Yun Ling let out a sorrowful sigh after thinking of that dark past. Though he no longer thought about that little girl as much as he did in the past, the occasional times it came into his mind, he would feel incredibly somber and it would take him a long while before he would get back to normal.

That was just how traumatizing that event was for him. He never knew humanity could stoop that low...

He took that back.

He did know that some were capable of doing things much graver than that, however, that was the first time he had seen such a thing with his own eyes. He had heard what kind of wicked deeds a lot of demonic cultivators did, some that would make even people say that what happened to the little girl was a bit... tame.

Though he was aware of how cruel humans could be, hearing it from other people and truly seeing it with his own eyes were two completely different matters. At that very moment, Yun Ling had actually lost faith in humanity. It took him quite a while before he could recover and act normal again.

Because of the unfortunate death of that little girl, Yun Ling had been hostile towards Tathagata for a while. However, in time, he finally let go of his anger on the monk. It wasn't really right for him to put all the blame on Tathagata since he would surely intervene if he was in the monastery but he was too angry then to care about that.

Yun Ling was a bit regretful. He shouldn't have killed that monk right away but torture him until he begged to be killed instead. Since the monk was dead, he needed someone else he could direct all his anger. He needed an outlet for his anger and Tathagata was that person.

It wasn't only Tathagata whom he was angry at. He hated a lot of monks then. Almost all of them in fact, including Monk Wang Yang. When he found out that the little girl committed suicide while he was in the Demon Suppression Seal, he beat Monk Wang Yang up for not looking at the little girl properly, giving her the chance to end her life.

Later, he learned that Monk Wang Yang was questioned at that time by the father of the monk that he had killed. As for why? It was because he was the close friend of his son's killer. That monk was also quite angry at the death of his son that he didn't care whether Monk Wang Yang was Tathagata's disciple or not so he forcefully questioned and detained him for a few hours. It was also at that time that the little girl killed herself.

As for what happened to the despicable monk's father...

He was executed when Tathagata cleansed the monastery of the unsavory monks. Though there were still a lot of good for nothing monks left, it was lesser than before. As for why there were still good for nothing monks remaining in the monastery, Tathagata couldn't really remove all of them because if he did, then very few monks would've been left inside the monastery.

What Tathagata did was that he executed the monks who were beyond saving and excommunicated many who had a lot of sins but still didn't warrant execution. As for the manageable monks, he let them remain in the monastery.

Actually, before that incident, he was just another person inside the monastery to Tathagata, albeit, a bit special since Tathagata knew of his eyes. However, Tathagata didn't treat him any differently. It was only due to him, taking action against that monk that Tathagata's opinion on him rose, and though he was hostile to Tathagata because of that incident, he and Tathagata became a bit closer when he had calmed down.

Tathagata had then informed him of his desire on wanting to take him as a disciple to which Yun Ling respectfully declined since he felt that Buddhism wasn't for him.

Looking back, it would seem that the monk responsible for that little girl's death didn't get crazy without any reason. He was overcome by his heart demons in his cultivation and as a result... it led him to do that. That didn't mean that anyone who was overcome by their heart demons would do that. It just meant that they would become truer to themselves and becoming afraid of nothing, leading them to forgo all of their inhibitions.

The fact that the monk did that meant that deep within him, he had always wanted to do something like that so Yun Ling really didn't feel bad for killing him. Heck, he deserved it whether he had heart demons or not.

"What does Papa want to talk to Yun Xia about?" Yun Xia asked her father when Yun Ling dismissed the children and told them that he wanted to talk to her alone.

Yun Ling shook all unnecessary thoughts he had on his mind as he focused on the present, his daughter. There was no point in dwelling in the past... what he must do was take those lessons in the past and ensure that such a thing would never happen again. At least in his presence since there was nothing he could do to those who were more or less suffering the same fate from every part of the world.

"Xiaxia, Yue Dongmei finally woke up."

Upon saying that, Yun Xia's face brightened as a huge smile on her face formed.

Yun Ling let out a smile at that.

He would do anything just to protect that smile.

"Is that so, Papa?! That's great! Xiaxia will go visit Big Sister right now!" Yun Xia said excitedly. She had been worried about Yue Dongmei ever since she had fallen unconscious that was why she couldn't help but be extremely happy and relieved when she heard her father's words.

"Wait... there's still something I want to tell you," Yun Ling immediately said before the little girl took off to go to Yue Dongmei.

"What is it, Papa?"

"Xiaxia..."

Yun Ling hesitated for a few seconds. Although he believed that Yun Xia would let him go to find her mother, he couldn't help but have second thoughts. After all, he did tell her that he would stay with her and not leave. He didn't want his daughter to get angry at him for going back on his word.

"Xiaxia, Papa said that he would be staying here but something came up. Your big sister told me that your mama is in the Thousand Mountain Valley right now... will you allow Papa to go to the Thousand Mountain Valley and find Mama, Xiaxia?" Yun Ling finally said with a worried look on his face. He was afraid of how his daughter was going to react to that.

"Mama?" Yun Xia's face brightened even more.

"Hmm... I wanna go and see your mama."

"Papa can go whenever he wants... but Papa must promise Yun Xia that Papa will come back as soon as possible!" Yun Xia said with a strict look on her face, however to Yun Ling, she just looked so adorable.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Yun Ling responded, "Of course, Xiaxia..."