Soon, He Xi was completely consumed by the flames.
Yun Jin turned her attention to Nie Ming.
Being in mid-Mahayana, the burn was slightly slower, but Yun Jin lounged lazily, waiting.
Nie Ming seemed almost numb to the pain. He stared at the patch of black ash, utterly broken. His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at Yun Jin. "Why! Why do this to us! You call us demons, but you… what makes you any different from them!"
Yun Jin's face remained expressionless. Then, she sneered coldly. "What? Do you think your love is so noble? That I destroyed it?"
Nie Ming's body was engulfed in flames, yet he endured the agony, stubbornly staring at her. "Isn't it?"
Yun Jin said sharply, "Nie Ming! You have reached the Mahayana stage. Do you not know that to demons, humans are nothing more than blood to consume? If they find the opportunity, what fate would await your kind? If you want to love a demon, I could not care less. You could go to some deserted place and live your two-person world. But what did you do?"
Yun Jin suddenly recited Nie Ming's biography from the Mingxin Hall task description. He had been a disciple of Tianshui Sect. His talent was exceptional from the start, nurtured step by step, cherished by his master, and eventually rising to elder status.
In other words,
All his cultivation had been cultivated by humans. Yet, because he fell in love with a demon, he personally killed his master and rebelled with that witch, becoming a scourge upon the human world.
Over the years, countless humans had died by Nie Ming's hand. His body was stained with the blood of his own kind.
"Has humanity ever wronged you?" Yun Jin asked simply.
Nie Ming's face changed, panic flickering in his eyes. "I did not mean to kill my master, but he discovered He Xi and me. He tried to stop us, and I had no choice, so…"
He stared at Yun Jin stubbornly. "It was you! You could not accept my love for He Xi! Everything I did was for our love. True love is never wrong."
Yun Jin could not have anticipated this. Even in the cultivation world, people still spoke such words. She was done wasting her breath. Her voice grew colder. "No emotion justifies harming others. Clearly, you cannot comprehend this. I, as the hall master, have no obligation to save a love-blinded fool. The only thing I can do is obliterate your soul, cleansing this world of a corrupt spirit."
Nie Ming still resisted internally, trying to speak, but the flames had consumed more than half of his body, and his will began to dissipate. Finally, he vanished from the world completely. With He Xi and Nie Ming dead, the air itself seemed fresher.
Yun Jin did not hesitate. She returned all the absorbed life energy to the plants. The nearly dying flora slowly regained vitality. The brown and withered mountainside now shimmered with green life again.
But it was not enough.
Some of the absorbed energy had already been spent. Yun Jin continued to concentrate, gathering Wood-attribute energy, restoring life to the plants.
Below, disciples of Mingxin Hall cleared out the remaining low-level enemies.
Seeing Yun Jin still busy, they waited silently.
"Girl, don't overexert yourself. In a few months, we'll recover," the old tree advised.
Other voices joined in.
"Yes, yes, we're already almost back."
"You're spending too much spiritual energy."
The new voices were the recently awakened sentient plants, feeling some guilt for remaining silent earlier.
When the old tree had warned them, they feared Yun Jin would not return the life energy.
After all, while the power from the life energy dissipates quickly, the energy itself is enormously beneficial. Yun Jin could have absorbed it for her own gain, yet she returned it without hesitation.
Even after consuming some energy, she replenished it herself.
Compared to her, they had been petty.
The plants felt ashamed.
Yun Jin smiled faintly. "It is nothing. Soon, it will all be restored."
With life flowing in abundance, Yun Jin's spiritual energy was far greater than the plants could imagine.
In just a few hours, the mountain forest regained its vitality. A gentle breeze stirred the grass, flowers bloomed freely, and dappled light fell through the trees.
The scent of fresh flora wrapped around Luoyun Mountain.
A soft smile appeared on Yun Jin's lips.
She looked up at the sky.
She had been to the highest places, seen the hidden truths of this world.
She was grateful that the countless trials in these small worlds had not turned her into a task-executing machine.
She had preserved her heart.
She was Yun Jin.
Still Yun Jin.
Suddenly, a fruit dropped into her lap.
Yun Jin looked in surprise at the plant beside her.
"The fruit… tastes good," the young sentient plant stammered, still new to speech.
Yun Jin laughed softly. "Thank you."
She tasted it. It was exceptionally delicious.
The plant swayed joyfully.
Most plants were still not sentient. Yet at that moment, Yun Jin felt the embrace of all the forest's life around her. They were grateful.
Bending down, she gently touched a small blade of grass. Her eyes were no longer hardened by her demon-slaying mission, instead softened with a quiet warmth.
She bent down and gently touched a small sprout. The murderous aura she'd carried during the demon hunt had completely vanished, replaced by quiet gentleness.
At that moment, Yun Jin felt something subtle shift inside her.
She hadn't yet mastered the Primordial Wood, but she had a feeling—it was close, so close she could almost reach it.
Yun Jin wasn't in a rush. She sat cross-legged, lifted her face to the sunlight, and let the warmth soak through her.
She opened her eyes.
The sky stretched endlessly above her.
It felt like she could see farther than ever before.
Then she lowered her head and looked around at the world that had come back to life.
Yun Jin smiled again.
She'd once thought that the True Meaning of the Primordial Flame was Courage. Now she finally understood—it was only her Primordial Flame that embodied Courage.
The same Primordial Force, in different hands, could take on completely different forms. So then... what was her Primordial Wood?
Yun Jin whispered softly,
"Even after knowing the vastness of heaven and earth, I still cherish the green of the grass and trees."
That was her path.
Her progress toward mastering the Primordial Wood leapt forward.
But there was still one last step left.
Yun Jin didn't mind.
She'd already found her heart. Now, all she needed was the right moment to reach enlightenment.
She turned to the disciples of Mingxin Hall nearby—and smiled.