Old Johnny snorted. "Qian Wendao, you can afford to be noble and upright. But have you considered that, as the second-strongest person in the Safe Zone after you, I'm also assumed to be at origin sequence level five? Someone might already be secretly eyeing my head!"
Qian Wendao remained unconcerned. "You've already died once anyway. What's so frightening about dying again?"
Old Johnny was still dissatisfied. "I'm not frightened. I just think it's a damn humiliating way to go! I could ambush you, kill you, and break through to the domain sequence, only to end up getting killed by someone else! Qian Wendao, haven't you considered that this could force me to turn on you?"
"You wouldn't." Qian Wendao calmly shook his head. "Your goal in life has never changed. You want to become a hero."
"When you first proposed the feudal system, we thought you wanted to be emperor. Instead, you divided all the territory equally among everyone. We still firmly opposed it, and we fought you to the death, but we also knew you weren't some ambitious schemer. If anything, you were a little too naive for someone of your standing."
Qian Wendao glanced at him. "Deep down, you're someone who wants to be a hero everyone respects and acknowledges."
"Even when you later killed Royt and appeared before me again, you had the same idea. You wanted us all to acknowledge you, proclaim your glorious deeds, then join you in killing Ander and announcing the king's return."
Qian Wendao lifted his teacup and said calmly, "A hero would never commit a filthy betrayal and invite everyone's scorn."
"You're giving my moral standards far too much credit." A trace of resentment showed in Old Johnny's eyes. "People change!"
"Do they? Then why don't you set aside your pride