He stared at Ming Yu without expression, his voice cool and soft, like leaves gently brushing the ground. "So none of it was a coincidence, was it?"
Ming Yu nodded. "It wasn't."
"You knew what your father was planning all along, but still chose to help him, didn't you?" His voice grew slightly more forceful.
Ming Yu dug her nails into her flesh and slowly nodded. "Yes."
"Then..." He paused, his ink-black eyes fixed on Ming Yu as he asked softly, "Was all the kindness you showed me an act?"
Ming Yu lowered her eyes, avoiding his gaze, and gave an almost imperceptible nod. "Yes."
He fell silent.
They both fell silent.
The silence stretched between them like a glacier that would never melt.
"Ha, hahahaha." He covered his face with one hand and laughed up at the sky, then asked with bitter amusement, "Then... did you bring me here to kill me and silence me?"
Ming Yu shook her head. "Go. The old man wants you dead. You can't leave through the front gate on the mountain's main path, but there's a trail down the mountain in the Cave of Reflection at the Cliff of Repentance."
He didn't reply. He just kept laughing to himself.
The next moment, without warning, he toppled backward, arms spread wide, his black clothes flapping like a lone bird of prey as he plunged into the abyss.
From then on, an obscure cultivator of the righteous path vanished, and a dazzling new star of the demonic path rose at a shocking speed, stunning the world.
(Cover removed at the author's request)
