Hui Kai turned his head and looked at the woman. She raised her head and clenched her teeth. "To answer you, sir: Song'er is Hui Kai's son."

Hui Kai was shocked and wanted nothing more than to slap the woman dead. Damn her, she’s framing me!

The others were also horrified. "Madam, you cannot speak such nonsense!"

"Madam."

"Madam!"

Elder Qiu watched in silence. The woman did not cultivate the Path of Dispassion and was simply protecting her child.

Lu Yin said, "You heard her. A mother would not mistake who is the father of her child.

"This is troubling... What do you think should be done? Wei Qi is dead, while Wei Song is not the city lord's son. I cannot do nothing after coming here. It would be hard to explain this to my people in Canglan Valley when I return."

As he spoke, Lu Yin’s eyes grew cold as he turned to stare at Hui Kai. "Either the people in this manor die, or you die. No matter how you put it, you are the former city lord's junior brother, aren’t you?"

Hui Kai was terrified. This man was targeting him!

Inside the manor, a crowd hurried to beg for mercy. Of course they would prefer Hui Kai to be the one to die.

Hui Kai looked up at Lu Yin. Seeing the icy eyes staring back, his whole body went stiff. How had things come to this?

As a disciple of Bing Xu, Hui Kai had once roamed his civilization freely, never imagining that a day would come when another would hold his life in their hand, let alone for such a ridiculous reason. If he died, what would the outside world say? Would it be said that he had died by Lu Yin's hand, or that vicious woman’s?

He did not even know whom to hate.

The cold wind cut like a blade. Snow fell into the courtyard of the mourning hall, slowly covering the bloodstains.

This was the most desperate instant of Hui Kai’s life. Looking up at Lu Yin's gaze, despair completely closed in upon the man.

Lu Yin raised his hand and moved closer to Hui Kai. Overwhelming pressure surged like an astral river flowing backwards, shattering the void. Hui Kai did not dare to move a muscle. The universe seemed to be collapsing upon him as his life slipped away.

He blankly stared upwards. "I- my master is Bing Xu."

The others knelt on the ground. Bing Xu? If not for Ji He interfering, Hui Kai’s master would have died.

Elder Qiu watched with sympathy. If Hui Kai had not arrived, he would not have gotten involved in this matter. He had only appeared to show off his power.

Just as Lu Yin's hand was about to make contact with Hui Kai, it stopped. Not only that, but the pressure also abruptly vanished.

Snowflakes danced across the ground. When everyone looked over, Hui Kai was gone, and so was Lu Yin. Only Elder Qiu remained standing in the same place.

Outside of Shanfeng City, Hui Kai knelt on the ground while gasping for air. That instant of existing between life and death had left his back drenched with sweat. He looked up to see Lu Yin calmly observing him. The man looked like a giant.

Hui Kai bowed low. "Thank you for not killing me, sir. Thank you for not killing me."

Lu Yin said, "I never said that I wouldn’t kill you."

Hui Kai shuddered.

"I just have a question. If you answer me well, I might not kill you."

Hui Kai seized this opportunity as a lifeline. "Please ask, sir! If I know the answer, I will tell you anything!"

Lu Yin gave a small smile. "Even if doing so means revealing your master, Bing Xu's, secrets? It could bring death down upon you."

Hui Kai clenched his teeth. "If I know, I will tell you anything."

Nothing mattered more than staying alive at this moment. As long as Hui Kai could make it through this, anything was acceptable. He did not want to die, not even one second sooner than necessary.

The less that one tasted death, the more that they feared it. Hui Kai was the disciple of an Immortal. He had not lived enough, and he had not indulged himself enough.

Lu Yin's calm voice continued, "How many disciples does Jiu Wen, the sect master of the Sect of Dispassion, have?"

Hui Kai's pupils shrank as he stared at Lu Yin in shock.

Lu Yin met the man’s gaze in silence, though his eyes grew ever colder.

Hui Kai continued to stare at Lu Yin for a moment, his eyes flickering.

"Do you not want to answer?"

