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"Are you... okay?"
Seeing Xuan Ming's increasingly indifferent expression, Qian Renxue couldn't help but ask.
"I heard that you went to the City of Slaughter?"
Xuan Ming paused, and a white barrier slowly opened in his palm.
Qian Daoliu's eyes changed slightly.
Is it even stronger than Bibi Dong and Tang Hao's Killing God Domain?
How many people did this kid kill?
"One third." Xuan Ming clenched his fist lightly, and the Killing God's domain quietly disappeared.
"..."
The hall fell into silence.
Qian Renxue was stunned, and Qian Daoliu also showed an incredulous look.
one third? !
One third of the population of Killing City?
The City of Slaughter exists with the support of the Spirit Hall. That place is almost a small kingdom!
After thousands of years of evolution, the City of Slaughter has everything except the inability to carry out agricultural production. It even has normal reproduction and a stable population of at least hundreds of thousands!
Add to that the population that Spirit Hall continues to replenish and the naturally floating population... one third?
"Is it exaggerated?" Xuan Ming lowered his head and looked at his hands which were white but already stained with blood.
"I think it's exaggerated, too."
"At least hundreds of people are killed every day. Killing a person is easier than crushing an ant..."
"Killer God..."
"..."
Xuan Ming withdrew his gaze, and a trace of extremely faint, indescribable fatigue seemed to pass through the depths of his calm eyes, but it disappeared in a flash, so fast that it seemed like an illusion.
But Qian Renxue noticed it.
One-third of the population...hundreds of lives lost every day...easier than crushing an ant...
The words echoed in her mind, sending a chill down her spine.
Xuan Ming has never been a person who disregards life, at least not before!
But now...
Not long after, Xuan Ming left and the hall returned to silence again.
Only Qian Renxue and Qian Daoliu, the grandfather and grandson, and the six-winged angel statue that was silently looking down at them were left.
Qian Renxue still stood there, looking in the direction where Xuan Ming disappeared, emotions surging violently in her golden eyes, and the mask of calm that she had been forced to maintain finally cracked, revealing a complex and indistinguishable light - there was loss, unwillingness, a hint of pain of being ignored, and an even heavier, almost suffocating pressure.
He knew her progress.
His reaction was so calm, even... with an invisible, heart-wrenching indifference.
"You... don't hate him?" Qian Daoliu broke the silence.
"Why should I hate him?" Qian Renxue asked back.
Qian Daoliu was slightly startled, "You..."
"Just like he said, he has never done anything wrong to me." Qian Renxue turned around and faced the angel statue.
"From the first day we met, I've been causing him trouble and constantly tormenting him, but he's always put up with me. Even though he had the ability to resist me, he never thought of hurting me."
"I sometimes wonder if our relationship would have been better if I hadn't insisted on snatching him away from the Pope's Palace."
"Xiaoxue..." Qian Daoliu wanted to say something but stopped.
"Grandpa, you always say it's for my own good, and that I will understand one day, but the only thing you never consider is whether I want it or not." Qian Renxue turned around.
"If you hadn't intervened back then, if that incident hadn't happened in Sunset Forest, he and I wouldn't have completely fallen out, Grandpa Golden Crocodile wouldn't have tried to seize power, there wouldn't have been any trouble later, and there wouldn't have been the incident in Spirit City."
"I want to hate him, but I can't find any reason to hate him. I don't know how to hate him."
"Isn't he accommodating enough to me? Isn't it enough that he helps me and tolerates me?"
Qian Renxue's voice echoed in the empty hall, with a barely perceptible tremor. It was not fear, but some long-suppressed emotion that finally found an outlet.
Her golden eyes looked directly at Qian Daoliu, no longer containing the complexity and incomprehensibility that she had when facing Xuan Ming, but rather clear questions and... a hint of sadness.
"You always say you're doing this for my own good, planning everything for me and removing all so-called obstacles."
Her voice gradually rose, filled with suppressed excitement, "But have you ever asked me? Have you ever asked me what I really want?"
"Yes! Xuan Ming is special and dangerous. He may threaten my position and the inheritance of the angel clan! But so what?!" Qian Renxue suddenly raised her hand and pointed in the direction Xuan Ming left.
"He never hurt me on his own initiative! Not even once! On the contrary, it was me! It was me who repeatedly pushed him, tempted him, and even... wanted to control him!"
"In Sunset Forest, if it weren't for you, things wouldn't have developed to that point! He wouldn't have completely broken off relations with me, wouldn't have been forced to reveal his trump card that was enough to threaten a Titled Douluo! Grandpa Golden Crocodile wouldn't... wouldn't have become like that!" Her voice was choked with sobs, tears welling in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.
"What was the root cause of that farce in Wuhun City? If you hadn't pressed him so hard, if he hadn't been forced into a desperate situation, would he have chosen to retaliate in that way?"
