Chapter 2033: Taking the Pulse

The Yue Huang had departed, vanishing into the crowd. As an assassin, she must have been on a mission, and her fate, whether she lived or died, remained unknown.

Because of the purple-haired youth, the once bustling street had become much emptier. Ordinary people were terrified and hurried home to hide, leaving behind a chaotic street that looked as if it had been ransacked.

"No business today," the old man grumbled, carrying over his teapot and filling the cups for Ye Chen and Ren Wang.

"That palm strike of yours was full of domineering power," Ren Wang said with a leisurely smile.

"Disturbing my peaceful cultivation—he brought it on himself," the old man muttered irritably. "If anyone else causes trouble, I'll slap them to death."

"Do you know that the one you just killed was a Ying Jie person?"

"Damn it, why didn't you say so earlier?" the tea-selling old man couldn't help but curse.

"If I had said it earlier, would you have intervened?" Ren Wang glanced at him. "Neither of us can interfere in this matter. If you hadn't stepped in, the people of this entire city would have been wiped out."

"You old schemer, you've tricked me again." The old man's face darkened completely. Though ignorance might excuse the act, it could still lead to karma, and over time, that would become a heavy burden. At his level, that's what he feared most.

"Don't worry, it's nothing serious." Ren Wang waved his hand, stood up with a pat on his backside, and said casually, "I'll come find you again in a hundred years. Remember, if you want the rare edition, trade it for the Dun Jia Tian Zi."

"Get lost!" the old man shouted angrily, still fuming.

"This junior bids farewell." Ye Chen coughed dryly and followed Ren Wang's steps, leaving the tea-selling old man behind, blowing his beard and glaring in frustration. Ren Wang's maneuvers had truly given him a headache.

By now, Ye Chen and Ren Wang had left the mortal ancient star. Their path of cultivation was still long, with each step taking them further away.

Three months later, they exited that star domain and entered a new one, which was the most unusual among the myriad domains of the heavens.

In this star domain, every ancient star was without exception a mortal ancient star. According to ancient legends, a great being with immense powers had extracted the source energy from this entire domain, causing the loss of spiritual energy in the ancient stars' worlds. Without spiritual energy, there were no cultivators.

However, a domain of mortals didn't mean it was free from outside cultivators. As soon as the two entered, they caught a whiff of thick blood scent. Clearly, some cultivators were causing chaos, and mortals stood no chance against them.

"Have you figured anything out?" Ren Wang glanced at Ye Chen.

"The aura of a Ying Jie person," Ye Chen replied with certainty.

"And what else?" Ren Wang pulled out his wine flask and smiled at Ye Chen.

"It's a cultivator." Ye Chen gave his answer, which wasn't hard to guess—the one causing trouble in this mortal star domain was precisely the Ying Jie person.

"Not even seeing the real person, yet you can deduce that. It seems your Zhou Tian Yan Hua has advanced quite a bit." Ren Wang laughed.

"Should we go around?" Ye Chen asked, looking at Ren Wang.

"No need." Ren Wang said indifferently, waving his hand to envelop Ye Chen in a mysterious immortal light—a concealment technique that made him hard for outsiders to detect.

Only after doing this did Ren Wang step forward, walking deeper step by step.

Ye Chen frowned, unsure why Ren Wang was acting this way, but he followed along.

As they delved deeper, every ancient star they encountered seemed to have been bathed in blood, stained red. Even from a distance, they could see mountains of corpses and rivers of blood on the stars, accompanied by waves of wails—the凄厉 cries of the slaughtered spirits.

Ye Chen walked and observed, the scenes truly shocking to behold.

Ren Wang, however, kept his gaze straight ahead. It wasn't that he lacked compassion, but he had seen too much and grown accustomed to it. The laws of survival were this cruel, turning people cold.

The further they went, the deeper Ye Chen's brows furrowed.

They didn't stop until some time later, standing still in the starry sky.

Not far away was an enormous ancient star, a mortal one, yet it had a brilliant star halo. But that halo was tainted with blood, glaringly vivid from afar.

Indeed, slaughter was occurring on the ancient star. A cultivator was unleashing a great blood tribulation, with masses of mortals falling into pools of blood.

Wails and cries echoed through the starry sky, enough to make even cultivators shudder, for the killing was too bloody.

