Justice

During the chase with Yan Kun, Mu Feng had already expended a tremendous amount of energy. After unleashing so many slashes, his soul power was nearly depleted.

If he got drawn into a prolonged fight with the three of them, he would have no means to fight back. Driven by rage, he made a mad decision: to stake everything on a single blow.

With so much holy radiance gathered here and the cramped confines of the house, he planned to forcibly activate his first soul skill and maximize the explosion's power. It was practically a suicidal attack. Even if it badly wounded the three of them, he would not fare much better.

With that thought, Mu Feng hesitated no longer. As his first soul ring flashed, the result was exactly as Yan Kun had expected. A violent explosion instantly blew apart the house, sending everyone flying under the immense impact.

The wary Yan Kun sprang behind the other two the instant he saw Mu Feng's first soul ring light up. At the same time, he released a powerful spiderweb behind them to withstand the blast.

The other two, completely unprepared for the holy radiance, took nearly the full force of the explosion. Their faces were practically unrecognizable.

Listening to their heart-wrenching screams, Mu Feng knew his final trump card had still failed to kill them. His body had been completely drained; even with all his strength, he could barely move a few fingers.

Yan Kun trembled as he crawled down from the spiderweb. At the critical moment, he had made the most correct choice—using the two unsuspecting men as human shields. Even so, having failed to escape the room in time, he had still suffered considerable damage from the blast.

He dragged his battered body forward. Before today, he never would have imagined that a three-ring Soul Elder could drive him into such a state.

But in the end, he was still the one left standing. Whether it was Mu Feng, who had severely wounded him, or those two idiots who had stood by and watched, he would not spare a single one of them.

Failure did not calm Mu Feng. Blasted away by the explosion, his chest heaved violently, filled with fury and resentment.

At this moment, aside from breathing, all he could do was listen to Yan Kun approach step by step. Then, a liquid touched his fingertips. Mu Feng turned his head with all his remaining strength and saw an equally unwilling expression—a corpse already cold.

Blinded by rage, he could not immediately remember who the person before him was. But the man's face, twisted in agony, pierced deeply into Mu Feng's heart.

The man's unfocused eyes were like whirlpools, as though they would drag Mu Feng's entire soul inside.

In his daze, Mu Feng saw the man before him rise to his feet. His body no longer had solid flesh and blood; it had become an almost transparent spirit body.

The instant the spirit body appeared, dark purple mist began drifting around Mu Feng.

The clumps of mist seemed to come alive, slowly floating toward the spirit body as if eager to make a move.

Three years ago, in a life-or-death crisis, he had survived the slaughter blade of an evil soul master only by relying on this mysterious mist.

Three years later, driven into a desperate situation once more, the mist appeared again.

Watching this scene, Mu Feng came to a realization. It explained why he, who had not even obtained a soul ring at the time, had been able to kill two four-ring Soul Ancestors. It must have been this strange mist, after devouring their spirit bodies, that had done it.

And as long as it devoured the spirit body before him, he could rely on the dark purple mist to kill the three people who were likewise at the end of their strength.

Mu Feng realized that this was his only chance of survival. Yet even though rage had long taken over his mind, some part of his subconscious still resisted the urge.

But Yan Kun's slow yet forceful footsteps kept drawing closer. The thudding steps were like a death knell rung by the Grim Reaper, steadily wearing away what little patience he had left.

As Yan Kun entered his field of vision and the cold-glinting dagger in his hand was about to plunge down, Mu Feng released the reins restraining the mist. Like a beast freed from its cage, it lunged wildly at its prey. Just as the mist was about to coil around the spirit body—

"You can't!" A clear female voice rang beside Mu Feng's ear. "What meaning would revenge accomplished by ruthlessly defiling your companions have for you?"

The words struck him like clashing metal. Mu Feng had not expected a third person's voice to appear at such a moment.

The one who spoke was the blonde girl seated in the old locust tree. As her words fell, Mu Feng froze for a moment. The dark purple mist ultimately failed to envelop the spirit body, and Yan Kun's dagger had already pierced through its heart.

In an instant, flames sprang up all around. The scene of blood flowing like a river gradually blurred, leaving only the uninjured Mu Feng lying in a pale golden sea. This was Mu Feng's spiritual space.

Everything before had been a virtual illusion constructed by the trial through Mu Feng's mind. Now that the illusion had dissipated, reason flooded back into Mu Feng's mind along with the memories of what had just happened.

Having calmed down, he finally understood the true meaning of this test: whether he would become unscrupulous in pursuit of revenge, and thus stray from the will of Kayle's judgment of justice.

Without question, judging solely by the course of the trial, he had failed. But judging by the final outcome, he had passed.

But if the blonde girl had not spoken to stop him, allowing Yan Kun to kill him successfully, then he would have devoured the spirit body, and the outcome awaiting him would have been failure.

"Thank you." Mu Feng stared blankly ahead, his voice soft and weak.

Though he had never met the girl before him, an inexplicable sense of familiarity suddenly rose in his heart, allowing him to realize her identity—Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

Perhaps it was because of the attribute resonance between them, or perhaps because of the ability of her peculiar vertical eye. In any case, she had appeared in his trial and helped him at the crucial final moment, allowing him to pass.

The girl looked at Mu Feng lying limply on the ground. He was completely different from how she had seen him before, yet she could clearly sense that the Mu Feng before her was his true self.

Thinking of the experiences she had seen during their attribute resonance, perhaps the heavy obsession had long left him unable to breathe. And now, after suffering such a blow in the illusion, no one could possibly recover so easily.

Just as she hesitated over whether to comfort Mu Feng, he suddenly rose from the ground.

A strange light flashed through his eyes as he silently thought, This trial truly showed me the flaws in my temperament. If I had remained calmer at the beginning and analyzed the situation before acting, perhaps the outcome would not have been as powerless as it was just now.

In only a moment, Mu Feng seemed like a different person as he suddenly pulled himself together.

She had thought Mu Feng would be unable to recover from this failure, yet in such a short time, he had already emerged from the enormous setback.

What she did not know was that Mu Feng's swift change came from the fact that their perspectives were completely different. He had indeed failed, and this failure had indeed dealt him a blow.

But he would never remain trapped by the setback brought by a single illusion. More important than the failure itself was the reason for it.

When he had been lying down just now, after briefly sinking into the frustration of failure, he quickly began reviewing the experience. The foremost reason was that he had allowed his emotions to control him in battle, leaving him unable to calmly assess the situation.

The second reason was still his own weakness. If he had reached the Soul Ancestor realm or higher, then the only thing awaiting those three would have been Mu Feng's merciless Holy Light Judgment.

And in the end, Mu Feng had failed to devour the spirit body not because he agreed with her words, but because his thoughts had broken free of the illusion and he had understood the true meaning of this test.

Mu Feng did not deny that her words made sense, but he believed in a simpler truth: "Only the living have the right to seek revenge."

If Mu Feng were given another chance, faced with that same situation, he would still make the same choice.

"Because on Douluo Continent, weakness itself is also a sin."

As for the illusion testing his understanding of justice, Mu Feng neither agreed nor disagreed. This is Kayle's justice, but not the justice I uphold.