Ye Tiancheng finally understood a fact: he had to work hard to achieve his goals, otherwise he would be looked down upon in the future. The goals he was pursuing were becoming clearer and clearer. No matter how others viewed him, it was irrelevant. What he wanted most now was to perfect this matter.
Although many people were attacking him now, Ye Tiancheng remained unmoved. He felt that if he succeeded in this matter, then the provocations and gossip from others would no longer matter.
Everything would be complete.
Ye Tiancheng still had an enemy, Lin Xue. Although she had not appeared before him, she had long been his sworn enemy.
Because she had failed to retrieve the storage ring that time, Lin Xue had found the Mountain Snake organization.
The leader of the Mountain Snake organization, Viper, now wanted to help Lin Xue. His confidence had been greatly shaken because he had failed his first mission in this city.
Viper and Lin Xue joined forces to deal with Ye Tiancheng.
The plan was very simple, but he never expected that Lin Xue's brother had lost the storage ring to Ye Tiancheng, and his whereabouts were unknown, becoming a cold case. Lin Xue wanted Viper to help her find her brother's whereabouts and, secondly, to avenge him. She believed her brother must have met a violent end, most likely at the hands of Ye Tiancheng. Although there was no conclusive evidence, it was certain that Ye Tiancheng was responsible.
Her brother was indeed dead. Ye Tiancheng had killed him and thrown him off the cliff behind the mountain. The cliff was very deep, frequented by snakes and insects, and the body was surely gone...
Ye Tiancheng was not afraid of this matter being investigated because he had done it very secretly, without anyone knowing. It would be harder than ascending to heaven to investigate this matter. He believed no one in the world could uncover the beginning and end of this incident.
Therefore, strictly speaking, he was not afraid of others investigating him.
However, he had thought of this matter too simply. The Viper organization was too complex and vast, and investigating a person was very easy. But perhaps he had not expected that the leader of the Mountain Snake organization, Viper, possessed abilities beyond his imagination.
These abilities led to their close cooperation, aiming to eliminate Ye Tiancheng in one fell swoop. Ye Tiancheng was now flourishing, and more and more benefits were being distributed and reaped by him alone. How could those who wanted a share of the profits not be envious and angry? Envy and anger would lead to narrow-mindedness.
"If you can take care of that guy, all the profits will be yours. I only want that storage ring," the Mountain Snake organization said to Lin Xue.
"How can that be!" Lin Xue naturally knew the importance of the storage ring.
It was a representative item of their sect. In the future, when passing down their sect, this ring would be the symbol. How could she hand over the ring just like that? She would not be able to face her sect in the future.
Because only she was left to inherit their sect. Before her brother disappeared, there were four of them, and now Lin Xue's brother was missing, his life or death unknown, and it was likely he was dead. She had seen Ye Tiancheng wearing that ring. The saying was that as long as the person was alive, the ring would be there, and if the ring was gone, the person would die. Their sect had never deviated from this. If the ring was ever separated from the body, it meant the person was dead.
Therefore, their sect valued this ring above all else. They could lose their lives, but not the ring.
Now, Viper wanted to obtain that storage ring. He was very clever and cunning. How could Lin Xue accept this? She immediately stated that she could not accept such a proposal.
"Since you refuse the proposal, then I refuse," he meant that he would not help this girl, but he would secretly send people to fight for that ring. It was a priceless item. Whoever obtained it could become the richest person in the world.
The benefits Ye Tiancheng currently controlled were nothing compared to the benefits of this ring. This cunning fox was a true master of human nature.
He saw the value of it at a glance and therefore wanted to seize the ring by any means necessary.
Lin Xue did not expect this guy to value profit so much. Of course, he wanted to get his hands on whatever brought the most profit, making him even more detestable than Ye Tiancheng.
As the saying goes, if a man does not live for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him. Everyone is selfish.
Every selfish person is thinking about their own interests.
Because of interests, to gain more interests, one must take from others. There is no fairness. This world is the domain of the strong. Those extinct creatures could not protect their interests and allowed other higher animals to take them away.
It was the same in the human world. If you are not strong enough and lack ability, you are destined to have your interests and right to survival taken away by others. Therefore, there is a dark side to this world that is unknown to many.
And in that dark side lies strength and power. Therefore, everyone wants to climb upwards, to gain more ability and power to control others.
