"Need me to help?" Zhongli Yan asked as if casually. "Jiang True Lord and I go way back—we're old partners, after all."
"Yes," Daliang said.
Zhongli Yan grinned, took Southern Peak in hand, and spun it through a heavy-sword returning-dragon flourish. "What do you need me to do?"
"Wait here. Don't wander around." Daliang tossed out the instruction, then flew into the sky, threading through flashes of lightning, twisting and vaulting as he pierced the clouds and rose into the starlight.
Starlight rippled like water across the distant vault of heaven.
No matter how dense the clouds, no matter how wildly the lightning danced, amid the boundless Heavenly Sea, they were but a smear or a speck.
Looking down upon the human world from such a height, it truly was easy to see "all living beings as ants."
Jiang Wang followed Daliang, the Star Shaman's envoy, walking upon the mirrorlike Star River.
But after only a few steps, he stopped.
Daliang turned back and looked at him in puzzlement.
"Regarding Lord Zuo's matter, I naturally have no excuse to refuse. But I am not familiar with you, and I cannot grant you complete trust." Jiang Wang spoke frankly. "You are an envoy of the Star Shaman. Lord Star Shaman has overseen Zhanghua Terrace and patrolled Chu for thousands of years. While Lord Zuo held the affairs of state, whatever pretext he might have used to lay out schemes and weave his net, I would have had no way of knowing, no avenue of verification."
"I represent the Star Shaman," Daliang said. "No matter what, he would not set a trap to harm you."
"Lord Star Shaman's contributions to the Chu Kingdom merit the trust of every person of Chu. Your 'no matter what' is indeed perfectly justified." Jiang Wang said,