and demons, born into such a chaotic ghostly thing, unable even to enter reincarnation, only to torment each other life after life."
"Ah, you don't think you can become a god by cutting me down, do you? Or do you really think you're a god? Then open your eyes and look, this world is in a mess, the people you love are not even as good as demons, hahaha."
Xue Chenjing's voice grew weaker and weaker, his maniacal laughter dissipating with the wind, and the twisted shadow under the heart sword gradually dissolved.
Xue Mingyuan finally relaxed, leaning back against the pine tree behind him, looking up at the boundless darkness in the distance. When the dawn broke on the horizon, he stood up, adjusted his clothes, brushed his sleeves, and headed down the mountain.
The golden light of the morning sun slanted across, falling on the crisscrossing finger marks on the ground. These finger marks were layered heavily, indicating that what happened tonight had occurred countless times in the past.
In the gradually brightening morning sun, a few wisps of residual thoughts floated out from the finger marks like gossamer, disappearing into the forest with the wind.
A streak of shadow flashed across Yu Yi's vision, and she vaguely heard a giggle by her ear, whispering, "Hehe, enjoying the view? Be careful, those who peep will be devoured by demons."
Then she was overwhelmed by intense malice, which seeped under her skin and plunged into the depths of her heart sea.
It nurtured all her negative emotions into hatred, enticing her to join him in hating this world.
He discovered the deepest secret in her heart and excitedly said, "You want to go back, don't you? Destroy this world, and you can go back. Come, let's destroy it together, okay? This world has trapped you, so let's destroy it. Whoever makes you sad, let's kill them."
That wisp of residual thought excitedly burrowed into her heart sea, nurturing a patch of dark moss in the depths of her heart.
Yu Yi broke out in a cold sweat on her forehead, unable to help but kneel on the ground. At the end of her gaze was that warning stone monument, where many people had left cautionary tales: Don't get close, beware of being bewitched, beware of being contaminated.
Suddenly, Ming Zhaojun's cold voice came from behind, "When the heart is occupied, it becomes vulnerable to intrusion. The first sword of Chasing Spring teaches you to face your inner self. Think carefully, those things you cherish in your heart, are they the source of your pain, or the foundation for building your sword heart."
They are not the source of her pain, they shouldn't be the source of her pain.
Ming Zhaojun's voice and Xue Chenjing's enticement intertwined. Yu Yi closed her eyes, the sword mark on her forehead lit up with a glow, which finally condensed into the shape of a sword, piercing out from her heart.
A wisp of black shadow was entwined on the sword tip, which pinned into the ground with a thud. The black shadow writhed for a moment before reluctantly dissipating.
...
In the Instrument Tower of the Pure Flame Pavilion, Xue Chenjing woke up startled once again. His expression twisted to the extreme as he shouted angrily, "Why, why don't you all choose me?"
The system was startled and asked confusedly, "Master, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare again?"
Hearing the system's voice, Xue Chenjing suddenly calmed down, as if he had finally awakened from the nightmare. The pain disappeared from his eyes, and he rubbed his chest in confusion. The oath stone in his heart sea was trembling.
— It seemed he had done something to hurt her again.
Xue Chenjing instinctively turned his head towards the Instrument Tower where Yu Yi was, jumped off the instrument furnace, and rushed to the outside of Yu Yi's tower, wanting to break through the barrier and rush in to check on her.
What exactly is she doing? Where exactly is she?
The system hurriedly said, "Master, you can't! Calm down! If you break in now, you'll interrupt the female protagonist's sword tempering."
Xue Chenjing clenched his fingers, pacing back and forth outside anxiously. He recalled the details of the dream again: the cliff, the pine and cypress trees, the huge rock, the eternally dark sky, and his heart being pierced over and over again.
His footsteps suddenly halted. "That wasn't a dream, it wasn't a dream at all!"
Was it a previous life, or the life before that? He had died too many times, and sometimes the residual thoughts would linger in the place of death, unwilling to dissipate like earth-bound spirits.
So, when his memories began to awaken in this life, it started with dreams, many repetitive dreams of death. He was still young then, waking up crying from nightmares every night. To avoid nightmares, he would hide away at night, letting his brother take control of the body.
At that time, Xue Mingyuan was still his brother, and he was very indulgent. If he had nightmares while sleeping, he would let his brother sleep. If he didn't like eating vegetables, he would let his brother eat. If he fell and got hurt, afraid of pain, he would let his brother feel the pain.
After all, Xue Mingyuan was sensible and obedient, wouldn't be scared by nightmares, and wasn't afraid of pain.
However, as more and more past memories resurfaced, he realized that those were not just nightmares. He was afraid of being killed again, so he no longer resisted the demons that were attracted to him, merging with them and imprisoning Xue Mingyuan first.