"Mo Yuan predecessor." Ye Chen furrowed his brows tightly. Through the star's body, he could see a figure with blood-red hair rampaging in slaughter. He never expected that the one wantonly killing mortals was the Ying Jie person, Mo Yuan, doing so merely to refine his natal weapon.

"Anything you want to say?" Ren Wang said calmly, showing no surprise at Mo Yuan being the Ying Jie person, as if he had known all along.

"Mortals... are innocent." Ye Chen felt his mouth dry, the words sticking in his throat like a lump, sounding utterly powerless.

"So what?" Ren Wang turned his head, looking straight at Ye Chen. "Will you stop Mo Yuan and save the mortals, or abandon the mortals and not interfere in the Ying Jie matter? How will you choose?"

"I don't know." Ye Chen lowered his eyes, truly unable to answer.

"It's a tough choice, isn't it!" Ren Wang withdrew his gaze and took a sip of wine. "I'm guiding you in cultivation and also tempering your heart. The path against heaven is destined to be paved with blood and bones. Difficult choices will accompany you for life. Your hesitation and inability to answer prove your heart isn't cold enough yet. Without that coldness, it's hard to reach the peak of the Great Dao."

"I understand." Ye Chen's eyes dropped a fraction lower.

"Raise your head and look at me." Ren Wang's voice was forceful and resolute.

Ye Chen said nothing, slowly lifting his gaze to Ren Wang. For the first time, he saw Ren Wang like this—serious and commanding, not his usual sleazy appearance, but truly a venerable senior with full authority.

"Give me an answer." Ren Wang's words were even more commanding.

"Abandon the mortals." Ye Chen spoke, his voice hoarse and rough.

"If killing Ye Fan could save all living beings, how would you choose?" Ren Wang's words were flat, his old eyes still commanding.

"Your question is pointless." Ye Chen frowned.

"It is pointless." Ren Wang shrugged, turned, and walked away into the void, his faint words echoing back. "This question is also part of your cultivation. Don't rush to answer me, but whether in a hundred years or a thousand, you must give me an answer. No escaping it."

Ye Chen fell silent again, only lifting his feet to follow, but Ren Wang's question had indeed disturbed his state of mind. It wasn't that he wouldn't choose, but he didn't know how. The question was brutally harsh.

In the end, the two abandoned the mortals and did not interfere in the Ying Jie matter, allowing Mo Yuan to slaughter as the wails filled the starry sky.

Ye Chen sighed, and that trace of benevolence in his heart gradually faded with each step, overshadowed by coldness. The path of heart tempering, like Ren Wang's question, was incredibly cruel.

He had underestimated Ren Wang, as if all worldly affairs were within his expectations—like Mo Yuan's killing here, which Ren Wang seemed to have known, leading him here to begin the heart tempering.

And indeed, in the following months, wherever Ren Wang took him in the star domains, there were fierce blood tribulations.

The perpetrators were all Ying Jie people, and all were people he knew.

Among the quasi-emperors of the heavens, countless had become sinners through the Ying Jie.

Among the quasi-emperors of the Hong Huang, many had become benevolent through the Ying Jie.

This wave of Ying Jie had overturned Ye Chen's understanding, like a role reversal, throwing everything into chaos. The blood-soaked scenes turned the mortal world into a tragic spectacle.

Another ten years passed, making it fifty years since they left their homeland.

These ten years were torment for Ye Chen. Ren Wang took him to witness endless human tragedies, and even his state of mind was shrouded in nightmares, unable to shake free.

Yet, the heart tempering was far from over—it grew even crueler.

In the fifty-first year, Ren Wang cast a mysterious curse on Ye Chen. That curse consisted of just one phrase.

Or rather, one question—the same one from ten years ago, about Ye Fan and all living beings, forcing him to choose.

Ren Wang was truly relentless. He had fused that question into the curse, so it echoed incessantly in Ye Chen's divine sea, like a spell with magical power. He couldn't ignore it; it was enforced.

It was as if Ye Chen wouldn't get peace until he gave an answer.

This was torment, pure torment. Even a peerless ruthless figure who had slain emperors was worn down to nothing under this curse.

That single phrase, to him, was like an icy steel blade, carving into his soul with the passage of time. Without an answer, it would never stop.