A difference of one word, worlds apart.
The Sword Ancestor had caught the young man's implication.
For a long while, He said nothing. Slowly raising a hand, He caught a snowflake drifting down from the heavens, His expression dimming slightly.
The snowflake melted in His palm, spreading into droplets of water, before the cold wind soon swept them dry.
"From its formation to its melting, snow is constantly changing."
Only then did the Sword Ancestor look up. Expressionless, He spoke as though stating an eternal truth:
"Young friend, so are people."
"From the birth of life to the end of reincarnation, nothing has ever remained unchanged."
Jinren also extended a hand and caught a snowflake.
His palm was icy cold. The snowflake lay quietly in his hand without melting into water. "But, old man, snow is snow precisely because it has no intelligence. Whether it changes depends on shifts in the surrounding temperature, not on itself."
"People are different. People possess their own will. Even if the temperature changes abruptly, they cannot simply evaporate into nothingness."
"I can understand the weak being powerless to turn the tide, unable to resist their environment. But even you, Sword Ancestor, cannot?"
The Sword Ancestor fell silent.
Jinren stared straight at Him. "I'm asking about you, not the snowflake, old man."
The Five Domains caught something in those words.
Master Shou was clearly asking whether "to seek progress was to change," while the Sword Ancestor was answering whether He "had changed"—but things were certainly not as simple as they sounded.
"Change, change, change..."
"A major change? A minor change? What are they even talking about?"
"Of course the Sword Ancestor changed. But what else could He become? The Devil Ancestor? Hahaha, hilarious!"
It was not only the Five Domains that failed to understand.
Hua