423: What consequences will arise from the causes of the past? (Under revision)

These words had been hidden deep in his heart for a long time, and now they were finally spoken.

Qin Wangchuan listened and nodded, his gaze turning once more toward the crack in the distant sky.

"Too many have died because of me, and too many have lived because of me. What is the point of saying these things now?"

"Yesterday is already history. What matters is today, tomorrow, and the future."

As he spoke, his voice paused slightly.

He glanced sideways at Wang Xuance from the corner of his eye.

"Today, I had no need to tell you any of this."

"But you never seem to think that your Wang Family's original decision... was wrong."

Hearing this, Wang Xuance instinctively retorted, "What was wrong with the Wang Family's decision?"

"Maintaining the stability of the Three Thousand Continents and preventing the world-shaking war that would have been triggered by the birth of a fourth Heavenly Emperor—is that not righteousness?"

As his voice fell, Wang Xuance already guessed how he would respond.

But the expected rebuttal did not come; instead, Qin Wangchuan nodded in agreement.

"It is righteousness."

"You weren't wrong either."

What?

Wang Xuance was stunned, almost thinking he had misheard.

"The idea itself was not wrong,"

Qin Wangchuan continued, his tone growing heavier:

"However, the height at which you stood was wrong."

"Just like now—"

He suddenly turned around and looked at Wang Xuance.

"Clearly a defeated general, yet you hold your head so high, as if you are still superior to others."

"Your ideas are the same. Clearly, you all rose from humble beginnings, so why did you take it upon yourselves to stand in the position of holding the scales and judging all living beings?"

These questions were like hammer blows.

Wang Xuance was momentarily stunned, then realized this was a lecture.

This discovery caused a cold arc to curl at the corner of his mouth, and he retorted with sarcasm:

"Heh, after all that, don't you just want to tell me that you, Qin Wangchuan, are right, and our Wang Family is wrong?"

"The outcome has already proven that you are indeed right, I..."

"You still don't understand what I mean."

Qin Wangchuan interrupted him again.

"There is no absolute right or wrong in this world."

"If you think it's right, then do it."

"If I think it's right, then I will do it."

"If our paths collide, then we shall settle it in a duel."

"The winner continues forward."

"And the loser can also learn from the experience and continue forward."

"But you, and your Wang Family?"

Qin Wangchuan's voice suddenly turned cold, filled with undisguised reproach. "Clearly you lost, yet you stiffen your neck and hold your head high, acting as if 'I didn't lose, I just had bad luck or the Heavenly Dao was unfair'!"

"I just can't stand that sore-loser look of yours."

Wang Xuance's face shifted between shades of blue and white under Qin Wangchuan's words.

He couldn't refute it.

He knew Qin Wangchuan made sense.

But the beliefs instilled in him by his Family for so long made him instinctively reject and resist every word Qin Wangchuan said.

In the end, all of Wang Xuance's frustration, anger, and resentment turned into a low growl that was almost out of control:

"Then you tell me! What is right!"

"Do you want me to kneel and kowtow to you??"

Qin Wangchuan didn't hesitate and answered immediately, his voice clear and powerful:

"What you should do now is admit defeat, sort yourself out, and then—"

He looked directly into Wang Xuance's eyes, emphasizing every word:

"Catch up."

At this, Wang Xuance was completely stunned.

He looked at Qin Wangchuan in shock, as if truly seeing the man for the first time.

All along, he had shown nothing but blatant disgust and hostility toward Qin Wangchuan.

He wished for Qin Wangchuan to fall from the clouds immediately, into the deepest valley, never to rise again.

He had even secretly cheered when he heard that Qin Wangchuan had failed to achieve a Supreme Breakthrough for two years.

Wang Xuance had always thought that Qin Wangchuan viewed him the same way.

Seeing him as an eyesore, a stumbling block, and a potential threat.

But now—

Qin Wangchuan actually said to him... catch up?

It wasn't mockery, it wasn't a provocation, it was a kind of... pity!

A towering rage at being pitied by his most hated enemy instantly incinerated Wang Xuance's reason!

This was more humiliating and infuriating than any mockery or blow!

He turned abruptly, almost gnashing his teeth, and was about to storm off, not wanting to stay for another second in this place that made him so embarrassed.

However, the moment he took his first step, he stopped.

A voice in his heart whispered:

'Admit it, you know very well this isn't pity.'

Yes.

He knew it.

He wasn't being sarcastic; he really meant... catch up.

This realization extinguished some of his anger.

But it caused another, more complex emotion to surge up.

With his back to Qin Wangchuan, Wang Xuance took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

When he turned around again, the anger on his face had strangely subsided, leaving only a nearly icy calm.

"Qin Wangchuan," he spoke, his voice regaining a bit of its usual cynicism, but with something else added, "you might have a point."

"But I want to correct you on one thing—"

He looked at Qin Wangchuan with a complex gaze:

"You didn't rise from humble beginnings. You were born with a cultivation level already intact; you are different from the rest of us."

Qin Wangchuan nodded frankly, showing no embarrassment at being exposed, but instead admitting it as a matter of course:

"Indeed."

He paused, meeting Wang Xuance's gaze, his tone flat but carrying an unshakeable certainty:

"However, I also want to correct your Wang Family on one point."

"I've wanted to say this for a long time."

"I will not become the fourth Heavenly Emperor."

"Instead, I will become—"

"The first Immortal Emperor."

"Precisely because I am different from everyone else, I will surpass everyone and reach a height... you have never imagined."

Wang Xuance looked at the youth before him, who had uttered the most arrogant declaration in the calmest tone, and his heart shook.

He truly believed he could do it.

This thought made Wang Xuance's heart tremble, followed by an even more complex feeling.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and turned to go downstairs without saying a word.

He walked down the spiraling stairs.

Halfway down, when no one was around.

Wang Xuance's footsteps involuntarily paused.

He looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through the layers of the building to see the figure in the pavilion on the top floor again.

In his ears, Qin Wangchuan's words still echoed clearly, each word striking the walls of his heart:

"If you think it's right, then do it."

"If you lose, then sort yourself out and keep moving forward."

"Instead of acting like you didn't lose with your head held high like you are now, it's annoying."

"Tsk..." Wang Xuance clicked his tongue impatiently.

"If it's annoying, then shut up. Why say so much?"

He continued walking down.

The sound of his footsteps echoed clearly in the empty stairwell, step by step.

With this steady rhythm, the chaotic thoughts in Wang Xuance's mind gradually settled.

Like a surface of water after a commotion, it returned to calm.

The knot of faint hostility toward Qin Wangchuan that had existed for many years actually loosened slightly at this moment.

'So...'

'You're that kind of person.'

[Image]

Since some people missed the earlier illustration of Siming Long Yue of the True Dragon Clan, I'm inserting one here; her defining feature is her full figure.