Monarch Night

This damn...

After a long time, he finally sighed heavily and said, "But I still want to thank you. If it weren’t for you, even if I could escape this time, it wouldn’t have been easy."

Duan Xiyang turned his head, glanced at Sun Wutian’s face, and said, "I dragged you into this, as I have already explained very clearly. You’re just a scapegoat."

"I get it!"

Sun Wutian’s anger flared up again, "But you damn well intervened! Since you did, it’s worth my saying thank you!"

A hint of amusement flashed in the depths of Duan Xiyang’s eyes.

Looking at the still-rising clouds and dust, he said calmly, "Chief Protector, there’s something I’ve always been curious about."

Upon hearing Duan Xiyang’s mention of ’Chief Protector’, Sun Wutian couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotions, overwhelmed with various sentiments.

Steadying himself, he said silently, "Ask."

"Why did you use a lie as the foundation of your sword?"

Duan Xiyang asked.

This was something he couldn’t understand.

These past few days, he had moved from initial disdain and contempt to sheer perplexity.

Because using a lie as the foundation of a sword is a profoundly foolish approach. Once the lie is exposed, one’s strength would be significantly diminished.

Much like this ambush; if Sun Wutian’s strength was still at its peak and the Hentian Heavenly Saber Base hadn’t been destroyed, not only would the six men in black fail to harm him, but they would also be the ones pursued and killed!

This was the most straightforward analysis.

Given Sun Wutian’s knowledge, it was impossible that he didn’t understand this.

Sun Wutian sighed deeply, shook his head, his expression full of a poignant "it’s painful to recall the past" sentiment.

Hoarsely he said, "I didn’t use a lie to build my sword foundation, or rather... I didn’t know at the time that it was a misunderstanding, a lie."

Duan Xiyang suddenly understood, instantly shocked: "You are..."

Sun Wutian gave a bitter smile: "Back then, I was naive, unaware of the mishap I caused, and even more unaware that the destruction of my family was my own doing. When I returned and saw, in a fit of rage, I lost my sanity and don’t even remember how I lived through those years."

"In my eyes, all I saw were corpses!"

"My grandfather, my father, my mother, my sister, my brother, my nieces and nephews..."

"All dead!"

"A few years later, when I recovered from my mental collapse and went back, I found the family graves had been dug up..."

Sun Wutian said mournfully, "With a sweep of my divine thought, I discovered that the descendants of the original tenant farmers wore the jewelry of my deceased family members on their hands and necks..."

"I... I killed them all... but my heart burned with rage! My family treated you well, and yet you did such a thing? If not for my family, would any of you have survived?"

"At that time, I joined the sect, cultivated the Hentian Blade! My heart was filled with injustice!"

"Returning good for evil! A grudge for every grain of rice! Ungrateful! There’s not a single good person in the world! The common folk have no conscience! The ones with the least conscience are the common folk!"

"That’s what dominated my mind then!"

"The more honest and simple one appears, the more painful their bite!"

"Everyone in the world deserves to die!"

"That’s how I thought, and that’s how I built my sword foundation."

Sun Wutian said, "As for what happened later, you know most of it."

Duan Xiyang exhaled a long breath: "So that’s how it is!"

"You may wonder why I was able to suppress you back then? Duan Xiyang, you are a pure martial artist, brutal and cruel, but pure nonetheless!"

"Or rather, you retain some humanity, abiding by some rules of this world, holding onto your own convictions!"

"While I, only have slaughter!"

"All the rules, humanity, persistence, to me, are a joke! And the tenet of the Hentian Sword, and the tenet of the White Bone Spear, you understand, no need for me to elaborate."

"With that mindset back then, suppressing you was natural."

Sun Wutian said quietly, "As time passed, I learned more and realized I might have been wrong. Especially as the Guardian repeated the message..."

"But with my path set, what could I do? I have already established the Hentian Blade foundation, what could I do?"

"Abolish it, and start over?"

Sun Wutian said grimly: "Duan Xiyang, if someone were to tell you now, that you misunderstood this world, that you misunderstood the direction of vengeance; that you need to give up everything, and your White Bone Spear needs to have all its foundation abolished and start over, would you agree?"

"I was wrong, but I can only continue with my mistake!"

"I have no other path to take!"

"If I destroyed myself, our sect would want to kill me, Guardians throughout the world would seek revenge! The only ones possibly sparing me would be Dongfang Sansan and a handful of top officials."

"But I would need more than ten thousand years, even tens of thousands to rebuild! And even then, it might not match my current power! What can I do?"

Sun Wutian exhaled angrily.

He said softly, "Old Duan, you wouldn’t understand."

"No, I can understand."

Duan Xiyang sighed, "Truly, I understand."

He exhaled slowly, painfully, "I won’t look down on you anymore in the future."

He understood, he was relieved, but also in pain because he had forever lost an adversary!

Sun Wutian roared with anger: "Do I need your approval?!"

Duan Xiyang smiled.

He reached out his hand: "Give me that arm."

"... Here you go!"

Sun Wutian retrieved it from his Space Ring and tossed it to Duan Xiyang.

Duan Xiyang put it away without even looking at it.

"I need to return first to deliver this. Yan Wu needs to study it."

Duan Xiyang said: "This is our first encounter with the Shen You Sect... Old Sun, are you heading to Baixiang Continent?"