Jiang Wang's smile at this moment was very slight.
Before today, Wang Kun had always felt that, among the nine Pavilion Members, Pavilion Member Jiang's smile was the most amiable.
Pavilion Member Dou smiled with abandon, Pavilion Member Huang smiled brilliantly, and Pavilion Member Chongxuan always seemed to be smiling without quite smiling... But their smiles always carried an innate sense of distance.
You knew very clearly—though they were smiling, those smiles had nothing to do with you.
You could never enter that world.
Only Pavilion Member Jiang was different. He was not the sort to greet everyone with a smile, but when he smiled on occasion, it was natural and warm, like one of those kind and good neighbors you might have met as a child.
But today, how sharp that smile was.
For no reason, Wang Kun felt as though a blade were slowly yet resolutely slicing open his cheek from within that smile.
He instinctively raised a hand to cover his face—but no blood flowed.
Jiang Wang said slowly, "You have the will to bear responsibility and the courage to shoulder guilt. That is good. But—"
He raised his eyes slightly, his gaze passing over Wang Kun and falling upon some distant place, as though meeting the eyes of that silent presence. "But is that truly the extent of your responsibility?"
"Pavilion Member Jiang!" Wang Kun said, each word deliberate. "I do not know what resentment lies in your heart, nor do I wish to know. I also do not know what conflict you have with the six True Lords of Jingtian Mansion—but I am innocent! I have never been discourteous to you; whenever we met, I greeted you with a smile! Even when we held our swords against one another at Star Moon Plain, we were