End of main text. Our story is a long one...
People become trapped by what they pursue.
When a group of people want to pursue something, they will be more likely to be troubled by it.
The spiritual community seeks a peaceful and prosperous world for humanity and the world at large.
Therefore, the spiritual community needs to devote all its efforts to crushing all evil practitioners and demons who attempt to invade the world and disrupt peace. It also needs to properly treat those who abandon darkness and embrace the light so that in the future, this can be used as a condition to dismantle evil practitioners from within, and solve potentially bigger problems with minimal losses.
Of course, the leader must die in order to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.
This is a very simple principle.
The Zhou family retainers who previously abandoned the darkness for the light are like this, and the Yun family who will later sacrifice their own family for the greater good will be the same.
Yun Ruofan understood this principle, and so did Yun Yaoying.
Yun Ruofan followed the path of sacrificing her father, and Yun Yaoying was not to be outdone.
It's important to understand that not everyone has such a troublesome father, and not everyone has the opportunity to gain worldwide renown and endless wealth after upholding justice and sacrificing family ties.
From the moment she was enraged by her father's attitude and conceived the idea of using Pei Hanzhou's communication jade slip...
No, perhaps from the moment she picked up the communication jade slip, she was already considering how to answer: why, when she clearly heard Pei Xuanzhi mention that her father might use blood-related evil magic, did she not return to the rear of the sect in time, but instead appeared in the Blood Lotus Secret Realm.
Others might still think she was lured here by her father, but what will she do when Pei Xuanzhi inadvertently raises a question and reveals that he once mentioned the blood-related evil magic to her?
She disliked people like Pei Xuanzhi.
He appeared half-dead, with a clean and pure appearance, but a sinister and ghostly aura seeped into his eyes like venom, bubbling and boiling with evil intent.
He is like a venomous snake, always ready to harm and kill, and tirelessly so, finding pleasure in it.
She suspected that he deliberately spoke of blood-related evil magic in front of her, and even brought his wife along as a witness.
It is obvious that no one else knows about this yet, not even the master.
If she hadn't been wary of him, she might have been playing the role of a pitiful daughter who had been lured here by her father to find a way to escape.
Once everyone believes it, Pei Xuanzhi will come and innocently raise questions once they leave the Blood Lotus Secret Realm.
His questioning might lead her to sue him for harboring resentment towards the daughter who was the mastermind behind the crime, and for deliberately framing him.
But Yan Huanyue happened to be there too.
A heroine who had just broken the Cleansing World Formation and severely injured Yun Xuanchen, and who acknowledged that Yun Ruofan had secretly assisted the sect, would arbitrarily and without reason frame Yun Xuanchen's daughter, accusing her of aiding and abetting evil at the last moment?
It's all possible that Pei Xuanzhi deliberately tricked her into a dead end; whether or not she can escape the Blood Lotus Secret Realm, she's doomed.
But it's also possible that it was all just a coincidence... right?
But she didn't have much time to mentally denounce the half-human, half-demon evil spirit in Pei Hanzhou's family; her father was the biggest problem right now.
However, it was clear that her father had really aged. When she was a child, she thought her father was exceptionally tall, but now he looked like an ordinary man, even a little too thin.
He is a very calm and restrained person, and he can be described as harsh on himself, all in order to achieve his goals.
When he was younger, oh, after he first died at Pei Hanzhou's hands, he was keen for a time to expand his blood relatives in order to cultivate a few completely trustworthy people for himself.
That's how the four siblings came to be.
They came from different mothers.
Those women were all carefully chosen by her father, and no one knows what became of them.
However, having children presents a huge challenge in raising them.
The father even went so far as to find a woman to act as their mother in an attempt to build an ordinary home.
However, their father disapproved of all four of them.
He gathered many retainers and built many secret residences, but he had no energy to create a good family. He even thought that the mediocrity of his four children was due to the woman's poor upbringing.
The woman soon fell ill and died.
But most people have hearts of flesh and blood.
