Ye Xishui Was Utterly Foolish! She Gave Up Her Advantage! She Picked Up Sesame Seeds!

The Douluo Era 2.

Inside the Sea God Pavilion.

Mu En sat in his wheelchair.

His gaze was vacant as he stared ahead. The Light Screen had gradually faded, but its images were etched into his eyes like a brand, impossible to brush away.

His lips trembled.

Once, then again.

Like a leaf struggling in the autumn wind, knowing it would eventually fall, yet still quivering with reluctance.

He didn't know what to say.

He didn't even know what else he could say.

At that moment, deep in his heart, there was nothing but boundless pain and sorrow.

It wasn't the sharp pain of a knife plunging in, but a dull ache. Like a boulder pressing down on his chest. It wouldn't kill him at once, but with every breath, it felt as if he were being tortured.

Decades.

Decades of grievances.

Decades of questions.

Decades of confusion and self-torment.

At that moment, he finally found the answer to all of it.

An answer he couldn't accept.

Mu En lowered his head and looked at his crippled legs.

He thought of that battle all those years ago. If not for what happened then, he wouldn't have been consumed by grief and fought Du Bisou to the death. They wouldn't have both been left gravely injured, and he wouldn't have become a man confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

And it had all started with Ye Xishui's scheme.

The woman he had once loved more than anyone.

Something gathered in his aged eyes.

Mu En was one of the strongest people alive, a figure who stood at the very top of the world.

But at that moment, he felt as fragile as a child.

He murmured, his voice so faint it was almost inaudible.

"Why... did you deceive me like this?"

"Xishui, my feelings for you back then were real."

His voice trembled, as if he had to summon all his strength just to force out those few words.

"Why... did I spend my whole life suffering because of what happened back then?"

Mu En closed his eyes, then opened them again.

He didn't want to blame Ye Xishui.

He didn't want to blame Long Xiaoyao, either.

He truly didn't want to blame anyone.

"I know that everything back then was just a misunderstanding. If you really liked Xiaoyao, I would have let you be together."

"We could still have been the Iron Triangle we were back then."

His voice suddenly caught in his throat.

"But why... deceive me?"

"Why scheme against me?"

Mu En lifted his head and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Even if it was the Holy Spirit Cult, even if Zhongli Old Ghost was a Limit Douluo, with Shrek protecting us, did Shrek really lack fighting strength?"

"We could have solved the problem at its root..."

"All three of us could have lived out our lives normally..."

"Why did things turn out like this?"

His voice grew quieter and more broken.

Mu En thought of the past.

He thought of the happy days he and Ye Xishui had spent together.

Back then, her smile had been so beautiful. Back then, he had believed he would be happy like that for the rest of his life.

He also thought of his friendship with Long Xiaoyao.

Rivals and friends, sparring and admiring one another, sharing the joys and sorrows of life.

What exhilarating days they had shared; how deeply they had understood one another.

But as soon as those memories surfaced, other scenes tore them to shreds.

He thought of the day he learned that Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui had been together, and of how devastating the blow had been.

It had been the darkest day of his life.

His best brother and the woman he loved most.

At that moment, he had felt the whole world collapse.

Mu En thought of what had happened after that day.

Xishui had left. In his grief, he fought Du Bisou until they were both gravely injured, and from then on he was crippled.

And every bit of it had been a scheme.

A scheme by Ye Xishui.

But she had...

She had been the woman he loved most.

At last, something slipped from the corner of Mu En's eye.

Tears.

Warm and salty, they slid down his wrinkled cheeks.

His whole body began to tremble. An uncontrollable shudder spread from his heart to his limbs, making him shake all over.

He felt as if every bit of strength had been drained from him. He could barely even sit upright.

"Everything... was a lie..."

His voice no longer sounded like a person speaking. It was more like a soulless puppet repeating something over and over.

"Nothing... has any meaning..."

"Everything was a lie..."

Mu En sat in his wheelchair, murmuring those words again and again.

His eyes were fixed ahead, but there was no light left in them.

No anger, no sorrow, no hatred, no love. Nothing at all.

Like two empty holes.

"It was all a lie..."

"Nothing has any meaning..."

"It was all a lie..."

The Sea God Pavilion was quiet.

Only Mu En's faint voice drifted back and forth through the empty room.

No one knew how deep the grief in his heart was at that moment.

It was a grief that words could not describe.

The collapse of a person's lifelong trust.

The shattering of a person's lifelong love.

It was the emptiness a person felt after spending decades loving, hating, suffering, and remembering, only to discover that everything had been a lie—a void so profound that even hatred seemed meaningless.

Mu En's tears kept flowing.

But he could no longer feel them.

At that moment, the legendary Dragon God Douluo was gone. All that remained was a poor fool deceived by a woman.

He stared at the Light Screen, not knowing whether he was watching more of Ye Xishui's misdeeds or looking back at his own past.

Meanwhile, in the Light Screen, countless people were still discussing what they had seen.

The Sharp Critique continued to play.

Inside the Light Screen.

[And you think Ye Xishui's stupidity was limited to all that?]

[In truth, Ye Xishui was an utterly selfish, utterly hypocritical fool of a woman.]

[Ye Xishui had Twin Martial Souls. Her First Martial Soul made her a top Evil Soul Master and helped her reach Limit Douluo.]

[But she had never cultivated her Second Martial Soul, the Bright Phoenix.]

[In Ye Xishui's own account, she said she refused to cultivate the Bright Phoenix because she was afraid the Holy Spirit Cult would hurt her!]

[As I said, you already had the Bright Phoenix. You could have gone straight to Shrek Academy. For you and Mu En, Shrek Academy could have wiped out the Holy Spirit Cult!]

[Fine, let's go with what you say: you didn't like Shrek Academy. But later, Zhongli Old Ghost died. Who could still have threatened you?]

[If you had cultivated your Second Martial Soul, your strength could have advanced even further. Even if its attributes clashed with your First Martial Soul, cultivating it might have let you become a Quasi-God, just like Long Yeyue in Douluo Era 3.]

[If you became a Quasi-God, you'd at least have a chance of obtaining a godhood. Wouldn't that be better than spending your whole life as an Evil Soul Master?]

[Don't go on about conflicting attributes or how it couldn't be cultivated! Ye Xishui herself said in the original story that she didn't cultivate the Bright Phoenix simply because she was afraid of the Holy Spirit Cult!]

[When all is said and done, Ye Xishui had been an Evil Soul Master for so long that she was no longer willing to work hard. She only wanted to keep taking shortcuts as an Evil Soul Master!]

[With a brain like that, she was a complete fool!]

[She had talent that surpassed even Mu En's and Long Xiaoyao's, and might even have had a chance to fight for godhood, yet she completely wasted it!]

[Say she had ambition? She could give up her greatest advantage!]

[Say she had no ambition and didn't want to improve? She spent her whole life absorbing all kinds of power, trying to become stronger!]

[Such a contradiction, such a case of forsaking the root for the branch—picking up sesame seeds and throwing away the watermelon...]

[It's hard not to wonder whether Ye Xishui's brain was squeezed when she was born.]