An Unexpected Ending

Bai Shendong quickly sorted out the situation, but then an even greater confusion surged through him:

"Just because you hate the aristocratic clans, you're going to give up glory and riches and fight them to the death?"

"You're a cultivator who has mastered the Dual Attribute Spirit Law, and you can kill a Calamity Demon with a single strike. No matter which town you went to, your status would absolutely be high. You might have to bow and scrape, but that would also mean you had the possibility of advancing further!"

"A Spirit Realm lifespan of over two hundred years, a Dharma Realm lifespan of over four hundred years—you're going to oppose all the Spirit Law cultivators in White Stone Town over a moment of anger?"

A moment of anger?

He had been exploited and worked like an ox for twenty years.

His elder brother-in-law had killed his wife.

The entire village had been massacred, and in the end, even his daughter had been abducted and turned into a tool.

Any one of those things was enough to make them sworn enemies!

Besides, did many people truly not want to vent that "moment of anger"? No. It was because their chances of victory were so slim!

If they had the strength, someone merely glaring at them would probably be taken as provocation, and they would seize the offender on the spot and have him executed by slow slicing.

"The aristocratic clans are my mortal enemies. I must slaughter them... This is my Dao. If I fail to carry it out, I die. It's that simple. If you want a nicer slogan, then it's for all living beings—for Tomorrow not to crawl through the mud and work like an ox or horse for the aristocratic clans!"

Yun Ye said indifferently.

The main reason he did not mention the Tomorrow Society's ideals was that he felt a member of an aristocratic clan probably would not understand them.

So he should influence him subtly, rather than forcibly altering his understanding.

If subtle influence did not work, then he would explain the ideals and use more drastic means to change him.

If that still did not work, then he was a mortal enemy, and he would kill him...

That was all.

"Your Dao?"

Bai Shendong chewed over the words, then his expression turned aghast. "You're a Dao Artifact Wielder? Your Dao... Could it be that you intend to kill all the Ascending the Steps Families for the sake of all living beings? The Dao Artifact Wielder who appeared two years ago—you're him?"

"You actually know... Has this matter spread that widely?" Yun Ye knitted his brows tightly.

Seeing Yun Ye admit it, Bai Shendong immediately retreated several steps and pointed at him in utter horror. "You're courting disaster! The Luo Dynasty will never allow a new Dao Artifact Wielder to develop. You're breaking the existing order!"

"But I haven't died even now. That means the Luo Dynasty can't discover my location either, can it?"

Yun Ye said.

"Can't discover your location? In fact, that's true. Even divine-art deductions can't calculate anything about a Dao Artifact Wielder. Unless you're right in front of them, they can only make a few deductions by directly observing the causal threads..."

"But there's no need to locate you personally! For a Dao Artifact to grow, it must inevitably compete for Dao Domains. Although the Luo Dynasty consists of separate cities, counties, and towns, its Dao Artifacts share the same source. Once you begin seizing them, you might be able to hide for a short while, but you absolutely can't remain hidden forever!"

"When that time comes, even if the various immortal clans and immortal sects restrain one another and only send out some insignificant minor force, a single little finger of theirs would still be enough to crush you to death. A remote little place like this can't possibly be compared with them!"

"You're seeking death!"

Bai Shendong was utterly despairing. Even if a true miracle occurred and he could truly defeat White Stone Town,

the result would only be being snuffed out by an even higher level of power. There was simply no possibility of victory!

This was the order of the entire world, the order of the entire Luo Dynasty—the order that had endured for countless years!

Its reasoning might be twisted, or it might be completely wrong, but if anyone could simply appear and accomplish something, the world would have changed countless times over its long history.

Yet reality had not. That was precisely because there was sufficient power to extinguish everything!

"So that's how it is. It really does make one feel steeped in despair."

Yun Ye said this.

However, Bai Shendong could not see the slightest change on his face. Did this man truly understand the situation?

Naturally, Yun Ye had long anticipated the difficulties that might arise. He did not believe White Stone Town had no connection with the Luo Dynasty. At the very least, the Luo Dynasty would come to check on the changes in White Stone Town's Dao Artifact every so often.

He did not know how much time he would have after seizing White Stone Town, but his footsteps could not stop because of that.

This was indeed an incomparably dangerous situation.

To overturn the Ascending the Steps Families and even the immortal sects and immortal clans in a world like this, there was only one way...

That was right: fill the gap with lives.

If he wanted to take a shortcut, reincarnate into an aristocratic clan, and use the clan's power to seek a more stable path of reform...

That would be a joke.

Did he really think aristocratic clans were places with feelings?

When a cultivator had lived for several hundred years and stood high above others, had he established his clan out of familial affection?

No. He had done it for his own rule—for someone to handle troublesome chores for him and gather resources!

In a clan like that, without ability or talent, it was impossible to receive cultivation. One would only be cast down into a branch family, making it even more impossible to come into contact with the clan's superior cultivation arts...

These were things whose power was divided a little more with every additional person. They could never be given to worthless people!

Even if one overcame every obstacle and truly had the talent and strength to climb step by step to the highest position in the clan, it would still be useless.

Because one would remain constrained by the clan's Dao Artifact and have to act according to its rules.

There was simply no possibility of breaking through from within!

Yun Ye was not trying to become a walking corpse, nor was he trying to ignore every outside voice and amuse himself by enjoying life... If that were the case, what meaning would there be in reincarnating into an aristocratic clan?

So this blood-soaked path was all that remained.

Put bluntly, this path meant sacrificing all the early supporters. The first to awaken were always the foundation stones, forever unable to see any possibility of success.

"To create great ambitions, one must make sacrifices... Dare to make the sun and moon usher in a new sky!"

If the weak wanted to succeed, countless sacrifices and tears were destined to be required. It was exceedingly difficult. Only countless such sacrifices could forge the final victory, and most of the time, those sacrifices were merely the beginning, with no ending.

Because their ideals rapidly deteriorated and were quickly corrupted, making it impossible to maintain them for long.

Yun Ye's appearance was a stroke of luck. With him here, sacrifices would indeed exist, but victory would inevitably exist as well.

As long as Yun Ye remained alive, those ideals would continue to be passed down. Under normal circumstances, such a thing would never happen.

Yun Ye knew that he was probably destined to bear countless lives and deaths, but he also promised that he would walk this road to the end: exchange sacrifice for a new sky, and then... joyfully watch the rice and beans roll in waves across a thousand ridges, while heroes covered the land beneath the evening smoke!

"This really is difficult. Even just thinking about it makes me feel unable to breathe. I actually have to bear so many lives, deaths, and hopes... But when I think of how this world has been like this for countless years, I know I have no choice but to do it."

Yun Ye sighed, then said to Bai Shendong, "If you don't approve, I won't do anything to you. I can even send you to the border. You can continue searching for your own chance at survival."

"I understand now... Have you gone mad? In that case, send me to the border. Although I'm not afraid of death, I don't want to die so utterly without value. I want to go to the Cloud Heaven Spirit Sect!"