A hero must never run away from battle.

Cultivators at the Mahayana stage, placed in the Central Continent, were overlords in their own right. With a flick of a finger, they could destroy a top-tier superpower. And such beings had gathered a full six of them at the Azure Mystic Sect, all of them heads of the eight most revered and powerful hidden families in the Xuantian Continent.

Each one could be called a king among men.

Each one was an Emperor.

"Long time no see, Brother Lin."

A middle-aged man in a long robe with a long beard smiled warmly as he chatted with Lin Heming: "We have all changed our appearances, but you remain as steadfast as the green mountains. We envy you dearly."

His words seemed friendly, but Ye Shu could detect an underlying sting.

The other was subtly mocking Old Master Lin's stagnant cultivation.

"Hmph! And that Zhao family fellow?"

An elder with hair as fiery as flame snorted coldly, sweeping his gaze across the group, "In such an important gathering, he didn't show up? Does he think he's too noble now, too cautious of his reputation, afraid to act on what he wants, just waiting to reap the benefits without the risk?"

"Hypocritical posturing. Everyone in the Zhao family is the same. They play the whore and then demand a monument of chastity." Another family head chimed in.

Meanwhile.

Far away, at the Zhao residence in the Central Continent.

The Zhao family head, considered the strongest of the current era, was in a most bitter predicament.

Because his little darling daughter seemed to be leaking loyalty.

"Dad! Are you going to help or not? If... if anything happens to Brother Ye, you can forget you ever had a daughter!" Zhao Zhixia slapped a piece of paper directly onto her father's face.

"Now, don't you—"

The Zhao family head picked up the paper, glanced at the severance of parental relationship notice written on it, and his face nearly turned green. Truly, a daughter raised is a daughter lost. For the sake of some brat who hadn't even grown hair on his chin, his daughter had not only brought a bunch of savages back to the Zhao mansion but had now resorted to threatening him.

"Are you going or not! I'm telling you, if Brother Ye dies, then I don't want to live either!" Zhao Zhixia put her hands on her hips, striking a pose of utter resolve.

"Alright, alright, I'll go, I'll go, alright?"

The Zhao family head finally sighed and slowly rose to his feet.

"But our enemies are many and strong. Even your old man here has to go in person."

With that, he cast a divine ability, tearing through space itself, but maintained a deliberately unhurried pace.

His foolish daughter wanted to protect that scoundrel Ye Shu.

But what that group wanted to kill was Lin Heming.

He wasn't unwilling to stop it, but showing up a step too late meant he could only save the brat.

An old man's steps are a bit slower. His intentions are pure, but his body fails him.

Surely his daughter could understand, right?

At Azure Mystic Sect.

"If he won't come, then let him stay away. The six of us joining forces—who in this world can stop us? Even if an immortal descended from heaven, they'd leave half their life behind before fleeing!" boasted Huo, the hot-tempered family head.

"Brother Lin, don't blame us for this."

The bookish Liu family head sighed, "It's not that we enjoy ganging up on you."

"But with you alive, we cannot sleep soundly at night."

"Can you understand? Can you bear with us?"

Lin Heming swept his cold gaze over their faces, taking in their varying expressions and attitudes.

"After all these years, you're still the same."

"Such utter trash."

"No wonder you've remained trapped in this small corner for so long, never able to glimpse the threshold of true immortality."

"How dare you!"

The words hit their mark, and the family heads' faces changed instantly.

"If not for the changes in the world itself, we would have long ascended as immortals and not wasted our years in this era!"

"With mental fortitude like yours, you're worthy of ascension?"

Lin Heming sneered, "You don't even have the courage to face me fairly. You've lost any trace of a true cultivator's heart."

"Your chance at immortality is long gone!"

He said no more, and fused completely with his Second Soul clone beside him. His internal aura soared step by step, finally stabilizing at the half-step Tribulation Transcendence stage.

"Let our fists and feet decide the truth!"

"Courting death."

The family heads' eyes turned cold. With a flick of their sleeves, various techniques and formations burst into bloom. Above them, spectral beasts like phoenixes, true dragons, qilins, and basilisks roared as they charged at Lin Heming.

Boom!!!

The figures clashed violently. Even the shockwaves shattered the surrounding space, creating one spatial vortex after another—enough to kill any ordinary Return to Void stage cultivator caught in them.

Far away, on a mountain peak.

Li Daoyuan, the Sect Master of Azure Mystic Sect, had already fallen into despair.

In his heart, he knew clearly: even if Brother Lin could withstand the combined attacks of these seven spectral projections, the opponents were only avatars, their power seemingly endless. But every move and strike Lin Heming made consumed his own essence and his future.

When his Second Soul was completely spent, his path to immortality would be utterly severed, and he might even... sink to the level of a mortal.

And even if they won, those were only projections.

They could avoid immediate doom today, but not tomorrow.

Unless an immortal descended from heaven, Li Daoyuan could not imagine any way to break this deadlock.

So he turned around, with sorrow in his eyes.

"Run, children."

"Our Azure Mystic Sect is about to fall. But remember this—as long as you live, the sect will never be truly destroyed."

At that moment, at the mountain gate.

Lin Qingxue suddenly nudged Ye Shu beside her.

"Leave."

Her voice was faint, carrying a tremor of suppression and fierce determination that rang clearly in his ears.

Ye Shu blinked, as if he hadn't understood.

"What did you say?"

"I said, leave." Lin Qingxue took a deep breath, staring into his eyes: "Running away—isn't that what you're best at? Though I don't know what tricks you have, I'm sure you can get away."

Hearing this, Ye Shu looked at her very strangely.

"But... why?"

Not that he questioned the act of fleeing, but because these words came from Lin Qingxue herself.

It was Lin Qingxue telling him to run.

That was...

"If I remember correctly, aren't you the one who hates it most when I run away? When I abandon the sect, abandon you, throw everything away and slink off like a coward?"

"That was the old me."

Lin Qingxue shook her head, her eyes more serious than ever before: "But I've seen clearly now."

"I trust you. I know you can get away alive."

"I also trust that you will grow strong and one day avenge everyone here, no matter what you decide then."

"So..."

Her voice trailed off. With tears in her eyes, she threw her arms around him and pulled him close, pressing a deep kiss upon his lips.

"Go. While there's still time."

"..."

Ye Shu wrapped his arms around Lin Qingxue's waist.

He could clearly feel the girl trembling—a trembling born of fear, yet underscored by a forced, brave understanding.

Ye Shu was silent for a moment, then raised his head.

He flashed a confident smile at her, a smile warmer than spring flowers.

"A hero never runs from a fight."