He thought this way he could live on properly. But Xue Mingyuan disappeared, and his parents always asked, "Hasn't your brother appeared today either? Brother hasn't come out for several days, Chenjing, did you bully your brother?"
"Chenjing, did you two have a fight? Why hasn't your brother come out yet?"
"Mother hasn't seen your brother for a month. Chenjing, let your brother come out for a while, will you?"
Finally, his mother embraced him, yet she kept calling out Xue Mingyuan's name, "How could Mingyuan have disappeared? How could he suddenly vanish? Are you playing some kind of game again? Mingyuan, come out quickly and let your father and mother see you."
Xue Chenjing felt annoyed and said word by word: "He's gone, and he'll never appear again. He doesn't want you anymore."
His parents stared at him in disbelief, and Xue Chenjing asked innocently and hopefully, "Isn't it good enough for me to be your only child?"
He would forever remember the "No" that immediately fell from his mother's lips.
Now, just like then, he had already locked up Xue Mingyuan, so why could Yu Yi still find a place where he existed?
Xue Chenjing crouched at the entrance of the Instrument Tower, replaying the dream over and over, searching through his chaotic memories of past lives.
Finally, he found a clue.
He remembered that in one life, they were born into a family of cultivators, learning the ways of Taoism from childhood. Xue Mingyuan was a prodigy in cultivation, the most promising future pillar of the family, but he had one fatal weakness – him.
Xue Chenjing couldn't remember what his name was in that life, or if he even had one. In many lives, he had no name of his own, existing only as Xue Mingyuan's inner demon.
That life seemed to be the same. Troubled by his inner demon, Xue Mingyuan specifically sought out the Great Green Mountain to learn the art of the mind sword from a famous sword master of the time, all to slay him, the inner demon.
That was all hundreds or thousands of years ago. The Great Green Mountain no longer existed, so how did Yu Yi go back to the past? Or did someone preserve the Great Green Mountain?
If it weren't for that lingering remnant of consciousness, he wouldn't have known she went there.
But now, with that remnant consciousness destroyed, he could no longer know what Yu Yi did there afterward. Perhaps she would talk with the past Xue Mingyuan, learn swordsmanship together, and surely have many topics in common.
She saw the ugly part of him that was cut away, and would probably hate him even more now.
They might even discuss together how to kill him completely.
Xue Chenjing's breathing grew heavy. He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, asking in a deep voice, "System, what's the current favorability? Has it decreased?"
Sensing the host's anxiety, the system replied, "The current favorability of the target is thirty-five percent. Congratulations, host! Not only has it not decreased, but it has also increased!"
Far from being happy, Xue Chenjing's expression twisted into something that could eat people. His eyes, visible through his fingers, were frighteningly red as he cursed, "Congratulations my ass! She can't even see me now, how could the favorability increase? Break it down for me."
As expected, all this favorability was for Xue Mingyuan.
The system, confused by his scolding, asked perplexedly, "Break down what?"
"Calculate her favorability towards me and Xue Mingyuan separately," Xue Chenjing sneered. "Xue Mingyuan is Xue Mingyuan, and I am me. I don't need to bask in his glory."
The system was silent for a moment, then said, "Sorry, host, the system cannot fulfill this request."
Xue Chenjing's face darkened, and he gritted out, "You're truly useless."
System: "..."
Xue Chenjing crouched there for a long time before suddenly standing up. Spiritual light flowed from his fingertips, drawing intersecting lines of spiritual energy.
The flow of spiritual power was much richer than before. Xue Chenjing had fully integrated the people's fire and tailbone, finally breaking through the Foundation Establishment stage and successfully forming his Golden Core.
He decided to ignore the useless system's favorability calculations. He was going to break open the barrier of the Instrument Tower right now and see what Yu Yi was doing inside.
Just then, the system suddenly chimed, "Ding—"
[System: Ding— Side quest 'Emotion Flower Valley' has been unlocked.]
As the system's voice faded, a beam of golden light shot into the sky from somewhere unknown, exploding into a burst of fireworks. The sparks from the fireworks transformed into golden characters suspended in mid-air.
It was an invitation from Zhaohua Palace.
Due to the incident at the Unmasked Tower, the master of Zhaohua Palace personally wrote this letter to apologize to the citizens of Yinzhou City and to thank the cultivators from various sects for their assistance in sealing the Unmasked Tower, preventing a catastrophe.
Therefore, it was decided that from this day forward, the secret realm of Zhaohua Palace—Emotion Flower Valley—would be opened, inviting all cultivators to enter the valley for trials. Any treasures obtained by cultivators in the valley would belong to them.
Xue Chenjing's movements halted, and the spiritual lines in his hand disappeared. He looked back at the surging sword fire above the Instrument Tower, hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked towards the exit of the Pure Flame Pavilion.
