Rong Yan did not look at her husband, but instead looked at him with moist almond-shaped eyes and straightened her back. She choked with sobs, “For the sake of our former friendship, can you allow me to give birth to the child?”

     “...” Xu Shuanglin’s gaze slowly moved down and landed on Rong Yan’s lower abdomen. At first glance, there was nothing unusual, but upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was already bulging slightly.

     Rong Yan kowtowed, but her face was cold.

     “Please.”

     “...”

     “The father’s guilt is irrefutable. But, Nangong Xu, I want to beg you to spare your nephew’s life.”

     Xu Shuanglin stared at this woman for a while and only felt that it was ridiculous. Spare the vile spawn in her belly? What did that unformed piece of flesh, whether nephew or niece, have to do with him?

     But in the midst of his viciousness, he suddenly remembered the bone-piercing pain from last night. Xu Shuanglin paused for a moment and suddenly realized that this was a very good thing—the Sect Leader of Rufeng Sect could only be succeeded by the young master after the death of the old sect leader, or by force. Anything else, be it abdication in favor of talents or retirement to the sidelines, would be useless.

     Therefore, abdicating the position to Nangong Liu was already impossible. But a hundred years later, he could pass the position to Nangong Liu’s child and let that child have a taste of the pain of sitting in this position. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing? There was nothing better than the son repaying his father’s debt.

     For a moment, he was in a good mood. The corners of his brows lifted, and a bright smile appeared on his lips. Then, before the two of them could react, he threw the knife, turned around, and walked out of the cell with a loud laugh.

     Later on, he did not kill Nangong Liu or Rong Yan. Instead, he put them under house arrest in a small courtyard. He planned to wait until the child was born, then immediately bestow him the title of the next sect leader and establish a blood contract with himself.

     Perhaps when the time came, the whole world would praise him for his great benevolence and forgiveness, regardless of past grudges.

     But he did not see that day.

     Not long after he succeeded the throne, he committed numerous atrocities, and for a while, he had accumulated deep grudges inside and outside the sect. Later on, there was a city lord who resented him and secretly released Nangong Liu and Luo Fenghua when he was not prepared.

     Luo Fenghua didn’t know the hidden story behind it, and only thought he did such crazy things for the sake of the sect leader position. Together with Nangong Liu’s clever tongue, he became even more disheartened. So, he joined hands with Nangong Liu to seize the position, hoping to drive Xu Shuanglin off of the sect leader’s throne, which had yet to be warmed.

     That night, there was a civil war within Rufeng Sect, resulting in over a hundred casualties. Amidst the flames of war, Luo Fenghua was the first to find Xu Shuanglin, who had taken refuge in the Xiaoyue Hunting Grounds.

     It was a full moon that night, and Xu Shuanglin was in terrible pain. His whole body was covered in blood as he lay crouched among the forest leaves like a snake that had been skinned alive. All that was exposed was bright red flesh.

     When Luo Fenghua saw him, he thought he had been injured by a spell cast during the war. Although there was resentment in his heart, he couldn’t help but feel compassion for his former beloved disciple.

     Xu Shuanglin raised his face quietly in the forest as he shivered, showing a bitter smile. “You’re here.”

     “...”

     “When I fight with him, in the end, you always help him.”

     Luo Fenghua said, “This time you went too far. Did you kill Master Tian Chan?”

     “That’s right.”

     “What about Taoist Lin?”

     “He deserved to die.”

     “...What about your father…”

     After a moment of silence, Xu Shuanglin said, “He was unfair. He believed me to be a thief. He asked for it.”

     Luo Fenghua closed his eyes, and his eyelashes became moist. “You… How could you end up in such a state…”

     “Ha.” Xu Shuanglin laughed with a sinister smile, “Only others are allowed to betray me, but I am not allowed to betray others? Only others are allowed to stab me, but I am not allowed to draw my sword. Is this what you call the way of a gentleman?”

     The expression on Luo Fenghua’s face was broken as he swayed in place for a moment. Then he walked up to Xu Shuanglin. But before he even spoke, tears had already begun flowing down his face.

     “Why are you crying? What’s there to cry about?” Xu Shuanglin was irritated for no reason. “If you want to kill me, you can do whatever you want. Why do you have to shed fake tears in front of me? In your eyes, in the old man’s eyes, in everyone’s eyes, that piece of trash will always be more important than me!”

     Luo Fenghua shook his head. He didn’t say a word. Instead, he raised his hand and chanted a forbidden spell.

     “...I’ve forbidden the spells you’ve learned from me since childhood,” Luo Fenghua said. “From now on, Nangong Xu, you and I are no longer master and disciple.”

