Shi Jizi endured the furious scolding without a word, remaining silent.
"Old fool, say something!
Those disciples aren't ants, and mortal people aren't weeds. They're living, breathing human beings!
You're already six or seven hundred years old. How can you disregard other people's lives for your own selfish ends, thinking only of prolonging your own? Do you really want to live another seven hundred years?"
Silence. Still nothing but silence.
Han Kang's fury boiled over, and he continued his rebuke. "Rise and fall, success and failure-all have their allotted fate. Defying heaven and trying to change your destiny is one thing, but why drag the entire sect into your madness? If this continues, calamity will strike the Nine Spirits Sect. It'll be destroyed!
We've exhausted ourselves taking every precaution, yet in the end, we still couldn't prevent disaster.
In truth, from the day we began this research, I knew we would sooner or later suffer heaven's punishment for doing such a thing. But I never imagined retribution would come so quickly. In just one short year, we're already swallowing the bitter fruit of our own actions. If we keep going, how can we answer to our disciples?
Will you only be satisfied when you've watched the Nine Spirits Sect fall, its entire foundation destroyed in a single stroke? Then why did you establish it in the first place?"
"Han Kang, birth, aging, sickness, and death are the natural order. We cannot fight them without paying a price."
At Han Kang's final words, Shi Jizi was finally moved.
He sighed softly, then spoke in a distant voice.
"Perhaps heaven has its own will, unseen and unknowable. The Nine Spirits Sect is that price!"
Han Kang's entire body shuddered. He looked at Shi Jizi in disbelief, feeling that the master before him