I, the transmigrated villain, please wait, gentle master.

Chapter 193 The Truth Will Be Revealed Again (2)

Pretty.

Li Tingyun hid this move brilliantly.

What kind of treasure is it that you have to keep hidden away and can't show to anyone?

Ren Pingsheng picked up the Beijing News, glanced at it only once, and a flame ignited in his palm, burning it to ashes.

Li Tingyun stood there blankly in front of him, instinctively reaching out her hand, but then stopped, neither snatching nor stopping him.

The faint, almost imperceptible light in his eyes faded completely as the flames died out.

He began, "I went to the Yantian Sect before and found that they were making up stories about me in the Beijing News. I just randomly picked a copy... I'm the kind of person who holds grudges and seeks revenge. I'll settle the score with them sooner or later."

"The Beijing News? You don't need to tell me, I've already read it," Ren Pingsheng said calmly after hearing his ambiguous explanation. "What did they say about you? The Master of the Taiji Hall, who enjoys dual cultivation with his furnace cauldrons, is lewd, lustful, and shameless... He doesn't discriminate between men and women?"

“It’s fake,” Li Tingyun forced a smile, but it wasn’t a pretty one. “It’s so fake it couldn’t be more fake. You actually believe it, Sect Leader Ren?”

Ren Pingsheng asked, "Which specific statement is false?"

Li Tingyun said, "Every single sentence is utter nonsense."

"That's good." Ren Pingsheng smiled as well.

But there was no hint of a smile in those eyes.

He said with a "laugh": "Otherwise I would have thought that you were so lecherous that you had your eye on my little thirteenth son."

Li Tingyun remained silent.

"Speaking of your first birthday party when you were little, you grabbed my apprentice's hand and wouldn't let go, did you think he was a girl?"

"Perhaps the rumors aren't entirely wrong. At least in my eyes, you've been 'greedy for money and lustful' since you were a kid, hahaha."

"Kids don't understand anything, that's forgivable. Who didn't have a few embarrassing moments when they were young? When you grow up, it's nice to bring up those embarrassing moments and make a joke about them..."

"A joke is a joke, but if you take it seriously, it won't be funny."

Ren Pingsheng said meaningfully:

"You don't look too good. Could it be that you've taken it seriously?"

Li Tingyun replied, "How could that be?"

He spoke slowly and deliberately: "But I hate making jokes like that."

“Indeed, such a morally reprehensible joke is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable.” Ren Pingsheng waved his hand and sat calmly on the bench.

With one hand supporting him on one end and the other foot on the other, he beckoned Li Tingyun to move a perfectly good table over and bring two jars of wine, as he hadn't had enough to drink yet.

Li Tingyun actually "obediently" went to move tables and get wine, doing everything himself without using any magic. Even the old shopkeeper who delivered cooked food couldn't help but praise him for being diligent.

"You just have a bad temper. You talk so loudly to your grandpa and even dare to flip the table in front of him. If your dad finds out, you're going to get a beating... Didn't you ever eat 'bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork' when you were little?"

Seeing the mess on the ground, the shopkeeper turned to get a broom.

Ren Pingsheng tore off a piece of grilled fish with his chopsticks. "My dear grandson, go get another plate of dipping sauce, and make some dried chili powder."

Li Tingyun returned with a vinegar bottle and slammed it onto the table.

Rebellious.

I glanced at the shopkeeper out of the corner of my eye and thought to myself: This old man is not hard of hearing at all.

His face darkened, and even towards ordinary people, he would act without hesitation.

Ren Pingsheng threw out a wine jar, blocking the lightning-fast demonic energy.

At the same time, the broom in the shopkeeper's hand broke free and flew high into the air, spinning in mid-air.

He looked up in surprise, rubbed his eyes hard, and thought he had seen a ghost in the middle of the night.

Suddenly, the broomstick came down and hit him hard on the head, right on the top of his head.

