A Despairing Gap (II)

Xiao Wu had not needed to say that last part.

But as she looked at Tang San's back, Clear Sky Hammer in hand, certain memories etched into her genes seemed to awaken suddenly, making her instinctively reject Tang San.

The aura around Tang San suddenly turned oppressive.

Though his expression remained unchanged, his eyes had changed.

The look in his eyes—filled with betrayal, condemnation, and disbelief—pierced Xiao Wu's heart like knives. She instinctively avoided that gaze again, unknowingly touching Tang San's sore spot once more.

Being betrayed felt terrible.

But being doubted felt even worse.

Emotionally, Tang San wanted nothing more than to rush over, hold Xiao Wu, and tell her that he had never coveted her Spirit Ring or spirit bone. But reason told him that if he made such a drastic move, Xiao Wu, whose sense of security was already at rock bottom, would likely be frightened. It might leave a shadow in her heart, causing her to avoid him from then on.

Realizing this, Tang San took a deep breath.

He forced his predatory gaze away.

He turned his hatred toward Ye Qingcang, who had exposed Xiao Wu's identity.

Seeing Ye Qingcang's usual calm expression, a vicious flame immediately rose in Tang San's heart. "You're very pleased with yourself for causing all this?"

"Such a familiar way of pinning blame on others..." The calmer Ye Qingcang was, the more sharply he contrasted with the furious Tang San. "Unfortunately, it's a rather low-level tactic. Has it ever occurred to you that I didn't cause any of this? She caused it herself. The problem lies with her. If she weren't a 100,000-Year Transformed Spirit Beast, if she had obediently cultivated in the forest until Rank 60 before coming out, perhaps none of these troubles would have happened."

Ning Rongrong nodded repeatedly as she listened.

Oscar, Zhu Zhuqing, Flender, and the others who understood reason also nodded silently. Even those who did not nod tacitly acknowledged that Ye Qingcang was right.

Because what Ye Qingcang said was indeed true.

It was not as though he had turned Xiao Wu from a human into a 100,000-Year Transformed Spirit Beast.

Her exposure was indeed related to him.

But if Xiao Wu had possessed even a little self-awareness, her identity would not have been exposed.

Yet when it came to being unreasonable, Tang San, the founding patriarch of double standards, was still unmatched. "Your life is a life, but the life of a 100,000-Year Transformed Spirit Beast isn't? A 100,000-Year Transformed Spirit Beast deserves to be killed by you?"

"Have you ever eaten meat?"

"Did that meat deserve to be eaten by you?"

"You must have killed Spirit Beasts before, right?"

"No need to rush to deny it."

"Your Spirit Rings have already explained everything."

"So those Spirit Beasts deserved to be killed by you?"

"Just because they weren't 100,000 years old? Just because they couldn't transform? Just because they couldn't transform into a pretty little girl, be sweet-talked by you, and willingly call you Brother?"

Every sentence from Ye Qingcang cut straight to the heart of the matter like a precise scalpel.

Then, he widened the scope of his attack.

His words were like nails, deeply piercing Xiao Wu's sensitive heart and driving into the already-fragile foundation of trust among the Shrek Seven Devils:

"This world was never fair. Some are born in mansions, while others are born in filthy gutters."

"Wine and meat rot behind vermilion gates, while frozen bones lie by the roadside."

"Do not think your justice is necessarily right."

"Do not think your reasoning is necessarily right."

"For example, this Miss Ning Rongrong. The seemingly ordinary blue dress she is wearing was actually handmade by a tailor shop specializing in private custom orders, using the finest Snow Crystal Silk. Snow Crystal Silk has always been praised as being worth one tael of gold per tael of silk. A farmer's annual income amounts to no more than three or four Gold Soul Coins. The clothes she wears could make a farmer work without food or drink for a thousand years—perhaps with several hundred more years added on top..."

"Is that just?"

"No."

"Is that fair?"

"No."

