Chapter 394: Shattering Illusions

"You! If you dare disrespect my master again, I won't be polite!"

Ye Yuan's repeated belittling of Li Daoheng finally made Xing Yuan unable to hold back his outburst.

However, did Ye Yuan care about his feelings?

"How did that kid Li Daoheng teach you? Don't you have any sense of respecting your teacher?" Ye Yuan said indifferently.

Xing Yuan broke down: "Of course I respect my teacher, but what does that have to do with you?"

"Although I didn't take Li Daoheng as my disciple, he still followed me for nearly a hundred years. It's not too much to say I'm his half-master. Being disrespectful to me—what is that if not betraying your master?"

"This..."

"Well, now that I'm down on my luck, if you still want to kill me, do as you please. But if you ever ascend to the Divine Realm in the future, don't go looking for Li Daoheng. If he finds out you killed me, he'll crush you with one palm without hesitation. Of course, given your talent, ascending to the Divine Realm is probably very difficult."

"..."

Xing Yuan fell silent, clearly caught in a dilemma.

The person he respected most in his life was Li Daoheng, and this young man in front of him claimed to be Li Daoheng's half-master—wouldn't that make him his own grandmaster?

If Ye Yuan really died by his hand, wouldn't he truly become one who betrayed his master?

But this man was a reborn Alchemy Emperor!

How strong an Alchemy Emperor was, Xing Yuan had no concept, but he knew they were extremely, extremely strong—so strong he couldn't even imagine!

The current Ye Yuan was like an ant before him, but before an Alchemy Emperor, he himself wasn't even an ant; he was as insignificant as a speck of dust.

Such a figure was far more terrifying than any genius!

Although Ye Yuan's strength was not great, his methods were incredible, and it wouldn't be long before he became a formidable opponent for Emperor Feng!

To kill or not to kill?

Ye Yuan simply watched Xing Yuan, not rushing him.

He wasn't very clear about Xing Yuan's temperament, but he knew Li Daoheng's character very well.

Li Daoheng was a very talented and hardworking person. Although he hadn't accepted him as a disciple, Li Daoheng had always regarded him as his master, silently staying by his side for nearly a hundred years.

Of course, during those hundred years, he had also gained immensely, growing from an Alchemy Grandmaster to an Alchemy Venerable!

As for Xing Yuan, Ye Yuan was actually somewhat confident.

Earlier, when he mentioned Li Daoheng, the look of admiration and respect on his face didn't seem fake.

Sure enough, after a long silence, Xingyuan took a deep breath and said to Ye Yuan, "I can let you go, but you must guarantee that you will not bring devastation to the Windwild Realm."

Ye Yuan laughed. "You're overthinking it! Matters of inter-realm war are monumental to you, but utterly insignificant to me. My vision has never been on such things! Once you ascend to the Divine Realm, you will naturally understand what I mean."

Xingyuan was taken aback, and upon reflection, found this reasoning sound.

To a Dan Emperor, affairs of the lower realms were indeed too trivial.

"That's good then!" Xingyuan breathed a sigh of relief.

"If an inter-realm war is unavoidable, I'm afraid I cannot stand idly by. My current family and friends are there; I cannot watch them become slaves of the Windwild Realm! But I can promise you that I will not help the Boundless Realm invade the Windwild Realm. In fact, if you have the ability, you could persuade the Wind Emperor not to invade the Boundless Realm, and then everyone would be happy." said Ye Yuan.

Xingyuan gave a bitter smile. "Easier said than done? You've seen the living conditions in the Windwild Realm. His Majesty the Wind Emperor cannot possibly abandon this war."

Ye Yuan snorted coldly. "Foolish! Once an inter-realm war breaks out, it will only bring misery to the people! Even if the Windwild Realm wins, it will be a pyrrhic victory. He uses the pretext of improving living conditions to invade another realm, isn't it just to satisfy his own selfish desires and plunder more cultivation resources? In the end, it's his subjects who die, while he, the lofty Wind Emperor, reaps the benefits!"

Xingyuan disagreed, saying, "The Wind Emperor has already stood at the pinnacle of the world. How could he have such a strong desire for resources? He does this, of course, for the countless martial artists of the Windwild Realm!"

"Heh, you fool! He's merely at the Boundless Realm. Standing at the pinnacle of the world? Far from it! The stronger one's strength, the greater the demand for resources! Otherwise, with his power, he could have long since torn through the void and ascended. Why does he still cling to the lower realm? Because he knows that once he goes to the Divine Realm, he would be just another face in the crowd!" Ye Yuan sneered.

Xingyuan wanted to refute, but found any words utterly feeble.

"This... impossible!" Xingyuan said it was impossible, but in his heart, he was already convinced.

"Heh, although you are the president of the Alchemist Association, your strength has not yet reached that level, and there are many things you still don't know. But as a realm lord, he knows far more than you! Don't think that just because you wield influence in the royal city, you amount to something. Once you ascend to the Divine Realm, you'll be nothing more than a menial worker. The competition in the Divine Realm is so fierce that you simply cannot imagine it now! Most martial artists who ascend don't even survive the initial stage before they die." Ye Yuan laughed.

Ye Yuan spoke calmly, but Xingyuan was shocked to the core.

To him, the Divine Realm was a sacred place, a pure land.

There, countless cultivation resources and countless experts awaited; it was a paradise for martial artists and alchemists.

Yet Ye Yuan's words shattered all his illusions.

"But... I oversee the Alchemist Association of an entire realm. Even if I have no great achievements, I have some contributions, right? Would the Alchemist Association simply abandon me?" Xingyuan asked in astonishment.

"Of course they care! The resources in the Divine Realm are indeed more abundant than you can imagine, but the number of martial artists is also beyond your imagination, and the number of alchemists is equally unimaginable! Especially in places like the Alchemist Association, which gathers the strongest alchemists of the Divine Realm, countless alchemists ascend there. If resources were distributed equally, the Alchemist Association would have long been unable to make ends meet. Although you have some cleverness, you are still far inferior to Li Daoheng. Do you think you can gain the attention of the Alchemist Association?"

Ye Yuan's words, like little hammers, shattered Xingyuan's fragile heart piece by piece.

Xingyuan felt that his values had instantly collapsed, and he had lost all direction.

He knew his own situation well. Perhaps in the Way of Alchemy, Xingyuan was among the best in the Windwild Realm. But there were countless lower realms, and he was nothing special among them, let alone in the Divine Realm.

Ye Yuan saying he would be a menial worker in the Alchemist Association might have already been sparing his feelings!

"Then... what should I do?" Xingyuan was utterly lost.

Ye Yuan smiled. "Li Daoheng is smarter and more talented than you, so he didn't join the Alchemist Association. He was also thick-skinned enough to beg me to take him in. But you are already branded with the label of the Alchemist Association. You'll have to carve out your own path through bloodshed. That is, if you have the ability."