The old man continued to roar, his wrinkled hands like dried tree branches, clutching and pulling forcefully at Chu Xiao’s clothes. Chu Xiao was wearing a hemp garment, which tore open after just a few tugs, leaving him quite disheveled.

But he didn’t move or speak.

The miasma around them grew heavier and heavier. Er’er wanted to open her mouth, but Li Ye covered both her person and her mouth in his embrace.

“It’s the Gate of Life and Death,” he said.

Her body tensed up. Er’er peered through his fingers and saw the sky within the entire barrier darken. Wild winds stirred up the earth, blowing debris everywhere. Dense resentful energy overflowed from where the soldiers’ corpses were piled, coiling down to the ground and then spiraling upward. In a moment, it took the shape of a young woman.

“Lian Wei?” The old man saw her and called out in surprise.

A graceful young woman with a wavy-style bun, wearing a purple pleated skirt, turned to look at him when she heard his voice, her bright eyes filled with sorrow.

Her gaze was too unfamiliar, immediately angering the old man: “After so many years without seeing each other, you don’t even recognize me. No wonder people say raising a daughter is not as good as raising a son. Raised you for over a decade, sent you away, and couldn’t even catch a glimpse of your shadow. Finally meeting again, and you won’t even call me father!”

With his angry shout, the surrounding resentful energy churned even more violently.

…

…

Lian Wei looked at him silently. After a while, her delicate lips finally parted: “Didn’t you disown me long ago?”

With a choke in his heart, the old man stomped his foot in anger: “Yes, I disowned you, I disowned you, but you still bear the Hong surname. If you die somewhere, I still need to investigate!”

As if triggered by the word “die,” Chu Xiao, who had been standing in front, suddenly tensed up. Holding his knife, he positioned himself in front of Lian Wei, looking at the old man warily.

“You dare to raise a knife against me?” The old man grew angrier. “Come on, strike me! Kill me, and no one will interfere with you two being together!”

The hostility and resentment were unbearably thick. Er’er frowned as she watched, her sharp eyes noticing that Chu Xiao’s chopping knife was glowing.

A dim light, intertwined with countless threads of resentful energy, and faintly, there was a trace of immortal energy.

She quickly tugged at the sleeve of the person behind her: “Look.”

“Look where?” Li Ye glanced at her, then turned to look at the street on the left. “You should be looking at your barrier.”

Barrier? Er’er came to her senses and tested with her fingers, only then belatedly realizing that someone had broken through.

Though her cultivation wasn’t perfect, she was still considered a deity. No one in the mortal realm should be able to break her barrier. But this force came so violently and silently that if not for Li Ye’s reminder, she wouldn’t have known the barrier had been breached.

Hastily focusing her mind and forming a hand seal to mend it before the Gate of Life and Death noticed, Er’er had no heart to look elsewhere, thinking that with Li Ye present, no major trouble could arise.

However, Li Ye merely reminded her and then went back to watching the spectacle.

A large number of soldiers rushed in through the broken barrier, pointing their weapons—swords, spears, axes, and halberds—at Chu Xiao. Chu Xiao immediately became vigilant, protecting Lian Wei as he retreated several steps.

The old man was stunned, not expecting soldiers to surround them. He quickly grabbed one of them and asked: “Officer, officer, what’s happening?”

The soldier, with a stern expression, helped him stand to the side and said gravely: “Chu Xiao has committed murder in the marketplace and is now wanted. We thought he would flee after killing dozens of people yesterday, but unexpectedly he returned and killed more government officials. We were ordered to arrest him. Please step aside, elder.”

Hearing this with widened eyes, the old man rubbed his hands and leaned against the wall to catch his breath, his eyes full of confusion: “How could that be? With his spineless appearance, why would he kill people? Officer, is there a mistake?”

The soldier shook his head and turned to join the encirclement.

No one could give him an answer. Chu Xiao was surrounded by layers of soldiers. The old man looked around and still stumbled toward Li Ye.

“You’re also here.” His lips trembled as he stared at Er’er. “Do you know what’s happening here?”

Er’er had her eyes closed, repairing the barrier, and didn’t hear his words. Li Ye unhappily drew her into his embrace and looked at the old man askance: “Weren’t you here to check on your business?”

The old man: “…”

Scratching his hand and tugging at his clothes, the old man spoke somewhat embarrassedly: “Along with seeing her, I needed to ask her some questions. She’s my only daughter. Her mother passed away early and made me promise to take good care of her. I… ah… can you help?”

He was truly anxious, tears welling up in his eyes. The heavy resentment that had been present in him suddenly vanished without a trace.

Li Ye raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Could it be like this? Over twenty years of resentment, even an immortal couldn’t dissolve it so easily.

Sitting up straight in a leisurely manner, Li Ye said: “Those people over there were all killed by Chu Xiao. They haven’t wronged him.”

The wrinkles on his face twisted together as the old man could barely contain his anger: “I knew he wasn’t a good person. Lian Wei, Lian Wei!”

He called toward the center where the soldiers were gathered: “Come home with me, come with me!”

“Stop shouting,” Li Ye said indifferently. “That’s not your daughter.”

Looking back at him with a strange expression, the old man waved his hand: “Though I may be confused in my old age, I still remember her appearance. It’s just that she’s unfilial and doesn’t remember me…”

“Your daughter died three days ago.” Interrupting him without any sympathy, Li Ye half-closed his eyes and looked at him coldly. “What stands there is merely a phantom formed from the resentful energy of the Gate of Life and Death. No matter how you call, she won’t go with you.”

The Gate of Life and Death possessed immense resentful energy and would corrode its surroundings with this energy. The phantoms it formed were always in the image most capable of controlling their hosts.

In other words, it was using Lian Wei’s phantom to control Chu Xiao to kill people.

But Li Ye couldn’t quite understand. How could an ordinary mortal have such thick resentment? In a person’s life, hatred, attachment, love, and separation were all normal. The sufferings of the human world were merely faint brushstrokes in the books of the Nine Heavens. How could it be strong enough to attract the Gate of Life and Death?

The old man seemed frightened by his words and stood there half-believing, half-doubting, his eyes clouded.

Er’er finished repairing the barrier and regained her awareness, lifting her head only to nearly bump into the master’s mouth.

“Hmm?” She frowned. “Why are you holding me again?”

“Because you’re short,” Li Ye answered smoothly. “It feels comfortable to hold you.”

Er’er: “…” Actually, he could have just said the latter part; the first half was unnecessary.

She turned her head to see that Chu Xiao had started killing again on the street.

His chopping knife, filled with murderous intent, cut through the soldiers’ blades and also severed their bones.

Drawing in a sharp breath, Er’er instinctively grabbed the master’s clothes: “Why aren’t you stopping him?”

“Why should I stop him?” Li Ye said. “The Gate of Life and Death has been suppressed for many years and is currently lacking resentful energy.”

Her face paled as Er’er pushed him away.

His heart sank as he quickly realized he had said the wrong thing. Lowering his eyelids, he reached out to pull her back: “It was just a joke. But these people have already stepped into the range of the Gate of Life and Death; they were bound to die anyway.”