“You’re here to kill me? And you’re being forced to do it?” The old man said hoarsely, “Hah! Treasure Leaf, who in this world could force you to do anything?” Treasure Leaf shook his head. “No one could force me to do anything, unless... I was no longer in control of myself.” The old man instantly realized the source of the problem. His brow furrowed. “You’re saying Ol’ Dipankara did something to you?” Treasure Leaf nodded. “Back then, I had to pay a bit of a price to infiltrate the Western Paradise Spirit Mountains. That price was becoming a weapon under the Dipankara Buddha’s control.” The old man gazed intently at him for a moment. “Why would you make such a choice?” “To avenge Ol’ Devil Yi.” This response left the old man stunned. He obviously found it absurd. But Treasure Leaf didn’t explain anything. He just asked, “What about you? How did you wind up in this state?” Yellow Sands City was a run-down, barren, mundane place. Yet Demon Venerate Five Desires was trapped here, with none of his former far-reaching power, prestige, or contemptuous majesty. It was as if he’d tumbled into the abyss, becoming an ordinary old man as fragile as a candle flickering in the wind. Latest content publıshed on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝓷𝓮𝓽 He’d even endured in silence as his elderly servant was killed. Treasure Leaf found it indescribably absurd, painful, and incomprehensible. The old man shook his head. “Sometimes, when you decide to accept something, you have to pay the corresponding price. Don’t... ask about my affairs.” Treasure Leaf sighed, then said no more on the matter. Instead, he looked at the dense rows of spirit tablets. “Are these... all members of your Five Desires Pure Lands?” The Five Desires Pure Lands was the orthodoxy Demon Venerate Five Desires had founded in the Endless Ocean back then. It was just that after Yi Daoxuan died, Demon Venerate Five Desires personally dissolved his sect and left the Endless Ocean on his own. “This is only a handful of them,” said the old man. His tone was light and airy, but there was undisguisable grief on his brow. “And who does that nameless tablet represent?” Treasure Leaf pointed to the spirit tablet in the corner. “That one is dedicated to Old Devil Yi. Every time the anniversary of his death rolls around, I light three sticks of incense in his honor and offer him a jug of wine,” the old man said with a complicated look on his face. “After all, we were once dear friends, and we often discussed the Dao together.” Treasure Leaf had a strange look on his face. “You don’t know anything about what’s happened in the God Domain after the past few years?” The old man shook his head. “I’ve made this place my prison. I’m trapped here like a convict, and my hopes have long since turned to ash. How could I possibly be in any mood to concern myself with something like that?” Treasure Leaf sighed, then tapped the air. The nameless memorial tablet exploded into pieces. “What are you doing?” The old man’s expression darkened. “It’s just a memorial tablet in Ol’ Devil Yi’s honor. Is that so offensive to you? Why destroy it?” “Because he’s still alive,” said Treasure Leaf. It was just a few words, but the old man felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. His turbid eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but murmur, “He’s still alive!?” “He returned through the cycle of reincarnation,” said Treasure Leaf, his eyes shining with strange light. “Had you been paying attention to developments in the outside world, there’d have been no need for me to tell you that. You’d naturally know what he’s been up to over the past few years already.” “Is that... really true? He... he... he’s still alive?” The old man lost control of his emotions, and his wrinkled face filled with excitement. “Wonderful! Wonderful...!” No one knew it, but he’d suffered endless guilt in the years following Yi Daoxuan’s death. Treasure Leaf’s heart churned with emotion too. He sighed. “I’ve been enduring all this time, waiting for an opportunity. Thus, despite knowing for years that he’d returned, I’ve suppressed the urge to go see him. “Who could have imagined that even after all that waiting, I’d fail to find the opportunity I was after? Worse, I’ve plunged myself into inescapable peril...” His voice was full of deep despondence, bitterness, and frustration. “What exactly happened to you?” asked the old man. Treasure Leaf shook his head. “I won’t ask about your affairs, so you don’t ask about mine.” The old man fell silent. Treasure Leaf continued, “Let me take a moment while I’m still clear-headed to ask you this. Is there anything you want to do? If so, go ahead and ask. “But whatever you do, don’t try to run! I’m afraid that the moment I laid eyes on you, the Dipankara Buddha sensed it from all the way in the distant Western paradise Spirit Mountains.” The old man understood Treasure Leaf’s character, and he naturally knew that his old friend wouldn’t lie at a time . “Come with me to a certain place. I’d like to bid a few people farewell.” In the end, the old man made up his mind and walked into the run-down hall of mourning. Treasure Leaf followed him. The skies were already dark, but the sandstorm still howled, almost as if it were weeping. Few lamps remained lit in the run-down little city. The streets were deserted. After leaving the courtyard, the old man glanced at his elderly servant’s corpse. It was already covered in sand. In the end, he paused, took off his outer cloak, and laid it over the body. Then, without another word, he turned to leave. But then, Treasure Leaf’s voice suddenly rang out from behind him. “Your sectmates are all alive and well. They believe that their founder died a long time ago. Seems to me that you’d be better off not seeing them; it’d prevent them from dying with a