At those words, silence fell over the mist. Not a single Holdout spoke.
Clearly, Qin An's words carried such weight that none of them dared shoulder it.
One Holdout suddenly made his position clear, calling out, "Why not let him in? We can talk once he's inside and hear what he has in mind."
His suggestion drew immediate objections.
"Absurd! How could we? If we let him in, what would all our previous efforts amount to? Where would that leave us?"
Another person countered, "But if we don't let him in, and what he says turns out to be true, we'll all become sinners against this world."
At that, the person who had objected fell silent.
No one could guarantee whether the prophecy was true, and no one wanted to go down in history as a sinner despised by all.
After all, they had become Holdouts by hacking through thorns and brambles all along their path to fight the Heavenly Demon.
If such a small matter caused a disastrous turn and led to their defeat against the Heavenly Demon, they would never forgive themselves.
Qin An heard the low, gloomy voices within the mist, and the corners of his mouth lifted despite himself.
He knew his argument had worked. At heart, these Holdouts were not like the people of the Yellow Sand Forbidden Land.
They were still on the side fighting the Heavenly Demon.
And because they stood on that side, this mattered deeply to them.
Put simply, the fight had already reached this point. None of them wanted a mistake of their own to make every Holdout hate and despise them.
Nor did they want one small misstep to make them sinners in the eyes of all the Holdouts.
Qin An had seized precisely on that fear, subduing them