In the silent Formation Core Chamber, Zhao Mi sat on the raised platform in a daze for a long while before fixing Ren Ye with a sharp gaze and frowning. "What do you mean?"
"Do you know? Today, at this very moment, to me, you're someone even more stubborn than Elder Qian, even more committed to your principles." Ren Ye ate as he voiced his truest thoughts.
After a long silence, Zhao Mi shook his head slightly. "I still don't understand."
"It's not that you don't understand. You don't want to see a different ending." Ren Ye raised his head and looked Zhao Mi straight in the eye, refusing to yield. "Let me put it plainly. You want everything here to settle exactly as you've rehearsed it in your mind."
"You desperately want to protect those people on death row, and him."
The Little Bad King's words were not fierce, yet they exploded like thunder in Zhao Mi's ears.
He sat stunned for a long time, several times wanting to argue, yet unwilling to let himself look flustered and exasperated.
He chose silence, merely watching Ren Ye without another word.
The Little Bad King paid him no mind either. He raised his cup, took another long drink, then said softly, "Fairness is the faith of this place, and its soul. For eight years, I went to your Enlightenment Cottage every night, enduring the pain of having my abdomen cut open while you examined the Three Thousand Secret Treasures. On the surface, you seemed cruel and utterly ruthless, willing to trample the weak however you pleased for your own selfish desires. Truly hateful."
"But if we break it down and examine it closely, although I suffered pain beyond what ordinary people could endure during those eight years, I also received the