Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The last stone tablet, inscribed with the direct line's surname, crashed into the ruins, and the remaining imperial aura dissipated. The severed spiritual vein, freed from its restraints, transformed into tiny streams of light, sinking back into the earth along the cracks in the rocks.

Chen Xuan sheathed his heavy sword "Chang'an" without turning back.

Su Chang'an stood beside him, raising her hand to brush away the stone chips from his shoulder. As her fingertips brushed against his collar, Chen Xuan glanced at her, but she had already nonchalantly withdrawn her hand.

"What are you looking at?"

"It's nothing."

Chen Xuan pressed his palm against the sword hilt, his fingertips resting precisely on the Heavenly Fox Mark.

Behind them, Chen Fan and his collateral disciples were clearing the ground in front of the ancestral hall that had been damaged by the restrictions. The sound of shovels clashing against the rubble carried far.

The oppressive force that had been pressing down on everyone's bloodline had disappeared.

Just then, the sound of orderly footsteps came from outside the ruins.

There was no rush, but there was no stopping.

Chen Fan raised his head. The disciples from the collateral branches put down their tools and gripped their weapons.

Dozens of white-robed cultivators stopped outside the ancestral land.

The leader was dressed in a plain white sword-wielding robe, with the sword at his waist still sheathed. It was Luo Qingxue.

The disciples of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect behind her did not raise their sect banner, but instead held old tokens, lists of sins, and broken tokens of severing emotions. Those things that once hung high in the sect and were used to judge disciples' seven emotions and six desires were now covered in dirt and dust.

Luo Qingxue looked over the broken stone tablets scattered on the ground and looked at Chen Xuan.

She unfastened her sword, placed it horizontally in front of her, and bowed deeply in respect.

The people behind him then knelt down.

"The old rules of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect used the name of severing emotions to imprison, refine, and seize people's Dao, causing the deaths of countless disciples and incurring a blood debt to the collateral branches of the Chen family and Chen Xuan."

Luo Qingxue's forehead touched the ground, and her voice was clear.

"I have come here today not to seek forgiveness, but only to confess my sins."

A clang—"Chang'an" suddenly resounded from its sheath.

Chen Xuan's eyes instantly filled with black sword intent.

The excruciating pain of having his sword bones stripped away in the Guiyuan Hall, the chilling feeling of his broken sword being nailed to the array's core in the Northern Region camp, and Li Changgeng's indifference as he sat before the Nine Nether Refining God Array, treating him as a sacrifice, all surged into his sea of ​​consciousness.

His thumb pushed open the sword guard.

The heavy sword was drawn half an inch from its sheath.

The sword's pressure crashed down, turning the faces of the Forgetful Sect disciples deathly pale. A young disciple at the very front couldn't withstand it, his knee slamming heavily into the rubble.

Half of the "Severing Emotions" plaque fell from his arms.

The plaque is inscribed with the four characters "Sever desires to attain enlightenment," but there is a name that has been forcibly erased along the edge. The knife mark is deep, and half of the character "Ning" can still be seen.

The boy looked down at the sign and didn't pick it up.

"My senior sister refused to sever ties with her family and was sent to the Heart Refining Array. When she came out, she was just a skin and bones." His lips were pale. "My name was almost erased from the world by them as well."

None of the other disciples offered any explanation, nor did any of them draw their swords.

Some held the broken plaque, their fingers trembling. Others had their books of sins open, recording how their fellow disciples were forced to kill their relatives, offer bones, or use them in medicine.

Chen Fan looked at them, and slowly loosened his grip on the sword.

These people wear the robes of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect, but they may not all have ever wielded a knife to kill.

Some people are merely sacrificial offerings that have not yet died under the old rules.

Chen Xuan's sword remained half an inch away.

"Luo Qingxue".

He looked at her, his voice cold and deep.

"Have you come today to atone for Li Changgeng's sins, or to preserve the last plaque of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect?"

Luo Qingxue straightened up and pushed her sword aside.

"Neither."

She met the sword's intent head-on without dodging.

"I once abandoned your past kindness for the sake of the sect's lineage, and I also used the phrase 'Supreme Forgetfulness' to numb myself. I thought that by not listening, not seeing, and not thinking, my Dao heart would be without flaws."

She pressed her fingertips against the "Severing Love Token" at her waist.

"It wasn't until I saw Li Changgeng go against the tide for three thousand years, almost dragging everyone down with him for his own obsession, that I understood that what sects forget first is not affection, but the principle from the very beginning that they would never let anyone die alone."

