Ch. 118 – “You say I don’t understand?”
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The black snake lunged up and away from the tree branch, its mouth yawning open as wide as it could go. Although its body was no thicker than a woman’s wrist, it could swallow things many times the size of its own head by stretching its mouth to its limit.
Swallowing the crow in front of him would naturally pose no problem. The prey was within reach, and as he bared the fangs extending from his upper jaw, triumph at his imminent success gleamed in his crimson eyes.
The black snake whipped up a gust of air as he lunged, and the crow finally broke free from his spectating. He had been keeping a close eye on the fight, wary of the black snake launching a sneak attack on Feng Ye. But unexpectedly, the snake’s target was actually Hao Chen.
Careless! The crow thought in vexation.
The moment he sensed the attack, he spread his wings to fly clear of the branch. But the black snake had been patient, lying in wait while he carefully calculated the distance between them, and the crow was given no chance to escape.
But thanks to the crow’s quick reaction, he wasn’t bitten in a vital area like the neck, and the black snake got him on the wing instead. A bird’s wing may look large, but it contained little actual flesh, most of it made up of long flight feathers.
The black snake got a mouthful of bird feathers, but refused to release his grip. Clamping down hard, he ripped several flight feathers out of the bird’s left wing.
And as the feathers fell away, the crow finally managed to break free from the snake’s death grip. But he didn’t go very far, hovering a short distance away from the black snake’s perch, just out of striking range.
There were two reasons he didn’t flee. Firstly, he wouldn’t be able to fly very far. Flight feathers were crucial to a bird, and having lost several all at once, it would be extremely difficult to fly even a short distance.
Secondly…..the crow’s black eyes reflected the image of the black snake holding one of his own feathers in his mouth. The black snake spat out the feather with disdain, then reared his head back and flicked his tongue in provocation.
If he left this grudge unavenged, then he didn’t deserve to be called a crow!
The crow burned with anger. This filthy creature had actually dared to attack him from behind!
Even though this form was merely an avatar, one should take a bird’s owner into consideration before striking it!
The crow opened his wings wide and rode the breeze through the air, finding just the right angle to strike the black snake in the eye.
The black snake arched his upper body back to dodge the attack, then took the opportunity to strike out and bite the crow again.
But the crow had already learned his lesson, and was more cautious this time. Birds also had a natural advantage over flightless creatures, and some birds of prey even fed on snakes.
His beak missed the black snake’s eye, but he managed to land a blow on his body and pry free some scales. The snake wasn’t a physical entity, but merely a construct of black mist.
Right after detaching from the black snake’s body, these falling scales dissolved into black mist, while new ones quickly materialized over the damaged area.
But the blow was not entirely ineffective. The black snake had used most of his power to form the insulating barrier, and this snake-sized portion was all the extra it could spare.
Already in a reduced state, he naturally had no surplus power to replenish himself. Although the injured area had filled in, the portion pecked away by the crow didn’t return. Almost imperceptibly, the black snake’s body had shrunk.
The change was so small that even the crow’s keen eyesight couldn’t detect it.
But despite not noticing, he continued to attack relentlessly. Darting back and forth around the black snake, he pecked off a scale here and there to vent the anger in his heart after being offended by the filthy creature.
The black snake refused to be outdone. Although the crow had a significant advantage, he was barely doing any damage. But the snake waited patiently while doing his best to dodge, biding his time for a decisive blow.
While a bird and a snake were locked in a fierce battle high up in the trees, Feng Ye and Ling Yun were locked in a similar stalemate.
Swords gleamed in the moonlight as the two of them clashed and parted repeatedly in a flurry of attacks.
Both were masters of swordsmanship, their comprehension far surpassing that of ordinary people. It was difficult to locate any flaws or weaknesses in either of them, and the ones that did show up were likely to be lures to draw in the opponent.
Feng Ye’s swordplay was unpredictable and fluid. Although he was certainly young among the gods of the heavenly realm, he had encountered countless sword techniques in his few thousand years of life.
The unpredictability of his moves often caught the opponent off guard, causing them to fall into his rhythm and ultimately suffer defeat.
Ling Yun was unable to do the same. Despite his many years of experience, he was much younger than Feng Ye and failed to measure up to his expertise. Yet the essence of the way of the sword wasn’t all that complex, and amounted to variations of chopping, thrusting, and slicing.
