Truth

Wen Xu was stunned. If the Ji Clan was that powerful, how could it have been wiped out?

The Divine Venerable Cheng Wei's voice grew distant. Perhaps it was precisely because they were too powerful that they were wiped out. But Yan Xi was not of true Ji Clan blood, so the secret arts she could use must have been limited. To create Yan Wuchuan, she must have traded her life for his. And...

And what? Master, you said just now that he didn't quite have the air of a living person...

That's right. By the measure of a living being's wholeness, he's incomplete. Didn't your friend say he once saved him from some street thugs? As a living being created by a Ji Clan descendant through a life-for-life exchange, he's bound by the rules. He should be unable to attack anyone with whom he has no karmic connection.

In other words, when Yan Wuchuan came to kill Lin Xingheng today, he had never intended to leave.

Wen Xu could not help feeling shaken. According to his master, nothing about Yan Wuchuan, from his name to his very being, belonged to him. He was... an extension of Yan Xi's will.

He could not help wondering: had Yan Wuchuan ever resented it? Ever felt wronged? When he called her "Mother" again and again, did it truly come from his heart?

Wen Xu was twenty-seven by traditional reckoning. If he had not suffered that unprovoked pursuit, perhaps he would already have passed the imperial examinations with distinction and entered officialdom. At his age, he would surely have married and had children too. But even then, he would have been unable to recognize the faces of those closest to him, whether the person sharing his pillow or children of his own blood.

Wen