Beneath the dim sky, at the end of the cold rain, everything had become so blurred.
Only a pair of eyes blazing with fury remained so clear.
Like flames.
As though he had just completed a long journey, the man with the traditional Central Earth beard was covered in mud. Yet amid his beard and the splatters of grime were faint traces of blood.
His expression was like that of a beast poised to devour its prey.
The mere focus of his gaze left a sharp gash across Xie Heli's face.
The falling rain evaporated one drop after another, unable even to pass through that gaze, which had become wholly tangible. Amid a crisp scraping sound, two fingers of his right hand silently extended, slightly curled like hooked claws, ready at any moment to slit the throat of this unwelcome visitor.
"I recall saying that—you weren't welcome here, Xie Heli?"
"We are both people of White State. Why be so distant, Lord Inverse Scale?"
Under the tearing force of that blade-like gaze, the face split open in a bloody gash swiftly healed once more. Xie Heli smiled, unconcerned. "Besides, I merely taught the children about what happened in the past, what is happening now, and what will happen to them in the future... Was I wrong about anything?"
Smack!
In that instant, Inverse Scale struck through the air. His hooked fingers pierced Xie Heli's throat and brutally tore through the blood vessels. "I told you to shut up!"
Inverse Scale slowly tightened his fingers, crushing bone.
"...Are you welcome here, then?"
Xie Heli's smile grew ever more mocking. "At this point, which of us is not a Celestial Origin scourge that cannot bear the light? What right do you have to act like the master of this place, Inverse Scale?