What did any of this have to do with anything? The Bright Mountain Sect group listened in speechless disbelief. Did their Chief really think currying favor like this would make the man spare them?
If not for Chief Shi's previous achievements and leadership, someone among them might well have been unable to resist stepping in.
The reasoning was simple: currying favor was utterly useless. They would be better off threatening him outright.
Li Hongjiu fell rather quiet. Personally, he had his own path he wanted to follow, and he did not particularly care about Divine Fire. What mattered more to him were the lives of his fellow disciples. He had brought them in, and they had died because of his decision to venture into the Forbidden Ground. He wanted to give the dead an accounting.
It was an accounting to himself as well as to his sect. His cultivation depended on enlightenment, so his requirements for his state of mind were actually quite high.
On the surface, he acted utterly indifferent, claiming not to care about those disciples' deaths. In truth, circumstances left him no choice. He was trying to stay alive and had never intended to let Shi Chun's group off.
Once he escaped, he would certainly avenge those dead disciples if he got the chance.
Now that Shi Chun said they had not killed them, he could not help reconsidering. Mistaking the culprits and letting the real killers go was not what he wanted either.
But he immediately put on his indifferent air again. "Forget it. I was angry at the time. So many people from the various sects have died or been wounded. If every last person demanded revenge, the fighting would spill from inside to outside, then turn into endless retaliation out there. There would be