Yun Jin cast a calm glance at Han Xiaoyu's body sprawled lifelessly on the ground.
Ye Danxia's face instantly tensed. She clenched her teeth and said, "He bullied me first. I only fought back."
Yun Jin raised an eyebrow, looking neither surprised nor interested. "Oh."
Her indifferent tone only made Ye Danxia all the more agitated.
"Do not look at me with those eyes! Thanks to you, I lost my spiritual root, lost my cultivation, and became nothing more than a mortal! Han Xiaoyu tormented me and humiliated me.
Am I not allowed to kill him? He did nothing but drink all day, and whenever he was drunk, he beat me just to vent his anger. Look at me—look at my body, covered from head to toe with wounds!" Ye Danxia furiously pulled up her sleeve.
Indeed, her skin bore almost no unblemished place. Bruises and scars ran all across her arms.
Yun Jin remained calm as ever. "Oh."
She had not moved nor spoken much, yet Ye Danxia seemed to collapse under her own emotions. "Yun Jin, you will never let me go, will you! I finally killed Han Xiaoyu, thinking my days might be easier, and then you appeared. You just cannot bear to see me live even a little better, is that it?
Yun Jin, why must you treat me this way!!" Ye Danxia's voice was a shrill roar.
In these past years, she had heard far too many stories about Yun Jin.
Yun Jin rebuilt the Wushuang Sect, and even Tianxing Sect had become its subordinate sect.
Yun Jin displayed divine might, defeating enemies far beyond her realm.
Yun Jin dared question Lin Xiao to his face, and she suffered no punishment.
The Wushuang Sect she created had become the greatest dark horse, overturning the balance of the great sect battles in Skyless City.
Yun Jin, Yun Jin...
Everywhere, it was Yun Jin.
She had become a legend upon everyone's lips. Some even debated whether Yun Jin already had a place among the true peak powerhouses of the continent.
And how long had Yun Jin even been walking the path of cultivation?
Yet she had already become a legend.
And herself?
She had once possessed the most perfect Heavenly Spiritual Root for cultivation, yet step after step, she stumbled, until she had fallen to this miserable state.
After becoming a mortal, Ye Danxia had learned to abandon dignity. Even those lowly cultivators she once disdained, she now bowed and scraped before.
By that logic, before Yun Jin—whose power surpassed all cultivators a thousandfold—she should be even more submissive, begging for a sliver of grace. With Yun Jin's current status, even the tiniest speck from her fingertips could sustain Ye Danxia for life.
She understood all of this.
But she could not do it.
For Yun Jin was the one who should have been trampled beneath her feet!
If charity was to be given, it should have been her standing tall, condescendingly bestowing favors upon Yun Jin.
Her emotions shattered reason, and Ye Danxia glared at Yun Jin with eyes full of hatred.
Yun Jin quietly looked at her, her expression unmoved.
After shouting herself hoarse without receiving even a flicker of response, Ye Danxia's fury dulled into exhaustion. Her voice rasped bitterly, "Well? Have you enjoyed the joke?"
Yun Jin spoke evenly. "Ye Danxia. I just crossed my heavenly tribulation."
Ye Danxia's pupils shrank sharply.
Crossed her heavenly tribulation?
Then Yun Jin was already in the Mahayana stage?
For so long, people had whispered that the heavenly tribulation was the ultimate barrier of all peerless geniuses. If one failed, everything was destroyed. If one succeeded, one ascended.
Night after night, Ye Danxia had secretly cursed, praying that Yun Jin would die under heavenly thunder.
But she had survived.
"So what? Did you come to flaunt it?" Ye Danxia sneered. "Boasting to a mortal like me—does it make you feel superior?"
Yun Jin replied lightly, "In my final Heart Demon Tribulation, I saw you."
Ye Danxia's expression shifted, then twisted into sarcasm. "Imagine that. I actually had the honor of being your heart demon?"
"Not exactly." Yun Jin's voice was steady. "The Heart Demon Tribulation reflects one's inner stages of mind. The first illusion I saw was the Yun family's massacre. My hardest trial, my first trial, was family."
Ye Danxia frowned. "And what does that have to do with me?"
Yun Jin looked at her, calm as still water. "The fact that you appeared proves that at that time, I once regarded you as family."
Ye Danxia's body trembled. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
Family?
Yun Jin said she once thought of her as family?
"I came today to see you one last time," Yun Jin said quietly. "Every grudge has been repaid. The past is now behind us.
Ye Danxia. From this day forth, you will hear my name and stories everywhere. But in this lifetime, and the next, you and I will never meet again."
Her name would echo everywhere.
But they would never meet again.
Ye Danxia's lips trembled.
Yun Jin finished speaking and turned away. She had not come to strike at a fallen enemy. Ye Danxia's current state was too pitiful for that. Back when Yun Jin had just returned from the worlds of quick transmigration, her heart burned with vengeance.
She had wanted to kill Ye Danxia.
She had wanted to kill the Demon Sovereign.
She had wanted to annihilate every person who humiliated her.
But step by step, she had walked forward.
Those debts had been repaid.
Only Yang Yun remained, and one day she would slay him with her own hands.
But beyond revenge, she had found a greater world.
She had Dao to comprehend.
Cultivation to pursue.
Strength to gain.
Adventures to undertake.
And herself to cherish.
Revenge was only a tiny part of her life.
Now, her ties with Ye Danxia ended here. Beyond this, the heavens and earth were vast, and her life would blaze brightly.
Past causes, present consequences.
As for Ye Danxia...
She had chosen her own road.
"Yun Jin!!!" Ye Danxia suddenly screamed.
Yun Jin paused and looked back once.
Ye Danxia's body shook. "What do you mean? You think we no longer belong to the same world, that I am unworthy even to see you again? I was once Heaven's favored daughter! It was you who ruined me, you—"
Ye Danxia's voice broke with unwillingness.
Endlessly unwilling.
Yun Jin said evenly, "Your spiritual root was destroyed by Yang Yun. Your spiritual power was stolen by Yang Yun. Saving him was your own decision."
Ye Danxia froze.
Yun Jin continued coldly, "Your life—you destroyed it yourself."
The words fell.
Yun Jin's figure vanished.
Ye Danxia staggered, then shrieked hysterically, "Yun Jin! Lies! All lies! It was you, you ruined me—"
Her wails rang behind, but Yun Jin no longer cared to listen.
Even now, she still found Ye Danxia strange. It was Yang Yun who ruined her cultivation, yet she did not hate him. Instead, she poured all her hatred onto Yun Jin.
Tsk, tsk.
But Yun Jin owed her no explanations.
She had already let go.
Whether Ye Danxia let go or not...
What did it matter to her!