Ye Yu looked at the scene in the dream.
He couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.
To him in the dream, Ruan Lianyue was like his white moonlight.
At a time when he couldn't cultivate, she was the gentle presence illuminating the entire night sky.
But now, the Wind Thunder Temple actually suspected Ruan Lianyue's allegiance.
It would have been one thing to expel her from the sect. But to cripple her cultivation as well?
In this fantasy world, dangers lurk everywhere.
In the eyes of cultivators, ordinary mortals are not even worth mentioning. If luck is bad, they might not even survive a day.
Aren't the people of the Wind Thunder Temple clearly intending to let Ruan Lianyue die?
[Upon learning this information, you were furious to the extreme.]
[Your whole being surged with killing intent.]
[Taking out the Soul Summoning Banner, you attacked the sect alone!]
[Two days later.]
[You slaughtered all the cultivators of the Wind Thunder Temple and successfully advanced to the mid-stage of the Integration Realm.]
[But you didn't feel any happiness.]
[After pondering for a moment, you immediately returned to the Earth Fiend Sect, ordering everyone to find Ruan Lianyue.]
[Starting from the Wind Thunder Temple as the center, in the surrounding thousand-mile radius, not a single corner was to be missed.]
[Alive, you must see her; dead, you must see her body.]
[Currently, Ruan Lianyue has become an ordinary mortal. She couldn't have gone far.]
[A thousand-mile radius is already the maximum limit.]
[But after searching for half a month, still no news at all.]
[You were very dissatisfied with the efficiency of the sect's cultivators.]
[Immediately, you asserted your authority by killing two elders who were not taking this matter seriously enough.]
[And on the spot, you promised; anyone who could find Ruan Lianyue would immediately be promoted to Vice Sect Master of the Earth Fiend Sect.]
[Techniques, artifacts, whatever they wanted, they could have it.]
[With such motivation, the cultivators of the Earth Fiend Sect once again began a thorough search.]
[Some even directly threatened local cultivation families' patriarchs to send people to search.]
[Another month passed.]
[Still, there was no sign of Ruan Lianyue.]
[You understood in your heart that if so much time had passed without finding her, it was very likely that this girl was no longer in this world.]
[On this day.]
[You, who rarely drank, drank until completely drunk.]
[At 760 years old, you became the number one demon lord on the Central Continent.]
[Under your leadership, the Earth Fiend Sect also became a dominant force in the demonic path.]
[That year, you officially entered the late stage of the Tribulation Crossing Realm.]
[Also that year, you ceased your killings.]
[Returning once again to the village where you originally came from, living a solitary life.]
[Chopping wood and fishing every day, just like an ordinary mortal.]
[This was not due to lack of ambition.]
[But because you understood very well that if you continued to kill to break through realms, the final result would only be your death and the destruction of your Dao.]
[It wouldn't be other cultivators who would kill you, but the heavenly tribulation.]
[Cultivators absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and live in seclusion, and that is to avoid karmic entanglements.]
[The stronger the karmic entanglements, the stronger the heavenly tribulation will be when crossing it.]
[For hundreds of years, you have killed countless people.]
[The accumulated karma has reached an extremely terrifying level.]
[Once you reach the peak of the Tribulation Crossing Realm and begin the tribulation, it will be the day of your death.]
[Faced with such a heavenly tribulation, you have no confidence, nor the ability to withstand it.]
[So, the best way is to stop killing.]
[This way, you can live longer.]
[After all, you are already in the Tribulation Crossing Realm and have a long lifespan ahead.]
[Why seek death?]
[As for the Soul Summoning Banner, you stored it in your storage ring, not having used it for a long time.]
[The resentment on it is extremely heavy. It's almost on the verge of becoming an immortal artifact.]
[Every time you used it, the sky would flash with lightning and thunder. It looked like an apocalyptic scene, very impressive.]
[But you knew that the thunder in the sky was directed at the Soul Summoning Banner.]
[The karma of killing is too great; it is not tolerated by the heavens.]
[In this situation, hiding in your hometown seemed like the best choice.]
[Sometimes, when you sit at your door, you still look to the north.]
[Back then, the first time you saw Ruan Lianyue, she came from the north.]
[Unfortunately, she never appeared again.]
[People are like this; what they can't have is always the best.]
Ye Yu furrowed his brow slightly.
Seemingly caught in a dilemma, he was at an impasse, uncertain how to proceed.
He dared not break through to the next realm; breaking through would surely mean being unable to withstand the heavenly tribulation.
But if he didn't break through, living alone until old age was also very hard to endure.
Yet at this moment, he couldn't think of any good solution.
It was quite depressing.
[Originally, you thought that peaceful days would continue like this.]
[But in the spring of the second year, Ze Tian, the Vice Sect Master of the Earth Fiend Sect, came to find you.]
[He claimed to have found traces of Ruan Lianyue in the northernmost part of the Central Continent.]
[After investigating extensively, he discovered that she had joined a small sect called the Seven Star Sect, and had become one of its disciples.]
[Upon hearing this news, you could no longer contain the excitement in your heart.]
[You hurried to the Seven Star Sect at the fastest speed.]
[There, you indeed found the figure of Ruan Lianyue.]
[However, when she saw you again, there was no joyful reunion smile, but rather a fearful step back.]
[You restrained the excitement in your heart, and invited her to come out and talk about old times.]
[Ruan Lianyue agreed.]
[Through your conversation, you learned that after Ruan Lianyue's cultivation was crippled by the Wind Thunder Temple, she was rescued by a former friend.]
[And this friend even found rare treasures to nourish Ruan Lianyue's body, allowing her to embark on the path of cultivation again.]
[Most importantly, this friend turned out to be a woman.]
[This was tremendous news for you.]
[So, you immediately confessed your feelings to Ruan Lianyue, wanting to become Dao companions with her.]
[But you were rejected on the spot.]
[Ruan Lianyue told you that over these years, although she lived in the borderlands, she was still aware of the recent developments in the Central Continent.]
[She knew you were notorious as the foremost demon lord in Central Continent, the one responsible for the destruction of the Wind Thunder Temple.]
[Ruan Lianyue didn't want to be with someone who only knew killing.]
[Moreover, that incident in the past had become a knot in her heart.]
[Why didn't you just kill her right at the gate of the Earth Fiend Sect that day?]
[That way, it would have been over once and for all. And she wouldn't have been suspected when she returned to the Wind Thunder Temple.]
[The pain of having her cultivation stripped away was bone-deep, but what hurt the most was the pain in her heart.]
[The disdainful looks from the sect master and fellow daoists, Ruan Lianyue hadn't forgotten them to this day.]
[Yet before she could clear her name, you had wiped out everyone from the Wind Thunder Temple.]
[Ruan Lianyue knew she had no right to resent you, because you spared her out of nostalgia.]
[But what happened afterwards, it was an unfortunate twist of fate that gave her the most painful memories.]