"Chi Yuan, I was wrong!"

Chi Yue suddenly knelt down before Chi Yuan, pleading pitifully, "It's all my fault. I wronged you, I forced you to prove yourself, I was blind to have misjudged you, and I helped that demon Ye Chen smear you. I sincerely apologize and make amends. Hate me if you want, just please don't hold a grudge against the Chi family or the Heavenly Pool Holy Land. It's all my fault. You can kill me or do whatever you want with me. I'm willing to bear all the consequences!"

Chi Yuan looked at Chi Yue indifferently, without the slightest emotion in his eyes: "If an apology could solve the problem, then there would be no such thing as cause and effect or retribution. I am not the Heavenly Dao, and the karma you have created is not for me to deal with."

Upon hearing this, despair flashed in Chi Yue's eyes. Was there really no hope of salvaging the situation?

She suddenly grabbed Chi Yang's leg and pleaded, "Chi Yang, please say something for the family. You're the only one who can speak up now."

He's right.

Chi Yang's expression remained blank. "An apology won't solve the problem, and you have no right to ask for his forgiveness, nor do I."

Chi Yue's face instantly turned ashen. She stared at Chi Yuan, speechless, her mind blank.

"Let's go back."

Chi Tianhao spoke in a hoarse and weak voice, looking as if he had aged thousands of years, his face extremely aged, like an old man on his deathbed.

Having said that, without asking whether Chi Yue and Chi Yang agreed, he waved his hand and, without even saying goodbye to anyone else, broke through the space and left with the two of them.

"My husband..."

An Yuxi stole a glance at Chi Yuan, her eyes filled with heartache and worry.

Rong Qingyan and the other women remained silent, unable to speak. They all wanted to comfort Chi Yuan, but they were afraid that they would not be able to comfort him and would instead touch the wounds in his heart.

Seeing Chi Tianhao leave dejectedly, the five Holy Lords, including Nangong Ming and Tuoba Hong, felt heavy-hearted. Chi Tianhao could not escape the consequences of his actions, and neither could they. The evil seeds had already been sown, and apologies and forgiveness would be of no use. They could only wait for the evil consequences to come.

But they were very dissatisfied and full of resentment. They believed that Qin Xuantian was deliberately setting them up. Otherwise, why didn't Qin Xuantian give them any hints when he could have changed their stance with just a few words? Instead, he watched them jump into the fire pit.

Lu Daoya, the Holy Lord of Mending Heaven, was the first to lose his temper and angrily questioned Qin Xuantian: "Your Majesty, I, Lu Daoya, have always respected, honored, and supported you. I have never done anything to offend you. Why did you only remind them in this matter and not me? Why did you let me cause such a disaster? Is this the behavior of a leader of the righteous path?"

Once Lu Daoya opened his mouth to vent, Nangong Ming, Tuoba Hong, Li Wuwei, and Qi Lin also began to angrily question him.

"I have not offended the Emperor, so why do you stand idly by and do nothing about my mistakes?"

"Your Majesty's favoritism is hardly the behavior of a righteous leader."

"I admit I was wrong, but as the leader of the righteous path, shouldn't Your Majesty set things right? Why have you led us to sink deeper and deeper into this mess?"

"The Emperor's discriminatory treatment, disregarding the safety of our disciples, is surely disheartening to all righteous forces in the world."

...

Qin Xuantian listened quietly to the five people's questions without interrupting their explanations. After they had all finished speaking, he sighed and replied, "You think that I reminded them but not you, so you are resentful towards me. But do you know that I did not remind any of them? Before I appeared, none of them knew that I was here."

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Nangong Ming and his four companions stood frozen in place. Had Qin Xuantian not warned the other righteous forces? Then how could these righteous forces…?

"The Emperor indeed did not remind us."

"You yourselves caused this disaster through your own stupidity, yet you blame the Emperor. You are truly shameless."

"This feud will backfire no matter which side's karma it involves. Only you fools are unaware of this, yet you have the nerve to blame the Emperor. Do you also want him to be entangled in such karma?"

The Holy Lords of the top righteous forces, such as the Northern Cold Divine Palace, all spoke out in rebuttal and criticism, their words filled with sarcasm.

"Impossible! If there were no warning, why didn't any of you suspect him? Are you saying our judgment was completely unreasonable?"

Lu Daoya roared angrily.

"Sigh... Haven't you realized the problem yet?"

Qin Xuantian sighed again, looking at the five people with a complicated expression, and said, "Why do those who are tainted by the evil deeds of those with great fortune suffer karmic backlash? Why is the backlash heavier the higher the cultivation level? Because those with great fortune are born to face calamities."

"Throughout history, this world has endured countless calamities. Yet whenever a great calamity descends, there are always those with great fortune who are born to protect countless lives from the disaster. This is the protection of this world by the Heavenly Way, so that all living beings may not suffer calamity and lose their vitality."

"Those who are blessed with great fortune are all favored by Heaven, possessing unparalleled talent and countless opportunities. As the saying goes, 'The tallest tree in the forest is bound to be felled by the wind.' Who among those who have received the favor of Heaven and taken advantage of the world would not covet their opportunities and would not want to take their place?"

"If one perishes halfway through before reaching maturity, who will fulfill the karmic mission they bear? Hence, there is the existence of karmic backlash. This is Heaven's protection for those with great fortune. However, the higher one's cultivation, the greater the threat to them. Therefore, the higher one's cultivation, the more severe the backlash."

The five members of Nangong Ming's group were confused by Qin Xuantian's words. They naturally understood the cause of the karmic backlash, which was also the starting point for their firm support of Ye Chen from the beginning. Because getting involved in bad karma would result in backlash, but getting involved in good karma would also bring blessings from the heavens.

What they didn't understand was why the Northern Cold Divine Palace and other forces could immediately conclude that Ye Chen was not the one destined for greatness, but instead believed that Chi Yuan, whom they suspected of being possessed by a demonic cultivator, was.

Did they already know that Chi Yuan possessed the Chaos Saint Body? Or did they calculate it in advance?

etc!

Calculate it in advance?

The five people realized this crucial point almost at the same time, and their minds were shaken.

They recalled some distant legends, in which ancient supreme beings, upon their impending death, would exhaust their fortune and life force to glimpse the timeline in the long river of future years when the most fortunate person would appear. Once they discovered it, they would use great means to send a wisp of completely reborn essence to that timeline and establish a bond with it.

At the same time, he sealed away his life's cultivation essence and inheritance, waiting for the time when a similar flower would appear, inherit his mantle, and fulfill his unfulfilled long-cherished wish.

Could it be that this is the time when the most fortunate person will appear, and that the ancient emperors of the Northern Cold Divine Palace and other forces have foreseen this day and made arrangements tens or even hundreds of thousands of years ago, passing down prophecies so that future generations can wait for this day to arrive, welcome flowers similar to those of the most fortunate person, and thus reap good rewards?

Thinking about this, Nangong Ming and the other four suddenly realized how naive and ridiculous they had been.

They actually believe that the good results others achieved over tens or hundreds of thousands of years were due to luck...