Ye Xuan Turned Dark

Slap, slap, slap.

Bai Yujing applauded from the sidelines, laughing wildly: "Brilliant! Truly brilliant! Ye Xuan, you really didn't disappoint me."

He looked down at Ye Xuan with a condescending gaze: "Whether you're willing to admit it or not, I am destined to take everything from you. Your women, your fortune, your very life! Don't bother struggling. On the chessboard of fate, you will forever remain nothing more than an ant beneath my feet."

Ye Xuan cast him a cold glance, utterly indifferent to such barking.

He tightened his grip on his longsword and asked for the third time, his voice low as still water: "I'll ask you one more time. Who sent you?"

The smile on Bai Yujing's face gradually faded, replaced by a look of lofty indifference that scoffed at the world.

Instead of answering, he laughed coldly: "Let me tell you the truth, Ye Xuan. The me of now is no longer merely at the Void Refinement stage... This sovereign is already a tribulation-crossing grand cultivator!"

The moment the words "tribulation-crossing grand cultivator" left his lips, the prodigies watching from below collapsed to the ground in terror.

No wonder Bai Yujing possessed boundless spiritual power. No wonder he showed not the slightest fear of Ye Xuan's attacks.

"If you wish to settle old grievances, if you wish to know the truth of everything..." Bai Yujing gazed deeply at Ye Xuan, a glint of schemes flashing in his eyes: "Then come find me at the Nine Heavens Sacred Ground."

With that, he swept his sleeve, and violent spatial energy instantly tore through the barriers of the Burial Abyss of Heaven.

"If you wish to get your wife Bai Ningbing back, come to the Nine Heavens Sacred Ground as well."

After speaking, Bai Yujing, carrying the already broken-hearted Bai Ningbing like a dead dog, stepped into the spatial rift.

The rift rapidly sealed shut.

Only Ye Xuan remained, sword in hand, standing beneath the riddled and scarred sky.

All around, there was deathly silence.

Every sacred ground prodigy held their breath, afraid to even let out a puff of air, lest they disturb the peerless slaughterer who dared to stand against a tribulation-crossing grand cultivator.

The wind tousled Ye Xuan's silver hair.

He stared at the direction Bai Yujing had vanished, his expression indifferent, his deep eyes seeming to calculate something within.

After a long while.

"Husband..."

A timid call broke the silence.

Ying'er carefully ran over from a distance, her big eyes filled with worry.

Though she couldn't understand the complex grudges about "past lives" and "immortal bones," she could feel the thick, suffocating loneliness radiating from Ye Xuan in that moment.

Ye Xuan turned his head and glanced at her. The icy look in his eyes softened slightly upon meeting the little girl's concerned gaze.

He sheathed his Sun-Slaying Divine Sword.

"Ah..."

Ye Xuan let out a long sigh, looking up at the blood-red sky.

"This Bai Yujing..." he murmured to himself, his voice carrying a hint of deep bewilderment and gravity.

"Husband knows him?" Ying'er asked curiously.

"Know him? More like I've seen him many times." Ye Xuan shook his head, his expression somewhat dazed, carrying even a tremor he himself hadn't noticed.

"He was clearly dead. Dead beyond dead. I saw it with my own eyes, did it with my own hands."

"But now..." Ye Xuan's brow furrowed deeply, "He's come back to life and become the holy son of the Nine Heavens Sacred Ground."

"It truly... is too strange."

A cold gust of wind swept across Tongtian Cliff. Ye Xuan stood in place, the phantom of his past life behind him already dissipating.

"Let's go."

Ye Xuan took Ying'er by the hand and left Tongtian Cliff without looking back.

Those sacred ground prodigies, who had once held their heads high, now saw his white-robed figure and scattered like they'd seen a ghost, not daring to even take a deep breath.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of miles away, at the encampment of the Nine Heavens Sacred Ground.

Bai Ningbing, like a puppet stripped of her soul, was casually tossed onto the cold jade floor of the great hall by Bai Yujing.

Her eyes were hollow, her neck still bearing the bruised finger marks where Ye Xuan had nearly crushed the life out of her.

Several junior sisters hurried over, and seeing this scene, their hearts jolted in shock.

"Junior sister! What happened to you?"

Second senior sister Mu Qingxue, dressed in blue robes with the Frost-Cold Sword strapped to her back, rushed forward to help Bai Ningbing up.

Looking at her junior sister, usually so aloof and pure, now reduced to a beggar's state, a flicker of pity crossed her eyes.

Bai Ningbing's hollow eyes shifted, and with a sudden cough, she spat out a mouthful of blood. Clutching desperately at Mu Qingxue's sleeve, she wailed in heartbreak: "Senior sister... Ye Xuan doesn't want me anymore... He truly doesn't want me..."

