"Brother Daoran! I... was wrong too. I shouldn't have blamed you!" Seeing Zhang Daoran so full of remorse, Xunkong Shangren hurriedly said with an ingratiating smile, "Everyone has their own destiny. What happened to Brother Xiao... was his own choice as well. No one can be blamed, and you must not reproach yourself too much, or it will affect your Dao heart. Besides, though Brother Xiao can no longer be seen, his heart... or what he wished for, has been left behind, hasn't it? I haven't put it well, but in any case, I feel as though Brother Xiao is still right beside us!"
Seeing Xunkong Shangren actually take the initiative to admit his own mistake, how was this still the Xunkong Shangren Zhang Daoran had known before entering Yaotai Mountain? Zhang Daoran smiled and nodded. "You are right. Thinking of the scheming and maneuvering between us before, it truly feels... childish! Like three- or four-year-old children! Utterly meaningless! But look at us now—our every word and deed does not go against our true hearts, and we entrust our faith to one another. This feeling... is truly solid! In the words of mortals, even when sleeping, one can sleep until waking naturally!"
"Indeed!" Xunkong Shangren looked at the more than two hundred cultivators behind him. "Before, I only felt that all those cultivators trembled before me because of my prestige. But now I feel that it was merely their fear of me, not any sincere admiration or reverence. Now, although these cultivators have never sworn loyalty to me, look at the gratitude in their eyes. It warms one's heart more than any oath could. It comes from the bottom of their hearts. I, too, feel especially at peace."
"Brother Xiao... was likely no younger than us! Without thousands of years