     “...” Xu Shuanglin felt a pain in his heart. The Gǔn’s evil curse was truly heart-wrenching.

     He rested in place for a while, then said stubbornly, “Don’t be so sentimental. I’ve never thought of you as my Shizun.”

     Luo Fenghua stared at him blankly. After a long time, he seemed to want to say something, but there was a clamor behind him. The soldiers were approaching, their swords and knives flashing.

     Nangong Liu rushed over. “Shizun!”

     When he saw Xu Shuanglin and Luo Fenghua talking, his heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he immediately said anxiously, “Shizun, don’t listen to anything he says! He’s lying to you!”

     Xu Shuanglin laughed.

     This elder brother of his was always so naïve and cute.

     Did he really think that he would still bitterly pull on Luo Fenghua’s clothes and explain the whole story, the cause and effect? Not anymore.

     To him, life was like a game of chess. Once a move was made, the previous hundreds of twists and turns in his heart were no longer important. The only thing that mattered was the result.

     He who was killed was killed, and he who was stained with blood was stained.

     He couldn’t wash it off, and he didn’t want to wash it for himself.

     Luo Fenghua would never forgive him.

     Nothing more needed to be said.

     He held onto a nearby tree and staggered to his feet.

     The moonlight shone on his face, and his skin was split open, bloody and hideous.

     When Nangong Liu and the surrounding cultivators saw this, they couldn’t help but take a step back. Some people misunderstood and said in shock, “This, this is Luo-daozhang’s doing? A thousand cuts… This is too cruel…”

     Xu Shuanglin grinned, revealing his dense white teeth.

     He stared at his older brother outside the forest and suddenly felt that he didn’t want to let this pair of master and disciple go so easily. So he turned to Luo Fenghua and said, “Tell them to get lost. I have something I want to tell you personally before I die. I only want to tell you alone.”

     He held onto the pine tree and slowly moved to a dark place with Luo Fenghua.

     The moonlight was obscured by the dense shade, and Xu Shuanglin’s complexion softened slightly. His torn skin also began to heal bit by bit. Although there were still many small scars, they were no longer as frightening as before.

     Xu Shuanglin did not turn around. With his back facing Luo Fenghua, he first asked, “You came here alone with me. Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”

     “You won’t.”

     “...”

     “If you wanted to kill me or A-Liu, you would have done it a year ago.”

     Xu Shuanglin suddenly turned his head. His eyes flashed with an intense and twisted light. “Ridiculous. You think you understand me very well?!”

     Luo Fenghua looked at his face, and his eyes suddenly widened. “Your scars…”

     “It’s not as scary as before, is it?” Xu Shuanglin sneered, “What do you think this is? A spell? Lingchi fruit?”

     He slowly raised his hand. He held a ring in his palm, which was shining with a faint light. His lips touched as he said mockingly and maliciously, “This ring has a spirit. When you and Nangong Liu drove me down from the position of sect leader, it fell from my thumb by itself. It knows that I am no longer the rightful sect leader of Rufeng Sect. However, there were two leaders who conspired to usurp the sect, so it doesn’t know which one it should recognize.”

     “You took A-Liu’s position, so naturally it should be returned to him.”

     Xu Shuanglin grinned. “That’s what I think.”

     He placed the ring in Luo Fenghua’s hand. In the end, he even solemnly patted it twice and said, “Hold it well. Hold it tight. In a moment, when you go out, give this to him. Remember, you must personally help him put it on. He’s the true sect leader of this sect.”

     He paused and stared at Luo Fenghua’s face, which was filled with pain. Then he leaned over, lowered his voice, and whispered in his ear, “Next, I am going to tell you a secret. Don’t be afraid; this secret isn’t dark at all. It’s just a heroic past, that’s all.”

     Slowly, in a low voice, he told the story of Nangong Changying subduing the Gǔn and how the Gǔn had cursed generations of Rufeng Sect’s sect leaders. Full of malice, his teeth hardened into poisonous fangs and pierced into Luo Fenghua’s flesh.

     He saw Luo Fenghua’s expression become more and more unsightly, his round eyes becoming wider and wider.

     He saw Luo Fenghua being pressed against the tree by him, felt him trembling slightly.

     He felt extremely happy.

     Ha.

     Don’t you always spoil him?

     Don’t you all treat the first-born Nangong Liu as a treasure?

     I want you to personally deliver the poison to him with your own hands.

    The corners of Xu Shuanglin’s mouth slowly widened, and a lynx-like smile crept out, sinister and treacherous. He raised his hand and caressed Luo Fenghua’s cheek. “Shizun, the story is over. You can go out now.” He paused for a moment, then his expression became even brighter. “Go and pay respects to the sixth-generation Sect Leader of Rufeng Sect—Nangong Liu. Go.”

