Chapter 87: Respecting the Fate of Others

Did Bai Qiulan truly not know how excruciating Lu Ye's suffering had been?

She acted like she had no idea.

But in truth?

She knew damn well—it was the Taiyin Chaotic Divine Body!

Once the chaotic yin poison flared up, it had to be thawed by the flame of life itself—a living blaze to melt through that deadly cold.

And the horror of the chaotic yin poison wasn’t just some ordinary chill. It went deep—into the bones, into the soul.

Lu Ye had died once because of it.

Only through relentless deduction had he managed to claw back a sliver of hope after that death.

The method of treatment? He had to preemptively consume over a dozen kinds of supremely yang and unyielding pills, then burn away his own lifespan and cultivation as fire to forcibly counteract the poison.

Of course, Lu Ye wasn’t the only one capable of doing this.

If someone else had managed to refine those same dozen pills and didn’t care about the cost of losing lifespan or reversing their cultivation, they too could cure Bai Qiulan.

But those dozen yang-based pills were complicated as hell—during his simulations, he’d almost crashed the barely upgraded system just trying to work them out.

And it was precisely because of those pills that Lu Ye had gotten a little high during the process—ended up flipping Bai Qiulan over and over, eyes rolling back in his head.

"Master didn’t know how much you were suffering!" Yue Hongling said firmly, unwilling to believe that the teacher she respected so deeply could be... could be that kind of person—a liar.

Lu Ye heard the absolute conviction in her voice and let out a laugh.

See? Still the same. Not even a tiny bit of change.

No one ever believed his words. No investigation, no second thought. Just immediate denial—and total belief in their own assumptions.

He really didn’t get it.

He and Bai Qiulan had been through everything together. They’d seen each other in their most exposed states. And he’d been under the influence of all those pills—barely able to fake anything.

As long as Bai Qiulan had looked at him once—hell, even if she hadn’t looked at all—she should have been able to feel the kind of pain he was enduring.

Lu Ye waved his hand.

Boom!

Yue Hongling was instantly blasted backwards, slamming hard into a boulder. The door slammed shut behind her.

If he said one more word, he really would be an idiot.

He’d just come back from the Heaven’s Chosen Ancient Battlefield, made quite a haul. Grand Dao Sect had rushed over to help him—he’d felt warm for once.

Mood had just started to lighten up—only to get ruined all over again.

Like hell.

Yue Hongling climbed to her feet, coughing up blood.

"Senior brother, please save Master... she’s the only one we have!"

This time, Lu Ye didn’t even bother responding.

Yue Hongling had no choice. She rushed back to where Bai Qiulan lay.

Sun Ruowei quickly asked, "Well? Did Lu Ye come?"

Yue Hongling’s face was full of bitterness. "Senior brother won’t help. I... I think I said something that made him mad again."

"What did you say? For fuck’s sake—your master’s in this condition, and you’re still pissing him off?" Sun Ruowei couldn’t understand it.

Yue Hongling still didn’t know what she’d done wrong.

"I just said... senior brother saved Master before, right? So I said Master didn’t know how much he was suffering. And then he blasted me through the air."

Sun Ruowei: ???

"And how do you know your master didn’t know how much he was suffering?"

Yue Hongling...

That one question left her completely blank.

Yeah... how did she know?

Because Master said so...

In that moment, Yue Hongling’s eyes fell on Bai Qiulan.

Master had said Lu Ye wasn’t in pain at all—she said he’d actually enjoyed it.

But...

Was that really true?

When Master said something, she just believed it outright. But when Senior Brother spoke—had she ever truly believed him?

Yue Hongling clutched her chest.

It hurt. God, it hurt.

She could barely stay on her feet.

Why was it that every time she faced Senior Brother, this was always her attitude?

She had regretted it already. And yet, when she stood before him again, it was still like this.

In that moment, Yue Hongling even hated herself.

She didn’t understand. What was wrong with her? Why did she always face Lu Ye with that kind of arrogant, unreasonable confidence—believing only what she wanted to believe?

Sun Ruowei let out a quiet sigh.

She glanced over at Bai Qiulan—Lu Ye’s reaction had already proven that his entanglement with Bai Qiulan went even deeper than she'd imagined.

"So what now?" Yue Hongling asked, forcing herself to speak through the pain.

Sun Ruowei fell silent, thinking for a while.

"I’ll go find Lu Ye."

"You have to talk to him gently. My senior brother’s temper is bad right now—one wrong word and he’ll start throwing punches."

Sun Ruowei vanished.

A moment later, she stood before Lu Ye’s door.

She knocked softly.

Inside, Lu Ye was rummaging through a bunch of storage rings taken from Tribulation-stage cultivators. Sensing Sun Ruowei’s arrival with his divine sense, he paused for a moment.

"Ding! One of my kind has arrived!" came the voice of the system in his mind, sounding vaguely excited.

"She has a system too?" Lu Ye raised an eyebrow.

"Ding! No, she just really likes gossip!"

Lu Ye: ...

"Ding! Especially gossip about you!"

Lu Ye: ...

You know what? Maybe you should go back to being the Heavenly Dao. At least you were quiet back then.

Lu Ye opened the door and cupped his hands slightly. "Disciple Lu Ye greets Aunt-Master Sun."

His expression was calm, with a gentle smile—warm and mild.

In her previous life, Sun Ruowei had died because of her obsessive gossip habit—literally gossiped herself to death—but she’d also fought side by side with Lu Ye in a war against the foreign races. She’d died in battle.

She had treated Lu Ye pretty well.

"Lu Ye, huh."

This wasn’t the first time Sun Ruowei had interacted with him. In fact, their last two encounters had been... memorable. The first time was when Lu Ye had turned blood-red, murderous intent surging like he was about to wipe out the world. The second was when he summoned the Heavenly Tribulation to slaughter an entire group of Tribulation cultivators.

Good god—he used to be just some little disciple in her eyes. But now... now even she felt a flicker of fear when facing him.

"Don’t be scared, Aunt-Master. I only kill enemies. Everyone in our sect is one of us." Lu Ye noticed her fear and infused his voice with a trace of Dao resonance, calming her down.

Sure enough, the fear eased quickly.

"You’re right. We’re from the same sect, all one family. And I’ve always been close friends with your master. Treated you like my own—well, maybe that’s not the perfect phrase, but you get what I mean, right?"

"Disciple understands."

"So now your master has fallen unconscious. That silly girl Hongling said you know a way to save her. Could you go help?"

"I’m sorry, Aunt-Master. It’s true I’ve saved Master before. But she made it clear—she doesn’t want my help. And I’ve already been punished once for doing so. I absolutely dare not involve myself again. ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) I ask that you consult others. Perhaps someone else can treat her."

Lu Ye’s tone was respectful, but undeniably cold.

"She won’t let you save her?"

"Master is Master. I am her disciple. To honor one’s teacher, respect the Dao, and uphold boundaries between man and woman—that is the foundation of ethics. I must not cross that line. I beg Aunt-Master to understand my position." Lu Ye cupped his hands again as he spoke.

Sun Ruowei...

"At special times, doing special things is sometimes understandable."

"But if it’s understandable, then it means something wrong is being forgiven. And if I don’t do it, then I haven’t done anything wrong—and there’s no need to talk about forgiveness at all, is there?"

Sun Ruowei... had nothing left to say.