Lin Xue was now alone, with no one to support or protect her. Her coming to seek Viper was like walking into a trap. This guy was even more greedy than Ye Tiancheng. When he learned that Ye Tiancheng had the storage ring, his eyes revealed greed. Even if he did not cooperate explicitly, he would try to snatch that storage ring back by himself. A storage ring could sell for hundreds of billions. This was naturally a matter of great influence. He had to admire Ye Tiancheng for not selling it and wearing it on his finger every day. It was a complete waste of a treasure. If he had hundreds of billions, he could have women on both sides, enjoying the most luxurious life in the world, doing whatever he pleased. Because with money came absolute freedom, no need to work for others, no need to work desperately for money, enjoying life, leisure, and pleasure. Work was truly disgusting. Being ordered around by others and receiving their salary meant bearing the burden. Taking the boss's money meant giving your life. Such a bitter life.
Because the world economy is currently sluggish, bosses are also having a hard time. When they pay wages, they do not treat you as a worker but as a robot, a worker on an assembly line. Strictly speaking, you are just a humanoid machine. When a boss hires you, he naturally expects you to create profits for him, not to take wages for free. Therefore, once you accept employment, all your freedom is gone. You are just a humanoid machine on an assembly line.
This is why those without money are destined to toil and work desperately to make a living, just to survive. They have no money to buy houses or cars, and they cannot even support their elderly parents. If someone in their family falls ill, it means you are likely to be heavily in debt...
But if you have money, all these problems are not problems. You can have several women, and buying as many houses as you want is not a problem. So, this realistic world tells you the truth.
Therefore, if you cannot get married in this world, do not blame women, but blame yourself, because you are a weakling who cannot provide enough money and reputation. Money and reputation are status and power. Power, power, with power comes benefits, and with benefits comes power. This is the glory that marks your success. The woman who follows you is like a beggar, working tirelessly on an assembly line every day. Who wants to live such a poor life with you? No matter how the world changes, money can always overcome all difficulties. Therefore, more people choose reality. The poor choose to live like this, and being alone is also fine...
In fact, once you see through everything, it no longer matters. You will eventually understand that the world is impermanent.
Because it is impermanent, it is the beginning of enlightenment. Once enlightened, you will no longer care about life or death.
Ye Tiancheng knew that Lin Xue would come to trouble him again one day. Because she was a beautiful girl, he couldn't bring himself to harm her. If it had been a man, he would have killed him that day.
At that time, Lin Xue did not know why Ye Tiancheng had let her go. She felt lucky, but in reality, she was not lucky at all. She was destined to bear something.
Some things seem destined, no matter how you try to escape, they will eventually knock on your door. This is called karmic affinity. From the moment people meet, this bond begins. Perhaps it is good karma, or perhaps it is bad karma. There are only these two outcomes.
Ye Tiancheng had fully realized that what he needed to do now was to wait for the arrival of the danger. Lin Xue was now trying her best to deal with him, and he was facing great danger. Although no one had informed him, he had been having nightmares for the past two days. Every night he would wake up startled. Each time he woke up, the Great Green Snake and the Divine Stone would be conversing, saying things like "destined to die." From the mouths of these two divine beings.
The result he obtained made him even more vigilant, forcing him to take precautions.
This vigilance would allow him to receive early warnings and take precautions.
Ye Tiancheng could not find suitable renovation materials in the building materials market, so he had to go to the deep mountains, to the back of the mountain where he found the mountain temple with the large cauldron. Lush trees of various kinds grew here, many of them sandalwood trees.
This sandalwood was very useful. Besides refining pills, it could also be used to refine various kinds of utensils. Because he had the storage ring, he naturally stored the large cauldron inside it. When he went to the back of the mountain, Wang Xiaoniu wanted to follow, but he refused because the back of the mountain was very dangerous, and he might encounter powerful monsters like the Great Green Snake. If there were monsters like that, there might be others. Where there are immortals, there are monsters. This is inevitable and necessary. Because there is a powerful force, there must be something to restrain that powerful force. Power in this world is relative, not absolute. It's like chess. As long as a pawn crosses the river, it can advance unimpeded and surround and kill the opponent's king.
As soon as Ye Tiancheng arrived at the back of the mountain, he felt a powerful force approaching him from behind.
He reacted abruptly and found a woman in white, as pure as snow. Her voice was very familiar. Wasn't that Lin Xue?
He instinctively resisted and blocked Lin Xue's first attack.
He retreated five or six zhang, stabilized himself, and asked, "I say, little girl, why are you attacking me? Don't you feel grateful for letting you go before?"
"My brother was definitely killed by you. He never left the storage ring on his hand unless he was dead. Therefore, you are my enemy. Even if you let me go, I will find ways to kill you." Lin Xue's eyes turned blood red, like a ferocious beast.