Hui Kai clenched his teeth. "I do not know how many disciples Sect Master Jiu Wen has had in total. I only know of six."

"Tell me about them."

"The Zeng family, the Shahe clan, Duhou Manor, the Stonewall clan, the Nanshan clan, and the Xu family. There are a total of six factions, descendants of his disciples. I don’t know anything about them. Aside from the Stonewall clan, all of them are gone."

Lu Yin looked at Hui Kai. "Gone?"

"Yes, they are all gone."

The man knew exactly what Lu Yin was asking about. If this were nothing more than casual curiosity, the man would not have gone to such lengths. His claim of visiting Shanfeng City for revenge was a lie. It was nothing more than an excuse to ask this question.

This question was worth doing that much for.

Hui Kai had no choice. If he did, he would have never spoken. His master could not help him.

"Apart from the Stonewall clan, the other five were all exterminated. They were destroyed by Sect Master Jiu Wen," Hui Kai slowly explained.

Lu Yin's eyes narrowed as he stared at Hui Kai.

Since he had already gone so far, Hui Kai no longer hesitated. "Jiu Wen has always been the sect master of the Sect of Dispassion. But no one knows what method Ji He used to gain Ancestor Hong Xia’s support in the past, allowing him to even take that position. Ji He is Ancestor Hong Xia's disciple, and others like my master and He Xiao are also Ancestor Hong Xia's disciples. Normally, Jiu Wen could not have won that position.

"Not only that, but it has also been said that Ji He caused one of Jiu Wen's disciples to betray him. Supposedly, that disciple gave Ji He leverage over Jiu Wen, forcing him to step aside. That created an enormous uproar, and yet it only lasted for a single day.

“One day later, aside from the Stonewall clan, the families of Jiu Wen’s other five disciples were all dead. Blood ran like rivers. The clans were wiped out. Not a single person escaped." Terror filled Hui Kai's eyes. "Many people saw Jiu Wen standing in a sea of blood, smiling at Ji He. At that moment, that image became the nightmare of countless people.

"My master also saw it, as did He Xiao and all the others. From that moment on, Ji He withdrew from public eyes, abandoning any contest for the position of sect master. Not only that, but no one dared to mention the extermination of those five clans ever again." He looked at Lu Yin. "Five clans, millions of people, all dead by Jiu Wen's hand."

Lu Yin's gaze sank. Millions of people might not seem like much. Compared to an entire civilization, it was a miniscule number. Some people destroyed entire megaverses by snapping the sequence strings, but personally slaughtering millions of people carried a different meaning, especially when they were that person’s own disciples and their clans.

"Did all five of his disciples betray him?"

Hui Kai closed his eyes. "That is the most frightening part. Only one disciple betrayed Jiu Wen, but Ji He never said who it was, so..."

Lu Yin exhaled. So Jiu Wen exterminated the clans of all five disciples.

The Stonewall clan had only survived because that disciple had died long before, and all who remained were merely descendants. If the Stonewall clan's ancestor had still been alive, it would not have been five clans exterminated, but rather six.

Ruthless. Truly ruthless. After killing millions, was he not afraid of increasing his karmic chain?

Still, the increase in an Immortal’s karmic chain from the deaths of millions of mortals could not be much. What Immortals truly cared about was facing either a very strong opponent or a vast number, on the scale of a civilization. Millions was far from enough to make an Immortal hesitate.

But the horror of personally slaughtering millions of people had become a nightmare for countless people throughout Crimson Starshade. It was no wonder why Elder Qiu and Xie Man had refused to speak of the matter no matter what Lu Yin threatened. They feared the Jiu Wen of that moment.

Jiu Wen had left a shadow in people’s hearts that could not be erased, and it was all because one disciple had betrayed him. There had been no need to know which; just kill them all. That was the Path of Dispassion.

Jiu Wen's words echoed again and again in Lu Yin’s mind: Even dispassion has right and wrong.

But where was the right and wrong in this? Were the other four clans at fault? Jiu Wen had exterminated them all. Was that his Path of Dispassion?