The room fell silent.

Su Chang'an raised his hand and pressed down on Chen Xuan's wrist as he drew his sword.

Through his sleeve, her palm pressed against his taut wrist, without applying any force.

"Let her finish speaking."

Chen Xuan looked at her.

Su Chang'an was also looking at him.

"You destroyed the ancestral tablet because you didn't want a set of broken rules to condemn everyone anymore, did you?"

Her gaze shifted to the broken, broken heart-ending plaques.

"The ones who should be punished are not these kneeling disciples, but the erroneous lineage left behind by Li Changgeng."

Chen Xuan remained silent for a moment, then slowly withdrew his sword by half an inch.

Su Chang'an then released his grip. His fingertips lingered on his wrist for a moment as they left.

Luo Qingxue took out a gray-white jade slip from her sleeve.

Su Chang'an's gaze paused slightly upon seeing the jade slip.

That was something she brought back from three thousand years ago, carrying the possession, escape, and obsession that Li Changgeng personally stripped away before he disappeared.

Spiritual energy was infused into the jade slip.

The warm, ancient characters floated into the air.

"To forget is not to love, but to cling."

The lingering shadows of the snowy wasteland then spread out.

Gu Tianhu stood before several wooden houses, her nine tails outstretched behind her. She inscribed "education for all" into a stone tablet, then looked at the boy beside her who held an old iron sword.

"Deep affection dares not be expressed, for the heart's true love lies with us."

The sound traveled through three thousand years and landed in the ruins.

The disciples of the Forgetful Sect stared blankly at the afterimage.

Their supposed principles of severing emotions, eliminating desires, and cutting off kinship, which they regard as fundamental truths, seem like an absurd misunderstanding that has lasted for three thousand years in the face of the original teachings left by the patriarch.

An older deacon gritted his teeth and finally spoke:

"If we don't sever our emotions and eliminate our desires, what will our sect rely on to stand? How will our disciples suppress their inner demons?"

Luo Qingxue accepted the jade slip.

She didn't argue, but simply raised her hand and took off the "Severing Love Token" from her waist.

A flash of sword energy.

The token shattered in her palm.

"From this day forward, the old rules are abolished."

She glanced at the crowd behind her, her voice echoing through the ruins.

"Disciples shall not be tested by severing their emotions, nor shall anyone be deprived of their innate talent in the name of the sect, nor shall anyone be forced to sacrifice themselves under the pretext of cultivating their Dao heart."

The deacon turned pale and finally lowered his head.

Luo Qingxue picked up the sword from the ground and unleashed a burst of sword energy beside the shattered ancestral tablet.

Stone chips fell, and eight new characters were carved into the crumbling wall.

The one whose heart is set on love is none other than us.

Afterwards, she led all her disciples to pay their respects to Chen Xuan, Su Chang'an, and the collateral branches of the Chen family once again.

"Old debts will not disappear because of reformation."

"The Supreme Forgetfulness Sect will return lost items, heal the victims, and rebuild its lineage. It will repay the debts of life and karma, one by one."

Chen Xuan gazed at the words on the jade slip: "Forgetting is not love, but attachment."

He recalled Li Changgeng's silhouette, his frail body filling the void of time before the rift in time closed.

The "Chang'an" in my palm finally quieted down.

Whether the plaque can be kept or not depends on how low you kneel today.

Chen Xuan looked at Luo Qingxue.

"Let's see how upright you behave in the future."

The members of the Forgetful Sect all bowed their heads.

"Remember this."

Luo Qingxue put away the jade slip, led her disciples to remove the old flag, and gathered up the broken pieces of the Heartbreak Severing Token one by one.

The setting sun cast its light between the two ruins.

On one side is the shattered ancestral stele of the Chen family, and on the other side are the newly engraved family precepts.

Su Chang'an looked at it for a moment, then gave a soft hum.

"One smashed the ancestral tablet, the other abolished the old rules."

"You're quite the troublemaker today."

Chen Xuan turned his head to look at her.

"You don't like it?"

"good."

Su Chang'an reached out and brushed the last bit of lime from his hair, his fingertips brushing past his ear before withdrawing.

"At least after demolition, we know how to rebuild."

Chen Xuan pressed his palm against the sword hilt, preventing the sword from being exposed again.

The celestial fox mark on the scabbard glowed faintly.

The old road is severed here.

The four characters "Supreme Forgetfulness of Emotions" have finally broken free from the cage of severing emotions and desires, returning to the original meaning left by the ancient celestial fox.