The shopkeeper rolled his eyes and fainted.

Ren Pingsheng stopped, and the broom fell to the ground. "That's good. He won't remember anything when he wakes up."

Li Tingyun took his seat, and the two of them tacitly paused their conversation to eat and drink heartily for a while. The tea was of poor quality and the wine was of poor quality, but it did not affect their appetite at all.

There was not only a huge sea fish on the table, but also a basket of shrimp, crab, abalone, scallops, and clams. After eating and drinking to our hearts' content, the seafood shells on the table disappeared with a snap of the fingers.

Closer to home.

Ren Pingsheng said, "Even if my little apprentice doesn't cultivate the Path of Ruthlessness, he will still be a bachelor for life, just like me. I've already calculated it for him. He's not lucky, his marriage prospects are shallow, he has no true love, and he has countless ill-fated relationships."

“It’s not what you think about that I made him cultivate the Path of Ruthlessness. Since I didn’t shatter the Kunlun Jade Embryo’s spiritual intelligence back then, I had already made my choice to give up repaying the karmic debt. In other words, I ‘accepted my fate,’ and I accepted whatever the outcome might be.”

"It's not that I don't want this stone to become a real 'person,' but I'm afraid of his temperament... What if one day he gets bewitched by evil spirits and brings me back a 'little demoness' of dubious origin from the outside world? I'm afraid that would drive me crazy..."

"It's a small matter if I get angry, but it's a big deal if he gets killed!"

"Looking at it this way, he should just be content to be a stone."

"Isn't it good to be free of all worries?"

After a brief pause, before Li Tingyun could retort, Ren Pingsheng continued:

"But people's thoughts always change. Three hundred years later, I began to doubt my past self. I kept thinking, I can't even teach my apprentice to be a 'human being,' how can I teach him to become an immortal?"

"Greed, anger, ignorance, love, desire, and hatred are all human emotions. Regret, failure, confusion, and pain are all common occurrences in life. It seems that Thirteen has never experienced any of them. The path he is walking on is the one I chose for him. I think it is the best choice for him, but it may not be the most suitable for him."

“He should experience things for himself, feel them, and be himself, instead of obediently listening to someone and waiting to be arranged by others. Even if I am his master, he should not blindly follow me.”

"If I could do it all over again, I probably wouldn't deliberately interfere with him and let him cultivate the Path of Ruthlessness."

Li Tingyun was silent for a moment, then asked, "What if he really brings you back a 'little vixen of dubious origin' one day?"

“I was just using an analogy. The point is not about the ‘little vixen,’ but about whether his will is firm. I don’t want him to go down a path of no return.”

"But I still really want to know, if he really brings a little demoness back to Cangyou Mountain, what will Sect Master Ren think?"

"Is this question important? I already said it was just an example."

"It's important, very important. I just want to know, if your disciple really is with a little vixen..."

"……enough!"

Little demoness, little demoness, little demoness!

Another stubborn mule, isn't it?!

Ren Pingsheng took a deep breath and downed a bowl of wine.

"Well, that is indeed a question worth considering."

After some thought, he replied:

“If the disciple is stubborn and does not understand, what can the master do? I know my disciple best. Xiao Shisan is very stubborn. Once he has made up his mind about someone, he will be devoted to him and will not give an inch.”

“It’s possible that I will expel him from the sect. I really don’t want a good-for-nothing disciple… But it’s also possible that I will be tolerant of him. Things will work themselves out. I don’t want to force anything.”

"It all depends on his own fate. Obviously, I won't live to see that day, so there's no point in talking about it."

Li Tingyun raised an eyebrow: "In your opinion, what kind of person is the most unambitious?"

Ren Pingsheng uttered eight words: "Heroes are short-lived, but their affections for their children are long."

Li Tingyun chuckled: "But in my opinion, those who accept their fate are the most pathetic."

