Liu Yu lowered his head. After a moment of silence, he looked up at Ji Zhibai and said slowly, "I am not a perfect man. Perfect men are few and far between under heaven. I am merely mortal, so I have selfish desires. Even Void Sage Fang and the Half-Sages have made mistakes. Compassion, reason, propriety, and law are interconnected, yet they also clash and contradict one another. I am a foolish old man, unable to navigate them with effortless ease. Since you believe the evidence is conclusive, then punish me fairly. I will bear no resentment. But I cannot betray Void Sage Fang!"
Ji Zhibai smiled. "Elder Liu, you should think this through. Is it worth ruining your reputation and plunging your family into hardship for a dead man?"
Liu Yu answered firmly, "Never mind ruining my reputation alone-even if ten million people lost their good names, it would be worthwhile if it preserved Void Sage Fang's lifetime of honor. Never mind plunging one family into hardship-even if ten thousand families were thrown into prison, it would all be worthwhile for Fang Yun. Ji Zhibai, let me offer you some advice: where you can show mercy, show mercy. The dead deserve respect, all the more so a Void Sage of our age whose merits were boundless. If you persist in this reckless course, neither the people nor heaven and earth will tolerate you!"
Ji Zhibai's expression twisted savagely. Pointing at his forehead, he said, "His merits were boundless, so did I, Ji Zhibai, deserve the misfortune of having my Literary Guts shattered? The dead deserve respect, so was I, Ji Zhibai, destined to have my Sacred Way utterly destroyed? His name will remain fragrant for a hundred generations, so must mine stink for ten thousand years?"
Liu Yu sighed