The people from Qionghua Pavilion had left long ago. The sky gradually darkened, and the sun was nearly below the horizon.
Inside the empty Divine Martial Bureau, the black-bearded, dark-faced official still sat alone, quietly working through documents that never seemed to diminish.
Some time later, the sun had set completely. No torches burned in the courtyard; beyond the cold moonlight, there was only darkness.
Yet the official remained at his desk, working.
A True Person naturally had eyes that could see through night as clearly as day, but why did he work so diligently, without regard for day or night?
Suddenly, a woman's voice sounded behind him, from the darkest corner of the room.
"Will he come tonight?"
"If he's the man you're looking for, he'll come," the black-bearded official said calmly.
"If he comes, there'll be a great battle. Innocent people may get caught in it... Are you sure you want to help us?" the woman asked, mockery plain in her voice.
"It's a matter of choice," the official replied, still calm. "A person faces many choices in life. I merely chose the side I considered more important."
"Even if innocent people get caught in it?"
"Purple Cloud Palace has always been extreme. In Di Renchen's fourteenth year, after the Six Fairies of the Northlands and Jin Biao of the Left-Hand Sword perished together, you killed nearly a thousand people in the conflicts that followed. In Di Renchen's twentieth year, your outstanding disciple Murong Duanfang, the 'Soul-Chasing Fairy,' was gravely wounded and disappeared in Yi Province after making enemies of the Demon Gate. She was presumed dead. You killed over a thousand more people that year... This year, martial artists from Yang Province and Jing Province came to hunt the Snake Demon. If you hadn't been laying a