Chapter 397: Will You Accept?

Wu Luo wore a scornful expression: "Senior brother, you're getting more and more backward as you live!"

"Thanks to Master's praise back then that your spirit platform was crystal clear and your Dao heart bright!"

"He truly has eyes but no pearls! He actually passed the robe and bowl to you!"

"Wait," Wu Luo's scorn turned to puzzlement, "What about your cultivation? Back then we were evenly matched. How many years have passed?"

"Why are you so easy to strike down?"

Chu Yuan's face turned pale as he placed both hands on his chest.

He glanced at Tuan Tuan, whose tears were whirling inside the soul seal, and softly said, "My cultivation, I gave it to her."

Wu Luo was startled, snapped his head around, and stared intently at the tiny figure within the soul seal.

"Gave it to her? Senior brother, are you crazy?"

The next moment, he burst into a wild laugh: "Well given! Perfectly given! Hahaha!"

"Senior brother, should I call you foolish or thank you for making this possible?"

"You toiled a lifetime cultivating Dao, and now you've made a wedding dress for her!"

"But that's fine; it'll all be mine soon enough!"

Before the words finished, Wu Luo thrust both hands forward, and denser black mist surged like a living thing into the soul‑lock seal.

Tuan Tuan darted into a corner and curled up, yet she showed no weakness in her voice: "Rotten National Preceptor! Big villain!"

The light inside the seal flared, and Wu Luo was about to seize Tuan Tuan right before Chu Yuan!

"Don't you dare!"

Chu Yuan let out a low shout, his gaze resolute, and pointed his finger like a sword, thrusting it unflinchingly toward his own brow.

"With my soul, I ignite this soul seal—break!"

Puff!

A speck of brilliant white light, like Star Spark, burst from his brow and struck the soul‑lock seal.

Click.

Clack clack.

The once‑impervious soul‑lock seal suddenly sprouted countless cracks that spread across the entire seal in an instant!

Wu Luo, shocked and angry, shouted, "Senior brother, do you have no regard for your life? You're destroying your primordial spirit!"

Whoosh!

The soul‑lock seal shattered completely, turning into countless specks of light that faded into nothingness.

Tuan Tuan felt a sudden lightness all around, and the world ahead brightened instantly.

"National Preceptor!" she shouted, sprinting with her short legs, charging recklessly toward the collapsed Chu Yuan.

Chu Yuan caught Xiao Tuanzi as she leapt into his arms; his figure became even more ethereal and transparent, as if a breeze could disperse him.

A gentle, relieved smile spread across his face as he lightly patted Tuan Tuan's back: "It's okay, Tuan Tuan, don't be afraid."

He lifted his head, gazed at the sullen Wu Luo, then lowered his head again to look at the tear‑soaked Tuan Tuan in his arms, his voice as light as a sigh: "Tuan Tuan, listen up."

"I once taught you 'True Explanation of Qi Luck', which is a secret manual of my sect."

"Today, I formally accept you as my disciple. Will you?"

Tuan Tuan lifted her tear‑blurred little face and said, "Master!"

"Hmm." Chu Yuan's smile grew warmer, "I'm afraid I won't be able to leave today."

"If you can leave this place, go on my behalf to offer an incense stick to your ancestral master, who is my own benefactor."

"Tell him… back then I accidentally injured him, causing a severe wound that led to his death. I'm haunted by guilt and can never find peace."

"I'm an unfilial disciple… I have no face to return and see the old man again."

"No! No!" Tuan Tuan shook her head desperately, her little arms clinging tightly to Chu Yuan's neck, large tears streaming down.

"Master, you're so kind! How could my ancestral master have been killed by you? I don't believe it! Surely some villain framed you!"

"Was it you who did it, rotten National Preceptor?"

She snapped her head around, glaring fiercely at Wu Luo.

Wu Luo curled his lip with disdain.

Senior brother, you're about to die anyway; what's the point of taking a disciple now?

You think this girl will slip from my hands again? Dream on!

"Master, watch me vent my anger!"

Now that broken seal is gone, all my tattered treasures can be used again!

She reached for the small embroidered pouch at her waist, found it empty, and only then recalled that she had taken it out to test it while inside the soul‑lock seal.

Oh no!

All my rags are gone; I can't fight this rotten National Preceptor anymore.

Never mind, since Master is so concerned about the ancestral master, we must get to the bottom of this and not let Master stay this heart‑broken!

Oh right, I still have something I can use!

She lowered her head, opened the sachet, pulled out the All‑Seeing Key, and clenched it in her palm: "Little key, let me see clearly everything from back then!"

"Master is so good; he could never have killed the ancestral master!"

Buzz—!

The All‑Seeing Key emitted a low hum and burst forth a dazzling golden light!

Tuan Tuan tilted her head, gazed at the golden light in her palm, and muttered, "Little key, have you grown? When we were with Imperial Uncle last time, you didn't shine."

Chu Yuan smiled faintly, "Silly child, this is the Soul Realm; all artifacts here can exert their fullest power."

"Oh!" Tuan Tuan understood.

At this moment, the circulating light scattered, splitting into countless hair‑thin strands of varying colors, which suddenly appeared and darted through the Soul Realm!

Among them, the most striking were two strands connecting Wu Luo and Chu Yuan.

One was as black as ink, entwined with endless hatred and murder.

The other was a twisted scarlet, filled with jealousy, greed and plunder.

These two strands interwove and leapt, slowly forming a vague scene.

An elderly Daoist with a kind face and white beard handed the lower half of the True Explanation of Qi Fortune to the young, handsome Chu Yuan.

The youthful Wu Luo stood nearby, smiling, yet his eyes churned with terrifying jealousy.

The light and shadow kept shifting; in the next scene, Wu Luo tiptoed and poured a pinch of powder into the old Daoist's food.

Then, while sparring with Chu Yuan, the old Daoist, lost in thought, was struck by a sword.

Wu Luo served at the old Daoist's bedside, presenting medicine with the meal, exceedingly obedient, yet slipped something else into the Daoist's medicine bowl again.

The old Daoist, shortly after taking the medicine, was on the brink of death, and Chu Yuan wept bitterly at his bedside.

The old Daoist shook his head, whispered low into Chu Yuan's ear, and then let go of the mortal world.

Chu Yuan's face was full of guilt, overwhelmed with sorrow.

And Wu Luo, kneeling at the bedside, curled a cold smile at the corner of his mouth.

All the Illusions at that instant turned into countless points of light, and together with those multicolored strands vanished into nothingness.

"Is it you?" Chu Yuan's figure trembled violently, a massive wave of grief and anger surging in his heart.

He stared fixedly at Wu Luo, each word dripping with blood‑stained tears: "Master, you killed him?"

"You even blamed all this on me?"

"I… I have been tormented day and night because of this! Wu Luo—!"