Everyone's Accusations

If you can't even respect others, then don't expect to be respected yourself. Respect is reserved only for those who know how to respect others, and someone like you will never earn anyone else's respect.

Xuan Ye stood straight in the streets of Konoha Village, his face grim as he silently watched Hyuga Kazefu standing before him. He said nothing, merely standing there and watching him.

The people walking along the street stopped one after another. Some of the bolder ones stood directly near Xuan Ye and Hyuga Kazefu, forming a circle around them, with Xuan Ye at its center.

Others, either more timid or unwilling to stir up trouble, had originally intended to leave. But seeing more and more pedestrians stopping and gathering around Xuan Ye and Hyuga Kazefu, they decided not to go after all.

Their Eight Trigrams Souls had begun to burn fiercely, making them stop as well. However, those who were timid or unwilling to cause trouble did not approach Xuan Ye. They merely found places where they could clearly watch the dispute and looked over from afar.

As more and more people gathered to watch, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense. Some people who were not afraid of trouble even began chatting beside the encircled area, their voices no louder than normal conversation.

There were quite a few people surrounding Xuan Ye now, and many of them were bold. The moment someone started a topic, everyone began discussing it heatedly. What they said made the Hyuga Clan member's expression grow uglier and uglier.

One of the onlookers glanced around, bent down, and secretly whispered to someone beside him, "Hey, do you know what's going on here?"

Hearing someone speak to him, the other person turned around and looked at the one addressing him. With a helpless expression, he said, "I don't know! I saw so many people gathered here, so I came over too, just to see what was happening and why so many people were gathered here."

Just after he finished speaking, another person joined their conversation. "You don't know what's going on? I've been here the whole time. I know exactly what happened."

"You know? Hurry, tell me what happened here. Why are so many people gathered here?"

That person looked at him eagerly, wanting to know what had happened. The other person also stared at him anxiously, desperate to hear the story.

After all, anyone who stood here and consciously formed a circle to watch could not possibly be uninterested in gossip. If they were not, they would have left instead of staying to watch the spectacle.

The person who knew what had happened smiled smugly. Looking at the two eager people before him, he slowly said, "Come closer, a little closer. I'll tell you. This is what happened."

The informed person spoke excitedly, and droplets of saliva occasionally sprayed from his mouth as he talked. Some even landed on the other two people's faces, but they paid no attention to such a trivial matter. Completely undistracted, they listened intently to his explanation.

After talking for a while, the informed person had become somewhat dry-mouthed before finally recounting the entire incident. Only after he finished did the two uninformed people understand what had happened.

According to him, that slightly older child really was a terrible person. He was so young, yet his mouth was already so vicious. As for the other child, Xuan Ye, he had merely failed to notice the person and accidentally bumped into him.

But the matter did not end there. If it had ended so quickly, it would not have drawn so many people to watch.

After accidentally knocking the person over, the child fell down as well. However, he was unharmed and quickly got back to his feet. After rising, he apologized to the person he had bumped into and even extended a hand, intending to help him up.

But that was when the unexpected happened. Seeing Xuan Ye reach out to help him up, the person who had been knocked down slapped his hand away, unwilling to accept his help.

After the person who had been knocked down got to his feet, it would have been one thing if he simply refused Xuan Ye's apology. Instead, he immediately unleashed a torrent of vicious abuse at Xuan Ye. His words were so unpleasant that anyone would have found them unbearable.

Naturally, this drew a huge crowd of onlookers. Only a small number had actually witnessed what happened, while most had simply seen a large gathering and rushed over out of curiosity to watch the excitement.

After hearing the entire story, the two people also came to deeply resent the slightly older-looking child. His mouth was already so vicious at such a young age—what would become of him when he grew up?

So the two of them wanted everyone else to know what had happened. They began telling the people nearest to them, occasionally pointing at the foul-mouthed child as they spoke. One person told two, two told four, and the story spread like a virus.

Before long, nearly everyone gathered to watch had learned what happened. Once they knew, they all began criticizing the child and continuously speaking ill of him.

They said how awful Hyuga Kazefu was, how vicious his tongue was. Some even said Konoha should not have people like him, and that Xuan Ye was pitiful for being berated by Hyuga Kazefu like that.

As the saying went, public opinion was a fearful thing. Sometimes, what people said could be terrifyingly powerful. It could greatly affect you, control your emotions, and make you gradually lose your reason without realizing it.

When only one person spoke and criticized someone, it could still be ignored. But once the number of speakers increased, it became extremely difficult not to care. After all, people were social creatures and cared deeply, in their hearts, about what others said.

With so many people at the scene criticizing Hyuga Kazefu and speaking ill of him, he had long since become furious. But there was nothing he could do. He could not control what others said, nor did he have any right to do so.

Amid everyone's accusations, Hyuga Kazefu trembled with rage. His eyes had long been widened to their limit under the barrage of criticism, and they had turned bloodshot. At that moment, Hyuga Kazefu was like a crazed bull devoid of reason, his expression utterly deranged.