Chu Ping's face twisted viciously as he said through gritted teeth, "Lin Yuan, you think you can look down on everyone just because you're the sect leader's grandson. You injured my son Chu Jing during the sect tournament. Do you realize you've ruined the rest of his life?"
As he spoke, he pointed his sword at Lin Yuan and approached him step by step.
Faced with Chu Ping's accusations, Lin Yuan curled his lips into a sneer. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, he lifted his pale face and answered coldly, "So what if I did? He deserved it!"
"You little bastard! If the sect leader weren't protecting you, I'd have cut you into a thousand pieces long ago to avenge my Jing!" Chu Ping said darkly, his eyes full of hatred as he looked at Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan spat out a mouthful of blood, his vision already blurred by his injuries.
Chu Ping continued to roar, "I won't let you die so easily. I'll make you wish you were dead. I'll make you taste my son's suffering." His voice was filled with murderous intent.
Yet just as Chu Ping's hand was about to grab Lin Yuan, faint footsteps sounded in the distance.
Though barely audible, they sounded especially clear in the silent mountain forest.
Hearing them, Chu Ping's expression changed, and a flicker of panic crossed his eyes.
He knew full well that if anyone discovered him attacking Lin Yuan here, the consequences would be unthinkable.
After all, Lin Yuan was the sect leader's grandson. If this came to light, the sect leader would never spare him.
Chu Ping's gaze hardened. Making a snap decision, he abruptly turned his grab into a shove and struck Lin Yuan with all his strength.
Caught off guard, Lin Yuan instantly lost his balance and went flying toward the cliff's edge.
The cliff dropped into a bottomless abyss, terrifying to behold.
Lin Yuan felt his body suddenly grow light before he plunged rapidly down the cliff.
"Who's there!"
Chu Ping turned and shouted angrily. He wanted to see exactly who had made those footsteps, but there was no response from his surroundings except the wind.
Chu Ping felt puzzled. Had he really been so tense that he had imagined it?
Or had someone indeed passed by just now, only to have already left?
Whatever the case, Chu Ping decided to leave first.
If someone had witnessed everything, he had to find a way to cover up the truth as soon as possible, or the consequences would be unthinkable.
Standing at the cliff's edge, he looked down into the fathomless abyss and thought, With Lin Yuan's Foundation Establishment cultivation, after being severely injured by me and blinded in both eyes, he couldn't possibly survive a fall from here.
Lin Yuan's falling body suddenly stopped in midair, as though he had struck an invisible barrier.
Lin Yuan's body began sliding down along the edge of the barrier, and he lost consciousness.
"Xiao Yuan, is everything you said true? Was it really Chu Ping?" After hearing his account, Lin Hai slammed the table in fury. "Outrageous! He's been in my sect for so many years. When have I ever treated him poorly? To think he'd actually try to kill my grandson!"
"Grandpa, word of my return to the sect has already spread. Where is Chu Ping now?" Lin Yuan asked.
"I'll go seize him right now!" Lin Hai said angrily, then vanished in a flash.
Lin Yuan got out of bed and walked over to the mirror.
Four years of blindness had nearly accustomed him to the darkness.
How had his eyes recovered? Was it because he had advanced to Golden Core? Or had his grandfather healed them?
Now that his eyes had finally recovered, Gu Yi wasn't by his side. He wanted so badly to see what Gu Yi looked like...
Lin Yuan suddenly felt dizzy. He braced himself against the table and lowered his head, taking a long while to recover.
When he raised his head again, a wisp of black energy flashed between his brows.
"Xiao Yuan! Xiao Yuan!" Suddenly, two people rushed in through the door and hugged Lin Yuan.
Held from both sides, Lin Yuan didn't push them away. He froze for a long moment before smiling and saying helplessly, "All right, enough hugging. Both of you, let go."
One was his older sister, Lin Ning, and the other was his senior brother, Xiao Cheng.
"Xiao Yuan, we've been looking for you all these four years." Lin Ning clung to him, refusing to let go.
Xiao Cheng stood beside them. "All right, all right, Ning. Xiao Yuan only just woke up. Don't scare him!"
Lin Yuan scoffed. "Who? Me?"
The three of them had grown up together and had been inseparable. During these years he had been gone,
Lin Ning and Xiao Cheng must have put a great deal of effort into finding him.
"As soon as Grandpa told me you were back, I rushed straight home. Xiao Yuan, where have you been these past four years? Why couldn't we find you no matter how hard we looked?" As Lin Ning spoke, she inadvertently caught sight of the marks on Lin Yuan's neck.
They were bite marks Gu Yi had left while they cultivated together.
Xiao Cheng naturally saw them too. The two exchanged a glance, both understanding.
"Xiao Yuan, tell your senior brother the truth. Were you bullied?" Xiao Cheng asked bluntly.
Hearing their question, Lin Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up. "Sis, Senior Brother, do either of you have a portrait of the Demon Venerable?"
"The Demon Venerable? You mean Gu Yi, the Demon Venerable who died a year ago?" Since Gu Yi had proclaimed himself Demon Venerable, he was the only Demon Venerable in this book.
Before him, the Demonic Cult had been fragmented and disunited, with no Demon Venerable at all.
After him, He Yan lacked the strength to command everyone's allegiance, so he was merely the leader of the Demonic Cult. Over the past year, the Demonic Cult had begun showing signs of breaking apart again.
"Oh! I do, I do!" Lin Ning rummaged through her Qiankun Bag and pulled out a heap of assorted illustrated books and other books.
"I remember there's something called the Beauty Rankings here. He should be in it."
Xiao Cheng frowned at the jumble of books Lin Ning had spread across the floor, looking helpless. "Why do you have that sort of thing?"
"Oh, I just browse them when I've got nothing to do," Lin Ning said with a cheeky grin, then found the Beauty Rankings among the pile of books.
"Found it! This is the one!" Lin Yuan snatched the illustrated book and flipped through it.
"Xiao Yuan, you're in here too!" Lin Ning chuckled. "I think I'm in here as well."
"Here!" Lin Yuan found Gu Yi's portrait in tenth place on the rankings.
It was rather different from how he had imagined someone from the Demonic Cult.
In the portrait, Gu Yi wore blue-and-white robes and a fox-fur cloak. He looked gentle and refined, less like someone from the Demonic Cult than a frail scholar.
A mask covered his face, revealing only his chin and small mouth.
"Why? Why is he wearing a mask? I can't see his face!" Lin Yuan said with a frown.
"He's always been like that, wearing that mysterious mask. Who knows why he even made the rankings!" Lin Ning rolled her eyes.
Xiao Cheng rapped her on the head. "You! Instead of cultivating properly, you fill your head with all this useless stuff. Look at our junior brother. He's already at Golden Core, but you're still at Foundation Establishment!"
Before you continue