My apprentice is a little weird?

"And we only found out the truth later... It turns out... Almost all the Dao fragments in the Nether Dust Realm came from the Abyss."

"And... no one can become an immortal by themselves. No one can comprehend the Dao by themselves. Only with the help of the Dao fragments in the Nether Dust Realm or by comprehending the Dao in the Nether Dust Realm, can one become an immortal..."

The old man looked gloomy. Even though he had known the truth for nearly a hundred years, he couldn't let it go when it was mentioned again...

After all, thousands of years of glory were actually just dependent on the fragments of the Dao in the Nether Dust Realm. Without those fragments of the Dao, there would be no immortals from ancient times to the present, and even the current cultivation system might regress or even disappear...

The leader of the Chengfeng Sword Sect and the elders behind him were all silent, with complicated expressions and helplessness and dejection in their eyes.

They have been stuck in the perfect state of Lianxu Hedao for a long time, and some of them are even close to the end of their energy.

The old man continued:

"In the past, countless geniuses fought fiercely in the Nether Dust Realm in order to compete for these Dao Principle fragments. They shed their blood and used all their wisdom, thinking that they could step into a higher realm, but they didn't know that they fell into a huge trap from the beginning."

"How ridiculous! We cultivators have never discovered this for thousands of years. We just think that the Nether Dust Realm is a "secret realm" for becoming an immortal, and we can do whatever we want."

"The major sects even strictly guarded it to prevent too many people from entering to ask for the Dao fragments, causing the Nether Dust Realm to shrink and fail to suppress the abyss~"

"Little do we know that the abyss is not in the Nether Dust Realm at all, and the more we seek, the more Dao Fragments will appear in the Nether Dust Realm."

"Some people discovered these problems, but they chose to conceal them because the path to becoming an immortal was right in front of them. How could they resist the temptation?"

"But how long can this false prosperity last? A hundred years? A thousand years? Haha..."

He sighed and said:

"This continued until three hundred years ago, when it finally broke out..."

"Just one True Demon who just walked out of the abyss can slaughter thousands of powerful people who have entered the realm of True Immortals!"

"The 'Tao' they were so proud of has all become a wedding dress for the real devil...Among them, the Shinto is the most serious, and it has even spread downwards, even those city gods and mountain gods who have not yet become immortals can be influenced and corrupted."

"Once it falls, it will be very difficult to kill it. Even if it is killed, the consequences for the mortal world will be unbearable."

"Without the suppression of the city god, the scattered demons and ghosts will wait for an opportunity to disturb the human world. After the death of mortals, their souls will have nowhere to rest and stay for a long time, contaminated by the foul air of the mortal world, and turn into resentful spirits..."

"So, since then, the immortal forces have begun to get involved in the mundane world, taking root deep in the grassroots, controlling the changes of dynasties and the mundane world's beliefs, in order to prevent similar things from happening again~"

"At the same time, no one was allowed to enter the Nether Dust Realm, and all news about the Nether Dust Realm was blocked. After that, the immortal sects in each realm began to rest and recover their damaged vitality."

"Until now..."

Shen Ming listened quietly to the old man's story, from his calmness at the beginning to his silence later.

"You have made sufficient preparations, but what preparations are you making?"

"Why did you tell me all this? Are you trying to tell me that my existence will threaten the world, so you want me to seal myself in the Dao Mirror again?"

Shen Ming stroked the broken bronze mirror in his hand with his fingers, raised his head and looked at the old man's back with a hint of coldness in his eyes.

"Little girl, you...should have someone important to you, right?"

Shen Ming clenched the bronze mirror slightly. The black hairband and fiery red bracelet on her wrist were intertwined with each other, one black and one red, which were particularly eye-catching.

"What do you want to say?"

"There must be someone important to you in the Ancient Immortal Sect, the one who helped you grow up."

Shen Ming slowly lowered his head, and ripples began to appear in the surrounding world, from shallow to deep, and the scenery began to blur and fade away, leaving only nothingness.

And in this emptiness, only Shen Ming and the old man were standing there.

The other party's white beard and long hair danced gently, and a strange scene appeared. His white beard seemed to be motionless as if it had stayed there for a moment, but the beard that was supposed to have fallen appeared in another place!

The old man turned his body to face Shen Ming, but his figure was still there with his back to Shen Ming!

At this moment, everything in this void fell into the cracks of time!

Between illusion and reality, everything he says and does reveals the past and the future! It is impossible to see the contents clearly!

"This is!"

"What?! This kind of aura!"

"Could it be that she has become a fairy?!"

Everyone was so shocked that they couldn't help but stand up, but Lu Ming waved his hand to stop them.

"Quiet, from now on, no one is allowed to disturb them. Anyone who disobeys this order will be expelled from the sect!"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, but bowed their heads in time to accept the order.

Then they stared at the void without blinking, staring at the two figures left in the gap of time. Of course, there were some people who were intoxicated by the charm of Tao.

…………

"Little girl."

A faint smile appeared on the old man's face, and then he bowed slightly to Shen Ming.

"Is this life in the world okay?"

"useless."

"Is there nothing satisfying about it?"

"No."

"Not satisfied?"

"The world is rotten, people's hearts are treacherous, hypocrisy and fraud coexist, sincerity and kindness are gone, the pursuit of fame and fortune is false, absurd, greedy and hedonistic. This is the nature of it and it is difficult to change."

"Indeed, but we have no better way to improve them, and no time~"

The old man spoke in a flat voice and then slowly raised his hand, with his index finger and thumb interlocked and slowly lowered to Shen Ming's wrist, revealing the fiery red bracelet.

With a flick of a finger.

clang!

A crisp sound suddenly rang out, like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly breaking the tranquility.

The fiery red bracelet suddenly trembled violently, and then fine cracks quickly spread out like a spider web!

Then with a bang, it shattered cleanly, turning into countless fragments that flew around like fiery red fireworks, drawing dazzling arcs, and then gradually dissipated into nothingness as if it had never existed.

Shen Ming did not express much from beginning to end. He just looked quietly at the broken bronze mirror in his hand and the cracks on it.

After doing all this, the old man withdrew his hand.

"You know that all the peace is false. You also know what I am thinking now, and you know my demands even better."

"So, do you agree?"

Shen Ming slowly raised his left hand and stroked the only hair tie left on his wrist, a rare hint of tenderness appearing in his eyes.