Jiu Wen and Ji He's words both rang in Lu Yin's ears. Some people might seem vicious, but were gentle inside. Others might seem open and bright, yet were terrifying within.

The Sect of Dispassion had been founded by Jiu Wen, and the Dispassion Valleys had also been made by his hand. Killing placed no burden on his mind at all.

Hui Kai left. Lu Yin already knew the secret.

Not long after that, Elder Qiu arrived. He knew that Lu Yin must already know. The old man did not know what the consequences of this might be. In principle, even without cultivating the Path of Dispassion, the cultivation world was not peaceful. To reach as high as Lu Yin had, one's hands had to be stained with blood.

But that blood was not the same as that which stained Jiu Wen's hands.

Lu Yin stared off into the distance and calmly asked, "Tell me, does the Path of Dispassion distinguish between right from wrong?"

Elder Qiu stood behind him, not knowing how to answer.

Right and wrong? In Crimson Starshade, that was a laughable idea. In fact, it was a joke even in the cultivation world.

"Does your civilization distinguish between right and wrong?" Elder Qiu asked in return.

Lu Yin's expression turned complicated. That was a valid question: did his civilization truly distinguish between right and wrong? This was the way of the cultivation world, and it had nothing to do with whether one cultivated the Path of Dispassion.

If Lu Yin could not tell right from wrong like Jiu Wen, then given his extraordinary combat strength and innate gift of teleportation, who could do anything to him?

That was why people had to rely on themselves.

But civilizations were not like that. Civilizations had to consider what was right and wrong, distinguish fairness, preserve inheritances, and protect emotions. That was a civilization. Even though there was also injustice in Lu Yin’s own Trio, most people lived within the bounds of civilization.

He had once made a grand vow to guide people toward goodness. In truth that was a joke as well. Human nature was the most difficult thing to comprehend. And by "people," Lu Yin had not meant every individual, but rather civilization as a whole: human civilization.

To guide people towards goodness was to guide human civilization towards goodness.

How could the Path of Dispassion move closer to goodness?

"Take me to see where the clans of those disciples once lived."

"There’s nothing left, only ruins."

"Let me see."

Elder Qiu found Lu Yin’s reaction very strange. People had not told Lu Yin about the matter because they feared being blamed by Sect Master Jiu Wen, since the matter had become forbidden to speak about. It had never been because people were worried about what Lu Yin might do.

However, it appeared that Mr. Lu was not very satisfied with Sect Master Jiu Wen's actions.

Right and wrong? Fairness? Truth? Did such things matter? How could someone who had cultivated to such a level still care about those things?

Elder Qiu could not understand, unless this man had cultivated for a very short time and his heart had not yet gone numb. "Mr. Lu, about this... can we not go?"

Lu Yin looked at him. "Are you afraid of Jiu Wen?"

Elder Qiu nodded. "Those ruins are just as forbidden as that tale. No one dares to approach them."

Lu Yin said, "Let’s go. Jiu Wen won’t blame you, since I am forcing you to lead the way."

Elder Qiu had no choice but to lead the way.

Five clans: Nanshan, Xu, Shahe, Duhou Manor, and Zeng. They visited the ruins one by one. The land had been washed in blood and had long since become foul and overgrown. No one took care of the land. The five clans had settled in excellent locations, but no one dared to resettle them.

When the wind blew, some white bones would crumble to powder, drifting away on the breeze.

Despite the desolation, the rivers were very clear. Time could cleanse everything. No one knew where the river led, but the longer it ran, the more it washed away the passing of time.

Elder Qiu stayed outside the ruins. He had only led Lu Yin to the location, and he did not dare to step foot within the ruins himself.

After looking around for a bit, they moved to leave. Lu Yin himself did not know why he had wanted to see the ruins.

But just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped. Lu Yin slowly turned his head to look at a wall that had nearly been worn away. The patterns that had once decorated it were long gone, but the traces of a single imprint had not completely disappeared yet.

He stared at the trace on the wall, feeling that it looked familiar. He felt like he had seen it somewhere before.