Tai'an was in a quiet chaos, members of the Hao faction were being interrogated at their workplaces or in quiet alleys, and the goal was to find the Hao faction's leader in Tai'an.
The maid who had played a role in the villa massacre was killed after half a day of interrogation, and even now there was evidence of the culprits and what had happened.
The evidence from the attackers' corpses showed that they had trained in the Blood Cult, and collaboration with someone in the Inner Palace and members of the Hao faction was clear.
The foreign guests and sect members did not dare to ask questions, but they whispered among themselves.
Wasn't Namgung just a hostage?
Who would dare to cause such chaos at the first coming-of-age ceremony of the Heavenly Demon's sons?
Wasn't the Blood Cult on the verge of collapse?
Did the Murim Alliance have a role?
Had the Second Steward been seen with the Beggar Sect?
Would blood be spilled?...
---
In the Jade Hall, the Heavenly Demon sat on his throne, his hands covered in soil, his eyes tired and waiting.
The First Steward entered the Jade Hall.
The atmosphere was so silent and cold that the sound of every step echoed through the hall.
The First Steward placed a bowl and a cup on the ground near the Heavenly Demon's platform and left the hall without saying a word.
Ling Yue was approaching the Jade Hall when she saw the First Steward, who seemed to be waiting.
"Greetings to the Fourth Lady."
Ling Yue had spoken with Muyan before coming and confirmed that both cart-pullers who had entered were the traitors who had allowed the attackers into the Outer Palace.
The sect's information network had already conducted hundreds of interrogations, and the Second Steward had already made information deals with the Beggar Sect.
There was nothing left to hide.
"What brings the First Steward to wait for me in these busy circumstances?"
The Steward asked to continue the path together: "After decades of service to the sect, I still haven't been able to see clearly enough to keep the future from danger, I'm sorry for that."
They reached the entrance of the Jade Hall, and Ling Yue parted from the First Steward and entered the hall.
As Ling Yue approached the Heavenly Demon's platform, the shadows of the jade pillars fell across her path like swords.
A bowl and a cup of wine.
No.
This was not wine.
She knelt on all fours and bowed: "Greetings to the Heavenly Demon."
The Heavenly Demon's appearance was tired but majestic, and those soil-covered hands still seemed powerful.
The Heavenly Demon asked in his usual cold manner: "Why?"
There was nothing left to hide.
"I was afraid."
"I wanted the future to be better for Lan and Zhan."
"Do you think it's better now?"
It was clear: "No."
"Dung-i suffocated with her eyes following Geon-ma, and the sect members of the clan responsible for protecting them were killed."
"Do you accept the consequences of your excess and fear?"
A cup of poison and a bowl, the traditions of the bloodline were clear.
"I accept the consequences."
No, she couldn't accept them.
She was just coming to terms with reality.
Ling Yue couldn't hold back her tears.
But she tried not to scream, and she failed at that too, and responded with a scream: "Ten years earlier, now we're suffering the pain that was supposed to come to us ten years from now."
The Heavenly Demon rose from his seat: "Did you see me as so weak that I couldn't protect my own blood and family?"
"Were the previous Heavenly Demons weak?"
How was Kang Long supposed to answer? How could he answer?
Kang Long himself had become the Heavenly Demon by slaughtering his own family.
"Please, Heavenly Demon, answer me. How are you supposed to do what other Heavenly Demons couldn't when they watched their children die? Even if you end this bloody competition, everyone still expects bloodshed from them."
"Expect?"
Ling Yue wanted to make the Heavenly Demon aware of a reality he knew but had ignored: "There is only one Heavenly Demon, and everyone in this sect will one day choose a Heavenly Demon, one winner against other losers who lose everything."
Even if the bloodlines had no hostile intent, the sect members still expected hostility, expected conflict, expected to gain spoils.
The Heavenly Demon was thinking: how had he not seen how difficult his wife's situation was. For Ling Yue, there was no winning.
When she gave birth to twin sons, even in the best case, she would lose one son.
The Heavenly Demon remembered the night Ling Yue had asked him to name the children, why had he been so cold that night? Perhaps if he had acted like a father, Ling Yue would have trusted him.
Consequences.
Ling Yue closed her eyes and reached her hand toward the cup, ready to drink it, but the coldness of something stopped her.
Kang Long's cold, soil-covered hand had taken hers.
Kang Long took the cup from Ling Yue's hand and drank it: "These are not the consequences of your actions, these are the consequences of my actions."
"But you also owe Geon-ma, your punishment is to raise Geon-ma."
Ling Yue could no longer even look at Kang Long's face and lowered her head, crying silently.
Kang Long also could not leave her while she was vulnerable, so he stood until Ling Yue could lift her head.