Gratitude

In the blink of an eye, a scene of memory appeared in midair like an illusion. Every gaze in the area was locked onto it, unable to look away.

It was an image from five days ago. Ye Lin had ventured into a hidden realm in search of an opportunity to advance his cultivation. However, he ended up facing Wu Zhao. The two of them battled over the Emperor Flame, and Ye Lin... was utterly defeated.

The scene then shifted to Ye Lin's frenzied escape, struggling to survive Wu Zhao's relentless pursuit. The image vividly portrayed his despair and overwhelming fear. At that time, Hua Jinru existed only as a fragment of soul, residing within Ye Lin's ring.

She could only watch as her disciple suffered defeat after defeat at the auction, within the secret realm beaten repeatedly by Wu Zhao until Ye Lin began to lose himself. Though Hua Jinru constantly warned him, each loss only made him more stubborn and reckless.

The scene then changed... Ye Lin was shown falling under the charm technique of Ning Xin, Lei Chen's former fiancée. He became completely enamored with her, unable to control himself. They shared an intimate relationship but that was only in Ye Lin's own imagination.

In truth... the woman he believed to be Ning Xin was merely an ordinary maid. The entire incident was a scheme orchestrated by Ning Xin, under Wu Zhao's orders, to destroy the bond between Ye Lin and Hua Jinru. And it succeeded.

Ye Lin had slept with the maid, completely unaware of the deception. Hua Jinru, who had just regained consciousness after saving Ye Lin from a powerful seductress, saw everything unfold... from beginning to end. In that moment, she believed Ye Lin had forced himself on the maid.

That was the final straw. The disappointment that had built up in her heart exploded. She severed ties with him on the spot and chose to submit to Wu Zhao. With the resources of the Wu Clan, she was immediately restored to her physical form.

In the end, acting under Wu Zhao's orders, she was tasked with persuading Ye Lin to submit. She accepted without hesitation and returned to coax him for some time. Eventually, he chose to kneel and surrender as well.

All the disgrace, all the mistakes they were laid bare before everyone's eyes. Some averted their gaze, others sighed in despair, while some remained frozen in shock at the truth they were witnessing. Ye Lin stared blankly at the image before him, his eyes void of any emotion or response.

Some of the female disciples of Pure Bamboo Peak lowered their heads in shame. Others shook their heads in silent disappointment. Hua Jinru remained silent as she watched the scene unfold, her face devoid of expression, filled with nothing but emptiness.

As the memory faded, another scene slowly emerged before everyone's eyes.

This time... it was a memory from Ye Lin. It began with an order delivered directly from Wu Wen, instructing Ye Lin to slaughter everyone in the Ye Clan and offer their souls to him.

What was even more shocking Ye Lin did not hesitate for even a single breath. He accepted the order instantly, without a word of protest or a flicker of doubt. And then, the massacre unfolded.

Blood soaked the ground. The souls of his clan members, crying out for mercy, were mercilessly devoured by the Soul Urn.

Their screams echoed through the memory, but not once did Ye Lin's blade pause.

Even the old woman who had raised him from infancy... Ye Lin ended her life with his own hands.

Ji Yiren trembled from head to toe as she saw the memory with her own eyes. Her heart was crushed into pieces. She opened her mouth to speak, to say something anything but no voice came out.

The five senior sisters of Pure Bamboo Peak, who once doted on Ye Lin, were all silent. Each of them was torn between the image of the sweet, affectionate young man they once knew and the wretched fool of a man standing before them now.

Feng Er was speechless. Her tiny wings quivered with rage.

And yet… Hua Jinru showed no sign of surprise, for she had known it all along. Wu Zhao had ordered her to keep a close watch on Ye Lin. If he failed to destroy the Ye Clan with his own hands, that duty would have fallen to her. From the beginning, she had prepared herself to kill him if necessary. But what she witnessed was far from what she had imagined. She had thought Ye Lin would try to protect his clan but in truth, he slaughtered every last one of them without mercy.

The memory continued. Ye Lin calmly presented the Soul Urn to Wu Wen and lowered his head in submission, like a loyal hound.

After that, he began playing a more active role in schemes far more wicked than before. And the next plan… was the very beginning of a tragedy. The scene of Ji Yiren being coerced and manipulated into betraying Mu Nansi began to play out.

Ye Lin was the one who sent the secret letter to Ji Yiren, luring her out of the sect. He knew the plan inside and out because he was one of its masterminds.

