Yu Xuan and Ming Tiani talked for a long ti, far longer than either of them had expected.
And the longer the conversation dragged on, the deeper their confusion beca.
How could it be that she, a regressor held mories that diverged so greatly from reality, while he, who had only ever glimpsed the future through her, ended up closer to the truth?
It was as if soone had copied the wrong answers during an exam... and still sohow topped the class.
A ridiculous situation.
"This is enough for now," Ming Tiani muttered at last, rubbing her temples. Her eyes were unfocused, her thoughts clearly in disarray.
"I really need ti to reorganize everything."
For the first ti since her regression, she felt a terrifying doubt creep into her heart.
What if her status as a regressor is wrong?
What if... she never truly was one?
"Alright," Yu Xuan replied calmly.
"I’ll go."
He turned and left the room, but not before casually embedding a small dagger into the floor near the corner.
"...Uh?" Ming Tiani blinked in confusion after the door closed.
’This is his room,’ she thought.
So why did he leave instead?
anwhile, Yu Xuan strode through the floating island, now dressed once more in his Yu Clan robes.
The chaos of recent events lingered in his mind, but his expression remained composed.
’Should I look for Baozi?’ he wondered briefly, before dismissing the thought.
Instead, he focused inward.
In the next instant, space folded.
Yu Xuan vanished from the floating island entirely.
When the world settled again, he found himself standing within his small, humble residence atop the Main Elental Heaven Peak – a place that, for now, felt like a second ho.
He arrived beneath the Five Elental Tree, his usual cultivation spot, and sat down without hesitation.
Recuperation ca first.
He had burned several of the miniature golden cores embedded within his cells. That wasn’t sothing that could be ignored.
Ti flowed silently.
Two days passed in what felt like a single blink.
Yu Xuan opened his eyes, his aura calm and full, every trace of exhaustion gone.
"This took far less ti than I expected," he muttered, rising to his feet.
Initially he thought it would take nearly a week.
But now with his condition restored, his thoughts naturally shifted to what ca next.
There was a lot waiting for him: reporting to Bing Xin, dealing with the aftermath of the recent incident... though he suspected that gate-related matters would be temporarily frozen after what had happened to their group.
Then there were the ssages.
He glanced at his dallion, already feeling a faint headache coming on.
’These days, even checking this thing feels troubleso.’
"Am I this unsettled because my state of mind is shaken?" Yu Xuan muttered quietly.
He paused, then turned his attention inward, checking the connection to the two caterpillars bound to him.
They were in their chrysalis stage. now.
Normally such beings would anchor themselves to a conscious plant or an Immortal Tree, whereas these two were now directly attached to his soul, drawing nourishnt from his very essence as they prepared to hatch.
This situation felt strange.
This had occurred nearly half a year later, after he entered seclusion with his master.
Yu Xuan let out a slow sigh.
Whatever answers he sought from Ming Tiani clearly weren’t going to reveal themselves just by thinking.
With that in mind, he made a decision.
He focused his will and opened the system interface.
It was ti to check the quest rewards he had deliberately put off, there was no longer any reason to hesitate.
——————————————————
[Side Quest] (Completed)
Congratulations!
You have once again disappointed and lost face in the Reincarnation Community.
As a reincarnator, your primary instinct upon seeing enemies should be:
"How do I squeeze maximum EXP out of this?"
Yet instead, you chose to prioritize your clan mbers.
This system is shocked!
However, against all logic, this system will begrudgingly acknowledge that loyalty is... sotis acceptable.
After all, this System has a host first policy!
Objective: Eliminate all hostile enemies targeting you.
Reward: Basic Understanding of the Evil Path (because you’re already halfway there).
Failure: 24 day ban on issuing side quests. (Use this ti to reflect on your poor life choices.)
——————————————————
[ACCEPT | REJECT]
Yu Xuan accepted the reward.
The mont he did, a torrent of information surged into his mind, cold, sharp, and unapologetically pragmatic.
Insights related to the Evil Path poured in like a broken dam, forcing him to halt his thoughts and focus solely on digestion.
It took quite so ti.
When the flow finally settled, Yu Xuan opened his eyes, his expression... odd.
Very odd.
After carefully sorting through the knowledge, he arrived at a conclusion that felt both absurd and unsettling.
The first rule of the Evil Path was not slaughter.
It was not betrayal.
It was not even ambition.
It was understanding Virtue.
Not in the sense of practicing it, but in comprehending it so thoroughly that one could exploit it.
Know virtue, so you know exactly how and when to trample it.
As the saying went; Know your enemies, and know yourself.
The Evil Path simply extended that logic to everyone, friends included.
The knowledge went further.
It explained how to maintain a fearso reputation.
How to earn a twisted form of respect among fellow Evil Path cultivators.
How to draw clear boundaries so that even madn would hesitate before crossing you.
Then ca the truly strange part.
Face-slapping techniques.
Actual, structured, step-by-step face-slapping thods.
Not taphorical ones – real techniques designed to humiliate opponents in public, dismantle their logic mid-sentence, trap them in their own words, and make them sound so profoundly stupid that killing them afterward would feel rciful.
There were thods for, turning righteous speeches against their speakers.
Forcing arrogant geniuses to contradict themselves.
Making enemies lose reputation faster than they lost blood.
Yu Xuan stared blankly as he processed it all.
This is... disturbingly thorough.
One core principle stood out above the rest.
Ruthlessness alone was not enough.
A strong but stupid Evil Path cultivator was rely a convenient weapon, one that could be wielded, discarded, or even sacrificed by people far weaker than them.
On the Evil Path, every interaction was an opportunity.
An opportunity to gain leverage.
An opportunity to test others.
An opportunity to plant seeds, for fear, for greed, or for future betrayal.
Yu Xuan exhaled slowly.
"So this is the Beginners Guide to Evil Path," he muttered.
Not chaos.
Not mindless slaughter.
But a battlefield where sotis conversations were weapons, reputations were armor, and stupidity was the fastest route to an early grave.
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