Don't Let Me Down; One Day, I May Even Be Able to Reforge Your Body!

However,

Yao Chen quickly calmed the flicker of unease in his heart.

Thirty years had already passed.

The bond between master and disciple had vanished thirty years ago.

He knew this disciple's nature.

It was not that he knew he was wrong.

It was that he knew he was going to die!

"Tell me, why did you betray me back then?"

Yao Chen's withered, translucent soul body trembled slightly.

The grief and indignation buried for thirty years were all pressed into his hoarse, aged voice, carrying an inescapable chill and pain as he questioned him in a low voice.

"Master, I was deceived by others and committed a grave mistake..."

"Master, please, spare me. This disciple... this disciple truly knows he was wrong..."

Han Feng's voice trembled.

Under the burning of the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame, his soul body grew weaker and weaker, as though it could dissipate at any moment.

"Is that so?"

Yao Chen's expression was calm, without the slightest ripple.

It seemed

he had long expected Han Feng to say this.

"I taught you alchemy, but forgot to teach you how to conduct yourself... Since you made a mistake, you must pay the price for it!"

Yao Chen's voice was hoarse.

It was as though his spirit had been drained away, and also as though he could not bear to watch the disciple he had raised die before his eyes.

He turned around.

His hunched body looked exceedingly frail.

He allowed the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame to continue burning Han Feng's soul.

"Master..."

"You can't... You can't do this, Master. I truly know I was wrong..."

Han Feng's voice weakened further.

Just as his soul was about to be burned into nothingness by the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame,

Buzz—

A powerful soul fluctuation surged from Han Feng's soul body, temporarily blocking the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame's burning.

At the same time,

Han Feng's expression turned savage.

"Yao Chen!"

"How could you be so heartless? I am your only disciple! Even a vicious tiger does not eat its cubs, yet you want to kill me! I hate you, I hate you!!!"

Hearing Han Feng's vicious words,

Yao Chen's body jolted, and his back bent even lower.

He did not turn around.

But the flames clinging to Han Feng's soul body burned even more fiercely.

"Ah—"

The burning of the Heavenly Flame drew anguished screams from Han Feng.

His soul swayed in the breeze.

Yet his expression became increasingly dark and twisted.

"Yao Chen, do you know why I betrayed you? Because you were selfish. You kept saying you raised me as your son, but what did you actually do?"

"You obtained the Flame Mantra, yet you refused to give it to me. Since you wouldn't give it to me, what was wrong with taking it myself?!"

"You were the one who was wrong... Yao Chen, you were the one who wronged me, Han Feng!!!"

Han Feng's twisted, sinister voice

gradually lowered amid the burning of the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame.

Han Feng's soul was burned away.

But his voice struck deeply into Yao Chen's mind like a great bell.

It seemed to drain away the last of the vigor from the continent's greatest alchemist...

Yao Chen's body could not stop trembling with sobs.

Qing Luo seemed to hear intermittent weeping.

He did not speak to interrupt him.

He simply waited quietly.

After a long while,

Yao Chen slowly turned back around.

Qing Luo could sense it.

At this moment, Yao Chen was even weaker than before, like a candle about to burn out, ready to vanish between heaven and earth at any time.

There were several reasons for this.

One was that Yao Chen had only just awakened and had driven the Heavenly Flame for too long.

But even more than that,

Han Feng's words and Han Feng's death had made Yao Chen lose the will to live!

"Thank you, Senior..."

Yao Chen's cloudy eyes grew moist.

His body stood nearly six feet tall.

Yet with his back hunched, as he stood before Qing Luo, he was actually a head shorter than him.

"If not for you, Senior, I would never have been able to fulfill my wish in this life... nor would I have heard the truest thoughts in that traitor's heart."

"Was I wrong?"

"All my life, I believed I had done right by my friends, my family, and those around me... Could it truly have been my fault?!"

No sorrow or joy could be seen on Yao Chen's face.

He appeared to be asking a question,

but in truth, he was questioning himself.

Then,

he raised his head to look at Qing Luo, drawing out a scroll containing a Cultivation Method with his right hand.

The Bone-Chilling Cold Flame Essence rose from his left hand.

"Senior, this is the Flame Mantra... and the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame Essence!"

From Han Feng's earlier words,

Yao Chen knew why Qing Luo had come looking for him.

Now,

with everything settled, these items no longer held any value for him.

Qing Luo nodded slightly.

With a wave of his hand,

the Flame Mantra and the Bone-Chilling Cold Flame Essence were taken away by Qing Luo.

Qing Luo looked at Yao Chen and said,

"I helped you kill Han Feng. This reward is not enough!"

Yao Chen froze for a moment before hesitantly saying,

"I do not know what Senior needs me to do... As I am now, apart from these two items, I have nothing else worth offering..."

In truth,

he still had some Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques with him.

But those Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques held no value at all to the person before him.

This was a Dou Saint.

Moreover, he was a Dou Saint formed from the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame, the third-ranked Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.

What Cultivation Method or Dou Technique had he not seen?!

"You still have your alchemy skills!"

Qing Luo said bluntly,

"I need you to do me a favor. Help Xiao Yan grow as quickly as possible. I know you have the ability to do it!"

Qing Luo had originally intended to take the Flame Mantra and the Heavenly Flame

before returning the ring to Xiao Yan.

However,

after seeing Yao Chen's current expression, Qing Luo felt that Yao Chen had already developed the intention of simply waiting out the rest of his life.

That was why he thought of entrusting

Yao Lao with the task of raising Xiao Yan.

It was true that he had taken the Flame Mantra and the Heavenly Flame.

He had cut off Xiao Yan's path to becoming the Flame Emperor.

But Qing Luo believed that the Child of Destiny chosen by the Continent Origin would not remain downcast simply because one path had been cut off.

In other words,

Xiao Yan's talent and fortune were still top-tier. With Yao Chen's help, even without the Flame Mantra, he might still be able to step into the realm of a Dou God in the future.

Qing Luo was maintaining the will of the Continent Origin by doing this.

He did not wish for this world to select a second Child of Destiny.

It would also provide convenience for himself.

What he was doing now would surely become a great source of assistance to him once Xiao Yan grew up in the future.

"Senior, you saw it just now as well. When it comes to raising disciples, this junior truly is..."

Before Yao Chen could finish,

Qing Luo directly interrupted him.

"That was not your fault. It was your fate!"

"And teaching Xiao Yan is also your fate. Go do it without worry. He will not let you down."

Having said that,

Qing Luo took a pill that nourished the soul from the pill bottle the Pill Tower Ancestor had sent over and tossed it to Yao Chen.

"This is... a Soul-Nourishing Pill from the Pill Tower?!"

"It is an eighth-grade pill..."

Taking the pill, Yao Chen's voice trembled.

His soul had already been overdrawn from driving the Heavenly Flame earlier.

If nothing unexpected happened,

it was only a matter of time before his soul dissipated.

That was why he had lost the will to live.

But now things were different.

With this pill, his soul could recover to a respectable state within a short time.

Although it could not compare to his peak,

he would still be able to wield strength at the level of a Dou Zong...

"The Pill Tower is also one of the Emperor Alliance's forces!"

Qing Luo nodded.

He continued,

"Don't let me down. Once Xiao Yan has grown up, I may even be able to reforge your body and let you live another life."