Even though the woman knew that her death was because of her father, she still expressed her distrust of the four of them before she died, and distributed the things she had saved up over the years to them.
But perhaps this cold-heartedness is something ingrained in their bones; the two older brothers already knew that the woman was not their mother, so they were not saddened.
She and her third brother, being young, had already heard some rumors and didn't take this woman, who depended on their father and used her power to lecture them, seriously.
Tan Guiyi rarely thought about that woman. The woman was only referred to by the two names "mother" and "mother". She didn't even know the woman's surname or given name.
But looking at her father, who was weak after being seriously injured, the woman's figure still flashed before her eyes. She didn't feel anything, but she felt that they were exactly the same—fragile, thin, and on the verge of death.
Perhaps everyone will have such a day.
However, it's clear that my father is truly old. He's been struggling his whole life, but in the end, he's nothing. In a few decades, no, he won't even live to see next month. He'll just become a topic of conversation over tea. In another year, will anyone still mention him?
However, my father has really gotten old, and he's surprisingly bloodthirsty.
The jade slip in her hand was still trembling when he collapsed to the ground.
Tan Guiyi, based on Yan Huanyue's speculation after the Heavenly Pillar formation was broken, deduced that her father's death was caused by the back of his neck...
She guessed right.
As for how she succeeded, she herself couldn't remember.
She needed to suppress her thunderous heartbeat, and by the time she realized what was happening, the communication jade slip in her hand had already pierced the back of his neck.
Perhaps he was distracted after realizing that the sect members had found this place, which is why he was stabbed; she didn't know.
The secret realm was opened, and the father's cultivation gradually dissipated, soon being swept away by the cliff wind.
She needs to maximize her benefits from the patricide and provide a plausible explanation for her presence here.
.
"Her father's blood splattered all over her. After the seniors examined her body, although Yun Xuanchen's soul was incomplete, it was more likely due to the backlash when the formation was broken. They did not find any remnants of Yun Xuanchen's soul in Fellow Daoist Tan's body, so they brought her back to treat her."
"Tsk, what a person who is both kind and filial, truly admirable."
"That is to say, one's birth is not something one can choose. To persuade one's father to be executed, to discuss the matter but fail, and then to choose the greater good over personal ties, and then to choose to kill oneself rather than help one's father escape. Alas... how cruel fate is."
“Young Master Yun stays by the bedside every day to take care of him. Tell me, Yun Xuanchen himself is not a good person, but how come his children are all so good?”
After announcing Yun Xuanchen's death, the sect members temporarily ascended the Tianqian South and settled there.
Although she has recovered considerably, it is not advisable for her to go out during the day. Yan Huanyue can only go to the pharmacy at night to retrieve her belongings, wearing a cloak and hood.
On my way back through the wind and snow, I passed a stone building and overheard people discussing the snow from their windows.
She walked quickly over, and when she reached a clearing in the snow, she heard a series of footsteps.
She looked up at the sound and saw a tall, slender woman with several lantern-carrying servants, walking out of the night with Yun Ruofan, their clothes covered in snow.
Just as Yan Huanyue was about to leave, she heard the woman gasp and call out excitedly, "Fellow Daoist Yan!"
Yan Huanyue stopped in her tracks.
A strong gust of wind carrying snow swept in, and the woman instantly stood just a step away from her, looking at her with a mixture of excitement and restraint.
"Fellow Daoist...have you fully recovered? I went to visit you, but I couldn't get a turn. The things I brought were returned by your sect, saying that you refused to accept them."
Yan Huanyue took a slight step back to create some distance, then made a hand seal as she greeted him, saying, "Thank you for your concern. I have recovered. May I ask who you are, my friend...?"
Seeing her perform a hand gesture and bow, the woman felt that her unintentional bow possessed countless graces. Excited, she reached out to shake her hand, but then felt it was somewhat presumptuous and forcibly pressed her raised hand down.
