At the peak of the towering, cloud-shrouded summits of the Tianjian Sect, mist drifted lazily like gossamer, dreamlike and ethereal, resembling a fairyland isolated from the mortal world.
A young woman dressed in plain white swordsmanship robes held a long sword. Her slender and graceful figure moved as lightly as a white lotus dancing in the gentle breeze.
Her sword followed the turns of her body, sword flowers flashing—clearly, her swordsmanship was quite impressive.
"So practicing the sword is this much fun!" Ye Youning's heart was filled with novelty and joy. Because of her frail constitution in the past, she had practically never exercised. Dancing with the sword here at the peak amidst the clouds, her heart overflowed with insights into cultivation and wonderful aspirations for the future.
"Youning, little sister!" A flurry of hurried footsteps broke the tranquility. A female disciple rushed over, her expression panicked, instantly shattering the serenity of the mountain peak.
Hearing the commotion, Ye Youning executed a brilliant sword flower with the blade in her hand, cleanly and crisply sheathing the sword as she stood straight. A sweet smile bloomed on her face as she softly asked, "Senior Sister, what brings you here?"
The senior disciple was as pale as paper and gasping for breath. Only after she finally caught her breath did she say urgently, "Youning, quick... quickly come with me to the Discipline Hall! Your brother, he... he practiced heretical arts and killed someone! Right now, the Sect Master and the masters of all the peaks are interrogating him!"
This news hit Ye Youning like a bolt from the blue. The smile on her face instantly froze. As if struck by a binding spell, she stood rooted to the spot, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Clang!"
The long sword in the young woman's hand slipped powerlessly, falling to the ground and echoing for a long time across the silent mountain peak.
"So, my previous suspicions were true after all." A complex storm of emotions churned within Ye Youning's heart as an ominous premonition spread through her soul.
...
The Discipline Hall of the Tianjian Sect—this mysterious structure seemed to transcend the shackles of time. Even the oldest elders of the Tianjian Sect could not say precisely when it was built. It stood quietly in a corner of the sect, bearing the sedimentation of countless years of vicissitudes and solemnity.
Inside the hall, slanting shafts of faint light filtered down from high, narrow crevices. The surrounding walls were built from massive stone blocks; the stone surfaces were flat and smooth, yet they exuded a chillingly cold texture. The walls were engraved densely with the precepts and rules of the Tianjian Sect.
On the high platform at the very front, a majestic statue stood imposingly; legend had it that this was the founder of the Tianjian Sect.
Just in front of the statue stood several figures. Their upright postures resembled ancient pine trees as they stood quietly at the edge of the darkness. Because the lighting was dim, their faces were concealed within the shadows, revealing only hazy silhouettes.
Right in front of these figures knelt a young man, straight and unyielding. This person was none other than Ye Feng.
A dead silence filled the vast hall. No one spoke, as if waiting for someone, and even time itself seemed to have come to a standstill.
"Ye Feng!" Ye Youning's cry shattered the suffocating stillness and seemed to awaken the people who had fallen into silence.
"Ye Feng, now that both human and physical evidence are present, do you plead guilty?" The question came from Sect Master Mo Rushi. He deliberately infused spiritual energy into his voice, causing it to rumble and echo through the great hall with a deafening hum.
Burning with anxiety, Ye Youning covered the distance in two steps and hurriedly knelt beside Ye Feng, blurting out in panic, "There's some misunderstanding here! My brother would never do such a thing, he—" Halfway through her sentence, she caught sight of the injured person lying quietly to the side, and instantly swallowed the words poised on her lips.
She recognized this person, and quite familiarly at that: Senior Sister Liu, at whose home she had even stayed for a period of time during her childhood.
"How could this be? How could my brother hurt Senior Sister Liu?"
The Senior Sister Liu lying to the side, even after receiving rudimentary treatment, remained deathly pale with a chaotic aura surging through her body, as fire elements ran wild within her.
There were quite a few fire-attribute disciples within the sect, but those with the ability to injure Senior Sister Liu—who was at the Golden Core late stage—while possessing such pure fire elements were vanishingly rare. All the evidence pointed without a shred of suspense toward Ye Feng. Try as she might to maintain her absolute trust, even Ye Youning struggled at this moment to find any words to exonerate him.
