...How did it feel?
Xiao Se had meant to go into seclusion and cultivate for a while, to let himself calm down for the time being. Yet his mind was restless and agitated, and for some reason, he could not return to his former peace.
An irritating sneer rang out, but when he could no longer endure it and opened his eyes, everything before him had once again returned to calm.
Had it already become a knot in his heart?
As for that, Xiao Se actually did not find it all that surprising. It just bothered him somewhat.
Shaking his head to himself, Xiao Se had just been about to close his eyes and regulate his breathing again when an unavoidable trace of doubt inevitably rose in his heart.
Since such an important matter was something even he had never known, how had the illusion the heart demon set up known about it?
Or was it merely a simple coincidence, a lucky hit?
If that was the case, then was the current him the way the heart demon had hoped he would be?
Xiao Se, gradually calming down, unconsciously thought along those lines.
If the heart demon intended to use him as a breakthrough point into the Endless Fire Territory, then hoping for him to break with his parents was naturally an entirely normal move.
And after that?
Xiao Se unconsciously thought back to the examples among the people around him.
Father's teacher, his own Grandmaster, the current head of the Medicine Tower, had once had a disciple before Father. Grandmaster had once nurtured him with great care and treated him like a newborn son, yet he had never expected that his first disciple would be bewitched by an enemy and, in the end, actually commit the crime of betraying