Xiao Hongyi hoped that Jiang Chen would give up.
If one has a heart towards goodness and follows the right path, and all it brings is injustice in the world, then why should one humble oneself?
But Jiang Chen did not give up.
He was still trying, still striving for the recognition of others.
Yet, nothing changed.
Gradually, the conflict between Jiang Chen and Lin Mubai became irreconcilable.
Qingning, who had always been close to him, was completely disappointed.
Even the simple and honest Mu Kui was influenced by many coincidences, harboring resentment towards his Eldest Senior Brother, Jiang Chen.
Xiao Hongyi saw all this.
Knowing that Jiang Chen couldn’t hear her, she still kept advising him.“A bunch of fools, played round and round by the heavens.”
One day, Jiang Chen lay on a smooth boulder, muttering to himself with a spiritual herb in his mouth.
His white garments fluttered with the wind.
The gleam in his eyes still shone brightly.
He still wished to use his own strength to tear through the darkness that enveloped this world.
He didn’t even harbor resentment towards others but instead blamed everything on fate.
With a heartache, Xiao Hongyi cried out again.
She felt proud of this disciple, yet the guilt for her own distrust weighed even heavier on her.
Self-blame, shame, and sin nearly crushed her.
But she persisted because her disciple was still trying. She, as his master, did not deserve to fall apart!
Afterward, Jiang Chen became isolated, and people avoided him wherever he went.
Xiao Hongyi felt her heart bleeding.
Especially when she heard herself in the image repeatedly emphasizing, “Jiang Chen, do not disappoint Master,” she found it not only grating but even wanted to strangle and tear apart that version of herself in the image!
Disappoint?
From the beginning to the end, wasn’t she, as his master, the real disappointment?!
She began to hate herself, curse herself, and even berate everyone.
Because it was their ignorance and overconfidence that led to Jiang Chen’s current state of being shunned by everyone!
Then, Lin Feng became a disciple.
Xiao Hongyi harbored hope for this Son of Destiny.
She thought that since Lin Feng was the Son of Destiny, perhaps he wouldn’t be influenced by fate, right?
Maybe Lin Feng could see Jiang Chen’s true nature and help explain it to others.
But reality slapped her in the face again.
If Jiang Chen had been shunned before, what would have awaited him next was a bottomless abyss. And Lin Feng was the force trying with all his might to drag Jiang Chen into that abyss.
After Lin Feng became a new disciple, Jiang Chen’s ‘misdeeds’ and their exaggerated spread no longer needed punishment from his master.
Because every time Jiang Chen committed a ‘misdeed’, Lin Feng would appear immediately!
He would deliver various punishments from a ‘righteous’ standpoint!
And after each punishment, the people’s opinion of Lin Feng would rise a notch!
Over time, not just the Ninth Peak but the entire Jiuyan Sect began to see Jiang Chen as a rat crossing the street, while Lin Feng became the ’embodiment of justice’.
These images made Xiao Hongyi tremble with rage.
She finally understood that Lin Feng, this Son of Destiny, was the world’s protagonist favored by the heavens and earth and Jiang Chen was nothing but a stepping stone prepared by fate for him.
Because he was a stepping stone, fate did not allow Jiang Chen to turn the tables.
Because he was a stepping stone, it was easy for her and others to feel disgust!
Jiang Chen was right.
Everyone was a fool, played round and round by the heavens.
She didn’t think that such an excuse could lessen her own sins and guilt in the slightest. But for the first time, she understood the truth of this world.
……
Time continued to pass.
Lin Feng’s arrival brought laughter and joy back to the Ninth Peak.
However, no one noticed the increasingly somber expression on Jiang Chen’s face beneath that laughter and joy.
Even so, Jiang Chen still didn’t give up.
He knew he was disliked, but he still accompanied Lin Mubai in revelry for a thousand days and still strived to rebuild his relationship with Qingning.
He also took good care of the simple and honest Mu Kui and wanting to help Jiang Lianyue eliminate the cold poison in her body caused by her cultivation technique.
Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.
Jiang Chen’s reputation gradually improved, and his relationships with his Junior Brothers and Sisters were thawing.
Even Xiao Hongyi in the image seemed to be smiling every day.
But to make someone completely lose hope and despair, you must first give them hope.
It seems that the heavens were very skilled at manipulating hearts.
“Jiang Chen! You beast!!”
It was Lin Mubai’s roar that shattered her hopes.
Xiao Hongyi in the void watched the image of Jiang Chen holding the still-dripping Innate Dao Bone, Lin Mubai’s face in shock, and herself ‘timely’ arriving at the scene.
Xiao Hongyi felt a sharp pain in her heart again.
She witnessed herself, as his master, stripping Jiang Chen of his cultivation and expelling him from the sect, then hiding away to cry.
For the first time, she felt that she was truly hypocritical.
Seeing Jiang Chen being taken away by Chen Sheng, she broke through the barriers to follow Jiang Chen too.
