That day atop the Astronomy Tower, Albus Dumbledore stood there too weak to remain upright, his face full of pleading. He looked utterly pitiful.
In fact, when they had discussed it in his office, he had given Severus a seemingly "reasonable" excuse. He had asked Severus to kill him to help an old man end his suffering, while also putting on a show to earn Voldemort's trust.
Yes, a show. The "old-timers" all seemed skilled at this, including that wizard from the East. They gave young people the illusion that they could be trusted, that they could be spoken to openly about anything.
Harry Potter had fallen for it. He had sincerely regarded Dumbledore as his "mentor," only for that mentor to later point him down the path to death.
People like them were good at extending a hand when others were vulnerable and needed help, making them lower their guard. When others placed their trust in them, blind faith was born.
The key to blind faith was the inability to distinguish right from wrong. The man from the East was certainly different from Cho Chang, that Ravenclaw girl.
Men and women were different, and it was precisely because of that that the little palace maid whom Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng had prophesied would be a "female ruler, King Wu" escaped the Heavenly Khan's butcher's blade and survived by sheer luck.
That little palace maid later became Empress Wu Zetian. She moved the Tang dynasty capital from Chang'an to Luoyang, built seven-tiered structures there as well as the Tianshu Commemorative Pillar funded by the rulers and ministers of various nations, and became the first and only female emperor to perform the Feng and Shan sacrifices.
Beginning with Emperor Qin Shi Huang, six emperors in total had performed the Feng