Chapter 35: Conflict

Indeed, there are very few people in this world who truly know Ye Minwei. Aside from Wen Ci, who spent decades with her on Mount Kunwu, there are only the few remaining peers from the Xiaoyao Sect who were her contemporaries before she retreated into seclusion. Over the span of seventy or eighty years, most of those with lesser cultivation have long since passed away, leaving only a handful of those with profound power.

Zhen Yuanqi is one of them.

He and Ye Minwei were both direct disciples of the previous master of the Xiaoyao Sect. He was the master’s first disciple, while Ye Minwei was the last—the beginning and the end. By that reckoning, Ye Minwei was his own younger martial sister.

Despite this, Zhen Yuanqi was never truly close to this younger sister who seemed to have descended from the heavens. He had only seen her a few times when their master first brought her into the sect, hearing the name the master had chosen for the young girl: "Minwei."

Later, she followed their master to the Ximing Tower. From that point on, the ninety-ninth floor of the tower—a place accessible only to the sect master and their successor—remained lit day and night. To those looking up from below, she became nothing more than a legend, accompanied by the endless stream of research, improvements, and expanded treatises on cultivation techniques that descended from the tower.

Zhen Yuanqi had once seen her inside that tower.

He had gone to the Ximing Tower with an ancient text to ask his master a question, only to run into Ye Minwei as she was descending from the top. Their master had instructed Ye Minwei to answer him instead. The girl, with her calm and composed demeanor, had skin pale from a life hidden away from the sun, but her eyes were remarkably bright. She took the book from his hands, glanced at it amidst the hazy, smoke-filled shadows, and explained the matter to him in detail.

He has long since forgotten what she said that day, but he never returned to the Ximing Tower to ask questions again. Perhaps it was out of a sense of shame, or perhaps jealousy.

Or perhaps it was a form of submission he was unwilling to admit.

He had held himself in high regard his entire life and rarely bowed his head to anyone. The fact that he had once bowed his head to Ye Minwei—that selfish, cold-blooded, and cruel creature—was the greatest humiliation of his life.

Under the moonlight, the woman looked no different from the one he had met in the Ximing Tower, save for her hair, which had turned completely white, covered in a frost of moonlight.

The disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect surrounded Ye Minwei. Zhuo Yilang, being from a different sect, had retreated to the side after his initial questioning, watching her in silence.

Ye Minwei, having lost all her memories, could not even recall Wen Ci, let alone Zhen Yuanqi. She looked blank for a moment, then pointed toward Mount Chongdan behind her and said to Zhen Yuanqi, "I still have something to calculate. Could we discuss whatever this is later?"

"Calculate what? How many more commoners you can abduct? Or what other chaos you intend to bring upon this world?" Zhen Yuanqi sneered.

He slowly raised a finger and pointed it at her. "The Xiaoyao Sect has stood for a thousand years. Our precepts are strict; we have always been known for our integrity, righteousness, and benevolence. A renegade like you has brought utter disgrace to our sect—it is a tragedy! If you surrender now and return with me to kneel before our master's portrait in repentance, I will spare your life today for the sake of our former bond."

"Oh, you are my martial brother. But—repentance?"

The woman, whose face had remained unchanged for so many years, pondered for a moment. With the same serene and sincere expression as before, she asked, "What have I done wrong?"

The moment she spoke, Zhen Yuanqi, who had been calm, turned ashen with rage. He drew his sword and pointed it directly at her. "Even now, you show not the slightest shred of remorse! Suiqing, Gou Nian, Libai, Zhuyan—set the formation!"

Zhen Yuanqi’s command struck out in tandem with the gleam of his blade. The surrounding disciples formed a formation, and countless rays of blue light erupted like an iron cage rising from the earth.

Ye Minwei retreated rapidly, the hem of her white dress fluttering in the wind. She scattered a handful of tree seeds from her palm; they fell like dust in the moonlight, and instantly, countless thorns erupted from the ground, entangling with the blue light.

Ye Minwei rode the rapidly growing thorns upward, but was driven back down by a slash of Zhen Yuanqi’s sword light. She held the ash from her "Smoke-to-Ash" technique in her palm, coating Zhen Yuanqi’s bronze spirit sword to barely deflect the blow.

Shaken by his immense spiritual power, she stumbled back and landed in the thicket of thorns, looking up at him.

"Are you going to kill me again?" Ye Minwei asked, her tone filled with helplessness.

"Since you have no heart for repentance, I shall cleanse our sect and rid the world of a scourge today!"

Zhen Yuanqi’s spiritual power surged along his arm into his blade. Suddenly, a sky-filling cloud of ash rose behind him, blotting out the sun and moon, resembling the fiery illusion Wen Ci had conjured earlier.

The Xiaoyao Sect disciples hacked through the thorn thicket, the branches scattering as they closed in on her. Ye Minwei pulled a bag of seeds from her robes, tossed them into the air, and sighed softly, "A pity. The seeds of the *Antiaris toxicaria* are very expensive."

Tall, thick trees erupted around her. These massive trees, which should only grow in the hot, humid South Seas, stood vibrant and sturdy under the moonlight.

As the disciples slashed at the thick, straight trunks, milky white sap sprayed out like a waterfall. Those who couldn't dodge in time were splattered, and someone shouted, "It’s the Upas tree! The sap is highly toxic!"

Amidst the chaos, Ye Minwei’s eyes flickered rapidly as she scanned the blue light, instantly finding a flaw in the formation. Like a white eagle, she broke through the formation on a wave of ash.

