"In the end, though, I was still me—the worthless fool who willingly sank into depravity, the fat loser who accomplished nothing."
"I couldn't imagine how heartbroken and despairing she must have been when I was taken away by the Guiding Light. And through the hundreds of years she had left to live, how deeply she must have hated me."
"I let her down. I didn't even dare imagine the scorn and criticism she would suffer from the world after I was taken away by the Guiding Light."
"If I'd tried a little harder back then, would things have turned out differently?"
"If I'd started cultivating diligently from the moment the dean picked me up, would things have..."
At this point, two streams of fiery red tears ran down Phoenix God's handsome face.
The bloody tears fell onto the lake, stirring wave after wave of surging tides.
They were tears condensed from the most fundamental divine blood. Every drop represented the origin of a Deity.
A piercing phoenix cry rang through the heavens. Even God of Lust, whose strength far surpassed Ma Hongjun's, was briefly dazed by that grief-stricken sorrow.
By now, Ma Hongjun was crying too hard to speak.
God of Lust fell silent for once.
That face capable of charming all living beings suddenly dimmed, shedding some of its sacredness and allure as her dark red God of Lust Divine Power gradually withdrew.
"Phoenix God, I'm sorry."
Her mature, intelligent voice rang out lowly, no longer carrying the slightest trace of the original sin of desire.
Ma Hongjun did not accept God of Lust's apology. He merely shook his head faintly and let the divine blood flow.
He was now like a walking corpse, scarcely more than an empty shell called Phoenix God.
If he had not stumbled upon