After bullying the students, when Li Yunxian came out, she received a call from Yu Qiyao.
Just as Li Yunxian had predicted that morning, Yu Qiyao chose to show mercy to Du Rong, but it came with conditions.
Tomorrow, Du Rong would step into the arena and unconditionally accept all challenges from anyone wanting to face him.
Simply put, everyone Du Rong had bullied would get at least one chance to slap him.
“However… Yunxian, I’m sorry.” Yu Qiyao said awkwardly, “I don’t want to use my cultivation to bully him. I plan to compete without using any spiritual power.”
Li Yunxian hummed in agreement; she had no objection to Yu Qiyao’s choice and said plainly, “No need to apologize. It just means you and Du Rong aren’t the same kind of people. That’s good.”
Hearing Li Yunxian’s words, Yu Qiyao’s eyes curved into a smile.
The guilt she had felt before was completely soothed.
They chatted casually for a while until Yu Qiyao suddenly noticed a strange background noise on Li Yunxian’s end.
“Yunxian, where are you?” Yu Qiyao asked curiously. “Why do I hear an ambulance siren?”
“Hmm, since I was out, I came to the Healing Zone to deliver something.” Li Yunxian replied.
“For whom?” Yu Qiyao was puzzled.
“For Yu Juanshu.” Li Yunxian gave her a completely unexpected answer.
Yu Qiyao: “?”
“Are you going to his funeral?” Yu Qiyao was shocked.
Li Yunxian was at a rare loss for words.
“Yu Qiyao, I want to know—what kind of image do I have in your heart?” Li Yunxian’s soft voice drifted through the phone into Yu Qiyao’s ear.
Yu Qiyao immediately replied seriously, “Hating evil like a sworn enemy, a hero of our time!”
Li Yunxian chuckled and let it go, then roughly explained the situation.
In short, the three of them had killed a Golden Core, and Yu Juanshu was entitled to a share of the spoils.
But Yu Juanshu had been ‘killed’ at the time, so Li Yunxian had come out to deliver his share.
Lian Ping’s portion had already been taken during the Secret Realm.
***
After they left, Lian Ping took care of the essence soul matters, so Li Yunxian naturally took charge of handing over the spoils to Yu Juanshu.
“I’m already at the door, hanging up.” Li Yunxian said, ending the call, then knocked on the door.
Inside, Yu Juanshu was video calling Du Sen. But after connecting, neither of them knew what to say.
They just stared at each other silently.
The sudden knock startled Yu Juanshu.
Thinking it was medical staff making rounds, he hurriedly covered his phone screen with the blanket and said, “Please come in.”
The door opened, and Li Yunxian’s figure appeared.
At the sight of her, Yu Juanshu thought he was hallucinating, utterly stunned and shocked.
“How come it’s you?”
After speaking, he realized the sentence sounded off, so he added, “What do you want from me?”
Li Yunxian said nothing, pulling three storage artifacts from her pocket and tossing them to Yu Juanshu. “Split the loot.”
“These were carried by the Golden Core at the time. Some magical tools exploded, so this is all that’s left.”
The Golden Core had come out to fight, so it hadn’t carried many storage artifacts. Most magical tools had been used up resisting the Soulwhip, but the remaining items inside were still quite valuable.
After all, good things were kept on the Golden Core’s person.
As for those in the Lotus Mountain Cave Dwelling, those were items Li Yunxian painstakingly looted herself. They were her personal supplies, only giving Lian Ping a small fee for breaking the seals.
Yu Juanshu was stunned for a moment, then pursed his lips and didn’t accept the three storage artifacts.
After a few seconds of silence, he said to Li Yunxian, “Please help me give these things to Du Rong.”
Yu Juanshu could guess some of the reasons why Du Rong wanted to kill him.
He wasn’t a fool.
Li Yunxian was about to turn and leave but stopped in disbelief at Yu Juanshu’s words and gave him a big eye roll.
“Do what you want to do yourself. I’m not doing these dirty deeds.”
“If you want to cause trouble for Du Rong, just say it directly. Talk to the Vice Principal this morning. If you don’t forgive him, then don’t. Why all these roundabout schemes?”
Li Yunxian said bluntly.
Yu Juanshu: “???”
“I’m not!!” Yu Juanshu was so angry he almost bounced off the bed despite his weakness.
“Whether you think so or not, what you’re actually doing is exactly that.” Li Yunxian said impatiently.
“Do you know what the Path of Righteousness and the Demonic Path are?” Li Yunxian asked but didn’t wait for an answer.
“Is doing good deeds righteousness and doing bad deeds demonic?”
“If it’s defined that way, then who decides what’s good or bad?”
“If you’re on the Path of Righteousness, does that mean you’re a good person? If so, then even before, you couldn’t say Du Rong was a good person.”
Yu Juanshu stared at Li Yunxian in shock. He had never thought about the Path of Righteousness or Demonic Path like that.
He had always distinguished right and wrong simply by good and bad.
“How do you divide it then?” Yu Juanshu asked.
Li Yunxian glanced at the phone on Yu Juanshu’s blanket, hearing the suddenly heavier breathing from it.