The panic of the Xiaoyao Sect disciples lasted only a moment; they were, after all, well-trained. Those who were poisoned immediately took their sect’s antidote, while the others bypassed the toxic trees and gave chase.

As they chanted their incantations, their shadows detached from their feet, running forward with a will of their own—the "Shadow-Tracking Technique" of the Xiaoyao Sect.

Zhen Yuanqi’s gaze turned colder. He stared at the direction of her flight and said, word by word, "Stubborn and incorrigible."

Meanwhile, Wen Ci was also busy dealing with the disciples of various immortal sects within the nightmare conjured by Ren Tang. He frowned deeply, waving his hand to send feathers from a giant black bird piercing through the monsters emerging from a pool of blood. He pointed at Ren Tang and said, "Is this all you have? Every time, you resort to these nightmares of corpses and blood; aren't you disgusted? Ren Tang, while not everyone can master the nightmares of malice, you do it quite well. But if you remain confined to this one type, you will never progress!"

"Your nightmare technique may be unstoppable, but your heart is crooked! What is the point of harming others?"

"I have told you dozens of times! I did not kidnap those people! Are you all deaf?"

Wen Ci’s nightmare techniques were clearly superior to Ren Tang’s, but Ren Tang had pulled the other disciples into the nightmare as well, lending them his power.

Overwhelmed by numbers, Wen Ci remained unharmed but was unable to break free. As blue light rained down upon him, he swiped it away in annoyance, suddenly realizing something.

Standing atop the giant bird, he looked out at the sea of immortal sect disciples and said slowly, "You know you cannot capture me; you are only trying to stall me. What is your true goal? And why are you so certain it was I who kidnapped the people?"

Wen Ci’s expression darkened.

A storm of feathers swirled around him as he dove toward the cultivators, gritting his teeth. "You already know. You are here to catch her."

"Move aside, if you don't want to die!"

A thunderous explosion erupted on the previously silent streets of Ningyu Town. Empty houses collapsed, and dust rose to the sky.

Above the dust, an even greater mass of ash descended. The shadow of the ash took the form of a giant tiger, taller than the houses, crushing buildings beneath its weight. Another wave of ash rose to meet it, taking the shape of a white crane. The two figures tangled, dispersing and reforming like a storm.

Near the newly grown Upas trees, the shadows of the cultivators leapt, chasing the tree shadows. They swung their swords at the shadows, and to everyone's surprise, the shadows were severed, causing the vibrant trees themselves to collapse. The disciples, standing safely out of range of the sap, chanted their spells to control the shadows.

With a swipe of its claws, the giant tiger finally shattered the white crane. Its claws, sharp and wind-swept, slammed into a tall building. As the dust settled, a deep indentation remained in the wall, and within the claw of ash, a girl in white with white hair was tightly gripped.

Ye Minwei was covered in mud, her white hair stained gray. She lowered her head and coughed up blood, which spread across her torn robes.

Zhen Yuanqi landed slowly before her, hands behind his back, looking down at her. Ye Minwei raised her head. Her forehead was gashed by falling tiles, and blood flowed down, staining one of her eyes. That eye, though blood-red, remained wide open, never blinking.

Her eyes were still bright, and the blue-glowing vision stone she wore remained unstained.

"That technique to control shadows is quite interesting—is it called the Shadow-Tracking Technique? Your Smoke-to-Ash technique is also very impressive," Ye Minwei remarked to the giant tiger, her tone almost admiring.

Zhen Yuanqi scoffed, his resentment surging. "Do you know where you failed, Ye Minwei? The essence of the Smoke-to-Ash technique is not the cultivator's cultivation level, but the ash itself. The more you cherish the object that became the ash, the more powerful and invincible it becomes in your hands. Ideally, it should be made from something you would sacrifice your own power to have back—only then is it truly unstoppable."

"My ash is the remains of the Ximing Tower when it collapsed, and the ashes of my peers I received from beyond the Dream Ruins. But you, Ye Minwei? What about you! Do you have anything you cherish? Do you even have a heart?"

The giant tiger tightened its grip, forcing her to cough up more blood.

Zhen Yuanqi could no longer suppress his anger. It was as if these words had been festering inside him since the day she left the sect, and now, finally, he could confront her directly.

"Did you ever care for our master? Did you ever care for the sect? You began training at the top of the Ximing Tower at fifteen, the lights of the ninety-ninth floor burning day and night, with the master himself tending the lamps for you. Who didn't know you were the genius of the Xiaoyao Sect? The future of the sect? The next master? But what did you do? You had to be competitive at the Great Dao Discussion, and when you lost, you just walked away! When the Dream Ruins catastrophe happened, countless died. When Wei Yuan betrayed the sect and destroyed the Ximing Tower, where were you when the Xiaoyao Sect needed you most? How can you face our master? Who can you face?"

Ye Minwei coughed as she looked up, her face streaked with blood. She gazed at Zhen Yuanqi; though her eyes were filled with blood, her expression remained clear, devoid of guilt or hesitation.

"Then why should I have left you all? You say I was competitive at the Great Dao Discussion—what was I even competing for?"

The person in question had forgotten everything. Zhen Yuanqi’s rage poured out, yet it had nowhere to land.

Zhen Yuanqi seemed to want to answer, but suddenly he stopped. He clenched his fists and signaled the surrounding disciples: "Take her away."