“I come from Langzhong. My surname is Chai, Chai Tianyu. During the Cao family’s demon-slaying war, we were under the jurisdiction of the Misty Sect. I was also in the array cultivators’ ranks, which is why you have never seen me before.”
“I greatly admire you, fellow Daoist, and wish to befriend you. Would you like to visit Langzhong? I have a private residence there where you can come and stay anytime.”
Looking at her sparkling eyes and eager expression, Yan Huanyue was at a loss for how to respond.
Langzhong is located further northwest of Chang'an, and its people are known for their fierce and valiant nature. The Chai family was exceptionally brave in this demon-slaying campaign.
The spiritual veins of the old Tengzhou were pure and abundant, with countless spiritual mines, which once supported the struggle between the demon race and the entire human race.
Most of the sea area has fallen under the control of the demon race, and the major families are now vying for control of the old Tengzhou.
The Enforcement Division then divided the old Tengzhou into several parts, and the source of the spiritual vein was in the newly divided Pinghai County.
After this demon-slaying, the greatest contributor to Yun Xuanchen's near-annihilation of the spiritual cultivation world was Yan Huanyue, who broke the formation, followed by the Yun siblings.
Yan Huanyue has been arranged to go to Hanyang County, where the climate is mild, to take over all matters in the future.
The remaining brother and sister who sacrificed their own family for the greater good need to be properly cared for by the sect. It would be even better if a family could take them in and look after them, helping them integrate into the community.
The Chai family wanted to take over Pinghai County, and Yun Ruofan needed to be rewarded for abandoning the darkness and turning to the light. It was not surprising that the Chai family's daughter was with Yun Ruofan at this time.
Yan Huanyue thanked her and said, "Thank you, fellow Daoist. If I am fortunate enough to visit Langzhong in the future, I will definitely present you with my visiting card first. I still need to go back to take my medicine, so I will take my leave now."
After exchanging greetings with the others, they headed towards their temporary lodgings.
Chai Tianyu watched her for a long time until she completely disappeared from sight.
Yun Ruofan stood behind Chai Tianyu, his eyes scanning the area. He felt a faint, lingering smell of blood in the cold air, but he couldn't find its source.
Chai Tianyu turned around, about to speak to him, but in the dim light, his gaze froze for a moment. He pointed to the edge of the white undergarment inside the man's clothes and said:
"Did you just bandage your sister's wound? It looks like a drop of blood got on it."
Yun Ruofan looked at the jade ring on her finger, then followed her hand to her own clothes.
He couldn't see where she was pointing, and it would be very indecent to pull at his clothes to look now, so he could only wait until he got back to see.
.
When Yan Huanyue returned to the house, Pei Xuanzhi was tending to a pot of soup on a small stove, sprinkling some vegetables here and there, and slicing various kinds of meat on the side.
Yan Huanyue closed the door to block the howling wind and snow, and then used a magic spell to wash away the snow from her body.
When Pei Xuanzhi saw her come in, he smiled and asked, "Did you get it?"
Yan Huanyue stood in the room for a while until the chill had completely dissipated before taking out a jar of wine and two paper packages from her bosom, sitting down at the table, and going to change her clothes first.
Pei Xuanzhi washed her hands, rummaged through the paper package, opened it, picked out some medicinal herbs and threw them into the stone pot. She then poured out some wine and added some ginger slices that she had brought back to stew together.
The room was warm and cozy. Yan Huanyue changed her clothes and sat down next to him. She curled up in the high chair, let out a long sigh, and said, "Guess who I just saw?"
Pei Xuanzhi stood at the table, pouring all the ingredients into the stone pot one by one. A faint smile played on his lips through the thin steam.
"Could it be some young lady and Yun Erlang?"
Yan Huanyue was somewhat surprised, "How did you know?"
Pei Xuanzhi put down the plate in his hand, stirred the food in the stone pot, and sighed, "The Yun family's dark residence still belongs to the siblings. You've been hiding away these days, so naturally you don't know that there are fewer people trying to win him over now."
