Smiling Face looked at Elder Tian, who seemed neither alive nor dead, his pupils widening slightly before he gave a sinister chuckle.
"You really aren't dead?"
Elder Tian's expression remained indifferent.
Smiling Face shook his head. "Fine. Whether you're alive or dead makes no difference."
"I'm only carrying out orders. According to those above, if you're not completely dead, then I'll make sure you die completely."
"When you were alive, you were an obstacle. But once you're dead, all will be well."
"Once you're completely dead, I'll take your corpse back. Your brain can still be put to great use..."
His brain...
Elder Tian's pupils suddenly trembled. "You..."
Smiling Face laughed. "Surprised?"
Elder Tian fell silent.
Smiling Face looked Elder Tian over again, then sighed regretfully.
"Tell me, if you knew this day would come, why did you act as you did?"
"If you had nodded and agreed back then, cooperating properly, none of this would have happened."
"You could still have peacefully remained an elder. With this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity, you could have striven to establish great merit. Becoming a grand elder in the future would not have been impossible."
"Your Tian Clan branch hasn't produced a grand elder for several hundred years."
"Such a bright future, and you buried it all... ending up neither alive nor dead, neither human nor ghost..."
"Do you truly feel no regret?"
Mockery filled Smiling Face's gaze.
Yet Elder Tian calmed himself and said faintly,
"The Tian Clan's ancestral precepts stand above all: there are things one must do, and things one must not do. Some things must never be done..."
Smiling Face's face darkened. "Stubborn to the end..."
Then he sneered, killing intent gleaming in his eyes. "But at this point, there is no meaning in saying any of this..."
"I must take