Cha Shiyin was not puffing himself up or making empty threats. He genuinely had no interest in helping the imperial family.
Heaven was not benevolent, nor did it favor anyone. Heaven was impartial and selfless.
The passage of time had long since scoured away nearly all of Cha Shiyin's benevolence. Although he still considered himself human, he could no longer regard the other Radiant People as his kin.
In his eyes, aside from the oath he had made a thousand years ago and that distant obsession, there was nothing in this world worth worrying about. The Radiant People were no different from the barbarians. Even if he viewed the Radiant People somewhat more favorably, the thick barrier called time had long since stretched between him and all mortals. No one in this world could understand him.
Time was a miraculous medicine that healed all wounds, but also a poison that eroded every emotion.
Honor, disgrace, pity, passion, love, friendship, lust, a sense of justice, supreme power... These desires that mortals pursued so tirelessly could not bind him in the slightest. Over the past two thousand years, Cha Shiyin had been an emperor, slaughtered pigs, greeted guests at the Red Dream House, wandered as a beggar leaning on bamboo, experienced a love that had cut to the bone, and even squandered decades of his life to fulfill a promise simply to satisfy the heroic spirit in his heart.
He had also been a chivalrous hero who kept his word and killed for justice, a politician worried for his country and people, the husband of a virtuous wife, and a teacher who educated his students. He had also been the gang leader who ruled the underworld, a miserly, scheming merchant, and a lecherous glutton surrounded by wives and concubines...
It was not