"Brilliant, truly brilliant deduction. From the tiniest clues to something close to the truth—Meng Chao, time and again, you always manage to surprise me!"
Lü Siya smiled. "Although all this is merely your speculation, without a shred of evidence, I originally had no need to refute it—how exactly is someone supposed to refute another person's groundless conjectures?
"If anyone but you had leveled such accusations against me, I would certainly have dismissed them with contempt and not bothered to say half a word to them.
"Only because it is you am I willing to accept these doubts, even willing to engage in a purely intellectual clash with you without any evidence whatsoever.
"Even if—pay attention, I said even if—the Monster Mastermind, which appears to have vanished like smoke, still retained one ten-thousandth of its power within me, with the slightest possibility of rising again from dead ashes, so what?
"Being invaded by the Monster Mastermind was not my intention. And after becoming the Jungle Banshee, I never harmed anyone—oh, except for knocking you into Tiger's Fury River to protect you. If you think that hurt you, then punish me with your own hands. I will accept any beating or punishment without dodging or resisting.
"Other than that, I do not believe I have done anything to wrong you, wrong Dragon City, or wrong the countless ordinary people living in Dragon City. Tell me, exactly what crime have I committed? Or rather, what kind of harm would my existence bring to Dragon City?
"Even if—pay attention, I am still saying even if here—the future Su Mu Lian foresaw held some value as a reference, in that future where National Monsterification was carried out, I still did not betray Dragon City. I fought together with the land that raised me until the