Reconciliation

"Heh. What a cheap trick."

Griseo looked into the depths of the Hollow, undisguised contempt in her voice. To think the mighty [Primus] would resort to such a clumsy ploy.

Of course, even if she hadn't intervened, Belle and Ye Shunguang were too strong-willed to fall for something like that.

"Xiaoguang, Belle... are you two all right?"

Behind Griseo, Wise helped them up, his face full of concern. "What did you just... see?"

"Wise, why did you call out to Xiaoguang first?"

Belle shook her still-heavy head. The first thing she did once she came to her senses was tease her brother.

"I knew it! Your own little sister matters less than your [][]!"

Wise's hand jerked, and he nearly lost his grip on her. He gave Belle an exasperated look. Clearly, the fragmented whispers in the illusion hadn't affected her much.

As Griseo had implied, tricks like that always targeted the softest spot in a person's heart.

But people who had lived through despair weren't so easily broken.

Belle and Wise were such people. They had lived through the fall of the Old Capital and watched their teacher take the blame as its "instigator." In short, Phaethon wouldn't be brought down by a little noise.

As for Ye Shunguang... she had been affected somewhat.

But not much.

After all, her conversation with Griseo had only just strengthened her resolve.

If she let herself be swayed so easily and lost her convictions, she would disgrace the name of the Azure Nether Swordmaster, a name Yunkui Mountain had upheld for a hundred years.

"Everyone, why don't we rest for a bit?"

Jianshu ran back from the fork ahead. "I just checked the surroundings. There's a security robot up ahead, and quite a few Ethereals are roaming around the factory."

"No need."