"But she is not wrong."

"Because she has the ability to earn money."

"She has the means to support her own expenses."

"Even if she did not, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect would provide for her material needs, because she was born the eldest daughter and Little Princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, with an outstanding father and two grandfathers who adored her."

"However, if we put her beside this Miss Zhu Zhuqing for comparison, then Miss Zhu Zhuqing, who seems to hold such high status, becomes nothing at all—although Miss Zhu Zhuqing's life is likewise beyond what a farmer could imagine. A farmer could never afford an expensive leather outfit, and a farmer's total yearly income would not even equal her monthly allowance. Yet if she had two grandfathers at the level of Titled Douluo who doted on her, she would not have been reduced to seeking out a useless prince pushed out of the center of power, struggling in a desperate gamble for her life."

"Is that just?"

"No."

"Is that fair?"

"No."

"But she is not wrong either."

"So you are not wrong, but neither am I."

"This 100,000-Year Transformed Spirit Beast is not wrong, but neither am I for wanting to kill her. Just like the Spirit Beasts whose Spirit Rings you hunted were not wrong, yet neither were you, who had to obtain Spirit Rings!"

"No one is wrong."

"There is only weakness and strength."

"As the strong one, I have the power to decide her fate."

"As the weak one, she can only have her fate decided by me."

"Perhaps these words do not align with your values, because the education you received has always taught you to believe in the truth, goodness, and beauty of this world. But we are different, and Blue Tyrant Academy, which only accepts Commoner Soul Masters, is different as well. Blue Tyrant Academy worships the law of the strong preying upon the weak. Commoner Soul Masters have nothing compared to noble Soul Masters, so if they wish to surpass noble Soul Masters, they must pay prices that noble Soul Masters are unwilling to pay."

"This, too, is a kind of fairness!"

Ye Qingcang's tone remained calm and unhurried.

His words left the Shrek group speechless.

Before the facts, all double standards, sophistry, and blame-shifting were utterly powerless—just as the law of the strong preying upon the weak dictated.

"Then why don't you kill me?" Xiao Wu adapted quickly to the theory of the strong preying upon the weak, because that was the rule of the Star Dou Great Forest. "Could it be that you want me to sacrifice myself to you, squeeze every last bit of value out of me, including my Spirit Ring?"

A sacrifice allowed one to absorb a Spirit Ring while ignoring the limits of physical strength.

This method was so heaven-defying that it had allowed Huo Yuhao's first Spirit Ring to become a million-year Spirit Ring, even granting Huo Yuhao a Second Spirit.

But if Xiao Wu were merely killed, any Soul Master below Eight Rings who dared forcefully absorb that 100,000-year Spirit Ring would face only one outcome: their body would be blown apart by the energy of the 100,000-year Spirit Ring!

It was only natural that Xiao Wu thought of sacrifice.

"I have no need for your sacrifice..." Ye Qingcang's ambition was greater than anyone had imagined. "Blue Tyrant Academy is my territory, my hunting ground, my home. If you are fortunate enough to join Blue Tyrant Academy, then as the master of this territory, the manager of this hunting ground, and a member of this home, I will not abandon the important for the trivial and alter my principles for a 100,000-year Spirit Ring or even greater benefits. But if you are a Little Rabbit from beyond this hunting ground, who happens to enter my hunting ground and still wishes to leave, then as the manager of this hunting ground, I have every reason to hunt you down. Not only would this not violate my principles, it would add another insignificant achievement to my record. Having lived in the forest, you should understand what I mean."

"I understand." Xiao Wu took a deep breath and controlled her trembling body. Though she feared Ye Qingcang, after hearing these words, she trusted him more than Tang San, who had seemingly deceived her. "Like a tiger. It has an extremely strong sense of territory. Any animal it sets its sights on, or any animal that trespasses into its territory, faces only one ending: being killed by it. Even if it escapes its territory in time, it will still be hunted down until it dies..."