The world was full of countless sword techniques, and even if he hadn’t seen them all, he had honed his own technique to perfection. He was perfectly aware of every weak point in his strikes, and also which angles his opponent would choose for a counterattack.
He met Feng Ye’s changeable style with constancy.
The battle raged on, the victor undetermined.
Their blades clashed once again, but neither of them broke away immediately. Instead, the muscles in their arms tensed as they engaged in a test of strength.
Pressed closely together as they were, details that went unnoticed from a distance were now made clear.
Feng Ye stared at Ling Yun’s left cheek, where the hideous burn scars covered every inch of skin.
These burns had almost certainly been inflicted by heavenly fire, which was the only fire that burned hot enough to injure a Hedao-stage cultivator so severely.
Although Ling Yun had not lost his life to the heavenly fire a century ago, Feng Ye could only imagine how harrowing his escape must have been.
His words from before were likely not a lie, because he had no use for lies at this point. He cared about no one, and therefore cared nothing about how others might condemn his deranged ideas.
So one hundred years ago, he had really not known the truth about Jianmu, an unwitting accomplice to the demons in their ascent to the heavens.
Ling Yun had once been the leader of a sect. His character was plain for all to see, and although he was somewhat arrogant, his behavior was upright and honorable. He was completely different from this Ling Yun, who would use any means at all to achieve his goals.
Something must have happened to him during those hundred years to turn him into this hateful ghost.
Feng Ye had wanted to ask about it earlier, but Ling Yun had attacked before he could, striking so swiftly that there was no room for distraction.
Now, with their blades locked, Feng Ye had a rare opportunity. He continued to push against Ling Yun’s blade as he asked: “Are you seeking out Jianmu again just to re-open the Emberless Horizon and throw the heavenly and mortal realms into chaos?”
Ling Yun looked at Feng Ye when he heard this, and the corners of his mouth curved up. The ugly scars on the left side of his face shifted with this movement, making them appear even more terrifying.
“That’s right,” he said.
He exerted more force as he spoke, causing their crossed swords to quiver under the increased pressure.
When it came to physique, Feng Ye’s current body was inferior to Ling Yun’s. He felt himself yielding under the pressure and withdrew his sword, taking a step back.
As he did so, he asked: “Why?”
Setting aside who was right or wrong back then, the only person Ling Yun should have a grudge against was Feng Ye. His grievances should be settled with him alone. Why ally himself with a demonic creature to cultivate Jianmu again, bringing disaster upon innocent people?
Feng Ye only spoke that one word, but Ling Yun knew what he was asking. He pressed forward and swung his blade toward Feng Ye, asking as their weapons came together with a clang: “Innocent? Do the people of this world deserve to be called that?”
Feng Ye was taken aback, but was given no time to think. Ling Yun intensified his offensive, and it became clear that the fierce swordsmanship he had demonstrated thus far was not the peak of his abilities. He had only been testing the waters.
He had gained enough of an understanding of Feng Ye’s style, and unleashed the full force of his strength, forcing Feng Ye to retreat again and again.
“How did I treat the people of this world? And how have they treated me?” Ling Yun shouted as he slashed forward, his hoarse voice strained to the limit.
He had never thought of keeping a sacred treasure like Jianmu to himself when he found it. He had generously shared with cultivators across the world the hard-won results of his life’s work.
Those cultivators praised him to the heavens and scrambled to climb the divine tree he had planted. But when Jianmu fell and heavenly fire rained down upon the earth, every single one of them condemned him as an eternal sinner.
Due to their fear of Yinglong, they blamed it all on him regardless of the truth. Nobody spoke out in his defense or tried to clear his name.
If any tried, they were far too few, their voices drowned out by the overwhelming accusations.
He hated Yinglong, and he hated the ungrateful people of this world too.
Feng Ye kept his eyes fixed on the relentless blade slashing toward him. Despite struggling to keep up, he still spared some effort to refute Ling Yun: “So what? When has your shidi ever wronged you? How can you disregard him too?!”
“What do you know!” Ling Yun screamed. Perhaps Feng Ye had struck a nerve. His eyes bulged, and the veins in his neck stood out with the force of his shout.
Driven by pure emotion, he attacked with renewed vigor. Feng Ye was completely on the defensive. Fending off each attack was the most he could do, completely unable to strike back.
“Do you have any idea how I spent these past one hundred years?! Do you have any idea how I got these burns and blade scars on my face?! How could a high and mighty god ever know the agony of hell!”