     That day, he was covered in blood and escaped from Rufeng Sect on his sword. After wandering for half a night and exhausting his energy, he landed in Butterfly Town in the middle Shu region.

     He met a little girl sitting in the courtyard.

     Seeing that he was injured and covered in blood, the little girl turned pale with fright and trembled. However, she still poured a bowl full of water from the house and gave it to him to drink. He drank the water and stared at her. Then, for some reason, he suddenly felt that the little girl looked very similar to his best friend, his mentor, and his mortal enemy. His eyes were very similar to Luo Fenghua's.

     When he saw the orange tree in the courtyard full of fruits, a sudden thought appeared in his heart. He wanted to eat it. But the little girl’s words were so full of pedantry and sourness, with a righteous gentleman’s tone, and he was tired of it. It was as if he were seeing that ridiculous Luo Fenghua saying sincerely:

     “I hope you will live well in your prime years of life, each of you relying on your own talents, and be gentlemen for the rest of your life.”

     A gentleman for the rest of his life.

     …How ridiculous.

     He shook off the branches full of oranges, cut down the orange tree, and walked away, leaving the little girl crying in the courtyard. But he was still angry. That night, he killed several villagers indiscriminately, raising his sword to cut them down. As his sword fell and the word “gentleman” grew farther and farther away, he felt more and more happy.

     Then he left, intending to conceal his identity and live out the rest of his life in anonymity.

     But at that time, he heard in the teahouse that Luo Fenghua had usurped the throne and became the next generation Sect Leader of Rufeng Sect.

     The customers in the teahouse who came and went were all saying, “Ai, I didn't expect this. It’s really true that you may know a person’s face but not their heart.”

    “It’s a pity that Nangong Liu raised his troops to rebel this time but unexpectedly made a path for someone else.”

     “He must hate his Shifu to death, right?”

     “This Luo Fenghua is truly a black-hearted person whose heart is filled with greed. He is not a good person.”

     Xu Shuanglin sat in front of a small, greasy table, holding a cup of tea that was about to reach his lips. But he never drank it, just listening in a daze.

     His vision was turning black as the earth and sky spun.

     He never thought Luo Fenghua would make such a choice in the end…

     That he would rather bear the misunderstanding and hatred, rather be criticized by thousands of people and despised by tens of thousands of people.

     He’d rather suffer the evil curse himself and live a life worse than death every full moon until the end of his life.

     It was impossible for Luo Fenghua to stab this sharp sword into his disciple’s heart with his own hands.

     In the end, his final move was a poor one.

     Tap. Tap. Tap.

     Footsteps slowly sounded.

     Xu Shuanglin broke away from his memories. He opened his eyes, and the face of a young man appeared in his blurred vision.

     On the empty Soul Summoning Platform, Mo Ran walked up to him and half-knelt down, staring at him.

     In that instant, Xu Shuanglin felt that this young man’s eyes were very strange. There were too many things hidden in them. He didn't seem like a young man in his early twenties.

     Mo Ran said, “...You planned all of this to resurrect him?”

     “It’s none of your business.”

     “You save Nangong Liu and resurrect Luo Fenghua. From then on, no one else would be able to enter Mount Jiao. You want to live the rest of your life here in peace, am I right?”

     Xu Shuanglin shouted harshly, “It’s none of your business!”

     Mo Ran picked up the broken spiritual core on the ground. There was light still flowing from it. He said, “You disguised yourself and returned to Nangong Liu’s side as Xu Shuanglin. You instigated him to send troops to seize the throne again because you couldn’t bear to see Luo Fenghua suffering the pain of the curse every night, living a life worse than death.”

     “What makes you think you can guess my heart?!” Xu Shuanglin’s eyes were red, with a moist and ruthless light in them. “You think you understand everything?!”

     “I don’t understand. I can only guess,” Mo Ran said. “But looking at your expression, I feel that my guess is not too far off the mark.”

     Xu Shuanglin gritted his teeth and spat out, “The younger generation is arrogant.”

     “It’s the same. When you were twenty years old, didn’t you also become arrogant?” Mo Ran looked at him calmly. “Nangong Xu, that year, you helped your brother reclaim the position of sect leader, but you didn’t expect that after being plotted against twice, he became ruthless for the sect leader position. You didn’t expect that after seizing Luo Fenghua’s position, he would kill him. You didn’t expect his death at all.”

     “Your mind was in chaos. You didn’t know what to do.” He stared at Xu Shuanglin’s face.

     He understood that state of despair better than anyone.

     He was reading Xu Shuanglin’s heart and his own heart.

     “In desperation, what should you do?”