Star Trace Gate

Chapter 931 One hand supports the clan, the other supports illusion.

In the quiet chamber of the array's core, Zhao Mi sat on the high platform, stunned for a long while, before looking sharply at Ren Ye and frowning as he asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Do you know what? Today, at this moment, to me, you are a person who is even more stubborn and principled than Qian Lao." Ren Ye said his truest thoughts while eating.

After pondering for a long time, Zhao Mi shook his head slightly: "I still don't understand."

“It’s not that you don’t understand, it’s that you don’t want to see a different ending.” Ren Ye looked up, staring directly at Zhao Mi, and said without giving an inch, “Let me be frank, you want everything here to be settled completely, just like the ending you’ve envisioned.”

"You really want to protect those people in the death row, and him too."

The little rascal's words, though not harsh, resounded like thunder in Zhao Mi's ears.

He stood there stunned for a long time, wanting to retort several times, but he couldn't bear to appear angry and exasperated.

He chose to remain silent, simply watching Ren Ye without saying another word.

The Little Scoundrel ignored him, picked up his wine cup, took another big gulp, and then said softly, "Fairness is the belief and the soul of this place. For eight years, I have gone to your Enlightenment Pavilion every night, enduring the pain of disembowelment, while you peered into your three thousand secret treasures. On the surface, you seem cruel and ruthless, wantonly trampling on the weak for your own selfish desires, which is truly hateful."

"But if you break it down and examine it closely, you'll see that during these eight years, although I suffered unbearable pain, I also received care from the Zhao family. The job in the prison was something you offered me. For eight years, I would spend every night at your home reading various ancient books and asking you questions to seek your answers. And you always answered without hesitation, never avoiding or concealing anything, always patient, fair, and objective."

“If we’re talking about fairness, then really nothing is fairer than this transaction between you and me. You’ve never taken advantage of me in any way. On the contrary, your actions of inviting me to your house every night will deter those who are greedy for me from making any rash moves. Because in their eyes, I’m already your property, and anyone who dares to touch me will inevitably suffer the wrath of you, the number one person in the Void Village.”

"In a sense, from a practical point of view, you protected me... and protected me for a full eight years."

Ren sighed deeply at this point, then raised his glass again and said, "This glass is to fairness."

"Gudong!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the little rascal drank it all in one gulp.

Zhao Mi just sat there blankly, still not saying a word.

Ren also took a bite of food, and then looked at the old man behind the table with a rosy complexion: "But what you didn't expect was that your daily spying on my star core inadvertently affected your eldest son - Zhao Haochen."

"How should I put it? If it were in the past... he might have truly been a virtuous gentleman, a peerless genius; or perhaps he was a greedy and despicable person at heart, skilled at disguise. But in any case, he is indeed a bit too close to you and me."

“Every day when I go to the Zhao family, he picks me up and takes me home. Every evening, he stands in the shadows of the Enlightenment Pavilion, witnessing firsthand the unparalleled light of the three thousand secret treasures, and also personally feeling your rapid progress in cultivation and your unparalleled divine power.”

"He's really too close. It's like putting a poor person in front of a vault full of gold and silver treasures all day long. How can he not be greedy, and how can he resist the ever-growing desire in his heart?!"

"The longer he stood there looking, the more he felt that the astonishing brilliance of these three thousand secret treasures was truly unworthy of being dragged down by a stray dog. It should belong to the strong, to the peerless geniuses, to the number one clan of the Illusion Village."

"Therefore, he will fight for it, he will seize it, by any means necessary, regardless of the cost."

“But in my guess, he probably wasn’t doing it for himself, but for the most powerful clan, for the father he admired and revered.” Ren Ye’s voice softened as he said this: “Only from this point of view, I might be able to empathize with him a little. But that’s all…!”

When Zhao Mi heard this, a moment of surprise flashed across his aged eyes.

He remained silent for a long time before asking, puzzled, "How did you see through these things?"

"It's a long story, like a child without a mother." Ren Ye, like a drunkard, took another big gulp before frowning and replying, "When I entered the Divine Tomb for the second time, I was still convinced that you had taken my original eyes, and that you were nourishing them with the gray mist in the Divine Tomb. And on this point, the Sun family deliberately misled me...!"

"Heh." Zhao Mi sneered, "What does Sun Michen know?"

“Yes, that old guy is both stupid and wicked, let’s not talk about him.” Ren Ye waved his hand casually and sighed, “It wasn’t until I personally killed my aunt in the Tomb of the Gods and retrieved the Origin Eyes from her that I truly began to doubt you for the first time. Oh, this time it was a doubt of good intentions…!”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Mi was so shocked he almost jumped up: "What?! Your Origin Eyes weren't found in the Undying Hall, but on Tian Wei?"

"Hmm...!" Ren nodded slightly and briefly recounted his story with his aunt, telling the truth without hiding anything.

After listening, Zhao Mi was stunned for a long time before sighing, "Tianwei... what skill and spirit! She is actually more suitable to be the head of a family and an elder to educate children than I am."

"Yes."

Ren had drunk quite a bit, and while his face was flushed, his thoughts were also somewhat hazy, and he thought of his aunt.

Seeing his dejected expression, Zhao Mi changed the subject and asked, "And then?"