Ling Yun’s face twisted hideously, more malevolent ghost than human.
Feng Ye stared blankly at that face. He had noticed before that in addition to the burns, there were scars from a sword or knife on the other’s face. He just hadn’t given it much thought.
After hearing Ling Yun’s words, he began to notice something. Beneath those blade scars was something else, like a pattern, but the scars covered it so completely that it was difficult to make out.
But when he looked closely, Feng Ye finally caught a clue: the pattern concealed beneath the blade wounds looked very much like…..a totem.
The same totem tattooed onto the slaves of Western Qiang.
Feng Ye’s pupils shrank. Could it be…..
His mind fell into chaos. Memories blurred together with the distorted face in front of him, and under the storm of Ling Yun’s onslaught, he left himself open.
Like a shark catching the scent of blood, Ling Yun instantly shifted the direction of his blade and thrust it toward the opening.
Feng Ye spotted the opening at the same time as Ling Yun. He realized that he wasn’t in the right state of mind, and immediately collected himself, turning all of his focus toward the enemy.
But it was too late. The edge of Ling Yun’s sword had already pierced his defenses and reached his chest, slashing down diagonally.
Meanwhile, the battle between the crow and the black snake had reached its peak. More and more scales were being picked off by the bird’s beak, and the snake’s body shrunk even as it regenerated.
Where it had previously been as thick as a woman’s wrist, it was now only as thick as a thumb.
Crows were one of the most intelligent species of bird, and this one was particularly clever. He had also realized that the black snake was growing weaker.
He estimated the size of the black snake and decided that it was satisfactory. Then, he stopped pecking at it with his beak and instead flew above it, diving down toward it with his talons extended.
He was prepared to grab the black snack and tear it in two with his talons. Failing that, he would drop it to its death, a standard hunting tactic among birds.
He had been fighting the black snake for such a long time, and aside from that initial sneak attack, it hadn’t been able to land a single blow on him. The crow’s confidence swelled, and he inevitably got too cocky.
A fierce glint flashed in the snake’s eyes as he tilted his head back to watch the crow dive toward him. Just as the bird seized him in his claws, he also seized the opportunity he had been waiting for.
Clamping his jaws around the crow’s right wing, he coiled the section of his body not clutched in those talons around the bird’s body.
The crow and the black snake tangled into a ball. When it realized it had been bitten, the crow flapped his wings and soared into the sky, trying to shake off the black snake.
But his right wing was already missing several flight feathers, and its remaining wing was clamped in the snake’s jaws. With his mobility severely hampered, he flew unsteadily, struggling against the black snake that was still winding around him.
He only made it a few meters before falling back down.
As he fell, he released his grip. The black snake also let go after tearing a few more feathers from his right wing.
The two dark, tangled figures finally managed to separate.
Belly upward, the crow gazed at the sky receding away from him and thought, this is bad.
He tried once more to fly, but his injured wings wouldn’t let him balance, and he could only plummet straight down.
He might just be the first bird to fall to its death. The crow gloomily closed his eyes.
However, the expected impact with the hard ground didn’t come.
Feng Ye and Ling Yun had once again put some distance between themselves. Both of them were somewhat drained from the recent clash and needed time to catch their breath.
The fabric over Feng Ye’s chest had been slashed open, revealing a bloody wound that split the flesh beneath it.
Due to his quick reaction time, the it didn’t reach the bone, though blood streamed from the flesh wound.
Feng Ye had his gaze fixed on Ling Yun when he noticed something like a pitch-black fluffball falling from above, and he instinctively reached out to catch it.
The crow opened his eyes in confusion and locked gazes with Feng Ye.
Feng Ye: “…..”
The battle was very dangerous at this moment. He was already at a disadvantage and had been injured, whereas Ling Yun was completely unscathed. Victory was tilted heavily in Ling Yun’s favor.
Feng Ye’s mood should have been extremely grim, but at the sight of this crow falling from the sky, he was momentarily speechless.
The crow lay in Feng Ye’s palms for a moment, then hurriedly jumped up. With both wings injured, he could hardly fly at all. He hopped and flailed along Feng Ye’s arm to his shoulder, then glared menacingly at the opponent with his beady eyes, as if the previous event had not just happened.
This was no time to play around. Setting aside his exasperation, Feng Ye turned with the crow perched on his shoulder to regard the opponent across from him.
