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An issue with the fire essence spirit?

As the other essence spirits told the secret of what happened back then, Ye Zichen’s eyes flashed with indescribable seriousness.

If it really was as they said, how could the fire essence spirit be forgiven?

It didn’t matter what his temperament was like. When it came to the survival of an entire era, he ought to have realized the seriousness of the matter and rushed to the Master of the Stars’ aid. 

A thought appeared in Ye Zichen’s head: if that’s how the fire essence spirit was, he’d be better off without him.

No matter what, he didn’t want to see the Second Era’s tragedy repeat itself. There were far too many people he wanted to protect, and furthermore, the responsibility of bringing his fellow citizens of the Modern Realm back home rested upon his shoulders.

He couldn’t tolerate the fire essence spirit’s negligence if it meant the destruction of the era. 

“No way! He seems like a good kid to me.” Gu Luolin scrunched up her eyebrows and argued on the fire essence spirit’s behalf. Although she was young, as a member of the Gu Family, she’d heard tales of the era’s end.

Of late, her elders had gone out at a much higher frequency than usual. All of this activity was because of the era’s impending end.

She’d heard a lot about the Second Era’s destruction from her elders. Pinning all the blame for it on the fire essence spirit seemed rather unfair.

“No way?” The lightning essence spirit pressed his lips in a smile, but before he could continue, a streak of fire appeared before them.

The blazing heat left Ye Zichen, Gu Luolin, and even the other essence spirits with no choice but to get out of the way. When he heat dispersed, they saw the fire essence spirit grabbing the lightning essence spirit by the neck, his eyes flashing with chilling cold light.

“Boss.” The thunder essence spirit furrowed his brows.

The water essence spirit was so startled that he floated over from his rock, while the wind essence spirit’s little face was filled with anxiety.

“Ol’ Five, don’t take this too far.” As the fire essence spirit spoke, the ambient fire elemental power gathered around him.

The temperature rapidly increased by several dozen degrees. Ye Zichen and Gu Luolin were human; they couldn’t endure this heat directly for long. The wind elemental essence spirit considerately created a wind barrier around them, while the essence spirits of water and thunder started sweating.

“Didn’t you run off? You ran away, so you shouldn’t have come back.” The lightning essence spirit sneered, then reached for the hands holding his lapels. He pushed the fire essence spirit’s hands away. “Get your hands off my clothes! Let go of me…!”

“Run away? Are you saying I ran away?” The fire essence spirit held fast to the lightning essence spirit’s clothes, and his eyes burst into flame. “We all share the blame for the Second Era’s destruction. You’re really clever, aren’t you? In just a few simple sentences, you pushed all the blame onto me.”

With that, he viciously pushed the lightning essence spirit back. The lightning essence spirit patted his clothes off.

At the same time, the fire essence spirit turned and looked at Gu Luolin. “Thank you for believing in me.”

His eyes held no trace of his earlier lecherousness. Instead, he was utterly solemn as he looked around and addressed his fellows. 

“All of you, look deep into your hearts and ask yourselves, was the Second Era’s destruction really my fault? You really didn’t do anything wrong at all?” The fire essence spirit looked around in a circle, and whenever he looked at someone directly, they silently lowered their heads.

His gaze landed on the lightning essence spirit last of all, but unlike the others, the lightning essence spirit dared meet his gaze head-on. “I obediently obeyed the Master of the Stars’ commands and used the power of lightning to ward off the outsider gods for a full six hours.”

“That’s right, you really did carry out your duty. But while the others might not know what else you did then, do you really think I’m unaware?” The fire essence spirit sneered.

“What did I do?”

“It’s quite a coincidence, actually. I’ve always loved beautiful women, and I’ll go wherever they go. At the time, there were two peerlessly beautiful attendants at the Demon Emperor’s side. I snuck out to watch them bathe numerous times.”

“You’re not embarrassed to say that out loud!?”

“What’s there to be embarrassed of? I like it. So what? But then, I once saw you within the Demon Emperor’s estate.” The fire essence spirit looked at the lightning essence spirit, then knit his brows. “The Outsider Gods were already attacking, but the Demon Emperor still stood against the Master of the Stars. You knew that, yet you still made contact with him and told him the truth about transcendence. After that, you deliberately abstained from aiding the Master of the Stars in his enlightenment, keeping him one step away from mastery over lightning.

“At the time…. even though I was always sticking to women, the Master of the Stars had already masted my element to the point of returning to simplicity, hadn’t he?

“In the end, the Demon Emperor Transcended. When the Outsider Gods invaded, the Master of the Stars fought bitterly to defend the Second Era, only to suffer a betrayal. The map of the Milky Way the countless star bearers of the night sky engraved under the Master of the Stars’ leadership was destroyed. That’s what truly led to the Outsider Gods breaking past our defenses, destroying the Second Era, and slaughtering its inhabitants. Am I wrong? But what did the Demon Emperor you so depended on do? He worked for the Outsider Gods! He became their dog!”

The lightning essence spirit’s expression was now utterly unsightly. The other essence spirits were looking at him in shock; they clearly hadn’t known any of this.

The ridicule in the essence spirit’s eyes grew more pronounced, and he grinned at the lightning essence spirit. “The transcendent you personally helped create didn’t help defend against the Outsider Gods in the slightest. On the contrary, he helped destroy the Second Era with his own two hands, and he became a God King of the Outsider Gods. Ridiculous…don’t you think? It’s my fault? Who are you to blame me? When the Master of the Stars summoned me, I was there within ten breaths of time, and I unleashed the flames of my soul without regard for my life. You’re blaming me?

