***Flashback***
( Continuation from ch 24 )
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Zhao Yung's eyes shimmered, not with pity, but with something colder, as ancient sages used to describe it as; Clarity forged in betrayal.
"I was once like you, Elder Wang. Dutiful, blind, loyal to names carved in jade tablets and stone steles... I believed if I bled righteously, the heavens would watch... How foolish of me, they only watched me fall. Buddha has no eyes, no ears... The world is far rotten than one could imagine and someone has to cleanse it,"
He turned his palm skyward, letting snow gather in the crease of his hand only for it to vanish before touching skin, consumed by the strange qi that coiled around him like a withered flame.
"I, too, once begged my family to act. But they only smiled, called it internal family affairs... In front of power, everything bends,"
Elder Wang remained silent, but his breath grew rough.
