Knowing Who Led and Who Followed Mattered

Yet Jamir and the others did not cast off all pretense as Chen Cheng had imagined. Instead, terror showed on every face, and their bodies trembled faintly.

At the sight, Chen Cheng's frown deepened.

To him, this was an insult.

He had already exposed Jamir. They had spent months together and had even regarded each other as enemies. They knew each other well enough.

And now Jamir was still putting on an act before him. How could Chen Cheng not be furious?

"Please, My God, calm your anger! Please, calm your anger!"

The people behind Jamir began kowtowing and begging for mercy. Terror filled their faces, but beneath it lay such intense pain that veins bulged across every face, Jamir's included.

Now Chen Cheng truly could not make sense of it.

"My God, this is all my fault. Please do not punish your other servants."

Jamir slammed his forehead against the floor. With nothing to shield him, he cracked the bluestone tile and split his forehead open. Blood ran from the wound down his cheek.

Chen Cheng's anger subsided. He clasped his hands to the other guests in apology, asked Prince Pingbei to entertain them in his stead, and led Jamir and the others away from the banquet.

Jamir's confession and kowtow had made Chen Cheng realize things were not so simple.

As Jamir begged his forgiveness, Chen Cheng's soul—his Consciousness Body—had resonated with him. A faint, inexplicable voice of prayer and supplication had passed through his soul and reached his ears.

Chen Cheng had experienced this once before, just before entering the Great Desert.

But after he entered the Great Desert, those seeming auditory hallucinations had never returned.

He had thought he was simply dreaming too much. What happened today told him otherwise.

Chen Cheng took Jamir and the