This disciple-recruiting battle finally came to an end due to the appearance of Master Yuan Yu.

Yuan Yu noticed that Baoshu hadn't returned and guessed that he had gone to cause trouble for Du Chengying again, so she went back to help.

On Mount Yuelu, she was not only the sole female big shot but also the representative of the strongest combat power. As soon as she came out to smooth things over, even Baoshu Zhenren could only give way. After a few cold snorts, he left behind a 'just wait and see' before departing.

Pale-faced, Du Chengying struggled to his feet and said to the worried-looking Master Yuan Yu, "Thank you for your help, Master."

Yuan Yu sighed. She also didn't know why Baoshu was always targeting a junior like Du Chengying, and she quite admired this rising star. She said to Du Chengying, "I can help you for a moment, but I can't help you for a lifetime."

Du Chengying replied calmly, "This disciple understands."

Yuan Yu glanced at Lin Qi, who was supporting Du Chengying. "Oh? You are from the Huayuan Lin Clan, right?"

Lin Qi said respectfully, "Master has good eyes. Disciple Lin Qi greets Master."

Yuan Yu laughed heartily. "It's not that I have good eyes, but my nose is sharp. You people of the Huayuan Lin Clan all smell strangely fragrant."

Lin Qi's scalp tightened. 'How come I don't remember there being such a setting?'

Du Chengying nodded secretly in his heart. Lin Qi had a faint, serene fragrance on his body, and every time he smelled it, he felt calmed and centered.

A minor disciple-recruiting disturbance thus came to an end. Du Chengying escorted the unselected disciples down the mountain, apologetically hoping that these unselected disciples would absolutely not spread word of this matter.

Having suffered Baoshu's humiliation and personally witnessed him unreasonably snatching people and injuring others, combined with Du Chengying's captivating demeanor, the unselected disciples agreed on the surface, but inwardly felt even more resentful toward Baoshu Zhenren.

Du Chengying watched with satisfaction as everyone flicked their sleeves and headed down the mountain, then turned back to pick up Lin Qi.

In the end, Lin Qi still became a disciple under Sanyue Zhenren just like the original plot, and lived on the same mountain peak as Du Chengying.

In his past life, when Du Chengying was under Baoshu Zhenren, even the cave dwelling he lived in was exceptionally crude. All the things that needed to be added inside were provided by Lin Qi, who helped him out bit by bit.

When Lin Qi saw the cave dwelling before him, which was as magnificent as a palace, he couldn't help but open his mouth wide.

Du Chengying said gently, "Master is busy and is not on the mountain all year round, so all the martial brothers take care of themselves. This is what I prepared for you, Senior... Junior Brother."

The person he once called Senior Brother had now become his Junior Brother. While feeling the novelty of it, Du Chengying also felt a burst of relief; it was his turn to protect Lin Qi.

Lin Qi: "..." Materialistic sugar-coated bullets could not defeat a dedicated, hard-working good youth.

Sanyue indeed did not like to manage things, and the disciples under him also had a high degree of freedom. Everyone's cave dwelling was unconventional and had its own unique characteristics.

But wasn't creating a royal palace on a cultivating mountain peak a bit too outrageous?!

Lin Qi had no doubt that if this magnificent cave dwelling in front of him were placed in the real world, it would charge an admission fee for tours, with tickets costing no less than two hundred and no discounts during statutory holidays or winter and summer vacations.

"Junior Brother doesn't like it?" Du Chengying looked at Lin Qi's joyless expression and secretly cursed himself for being too thoughtless. How could his Senior Brother be someone who coveted worldly glory? Such tackiness would probably tarnish Senior Brother's noble purity and provoke his displeasure.

Lin Qi said with a complicated expression, "Senior... Brother Du, you've gone to a lot of trouble."

He really couldn't tell that Du Chengying was also a master at architecture.

Du Chengying said in chagrin, "If Junior Brother doesn't like it, I'll just tear it down. There's no need to force yourself."

Tear... tear it down...

Lin Qi felt that it would be a real pity for such an exquisite and magnificent building to be torn down, so he hurriedly said, "It's quite nice. I'll live here. Thank you, Senior Brother."

Watching the change in Lin Qi's attitude, Du Chengying thought to himself, Lin Qi was always so understanding. He would rather wrong himself than put others in a difficult position.

The way Du Chengying looked at Lin Qi was far too affectionate. Even Lin Qi, someone inherently missing a screw in certain aspects, felt something was off. He suddenly realized and said, "Senior Brother, are you badly injured? Do you want me to heal your wounds?"