But despite being a cultivator of the upper four realms, she couldn’t cross the chasm before her…
She didn’t wait beside the chasm but returned to the perilous peak in front of the Red Jade Pavilion.
Because this place was home. Her and Jiang Chen’s home.
Even though Jiang Chen had only been here once, she could still smell his scent and feel his warmth.
As she sits front of the Red Jade Pavilion, her tears flowed uncontrollably, and through the blur, she seemed to see that boy again fishing by the pond.
“Master, will you always believe in me?” the boy turned to ask.
“I won’t,” Xiao Hongyi replied.
“Why?”
“Because I’m not worthy to…”
……
Xiao Hongyi didn’t know how long she had been sitting there.
As if to punish her, the image before her no longer changed, and she could clearly feel the passage of time.
During this period, she saw herself again.
Every so often, the version of herself from this world would come here, leave some spiritual fruits in the Red Jade Pavilion, then stand by the spiritual pond in a daze until leaving the next day.
Clearly, even the version of herself from this world still remembers this as her and Jiang Chen’s home.
However, such actions only made Xiao Hongyi’s heart ache more.
Because it was she herself who had created the current situation…
And clearly, both she and the version of herself in the vision were waiting.
Waiting for Jiang Chen to appear here.
……
After a while, the image of herself on the screen came once again, and with an extremely mournful voice, she muttered to herself: “The Jiang family… has been annihilated…”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Hongyi in the void abruptly raised her head.
She had been waiting for Jiang Chen to come home, but instead, she received the news that Jiang Chen’s real home had been destroyed!
Guilt spread once again.
She knew that the Imperial Dynasty would not act rashly as long as the Old Ancestor of the Jiang family did not fall.
The Jiang family had sent Jiang Chen to the Jiuyan Sect to protect him, which means that Jian Chen could be endangered.
And she, as his master, had personally driven Jiang Chen back, letting him witness the destruction of the Jiang family and putting his life in grave danger!
Xiao Hongyi could wait no longer.
She left the place and began to search aimlessly in the Central Domain.
She knew that if Jiang Chen had luckily survived, he would have to flee the Upper Domain and head to the Central Domain or the Lower Domain to escape the Empress’s watchful eyes and seek a chance to live.
As she had thought. Although she did not find Jiang Chen, she learned from other cultivators that there were rumors of Jiang Chen committing ‘evil’ in the Hengduan Mountain Range.
She breathed a sigh of relief and headed to the Hengduan Mountain Range.
But by the time she arrived, Jiang Chen had already left.
She inquired around and learned that Jiang Chen had appeared in the Ghost Ridge Soul Abyss.
But by the time she arrived, Jiang Chen had left again.
Not only that, every time Jiang Chen appeared somewhere, she would arrive only to find that he had already gone.
“Why? Why won’t you let me see him? Are you trying to punish me? At least let me accompany him through this life! I know I don’t deserve it, but please!” Xiao Hongyi cried out to the sky.
She cried heart-wrenchingly with a hoarse voice.
But to no avail, there was no change.
She could only gather bits of news from the discussions of other cultivators.
Jiang Chen had met an enchantress from the Myriad Dao Demon Sect, who fell for him at first sight and began an almost pathological pursuit.
The enchantress claimed that she and Jiang Chen were made for each other, and no one could separate them.
She didn’t just talk, she acted.
She doesn’t care whether Jiang Chen is good or bad.
She only wants to kill all of Jiang Chen’s enemies, even if it means killing her own master.
After learning about Jiang Chen’s experiences, she even went to the Jiuyan Sect, wanting to kill those who had bullied Jiang Chen.
Of course, this included herself in the image.
Xiao Hongyi had always detested such demonic behavior.
But after learning all this, she finally smiled.
She was happy because in this world, there really was someone who, regardless of Jiang Chen’s good or bad, would stay with him through thick and thin.
Unlike her, who repeatedly broke her promises without realizing it…
But her happiness did not last long.
The enchantress’s actions had harmed Jiang Chen. Her behavior was also deemed to be instigated by Jiang Chen.
This caused anger among various forces, not only did Xiao Hongyi, as his master, say she would clean the sect, but other forces also directed all their anger at Jiang Chen, launching a frenzied manhunt.
Later, Jiang Chen was defeated by Lin Feng and the others, forcing him to detonate his life-bound spirit sword to escape.
To protect Jiang Chen, the enchantress voluntarily appeared at the Seven Luminaries Sword Pavilion.
She destroyed all her cultivation, surrendered herself, and admitted to all of her crimes.
Then, she died under the endless rain of swords.
“I wanted to help him, but I ended up harming him. If this is his wish, then I want to be a good person in the next life…” the enchantress said before her death.
She was still smiling before she died.
It was said that she smiled very happily.
When Xiao Hongyi in the void learned that Jiang Chen was once again alone, her heart ached even more, and her mind became hazy.
She frequently had hallucinations, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying.
No one noticed that in the vast Central Domain, a figure in red was ceaselessly searching.
Her eyes had lost all their luster like a walking corpse while only repeating one sentence.
“Jiang Chen, where are you…”
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