Ling Yun stood there with his sword in hand, something clinging to his shoulder as well.
The black snake and the crow had fallen together. The snake had not died from the fall, but had transformed into black mist mid-air and returned to Ling Yun, where it once more took on a serpentine form.
The black snake flicked his tongue at Ling Yun’s neck, fixing its slitted eyes on Feng Ye, as well as the crow on his shoulder.
The sight of the cold, sinister snake next to Ling Yun’s demon-like face made them both appear all the more dangerous and gruesome.
In contrast, Feng Ye just looked like an ordinary person, almost always harmless-looking and gentle. The crow was just as ordinary, and also slightly bald due to many of its feathers being bitten off. Compared to his opponent, he certainly lost out in terms of presence.
This simply won’t do! The crow thought indignantly. He ruffled what feathers he had left and puffed out his fluffy chest, doing his best to look majestic and boost Feng Ye’s image.
Feng Ye paid no attention to the crow’s childish behavior. His gaze was fixed on Ling Yun as he quickly adjusted his breathing.
His chest heaved violently from the intense battle, and he twisted his wrist, which ached from the heavy impacts. Then, once he’d somewhat caught his breath, he once again raised his sword and attacked.
Ling Yun struck at the same moment, and the distance between them closed in an instant.
The crow leaped from Feng Ye’s shoulder as he attacked. Unable to fly, he scrambled along Feng Ye’s sword-wielding arm and ran along the smooth surface of the blade.
Then, just as the sword was about to make contact with Ling Yun’s, he sprang from the tip of the sword toward the opponent’s neck.
The black snake lunged upward at the same time, entangling with the crow once again.
Feng Ye and Ling Yun’s swords clashed, and the two black forms rolled off Ling Yun’s shoulder together in a tangle, tumbling until they stopped near the corner of the barrier.
When he stumbled and fell twice in a row, the crow realized the danger of underestimating his enemy. Despite not being able to fly, he flapped his wings to briefly lift himself into the air.
Half-jumping and half-flying, he seized the black snake in his talons while carefully avoiding its snapping jaws.
The black snake’s form was no longer what it had been at the start, now only as thick as a thumb. The crow successfully captured it, his sharp talons piercing through the protective scales and deep into flesh.
Clawing and pecking, the crow finally tore the black snake in half.
The black snake slowly stopped moving. It appeared to be dead, so the crow tossed its mangled body to the ground.
He stepped back, maintaining a distance of a meter between them just in case the black snake’s carcass suddenly sprang back to life.
The carcass had already stiffened, its crimson eyes grown dull. Its body began to disintegrate, transforming into black mist that drifted away in the air.
I won, the black crow thought triumphantly.
Holding his head high, he puffed out his chest with a warrior’s pride.
But he was completely unaware of the sudden change in the barrier behind him.
A black snake several times thicker than the first one emerged and slithered forward, flicking his tongue. He silently positioned himself above the preening crow, then swiftly lunged down and snapped his jaws shut around it.
He was currently large enough to devour a human, to say nothing of a tiny crow. It was hardly any effort at all, and the crow had no chance to struggle before it was gulped down.
“Tch!” Hao Chen opened his eyes and cursed through gritted teeth.
That black snake wasn’t following the rules! In the middle of a perfectly good fight, it suddenly grew in size and bullied its smaller opponent!
But then again, there weren’t actually any rules in battle anyway.
With this in mind, Hao Chen glanced down at Fang Yang and Cao Zirui. Seeing that the two were still digging with single-minded focus, he settled his mind and continued his own task.
He tossed his folding fan to the ground, and the remaining twelve ribs separated from one another.
The ribs transformed into feathers, which then took on the shape of crows that took to the air in a neat line.
The commotion caused by the flock was loud enough to draw Fang Yang and Cao Zirui’s attention, and Fang Yang exclaimed: “So many crows!”
Cao Zirui stared at them and asked with some confusion: “Where did they all come from?” They seemed to have just appeared out of thin air.
Nobody answered. Fang Yang was just as confused, while Hao Chen stood alone to the side, distracted by something unknown.
Cao Zirui temporarily set aside his questions and returned to the task at hand.
Meanwhile, inside the barrier, the crows formed a neat, single-file line and dove toward the black snake like projectiles.
The black snake watched this flock of crows returning to the fight and flicked his tongue, cursing: “You don’t know what’s good for you, Kunpeng.”
