The Final Test is Coming

Xia Lengyue sighed and spoke softly, using the tone of an elder lecturing a junior, "You've seen it too. In the cultivation world, the strong ultimately reign supreme. Even if you obtained such a miraculous cultivation method, your aptitude... is ultimately lacking. Your cultivation efforts yield half the results for twice the work, and it's easy to attract disaster."

"From now on, don't cultivate so desperately. You need to pay attention to resting, understand? With me here, no one will dare to bully you again."

These words seemed like care, but in reality, they were a mental castration.

She wanted him to admit his incompetence, to give up struggling, and to peacefully stay within the circle she had drawn for him, like a captive canary.

"Yes, I understand." Ye Xuan nodded despondently, his voice hoarse and full of frustration.

Xia Lengyue smiled in satisfaction.

From that day on, Ye Xuan changed.

He was no longer that silent cultivation maniac. He began to serve Xia Lengyue's daily needs.

In the early morning, he no longer just silently cleaned; instead, he would prepare fresh flowers with dewdrops in advance and arrange them by the window where Xia Lengyue often read.

When Xia Lengyue was refining pills, he would quietly wait outside the alchemy room, handing over the medicinal ingredients she needed at the very first moment, without a single mistake.

When Xia Lengyue played the zither, he would sit quietly to the side, gazing at her with an almost obsessive look.

He began to learn how to speak, how to praise.

"Senior Sister's zither music today has a bit more of an ethereal charm than yesterday. This disciple was mesmerized listening to it."

"Senior Sister wearing this moon-white dress is truly like Fairy Guanghan descending to the mortal realm. This disciple doesn't even have the courage to look up at you for an extra second."

His posture was humble to the dust, and the flattery in his words was so cheesy it gave people goosebumps.

Xia Lengyue thoroughly enjoyed all of this. This feeling of being wholeheartedly worshipped and relied upon perfectly replicated what was in her memory.

She felt she had finally regained that sense of controlling everything.

But soon, a new annoyance arose.

He was too subservient.

So subservient that he was like a well-trained dog, making her feel an indescribable trace of irritability amidst her enjoyment.

The Ye Xuan in her memory, although cowardly in the early stages, always had a man's stubbornness and dignity in his bones. But the one in front of her had had his entire spine extracted.

"You have the Five Elements Chaos Sutra, and your cultivation progress is quite rapid. You should be more confident."

One day, Xia Lengyue watched Ye Xuan carefully pouring tea for her again and couldn't help but frown as she spoke.

Hearing this, Ye Xuan's hand trembled, almost spilling the tea. He hurriedly knelt down and said in panic, "It's this disciple's stupidity! I have displeased Senior Sister! Please punish me, Senior Sister!"

"I'm not trying to punish you!" Xia Lengyue felt a surge of anger at his behavior. "I'm telling you to stand up! Straighten your back!"

Ye Xuan wished he could stab this schizophrenic woman in front of him to death.

You were the one who got people to beat me, and now you're the one complaining I have no backbone?

He cursed madly in his heart, but his face showed a panicked and confused expression. Ultimately, under Xia Lengyue's stern reprimand, he tremblingly stood up straight.

This "I'm doing this for your own good" drama played out continuously over the next few months.

Ye Xuan completely gave up struggling. He understood that reasoning with a yandere was impossible.

The only thing he had to do was play his role well, satisfy her desire for control, and then exchange it for what he needed most from her—resources.

There was no helping it; Xia Lengyue was a wealthy woman, and she really gave him money.

Massive amounts of spirit stones, high-tier medicinal pills, and even some rare body-tempering materials—as long as Ye Xuan asked, or Xia Lengyue felt he needed them, they would be continuously delivered into his hands.

Under this almost extravagant piling up of resources, Ye Xuan's cultivation soared as if riding a flying boat.

In just three short months, he broke through the fourth level of Qi Condensation and firmly stepped into the seventh level!

And he also completely established his footing in the Azure Cloud Sect.

No matter where Xia Lengyue went, she would bring him along. Whether it was a meeting in the sect's main hall or a gathering with other core disciples, people could always see a humble handyman disciple following closely behind the aloof and fairy-like Senior Sister Xia.

In everyone's eyes, Ye Xuan was just a dog raised by Xia Lengyue.

Regarding this, Ye Xuan didn't care at all; he even enjoyed it.

He began to use Xia Lengyue's reputation to throw his weight around.

Relying on the excuse that Senior Sister Xia wanted him to run an errand, he would cut in line at the Mission Hall and demand extra quotas at the Pill Dispensary.