Speaking of healing wounds, Lin Qi's eyes brightened a bit.

Du Chengying thought Lin Qi cared about him; only the System knew that Lin Qi cared about his task.

"Then I'll have to trouble Junior Brother," Du Chengying said softly.

He wasn't injured, but for Lin Qi's sake, he could be injured.

Du Chengying left under the excuse of getting medicine, letting Lin Qi enter the cave dwelling first.

The interior of the cave dwelling was several times more extravagant than the exterior. To the eye, treasures from the mortal world and the cultivation world were placed everywhere as if they cost no money.

Lin Qi sat on the soft couch and discovered that this bed was not only astonishingly large, but also astonishingly soft, as if the clouds in the sky had fallen into the mortal realm and become the quilt on the couch. At the head of the bed, an exceedingly rare Three-Core Lotus quietly bloomed, emitting a charming, faint and serene fragrance.

Lin Qi checked the task nodes of this world and found that, aside from the 'Cultivation Ladder' being lit up, the rest of the task nodes had all turned gray.

Lin Qi instantly felt like his whole person was not well.

System: "Don't panic."

Lin Qi beat it to the punch and said, "I will not read those things." He wasn't even willing to use the word 'material' to address those books.

System: "Tsk, I didn't even mention it. Subconsciously, you still want to read them, don't you?"

Lin Qi: "..."

Seeing Lin Qi struck dumb, the System said quite seriously, "After readjusting the world line parameters, the task target exhibited the phenomenon of rebirth. This is not uncommon. It is also quite normal for the world line to change as a result, and it is inevitable for the task nodes to refresh again."

Lin Qi obediently listened to the System saying 'not uncommon', 'normal', and 'inevitable' one mouthful after another, and felt slightly comforted in his heart again. "Then I'll take my time and follow the world line. I should still be able to complete the task, right?"

The System suddenly changed the subject, "Do you know why these worlds collapsed?"

Finally getting to the point! Lin Qi's eyes lit up immediately, and he asked with a thirst for knowledge, "Why?"

System: "Originally, this matter is generally kept confidential by the Alliance."

Lin Qi expressed his understanding.

The operation of small worlds has its rules, which the Alliance cannot casually disclose to employees like them, to prevent certain employees from trying to exploit loopholes to do bad things.

Even though Lin Qi didn't want to do bad things at all, it was true that he had genuinely caused all the worlds to collapse.

He might even be on the Alliance's blacklist right now.

Thinking of his bleak career prospects, Lin Qi said dejectedly yet sincerely, "Please help me."

The System gave an agreement and said directly, "These worlds collapsed because the male lead blackened."

Lin Qi said half-doubtingly, "Du Chengying is quite nice."

System: "The blackening determined by the small world doesn't simply mean that this person has turned bad. Rather, it means he has lost his highest objective as the small world's male lead and acted contrary to the core content of the original world line, leading to the scattered collapse of the world's energy."

Lin Qi understood at once.

During his training, the teacher had also specifically emphasized that in a small world, one must absolutely never ignore any minor task node. A miss is as good as a mile; it is highly possible that a very small incident could alter the trajectory of the male lead's character setting, thereby leading the direction of the entire world into the unknown.

The System explained that after Lin Qi's death, Du Chengying fell from being the leader of the righteous path into the demonic path. The small world couldn't withstand the 180-degree turn in the male lead's character setting, and its energy instantly tore apart and collapsed.

Lin Qi was suddenly enlightened. So that was it. He hadn't expected that the always great, glorious, and correct Du Chengying would actually fall into the demonic path. It must have been that he had messed up on the minor details of the task. He asked humbly, "I understand. Then how can I straighten out Du Chengying?"

System: "Wrong."

Lin Qi: "What's wrong?"

System: "He can't be straight, he has to be bent."

Lin Qi: "Bent?"

System: "There's no need to bend Du Chengying anymore. Put some effort into yourself."

Lin Qi found that he once again couldn't understand the System's words.

System: "Come and take a look at the material I've prepared for you."

Lin Qi: "..."

After circling around so much, they had finally circled right back.

Seeing that Lin Qi was still refusing to listen, the System sneered and said, "If you do not work hard when young, your butt will hurt when you are old."

Lin Qi: "..." He shouldn't have earnestly discussed the task with the System.