It was obvious who was on the other end.
She ignored it and continued speaking to Yu Juanshu.
“Simply put, the Path of Righteousness cultivates ‘universal benefit,’ while the Demonic Path cultivates ‘self-interest.’”
“‘Universal benefit’ means taking on more responsibility, mutual help, and having a heart of responsibility toward others.”
“From loving one’s family to helping the world.”
“It’s more complicated in detail, but I’m not your teacher, so I won’t go into it.”
“The Demonic Path’s ‘self-interest’ means focusing on oneself.”
“Everything should belong to me; I’m the most important. Everything else can be sacrificed or abandoned.”
“The Path of Righteousness aims for a clear conscience in the end, while the Demonic Path aims for no regrets.”
Having a clear conscience means doing everything in accordance with morality and the Dao, breaking through one’s greed, anger, and ignorance to ultimately be without guilt.
But it’s almost impossible to never do wrong.
The Path of Righteousness is difficult for this reason, but if one persists, the final road is not so hard.
The Demonic Path is completely selfish and self-centered, considering only oneself. It’s very easy at the start.
Once one realizes this and falls into the Demonic Path, the Dao heart has almost no threshold; as long as resources are sufficient, advancement is almost unrestricted.
But it becomes very difficult later on.
Along the way, everything the Demonic cultivator destroys must never, even for a moment, move their heart with memories of goodness or wish that things could have been better.
Even the slightest thought would mean not being truly selfish enough.
Forever and always, they must become the demon who walks alone without regret.
After giving this definition, Li Yunxian looked at the dazed Yu Juanshu and continued, “Du Rong’s desires, you satisfy them all.”
“Good or bad, right or wrong, you cover everything for him.”
“He doesn’t have to bear any responsibility or punishment.”
“If it’s a bit unfair or difficult, you immediately help him clear the obstacles.”
“You let him not consider others, only care about himself, do whatever he wants, and the world should revolve around him. That’s clearly nurturing his demonic heart.”
“Now that you know he’s halfway into the Demonic Path, you still want to give him everything he wants?” Li Yunxian sneered.
“An eighth layer Qi Refinement who’s never met real difficulties, when faced with someone stronger on the arena, doesn’t fight back or run but shouts ‘Do you know who my father is?’”
“That’s just laughable.”
“You being attacked by Du Rong? In my eyes, you don’t deserve sympathy. You raised him yourself—you’re completely reaping what you sowed.”
“You got killed, and it’s well deserved.”
Li Yunxian then reached for Yu Juanshu’s phone, staring at the stunned expression of Du Sen on the screen, who seemed about to say something.
But Li Yunxian cut him off mercilessly.
“You deserve it too!”
“The two kids you raised ended up killing each other, that’s impressive.”
“Are you mad now? Hate me so much you want to come over from Ice Valley and cut me down?”
“There are so many combined Soul Clones in the academy. I’m inside the academy; you can’t do it.”
“Maybe just wait until I graduate.”
“Once I graduate and leave the academy, that’ll be easy.”
“But I can already kill Golden Cores at Qi Refining Fourth Layer. Guess if I graduate Foundation Establishment, can I kill a Nascent Soul?”
“Trash.”
Li Yunxian didn’t hold back insulting Du Sen.
Watching Du Sen’s expression shift from stunned to furious glare and then speechless, Li Yunxian raised an eyebrow in amusement.
Not giving him time to react, she ended the call.
She casually tossed Yu Juanshu’s phone back onto his bed, then, satisfied, waved at him without another word and turned to open the ward door and leave.
Yu Juanshu was left completely dumbfounded.
He felt his phone vibrating on the bed.
He stared blankly for a long while before picking it up.
It was unmistakably a call request from Du Sen.
Yu Juanshu was silent for a few seconds before answering.
Looking at the furious face on the screen, Yu Juanshu quietly said first, “Teacher, is what Li Yunxian said about the Path of Righteousness and Demonic Path true?”
Du Sen, furious to the point of boiling over, didn’t expect Yu Juanshu to ask that question right after picking up.
He held back his anger and finally said weakly, “Yes, it’s mostly right. The reality is much more complicated.”
Having cultivated to the Nascent Soul Stage, he had some understanding of these Dao concepts.
“So it’s me… who harmed Xiao Rong?” Yu Juanshu asked confusedly.
Du Sen fell silent.
Sometimes, those involved are the most confused.
All fathers and all teachers spoil their children, don’t they?
A little problem here and there doesn’t matter. He’s so young; what could he understand? He’ll know when he grows up.
And then…
He fell into the Demonic Path.
Du Sen closed his eyes.
Yu Juanshu saw the expression and understood.
He forced a smile and said with great effort, “I think… what Li Yunxian said was well-meaning… Teacher, please don’t…”
Before Yu Juanshu could finish, Du Sen exploded in anger.
“Enough! Shut up!”
“I was going to thank her!”
“But she called me trash!”
“When I return to school in a year, if I don’t beat her up, I won’t be Du Sen anymore!”
Yu Juanshu:
His teacher would never actually lay a hand on a student—so why say something so impossible?