Si Yu'an clicked his tongue. "Sect Master Huo is so clear-headed now? You truly surprise me, Si."
Huo Shiji said shamefully, "As the head of a great sect, I truly cannot take orders from Qi in all things. It would be far too irresponsible, to others and to myself! I must admit that I harbored a fluke in my heart, believing that once I had died, no one would remember what happened back then. Xu Mingsong drew in the Calamity Water, and I pretended not to know. Peng Chongjian plotted against me, and I simply went along with the current..."
He let out a long sigh. "Today, the Calamity Water has undergone a change and the Blood River has suffered disaster. Only then did Huo understand what it meant for karma to come full circle, for retribution never to miss its mark. But when calamity stands before one's face, regret comes too late!"
Si Yu'an raised a hand and pointed from afar at Peng Chongjian, who had already become a Dao Derivation calamity monster and was howling amid the Grand Rite Sacrificial Fire. He said to Huo Shiji, "Look at him like this. You keep calling him 'the shame of the Blood River Sect'—can he bear that burden?"
Huo Shiji swayed as he steadied himself. "For the Blood River Sect to be where it is today, Peng Chongjian alone indeed cannot bear the blame. The schemes Si Yuan and I hatched back then—I will make them public and leave them to the judgment of the world. Whether I stink for ten thousand years or suffer eternal damnation, the wicked thoughts in my heart shall receive Evil Retribution from me!"
Si Yu'an smiled. "Die once more?"
Huo Shiji spread both hands, and his gray robes somehow took on an air as