Confrontation

"Tiānmíng, why do you think the Ancestor suddenly summoned us?"

Yīn Miàomiào asked Yè Tiānmíng uneasily.

Yè Tiānmíng smiled faintly, took Yīn Miàomiào's little hand, and patted it reassuringly. "Silly girl, don't worry. Maybe the Ancestor wants to arrange a betrothal for us?"

"All right..."

Yīn Miàomiào nodded, but a trace of worry remained on her face.

Seeing this, Yè Tiānmíng said with heartache, "Girl, I know what your brother did was utterly despicable, but it's all in the past now. We have to look ahead. Surely Uncle wouldn't want to see you like this, either?"

"All right," Yīn Miàomiào said.

As the two spoke,

they had already entered the main hall with Duàn Lí.

When Yè Tiānmíng saw Yīn Zhìháng sitting inside the main hall, his pupils contracted.

He couldn't understand why Yīn Zhìháng had suddenly appeared here.

When Yīn Miàomiào saw Yīn Zhìháng, her expression likewise froze. Hatred, grievance, and all sorts of tangled emotions showed in her eyes.

"We pay our respects to the Ancestor!"

At that moment, Yè Tiānmíng and Yīn Miàomiào suppressed their emotions and bowed to Duàn Wúyá alongside their master.

"Mm." Duàn Wúyá nodded, looking over Yè Tiānmíng and Yīn Miàomiào. "The two of you are both True Disciples of Kaishan Sect, and your talents are decent. But talent alone isn't enough in life. You must also learn how to conduct yourselves. Otherwise, in the end, it will all come to nothing."

"This disciple, Yè Tiānmíng, will heed the Ancestor's teachings."

"This disciple, Yīn Miàomiào, will heed the Ancestor's teachings."

Yè Tiānmíng and Yīn Sùsù said at the same time.

At the same time, a solemn old man's voice rang out in Yè Tiānmíng's mind. "Boy, I can't see through that young man sitting in the main hall. He may well be a Void Immortal. I'm about to fall into a deep sleep. He absolutely must not discover me!"

"A Void Immortal?!"

When Yè Tiānmíng heard the old man's voice in his mind, he instantly sucked in a cold breath.

A Void Immortal Expert was someone even the Ancestor of Kaishan Sect wouldn't be worthy to carry his shoes for!

After all, when Elder Hui still had a physical body, he had only possessed Spirit Transformation cultivation.

And Elder Hui was the master of that old man's voice in Yè Tiānmíng's mind.

He was also Yè Tiānmíng's true master.

Although Hé Xīnghuǒ was also Yè Tiānmíng's master, it was obvious that Yè Tiānmíng merely wanted to use his status as a True Disciple of Kaishan Sect to obtain cultivation resources as quickly as possible.

"Little friend, whatever grievances you have, you may begin." Duàn Wúyá turned to Yīn Zhìháng.

Yè Tiānmíng was startled. Could the Ancestor of Kaishan Sect be planning to help Yīn Zhìháng?

At this thought, Yè Tiānmíng panicked.

After all, his reliance, Elder Hui, was currently hidden away.

Yīn Zhìháng did not immediately confront Yè Tiānmíng. Instead, he looked at his younger sister, Yīn Miàomiào, his eyes reddening as he said, "Miàomiào, you've lost weight."

As he spoke, Yīn Zhìháng walked toward Yīn Miàomiào, wanting to embrace her.

But Yīn Miàomiào took a step back and said coldly, "I don't have a brother like you!"

"I..."

Seeing his sister reject him so completely, Yīn Zhìháng was overcome with grief. He stood there with his hand raised. Though there were clearly countless things he wanted to say, he didn't know what to say at all.

Li Zhōujūn silently watched the scene without speaking. He merely observed in silence.

"You ungrateful wretch! At this point, what else do you have to say? It's too late to repent now. What you did was worse than anything a pig or dog could do!"

Yè Tiānmíng stood beside Yīn Miàomiào and berated Yīn Zhìháng with an utterly composed expression.

"Well, well, the villain is accusing his victim first." Yīn Zhìháng laughed in anger. "What were you doing on the night my entire Yīn family was wiped out?"

