The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

As expected, Lin Du was dreaming again.

This time, Xia Tianwu in the dream was cold and desolate, and his relationship with the other people in the sect was nothing more than a casual acquaintance.

Unlike now, they wouldn't go down the mountain together to listen to operas and eat. Even when Lin Du forced them to read stories with no medical knowledge, they would still read them carefully before giving their opinions. Even when the alchemy furnace exploded, Lin Du and Yan Qing would come over laughing and tidying up the waste while testing the pressure to create a new alchemy furnace.

There was nothing there, except that Lin Du was weak and often took medicine, which is why they got closer.

But that's all there is to it.

The Lin Du in the dream was more taciturn, completely unlike the eloquent and unpredictable sharp-tongued person he became in modern times for the sake of making a living.

There are no summers like this, except when I see Wu Xi, my eyes light up.

After they became Daoist partners, they did not live together. Most of the time, Wu Xi came to the Supreme Sect more often.

Lin Du watched as Xia Tian, ​​who had a child, began to soften her usually cold face, radiating maternal warmth.

How could a medical cultivator not know that pregnancy can cause one's cultivation to regress? The spiritual energy within the body will nourish the child's growth, causing cultivation to stagnate. Even if one desperately tries to replenish the body, the strength of the physical body and one's cultivation will decrease significantly.

Even knowing this, she was still very happy.

Looking at that smile, Lin Du suddenly felt a pang of unease.

She was taught to slay the Crimson Dragon, and that a female cultivator's body belongs to herself and that the decision is hers to make. Yet, she willingly gave up nearly a hundred years of cultivation, lost her spiritual essence and blood, and even gave the essence of the strange fire to that unborn baby.

On that same night, she sat atop a towering peak, looking down upon the world, when she heard a rare commotion within the usually peaceful sect.

She saw her eccentric senior brother, who was almost like a hermit in the mountains, rush out of the sect without even caring about the alchemy furnace. She saw her enraged third senior brother carrying a long spear, exuding a murderous aura. She saw her eldest and seventh senior sisters hurriedly leaving, their faces as cold as frost.

Xia Tian, ​​who had been gently rubbing his belly and smiling, was now pale-faced as Feng Chao wrapped him in a cloak and carried him back to the sect. Patches of glaring bloodstains had seeped onto the snow fox fur cloak.

Lin Du twitched his fingers, stood up, and rushed down as well.

The Supreme Sect has very few people, even fewer than the number of disciples on a single peak of a major sect. Yet, the Supreme Sect also has a large number of people. No matter when or who is in trouble, everyone will show up to help, whether it's rescuing or supporting.

Lin Du always carried pills with her, sometimes even more than Jiang Liang. She stuffed the pills that replenished her vital energy and prolonged her life into Xia Tianwu's mouth, amidst a noisy commotion around her.

But the noise, when it reached Lin Du's ears in his dream, sounded like the distant and muffled sounds from the shore across the water.

Jiang Liang, who almost never speaks much to outsiders, was now loudly and incessantly rebuking them.

"I don't care what Wu Xi's difficulties are, the fact is that my only disciple was harmed. This is murder! How is it any different from those evil sects? At least those evil sects have never hidden their evil intentions!"

"And you, with such despicable methods, are actually a direct disciple of the Guiyuan Sect. The Wushang Sect has always considered itself to have treated you well, yet you have acted in this way, ruining the child I entrusted to you!"

"This is not something that can be resolved with a simple 'take responsibility.' The pain of pregnancy, the stripping away of spiritual energy, the loss of all the essence of the strange fire, and being forcibly disemboweled! Even wolves are monogamous and loyal to each other until death, and you are truly a scoundrel!"

"You little bastard! Why didn't you cut your mother's belly open before you were born! All those years of studying the scriptures have been for nothing! I'll spare your life today to save my disciple, but you wait! Sooner or later I'll throw you into the pond to feed the fish for three hundred years, so you'll experience what real cesarean section pain is like!"

Jiang Liang had probably never spoken so much in his life. Lin Du remembered that Xia Tianwu's hand had also grasped her wrist in a daze, cold and slippery, just like the previous inner demon.

She lowered her head and saw Xia Tianwu's silent murmur. She said, "Junior Uncle, I have no children, and I have no home."

