Despicable Ye Jiuzhou

A terrifying wave of heat swept through Ye Jiuzhou's internal organs the moment he swallowed it.

Scorching energy surged wildly through his meridians like millions of fiery snakes.

Under the intense heat, his severed meridians healed at an impossible speed. His depleted dantian roared to life, as if an entire heavenly river of spiritual energy had been poured into it.

The Heavenly Phoenix Sword Bone let out a deafening cry.

His cultivation base soared rapidly: Mid Void Refinement, Late Void Refinement, Peak Void Refinement!

He smashed right through his bottleneck. Catalyzed by that drop of Phoenix Blood, he broke through to the Half-step Dao Integration realm in one fell swoop!

His injuries healed at a visible rate. Under the burning of the Phoenix Fire, the wound on his chest scabbed over, peeled off, and grew new flesh.

An hour later.

Ye Jiuzhou slowly opened his eyes.

Deep within his pupils, a completely golden fire phoenix was soaring. The color of his eyes had changed from their original dark brown to an amber hue interlaced with golden patterns.

"Big brother, are you better?"

Sensing the movement behind him, Ye Xuan turned around in pleasant surprise. A bright smile bloomed on his bloodstained face, his eyes curving into crescents.

"I knew it, this thing is perfectly suited for you!"

His tone was so excited it sounded as if he were the one who had just broken through—perhaps even more excited than if he had.

He gave Ye Jiuzhou a thumbs-up, his eyes filled with unadulterated pride.

Ye Jiuzhou looked at him.

He did not smile.

He slowly stood up. His physical body, reforged by the Phoenix Blood, emitted a faint golden glow. Every step he took left shallow scorch marks on the stone floor beneath his feet.

He looked down at Ye Xuan from above.

"Ye Xuan."

Ye Jiuzhou's voice was very cold.

"Just now... did you ever think about killing me?"

Ye Xuan's smile froze on his face.

Not out of fear—he had never been afraid of Ye Jiuzhou. But out of confusion. A pure confusion of "what are you saying, why don't I understand."

"Big brother, what are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb."

Ye Jiuzhou pressed closer, step by step. With every step he took, the even more terrifying aura he possessed after his baptism by the Phoenix Blood grew heavier.

For an Early Nascent Soul cultivator, the pressure of this aura was already approaching their absolute limit.

Ye Xuan's face began to pale, his shoulders unconsciously sinking, his knees bending slightly.

But he gritted his teeth and held his ground, refusing to kneel.

"This is Phoenix Blood," Ye Jiuzhou's voice echoed across the altar.

"If you had swallowed it, it would have been enough to defy the heavens and change your fate. Your mixed spirit root, your trash physique—a single drop of Phoenix Blood could have washed it all away. You could have instantly become a heaven-chosen genius, the powerhouse you have always dreamed of becoming."

"I was heavily injured and on the verge of death. You could easily have killed me and taken it all for yourself."

He paused for a moment.

"Don't tell me you weren't tempted at all."

When the last sentence left his mouth, Ye Jiuzhou's own voice was trembling.

He wasn't interrogating Ye Xuan.

He was forcing Ye Xuan to say "yes."

He needed Ye Xuan to say "yes." He needed Ye Xuan to admit "I was indeed tempted," needed Ye Xuan to reveal even the slightest trace of greed and calculation.

Because only in this way, only by proving that Ye Xuan was just like everyone else in the cultivation world...

...could the sickening sense of guilt in his heart be alleviated, even by a fraction.

Only if Ye Xuan was also a bad person would he not be the sole despicable wretch in this story.

Ye Xuan fell silent.

He looked at Ye Jiuzhou's icy eyes, his heart filled with extreme pain.

This was not the Ye Jiuzhou he knew.

The Ye Jiuzhou he knew had a sharp tongue but would secretly slip him medicinal pills; appeared indifferent but would drape extra clothes over him late at night; said he "wouldn't teach" but would correct his sword techniques hand by hand.

But the person standing before him right now had eyes full of wariness, suspicion, self-loathing, and humiliated rage. He was like a wild beast backed into a corner, desperately using aggression to mask his own fear.