"I was on my way to Kaishan Sect, preparing to become its disciple. What about it? Don't tell me you're claiming that I, a Qi Refining cultivator, wiped out your entire Yīn family?"

Yè Tiānmíng spoke.

He believed no one in this world would be foolish enough to think that a Qi Refining cultivator could annihilate an entire family of Foundation Establishment cultivators, especially when there had been quite a few Qi Refining cultivators among them.

That was why Yè Tiānmíng was so confident.

"Leave. Don't come looking for me again. From this day forward, the two of us sever our blood ties." Yīn Miàomiào echoed Yè Tiānmíng.

"Miàomiào, seeing is believing. Are you really only going to listen to this bastard spout nonsense?" Yīn Zhìháng said angrily. "Your elder brother was the heir to the Lineage to begin with. Why would I need to conspire with members of an evil cult, kill Father, and usurp the position? Don't you think that's laughable?

"Besides, from childhood until now, I've never liked handling these affairs. I wished Father would pass his position on to you. All I wanted was to receive the Lineage's monthly allowance and eat, drink, and have fun. Have you really forgotten all that?"

Upon hearing this, Yīn Miàomiào's expression trembled.

Seeing this, Yè Tiānmíng thought, This is bad. He hurriedly sneered, "Yīn Zhìháng, spare us the nonsense. Who knows if you were only pretending before? Perhaps your wolfish ambition only erupted recently?"

"The way you put it is truly laughable. Everyone sees things differently. I only have ninth-level Qi Refining cultivation. Even if I had wolfish ambition, how could I possibly destroy my father, the pillar of our Lineage? Without a Foundation Establishment expert supporting it, the Yīn family would be nothing but a paper tiger, no matter how strong it looked on the surface." Yīn Zhìháng snorted coldly.

Cold sweat poured down Yè Tiānmíng's back. He had never expected Yīn Zhìháng not only to be no simpleton, but also to be so eloquent. If he had known, he should have killed him back then to prevent future trouble instead of merely crippling his cultivation.

Still, Yè Tiānmíng forced himself to maintain his composure. "Heh, after you successfully killed your father and usurped the position, didn't you still have the evil cult supporting you? Wouldn't it have been enough to pay them an offering every year?"

"Are you sick in the head? No matter how foolish I, Yīn Zhìháng, am, I'd never make a pact with a tiger. Didn't you say I colluded with an evil cult? Where's your evidence? Bring it out." Yīn Zhìháng sneered repeatedly.

"Isn't your being alive the best evidence?" Yè Tiānmíng shot back.

"So that means you can't produce any evidence, right?" Yīn Zhìháng chuckled. Then his expression changed, and he stared fiercely at Yè Tiānmíng.

"But I have evidence proving that my entire Yīn family was destroyed by you. Back then, you used a secret technique to unleash Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivation. Not only did you slaughter my entire family, you also took countless treasures from the Yīn family. Do you dare open your Storage Magic Treasure and see whether it contains anything belonging to my family?!"

"Why should I? Because of a few words from you? Why should I open my Storage Magic Treasure for you to inspect? Who do you think you are?!"

A trace of panic flashed across Yè Tiānmíng's face. His storage ring indeed contained several items from the Yīn family that he hadn't had time to dispose of. But he quickly calmed down and said, "Don't you know that prying into another cultivator's secrets is a grave taboo?"

"Heh, I think you simply don't dare." Yīn Zhìháng sneered.

"Yè Tiānmíng, was it really you who destroyed the Yīn family?!" Zhao Hui stared at Yè Tiānmíng with an unfriendly expression.

When her disciple, Yīn Miàomiào, first learned that the Yīn family had been destroyed, she had been so distraught that she couldn't eat or drink. It had nearly driven Zhao Hui, her master, to distraction.

"Elder Zhao, how could that be? I'm only at the Qi Refining Realm. Even with a secret technique, it would be impossible for me to break through to Foundation Establishment all at once!" Yè Tiānmíng hurriedly protested.

Then he looked at Yīn Miàomiào and said aggrievedly, "Miàomiào, do you believe me? As long as you believe me, I'm not afraid of anyone's doubts. As the saying goes, the innocent prove their own innocence!"