"Then... my aunt died, and when I was feeling down, I thought about all the things I hadn't understood before." Ren Ye frowned slightly and raised a finger, saying, "First of all... Zhou Taozhi."

Upon hearing this name, a genuine smile of relief finally appeared on Zhao Mi's lips.

"In the Heavenly Enlightenment Academy No. 1, I actually witnessed Zhou Taozhi's soul memories firsthand. However... his memories were very vague and fragmented, not forming the truth at all." Ren Ye spoke with great emotion, as if telling a story: "His soul memories can be roughly summarized into three parts. The first part is that he saw you venturing into the tomb alone, and he was furious, fighting you and desperately trying to stop you; the second part is that you forced him into the Undying Hall, where you were ambushed by two tomb guardians; the third part is that you killed the other two tomb guardians, and then walked alone into the Green Palace, leaving behind a silhouette as you went to open my sleeping coffin...!"

“That’s right.” Zhao Mi nodded in agreement.

“But beyond these three memories of the soul, there is still a very important detail.” Ren Ye raised his second finger and said slowly and deliberately, “That is, when Zhou Taozhi was having an attack and killing your Zhao family members, he kept muttering... ‘We were wrong, we were all wrong... I am also sorry to my two sworn brothers.’”

"When he said that, my understanding was that he was afraid when he was facing you, so he subconsciously wanted to enter the Undying Hall to survive. In fact, he did survive, but two of his sworn brothers died, so he said 'I was wrong' and apologized to them."

"But then I thought about it more carefully, and maybe that's not what he was talking about."

Ren shook his head slightly.

"Hehe, what's the matter?!" Zhao Mi asked with a smile.

"Let's try to deduce the whole story from Zhou Taozhi's three fragments of spiritual memories." Ren Ye looked at him quietly, his voice hoarse, and said, "In the first fragment, you tried to force your way into the tomb, but the one who was truly angry wasn't Zhou Taozhi, but you. Why? Because you only saw Zhou Taozhi, but not the other two tomb guardians. What were they doing?! Why weren't they guarding outside the tomb?"

"Sigh." Zhao Mi sighed softly upon hearing this.

"In the second part, you are very angry because the scene you see is the same as the scene you imagined at home. So, you fight with Zhou Taozhi, but you hold back and want to capture him alive. However, the two tomb guardians rushed over in a hurry, and Zhou Taozhi, because of fear, guilt and terror, accidentally fell into the Undying Hall."

"The third part. When the two tomb guardians arrived, they saw that the matter had been exposed, and that if you captured them alive, they would surely be sentenced to death by the clan hall, with no chance of survival. So they decided to risk their lives and use their power to kill you to silence you. Under their relentless pressure, you had no choice but to give up on capturing them alive and completely annihilated them outside the Hall of Immortality."

"So, that night, the one who truly wanted to take my original eyes was not you, but the three tomb guardians, including Zhou Taozhi. They abused their power, knowingly broke the law, and, driven by greed, conspired to take my eyes. That's why Zhou Taozhi is so remorseful, why she set up a mourning hall in her peach grove courtyard, and why she can never escape that night."

"He conspired with his two sworn brothers to seize my Origin Eyes, but he failed to stop you. In the face of death, he was overcome with fear and subconsciously obeyed the summons of the Undying Temple, thus saving his life. He essentially betrayed his two brothers and witnessed their tragic deaths, which is why... he keeps saying, 'We were all wrong... I'm sorry to my two brothers!'"

"Ugh."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Mi sighed again: "Then tell me... that night I broke into the Tomb of the Gods just to guard against these three tomb guardians?"

"No, no." Ren Ye shook his head decisively and said, "Judging from the Sun family's deliberate guidance of me... you went to the Tomb of the Gods that night to guard against Sun Michen. And I guess... Sun Michen actually went there that night as well, and sensed it, or secretly saw the scene of you killing the two tomb guardians... He must have wet his pants in fear, and then ran away as fast as he could."

"This explains why he later had Sun Qingxue guide me, saying that the Origin Eyes were on you, and firmly believed that your rapid advancement in cultivation was because you obtained the Eyes. Because in his eyes, you were the only winner that night."

Ren also gave an answer off the cuff.

"You're very perceptive, very good, very good." Zhao Mi replied with great satisfaction, then frowned and asked, "However, you were able to deduce my true intention for breaking into the tomb that night based solely on a few crazy words Zhou Tao uttered before his death. Isn't that a bit too clever?"

"Of course, based on just Zhou Taozhi's few words, I would definitely be completely dumbfounded." Ren Ye nodded frankly: "My initial guess was that you hid these Origin Eyes in my coffin, playing a trick on those in the dark. But after I entered the Divine Tomb Immortal Palace and found my coffin... I had a strong sense of familiarity, and I also remembered some feelings from the night before I left the tomb."

"How does it feel?!" Zhao Mi asked again.

"At first, I felt myself lying in a coffin, and then I heard a rustling conversation outside the coffin. Immediately afterward, a loud bang rang out, and my coffin lid flew off. I also sensed a dazzling white light... Then, I heard a fierce argument."

"As I felt fear and unease, the arguing gradually faded away. After a long time, a gentle yet powerful aura enveloped me, secretly soothing and nourishing my body and soul."