heart full of grief.” The old man whipped around. His turbid eyes focused on the monk standing not far away. “The Dipankara Buddha?” Treasure Leaf clasped his palms and said with the countenance of a Buddhist statue, “Indeed.” The old man instantly looked furious. “Bad enough that you’re hurting me. Now you want to hurt Treasure Leaf, who joined your cause a long time ago, too?” Treasure Leaf, or, strictly speaking, the Dipankara Buddha controlling him, said calmly, “All he wanted was to avenge Yi Daoxuan. He never truly served me.” The old man’s expression shifted. He gnashed his teeth and said, “So you’re saying you want to borrow Treasure Leaf’s hands to kill me?” “Why!?” The old man’s turbid eyes went bloodshot; he was obviously agitated. “Back then, I swore not to get involved, and I agreed to your terms. I disbanded the Five Desires Pure Lands and left the Endless Ocean on my own, paying no further heed to worldly affairs. “But look at you! You’ve never kept your promise. You were never willing to let me go!” The old man’s long-pent up fury seemed to erupt like a volcano. “You people captured my sectmates, one after another. Some, you hurt. Others, you killed! “You forced me to compromise yet again in exchange for their lives, trapping me in the spiritually barren Yellow Sands City. And fine! I agreed to that. But what did you do after that? “You brutally killed anyone I made contact with over the years, no matter who they were!” The old man roared, his face ashen with grief and fury. “Now, you even killed my old servant, a mortal on the brink of death!” Every word was like a bestial roar. His voice emanated into the night sky, obscuring even the sound of the sandstorm. “Treasure Leaf” stood there in silence, listening calmly. His eyes didn’t so much as ripple with emotion. “Why?" the old man continued, "Back then, I swore on my life not to get involved. I just wanted to distance myself from all of this! “Why wouldn’t you believe me? Why keep demanding more and more?” The old man’s hair and beard bristled, and his eyes bulged as if about to pop. “And now, you’re using Treasure Leaf’s body to kill me? You people... are simply too shameless! Had I known you’d do this, I’d never have agreed to your terms in the first place!” Here, Treasure Leaf finally spoke. He said calmly, “Yan Chizen went bravely into battle to avenge Yi Daoxuan. He was ready to die without regrets. Treasure Leaf endured and bided his time in order to get revenge, and although Butterfly Cloud never tried to get revenge, she’s been quietly working for Yi Daoxuan this entire time. “The three of them aside, Golden Crane, Divine Billows, Jin Yuanzi, and Shen Ning wisely chose to join us, and they acted sincerely on our behalf. “But you, Five Desires, were the most foolish of all. You refused to serve me, and you wanted to just stay out of it all? How could anything in this world possibly be so easy?” The old man’s expression filled with uncertainty, and his bony chest heaved. “Thus, of the eight of you, you’re the one I look down on most,” Treasure Leaf said calmly. “To save your sectmates and disciples, you repeatedly chose to make concessions and endure. That’s why you wound up in such a sorry state; you’re barely even alive anymore, neither human nor ghost. “You have no one to blame for this but your own cowardice! Am I wrong?” His words were like ten thousand swords twisting in the old man’s heart. He quivered from head to toe, his expression shifting erratically, full of the utmost grief and torment. His voice was hoarse and bitter. “All I wanted was to protect my sect and stay out of all this turmoil. Was that really so wrong?” Treasure Leaf said calmly, “You were wrong from the moment you first decided to stand with Yi Daoxuan. In my eyes, enemies who shrink back in fear and flee from battle... are still enemies!” He shook his head. “It’s a pity. It’s such a shallow, obvious principle, yet you somehow failed to understand it. You really thought you could just stay out of it? How ridiculous is that? And how tragic?” The old man quivered with anger, yet his grief, agony, and rage seemed incomparably helpless and bleak. “It’s true. I was wrong, not because I stood with Yi Daoxuan, but because I trusted your word!” The old man gnashed his teeth and said slowly, “But do you really think you can kill me?” Treasure Leaf had a pitying look on his face. “You’re a beast in a cage, yet you still want to fight? Aren’t you at all worried about your sect disciples’ lives?” The old man stiffened as if he’d been ruthlessly thwacked over the head, then stood there in a daze. Treasure Leaf said coldly, “This is your punishment, and Treasure Leaf’s punishment too. If you want to blame someone... blame Su Yi for taking things too far.” Su Yi? The old man clearly didn’t recognize the name. “He’s Yi Daoxuan’s reincarnation,” Treasure Leaf said calmly. “If I’m not mistaken, he’ll come looking for you soon. It’s a pity, but you won’t be able to wait that long. Once you’ve died by Treasure Leaf’s hand, Su Yi will learn how overwhelming, heart-rending grief feels.” With that, he raised his right hand. A bundle of light exploded into being, like a blazing sun rising through the darkness. It illuminated heaven and earth, and all of the run-down little city, too. “If you die, your sectmates can live. If you fight back, everything you’ve sacrificed to protect them will go to waste,” Treasure Light said calmly. “Make a choice.” The old man’s expression filled with uncertainty. He gnashed his teeth, and his heart was obviously full of incomparable turmoil. “I...” The old man took a deep breath and was just about to say something when an enraged bellow boomed like lightning. “That ‘choice’ isn’t even worth a fart! When has the old bald donkey ever kept his promises? Are you seriously this stupid, Five Desires?”