Whoever It Is, I'm Not Afraid

After saying these words, Ye Xuan felt the shackles that had been plaguing him shatter.

He had never felt so relaxed, nor had he ever felt so at peace.

Even if he were to be killed in the next second, he would accept it.

Xia Lengyue was completely stunned.

Like a broken porcelain doll, she slumped onto the ground, her eyes hollow, continuously muttering to herself:

"Won't forgive... absolutely won't forgive..."

"To think it is... won't forgive..."

She had always thought that as long as she turned around, he would be there.

She had always thought that his love for her was infinitely forgiving.

It turned out, it wasn't.

It turned out that once a heart died, it truly could not be saved.

Suddenly, she began to laugh.

"Hehe... hehehe..."

Her laughter grew louder and more piercing, eventually turning into a miserable, manic cackle.

Her face became fierce and twisted. Her original ethereal aura was completely gone, leaving only a madness akin to an evil spirit.

"To think... you would say such words."

"Ye Xuan... what a cruel heart you have!"

Ye Xuan's expression remained calm. He straightened his clothes and cupped his hands toward the madwoman:

"I have finished listening to the story. If Senior Sister has no other orders, Junior Brother will take his leave."

With that, he turned around and walked toward the gate without the slightest hesitation.

Behind him, Xia Lengyue stopped laughing.

She sat in the darkness, staring fixedly at Ye Xuan's departing back. The despair in her eyes gradually transformed into a deeper, darker obsession.

Ye Xuan walked for a long time, until his figure completely disappeared into the night.

Sitting beneath the peach blossom tree, Xia Lengyue maintained her posture of clutching her head, motionless.

Suddenly, Xia Lengyue stood up abruptly, sweeping the wine jug and cups off the table with a wave of her sleeve.

Crash! Broken porcelain shards went flying.

"Won't forgive? What a fine 'won't forgive'!"

"On what grounds? Why refuse to forgive me!"

Xia Lengyue paced around the courtyard like a madwoman. She messed up her hair, and her once delicate makeup was now twisted like a demon's.

"I have clearly already regretted it!"

"In our past life, I stood guard for you at the Soul Severing Cliff for a whole hundred years! To avenge you, I slaughtered everyone!"

"In this life, I have given you all the best resources!"

"I've already gone this far, so why must you still cling to the past?"

"Can't you be a little more magnanimous? Can't you be like before, smiling and patting my head to say it's alright no matter what mistakes I make?"

She rushed to a massive bronze mirror, looking at the hideous woman reflected within.

"You forced me... Ye Xuan, you forced me."

Xia Lengyue caressed the mirror, her eyes gradually shifting from madness to a spine-chilling dead silence.

"You say you won't forgive me, right?"

"That's fine."

She stuck out her scarlet tongue and licked the reflection of her lips on the mirror's surface.

"I will make you forgive me."

This storm seemingly came to a peaceful end.

However, early the next morning, carrying a worn-out knapsack and under Xia Lengyue's complex gaze, Ye Xuan used the excuse of going into secluded meditation and not wanting to disturb Senior Sister's cultivation to voluntarily move back to the dirty and chaotic handyman slum at the foot of the mountain.

The news of Ye Xuan being kicked out of Purple Cloud Peak grew wings, spreading overnight throughout the entire Qingyun Sect's outer sect and the slums where the handyman disciples resided.

He returned to his dilapidated, damp, and drafty little wooden hut.

It was exactly the same as when he left. The air was filled with a faint musty smell, forming a world of difference from the refreshing spiritual energy on Lengyue Peak.

Yet, lying on the hard wooden bed, Ye Xuan felt an unprecedented peace of mind.

Here, he no longer had to pretend, no longer had to act, and no longer had to face that temperamental, schizophrenic woman.

He could breathe freely, cultivate freely, and freely be himself.

However, the peace he desired did not arrive.

When he walked out of the hut, preparing to go to the sect's dining hall for a meal, he immediately felt countless malicious gazes cast upon him from his surroundings.

Those gazes were a mix of schadenfreude, greed, mockery, and restless malice.

"Yo, isn't this Lord Ye? What's the matter, got kicked down the peak by Senior Sister Xia?" a handyman from whom he had once collected protection fees said in a mocking tone.

"Hahaha, a dog relying on its master's power. Without your master, let's see how you throw your weight around now!"

"I heard that he hasn't finished spending the spirit stones he collected a few days ago. Shouldn't we help him safeguard this windfall?"

A group of people swarmed up, surrounding Ye Xuan completely. Everyone's face was written with the excitement of beating a drowning dog.

They were afraid of Xia Lengyue, but they were not afraid of Ye Xuan.

In their eyes, Ye Xuan was nothing more than a kept man who relied on a woman to rise in status. Now that he had lost his backing, he was just a toothless tiger, at the mercy of others.

Ye Xuan looked at this group of leaping clowns, his heart completely serene.

He couldn't even be bothered to waste his breath on them.

He merely cast his gaze toward a burly youth in the crowd with the most tyrannical aura.

That person was named Zhang Kuang. With a cultivation base at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, he was considered quite a figure among the outer sect disciples and was normally the most domineering. Previously, when Ye Xuan was in power, he had found Ye Xuan very displeasing, but due to Xia Lengyue, he hadn't dared to act out.

At this moment, he was crossing his arms, looking playfully at the surrounded Ye Xuan, his eyes as if looking at a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Ye Xuan pushed aside the crowd in front of him and walked straight up to Zhang Kuang.

"You want to fight?" Zhang Kuang raised an eyebrow, his face full of disdain.

"I have no interest in wasting time with you here," Ye Xuan spoke indifferently. His voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears. "In one hour, at the martial arena, a life-and-death duel. Do you dare?"