“Was I wrong? If he hadn’t spent day and night getting drunk without making any progress at all, would I have gone looking for that traitor?” The lightning essence spirit glared. “You know how many times I told him to mend his ways, but what did he do? He booted me from the arm he manifested and sent me packing. What was I supposed to do? Was I just supposed to watch as the era was destroyed? The Demon Emperor was the only one with enough comprehension of the dao to transcend. I wasn’t supposed to help him? Fine, was I just supposed to sit back and watch as the end drew near?”

“I don’t blame you. I understand how you felt; that’s why I didn’t tell the others what you did. I’m saying it now to tell the lot of you not to push the blame for the Second Era’s destruction onto me! I can’t possibly bear that wait!” the fire essence spirit shouted. 

“That’s about enough. Would it kill you two to say a little less?” The thunder essense spirit roared.

The fire essence spirit whipped around to look at him. “Who do you think you’re are, yelling at me like that? I’m the first-ranked element, not you, but you’re always pushing us around and telling us what to do as if you were in charge. Are you qualified? Also, don’t act like the Second Era’s destruction had nothing to do with you. Back then, just because the Master of the Stars shouted at you a few times, you refused to obey his orders and fired off your power at random, didn’t you?”

“Big Bro, that’s enough…” The water essence spirit wanted to smooth things over.

However, this time, the fire essence spirit’s ire landed on him. “And you! You do nothing, day in and day out. You’re so lazy, I could die! Even as the end drew near, your laziness kept you from doing anything! When the primordial giant beasts attacked the Southwestern Divine Mountain, the Master of the Stars ordered you to ward them off with water, but you slacked off, didn’t you?”

When he heard that, the water essence spirit fearfully shook his head and returned to his boulder.

But this time, he didn’t loll about on top of it like he had before. Instead, he turned away from the others as if in penance, his gaze focused on the distant fields of wheat.

“And you, Little Sister…” The fire essence spirit turned his attention to the wind essence spirit in Gu Luolin’s embrace. “When are you going to find yourself some courage? You’re obedient and hard-working, but you’re just too cowardly. When you saw the primordial giant beasts, you were so scared that you couldn’t even manage an ordinary wind blade. What good is all your hard work? Isn’t it all a waste?”

The fire essence spirit’s wide-range attack left none of them unscathed.

The lightning essence spirit sulked and his spirits sank. The fire essence spirit looked around the room. All of them seemed remorseful.

Ye Zichen watched this entire conversation play out. As the fire essence spirit criticized the others, Ye Zichen saw the truth.

He really wouldn’t have guessed this. 

This place was supposed to house transcendent fortune, the hope of the entire era.

But it was this very hope that had pushed the last era into the abyss.

This wasn’t just hindsight; from the moment he lay eyes on the essence spirits, or rather, from the moment he saw the scroll paintings, Ye Zichen could sense their personalities, including their personality flaws. 

The thunder essence spirit was wanton and unbridled, too arrogant to follow any orders at all.

The water essence spirit was lazy. He always just lazed about, unwilling to move.

The wind essence spirit was cowardly, and whenever she went somewhere new or encountered strangers, she’d scamper off in a panic before the other party could even do anything. 

The lightning essence spirit took everything to extremes! 

The fire essence spirit was a lecher!

None was any better than the other. The Second Era had been destroyed. In the face of this cold hard fact, all of them were to blame for billions of deaths; they were essentially mass-murderers. 

“Gu Luolin.” Ye Zichen rose from his stool and glanced at her.

She’d been listening to their coversation, and she was so stunned, she couldn’t even speak. When Ye Zichen called her, she jumped, startled, and reflexively shot to her feet.

“Let’s go.” As he spoke, Ye Zichen was already heading back to the tunnel.

When they heard that, it wasn’t just Gu Luolin who was startled; the essence spirits froze, too.

What was that suposed to mean?

The essence spirits had yet to decide whether they were going to leave with him. Was he just going to leave without winning them over? 

“Hey! We still haven’t agreed to leave with you!” said the thunder essence spirit.

Ye Zichen took a few more steps, then stopped. When he looked around, there was no sign of passion or intensity in his gaze; the essence spirits and their power no longer seemed to interest him. “When did I say I wanted you to come with me?”

The essence spirits were all looking at him. The spirits of thunder, wind, and lightning were staring at him intently, their eyes wide with disbelief.

Ye Zichen noticed their astonishment, but he paid it no need. 

“Why are you still just stting there?” he said to Gu Luolin. “We’re leaving.”

Gu Luolin didn’t understand why he was acting like this either, but she could tell he was in a bad mood. She put the wind essence spirit back on the stone stool, then dashed after Ye Zichen. 

“Stop where are you!” roared the thunder essence spirit.

But Ye Zichen just kept on leading Gu Luolin away without the slightest pause. 

The thunder essence spirit frowned, then charged and stood in front of him. “What do you mean by this?”

“What do I mean by this?” Ye Zichen turned to him and smiled, but then, his gaze turned solemn. “Isn’t it obvious? I don’t need butchers like you helping me transcend. You just stay here and wait.”

With that, Ye Zichen shoved the thunder essence spirit to the side. “Step aside. Don’t get in my way!”