Lin Du suddenly felt the cold bloodstains burning on her wrist, causing her intense pain.

Even after she witnessed Wu Xi disembowel himself to retrieve his elixir as an apology, saw him gather countless rare and precious herbs to offer as a sacrifice, and saw Xia Tianwu finally forgive him.

Lin Du still felt that after that summer, there was no longer that smile and those bright eyes.

Was that true forgiveness? Or was it true love still present?

Lin Du later visited Xia Tianwu and asked him this question.

At that time, Xia Tian's face was cold and indifferent, without any expression, and her eyes were lifeless.

It wasn't the reserved demeanor Lin Du was familiar with, but rather a genuine loneliness and desolation.

"Junior Uncle, I don't know. I just feel a lot of pain. From that day on, my heart was completely empty. He has repaid the debt of his life to Cui Yujun, but what he owes me and the child can never be repaid in this lifetime."

"Death is too easy, death is a relief. Let him live with guilt and regret every day, and live in the scorn of the world every day."

As Lin Du left, she brushed past Wu Xi. Turning her head, she saw Wu Xi kneeling in front of the bed, holding a bowl of something. He was trying his best to coax her to drink it, and the man's back looked like a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy.

Even so, Lin Du still didn't understand.

We wanted to avoid owing each other anything, but ended up owing each other something.

And that person, who appeared aloof but whose heart was always passionate, finally returned to utter stillness as the strange fire died out.

"Tianwu, if you could do it all over again, would you still choose to become his Daoist partner?"

"I don't want to think about it anymore. It's best... I shouldn't even see them."

"I should have saved lives and refined many different elixirs, standing at the very top of the alchemy path." Summer in the dream was silent and somewhat bewildered.

"Perhaps it's because I don't trust myself enough, and I want to achieve perfection too much, that's why I want to pass on the strange fire to the next generation."

Lin Du woke up from a nightmare, still smelling of alcohol.

Feeling a cool hand approaching, she instinctively rubbed against it and mumbled, "It hurts."

Lin Tuan paused for a moment, his gaze softening further. He gestured to Hou Cang to loosen the spiritual energy rope, then gently touched Lin Du's burning forehead, channeling his spiritual energy into it to dispel the remaining effects of the alcohol.

Hou Cang originally thought Lin Du was really going to sleep soundly, so he wanted to use his spiritual power to get rid of him so that he wouldn't keep pressing down on Lin Tuan.

But Lin Du was on the verge of waking up, so Lin Tuan wouldn't let him move.

Lin Duzhen was not awake until dusk.

She slowly straightened up, first apologizing to Lin Tuan, then turning innocently to Hou Cang, "Senior Brother, with your spiritual energy fluctuating, are you about to advance?"

Hou Cang: ...

He suppressed his restless spiritual power. "Not at all."

Lin Tuan immediately saw Hou Cang's rejection and patted Lin Du's head, "You go first, your senior brother needs to be taught a lesson."

Lin Du stood up, and as he passed Hou Cang, he obediently reminded him, "Senior brother, you should also advance soon. Senior sister, second senior brother, and third senior brother are all in seclusion."

Hou Cang replied coldly, "Those who cultivate should not be greedy for quick success and act rashly. Junior sister should also remember this."

Lin Du blinked. "I don't want to be greedy and rush ahead, but my current level of cultivation can't control it."

After she finished speaking, she left in a flash, faster than a rabbit, leaving Hou Cang alone with an icy face and an aura of suppressed coldness emanating from her entire body.

As soon as Lin Du stepped out of the forbidden area, she heard a loud explosion, blasting her from the melancholy of her inner demon dream back to reality.

Lin Du, familiar with the place, landed at the foot of Tianrui Peak.

Mo Lin had just arrived and was preparing to cut some bamboo to repair the roof.

Xia Tianwu saw Lin Du give a slightly embarrassed smile, without any sign of defeat. "I was just thinking that I had a new pill formula and wanted to make an advanced version of a pill to replenish spiritual consciousness, and then it exploded."

"But it's okay, this looks like a great weapon for you to use as a firearm. It'll be twice as powerful as before!"

Lin Du looked at the few charred pills on the ground and grinned, "Then I'll have to give it a try."