Du Chengying returned. Entering the cave dwelling, he saw Lin Qi sitting obediently on the soft couch, staring right at the Three-Core Lotus at the head of the bed. His eyes were dark and round, his expression dazed, as if he hadn't yet recovered from the disturbance. This melted Du Chengying's heart to softness.

Even the freshly created wound on his abdomen didn't seem to hurt anymore.

Du Chengying pressed a hand to his waist and walked forward slowly. Seeing him, Lin Qi immediately stood up and went over to support him. Knitting his brows, he said, "Baoshu Zhenren is going too far." 'Being so ruthless to his own biological son, what is he even after?'

"Baoshu Zhenren detests me. I've implicated you," Du Chengying said in a deep voice.

Lin Qi hurriedly said, "Don't say that, Senior Brother. You are treating me too much like an outsider." He helped Du Chengying sit down on the soft couch.

Lin Qi hadn't seen clearly what Baoshu's strike was, either. When Du Chengying pulled open his Dharma robe, revealing the wound on his waist and abdomen, Lin Qi finally discovered that Du Chengying was not lightly injured. His waist was a bloody red patch, its bruised edges erupting aggressively across fair muscle, like an exploding blood flower.

"Baoshu Zhenren is really..." Lin Qi gritted his teeth. Unable to think of any other bad words, he repeated, "Going too far."

The way his Senior Brother couldn't even swear was simply too cute. Du Chengying really wanted to pat Lin Qi's shoulder or rub his long hair. The person before him was warm and bright right in front of his eyes, yet the image of Lin Qi lying on the verge of death in his arms still involuntarily flashed across his mind.

The panic of losing him made him unable to resist grasping Lin Qi's hand. Lin Qi looked up and met Du Chengying's pitch-black eyes. Those deep eyes emanated a faint yet prolonged sorrow, and Lin Qi was momentarily stunned.

Actually, he also felt very sorry toward Du Chengying.

Watching his good friend die must have been a huge blow to Du Chengying.

But sorry was just sorry.

A task was a task.

Lin Qi distinguished very clearly between what was reality and what was illusion. In reality, he had never invested feelings into anyone, and in an illusion, it was even more impossible.

As a Moderator, the most important point was not to invest too much and act based on emotions. His task was to help Du Chengying become a god at all costs.

Lin Qi returned the grasp on Du Chengying's hand, applying a slight pressure. "Don't be discouraged, Senior Brother. The path ahead of you is much farther than Baoshu Zhenren's."

Du Chengying gave a faint, bitter smile, withdrew his gaze, and lowered his eyelids. Lin Qi was still like this. No matter what difficulties they encountered, he only ever encouraged him to move forward, completely unable to receive any other signals he emitted.

Oblivious to the point of almost being heartless.

Du Chengying loosened his hand and said softly, "I don't care how far I go..." He only cared about who was by his side.

Lin Qi praised, "Senior Brother is open-minded."

Du Chengying's breath hitched. Lin Qi said, "Let me apply medicine for you, Senior Brother." This was what Lin Qi was best at.

Lin Qi was very meticulous and careful when applying medicine to Du Chengying. He wouldn't say many caring words; his expression was serious, and his eyes held only the wound on Du Chengying's waist. Even though the two of them were extremely close, there was not the slightest romantic atmosphere.

"Done." Lin Qi let out a breath of relief, lifted his head, and gave a faint smile. His eyes were clear and shining, like a pool of clean stream water, yet they reflected no one's shadow.

Du Chengying sighed lightly in his heart, drawing his robe closed. "Many thanks."

"I already said there's no need to treat me like an outsider. We are already martial brothers," Lin Qi said. "If we're talking about thanks, I should be the one thanking you, Senior Brother, for pulling me up on the Cultivation Ladder and bringing me under Sanyue Zhenren's tutelage." Lin Qi looked around and smiled again, "And for preparing such a comfortable cave dwelling for me. Item by item, it should be me thanking Senior Brother."

Du Chengying's face darkened slightly. "Junior Brother calculates things very clearly."

"That's only natural. I've noted down all of Senior Brother's kindness toward me, and I will definitely repay it a hundredfold," Lin Qi said naturally, thinking to himself that he definitely had to pull Du Chengying onto the right path.

Du Chengying's heart gradually sank. In his past life, he had fallen in love with Lin Qi long ago, yet the reason he had delayed for so long in expressing his feelings was precisely this.

His Senior Brother seemed soft and easy to talk to, but in reality... he possessed a heart firmer and colder than anyone else's.