Chapter 177 Can't Let Go:

Surprisingly, Shen Bingsi was popular among the Hehuan Cult members, especially after the public judgment on the terrace. The members spontaneously came to Shen Bingsi to ask about their relationship problems, and Shen Bingsi was generous in giving them advice.

"This is a simple question. If he likes you, he won't mind waiting for you for three to five years. If he's in a hurry to find someone to carry on his family line, then he is indeed in a hurry."

"If he makes a mistake, don't nag him repeatedly, or he'll think you've forgiven him. Just ignore him and let him reflect on what he did wrong."

"There are plenty of male and female cultivators in the world, the next one will be even more appealing."

Every time Shen Bingsi uttered those outrageous remarks, the followers would show expressions of sudden enlightenment, gratefully accepting Shen Bingsi's valuable advice as they left, much to the dismay of Rong Xie standing nearby, who frowned deeply.

"Is it really okay for you to give so much advice on other people's love lives?" Rong Xie said disapprovingly. "I used to think that people who were in relationships were fools, but now you're giving advice to others."

“It’s precisely because they’re fools that they need my guidance,” Shen Bingsi said smugly, feeling a great sense of accomplishment from the matter.

Rong Xie glanced at him: "You really think you're a master of romance? If they knew you actually cultivate the Path of No Emotion and have virtually no romantic experience, I wonder how they would call you a liar."

"How is that a fraud? I'm just an outsider with a clearer perspective. Besides, when it comes to emotional experiences, quality matters more than quantity. Just look at me, I've got it all figured out in one go..." Shen Bingsi coughed.

Rong Xie looked at him with concern.

"It's alright." Shen Bingsi waved her hand, crumpled the handkerchief in her hand, and stuffed it into her sleeve.

"Your backlash is even more severe," Rong Xie sighed.

In the morning, when Rong Xie was combing Shen Bingsi's hair, he noticed that half of his hair had turned white and there were obvious wrinkles on his forehead. Although the weathered Shen Bingsi looked charming in a different way, Rong Xie, who knew what the change in appearance meant, couldn't be happy at all.

These days, Rong Xie would take Shen Bingsi to see Elder Hong every morning so that Elder Hong could check on his backlash. Elder Hong remained very calm and insisted on his statement that the backlash was normal and that as long as Shen Bingsi did not give up his wrong idea, his Dao heart would continue to attack him.

"So what do we do next?" Rong Xie asked.

“Keep imitating,” Elder Red said. “Aren’t you doing quite well?”

Rong Xie gritted his teeth: "But the situation hasn't improved..."

“That’s because he hasn’t fundamentally abandoned his ruthless ways.” Elder Hong shook his head. “Imitation should not only be done outwardly, but also from the heart.”

As a result, the morning meeting ended in failure once again.

Before each morning meeting ended, Elder Hong would ask Shen Bingsi, "What is it that you can't let go of?"

Shen Bingsi initially tried to argue that there was nothing he couldn't let go of, that he desperately wanted to let go, and that he felt he had already integrated with the Hehuan Cult members and had already let go.

Elder Hong looked at him with a regretful expression, as if he were a terminally ill patient, and then shook his head and sighed.

After this happened a few times, Shen Bingsi didn't know how to respond, so she remained silent.

Elder Hong's question seemed to have a brainwashing effect. Later, when Rong Xie and Shen Bing Si were alone, Rong Xie would imitate Elder Hong's tone and ask, "What is it that you can't let go of?" Shen Bing Si would then pinch the back of Rong Xie's neck and answer in a deep tone, "I'll go up there and become a monk right now, and see if you cry."

"What do I have to cry about?" Rong Xie struggled to break free from Shen Bing Si's grasp. "You shaved your head, so you won't have to worry about gray hair anymore."

"You like bald heads?" Shen Bingsi whispered some vulgar words in Rong Xie's ear, and Rong Xie's thin face immediately turned red. As expected, Shen Bingsi coughed.

Life in the Hehuan Sect was comfortable, but Rong Xie couldn't be happy. Watching Shen Bingsi's condition deteriorate day by day, he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He had said all sorts of nice things and tried all sorts of methods, but Shen Bingsi still didn't get better.

One day, the communication stone that Rong Xie had been quiet for a long time and had almost forgotten about vibrated.

The person who contacted him was Captain Zhao, who excitedly told him that they had found the headquarters of the Hehuan Sect in Liujin City, but they were still figuring out the exact location.

Rong Xie had completely forgotten about this. Back when he was at the Xuan Tian Sect, Rong Xie asked Captain Zhao to help him find out the location of the Hehuan Sect's headquarters. After a series of changes, Rong Xie forgot to inform Captain Zhao that they had found the headquarters. He only remembered this when he suddenly received a message from Captain Zhao today.

Rong Xie quickly apologized to Captain Zhao, saying that he had already found the main altar.

"Found the main altar? As expected of Fellow Daoist Rong!" Captain Zhao's booming voice came from the communication stone. "We're also in Liujin City, why don't we get together?"

Rong Xie looked at Shen Bingsi questioningly, and Shen Bingsi nodded. Rong Xie then agreed to Captain Zhao's request.

Naturally, it took some effort to ask Elder Hong for leave to go out. The Hehuan Sect's headquarters was located in a secluded place, with many layers of barriers around it. People who were not members of the sect, such as Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi, had to sign a secrecy oath and obtain Elder Hong's permission to enter or leave.

The process proceeded smoothly, and Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi arrived at the agreed location to meet Captain Zhao and Linglong.

