A chill reverberated through the bamboo grove.

The ashes in the air swept past the pure white daoist robes beside them, yet they remained spotless.

Chen Yan slightly raised his gaze, watching Li Haowen who held the Yuanji Sword and the Xiaohua Sword, slowly sheathing these two spiritual swords, once passed down by True Person Minghua, back into the scabbard at his waist.

It was over.

Without any suspense, it was a completely one-sided suppression.

Just as Li Haowen had predicted long ago.

The gap between a rogue cultivator like Ding Qiu and a heaven-chosen talent like Li Haowen, born from one of the Five Great Sects, was simply too vast.

Setting aside cultivation talent for the moment, just comparing the practiced techniques and arts, they were completely on different levels.

Li Haowen let out a slow sigh, exhaling a puff of white mist.

Then he turned, facing Chen Yan who had been standing to the side all along.

"Junior Brother Chen, my business here is finished."

Chen Yan did not respond immediately, merely shifting his gaze from Li Haowen to the "Ding Qiu" on the ground.

"Before he died, this person mentioned a young man named Ding Wu to you, Senior Brother Li."

Chen Yan, with his hands clasped behind his back, spoke with an air of serene detachment as he asked:

"Is there some connection?"

"Ding Wu was Ding Qiu's adopted foster son, his close confidant. It is said this person worked as a page in the Stationed Envoy Residence in Taiyun City in his youth. Later, after Ding Qiu killed the Stationed Envoy of Taiyun City, he stayed by Ding Qiu's side."

As he spoke, Li Haowen also focused his gaze on Chen Yan once more:

"Junior Brother Chen, I seemed to hear you call Ding Qiu 'Brother Ding'..."

"When I was still in the outer court of the Kongshan Sect, I would occasionally visit the Immortal Gambling Den in Taiyun City to relax. At that time, Ding Qiu was still the manager of the gambling den in Taiyun City, so we were acquainted."

Chen Yan stated plainly.

"I see."

Li Haowen nodded.

"I'm just curious, was it because Ding Wu did something that made Ding Qiu think you shouldn't kill him?"

Chen Yan continued his inquiry.

Hearing this, Li Haowen fell silent for a moment before speaking again:

"Ding Wu had always been dedicated to negotiating peace with the sect, and Ding Qiu had been tacitly allowing this matter... even though Ding Qiu understood perfectly well that seeking peace with the sect was fundamentally impossible, because he held no bargaining chips whatsoever. His life and death rested entirely on a single thought from the sect elders."

That was the reality.

The Passable God Realm, placed anywhere on the Chenping Continent, could hold its own.

But before the Five Great Sects, a Passable God Realm cultivator was no different from an ant.

"What Ding Qiu understood even more clearly was that facing the Kongshan Sect's encirclement and pursuit, his chances of victory were zero. So, Ding Qiu allowed Ding Wu to negotiate peace with the sect, and even allowed Ding Wu to release several dozen captured outer court disciples of the sect. It was all to secure a path to survival for Ding Wu after his own death."

Li Haowen continued.

"So you still killed Ding Wu."

Chen Yan said.

"Correct."

Li Haowen nodded without hesitation:

"Just before you came to Yong'an Prefecture, Junior Brother Chen, we destroyed Ding Qiu's stronghold, nearly wiping out the vast majority of his close confidants around him, including Ding Wu. Even though his hands were not stained with the blood of any Kongshan Sect disciple."

"Why?"

Chen Yan asked.

"Because I met Ding Wu a year ago. When he came to negotiate peace with the sect, I could tell from his speech and demeanor the deep bond between him and Ding Qiu."

Li Haowen replied:

"In terms of cultivation talent alone, Ding Wu surpassed his foster father. From the day Sect Leader Yun ordered the extermination of the Ding Bandits, Ding Qiu was destined to die by the hands of the Kongshan Sect... What then of Ding Wu, who had followed Ding Qiu since childhood and shared a bond as deep as father and son?"

The hatred of a slain father.

If Li Haowen had truly spared Ding Wu, it would mean Ding Wu would live a life consumed by hatred.

Li Haowen understood hatred all too well.

"I see."

Chen Yan smiled slightly, saying nothing more, and simply turned around:

"Let's go, Senior Brother Li. It's time to depart."

Li Haowen gazed at Chen Yan's back. For some reason, he suddenly felt that this disciple of Kongyuan Mountain, who was even three years younger than himself, had become unfathomably profound in both state of mind and cultivation.

Then, he voiced the question weighing on him.

"Junior Brother Chen."

Li Haowen spoke towards Chen Yan's retreating back:

"...Are my current actions right or wrong?"

He truly had been living in confusion.

Ever since that day when the Coiling Dragon Sect's Elder Yue Chi executed the captives, Elder Yue's words had echoed incessantly in Li Haowen's heart.

*None of us had a choice.*

And when he witnessed the small mountain of severed heads belonging to Kongshan Sect disciples on Anjin Mountain, he too began to show no mercy.

*Better to mistakenly kill a thousand than let a single one escape.*

But on that day, standing before Ding Wu's corpse, Li Haowen felt a sudden daze.

Because in Ding Wu, he saw a shadow of himself, and of Lin Xinyang.

Was the path he was currently walking truly the right one?

It was precisely because of this that he posed the question that had been sinking in his heart to Chen Yan.

"Right and wrong are not important."

Chen Yan said calmly.

"...So, Junior Brother Chen means one should continue to follow one's true heart?"

Li Haowen pressed further.

"One's true heart is also not important."

Chen Yan shook his head.

"Then what does Junior Brother mean..."

"Everything is determined by heaven."

Faced with Chen Yan's answer, Li Haowen was slightly taken aback, then refuted:

"Junior Brother Chen, your words are mistaken. Cultivating immortality should be about defying heaven..."

"And how does Senior Brother know that the heaven you defy is not itself decreed by the Heavenly Dao?"

Heavenly Dao Fate.

Chen Yan understood this all too clearly, because in this world, there was only one correct answer.

...

Shengyuan Mountain.

This place was the Western Region borderlands of the Qingque Kingdom, sparsely populated.

The Qingque Kingdom did not station heavy troops to guard this border.

Because the existence of Shengyuan Mountain was, for mortal dynasties, like a natural Great Wall.

Within the mountain range, third-realm demon beasts were countless, fourth-realm demon beasts were frequently discovered, and even traces of fifth-realm demon beasts occasionally appeared.

The chance of a mortal surviving a crossing through Shengyuan Mountain was practically zero.

And to the east of Shengyuan Mountain, sat a cultivation sect named the Demon-Slaying Sword Sect.

The history of the Demon-Slaying Sword Sect was quite long, tracing back ten thousand years.

Back then, when the Kongshan Sect's True Person Caiyun, Kong Yang, personally arrived at Shengyuan Mountain, he encountered a Qi Sea Realm swordsman who was severely wounded. Beside him lay the corpse of a mutated Burrowing Mountain Bear.

This mutated Burrowing Mountain Bear could reach the fourth realm, comparable to a cultivator's Qi Sea Realm.

Under normal circumstances, in a one-on-one situation, the chance of a cultivator defeating a demon beast of the same realm was extremely slim.

Because under equal realms, the physical strength of a demon beast far surpassed that of an ordinary cultivator.