He reared up his massive body, which was many times larger than those crows, and opened his mouth, waiting to swallow them one by one.
The two sides clashed once again. Although the crows were small, they had a numerical advantage. Even when the black snake managed to swallow one, the rest all continued to attack it.
Their side of the battle had intensified with this increase in numbers and size, but Feng Ye paid no attention to it, entirely absorbed in his battle with Ling Yun.
Despite his short rest, the situation failed to improve. He was still at a disadvantage. Ling Yun completely dominated the fight, forcing him to retreat over and over again.
“Do you know where you belong?” Ling Yun asked as they fought, then answered himself in a knowing tone, “The ruins of the royal city of Western Qiang.”
Feng Ye’s expression tensed as he eyed the totem on the left side of Ling Yun’s face, partially concealed beneath his scars. It looked like he had guessed correctly. Ling Yun had been there before too.
Western Qiang was an ancient kingdom that existed a thousand years ago, but Ling Yun was only a little over a hundred years old. He likely hadn’t visited the actual city, but rather an illusion of it inside the Emberless Horizon. Just like Feng Ye.
That perpetual reflection, untouched by the passage of time.
This also explained how Ling Yun had fallen to such a state. That place…..was a living hell, reducing humans into monsters and stripping them of all humanity.
“A pure, immaculate god like you will never understand the ugliness of the human heart.” Ling Yun’s tone shifted abruptly. Whereas he had previously sounded as if he wanted to confide something, there was only mockery in his voice now.
The filth and human depravity he had witnessed were beyond the comprehension of the lofty god before him. No amount of words would be of any use. His suffering was something that this person would never understand.
But in the end, he knew of a way to vent his anger, to set fire to both this filthy, hypocritical mortal world and the heavenly realm and reduce them to ashes.
He struck out rapidly, seeking to trample this holy God of War beneath his feet and complete the first step in his plan for vengeance.
Feng Ye pressed his lips tightly together. He already had a fairly good idea of the situation.
Parrying Ling Yun’s attack, he stepped back to put some distance between them.
Ling Yun didn’t rush to pursue him. From what he could see, Feng Ye was already at his limit, his defeat inevitable. This was simply a stubborn, last-ditch effort at resistance.
Feng Ye kept his head lowered, his expression unreadable.
Their battle was nearing its end, and the fight between the black snake and the flock of crows was already over. The black snake snapped its jaws shut around the last black crow and swallowed it whole.
Despite the agility of the crows and their aerial advantage, the sheer difference in size between them made them no match for the giant black snake.
The twelve crows, plus the original one, had all ended up in its belly.
The snake’s length bulged slightly from the meal it had swallowed, and he waited where he was as he digested his food.
On both battlefields, it seemed that Feng Ye’s side had lost.
But then, something unexpected occurred. The bulge in the black snake’s stomach began to move, as if something was thrashing around violently inside it.
The black snake felt no pain, but he certainly noticed what was happening inside him. Needless to say, the Kunpeng must be up to some mischief.
He tried to put a stop to it, to crush the Kunpeng with the black mist that formed his body, but the thing inside him had grown too massive.
With a piercing cry that rang through the night, a peng bird larger even than the black snake burst out of the serpent’s belly.
As its body was torn apart from the inside, the black snake’s form began to disintegrate along with the black mist forming the barrier around them.
Fang Yang and Cao Zirui had finished digging up all of the Living Soil, and had just caught their breath when they saw the meters-high barrier suddenly begin to dissolve, revealing the scene inside.
The first thing that caught their eyes was a giant bird of a sort they had never seen before.
The giant bird soared into the air, and the violent gusts its wingbeats kicked up scattered the black mist, its cry ringing out into the long night.
Fang Yang’s mouth dropped open in astonishment: “Is that a falcon?”
But it didn’t look quite right. Such birds didn’t grow so large, with a wingspan more than twice the length of a grown man.
Cao Zirui was no less stunned than Fang Yang. He had also never seen a bird this large, and the two of them tilted their heads back to look up at the spectacular sight.
Hao Chen was looking as well, not at the peng bird in the sky, but at the dispersing black mist. His lips twisted, and he gave a low scoff: “Competing with me in size? You’re courting death!”
After mocking the defeated snake, he turned his gaze toward Feng Ye and found him looking back.
He was only able to see Feng Ye’s profile, but Ling Yun had a clear view of his face.
