At the Ye family estate, Lingyue Peak.

As the eldest daughter of the Ye family and a disciple of the Divine Calculator, Ye Lingyue excelled in the Eight Trigrams and divination arts. With her extraordinary talent, her status and position within the Ye family naturally needed no elaboration.

In the past, aside from the Holy Son Chu Chen, all other members of the Ye clan were slightly inferior to her.

After Chu Chen's meridians were destroyed and his cultivation was lost, a dark horse emerged within the Ye family-Ye Xuan.

Otherwise, she, Ye Lingyue, would have been the future hope of the Ye family, the one most likely to break through to the Quasi-Emperor realm.

An elder sister is like a mother. Among the many sisters, Ye Lingyue's authority was second only to her father, Ye Ding.

In fact, because their mother had passed away early, Ye Lingyue was quite mature and sensible. Sometimes, even their father, Ye Ding, felt a bit intimidated in her presence.

But today, Lingyue Peak was far from its usual tranquility and peace.

The spiritual energy around the entire peak bubbled and churned like boiling water in a copper pot, extremely restless and unstable.

This was because today was the critical moment for Ye Lingyue to break through to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm. For this moment, she had been in Secluded Cultivation for nearly ten days.

After returning to the Ye family from the Heavenly Demon Gorge, she had barely escaped with her life, but Chu Chen's fate remained unknown. Ye Lingyue's heart felt as if it were being twisted by a knife.

Only by breaking through to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm could she use a secret technique to divine Chu Chen's whereabouts.

So Ye Lingyue had no choice. Even if it meant suffering Qi Deviation, shattering her Dao heart, and severing her path of cultivation, she would break through to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm today.

"Chu Chen, wait for your eldest sister!"

"Eldest sister will definitely find you and bring you safely back to the Ye family! I won't let you suffer out there..."

Ye Lingyue took a deep breath and sat cross-legged in the secret chamber, a hint of absolute determination flashing in her eyes.

Then, closing her eyes tightly, she began forcibly absorbing the thousand Top Grade Spirit Stones arrayed before her.

Logically, breaking through from the eighth level to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm was not difficult. One only needed to cultivate step by step, accumulate enough spiritual essence, and the breakthrough would come naturally.

But Ye Lingyue had just broken through to the eighth level of the Divine Fire Realm less than half a month ago, and now she was forcing another breakthrough.

As the saying goes, haste makes waste. Her body had not yet adapted to the tempering of the eighth level, and now she was forcing her way into the ninth.

Not only were the chances of success slim, but even if she succeeded by some fluke, it would leave hidden dangers in her foundation. Future cultivation breakthroughs would become several times, even dozens of times harder, and it might even permanently sever her path to the Great Dao.

But thinking of Chu Chen's uncertain fate, Ye Lingyue could no longer care about the future. She forcibly refined and absorbed the spiritual energy contained within the thousand Top Grade Spirit Stones.

As the spiritual energy continuously surged into her meridians, her skin became scorching hot, and her beautiful face twisted in agony.

Boom!

Boom!!

Wave after wave of spiritual energy fluctuations radiated from Ye Lingyue's body, spreading outward like ripples on a lake, encompassing the entirety of Lingyue Peak.

Centered on Ye Lingyue, all the spiritual energy within hundreds of meters became extremely violent. Dark clouds rolled overhead, and fierce astral winds howled.

The servants and guards on Lingyue Peak had long been dismissed by Ye Lingyue, lest the spiritual pressure from her breakthrough harm these ordinary mortals.

"Ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm, break for me!!"

With Ye Lingyue's loud shout, the thousand Top Grade Spirit Stones before her instantly turned to ash. The incredibly pure spiritual energy merged into her body, continuously surging and impacting her bottlenecks.

Suddenly, Ye Lingyue sensed an invisible barrier within her body. If she could shatter this barrier, she would successfully break through.

Crack!

Crack!!

Bolstered by the massive influx of spiritual energy, cracks appeared in the invisible barrier, spreading like a spiderweb. It was on the verge of completely shattering.

Whoosh!

But the thick, ink-like calamitous Qi floating over the entire Ye family estate split off a strand at this exact moment, invading Ye Lingyue's body.

After Chu Chen left, most of Ye Lingyue's Providence had been lost. Now, with the invasion of this calamitous Qi, let alone breaking through, she might even...

"Pfft!!"

