Those who cultivate the Tao are bound by cause and effect, and the vows they make cannot be broken, otherwise they will truly not have a good end.
"Thank you for sparing my life, Senior Brother." Xie Peng breathed a sigh of relief and quickly led his disciples in swearing an oath.
He embarked on the path of evil cultivation not to avenge his master.
However, this matter happened more than ten or twenty years ago, and Yu Yanzhong had no way of investigating it.
Despite Yu Yanzhong's many years of cultivating mystical arts at the Taiyi Sect, he is still not as skilled in divination as that brat Ye Xianya.
After all, he hadn't realized he was lying.
"Our senior brother has not returned for many years, so we have prepared a banquet to welcome him back."
Xie Peng's face was full of flattery: "The wine we are drinking today was brought out by your junior brother from the cave in the back mountain. It was wine that Master had stored up for us back then. Ever since you went to Taiyi Sect, Master had the cave sealed off. I have never touched these dozens of jars of wine all these years. I have been waiting for you to come back, so that we brothers can drink until we are drunk, just like we used to!"
Upon hearing his words, Yu Yanzhong was immediately reminded of all the things that had happened in the past.
After the dinner, Xie Peng escorted Yu Yanzhong to the courtyard where he used to live.
Yu Yanzhong was moved to see that the courtyard and all the furnishings inside were exactly the same as when he left.
"After you joined the Taiyi Sect, did you get married?" Xie Peng asked with a smile.
"I married an outer disciple, and she gave birth to a daughter for me ten years ago. Unfortunately, the sect has its rules, and I cannot take them down the mountain." Thinking of his wife and daughter, Yu Yanzhong's face softened.
The Taiyi Sect allows its disciples to get married.
If the person you marry is not a member of the sect but a secular person, then you cannot continue to stay in the sect.
Therefore, almost everyone resolves their marriage matters within the sect, and they rarely have any involvement with ordinary people outside.
However, the majority of people in the Taiyi Sect remain unmarried or never marry.
Especially those who are single-mindedly devoted to the Tao and pursue the ethereal path to immortality.
However, ever since the failure of Master Ye to transcend the tribulation fifty years ago, the ancestors of the Taiyi Sect seem to have given up on attaining immortality and have turned their attention to longevity.
In the words of the sect leader, this world is somewhat abnormal now. If we can endure a few more years and live to be two or three hundred years old, we might be able to wait until the spiritual energy of the world recovers. At that time, if we pursue the path to immortality, we might still be able to succeed.
That's why those old-timers are now searching everywhere for rare and precious materials to refine elixirs, hoping only to prolong their lives, and they're not as enthusiastic about cultivation as they used to be.
The entire Taiyi Sect is in decline. Everyone is only concerned with saving their lives and is no longer as single-minded and spirited as they were decades ago.
"Congratulations, senior brother, your wish has come true," Xie Peng said with a smile.
He remembered that when his senior brother left Yunxiao Palace for Taiyi Sect, he said that he wanted to settle down and start a family.
Now that my senior brother has a wife and daughter, his wish has been fulfilled.
"And you?" Yu Yanzhong turned his head and asked.
"To be honest, Senior Brother, I had a son the year you left Yunxiao Palace. If he were alive, he would be thirty years old this year," Xie Peng said with a sorrowful expression.
"Who killed him?" Yu Yanzhong frowned immediately.
“She was a demoness, senior brother. You don’t know this, but although she didn’t practice evil arts, she was ruthless and killed many cultivators. It’s just a pity that I was not skilled enough to avenge my son.” Xie Peng said, tears streaming down his face. “I only had one son in my life, but he died at the hands of that demoness. How unfair is Heaven!”
“Tell me the details of this matter!” Yu Yanzhong said in a deep voice.
"Yes!" Xie Peng wiped away his tears, his face full of resentment: "Senior brother, you don't know this, but for the past thirty years, the emperor has been bewitched by Consort Yi. Consort Yi is a princess of Jiyuan Kingdom, a half-demon. Ever since she became a consort of the Great Yan Dynasty, the emperor has begun to ostracize our ten major Daoist sects, and in the end, he even drove us out of the capital."
"Over the years, although the royal family and the ten major Taoist sects have not completely broken ties, there have been many conflicts. At the beginning of this year, the current crown prince married a woman who had been married before. This woman has a daughter named Ye Xianya. Although she is not a member of the Taoist sect, her strength should not be underestimated. My son had a conflict with her and was killed by her. She is very powerful and will soon become a princess of the dynasty. For the sake of the entire Yunxiao Palace, I have to endure it."
"Ye Xianya!" Yu Yanzhong was taken aback upon hearing this.
Ye Xianya, the sect leader who failed to transcend the tribulation fifty years ago, is the only person in the Taiyi Sect in the past few hundred years to cultivate to the limit and face the tribulation of lightning.
Although she ultimately failed, to this day, no one in the Taiyi Sect has forgotten her, and they often mention her.
The two names are so similar!
"Yes, have you ever heard of her, Senior Brother?" Xie Peng asked quickly when he noticed that Yu Yanzhong's expression was a little off.
"Wait while I cast a divination!" Yu Yanzhong said, and then began to use esoteric arts to perform a calculation.
When using the mystical arts of the Taiyi School for divination, the results are relatively accurate.
Of course, if the cause and effect are not closely related, or if the relationship is too deep, no result can be calculated.
Ye Xianya is an exception.
She is exceptionally talented, unlike any of these people.
Yu Yanzhong deduced for a while, his face turning somewhat grim: "Although I didn't see Miss Ye's face clearly, I did calculate that your son actually used evil magic to harm people, he deserves to die!"
He couldn't deduce the secrets of that Miss Ye, and based on just her name, he couldn't be sure if she was related to the former leader of the Taiyi Sect.
The only thing he was certain of was that Xie Peng's son had used evil magic to harm people, was guilty of sins, and deserved to die!
"Senior Brother!" Xie Peng knelt down again: "Senior Brother is right, my son does deserve to die, but... Senior Brother comes from Yunxiao Palace, you can't just watch us be wiped out, can you? Ye Xianya won't let the entire Yunxiao Palace go, she will definitely destroy us, please, Senior Brother, save us!"
Yu Yanzhong was furious after hearing his words.
He had only been gone for thirty years, and he never expected that Yunxiao Palace would fall to such a state. All of this was caused by the person in front of him.
"Xie Peng, you were in charge of Yunxiao Palace, yet you became a heretical cultivator and led Yunxiao Palace down this path of no return. Your crimes are unforgivable!"
Yu Yanzhong said with a dark face, "After the Daoist Grand Competition ends, I will select a new person to succeed as the Palace Master of Yunxiao Palace and guide him for a period of time until he can take charge of the overall situation."
"As for you and those disciples who have strayed into the evil path?" Yu Yanzhong said with a cold snort: "For the sake of our past as fellow disciples, I will not kill you. You will then have to cripple your cultivation, leave Yunxiao Palace, change your names, and live in seclusion in the mountains. If you cannot do so, then you will die."
Yunxiao Palace was his root, and Xie Peng was his junior brother. Of course, Yu Yanzhong could not stand by and watch Yunxiao Palace be destroyed.
However, Xie Peng and the others, who have become heretical cultivators, still need to be dealt with.
Yu Yanzhong's plan was to abolish their cultivation, turn them into ordinary people, and drive them away.
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