Ye Xuan dropped his smile.

He straightened his back.

"Big brother."

His voice was impossibly calm.

"What I want to tell you is that I have never once had the thought of hurting you or taking the Phoenix Blood."

"I saw the phantom of a phoenix around your body when you waved your hand, and I knew it would definitely be of use to you. You are the hope of the Sword God Palace, the glory of your family. Giving this thing to you is ten thousand times more valuable than giving it to me."

His tone held no grievance and no anger; he was merely stating a fact that he considered a matter of course.

This "matter of course" was like a knife, stabbing with absolute precision into Ye Jiuzhou's most vulnerable spot.

"Hypocrite!"

Ye Jiuzhou suddenly roared.

This roar tore apart his usual elegance and composure. Like a hysterical madman whose sore spot had been trampled upon, his facial muscles twisted and deformed from intense emotion.

He pointed at the overlapping layers of corpses at the base of the altar, his fingers trembling.

"Look at the people we just killed! For this drop of blood, wives murdered husbands, disciples slaughtered masters, and brothers stabbed each other in the back!"

"The only reason you didn't strike earlier is because you weren't confident you could kill me! You were afraid my dying counterattack would drag you down with me! That's why you pretended to be generous, pretended to value loyalty!"

He grew more agitated as he spoke, his voice rising higher and higher, almost using his screams to drown out the voice in his heart that kept questioning him.

"You're acting! You're trying to win my trust! You hypocrite!"

Ye Jiuzhou roared hysterically.

He could not accept it.

That in a world filled with calculation, betrayal, and the law of the jungle, there was actually someone willing to entrust their life to him.

Unconditionally.

Asking for nothing in return.

Without reservation.

Because if this was true, if Ye Xuan's trust and goodwill were genuine, then the moment he, Ye Jiuzhou, had gripped the Soul-Extinguishing Nail in his sleeve just now, he was the filthiest person in this entire story!

And he could not face this fact.

So he chose the most cowardly way out.

To drag the other party into the mud as well, so that he wouldn't have to rot alone.

Ye Xuan listened quietly.

From beginning to end, he did not utter a single word in rebuttal.

He just watched.

Watched this person before him who had already gone somewhat mad. Watched that face he had looked at for ten years, now covered in ferocity.

Ye Xuan's eyes gradually turned red.

A teardrop slipped from the corner of his eye. Silently, it traced a winding, clean path down his bloodstained and scarred cheek.

"So..."

Ye Xuan's voice was hoarse.

"...in your heart, is this the kind of person I've always been?"

His lips were trembling.

"All these years, we drank together, killed enemies together... I took a blade for you, you carried me on your back through the snowy mountains..."

His voice grew lower and lower.

"Was all of this, in your eyes, just me acting?"

When the last word fell, Ye Jiuzhou's heart suddenly flared with pain.

This pain was not the pain of severed meridians, not the pain of a depleted dantian, not the pain of heavenly tribulations blasting his body.

It was an excruciating agony radiating from the deepest depths of his soul, like a dull knife slicing through flesh. It was as if someone were using a rusted blade to carve out, cut by cut, that thing inside his chest he had always pretended did not exist.

He saw Ye Xuan crying.

This person who never cried was standing in front of him right now, weeping silently.

The tears were incredibly quiet. There was no wailing, no sobbing, just drop after drop welling up from Ye Xuan's peach-blossom eyes, tracing down his chin, and falling onto the stone surface at his feet.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

With every drop that fell, Ye Jiuzhou's heart twisted in pain.

But he could not back down.

His pride would not allow him to admit that he was a bastard who had projected his own petty malice onto a noble soul.

It would not allow him to say, "I am sorry."

It would not allow him to say, "I was wrong."

And it certainly would not allow him to confess the deepest, truest reason buried within his heart—

"I am afraid. I am afraid that you really are as good as you appear to be. Because if you truly are that good, I won't be able to stop myself from..."

And so, he chose the cruelest two words.

Gritting his teeth, he squeezed them out through the gaps in his teeth, one by one.

"That's right."