Making Her Stance Clear (1 / 2)

Protector Wu's body was destroyed, and his soul did not escape either. Chen Yang annihilated it along with his flesh.

A mighty Soul Hall Protector, a Five-Star Dou Zong, had been crushed to death by Chen Yang just like that.

Yun Yun's delicate brows furrowed slightly at Chen Yang's ruthless decisiveness.

Everyone in the Soul Hall was notorious and deserved to be put to death, so Yun Yun offered no comment.

Still, she was certainly worried.

After all, the "One Hall" referred to the Soul Hall, and its reputation and prestige spoke for themselves.

For the Misty Cloud Sect to offend them was no good thing.

If it provoked their retaliation, the Misty Cloud Sect could face annihilation.

But there was something Yun Yun could not understand. The Soul Hall's influence lay mainly in the Central Plains, and under the Central Plains Agreement, people from the Central Plains could not enter the Northwest Region at will.

The Misty Cloud Sect had always stayed within the bounds of propriety and should have had no dealings with the Soul Hall.

Why had a Soul Hall Protector appeared outside the Misty Cloud Sect's gates?

Yun Yun puzzled over it but could find no answer.

Chen Yang lowered his gaze toward his nose, seeing through Yun Yun's worries.

But he said nothing to reassure her.

Yun Shan had adopted Yun Yun when she was little and had always raised her as the successor to the Misty Cloud Sect Master. Sheltered and protected, she was a true flower raised in a greenhouse.

Her cultivation had always been smooth sailing, leaving her with almost no awareness of looming dangers.

To give her some motivation to cultivate, Chen Yang deliberately guided her thoughts in a certain direction.

His voice gradually grew distant as he said, "Protector Wu's appearance outside the Misty Cloud Sect's gates was certainly no coincidence."

There was a compelling magic to Chen Yang's voice.

Sure enough, Yun Yun's expression changed abruptly when she heard him, her face turning pale.

"Husband, are you saying someone in the sect has been secretly contacting the Soul Hall?"

That was the only explanation for why Protector Wu had appeared outside the Misty Cloud Sect's gates and then secretly followed her here.

But who exactly was secretly contacting the Soul Hall Protector, and what was his purpose in doing so?

Anyone capable of contacting a Soul Hall Protector could not possibly hold a low position in the Misty Cloud Sect.

Several possible candidates flashed through Yun Yun's mind.

The most likely among them was First Grand Elder Yun Leng.

But what exactly was First Grand Elder Yun Leng's purpose in contacting the Soul Hall?

As First Grand Elder, Yun Leng truly stood below only the sect master and above ten thousand others in the Misty Cloud Sect.

Yun Leng was coveting her position as Misty Cloud Sect Master!

At that possibility, a dangerous, shadowy gleam immediately flashed in Yun Yun's eyes.

Once she returned, she would have to give this First Elder a stern warning.

"Could it be Grand Elder Yun Leng?" Yun Yun wanted to hear Chen Yang's opinion.

Chen Yang shook his head and denied it outright. "No. Although Grand Elder Yun Leng has that ambition, he lacks the nerve. Besides, his standing would not allow him to contact a Soul Hall Protector like Protector Wu."

"Since you already have a suspicion, why not try looking a level deeper?"

Chen Yang stared into Yun Yun's eyes, speaking each word distinctly.

"It was my teacher!" After a long silence, Yun Yun gritted her teeth slightly and uttered those words.

As she said them, all the strength seemed to drain from her body.

In Yun Yun's heart, Yun Shan's kindly, benevolent image crumbled in an instant.

To Yun Yun, Yun Shan had been both teacher and father, teaching her how to conduct herself from childhood.

He had taught her never to look down on anyone, and that the purpose of their cultivation was to shelter the weak and fight evil.

Yet now, the teacher who had guided her since childhood had actually been in contact with the Soul Hall.

The Soul Hall was notorious for capturing the souls of powerful people throughout the continent and imprisoning them within its halls. Its evil was beyond measure.

The kindly teacher she had always revered had actually been dealing with such a force.

Was that not making himself an accomplice to evildoers?

Yun Yun could neither understand nor accept it.

Seeing Yun Yun on the verge of breaking down, Chen Yang felt a pang of pity.

But a short, sharp pain was better than prolonged agony. Yun Shan had indeed been cooperating with the Soul Hall.

His inability to advance to Dou Zong over so many years had gradually twisted his mind.

Moreover, the Misty Cloud Sect faced grave external threats. Not only was it threatened by the other three major sects, but it was also being squeezed out by the Jia Ma Empire. This had driven Yun Shan to take an unorthodox, dangerous path and cooperate with the Soul Hall.

The Soul Hall, meanwhile, happened to need the Misty Cloud Sect's influence within the Jia Ma Empire to help it find the Xiao Clan Remnants and the Tuoshe Ancient Jade, so it had entered into a partnership with Yun Shan.

They had promised Yun Shan that as long as he helped them find the Xiao Clan Remnants and the Tuoshe Ancient Jade, they would give him a Sect Breaking Pill to help him advance to the Dou Zong realm.

"That's right." Chen Yang nodded.

With Chen Yang's nod, the last shred of hope in Yun Yun's heart shattered.

Her teacher really had done such a thing. He had actually cooperated with the Soul Hall.

Yun Yun clenched her fists and rasped through gritted teeth, "Doesn't my teacher know that doing this could bring annihilation upon the Misty Cloud Sect?!"

The Soul Hall was the enemy of every cultivator on the Dou Qi Continent.

Cooperating with such a force meant facing attacks from cultivators across the entire Dou Qi Continent.

Their Misty Cloud Sect was merely a third-rate force. It could not possibly withstand the wrath of every cultivator on the Dou Qi Continent.

"Besides, my teacher used to be such a good person."

"Husband, do you think it's possible that someone threatened him?"

"Or that the Soul Hall Protector has something to hold over him?"

After all the years he had spent raising her, Yun Yun could not bear to think so badly of Yun Shan.

She still wanted to speak up for him, to find an excuse for his wrongdoing.

Chen Yang gently stroked her beautiful hair.

The strands were silky and soft.

After a long silence, Chen Yang said, "People change."

"When someone keeps encountering obstacles they cannot overcome, falling and getting back up, only to fall again, over and over, even the sunniest person can be beaten down and fall into darkness."

Those words—falling and getting back up, only to fall again, over and over—echoed repeatedly through Yun Yun's mind. Although they sounded simple, she felt as though a hand had closed around her throat, choking off her breath.

Teacher, what exactly had he endured to make him risk everything and take this dangerous, unorthodox path of cooperating with a Soul Hall Protector?

"So after discovering Protector Wu, you chose not to kill him immediately just so I would learn all this." Yun Yun was no fool. Everything clicked into place in an instant, and she looked at Chen Yang with certainty. "You did this because you wanted me to put righteousness above family!"

"You could put it that way." Chen Yang did not deny it. That was indeed his intention.

Hearing this, Yun Yun had no choice but to reassess the man before her.

She looked at him, the man who had been her husband for two days. His calculations were truly formidable.

By killing Protector Wu, he had made the Misty Cloud Sect an outright enemy of the Soul Hall, setting them on opposing sides.

If she wanted to save the Misty Cloud Sect from its fate, she would have to cultivate with everything she had from now on.

Only by raising her cultivation to a level close to Chen Yang's could she make the Soul Hall wary and thereby protect the Misty Cloud Sect.

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