Demise

Ning Ye finally understood.

He had never been Heaven's final choice.

Perhaps because he had always had thoughts of his own.

Perhaps because, from beginning to end, he had always been an outsider.

Perhaps because of countless other reasons.

In any case, he was not that person!

When he left, he could feel his fortune fading away.

All his dependents, all his favor—none of it remained.

He had done nothing wrong, yet grace was gone, and Heaven's favor departed of its own accord.

Ning Ye did not care in the slightest.

He simply left.

Only, at this moment, he was weaker than he had ever been.

With his fortune lost, the talents he had once possessed seemed to vanish with it.

The road ahead was no longer visible; even his cultivation was regressing.

He fell all the way from a state comparable to a Sovereign, down to Saint, down to the Human Emperor Realm...

He walked on like this. By the time he returned to the Evergreen Realm, his cultivation had fallen to the Immaculate Realm.

The moment he walked out of "Tree Mountain," he had already become a Cang Xiang Realm cultivator.

His steps grew ever more unsteady, his progress slow, yet Ning Ye remained utterly unmoved.

By the time he reached the foot of the mountain, he had completely become an ordinary mortal.

The traces of those long-passed years began to surface upon him.

Step by step, age began to show on his face.

He grew older and older, until eventually he could no longer walk at all. He had no choice but to use a tree branch as a cane, supporting himself as he made his way to the road.

Not far away stood a pavilion, with a stream flowing beneath it.

Leaning on his cane, Ning