"Impossible... Impossible!" he cried. "Master couldn't possibly abandon me! We, master and disciple, were supposed to ascend the Great Dao... to ascend the Great Dao!"
Venerable Elder Baimei was long gone.
At this moment, Tian Xing stood as if stupefied, a look of dawning comprehension on his face.
He could feel it. Somewhere, between Heaven and Earth, he still had... an ava... No, that wasn't an avatar!
"Back then, your innate aptitude was ordinary," a voice said. "Even breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm was an immense struggle for you. And yet, you were able to scheme, to sacrifice the lives of thousands of disciples on Azure Mist Mountain just to reach Divinity Transformation, and you expect me to believe your Master, a Void Refining expert, was completely unaware? Is that not just a bit laughable?"
Li Wei's indifferent voice echoed in Tian Xing's ears.
His eyes held a trace of pity.
"Pity and blame often go hand in hand — no one falls this far without earning some of it."
"Azure Mist Mountain is renowned as a sacred ground for cultivation," he said. "You used the Essence Harvesting Death Formation, and with such a stained record of evil deeds, Venerable Elder Baimei still took you as his disciple. And yet, a person like that still dares to posture as a saint before my Li family."
"What do you know... What could you possibly know?!!"
Tian Xing roared furiously at Li Wei, like a man gone mad.
Li Wei gazed calmly at the struggling Tian Xing.
"That old ghost Baimei is a ruthless man by nature," he said. "What he truly values is precisely someone like you, one who would sacrifice all living beings for the sake of their Great Dao.
If I am not mistaken, the method you used to sacrifice the thousands of disciples on Azure Mist Mountain was not something you comprehended yourself, but was rather a gift from that old ghost you call Master."
"Hahaha! What could you possibly know? You're just making wild guesses... wild..."
Tian Xing laughed loudly, still clinging to the hope that Venerable Elder Baimei would come to his rescue. But his laughter quickly died, coming to an abrupt halt.
To his astonishment, his mind began to clear, and his memories seemed to be returning!
True despair was only just beginning to descend, causing Tian Xing's pupils to dilate. Fear practically burst from his eyes.
"In truth," Li Wei's ethereal voice sounded, "you died a long, long time ago. You died inside the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode."
Li Wei's voice was faint. "You broke through to Divinity Transformation. You quickly relied on the cultivation base and aptitude of your fellow disciples from Azure Mist Mountain to reach the very peak of the Divinity Transformation realm.
But your own lifespan never changed. On the verge of death, you revisited every place you had ever been, before finally undergoing your final transformation inside the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode."
"You left behind the Tian Xing Tear in the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode," Li Wei continued.
"Within it are recorded all the memories of your cultivation.
As your lifespan reached its end, you finally discovered that no matter how hard you strived, you were merely a tool for Baimei to use.
You began to feel remorseful. Upon that spirit object, the Tian Xing Tear, are only the memories of your first fifteen hundred-odd years of cultivation.
In truth, that's all the memories it ever contained."
Li Wei's voice was like a demonic whisper, and Tian Xing clutched his head in agony. Despair... profound despair!
"We discovered that you never dared to enter the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode," Li Wei said.
"And even Baimei, he never entered it either. That place is a special existence, it seems. Because once the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode is opened, the moment you step inside... your memories return."
Tian Xing seemed to understand everything. For some unknown reason, tears began to stream from his eyes.
His memories had truly awakened.
He remembered now. He had pursued the Great Dao, sought immortality. But he had done so many terrible things until the day he ascended Azure Mist Mountain and met that benevolent old man.
But in this world, there are always some existences, filled with filth, that disguise themselves in a glamorous facade.
That benevolent old man came before him and, step by step, bewitched him, leading him to slaughter all his fellow disciples.
An unprecedented Divinity Transformation lightning tribulation on Azure Mist Mountain allowed him to become a Fifth-Grade Divinity Transformation expert, yet he had never truly escaped that old man's control!
He was filled with remorse and despair.
Everything he had ever done had always been part of someone else's calculations.
He personally constructed a Cultivator's Abode, and within it, ended his wretched, unbearable life.
At the final juncture, using the very techniques that the old man had taught him, he created a new technique of his own.
It was a technique that would allow him to be reincarnated into an innocent family, to no longer pursue the illusory Great Dao.
He was supposed to have lived a happy life, together with his family, even if only as a mortal.
What a simple and naive aspiration, was it not?
But... that old man still found him!
"It's not like that! Master isn't like that, and neither am I!
I was supposed to pursue the Great Dao! Master told me, he told me we were supposed to break through the Void Refining realm together, achieve Body Integration, travel the path of Mahayana, and head straight for the Immortal Realm!"
Tian Xing sank into agony. His true memories ran completely contrary to the beliefs he had held his entire life.
"Master isn't that kind of person," he sobbed, "and neither am I! I wasn't used! I... I was supposed to pursue the Great Dao!!!"
Li Wei frowned.
"A pity," he said. "Some people are so cold-hearted, they won't let you go even in death.
He would never have allowed you to undergo your final transformation.
He entered the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, took your divine soul, and also took your cultivation techniques."
"No, no... No, no, no!"
Tian Xing roared.
His thoughts were in turmoil. He suddenly realized that his entire life had been a lie.
He had strived for a lifetime, working to spread his avatars across the world, all in anticipation of this day when he would reach the Void Refining realm and the Great Dao itself would extend its hand to him.
But the ones now blocking his path were not just the Li family; it was also that benevolent old man from Azure Mist Mountain, the very one he had once trusted!
Seeing Tian Xing's miserable state, clutching his head and roaring in agony, the Li family members watched him with expressions of grim satisfaction.
True despair, they knew, was far more than just the painful memories transmitted from the avatars.
It was... the truth!
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