"Ye Feng, say something! Tell them you didn't do this." Desperate as if grasping at a straw, Ye Youning tightly clutched Ye Feng's arm, her voice laced with a sob.
Ye Feng gently brushed Ye Youning's hand away with his own and said in a deep voice, "This disciple pleads guilty."
Sect Master Mo Rushi seemed to have anticipated this. His expression remained calm as he continued, "Very well, I shall ask you three questions. Answer truthfully."
"Have you practiced an evil technique capable of devouring others' cultivation?"
"Yes."
"Have you harmed innocent people?"
"Yes."
"Did you intend to strike a fellow disciple who entered the sect alongside you and shared a close relationship?"
"Yes." Every single word landed like a heavy hammer upon Ye Youning's heart.
"No way, Ye Feng isn't that kind of person."
"Indeed, he even taught me quite a few cultivation insights before."
"You must not know how people work—people are the most fickle creatures. Today's righteous cultivator might turn into a demonic practitioner tomorrow. It's all human nature."
There were still many disciples from various peaks auditing the proceedings from below, and they now began to buzz with discussion, their whispers echoing through the hall.
"Stop it!" Following Ye Feng's answers, Ye Youning's emotions spiraled toward frenzy. She refused to believe everything before her eyes and did not want to hear such answers. She wanted to cover Ye Feng's mouth and stop him from speaking further, but before she could act, the Sect Master's voice rang out once more.
"Fine. According to the sect rules, I sentence you to have your cultivation crippled, and you shall never set foot on the path of immortality again. Do you have any objections?"
"This disciple accepts the punishment." Ye Feng's voice was steady, without a single ripple, as if he had prepared himself long ago.
As for Ye Feng's actions, Ye Youning, standing beside him, gradually calmed from her panic. A trace of confusion and incomprehension flickered in her eyes as she simply stared quietly at Ye Feng, as though trying to find the answer upon his face.
"Very well!" The Sect Master raised his hand slightly, faint light shimmering between his fingers, and made to strike. But inadvertently, his gaze met the young man's.
In that instant, he remembered the past. It was precisely these innocent, clear eyes that had caught his attention back then, prompting him to entrust the infant girl born with the Chaotic Divine Body to his care.
Fortunately, the young man had ultimately lived up to expectations. Putting himself in the boy's shoes, he believed he himself could never have done any better than Ye Feng.
Having practiced the Heart-Clearing Mantra for years with a mind as tranquil as an ancient, waveless well, Mo Rushi suddenly found himself unable to bring himself to strike.
He let out a soft sigh and said, "Muyang, the two of you were master and disciple once. I'll leave this to you." With that, his figure flickered and vanished from the spot.
Behind him, Elder Li Muyang wore a stern expression, shaken so badly by the Sect Master's move that the hand gripping his walking staff trembled slightly. "This is your own precious disciple! Since you couldn't harden your heart, how could you expect me to bear it?"
Seeing his master's expression of tangled conflict, Ye Feng understood that this matter should not be dragged out any longer. The longer it dragged on, the easier it would be for flaws to show.
"Do it!" Concentrating all his mental focus, Ye Feng guided his spiritual energy like a sharp blade and ruthlessly thrust it toward his dantian. With a muffled pop, something inside his dantian seemed to shatter.
Ye Feng groaned softly, spitting out a large mouthful of fresh blood. The crimson fluid splattered through the air and fell onto the blue stone slabs of the ground, blooming into shocking, eye-catching flowers of blood.
"It really hurts," Ye Feng thought to himself inwardly. Fortunately, he had experienced plenty of things like this; he could practically be considered a "frequent customer."
"This disciple has failed the sect."
With a solemn expression, Ye Feng paid a heavy farewell to the old man before him.
Having completed these solemn three kowtows, Ye Feng slowly straightened up. However, his legs felt slightly numb from kneeling for so long. Yet, without the slightest pause or hesitation, he reached out to grasp the sheathed sword at his side. That sword had once accompanied him through countless battles of life and death, but now he used it merely as a cane to support his body.
Just like that, Ye Feng walked step by step down the mountain alone, his figure appearing slightly unsteady.
"We shall never meet again," Ye Feng thought silently to himself.
Sunlight spilled down upon him, stretching his lonely figure into a long silhouette that gradually faded into the distance...