"Wearing a mask for too long gets tiring."
"But unfortunately, people like you and me have to keep that damned mask on our faces at all times, without taking it off for even a moment!"
"After a while, I even started to feel that perhaps... this wasn't a mask. This really was me!"
"I lost myself in it, and even put myself in that mask's shoes, thinking far, far too much on its behalf."
"Though I knew none of it had any meaning."
"But if I hadn't even made myself believe it..."
"Perhaps I would have died long ago."
Old White Ape looked at Ji Hong and suddenly said something inexplicable.
But Ji Hong did not argue. He merely looked straight at him.
"But now..."
"I can finally take this mask off."
"I no longer have to consider what others think, or worry about living a life where I might not survive the day."
"Even those ridiculous Demon Gods..."
"Their lives and deaths are subject to a single thought of mine."
Old White Ape, who had been filled with sorrow a second earlier, now laughed. But his smile was full of madness, as though he were recounting something highly entertaining, and he kept slapping the branch beside him.
"Do you know the taste of freedom?"
"It has been so, so long since I last felt that the air in this world was so sweet!"
"Even those flowers, that grass..."
"Now, to my eyes, they all look so vivid."
"Actually..."
"You could try experiencing this feeling too."
"Take off your mask, and you'll see a different world."
Something seemed wrong with Old White Ape's mental state at that moment. His smile abruptly vanished, and he stared fixedly at Ji Hong again as he spoke earnestly.
But Ji Hong shook his head