After hearing the other disciples timidly recount everything that had happened at Tongtian Cliff, Mu Qingxue's brows pressed together deeply.

"How could Ye Xuan be so heartless?"

Mu Qingxue bit her red lips and gripped the sword hilt at her waist: "Ningbing was forced into that situation back then too. She has always been sincere toward Ye Xuan! Even bearing the blame of the world, she never let Bai Yujing touch her. No! I'm going to find him and demand an explanation!"

Ignoring everyone's attempts to stop her, she transformed into a sharp sword-light and charged deep into the abyss.

Half a day later, before a derelict ancient temple in the Burial Abyss of Heaven.

Ye Xuan sat with his eyes closed in meditation, while Ying'er dutifully massaged his legs nearby.

Suddenly, an extremely sharp rending sound split the air. A white-clad figure descended into the temple courtyard like a startled swan. It was Mu Qingxue.

She looked at the silver-haired youth before her—both familiar and strange—clenched her teeth, and said coldly: "Ye Xuan!"

Ye Xuan didn't even open his eyes. He simply uttered two words: "Get lost."

"You!"

Mu Qingxue was left sputtering with rage but still suppressed her fury, stepping forward: "I'm here to get an answer for Ningbing! On Yuzhao Peak back then, Ningbing was coerced by Bai Yujing. She had to do what she did to protect the lives of her family's one hundred thousand people. But her heart has always been with you. She has been truly sincere toward you!"

At the word "sincere," Ye Xuan finally opened his eyes.

In his gray-white pupils, there was no anger—only a cynicism born of seeing through the world.

He looked at Mu Qingxue, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "Can a single word of sincerity erase all the sins of the past?"

Mu Qingxue was instantly stunned. She opened her mouth but found herself utterly unable to form a single rebuttal.

Indeed. Could a single excuse of being forced truly wash away the extreme agony of having one's immortal bones carved out while still alive?

Could it erase the despair of three years spent sinking in the depths of Burial Immortal Lake?

Watching her stand frozen in place, Ye Xuan slowly rose to his feet, an oppressive pressure instantly enveloping the entire courtyard.

He took a step toward her, his eyes radiating chilling frost: "Speaking of which, back on Yuzhao Peak, you were one of the accomplices as well. Since you've delivered yourself to my doorstep today..."

"Then you might as well stay."

"You think I'm afraid of you?!" Mu Qingxue was thoroughly enraged by the contempt in Ye Xuan's eyes. With a sharp cry, her Frost-Cold Sword leaped from its sheath, turning into an endless barrage of icy sword-qi that roared toward Ye Xuan like a glacier dragon!

"Overestimating yourself."

Ye Xuan gave a cold snort, not even bothering to draw his sword. He merely raised his right hand, and a dim light flickered at his fingertip.

Grand Luo Primordial Sword Qi!

"BOOM!"

There was not a shred of suspense. The moment the sky-filling icy snow sword energy came into contact with the Grand Ultimate Dao sword energy, it shattered like dry twigs beneath a crushing force.

The terrifying rebound force sent Mu Qingxue flying backwards. She slammed heavily into the stone pillar of the ancient temple, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Her Frostbite Sword slipped from her grip and landed at an angle in the dirt some distance away.

Utterly helpless!

The once dazzling second junior sister of the Nine Heavens Sacred Land could not even survive a single move against the current Ye Xuan.

Mu Qingxue closed her eyes in despair, two streams of clear tears sliding down her cheeks.

She lifted her pale neck, her voice filled with sorrow: “Just kill me… Back then, I misunderstood you. I wronged you.”

“Kill you? Wouldn’t that be letting you off far too easily?”

At that moment, Ye Xuan suddenly smiled.

It was an extremely vicious grin—one brimming with cruelty and the lust for destruction.

With a casual wave of his hand, a grand formation barrier that sealed off heaven and earth instantly enveloped the entire ancient temple.

He turned his head to look at Ying'er, who seemed somewhat dazed, and his tone left no room for argument: “Stand watch outside the barrier. If anyone approaches, kill them without mercy.”

Though Ying'er felt a thousand unwillingness in her heart, facing Ye Xuan’s icy gaze, she could only nod obediently and retreat to the edge of the barrier.

Ye Xuan turned back around, and with a flick of his wrist, an extremely wide bed of thousand-year warm jade suddenly appeared in the center of the ancient temple.

Mu Qingxue was stunned. She stared blankly at the bed, then at Ye Xuan who advanced step by step like a demon god, her voice trembling beyond control: “You… what are you going to do?”

Ye Xuan looked down at her from a height, his eyes devoid of any warmth, and uttered only a single word:

“Do you.”