Just one Chu Ling clearly wasn’t enough to stir up such a massive storm.
Chu Ling carried the Source of Darkness within her.
Because of that, she possessed an extremely strong power of seduction.
But the principle remained the same—seduction didn’t equate to cognitive distortion.
If someone held no hostility toward Lu Ye, then no matter how seductive Chu Ling was, they wouldn’t attack him. Just look at Shangguan Huanling.
Lu Ye also understood that if he continued this slaughter...
His reputation would become utterly ruined. He’d be someone cursed and condemned by all nine heavens.
Whether it was because of the killings he committed, or because of the terrifying benefits he embodied.
But so what?
A good reputation hadn’t brought him any benefits in his past life.
Then in this life, a bad reputation wouldn’t bring him any real harm either.
In fact, a good reputation might bring him misfortune—while a bad one might bring him gains.
This world... really was that twisted.
Or maybe—it was human nature that was just that twisted.
The stone sword, enhanced bit by bit by Lu Ye using Void-Slaying Spears as material, had seen a tremendous increase in power.
Even though he hadn’t yet fed it a single percent of Void Celestial Gold or Fire Phoenix Divine Gold, just a little was enough to push the sword to the next tier.
He had even used the Origin-Swallowing Heaven Scripture to absorb some of it, and while the true essence it refined was indeed pure, Lu Ye had released it afterward.
Because it didn’t harmonize well with the true essence produced by his own cultivation method.
But now, the stone sword had truly risen.
Even after killing so many, the blade remained pristine, unstained by a single drop of blood.
All the essence blood had been instantly absorbed by the sword.
The great battle erupted, and no one ran.
Because the Fragrance of Ascension was present.
Kill as much as they could. Kill as hard as they could.
Even while slaughtering, Lu Ye was quietly monitoring Bai Qiulan’s condition.
That’s right—he had planted a mark on Bai Qiulan called Divine Shadow Seal.
It was highly covert and allowed him to sense most of Bai Qiulan’s activity.
He was genuinely curious—could Bai Qiulan actually change?
As the saying goes, a dog can’t stop eating shit—unless it got a full set of soul-crushing beatdowns from a fire dragon’s stomp.
Just like him.
He had to die countless times before he finally got over his clingy simp mindset.
And Bai Qiulan? Just changed out of nowhere? Lu Ye found it hard to believe.
What he really wanted to know was whether Bai Qiulan had any leads on Anli. Killing one Bai Qiulan didn’t matter.
The key was killing Anli.
As for Anli, he didn’t have even a scrap of a lead.
As for this battle—Lu Ye could win it with his eyes closed.
This mob at most had Unity Realm cultivators.
In just fifteen minutes—
The ones who thought they were surrounding Lu Ye like a turtle in a jar had become the turtles themselves.
Blood dyed the earth.
Corpses covered the land.
Lu Ye walked up to the black longsword and reached out to grip its hilt.
Wisps of black mist curled around him.
“Husband, long time no see.”
Anli’s cheerful voice echoed in Lu Ye’s mind.
“Long time no see. Where are you? I kind of miss you,” Lu Ye replied calmly, speaking the truth.
“Husband must be dying to kill me, huh?” Anli giggled.
“You got me.” Lu Ye chuckled as well.
“Husband, the truth is, I didn’t really want to betray you back then. After all, you were so good to me. No one in the world could ever treat me as well as you did,” Anli said, her voice tinged with emotion.
“And then?”
“And then... I just got bored. So bored. Everyone adored you. Everyone treated you kindly. Yet all of them were so fake, pretending to be good when they were actually disgusting. Just looking at them made me nauseous.”
“I needed some ripples in my life.”
“I needed some fun.”
“Living under your protection had become tiresome. I needed something new.”
“So, are you doing well now?”
“Mhm mhm mhm, I’m doing great. Just missing a husband. If you were with me, it’d be even better.”
“Then wouldn’t it be best if I came and found you?”
“No can do. You’ve still got the aura of the Heavenly Dao on you. If you’d give that up, you wouldn’t even need to look for me. I’d come to you myself.”
“You wish.”
Suddenly, Shen Xitong’s voice broke in.
“Hm?”
Anli was caught off guard.
“Husband wouldn’t come find you. He’s with me now.”
“Who are you?” Anli’s voice trembled in shock.
“Haven’t you always wanted to take my place? Now you’re asking who I am? My dear older sister, I should thank you for giving me such a wonderful husband like Lu Ye. I’m ever so grateful.”
At that moment, Anli was nearly scared to death.
The Heavenly Dao... the Heavenly Dao had developed awareness?
Not only had it developed awareness—it had become Lu Ye’s woman?
What kind of joke was this?
How could the Heavenly Dao possibly gain sentience?
Why would the Heavenly Dao need to have consciousness?
“No, you’re lying to me!”
Anli flat-out refused to believe it. The Heavenly Dao could not have awareness. If it did—was it still the Heavenly Dao?
“I’m lying to you? Hehe, sure, believe what you want. You like stimulation, right? How about this—me and the strongest Heavenly Venerable husband—does that excite you enough?”
Shen Xitong’s voice carried a thrill of excitement.
“Impossible!”
Anli had always loved being in control of everything, just like in the previous life.
Even when Lu Ye was a peak Heavenly Venerable, she had him wrapped around her little finger.
Let alone this newly reincarnated Lu Ye.
But in the past life, two things had slipped out of Anli’s control.
First—at the final moment, Lu Ye had chosen to self-destruct without hesitation, perishing alongside the Source of Darkness.
That self-destruction made no sense. Because under her influence, the Source of Darkness had never directly clashed with Lu Ye.
There had been no reason for him to drag the Source of Darkness into death with him.
Second—everyone’s rebirth.
That unfathomable power... Anli had never understood how it came to be.
But now she finally did.
The Heavenly Dao—had become Lu Ye’s woman!!!
It was something she never could have imagined, even in her wildest dreams.
She had thought everything was once again under her control. But Shen Xitong’s emergence shattered her plans.
The Heavenly Dao had gained awareness.
And teamed up with Lu Ye.
“If you think it’s impossible, then so be it. But look at this lightning—doesn’t it look real to you?”
Suddenly, thunder boomed.
A streak of dark violet lightning shot through the void, streaking rapidly toward a distant location.
“Ahhh!”
A scream tore out.
The black mist around Lu Ye dissipated in an instant.
“Ding! Hmph! Stinky Host! Beat this Anli down hard! She really thinks I’m that easy to bully?!”
Lu Ye...
In truth, the system shouldn’t have shown up.
If it had stayed hidden, Lu Ye might have had the chance to pull a bigger scheme on Anli.
But Shen Xitong’s fiery temper—she couldn’t hold back for even fifteen minutes watching Anli run her mouth.
So she zapped her the moment she showed up.
Still, it was fine.
Anli would now have no choice but to go all out against him.
And that—was exactly what Lu Ye wanted.
A new karmic thread appeared through the black demonic sword. After clearing the battlefield, Lu Ye turned into a stream of light and shot off toward the end of that karmic thread.
