"Hm. He is quite unique." Jiang Chen nodded, not answering directly. A faint, unreadable smile lingered at the corner of his lips.

Inside, he was more than satisfied.

Trying to chase two hares at once had actually worked—and better than expected. He had just confirmed the link between Shen Xin and the protagonist.

So the protagonist is Shen Xin's master? Jiang Chen thought.

Shen Xin is already this outstanding. How terrifying must his master be?

Looks like the opponent I'll have to deal with keeps getting more troublesome. Damn Heavenly Fate…

In his mind, he didn't hesitate to give it a very rude gesture.

"You really do know my master." Shen Xin's expression hardened with certainty.

To him, Jiang Chen's words—quite unique—were nothing short of confirmation.

"Where is he now?" Jiang Chen asked, giving a small nod, his expression calm once more.

"You don't know?" Shen Xin frowned. "My master… has long since passed away."

"What?" Jiang Chen froze for a split second, his composure cracking. "He's dead?"

The news of the protagonist's death had caught him off guard.

Still, Jiang Chen quickly dismissed it as impossible. Either the man hadn't truly died… or he was bound to come back eventually.

"You really didn't know?" Shen Xin's frown deepened as he looked Jiang Chen up and down.

"I honestly didn't expect that," Jiang Chen said with a small smile, shaking his head. "But Shen Xin, you should know better than anyone—your master isn't an ordinary person. He… won't die."

The words struck Shen Xin like a sudden shock.

"What did you say?" His eyes locked onto Jiang Chen. Disbelief flashed across his face, followed by a faint, uncontrollable spark of hope. "My master won't die?"

To Shen Xin, Qin Ran had always been larger than life.

The thought of his master's death was something he refused to accept. When the news first reached him, it had shaken him to his core.

Even now, every morning, he still found himself thinking of Qin Ran without meaning to.

And yet, here Jiang Chen was—calmly stating that Qin Ran wouldn't die at all.

This was something Shen Xin had only ever dared to imagine. He knew how unlikely it was—yet here stood someone powerful enough to say it outright.

The shock lingered, but the hostility he felt toward Jiang Chen quietly faded.

"Yes, he won't die. You may even meet him again soon." Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "Just not on the Prosperous Stone Immortal Star."

"Are you serious?" Shen Xin stared at him, suspicion still there. He didn't dare let hope grow too easily—hope hurt the most when it was crushed.

"I don't take back what I say." Jiang Chen's expression didn't change. "Now, let's talk about you."

Shen Xin took a breath, forcing down the surge of emotion. "Then who are you?"

"Why do you know my master?"

"Why did you appear on the Immortal Martial Continent, and then on the Prosperous Stone Immortal Star? Why did you kill every Nirvana Cleansing realm powerhouse there?"

"And why did you move all those cultivators into that cave-heaven space—along with their spiritual veins, sect grounds, even entire cities? What are you really after?"

The questions came one after another, sharp and relentless.

Even though he desperately wanted Qin Ran to still be alive, Shen Xin stayed on guard. He wasn't about to change his judgment based on a few words from someone he still couldn't fully trust.

His caution only grew stronger when facing someone this powerful—someone he strongly suspected of being a demon spy.

Shen Xin trusted his own judgment.

In his eyes, Jiang Chen was most likely a traitor to humanity. Stripping Prosperous Stone Immortal Star bare was probably his way of keeping the demon army from taking a share of the loot.

"Shen Xin, there's no need to rush." Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "Why don't we sit down and talk this through?"

As he spoke, a table and two chairs appeared in the air, steady as if resting on solid ground.

Jiang Chen took a seat and gestured toward the other chair.

Shen Xin didn't move.

His expression was cold, his stance rigid.

Jiang Chen chuckled. "If you'd rather stand, that's fine. We can talk like this." He leaned back slightly. "I'll answer your questions. Just listen carefully."

Shen Xin said nothing. His eyes stayed locked on Jiang Chen, sharp and unblinking.

"First," Jiang Chen began, "I'm a cultivator. More specifically, a Dragon Blood cultivator. I command a Void White Dragon."

"Second, I did meet your master—but only once. We barely spoke. Calling it an acquaintance would be generous."

"Third, the Compassionate Sword Immortal Palace and the Purple Crest Immortal Sect set their sights on my true dragon bloodline. That made them enemies. The outcome should be obvious."

He paused briefly.

"You wield a saber. You know what it means to leave no future threats behind."

Shen Xin's gaze flickered, but he remained silent.

"As for your last question," Jiang Chen continued, "think about this. If the demons strike from behind the Profound Jade Immortal Alliance, how long do you think Prosperous Stone Immortal Star would last?"

"The Immortal Martial Continent doesn't have enough Spiritual Qi to support high-level defenses. When the time comes, Prosperous Stone Immortal Star will become a main battlefield."

"What I did was an evacuation. Nothing more."

He looked at Shen Xin calmly.

"And I don't slaughter the innocent. Everyone I took—people from the Compassionate Sword Immortal Palace and the Purple Crest Immortal Sect included—is still alive."

Step by step, Jiang Chen laid out his explanation, deliberately trying to cool Shen Xin's hostility and strip away the misunderstandings—whether Shen Xin would accept it or not.

After hearing Jiang Chen's explanation, Shen Xin didn't respond right away. Instead, he moved on to another concern.

"We've received reports that you're working with the demon spy Lu Yi," he said, eyes fixed on Jiang Chen. "That you're closely connected to Lu Tingyun. She even risked her life trying to find you."

He paused, then added, "You can't deny it. We recovered a Half-step Void Tribulation-level artifact—the Square Inch True Expanse. It traced your exact location."

Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head. "You're mistaken. Lu Yi was never a demon spy, and Lu Tingyun wasn't searching for me."

He continued calmly, "That story was fabricated by the Compassionate Sword Immortal Palace and the Purple Crest Immortal Sect to target us."

"Of course," he added, "now that they're gone, you might think this is just an excuse. But it's the truth."

As he spoke, Jiang Chen raised his hand and passed over a sphere of dark-gold light.

"This contains Lu Yi's bloodline essence," he said. "See for yourself."

Shen Xin caught the sphere of light and frowned. A moment later, his divine sense poured into it.

The next instant, his mind shook.

"What the—what kind of power is this?" His grip tightened as shock flashed across his face.

It was only a fragment, yet the pressure it carried was terrifying.

He could clearly feel the gap between his own constitution and the bloodline sealed inside the sphere. The difference was so vast it felt hopeless to even compare them.

And more importantly, this power didn't resemble anything close to a human-demon hybrid.

To Shen Xin, a hybrid bloodline would be nothing more than a lump of mud beside this dark-gold essence—something that shone like a blazing sun.

"This is why Lu Yi was hunted down and killed." Jiang Chen gave a faint shake of his head. "Power like this… who wouldn't want it?"

Shen Xin muttered, almost to himself, "So the Compassionate Sword Immortal Palace and the Purple Crest Immortal Sect went after both your bloodlines and Lu Yi's. They chased him, and that led to his death."

The explanation made sense. Too much sense.

Yet even so, Shen Xin didn't lower his guard. No matter how convincing Jiang Chen sounded, he still couldn't bring himself to trust him completely.