As soon as these words came out, the entire scene fell dead silent.

Everyone looked at Ye Xuan as if looking at a madman.

Although Zhang Kuang's character wasn't much, his strength was the real deal.

His famous spell, the Mountain Cleaving Palm, was said to be something even inner sect disciples wouldn't dare take head-on easily. Had this Ye Xuan lost his mind? Or was he so provoked by being kicked out of Purple Cloud Peak that he wanted to seek death?

Zhang Kuang was also stunned, but then he burst into heaven-shaking, manic laughter.

"Hahahaha! What did I just hear? A life-and-death duel? Just based on a piece of trash like you?"

Zhang Kuang's laughter echoed like thunder over the entire slum area.

He laughed so hard he leaned back and forth, tears almost flowing out, as if he had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.

The surrounding crowd also erupted into a roar of laughter.

"Crazy! This kid is absolutely crazy!"

"Abandoned by Senior Sister Xia, the shock was too much, his brain is broken!"

"Senior Brother Zhang Kuang is a ranked expert among the outer sect disciples. With his Mountain Cleaving Palm, an ordinary seventh-level Qi Condensation cultivator couldn't even take a hit. What is this kid going to fight with?"

Voices of mockery, ridicule, and pity surged from all directions like a tide, drowning Ye Xuan. In their eyes, Ye Xuan's current behavior was no different from suicide.

Ye Xuan turned a deaf ear to it all.

His gaze was like an ancient well without ripples, calmly watching Zhang Kuang, who was laughing so hard he was about to convulse.

"You wouldn't dare?"

He spat out the three words lightly. His voice was not loud, but it struck Zhang Kuang's face like three heavy hammers.

Zhang Kuang's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

His face instantly flushed the color of pig liver. A surge of fury from being publicly humiliated rushed straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

Who was he? A powerhouse among the outer disciples, a future inner sect elite! And now, he was actually being questioned on what he dared to do in front of everyone by a trash handyman who, in his eyes, only relied on a woman to get ahead?

"Good! Very good!" Zhang Kuang squeezed the words through his gritted teeth. His fleshy face looked terrifyingly hideous due to extreme anger. "Little bastard, since you're in such a hurry to reincarnate, your daddy here will be merciful today and grant your wish!"

"In one hour, at the martial arena, I will personally send you on your way!"

"Let's go! To the martial arena!" Zhang Kuang roared, pushing through the crowd and striding toward the outer sect's martial arena.

He didn't even return to his own quarters. In his view, dealing with trash like Ye Xuan didn't require any preparation at all.

The crowd immediately stirred. Like sharks smelling blood, they excitedly followed after him.

A life-and-death duel!

This was a rare, bloody spectacle on an ordinary day! Not to mention, it was a highly dramatic showdown with a massive disparity in strength.

One was a toy boy abandoned by a proud daughter of heaven, and the other was an outer sect powerhouse with a fierce reputation. The gossip and spectacle involved were enough to drive all the bored disciples crazy.

In the blink of an eye, the previously impenetrable crowd dispersed by more than half, surging toward the martial arena in a massive wave.

Only Ye Xuan remained, standing quietly in place.

He didn't immediately follow. Instead, he turned and returned to his dilapidated little wooden cabin.

Inside, the lighting was dim, and the furnishings were crude.

He walked to the hard wooden bed and slowly sat down.

From his robes, he took out an item.

It was a sword.

A low-grade flying sword with an ancient design, its entire body emitting a faint azure light.

This sword was something Xia Lengyue had casually rewarded him with back then, under the pretext of "your cultivation is too low, keep this for self-defense."

At the time, he had accepted the sword with a tone of immense gratitude, but his heart was filled with disdain.

A mere low-grade magical artifact was no different from a piece of scrap iron to someone like him, who was used to seeing all sorts of divine and immortal artifacts in games.

But now, as his fingers traced the cold blade, a complex emotion flickered in his eyes.

Irony.

What a massive irony.

The weapon he was using for his first battle to rebel against the cage Xia Lengyue had built for him actually came from her.

Fate had played a cruel joke on him in this inconspicuous corner.

"Fine..." Ye Xuan muttered to himself, a cold smirk curling the corner of his lips. "I'll use the sword you gave me to sever everything you've imposed upon me."

"From this day forward, I, Ye Xuan, am no longer anyone's accessory."

He closed his eyes and laid the flying sword across his knees. The five-element spiritual energy in his dantian began to circulate slowly, flowing along his meridians and merging into the flying sword thread by thread.

He was refining this sword, and also adjusting his condition.

He wasn't nervous in the slightest.

Seventh level of Qi Condensation? Was that supposed to be strong?

To others, it might be an insurmountable chasm. But in his eyes, it was merely a slightly stronger ant.

What the Five Elements Chaos Sutra brought him was not just rapid cultivation speed, but a quality and quantity of spiritual energy that surpassed cultivators of the same realm by a hundred times!

The spiritual energy in his dantian, having been tempered a thousand times by the chaotic vortex, was pure and profound enough to rival a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator!

And the Grand Luo Limitless Sword Qi, an evolvable supreme sword path, was the sharpest fang in his possession. This sword art did not focus on forms, but solely on intent. Driven by the five-element chaotic spiritual energy, its sharpness and armor-piercing capabilities were completely incomparable to ordinary spells.

An hour quickly passed.

When the tsunami-like roar of the crowd from the direction of the martial arena reached his cabin, Ye Xuan opened his eyes.

The calmness in his eyes had transformed into a bottomless indifference.

He stood up, casually tucked the low-grade flying sword into his waist, pushed open the door, and faced the countless complex gazes. Step by step, he walked toward the place of his rebirth.