Ren Pingsheng was taken aback, then the two of them burst into laughter. The teacups and wine bowls collided, wine foam fell into the tea soup, and tea foam mixed with wine. Just as Ren Pingsheng finished his drink, Li Tingyun splashed the teacup behind him, spilling the bowl of tea that was still fragrant with wine.

He hates the smell of alcohol.

"After saying all this, does Mei Shiyu even know that you brought him out of Kunlun Mountain initially just to pay off debts and eliminate karma?"

"Of course he doesn't know. He didn't know before, he doesn't know now, and he won't know in the future—"

Ren Pingsheng put down his wine bowl, "If you don't tell anyone..."

Li Tingyun countered with, "Why do you think I won't tell anyone?"

After a moment's thought, she realized something was amiss: "Why did you tell me this? From your tone, it's as if no one else knows about this except heaven, earth, you, and me, is that right?"

Ren Pingsheng tapped the empty bowl, making a crisp sound, looking relaxed, carefree, and nonchalant.

“I have never considered the issue of ‘leaking secrets’. There is no wall that is completely airtight, and no secret can be kept forever.”

"Thirteen will find out everything sooner or later, but I can't be the one to tell him myself. I don't want him to die for me—I know that's a naive thought. How can karma be controlled by human will?"

"Kunlun jade is the best material for repairing hell. If it weren't for finding this material, I wouldn't have gone to Kunlun Mountain and wouldn't have brought the jade back to the human world. Perhaps he wouldn't exist in the world."

"The eighteen levels of hell are a 'calamity' in his destiny, one he cannot escape or avoid."

“There are some things that he would do even if not for me, but for the sake of all living beings.”

"Back then, I had a moment of compassion, but I didn't do what I should have done, so I can't cultivate this Great Dao."

"What kind of person did I just say was the most unambitious?"

Even heroes have their moments of weakness, but their love for their children is ever-present.

Ren Pingsheng chuckled self-deprecatingly. He was just that kind of useless person, always making one wrong step at crucial moments, leading to a series of mistakes.

He wasn't like this before—

When he was young, he did not think that "killing one person to save the world" and "saving one person to harm the world" were such an insurmountable dilemma. He had ample reason to sacrifice that innocent person without hesitation for the sake of the masses.

But at some point, his mindset underwent a complete upheaval and transformation. In his eyes, one person, ten thousand people, or a million people were no longer different; they were all of equal weight. He would not do it even if it meant committing an injustice or killing an innocent person to gain the world.

He no longer actively chooses who to sacrifice; he lets things take their natural course, follows his heart, and achieves everything through non-action.

Both compassionate and ruthless.

Ren Pingsheng's mind raced, and he asked Li Tingyun, "If you had to choose between one person and ten thousand people, what would you decide?"

Without hesitation, Li Tingyun replied, "I'm not as saintly as you. As long as there's no one I care about inside, then all beings are equal, so let them all die."

Like Ren Pingsheng, he believed that all living things were equal in importance, but he did not regard all people as equally important; he regarded all people as equally insignificant.

Ren Pingsheng laughed it off, offering no criticism or lecturing, but retorted: "I am by no means a great, wise, or selfless saint, yet everyone thinks that I should be that kind of person, which I find quite amusing."

"The cultivation world can only elevate someone like me to a god-like position. I'm afraid we're really doomed... Ants and grasshoppers are everywhere, and a hundred years of cultivation is not even worth as much as a dog. Your words are sharp, but also accurate."

"When I first heard this sentence, I thought that someone who could say such a thing must not follow the crowd and regard me as some great 'person'."

"I just want to have a chat with someone like you."

Li Tingyun didn't believe it: "Just to 'chat for a bit'? There's no other purpose? Hell, Five-Colored Stone, Plum Rain, Kunlun Jade Embryo, if it's just to chat, why would Sect Leader Ren bring up so many things?"

Ren Pingsheng frankly admitted: "You're right, of course I have other intentions. I'm just laying the groundwork beforehand."