High above the Nine Heavens, Ji Lingjun watched these scenes unfold with a measure of emotion.
She came to the Hall of Heroes and told Luo Su about it.
Luo Su turned the pages of the book in his hands. His fingers were so pale they seemed transparent, as though endless light lay at their tips. His expression did not change at all.
Deeply moved, Ji Lingjun said, "Old Ancestor, it has not even been a hundred years since the family left the Central Plains. Why has something like this happened?
"What was the value of the family's existence over more than a thousand years?
"Please resolve Lingjun's confusion."
Hearing this, Luo Su closed his book, looked at Ji Lingjun, and said softly, "Lingjun, clever as you are, why would you need me to resolve your confusion?
"Those benevolent, principled people who were killed are the value of the family's existence. It was not all for nothing. As long as there are people who hold fast to what is right, that is enough."
Ji Lingjun fell silent for a moment before saying in a low voice, "But they failed. Why did they fail?"
Luo Su laughed, then immediately grew serious again. "Because those who were right, those who held the truth, did not hold power.
"The principles our family taught over the past fourteen hundred years were not principles no one else could teach. The sages of the Hundred Schools of Thought spoken of by later generations, those Sages and Worthies in the Hall of Sages of All Xia, all understood them.
"But only our family had the strength to defend those principles, and so every crown and honor fell upon our family.
"Now no one possesses that strength, and so they have suffered a tremendous setback.
"But failure?
"Heh,