Seeing the woman become like this, Ye Tiancheng felt very regretful. It would have been great if they could have been friends, because her temperament made it hard for him to act. After all, this woman possessed the temperament he liked.
"Don't think that just because I can't bring myself to harm you, I will let you go."
Lin Xue's brother, this guy, looked very kind, but in reality, he was very evil. If he hadn't attacked him back then, how could he have been killed by him? But everyone protects their own interests at the core. After all, the world bustles for profit, and the world surges for profit. For this kind of thing, everyone must pursue the essence. Therefore, there is no right or wrong.
There is no right or wrong in this world, because the only eternal thing is profit. Everything else is fleeting. For this reason, everyone does not need to pursue formal things too much. The most important thing is what you want to pursue, which is the fundamental thing. And the fundamental thing is nothing more than profit. As long as there is profit in this world, it truly exists. Because without struggle, there would be no vitality.
"Actually, you have some misunderstanding. I didn't want to do this, but I was forced by circumstances. Everyone has the right to live. I don't want to be killed. Protecting my rights and killing my opponents is itself a means of protecting myself. He who kills shall be killed. I will have no complaints if I am killed by others later, but I don't want to kill you, because you are a very beautiful girl who captivates me."
What this guy said was true, but Ye Tiancheng's last sentence made Lin Xue feel disgusted and want to vomit.
So, is profit the culprit? Because profit is the culprit that stirs up unrest in the world.
"The world is like this, so your last sentence makes me want to kill you a hundred times. You are seriously provoking me."
Lin Xue's face showed an angry expression, her eyes seemed about to fall out, and her whole being was filled with killing intent. Seeing her expression, Ye Tiancheng did not want to explain anything further, because the more he explained, the less he could explain. It was better not to explain at all.
As enemies with blood feuds, how could their conflict be easily resolved? It was impossible to let go of it. Only when he atoned for his sins could this hatred end. Atone for his sins, perhaps it meant the end of his life.
Otherwise, this hatred would never end. This was one of the reasons why that woman was so conflicted. The reason this woman cared so much about the ring and the hatred for her brother was entirely due to inevitable reasons. Because of the rules of her sect's inheritance, this ring must never be lost, as it contained all the secrets of their sect.
Therefore, even though Ye Tiancheng obtained this storage ring, he did not obtain the ultimate secret of the storage ring. Because once the ultimate secret of the storage ring was opened, it would no longer be a storage ring, but a world. It is said that a flower is a world, and a grain of sand is a Bodhi. This means that every tiny grain of sand contains a microscopic world, let alone this storage ring, which originally existed in a beautiful异度空间 (other dimension).
As long as this space is opened, more people will appear here.
This space can be a sealed world of demons. This world has three realms: Heaven, Human, and Demon.
If anyone were to obtain this passage, it would lead to the inability of the three realms to reincarnate, the inability of all things to revive, and the inability of deep rifts to continue. The sect that guarded this ring was called the Ring Demon People.
As this sect declined, the people who guarded the sect's rings also became fewer and fewer. Because in modern times, the cultivation of the world has gradually become a topic of discussion. People no longer cultivate to escape society, because most cultivators do not become immortals, but continue to fall into reincarnation. This is not to blame the immortal path for being hypocritical, but because every cultivator has betrayed their original intention.
Once one possesses other abilities, one becomes very crazy, madly snatching others' possessions, claiming them as one's own, achieving one's honor and glory. These gradually corrupted cultivators ultimately cannot escape reincarnation because their desires are too strong, and they have long degenerated into demons.
Therefore, only cultivators who do not forget their original intentions can gain the ability to glimpse the Heavenly Dao.
Although this practice is very unacceptable, most people believe in the power of authority. Therefore, more and more people are loyal to power and do not care about the immortal paths outside the world...
Gradually, this kind of thing disappeared from everyone's sight, eventually becoming a myth and an unsearchable thing in the dark. However, sometimes things were passed down, and a few people could accept them. The last few people who cultivated, in the dark, were pursuing something that would not be known to the world. These people generally lived in seclusion, or lived in the deep mountains, and would not appear before the public. Those cultivators who could not bear loneliness and came to the big cities would generally be regarded as gifted individuals.
"There's no use telling me so much. I will never return what I have obtained. Because in the world of cultivation, the strong are respected, and the weak die. If you have the ability to kill me, then this treasure is yours. If you don't have the ability, I will still let you go, because you are too beautiful. That's all."
Ye Tiancheng had a flaw: he would not kill beautiful women. That was why Lin Xue came to trouble him again. In her repeated investigations, Lin Xue discovered that Ye Tiancheng had a great flaw: he liked beautiful women and would not do anything to them.