I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

Qin Yuan seized the opportunity to draw his sword and retreat.

Yuan looked at the wound on his arm, then at Li Qing. "You, a mere mortal, dare to hit me?"

Li Qing threw the cracked hammer on the ground. "That's what I'm doing."

Yuan was enraged. He ignored Qin Yuan and charged straight at Li Qing. He was faster than before, so fast that Qin Yuan couldn't react in time. Li Qing retreated, but her leg was injured and she couldn't run fast. Yuan's blade was already at her throat.

A hand reached out from behind her and caught the blade.

Lin Qing'er.

Her hand was cut by a sharp blade, blood flowing down her fingers and dripping onto the ground, drop by drop. But she didn't let go. She gripped the blade, her fingers slashed deeply, revealing the bone beneath. Her face was expressionless, her eyes fixed on Yuan.

"Your opponent is him."

Lin Qing'er gestured with her chin towards Qin Yuan. Qin Yuan had already appeared behind Yuan, the tip of his sword pressed against Yuan's back.

Yuan didn't dodge. He punched Lin Qing'er in the face—Qin Yuan's sword pierced his back, the tip emerging from his chest. But his fist didn't stop. Lin Qing'er turned to the side, the fist grazing her ear, missing its mark. The wind blew past her ear, her hair fluttering.

Yuan turned, Qin Yuan's sword still embedded in his chest, his hands transforming into blades as he attacked Qin Yuan from both sides. Qin Yuan drew his sword and retreated. The wound on Yuan's chest healed rapidly, granulation tissue growing, intertwining, and filling the wound.

Lin Qing'er retreated to Li Qing's side. Li Qing took out a bandage from his pocket and wrapped it around Lin Qing's hand. The wound was too deep, and the bandage was soaked with blood as soon as it was applied.

"Why are you here?" Li Qing asked.

Lin Qing'er took the bandage from Li Qing and wrapped it herself. "I knew he didn't plan to go back alive if he didn't change his clothes."

The rescue team formed a semicircle. Qin Yuan stood at the front, his sword tip pointing at Yuan. Yuan looked at them, and for the first time, he didn't smile.

Yuan's cultivation level continued to rise during the battle. The four ancestral cores within his body fused together, releasing even greater power. Dark red light emanated from beneath his skin, like magma. But cracks began to appear on his body. His grayish-white skin was covered with fine black lines, like a dried-up riverbed, like porcelain about to shatter.

Qin Yuan noticed. "The Ancestral Core is backfiring on you. You can't withstand it."

Yuan looked down at his hands. A crack had appeared on his fingers, from which a black liquid was seeping out. The liquid was thick, like asphalt, and it hissed as it dripped onto the ground.

"If you can't handle it, I'll kill you first."

Yuan stopped dodging. He charged directly into the crowd, his hands transforming into sharp blades, slashing left and right. The rescue team fought desperately. Muddy was sent flying by a single blow, crashing into a stone pillar in the ruins. The pillar broke, and he flew a short distance before landing. Li Qing's leg was slashed by the blades; old wounds compounded by new ones, she couldn't stand steadily and knelt on one knee. Several people lay in pools of blood; some of the young people from the mutual aid society were only in their early twenties.

Qin Yuan chased after Yuan, but Yuan wouldn't fight him, only killing the rescue team members. He was too fast for Qin Yuan to catch. Lin Qing'er squatted on the ground bandaging the wounded, her hands still bleeding, the blood on the bandages indistinguishable from whose. Ni Dan got up from the ground, limped over to Li Qing, and pulled her up.

Qin Yuan stopped. He planted his sword in the ground and closed his eyes.

The power to protect the Heavenly Dao emanated from his body and spread outwards. It wasn't golden light, but an invisible "field." It had no color, no shape, yet everyone felt it—they were within his presence. Not being protected, but being "enclosed."

Yuan's speed was suppressed. His body became heavy, and each step required ten times more effort than before. His feet sank into the ground, burying him completely below the ankles. He turned to look at Qin Yuan, and for the first time, a flicker of emotion appeared in his dark eyes—not fear, but surprise.

"You...you've spread your presence?"

Qin Yuan opened his eyes. "You are now within my presence. You are no match for me."

Yuan was pinned to the spot, unable to move. His body continued to crack, the fissures spreading from his arms to his shoulders, and from his shoulders to his chest. Black liquid gushed from the cracks, pooling on the ground like an oil spill.

"Killing me won't make the malice disappear. It will parasitize you and become your malice." Yuan's voice was no longer mocking, but calm, as if stating a fact. "You killed me, so you are me."

Qin Yuan pulled the sword from the ground and walked up to Yuan.

"I won't kill you. Malice won't disappear, but you can choose to stop doing evil."

"I won't. I am malice. Evil is the meaning of my existence." Yuan's lips parted, revealing black teeth. But his eyes were no longer bright.

Qin Yuan raised his left hand and placed it on Yuan's forehead. The power protecting the Heavenly Dao surged into Yuan's body, not to destroy, but to suppress. He sealed Yuan's cultivation layer by layer, from the sixth level of the Myriad Daos Returning to the Origin to the fifth, from the fifth to the fourth, descending one level at a time. From the Void Ruler, from the Void Supreme, from the Beginning of Chaos, descending one level at a time. Until Yuan became an ordinary person. No cultivation, no power, only a grayish-white body covered in cracks.

Yuan knelt on the ground, the blackness in his eye sockets turning gray. He looked at his hands; they no longer trembled, and the cracks no longer widened. But his body felt light, like a sheet of paper.

"I won't kill you. But you can't hurt anyone else. Come with me."

Yuan didn't ask where they were going. He knew he had no other choice.

The rescue team members helped each other to their feet. Lin Qing'er walked up to Qin Yuan and looked at him. There was blood on Qin Yuan's face, not his own. Lin Qing'er reached out to wipe it away, but the blood had dried on her thumb and wouldn't come off completely.

"My clothes are dirty again."

"Um."

"Go back and change."

Qin Yuan escorted Yuan, with Lin Qing'er walking beside him. Behind them, the rescue team didn't follow. They had to stay behind to treat the injured and collect the bodies of the dead. Muddy sat on the ground, clutching a cracked hammer. The hammerhead was gone, leaving only the wooden handle. He held the handle to his chest like he was holding a child. Li Qing sat beside him, her leg wrapped in bandages. She looked at Qin Yuan's back and said something no one heard.

"We'll be back."

Qin Yuan brought Yuan back to the back mountain of the Xuan Yuan Sect. The old plum tree was still in bloom, its petals falling into the stream and drifting away. He used the Heavenly Dao of Guardians to forge a stone prison beneath the old plum tree. The stone prison had no door, no lock, only Qin Yuan's will. The four sides were translucent golden light walls, allowing those outside to see inside and those inside to see outside. The light walls were thin, but Yuan could not break through them. He had no cultivation; he couldn't even crush an ant.

Yuan sat in the stone cell, like an ordinary prisoner. His back was against the cool, light-filled wall, and he hunched his shoulders. He didn't speak, didn't move, just sat there.

Lin Qing'er brought him food: a bowl of porridge, a dish of pickled vegetables, and a pair of chopsticks. She placed the food at the entrance of the stone cell, where a crack appeared in the smooth wall, large enough to fit a bowl. She put the bowl inside, and the wall closed.