"So I have to be the villain, too..."
Zhiyang shook his head inwardly, but made his decision at once.
The next instant, time congealed and all things froze. The girl still held her head raised in accusation, her face filled with hurt and panic.
He reached out, stopping his hand above Cong Huaijin's head as though he meant to stroke her beautiful hair.
Yet within the vision enveloped by his Divine Powers, the tangled threads of cause and effect fluttered like a ball of yarn. Zhiyang merely extended two fingers and laid them precisely upon a red thread.
The thread of affection was slender yet remarkably resilient, trembling at the slightest lift of his fingertips.
Touching it seemed to offer a glimpse of the girl's hidden attachment and love, surfacing in dreams at midnight.
With Chu Qingjian's example before him, Zhiyang could not allow it to grow unchecked. He pressed his fingers together, hardened his heart, and snapped it with an upward flick.
Twang~
As the taut thread snapped with a ringing note, the girl's eyes immediately went vacant.
All the causes and effects, emotions, and thoughts were swept utterly clean with the breaking of that thread of affection.
This was the most decisive method, and the one that would affect her least.
The ancients often said that once fate divine power was attained, one could kill without restraint, and that seeing such a wielder revealed a heart like a demonic snare. Their words were not without reason.
In truth, given the wondrous properties of Conjoined Branch, Zhiyang had far too many ways to resolve this problem. Brutally erasing her memories outright, or simply letting things take their course, would both have been effortless.
Indeed, if he were willing to unleash his Divine Powers, it would not be merely the