Yan Huanyue nestled in the high chair, one hand supporting her chin, watching the rising steam. "I thought it was only the Chai family of Langzhong..."
Pei Xuanzhi sighed, "If you hadn't married me first, wouldn't you have received the same treatment, Madam?"
Yan Huanyue chuckled upon hearing this, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at him, teasingly saying with a smile:
"Then I should seek a great reward for my small merit, and I will not be satisfied until I marry the young master Pei from the sect leader's family."
Upon hearing this, Pei Xuanzhi's ears perked up. He expressionlessly scooped up a cup of hot wine and handed it to her, saying, "You haven't even touched a drop of wine, yet you're already spouting nonsense."
When that time comes, there will be countless young talents, how will you be able to see me then?
Yan Huanyue stood up from her chair with her wine glass in hand, leaned forward, and rested her upper body on his back.
She wrapped one arm around his neck and held the wine to his lips with the other, complaining, "It's so hot, how can you drink it?"
A light pink blush quickly spread across Pei Xuanzhi's pale face. He wrapped his arms around her to protect her, then lowered his head to blow on the rim of the cup and said softly, "Alright, it's cooled down. If you keep dawdling, you'll fall into the pot."
Yan Huanyue leaned on his shoulder and laughed non-stop, finishing her wine by herself and tossing the cup onto the table. "It's tasteless after being cooked for too long. You should try it."
Knowing her allure, he turned around without hesitation, embraced her, and wanted to kiss her.
Yan Huanyue placed her hands on his shoulders and straightened up, looking at him with a smile. "What are you doing, Pei Xiaolang? Did I say something outrageous while I was drunk?"
Pei Xuanzhi picked her up and pulled her into his arms, sitting her down on a chair beside him. He lowered his head and kissed her forehead, softly chuckling, "Don't worry, I volunteered entirely."
Yan Huanyue was amused and hugged him, giving him two big kisses on the cheek. She turned to look at the steaming food on the stove and said, "Let's eat."
Snow and wind swirled on the snowy plain. Yan Huanyue and Pei Xuanzhi ate a little food and then cleared away the dishes. After washing up, the two snuggled together for a drink. After drinking a lot, they began to drink together.
Yan Huanyue, her eyes still blurry with drunkenness, weakly gripped her wine glass and said, "I used to think you were cold and aloof, maybe hard to get along with... But who knew you were actually quite nice... very easy to talk to, and had a surprisingly good temper."
Pei Xuanzhi hadn't drunk much and wasn't drunk. He put his arm around her and smiled, "I've always wanted to get closer to you."
Yan Huanyue drank another cup and sighed, "No..."
Pei Xuanzhi snatched the wine glass from her hand and smiled, "Yes, always has been."
Yan Huanyue raised her hand to stroke his cheek, looking at him in a daze, as if she saw that figure sitting by the Undying Lake. "So that's why you were there?"
Pei Xuanzhi didn't know where she was referring to, but he responded to her words and coaxed, "Yes, it's always been here."
Yan Huanyue sighed softly, "When did you get there?"
Pei Xuanzhi gently kissed her forehead. "It's a long story. You're drunk, you should rest."
Yan Huanyue closed her heavy eyes and could feel herself being carried back to the bed. She remembered that she had many things she wanted to say to him, and she remembered that she must have said a lot to him.
As the wind and snow howled through the night, Yan Huanyue woke up groggily, nudged him, and whispered, "What did you just say?"
Pei Xuanzhi was a light sleeper. With sleepy eyes, he pulled her into his arms and said in a deep voice with his eyes closed, "He didn't say anything."
Yan Huanyue was both drunk and stubborn at this moment, "You said it, but I didn't hear you clearly, it was just now."
Pei Xuanzhi patted her back and coaxed her, softly chuckling, "I say, year after year, day after day, our story is a long one..."
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Author's note: The main storyline is complete, and the other plot points will be covered in side stories.
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