The Way Beyond Godhood

"I was just trying to persuade you not to throw away the Hu Family's inheritance..."

The National Teacher clearly didn't want to speak. He sighed several times and glanced at Hu Ma again and again. When he finally spoke, all he could manage was a bitter smile.

"Who would've thought you'd already squandered it?"

As he looked at Hu Ma now, his earlier anger seemed to have vanished. There was only a trace of helplessness, as if he truly were a friend of the Hu Family's ancestors.

"Do you know how much care, how much effort, and how much sheer luck your Hu Family's ancestors needed to rise from being a mere minor official in this age of upheaval and win the status and standing they have today?"

"Ghost Walking is the root of your Hu Family in this world. It is the ladder your family climbed. So many gifted people and powerful clans exist under heaven—why is it that, whether you count those above or those below, you always have to include the Hu Family, even though only you remain of that line?"

"It isn't because you're so important. It's simply because every Ghost Walker in the world recognizes that one word: Hu."

"And yet you entrusted it to someone else so easily?"

"..."

His gaze held nothing but unspeakable helplessness and sorrow. "Aren't you afraid they'll never give it back?"

Facing the National Teacher, Hu Ma only smiled lightly and said, "You're a pitiable man, National Teacher. Perhaps there isn't a single friend in this world you can truly open your heart to."

"Of course, I can't expect you to understand. The Hu Family's roots have never been in the Talisman Suppression Book. They lie in remembering where we came from."

"..."

He'd had plenty of reasons to