Lu Ye was actually laughing from how Shen Xitong was acting.
Just look at this pathetic little creature.
Fine, heâd let the brat bite him once.
Releasing his grappling hold on Shen Xitong, she immediately opened her cherry-like little mouth and chomped hard on Lu Yeâs arm.
She left behind two neat rows of teeth marks.
âFeel better now?â
âDing. Meh, so-so... I kinda want to bite again.â
âYouâd better not push your luck!â
âDing. If I didnât push my luck, would I even be Shen Xitong?â
âWatch my great grappling technique!â
âDingâwaaah! Damn host! I was wrong!â
After horsing around with Shen Xitong for a bit, Lu Ye found his mood had lightened significantly.
âBy the wayâhow exactly am I supposed to deal with the Taiyin Marrow Worm you deduced?â Lu Ye asked.
âDing. At your current realm, thereâs only one method: use Bai Qiulanâs fresh blood as the lure. The Taiyin Marrow Worm will sense the Chaotic Supreme Yin force, and you wonât need to do anything. Itâll leave on its own.â
Lu Ye suddenly understood.
So thatâs how it is!
âHelp me find Bai Qiulanâs location. I need to return this gift she gave me,â Lu Ye said.
âDing. This system does not possess a search function.â
âBullshit. When youâre eating melon seeds, you always know exactly where everyone is and what theyâre doing. And now youâre telling me you canât locate someone?â
âDing. Eating melons is eating melons. Searching is searching. The two cannot be conflated.â Shen Xitong replied righteously.
Lu Ye was shivering from the cold.
The Taiyin Marrow Worm hadnât even hatched, but its grade was too high. Just the egg alone was enough to overwhelm a powerful cultivator at the Tribulation Crossing Realm like him.
âAll right then, Iâll go find her myself.â
Lu Ye stood up.
But before he even made it out the doorâhe stopped.
If he went out now, and Bai Qiulanâs group was already on the brink of death, and they happened to run into the Eternal Teachings Sect...
Would the enemy go for Bai Qiulan, or him?
Definitely him!
And since they couldnât beat him, heâd inevitably strike back and kill them all cleanlyâ
Wouldnât that mean heâd basically be saving Bai Qiulan and the others by proxy?
Unacceptable!
âOh right. Iâll contact Liu Changfeng. If Bai Qiulan and the others appear outside the sect, notify me immediately.â
Lu Ye took out a sound transmission stone and got in touch with Liu Changfeng.
âSect Master, if my Master appears near Grand Dao Sect, inform me right away.â
âAll right, no problem. Should we send people to rescue her?â
âAbsolutely not. Everyone has their own fate. When dealing with others, we must maintain the mindset of letting go of the urge to save and respect the arc of anotherâs destiny. Because the moment you interfere, you risk changing their fate. If they end up resenting you for it, youâll just have to take the blame.â
Everything Lu Ye saidâwas the fruit of bitter, firsthand experience.
âGot it. Iâll inform you the moment theyâre back.â
âThanks. Much appreciated.â
âDonât mention it.â
After giving Liu Changfeng his instructions, Lu Ye resumed cultivating.
Though in truth, he was thinking about a deeper question.
The Second Heaven had a much higher ceiling than the First Heaven, and naturally, many more powerful cultivators.
If the First Heavenâs realms began with Qi-Gathering, then the sequence would be:
Qi-Gathering, Core Formation, Nascent Breakthrough, Spirit Refinement, Combined Dao, Tribulation Crossing, Great Ascension.
But the Second Heavenâhad three more realms beyond that.
Heaven, Earth, and Man.
Manâwas the True Human Realm.
Earthâwas the Earth Immortal Realm.
Heavenâwas the Heavenly God Realm.
Of course, the Second Heaven wasnât only made up of those three realms. Realms like Great Ascension, Tribulation Crossing, and Combined Dao were still a huge part of the structure.
The human race had a distinctive traitâthey could reproduce.