As the image ended, Ji Yiren stared ahead, her eyes filled with pain and fury. Her voice trembled like the sound of muffled sobs.

"You… how dare you…"

Though she spoke, no one could hear her her words were swallowed whole by the system's power.

The disciples of Pure Bamboo Peak could no longer bear it. Killing intent burst out from them like waves, their emotions spiraling out of control. One of them whispered in a low, dangerous voice.

"Kill him…"

But it still wasn't over. One final memory surfaced. After being rescued by Ji Yiren and returning to the Holy Land of the Immortal River, Ye Lin did not return with a cleansed heart.

On the contrary, he began scheming in the shadows. Disguising himself as other inner disciples, he stole from the sect's treasure vault, sabotaged training facilities, and even threatened several elders. Ye Lin went so far as to trade longevity-extending pills to ancient ancestors near death, in exchange for their allegiance or for their help in surrendering the five senior sisters of his peak to Wu Zhao… including Ji Yiren.

And there was more. Much more.

The five disciples of Pure Bamboo Peak stared at the unfolding scenes, fury blazing in their eyes. Power surged around them without warning. They wanted nothing more than to rip that vile scum apart, piece by piece.

In the midst of the suffocating tension, Han Ming slowly began to smile.

"System, seal the entire area within a 10-kilometer radius."

At that very instant, an enormous bolt of golden lightning struck down from the heavens, its sole target being Han Ming.

BOOOOOOM!!

Thunder roared across the skies, shaking the very heavens. This lightning was no ordinary lightning it had been refined directly by the Heavenly Tao, its purity nearing the level of tens of thousands of Great Emperors combined.

But just before it could crash into Han Ming, the system intercepted it. The strike was immediately converted into pure energy and fed to Han Ming.

He slowly raised his hand, activating a colossal golden ring in midair. The Ring of Ten Thousand Glyphs appeared above him like a celestial gate. The lightning was pulled into the array with overwhelming force.

That divine bolt was dragged downward violently by the glyph formation. Suddenly, the sky split open, revealing a golden, otherworldly figure standing above all creation. It was a manifestation of the Heavenly Tao itself, a being of semi-human, semi-spiritual form. Its body began to descend, bound and pulled by the lightning it had hurled now turned into shackles by Han Ming's glyph formation.

The figure said nothing. It had realized it had made a grave mistake. Rather than struggle, it chose to dive straight down toward Han Ming with unimaginable speed, faster than the eye could follow.

In that instant, Han Ming summoned millions of Lightblades around him. With a single motion, he sent them all flying into the sky. The blades turned into a golden rain, fiercely clashing against the golden figure above.

The golden figure raised its fist, preparing to counterattack. But in that very moment its arm was severed cleanly, without the slightest warning.

Han Ming raised his hand slightly, using just two fingers to draw the severed arm toward himself. The golden limb dissolved into his palm as if it had never existed.

At that instant, a surge of pure golden fortune erupted from Han Ming's body, so radiant and untainted that even the Heavenly Tao itself faltered in shock.

Sensing danger by sheer instinct, the golden figure immediately retreated. It unleashed an immense wave of fortune to shatter every remaining Lightblade suspended in the air, turning them into specks of radiant dust.

Suddenly, the golden figure launched an attack not at Han Ming, but at the six young women of Pure Bamboo Peak and Hua Jinru. It fired beams of light that struck precisely between the brows of each woman in an instant. From their foreheads, golden streams of fortune began to pour forth, flowing like divine rivers.

This was bait.

The Heavenly Tao had executed this maneuver to distract Han Ming. By extracting and exposing the fortune of the seven women, it hoped to divert Han Ming's attention like tossing fresh meat to a starving beast to make it forget its prey.

But that hope was shattered.

The golden figure began to tremble as Han Ming's golden eyes stared at it unblinking, unwavering. It was not just a gaze. It was the look of a predator that had locked onto its prey.

Han Ming's eyes held no hatred, no fear. They were void of emotion. Then, he slowly raised his hand.

At that exact moment, one of the Great Elders of the Holy Land of the Immortal River long presumed dead suddenly reappeared in silence. Without hesitation, he darted forward, grabbed Ye Lin's unconscious body from the ground, and vanished into the distance in a single breath.

And in that instant, a voice so faint it was impossible to tell who it belonged to echoed softly through the air.

"Thank you…"

Han Ming smiled. He didn't spare a glance at the two who had escaped. His only focus, his only target now… was the golden figure standing before him.