Zheng Yiming instinctively tried to cover his slapped cheek, but the pain in his fingers kept him from doing even that simple thing. His eyes still stared blankly at the woman beyond the bars, and at the little sword she had snapped in her hand.
"A monster?"
"Yes, a monster. One who cultivated in the mountains for hundreds of years, took human form, and came down from the mountains. Are you afraid?"
As Yu Xinmei spoke, she released Zheng Yiming's lapel with her left hand, only to find that he did not immediately retreat as she had expected. Looking again at his gruesomely injured fingers, she frowned slightly.
Did I hit him too hard and knock him senseless?
"The state has rotted, but the mountains and rivers remain. If starving people fill the land, then remake Heaven and Earth."
Loyalty and filial piety were lessons the scholars of the Gui Kingdom had always received from their books and teachers, and the most fundamental elements of the propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame upheld by scholars everywhere.
The rebellious words Yu Xinmei had blurted out dealt Zheng Yiming a tremendous shock. But as long as she could give him hope of living, she would have achieved her purpose.
As for the notion that she could repay her debt of gratitude in another lifetime, Yu Xinmei did not even consider it now.
Hearing Zheng Yiming's murmur and realizing she had not knocked him senseless, Yu Xinmei hurried to add something else.
"Yes, you can remake Heaven and Earth. You want to save the world and its people, to restore the mountains and rivers. This court is muddleheaded and the state corrupt anyway. Blind loyalty and seeking death aren't your only path! Will your death stop the deaths of countless people in the Gui