"Grandpa, tell me, how can I hate him?" Qian Renxue's voice was full of powerlessness.
"Hate him for not being obedient enough? Hate him for not being a good pawn on my chessboard? Or do you hate him for... after my repeated excessive behavior, he still left room for leniency and didn't truly break off all ties with me?"
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her surging emotions, but her shoulders still trembled slightly.
"Did you see how he looked just now? One-third of the population of the City of Slaughter... He said it so calmly... But I know that's not what he wants." Qian Renxue's voice lowered, with deep remorse.
"It was me, it was us, who gradually pushed him into this state. We pushed him into a killing machine... a killing machine that even he himself was unfamiliar with."
"And now, you ask me if I hate him?" She raised her head, tears finally glistening in the corners of her eyes. "I can't hate him. I just feel... pathetic."
"It's sad for all of us."
Qian Daoliu listened silently, and for the first time, there was a clear shock and... a hint of confusion on his face.
He has been guarding the angel heritage all his life, and believes that everything he has done is for Xue'er and for the future of the Spirit Hall.
He eliminated threats, paved the way, and never once doubted his decisions.
But at this moment, listening to his granddaughter's tearful questioning, and seeing the pain in her eyes that was not directed at Xuan Ming, but at those of them who were "doing it for her own good", Qian Daoliu's rock-solid belief began to crack for the first time.
Could it be... that he was really wrong?
Just as he could not understand his son Qian Xunji's choice, he may never truly understand what his granddaughter Qian Renxue wanted.
The hall fell into a long silence, the only sounds being the subtle crackling of the burning eternal lamp and Qian Renxue's suppressed sobs...
...
Deep in the sunset forest, the Yin-Yang Eyes of ice and fire.
After learning about Qian Renxue's progress, Xuan Ming left Wuhun City and came here.
Although he didn't react much at the time, Qian Renxue's progress was indeed beyond his expectations. In less than three years, she completed the five angel tests. Although the divine tests become more difficult as time goes on, with Qian Renxue's progress, it will probably take a few years.
In this case, to be on the safe side, he had to get Gu Yuena and the others to a safe place.
"I'm back!"
The tranquility of the Yin-Yang Eyes of Ice and Fire was broken by a crisp scream of surprise. Little Ayin suddenly condensed into a phantom, and his blue eyes looked up at the top of the valley with sparkling eyes.
Gu Yuena, Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, Xiao Wu... everyone's eyes were involuntarily attracted, and they all looked up at the figure slowly descending from a high place.
Xuan Ming's figure passed through the swirling mist and landed steadily in the center of the valley, next to the familiar spring.
Haven't seen you for nearly three years.
Time seems to be stretched here, and then suddenly tightens at the moment of reunion.
Ning Rongrong is no longer the girl with a spoiled air. Her figure has grown taller, and she is more delicate and well-proportioned. Her face has become more mature, adding a bit of dignity and brightness. However, in the depths of her lively eyes, there is a little bit of imperceptible calmness.
Zhu Zhuqing's changes were even more significant. She seemed to have become more restrained from her former cold and aloof self. Her figure became taller and more fiery-skinned, her cat-like pupils were sharp and calm, and the aura around her was condensed and dangerous, like a sharp blade in its sheath.
Xiao Wu... She still seemed as lively as ever, with her long scorpion braid hanging down behind her, but deep in her ruby-like eyes, there was less carefree innocence, and more of the resilience and hint of sadness that came with experience.
She looked at Xuan Ming, her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but swallowed it back.
They have all grown up.
They are no longer the young boys and girls who needed his care and even rescue from time to time.
Time has left marks of growth on them, and has also quietly changed the distance and...state of mind between them.
The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became stagnant and weird.
The joy of reunion seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
After Xiao Yin's cheers died down, the valley fell into a brief, uncomfortable silence.
Everyone's eyes were focused on Xuan Ming, with a look of scrutiny, inquiry, and a hint of...strangeness that was difficult to conceal.
He still had that handsome look, as if time had not left many traces on him.
But those eyes...
Ning Rongrong was the first to notice the difference.
Although those ice-blue eyes used to be often calm, but occasionally revealed helplessness, gentleness and even a hint of innocence, at this moment they were like two bottomless abysses, so calm that it was heart-wrenching.
It was a look that was almost indifferent, stripped of all emotions, as if nothing in the world could stir up the slightest ripple in it.
There was a kind of cold and dead silence tempered by blood and fire, and also a kind of alienation... as if standing at a very high place overlooking all living beings.
This was not the Xuan Ming they remembered, who was powerful yet still warm.
Gu Yuena's silver-purple eyes looked at Xuan Ming quietly. Her perception was the sharpest and most complex.
She could clearly feel that Xuan Ming in front of her seemed to have undergone some earth-shaking changes in the depths of his soul. It was a kind of cooling and precipitation that was almost essential.