Chapter 480: Fantasizing About Someone Loving Me

But it didn’t end there.

Detached Immortal Venerable, based on what Yin Qingcheng had just said—her true spirit annihilated, her Great Dao in ruins—realized exactly which forbidden art he’d invoked to save her.

"Are you cultivating the Dao of Heartlessness now?" Detached Immortal Venerable asked.

Yin Qingcheng nodded.

Detached Immortal Venerable burst into laughter.

At first, it was a normal laugh, but then it morphed into something bitter, desolate, and wretched.

Yin Qingcheng was confused.

"Why do you laugh, Immortal Venerable?"

"I laugh at Nine Lives—what a pathetic fool he is!"

"He thought someone loved him, but in truth, she was after something else all along. Hahaha, pitiable, lamentable!"

Yin Qingcheng’s face instantly turned pale.

Not wanting to hear what came next, she fell to her knees. "I implore the Immortal Venerable to save Heartless Immortal Palace!"

"Do you know the name of the forbidden art I used?" Detached Immortal Venerable said with a smile.

"This humble one dares not ask. I only plead for the Heavenly Sovereign to save Heartless Immortal Palace—the very order that nurtured your ascension!"

"Let me tell you. The name of that forbidden art is the Phantasmagoria of Truth!"

"Immortal Venerable!"

Yin Qingcheng’s voice cracked with desperation.

"Please go and save Heartless Immortal Palace!"

"The Phantasmagoria of Truth contains the special mental energy I’ve gathered over countless years—the distilled essence of countless souls’ yearning for truth. It is infinitely profound."

"It can plumb the abyss of one’s most secret desires. Originally, I intended to use it to save my beloved, but she has reincarnated too many times and not a spark of love remains in her."

"And you—Nine Lives surely believes you’re utterly devoted to him, that in the depths of your heart, in the truest part of your soul, you must love him."

"No! Stop! Stop talking!"

Yin Qingcheng’s sanity finally snapped. She no longer cared who she was speaking to and wailed, clawing at the air to stop Detached Immortal Venerable from continuing.

But since when does the Detached One heed pleas?

"I will certainly tell him—the cultivators of Heartless Immortal Palace all wear devotion like robes, but whether they truly are, only they themselves know."

"Because the crucible for love and oblivion is identical. Only the outcome differs."

"It’s possible that your ‘eternal love’ was just another stepping stone on her path to oblivion!"

"If this were to happen, could your fragile heart survive that truth?"

Detached Immortal Venerable laughed—a sound like cracking jade and dying stars.

"Hahaha, someone in love will surely believe you and say he'd bear any consequences."

"Judging by your current situation, he indeed has borne them."

At this point, Yin Qingcheng's last defenses had been torn down, so she stopped holding back.

"Then is it all my fault? I was already in that state—was it wrong for my deepest heart to desire strength?" Yin Qingcheng shouted.

"Did I ever want passionate love to become detached?"

"But it just happened to change—what could I do?"

Hearing this, the Detached Immortal Venerable fell silent for a moment.

A quiet voice murmured.

"Since when could the True Knowledge Illusory Realm possess the power to alter the Great Dao?"

The words left Yin Qingcheng speechless.

"You... what... what did you say?"

The Detached Immortal Venerable spoke again.

"I said, the True Knowledge Illusory Realm can only draw out the deepest emotions—it does not have the power to change the Great Dao."

Yin Qingcheng's eyes widened.

Widened to their limits.

The Detached Immortal Venerable's words were like a lightning strike, piercing her heart.

What did this mean?

What did it mean?

Yin Qingcheng couldn't even process it.

If it didn't have the power to alter the Great Dao, then why had her own Great Dao changed from passion to detachment?

If it can't do that...

Whether it was detached or passionate, only the practitioner would know.

If the True Knowledge Illusory Realm truly lacked this power, then it meant she had been detached from the very beginning.

It wasn't because the Detached Immortal Venerable had brought her back that she became detached—she had always been detached.

"No!"

"That can't be!"

"No, no! Even though I lost my memories from that time, I saw Lu Ye's TriLife Tribulation. In it, I clearly saw you telling Lu Ye that if you saved me, you spoke of passionate love turning into detached love, of how not loving my husband would bring him unbearable agony, pain worse than death itself."

"Didn't it change because I loved him?"

Hearing this, the Detached Immortal Venerable went silent once more.

He pondered.

Would I ever say something so illogical?

That can't be right!

First, my Realm of True Knowledge Illusion cannot alter the Great Dao.

Second, in his understanding, the most agonizing suffering in the world is none other than one's beloved changing from deepest love to emotionless detachment—there's nothing more painful than that.

Therefore, these words should not have been spoken by me.

So why would they show up in Lu Ye's TriLife Tribulation?

Right then, the Detached Immortal Venerable's true form suddenly snapped his eyes open.

That's it!

It clicked.

It wasn’t him who had spoken those words.

There was only one way this could've happened.

"Now I get it!"