Though the World's Affairs Are Like a Game of Chess, Don't Assume Everyone Else Is a Pawn

Jiang Wang looked at Ruan Qiu in surprise.

Against the oncoming Heavenly Wind, Ruan Qiu asked blandly, "Do you think Huo Shiji is really dead?"

After giving it serious thought, Jiang Wang replied, "From what I know, yes. And Pavilion Master Si, Dean Chen, and Grandmaster Wu all thought so as well... Why do you ask?"

"If there was no other issue within the Blood River Sect, if the Blood River Sect truly intended to welcome the Marquis of Champions as its master without any other considerations, if Kou Xuejiao truly respected Huo Shiji's last wish... then with the Blood River Sect's ten-thousand-year inheritance at stake, why would she respect a notion Huo Shiji happened to mention during his lifetime?"

Jiang Wang thought for a moment. "You mean she received Huo Shiji's instructions?"

"That is only one possibility I have guessed at. But when one's own interests and the Blood River Sect's future are concerned, a dead man's last wish can never carry more weight than a living man's will."

"But why?" Jiang Wang did not understand. "He was the master of the Blood River Sect, at the pinnacle of transcendence in this age. Why would he fake his death? What need was there for it?"

"Xu Mingsong peered upon the path of Dao Derivation, triggering Calamity Water unrest and causing the Bodhi Evil Ancestor to emerge ahead of time. Huo Shiji had always tried to conceal the truth, but in the end, when he could no longer hide it, True Person Peng Chongjian of Mountain-Moving awakened him, and he heroically filled the sea with his body... This was indeed a highly logical sequence of events, and it was witnessed by those True Monarchs." Ruan Qiu shook his head. "Even I cannot think of what problem there might be. Perhaps