"I understand. I will try my best not to kill anyone," Dena said with a nonchalant expression.

Yuan then turned to Lev and smiled, "I know you’ll probably be too intimidated to stop her, but since you’re the more reasonable one, I expect you to talk some sense into her if she starts going overboard."

"I... will try," Lev responded after swallowing nervously.

Some time later, Lev and Dena left together.

"Looks like I am alone once again..." Yuan muttered with a smile.

"What about me?" A voice suddenly resounded.

Yuan turned to look at the Demon Annihilation Sword and fell silent for a moment.

Then, he asked, "Can you return to your sword form? Or is that human form permanent?"

In response to his question, the Demon Annihilation Sword suddenly started glowing throughout her body, and in the next moment, reverted back to her sword form.

"That’s good—"

Before Yuan could even finish his sentence, the Demon Annihilation Sword immediately transformed again, returning to her human form.

"I like this form better," she said.

"..."

Yuan fell silent. It wasn’t that he disliked her walking around in a human form. The real issue was her appearance, as she had taken on the form of Ai Rong—Tian Chenyu’s childhood sweetheart.

"I don’t mind if you want to remain in that form, but can you change your appearance?"

"Why?" she asked while tilting her head, looking genuinely confused by his request.

After all, she had taken on the appearance of the person most precious to him—to Tian Chenyu—so she could not comprehend why he would want her to abandon it.

"Because that appearance belongs to someone else, and you are not that person," Yuan explained calmly. "Since you possess a will of your own, you should take on an appearance that you personally like instead."

"..."

Admittedly, the Demon Annihilation Sword could not fully understand Yuan’s logic. However, when she noticed the faint trace of pain hidden within his eyes, she felt an unfamiliar sensation stir within her heart.

Then, without a word, she changed her appearance. However, since she didn’t know what sort of appearance she liked, she decided to just revert to her sword form to save herself the trouble.

Seeing this, Yuan immediately felt a little guilty since it wasn’t as though the Demon Annihilation Sword was purposefully taunting him with Ai Rong’s appearance, and he knew that she’d done it to please him.

’Ai Rong... where are you now?’ Yuan sighed inwardly.

He had already reunited with the reincarnations of several lovers from his past lives, yet he still had not encountered Ai Rong. This made him wonder whether she was still somewhere out there... or if something else had happened to her entirely.

After a moment of silence, Yuan spoke again, "After giving it some thought, I suppose it won’t hurt if you continue using that appearance for a little while longer—at least until you become more familiar with humans and discover your own preferences."

The Demon Annihilation Sword immediately returned to her human form and then asked, "What about you? I can tell that you feel pain whenever you look at me."

Although she did not say it outright, she had long noticed that Yuan had been deliberately avoiding looking directly at her ever since she first assumed Ai Rong’s appearance.

"Sure, it’s a little painful," Yuan admitted. "But that’s because I haven’t seen that face for so long. I’ll quickly get over it."

"Anyways, you can remain in that appearance for now. End of discussion."

The Demon Annihilation Sword quietly nodded.

Some time later, Yuan left the building and met up with Kelan again.

"I’ll be leaving now."

"What about your friends?" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"They’ve also left."

"I see. What are you going to do now? Visit the others?"

"I will... after I am done with my current business."

"Alright."

"By the way, I met your sister." Yuan suddenly remarked.

"Which one?"

"You have multiple?" Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"Four... since I last visited. It’s been a long time since I visited my family, so I might have more now," he sighed.

"Is that so? I met Keling, Meixiu’s master."

"I figured. What did you talk about?"

"Nothing much. I did give her a few techniques as a thank-you for training Meixiu. That’s about it," he said, not mentioning their spar.

"D-Did you give her ’that’ technique?" Kelan swallowed nervously.

"What technique?" Yuan asked, playing dumb.

"You know what I mean!" Kelan cried out loud.

"Who knows?" he shrugged.

"Y-You...!" Kelan was speechless.

"Anyway, I have to leave now. See ya later."

Before Kelan could say anything else, Yuan vanished into thin air like a ghost.

"Void Manipulation!" Kelan exclaimed. "And to such a terrifying degree! Just how much stronger has he grown since our spar?"

After leaving the Super Perfect Physique Tempering Sect, Yuan returned to the Demon Sealing Clan’s Grand Library to look for Yan Hara.

Inside her private office, Yan Hara was busy dealing with the countless responsibilities that came with becoming the Leader of the Demon Sealing Clan.

"That bastard Qian Chu! I can’t believe how much work he left behind for me!" she cursed out loud while scratching her head.

Not only did she have to deal with Qian Chu’s unfinished work, but she also had to deal with the Demon Sealing Grotto’s businesses now that they had combined, as well as Yuan’s banquet.

"I don’t think I have ever seen you so busy."

A familiar voice suddenly resounded, halting Yan Hara’s thoughts.

When she looked up, she saw Yuan walking into her office with a calm smile on his face.

"Y—Senior Tian..."

Yuan closed the door behind him and said, "Just call me Yuan when we are alone."

"Yuan..."

After a moment of hesitation, Yan Hara asked, "I have been wanting to ask you this ever since your return, so I will get straight to the point... Just what are you planning by coming back as the Divine Paragon? What about your current identity—your life as Yuan?"

"..."

After a moment of silence, Yuan replied with a calm smile, "There appears to be a misunderstanding here."