Why is everyone blaming me

Rumble... rumble... rumble...

Dark clouds pressed down on the city, a heavy weight on everyone's hearts. Lightning flashed, churning within the clouds, releasing a deep, muffled, oppressive rumble of thunder.

Inside the brightly lit Ye family mansion,

Two groups of people, clearly distinguished by their attire, were separated to either side, but their faces bore the same expression: terror, confusion, unease, and deep fear.

"Well? Young Master Ye, please make your choice."

Mo Yu stood in the center, a smug grin spreading across his face.

This was the feeling—this was exactly the feeling!

To hold the power of life and death over others, to control their fates at will, to force them into agonizing choices that would breed mutual hostility, betrayal, and broken bonds.

This was what he truly wanted.

Merely killing the child of fate was too easy; he wanted them to reveal their ugliest true natures under the pressure of human nature.

"Come now, make your choice."

Mo Yu stared intently at the ordinary-looking youth in the crowd, a cold sneer curling on his lips. "Will you choose the family of your childhood sweetheart, who has helped you countless times, or will you choose your own blood relatives, who gave you life and raised you?"

As soon as these words were spoken,

Everyone from both the Ye and Liu families trembled.

They could not understand why fate was so cruel, why disaster had descended out of nowhere. They could only, as if by silent agreement, turn their gazes to the youth bearing all the pressure.

He was an utterly ordinary young man.

Short hair, a simple white robe, a clean but unremarkable face—in the world of immortal cultivation, where everyone possessed supermodel looks, he could only rank as below average.

Mo Yu wanted to see the child of fate break down.

But he was destined to be disappointed.

Because Ye Feng's expression revealed neither joy nor sorrow; his face showed nothing. He only stared silently at the uninvited guests.

"Brother Ye Feng..."

A girl on the other side looked at him with concern, her face full of fear and anxiety. Her name was Liu Ling'er, the legitimate daughter of the Liu family, who had grown up side by side with Ye Feng, innocent and inseparable since childhood.

When Liu Ling'er was very young, she had been drawn by a quality in Ye Feng that set him apart from everyone else, and she had never been able to let go ever since.

He seemed not to belong to the same world as everyone else.

Like a... visitor from beyond the heavens, he viewed things from an entirely different perspective and could always articulate many truths.

Everyone stared at Ye Feng,

Waiting for his choice.

Ye Feng turned to look at Mo Yu and the black-clad men exuding frightening auras behind him.

"I don't understand,"

He said to Mo Yu, his tone puzzled.

"Have I ever met you, sir?"

"No."

"Have I ever offended you, sir?"

"No."

"Have I ever done evil in my past that would lead you to show me such ruthlessness?"

"No."

"Since we are total strangers, why do you trouble me?" Ye Feng's voice carried a note of confusion.

This was a question he wanted to ask—and so did everyone else.

Mo Yu was taken aback for a moment, then burst into loud laughter.

He waved at the guard behind him, who immediately handed over a dark golden scroll. Mo Yu took the scroll, unfurled it in the wind, and said coldly: "The Eastern Wasteland Sin Sect, the Azure Demon Sect, colluded with demonic arts to bring calamity upon the world. They were later eradicated jointly by the six hidden families. But remnants escaped and fled to the Central Province, plotting to spread chaos once more."

"Now, we are hunting these demonic remnants. We suspect they have slipped into the Ye residence, conspiring with you all in secret. We have therefore come to arrest everyone."

"How about that?"

Mo Yu rolled up the scroll, offering a faint smile.

"This... this is utterly absurd!"

The heads of the Ye and Liu families quivered with rage, their lips trembling. Had their two families not lived peacefully for generations in Firefly Stone City? Did they not know whether they had ever consorted with demonic cultivators?

"Nonsense! How could we ever collude with the demonic path!"

"Oh? You deny it?"

Mo Yu sneered and crooked his finger at the men behind him.

Thwack!

A black-robed figure—covered in blood from flogging—was tossed out like garbage and landed on the lawn.

"See? Now you have it."

"You... you..."

The two family heads gnashed their teeth in fury, but were powerless against the auras of terror behind Mo Yu.

Watching them suffering, Mo Yu was more delighted than words could say.

"Enough. I've already given you a chance." He looked again at Ye Feng, a cold sneer at the corner of his mouth.

"Young Master Ye, please choose."

"Time is running out."

At these words, everyone shuddered once more and turned their eyes squarely onto Ye Feng.

And still, his face was expressionless.

Suffer. Choose.

Mo Yu watched Ye Feng with contempt, certain he could already see the fierce inner struggle beneath that calm facade. No one could remain calm under such a choice.

No one.

But in the next second,

"I choose the Ye family."

As soon as he confirmed that the intruders were there to kill, Ye Feng made his choice without a moment's hesitation. Faster than anyone could blink.

A dead silence fell over the hall.

Nobody seemed to have processed it yet. And when they did, some among the Ye family quietly lifted the corners of their mouths, secretly celebrating their survival. Though Ye Feng's parents looked toward the Liu family with guilt in their eyes, relief also welled up in their hearts.

In the face of death, no one could remain indifferent.

"Ye Feng! What have you done!"

Unlike the Ye family's relief, the Liu family's faces turned deathly pale, as if plunged into an icy abyss. Their eyes brimmed with fury and despair. The more rational ones held back, but some could not hold their tongues.

"Have you forgotten how our Liu family treated you!"

"Our Ling'er fed you and clothed you! She even skimped on her own cultivation resources for you, and this is how you repay her? Have you no shame?!"

"Ungrateful wretch!"

"Filthy ingrate!"

The Liu family's curses rose one after another, while the Ye family kept their heads down, not daring to say a word. Let them scold—soon, the entire other side would be dead.

"Brother Ye Feng..."

Even Liu Ling'er's gaze at Ye Feng held a faint trace of disappointment. Did so many years together truly count for nothing in the face of life and death?

Could it not even earn him a moment's hesitation?

"Haha! Fascinating, truly fascinating!"

Watching this scene, Mo Yu could not resist clapping and laughing. Just as he had predicted. With a few casual words, he had turned them against each other.

Human nature, it seemed, could never stand the test.

These so-called children of fate, daughters of fortune—when faced with life and death, they were no different from the ordinary.

But what he never expected was this:

Now targeted by all, Ye Feng instead looked at the Liu family and the disappointed Liu Ling'er with a puzzled expression. Then he asked,

"You... are blaming me?"

"Why?"