"Are you... all right?" Lin Chuan asked.
Kong Chen nodded without saying anything.
Lin Chuan sighed softly. Zhou Yu and Zhou Hui had gone through very similar experiences, except Zhou Hui had taken things to a far greater extreme and left himself no way back. He had shifted his pain onto others, turning himself into the very kind of person he had once hated.
For a time, Lin Chuan had thought Kong Chen would also embark on such a path—cold-blooded, murderous, merciless, willing to do anything to achieve his goals until he sank completely into darkness.
He still remembered when he first met Zhou Yu. He had been that kind of person: so crazed that people found him difficult to accept. Coupled with the abilities Ling Luo had bestowed upon Zhou Yu and that zither, if Zhou Yu had truly drowned himself in hatred, slaughter, and bloodlust, he would likely have become a monster countless times more terrifying than Zhou Hui.
Fortunately, fortunately... Zhou Yu had met Lin Chuan back then. He had met someone who gave him hope. Though that hope was far too distant, perhaps unreachable even if he gave everything he had, it was still that sliver of hope that illuminated Zhou Yu's dark life and guided him away from the path leading into a bottomless abyss.
Yes, if Zhou Hui had met Lin Chuan back then—met someone who could use the Rinnegan to revive others—would he have chosen another path as well? After all, with hope in one's heart, one could overcome anything!
Unfortunately, no one knew.
"Thank you!"
Kong Chen stood at the entrance to the treasure vault in silence for so long that Lin Chuan had begun to wonder whether he had fallen asleep. Then Kong Chen suddenly spoke.
The corners of Lin Chuan's