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"I know nothing of right or wrong. I only know that the catastrophe fifty years ago destroyed my flesh. I wanted to restore the glory of the Peacock Dynasty, but this body became a prison-sunlight burned me like raging fire, charring me on contact." The mummy's withered fingers clawed at empty air. "To reclaim a living body, I had to find a suitable vessel. The pure souls of young children made the ideal breeding ground."
His cold gaze swept over the people before him. "Broten and Gangligang, those two grave robbers, once stumbled upon my tomb. In exchange, I gave them the Eight-Part Heavenly King Technique and that incomplete secret manual, on the condition that they find children between two and four years old for me. Yet you not only killed them, but sought to kill me as well. How laughable that you have now driven me into a corner."
Fayan Luo and Xun Uchiha exchanged a look, their pupils contracting sharply. So the "million missing children case" that had shocked the continent all those years had been orchestrated to sustain an undying, walking corpse!
The Peacock King seemed lost in some deranged recollection. "As long as the soul is compatible, I can return to life in another body and rebuild my golden form beneath the sun. Even if it takes decades, I will never give up. After all, what empire wasn't built upon heaps of bones?"
"Eight hundred thousand!" Xun Uchiha's chest heaved, his anger threatening to burst through the last restraints of reason. "Over the decades, eight hundred thousand innocent children died because of you! And you think that's glorious?"
"Glorious?" The Peacock King threw back his head and laughed. His laughter echoed through the vast, dark burial chamber, grating on their ears. "The lives of the