Those inner sect disciples who once looked down on him now had to politely call him "Senior Brother Ye" when they saw him.

He even went further.

One day, under Senior Sister Xia's orders, he returned to the shantytown where the handyman disciples lived.

He found a few of the handyman bosses who loved bullying the weak the most. Kicking open their doors, he spoke in a shrill voice like a eunuch decreeing an edict:

"Senior Sister Xia said that seeing how impoverished your daily lives are, she specially sent me to guide you. From now on, I'm covering this shantytown. Everyone must hand over three low-grade spirit stones a month as a protection fee. If you don't..."

Ye Xuan paused, revealing a sinister smile, and lowered his voice, "You should still remember how that Senior Brother Wang from the outer sect had his immortal path severed a few days ago, right?"

The handyman bosses were scared out of their wits. How could they dare say a single word of refusal? They bowed and nodded repeatedly, scraping together the first month's protection fee on the spot.

Holding those spirit stones stained with the blood and sweat of bottom-tier cultivators, Ye Xuan felt no ripples in his heart.

He exchanged all these spirit stones for cultivation resources. He needed strength; he needed strength by any means necessary.

These people's today was his yesterday when he lacked strength. He didn't want to live that kind of life ever again.

He was arrogant and domineering, throwing his weight around, perfectly playing the role of a petty man intoxicated by success.

Xia Lengyue saw all of this.

She didn't stop him; instead, she felt somewhat gratified.

In her view, Ye Xuan's throwing his weight around using her name was because he treated her as his backing, which was a manifestation of dependence. As long as he relied on her, he would never escape the palm of her hand.

The days passed one by one in this bizarre and twisted tranquility.

Until this day.

Atop Purple Cloud Peak, mist and clouds swirled.

Ye Xuan was in the courtyard, using a pair of jade scissors to carefully prune the branches and leaves of a spirit plant.

His current seventh-level Qi Condensation cultivation allowed him increasingly exquisite control over his spiritual energy, making these gardening tasks effortless.

"Ye Xuan, come here."

Xia Lengyue's voice drifted over from the pavilion behind him.

Ye Xuan set down the jade scissors, walked over respectfully, and stood with his hands at his sides. "What are Senior Sister's instructions?"

Today, Xia Lengyue was a bit different.

She wasn't reading, nor was she playing the zither. She just sat there quietly, holding a cup of clear tea that had long since gone cold.

Her gaze lacked focus, simply staring out at the sea of clouds.

On her face was an expression Ye Xuan had never seen before—a mixture of sorrow, confusion, and vulnerability.

"Let me tell you a story," she said softly.

Ye Xuan's heart skipped a beat, an ominous premonition welling up within him.

He did not speak, simply standing there quietly, playing the role of a perfect listener.

"A long time ago, there was a very foolish woman."

Xia Lengyue's voice was very light, as if she were telling someone else's story, or perhaps whispering to herself. "She was born into a prominent family in the mortal realm and had a childhood sweetheart for a husband. Her husband treated her very well, so well that... he would do anything for her."

Ye Xuan's breathing hitched slightly, and the fists hidden within his sleeves clenched unconsciously.

"Later, this woman obtained a heaven-defying immortal destiny, allowing her to cultivate immortality and seek eternal life. She brought her husband along and entered an immortal sect together. But... the world within the immortal sect was completely different from what she had imagined."

"Her husband had extremely poor spirit roots; he was merely trash. She, on the other hand, was a proud daughter of heaven. The gap between them grew wider and wider, like a chasm between heaven and earth."

"The woman gradually changed. She began to despise her husband's mediocrity, disgusted by the mortal aura he carried. In order to gain greater strength and a higher status, she started to attach herself to the powerful men in the sect..."

Xia Lengyue paused. She picked up her teacup and took a gentle sip, as if trying to use the cold tea to wash down the bitterness in her throat.

"She dual cultivated with those men. She watched her husband suffer in agony, yet turned a blind eye to it. She even... in order to curry favor with a new backer, personally plunged a dagger into her husband's wrist, using his heart's blood to refine pills for an old monster..."

When the words heart's blood squeezed past her lips, a scalding teardrop slipped from her eyes without warning, crashing into the cold tea with an almost inaudible drip.

The sound was very faint, yet it struck Ye Xuan's heart like a heavy hammer.

He lowered his head, his long bangs concealing his eyes, hiding the flash of mingled disgust and vindictive pleasure that flickered within them.

It was here.

It was finally here.

This final test, the one he had been waiting months for.