Ye Lingyue spat out a mouthful of bright red blood. Her aura plummeted. The invisible barrier within her body, which had been covered in cracks, not only repaired itself entirely but became more solid and impenetrable than ever before.

"Finally... has it finally failed?"

Ye Lingyue opened her eyes, and tear after tear, as large as beans, streamed down her cheeks.

"Chu Chen, eldest sister is useless! Eldest sister has let you down!"

"Now that I've failed to break through, let alone reaching the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm, I'm afraid... I'm afraid I can't even hold on to my cultivation at the eighth level."

Earlier, in order to divine Chu Chen's whereabouts, Ye Lingyue had not hesitated to overdraw her life force. Now, with the failure of her breakthrough and the resulting karmic backlash, her situation was far more serious than she had imagined.

Ye Lingyue didn't care about her cultivation realm falling. But if she couldn't break through to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm, she couldn't find Chu Chen, and she couldn't...

This was absolutely unacceptable to her!

"Eldest sister, what nonsense are you spouting?"

"Do you know why you failed your breakthrough? It's all because of that waste Chu Chen's ghost haunting us, harming us!"

Ye Lingyue turned toward the voice and saw Ye Ling'er standing behind her. Her face was full of indignation and hatred, a sight that made Ye Lingyue feel incredibly bitter.

Besides Ye Ling'er, Ye Qingqing, Ye Han, Ye Xuan, and even their father Ye Ding had all arrived.

All of this was naturally orchestrated by Ye Xuan. After all, the Divine Flame Breakthrough Pill was far too precious. Opportunities to buy people's loyalty like this were rare, so he naturally had to seize it.

"Eldest sister, Ling'er is not speaking nonsense."

Ye Qingqing chimed in from the side:

"Ling'er failed in alchemy, I failed in artifact forging, Ye Han failed in drawing formation diagrams, and even Father and the other Ye family disciples failed in their breakthroughs."

"Do you think all of this is a coincidence? Do you think it's because we didn't work hard enough? Or because our aptitudes are too dull?"

"Of course not. It's because Chu Chen died with resentment and is haunting us."

"..."

Ye Lingyue let out a deep sigh. Having failed her breakthrough, her heart was already like dead ashes. She couldn't be bothered to engage in pointless arguments with her younger sisters.

She was skilled in the Eight Trigrams and divination, so she could naturally perceive the flows of Providence that others could not.

Ye Lingyue knew better than anyone the true reason for the great upheaval in the Ye family.

It was because the Child of Providence, Chu Chen-who had single-handedly supported the entire Ye family's Providence, elevated the Ye family to unprecedented heights, and bore the karmic weight of tens of thousands of Ye family disciples...

Had been driven out of the Ye family by their own hands and even struck from the family genealogy.

But if this were spoken aloud, who would believe it?

Or rather, who would be willing to believe it?

Every member of the Ye family prided themselves on possessing the talent of an alchemy Grandmaster, an artifact forging Grandmaster, a formation Grandmaster... Their ambitions soared higher than the heavens!

But they were completely unaware that all of this was built upon the silent sacrifices of Chu Chen, the Child of Providence.

"Forget it, perhaps..."

Ye Lingyue closed her eyes and thought to herself:

"Perhaps this is the Ye family's fate. Without Chu Chen, the Ye family could never rise to become an immortal aristocratic family anyway."

Ye Lingyue turned a deaf ear to her younger sisters' and even her father's advice. She walked step by step toward the secret chamber.

Having lost all hope, she only wanted to escape this place as quickly as possible.

"Eldest sister, isn't it just breaking through to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm? I can help you achieve it!"

Ye Xuan, this White Lotus, seeing that the atmosphere was just right, leisurely reached out and stopped the ashen-faced Ye Lingyue.

At the same time, he brushed the Storage Ring on his finger. A perfectly round Divine Flame Breakthrough Pill, pulsing with terrifying energy, appeared in Ye Xuan's palm.

"With this Divine Flame Breakthrough Pill, eldest sister will definitely be able to break through to the ninth level of the Divine Fire Realm. Then..."

"Then you can use the secret technique to find Brother Chu Chen and bring him home! That's great!"

Whoosh-

As soon as the Divine Flame Breakthrough Pill appeared, Ye Lingyue's eyes were instantly drawn to it, unable to look away.

Not to mention Ye Lingyue, even Ye Ding, Ye Qingqing, and the others were shocked by Ye Xuan's move.

After all, he was a White Lotus. Naturally, he had to wait until the atmosphere was just right before making his move~

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