Take, for example, a certain powerhouse from the Third Heaven. He, through sheer effort and relentless sowing, managed to father over three thousand biological children with his Dao companions.
Over three thousand...
Though they werenât all born from the same woman, the higher oneâs cultivation, the harder it was to conceiveâand the longer the pregnancy lasted. From that alone, one could imagine just how diligently that powerhouse worked.
And soâhis descendants multiplied endlessly. That was why even in the Second Heaven, a cultivator at the Great Ascension Realm could still be considered a true powerhouse, fully capable of founding a sect.
There was no such thing as "ascending and instantly becoming a grunt."
Lu Ye was thinking:
The Jiang Clan was terrifyingly powerful. They had more than one Heavenly God Realm cultivator, not to mention powerful treasures left behind by the Jiang Clanâs main branch after their ascension.
If he ascended, there was no way he could avoid a major escape scenario.
But as for dying?
Not likely.
If he had to flee from powerful enemies even after being rebornâthen what was the point of being reborn at all?
Was there a way to ensure that, the moment he ascended, heâd be strong enough to slaughter his way across the Second Heaven?
Maybe it was worth experimenting.
And who knowsâmaybe heâd end up giving Jiang Die a world-shaking surprise.
At that moment, Liu Changfeng was sitting inside the Grand Hall, with Ji Changming seated beside him.
âOld Ji, what do you think Lu Ye meant by what he said?â Liu Changfeng asked, stroking his beard.
Ji Changming was deep in thought.
Back during the Genius Tournament, heâd already started suspecting that the Grand Dao Sect had become the Hehuan Sect... or worse, the Grand Dao Hehuan Sect.
âSo far, judging by appearances, Lu Ye is keeping his distance from both Yue Hongling and Bai Qiulanânot interfering, not getting involved.â
âStill, Iâm honestly kind of worried theyâre gonna start acting out that whole âyou chase, I run; I flap my wings but canât escape; abusing your wife is fun for a while, chasing your wife ends in cremationâ scenario.â
â...Huh?â
Liu Changfeng blinked in confusion.
He was a devout cultivation addictâhe didnât really follow Ji Changmingâs line of thinking.
âWhat does that mean?â
âItâs a classic love-story plot. âWhen I loved you, you didnât love me. Now that I donât love you, you suddenly love me like crazy.ââ
âOne runs, the other chasesâthey go back and forth, and in the end they end up happily married.â
âSect Master, you donât know this, but some of those romance stories torment my liver and crack my ribs from laughter.â
âThereâs one where the female lead formed her Golden Core inside her dantian, and then her Senior Brother told her to move it to her brain, saying a core in the dantian might affect future childbirth...â
âHahahahaha! I nearly died laughing!â
Liu Changfeng: ...
Ji Changming was clearly older than himâso why was he enjoying life more?
âSo youâre sayingâeven though Lu Ye seems cold-hearted right now, if something really happened to Junior â â (Donât copy, read here) Sister Bai and the others, we donât know how crazy heâd go.â
âBesides, if Lu Ye really didnât care at all, he wouldnât have sent us that transmission. The subtext was basically: âdonât lock Bai Qiulan and the others out of the sect gates, and then tell me after theyâre already dead.â That would be too late.â
âWe donât have to protect themâbut we should stick to the sect rules. If they return to the sect and thereâs resentment or grudges, we resolve them by distinguishing right and wrong.â
âBut we canât just sit back and watch our sect members die at the gates. That would damage the reputation of the Grand Dao Sect.â
âSince Lu Ye said to respect othersâ destinies, then it probably means we do things by the book. Donât help unnecessarily, but donât hurt either.â
âIf thereâs really a rift between them, and Lu Ye wants revenge or paybackâthen heâll handle it himself. Isnât that right?â
Ji Changming concluded his analysis.
Liu Changfeng found it all very convincing.
âThen itâs settled. If they returnâeverything will proceed according to sect regulations!â