Because of Shen Bingsi's condition, Rong Xie didn't want too many people to know, so he only arranged to meet Captain Zhao and Linglong, and informed them in advance. Even so, the two were still quite shocked when they saw Shen Bingsi.

Shen Bingsi's hair was almost completely white, and he looked as if he had aged twenty years, transforming from a sharp young man into a sharp middle-aged man. This feeling was very strange. In Linglong's words, if Rong Xie introduced him as Shen Bingsi's long-lost biological father, they would believe it.

"..." Linglong's way of thinking was indeed very unconventional. Rong Xie wanted to laugh, but he couldn't.

Realizing the atmosphere was getting a bit tense, Captain Zhao changed the subject and started talking about recent rumors circulating in the martial arts world.

"Do you know what happened to the demon-slaying official who succeeded Shen Jiansheng?" Captain Zhao laughed. "His reputation was bad when he was in office. Recently, he was injured in the eye by a monster and can no longer work for the Mirror Palace. But he refuses to resign from his position as demon-slaying official. I heard that the Mirror Palace is in a lot of trouble because of this. Whenever there are demons, they send Brother Jiang to deal with them."

Captain Zhao had met the head of the three adjudicators in the Lu family case and, along with Shen Bingsi, called him Brother Jiang. There was a hint of schadenfreude in his words, because Shang Gan was a high-profile person, and Captain Zhao knew a lot about the things he had done since taking office. He knew that Rong Chen and his companion had been severely harassed by Shang Gan at the Xuantian Sect, so he brought up Shang Gan's unfortunate incident as a joke.

Rong Xie smiled. He knew Shang Gan wouldn't have a good ending, but right now he didn't care whether Shang Gan was blind or deaf.

Shen Bingsi listened intently, repeatedly asking, "What kind of monster injured Shang Gan? How badly was he injured that even the medical practitioners of the Xuantian Sect couldn't cure him? Do you know the monster's whereabouts?"

Captain Zhao was stumped by the question: "This... I don't know either, I just heard it from rumors."

Shen Bingsi pondered for a moment, then asked, "You said you sent Brother Jiang to places where demons appeared. Where have demons appeared? How do you know it was Brother Jiang who went?"

Captain Zhao then said that on the night they set off from Shengjing, they happened to run into Brother Jiang who was rushing into the city. Brother Jiang asked them about the situation in Shengjing, and that's when Captain Zhao learned that Brother Jiang had come to catch a demon. However, Brother Jiang did not reveal any specific details about the demon.

"I see." Shen Bingsi nodded.

Rong Xie nudged Shen Bingsi, telling him to stop thinking about these things. If the sky falls, the Mirror Palace will hold it up. His priority now is to "let it go."

When asked to "put it down quickly," Captain Zhao and Linglong curiously pressed for more details. Rong Xie, who also wanted their help to comfort Shen Bingsi, asked them to share some beautiful examples of genuine human kindness to inspire Shen Bingsi.

Captain Zhao and Linglong chuckled awkwardly. They both knew how skilled Shen Bingsi was at berating young couples, and not wanting to humiliate themselves, they changed the subject to avoid the issue.

Unexpectedly, the conversation drifted to Lu Yingqi and Xiaozhi.

Lu Yingqi killed his wife to prove his Dao, had an epiphany on the spot, and directly broke through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm. However, he was then stimulated and went mad. This story had already spread throughout the cultivation world and was even more legendary in the martial arts world. The details of the sect leader's regret and sleepless nights, and Elder Bai's vomiting of blood and almost having his Dao heart shattered were all vividly described.

Captain Zhao and Linglong didn't witness it firsthand, but they knew that Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi had been involved, so they were very curious and eager to find out more before even meeting them.

To everyone's surprise, upon meeting Shen Bingsi and seeing her in this state, and with Rong Xie looking rather uninterested, they refrained from mentioning it. However, the conversation eventually drifted uncontrollably to Lu Yingqi and Xiaozhi. Captain Zhao sighed, "Master Lu doesn't seem like that kind of person. He'd even expose his own family's dirty secrets for Xiaozhi. How could he use Xiaozhi to prove his Dao? Sigh, I was starting to believe in true feelings and love in the world..."

Linglong gave Captain Zhao an elbow, signaling him to stop acting recklessly.

“What I mean is,” Captain Zhao quickly pulled him back, “the Path of Ruthlessness is deadly! Sword Saint Shen, you must not follow in Lu Yingqi’s footsteps. A perfectly good person, after cultivating the Path of Ruthlessness, can turn against the one he loves. What’s the difference between that and evil heretics?”

When Captain Zhao got to the point of passionate speech, he slammed his fist on the table, only to find that there was complete silence all around and everyone in the restaurant was looking at them.

Fortunately, the diners were mostly ordinary people without any cultivation level; they watched the commotion for a bit and then left. Shen Bingsi and Rong Xie, who had overheard this, each had their own unpleasant expressions. Captain Zhao, realizing his mistake, apologized repeatedly.

“The ruthless path isn’t all that bad. Heaven’s way needs ruthless enforcers,” Shen Bingsi sighed. “Although I don’t approve of such drastic methods, sometimes…”

Rong Xie glanced at Shen Bingsi. Although Shen Bingsi didn't say it aloud, Rong Xie could guess what he meant by "sometimes," because he had already demonstrated it to him once in a precognitive dream.

After the meal was over, neither of them had much interest in continuing the conversation.