Betrayal

When the skeletal palm extended, the necromantic aura that followed immediately gathered into a shriveled hand.

"I never expected you to have grown to this extent. As your teacher, I am truly pleased. But..." The seemingly gentle palm pressed against Green Ghost's chest, yet an undead aura seeped from within it, rapidly infiltrating and spreading through Green Ghost's body.

Green Ghost's body began to rot from within.

"I knew that since I encountered you in this manner today, it meant that the two of us had to settle things once and for all. Therefore, as your student, I hope to seek your forgiveness by kowtowing."

As though the gears of time had malfunctioned, the gray-robed elder returned to his original position, while Green Ghost, whose body had been disintegrating, returned to the state he had been in before his first kowtow.

Green Ghost met the eyes beneath the hood. Then, his originally normal human arm suddenly swelled to five times its size, his skin turning green. Using his time ability, he directly crushed the immobilized old man within the gray robe into powder.

"A Qing, with your meticulous mind, you should know that I was clearly waiting here for you to come in person. You also understand my nature—I never do anything unless I am certain of success. Why did you still come here alone?"

Voices rang out from within every boulder across the hilly plain.

"Because this student came to repay the kindness you once showed me, Teacher. If I could even disregard the bond between us, could I still be the A Qing you spoke of?"

All at once, black smoke rose from the surfaces of fifty-eight stones on the hilly plain, each engraved with unknown symbols. The towering resentment that Zhang Chen and the others had previously