If I stay in the Hehuan Sect, I'll live off the pampered daughters of the Heavenly Pride Sect.

Xie Buci did not turn back.

He looked up at the leaden sky and gave a dry laugh.

The laughter didn't reach his eyes, but it carried a chilling coldness and mockery.

"Because those in power don't need heroes, they only need obedient pawns."

He slowly turned around, and each word struck a chord in everyone's hearts.

"When the news of the former master's death reached the sect, those old fogies at the top immediately launched an attack."

"They argued that I was only in the early stages of Foundation Establishment and couldn't suppress the fortune of a peak."

"They swiftly and decisively stripped Qingquan Peak of 90% of its resources and core heritage."

"The formation has been sealed, and the spiritual veins have been altered."

"Qingquan Peak has become a dead mountain."

Xie Buci's gaze swept across Mo Chengyue and Qin Wanzhuang's faces.

As for Yan Chenyu.

"Fifty years ago, she was just a marginal female cultivator in the sect with no background, possessing only a pretty face."

"The higher-ups pushed her to the position of peak leader, making her a puppet."

"The goal is to make Qingquan Peak disappear from the Hehuan Sect's roster without firing a shot."

Qin Wanzhuang suddenly raised her head, her swollen eyes filled with astonishment.

Xie Buci clenched his teeth, his facial muscles twitching slightly.

"But do you really think she's just a good-for-nothing who sleeps all day and is manipulated by everyone?"

His speech quickened, and his suppressed emotions finally found an outlet.

"After Yan Chenyu took over, he endured the disdain of the elders of various peaks and pretended to be a depraved person who was greedy for pleasure and willing to degenerate."

"When the higher-ups wanted to cut her allowance, she just smiled and accepted it."

"When other peaks came to take over her territory, she would just turn over on the soft couch and continue sleeping."

"She let her apprentices do as they pleased, without teaching them a single move."

"If she hadn't completely let her guard down, if she hadn't turned Qingquan Peak into a joke that even dogs wouldn't deign to look at, the higher-ups would have already found an excuse to eliminate us!"

A trickle of blood appeared at the corner of Xie Buci's eye.

"She is using this most humiliating 'feigning death' posture in the Hehuan Sect, this den of demons that devours people without spitting out the bones."

"She shielded us, her last remaining descendants, with her own stigma! It was she who, with all that infamy, bought me fifty years of unnoticed dormancy!"

The truth came to light. Past details flashed wildly through Qin Wanzhuang and Mo Chengyue's minds like a reversed afterimage.

Qin Wanzhuang felt a sharp pain in her chest.

She remembered how she had once stood outside her master's cave and raged because of a shortage of resources.

She remembered countless times she drew her Blazing Sun Sword, pointing it at Xie Buci and berating him for his womanizing and disgracing the family.

She had always thought that the decay of Qingquan Peak was from the inside out, but little did she know that beneath this rotten surface lay a horrific story of a severed arm struggling to survive.

An overwhelming sense of guilt overwhelmed her proud principles in an instant.

She could no longer muster any strength and suddenly collapsed to the ground, slamming her forehead hard into the cold earth.

She bit her lip until it bled, her sobs caught in her throat, leaving only faint whimpers.

Mo Chengyue gasped for breath, feeling a burning sensation in his respiratory tract.

He used to think that Yan Chenyu was a nuisance, a useless burden that he had to pay out of his own pocket to support.

He planned to leave this wretched place once he had achieved a certain level of cultivation.

Who would have thought that beneath this lazy and absurd behavior lay a long and suffocating period of forbearance?

Yan Chenyu's fair hand forcefully concealed the sharpest set of blades from the Hehuan Sect into the mud.

Xie Buci looked at Qin Wanzhuang's trembling shoulders but didn't help her up.

The people of Qingquan Peak can only shed tears for the dead.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the sorrow in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a violent and murderous aura.

Xie Buci reached into the specially made storage bag at his waist. He suddenly exerted force on his wrist.

"Thump!"

A heavy object flew out of the storage bag and crashed heavily into the puddle in front of the stone tablet. Mud and water splashed everywhere.

The object rolled twice down the slope and came to a stop face up.

All eyes turned to it at the same time.

It was a head. The dark red hair was tangled in clumps, the face was a mixture of blue and purple, the eyes were wide open in anger, and the features were distorted to the extreme.

Gu Lie.

Even though it was just an inanimate object, the fierce and menacing aura of the late-stage Great Perfection Demon General had not dissipated.

The moisture in the air cooled rapidly, condensing into a layer of stark white frost around the head.

The two junior disciples standing at the very back were terrified. Their legs trembled violently, and they took several steps back before they could barely stand.

"Though the old dog is dead, his sins are far from absolved!"

Xie Buci strode out, his boots sinking into the mud.

He grabbed Gu Lie's messy, dark red hair, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

He roughly pressed down the head of the demon flag lord, making it face Li Dingguo's blank tomb.

He picked up the old ceramic bowl with his left hand, and with a flick of his wrist, poured out all the remaining cheap liquor inside.

The pungent liquor washed over the blood and grime on Gu Lie's face, mixing with the dark red liquid and seeping into the black soil below.

Xie Buci released his grip, and his knees slammed to the ground.

He no longer bent over; his spine stood as straight as a javelin.

His hoarse voice cleaved through the cold morning wind, carrying the exhilarating and resolute feeling of severing fifty years of cause and effect.

"Disciple Xie Buci of Qingquan Peak, having retrieved the head of the formidable enemy Gu Lie, pays his respects to his senior brother!"

He paused, his voice shattering the last vestiges of chill.

"Fifty years of blood debt, today, is settled!"

This roar ignited the blood in Mo Chengyue's meridians.

To weigh the pros and cons, to play it safe.

At this moment, all retreat and scheming seem utterly ridiculous.

Without the slightest hesitation, he lifted his clothes, which were covered in grass clippings, and slammed his knees heavily into the muddy water.

Mud splattered on his cheeks, but he didn't react at all.

He moved to Qin Wanzhuang's side and knelt down beside her.

Wenren Ji, who had always been a detached observer, also placed the heavy, broken sword of Annihilation horizontally in front of his knees.

He knelt on the ground, his back straight.

The three members of Qingquan Peak moved in unison.

They both bent down at the same time, pressing their foreheads to the cold, damp black soil.

"Qin Wanzhuang, Mo Chengyue, and Wenren Ji, disciples of Qingquan Peak, pay their respects to our senior brother!"

The low shouts echoed through the mountainside.

The three of them were completely connected at that moment.

After fifty years of silence, Qingquan Peak completed its most perfect handover amidst blood and mud.

The silhouettes of the four people in front, like an unshakeable battle flag, shattered the defenses of everyone behind them.

This emotional tension, devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations, was even more submissive than the pressure of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

The proud Peacock Princess Jin Qiaoqiao withdrew all her demonic power to protect herself. Lifting her dusty skirt, she knelt down on the ground without complaint.

Su Qingying planted the Jade Spirit Sword straight into the mud, knelt on one knee, and lowered her noble head.

Yu Jianhuan suppressed her alluring charm, and Lin Miaoyin obediently put down her pipa. The two of them knelt down on both knees after her.

The two junior disciples who had been invisible the whole way had long since thrown away their weapons and were lying prostrate in the withered grass.

There were no orders issued, and no consideration of interests.

Here, the barriers of sects, factions, and even races are completely crushed.

Ten people, ten pairs of knees. They pressed down in unison on the barren earth of the ruins.

We pay homage to our senior brother, Li Dingguo.