A shiver ran down Ling Yun’s spine at the look in Feng Ye’s eyes. His hair stood on end.
Feng Ye was clearly injured and at even more of a disadvantage than before, but for some reason, Ling Yun felt that he had become far more dangerous.
Those dark eyes were cold and steady, just like those of the god standing high above the clouds a century ago.
Perhaps this was the true nature of the God of War.
“You say I don’t understand?” Feng Ye asked suddenly. His tone was frigid, like ice that had remained frozen for thousands of years.
Fresh blood continued to drip from the wound on his chest, but gave it no attention, and just clutched the hilt of his sword tighter.
Ling Yun was taken aback by the question, and Feng Ye didn’t wait for him to answer. He lunged forward with his sword thrust out, and in a reversal of his previous lagging retreat, he attacked faster and more ferociously than ever before.
Just as Ling Yun hadn’t been using his full strength at the start, neither had Feng Ye. It wasn’t as if he had deliberately held himself back and took an injury for no reason.
Rather, he had too many thoughts running through his head, stealing his focus.
But now, with everything made clear, he was free of distractions.
Ling Yun reflexively brought his sword up to block him, but failed to find the right angle. The opponent’s blow hit his blade head-on, and the forceful impact jolted his wrist so hard that it went slightly numb.
He started to retaliate, but Feng Ye was already on him again. Feng Ye’s sudden shift in demeanor was surprising enough, but it paled in comparison to the words that left his mouth.
“Wasn’t that totem forced onto you with a branding iron, a permanent mark of disgrace and humiliation? Didn’t they look at you as if you were nothing more than livestock?”
Feng Ye’s expression was cold and severe. He shouted as he swung his sword with increasing swiftness, his voice ringing out louder and louder: “Wasn’t a chain pierced through your shoulder blades? Shifting inside your body with every breath, the pain so excruciating, so unbearable, that only the fuel of hatred allowed you to cling to your wretched life?!”
Ling Yun was pushed back step by step. He could feel his hand shaking, struggling to maintain his grip on his sword under the successive blows.
He looked for a way to interrupt Feng Ye’s offensive, and he certainly had options. But every word Feng Ye spoke struck his heart like a huge iron hammer, stirring up towering waves.
Earlier, it had been Feng Ye whose focus was shattered. Now, it was his turn.
“Countless pitch-black nights all alone, gritting your teeth, digging your fingernails into your flesh until the skin broke. Praying for those people to die, for them to rot in the underworld forever, with no hope of salvation!”
“But it’s not enough. The world is so unspeakably ugly, and killing those people is not enough. It’s better to destroy it all! Let the demons crawling up from the underworld devour every living soul in the mortal realm, force them to grovel and tremble at your feet!”
Ling Yun was shaken to his core. At the same moment, he fully lost strength in the hand gripping his sword.
“You say I don’t understand?!” Feng Ye roared as he struck one last time.
With a clang, the iron sword flew from Ling Yun’s hand. He didn’t even react, simply standing there in a daze.
The victor was decided.
Feng Ye’s chest heaved violently, and he steadied his breathing as he held his sword to Ling Yun’s throat.
He ignored the astonished, bewildered gazes around him, focused solely on Ling Yun.
Ling Yun just stared back at him, his lips trembling as if he was attempting to speak.
Feng Ye asked the question for him: “How do I know?”
He looked into Ling Yun’s thunderstruck eyes, and his harsh tone softened slightly: “Because most people who go through such an experience feel the same. Their hearts are filled with hatred, and they ask themselves, ‘why am I suffering like this, while other people live in peace and comfort? Why not become a demon myself and drag the people of the world into the depths of torment to suffer alongside me?’”
“Ling Yun, you’re not special.” Feng Ye looked him straight in the eyes.
Glossing over all of the information Feng Ye had just revealed, Ling Yun latched onto one key term: “Most?”
“Are you saying there are exceptions?” Ling Yun’s tone was one of disbelief and ridicule.
He didn’t believe that anyone who had endured such things could avoid transforming, just like he had, into a demon driven solely by vengeance.
Feng Ye regarded him for a long moment before finally saying, “Yes.”
Without waiting for Ling Yun to ask, he gave him the answer, saying word by word: “Some of those people become the ones who slay the demons and eradicate evil.”
And as he spoke the final word, he violently slashed down with the blade held to Ling Yun’s neck.
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