Master of Strange Dao

Those traces had turned into scars, left there.

He looked into the giant's eyes, and within them, he saw pain.

Yu Ziqing's thoughts stirred, and a trace of rage appeared in his eyes, immediately changing his vision.

He saw the scars on Ji Meng's Divine Soul, each representing a trace of pain; that trace of pain and rage stemmed from one person.

The places where the most pain had accumulated were in the double eyes of his Divine Soul.

With just one glance, Yu Ziqing moved his eyes away, and in that instant, he felt the pain of millions, in all their varied forms.

Just one shock had caused a brief moment of emptiness in his consciousness.

A single glance had seemed like a very long time.

In that instant, he seemed to have seen the experiences of countless mortals from a first-person perspective, sharing their feelings.

The despair of each person, and their agony, ultimately turned into rage, ignited by a mere spark, becoming a firestorm that scorched the world.

That momentary feeling ignited a fire of rage in Yu Ziqing's chest, fiercely lit.

Yet the flame did no harm to Yu Ziqing.

But Yu Ziqing didn't know how Ji Meng had managed to hold on.

It was not just his own pain, but the pain of countless people; he was only sharing their feelings.

Reopening his eyes, Yu Ziqing sighed softly, rubbing his head.

"Senior, I think I understand now. This problem isn't particularly difficult to solve, but it's up to you."

"What do you mean?"

"The Fire Qi is indeed gone, but when you helped the Divine Dynasty, blocking the rage of millions of mortals, you suffered backlash.

Now that the Divine Dynasty is no more, you have paid back the favors you owed.

What you need to do is very simple. You just need to endure the flames' burning again, the real burning.

You need to apologize to those mortals you blocked, that's all."

What you felt was probably just their pain."

What they wanted was never that much; it was only you who thought it was."

Ji Meng gave a bitter smile.

He glanced at the rainwater dripping nearby.

"You don't need to convince me. A man born in this world, I can still distinguish right from wrong clearly. I helped Emperor Dui because I was helping him, and I indeed took action against those mortals.

Now, fallen to where I am today, suffering for so many years, that is the price I must pay.

If they feel it's not enough, that too is what I should endure, and I won't blame anyone.

Of course, I won't blame you, even if it happened all over again, I still wouldn't have given up on you."

He looked at Yu Ziqing, stood up, and bowed.

"Thank you."

"It's going to be painful, have you thought it through?"

"I have thought about it. This is the price I should pay. All the good things in this world can't be monopolized by me alone. There's no reason to return a great favor without any price.

If not paid here, it will be paid elsewhere. I would rather pay this price myself."

Yu Ziqing glanced at the rain which was starting to get heavier, silently sighing.

At this point, he didn't know who to blame anymore.

In the end, let Dadui bear the blame.

If it weren't for them, Ji Meng wouldn't have had to endure years of torturous pain, and those mortals wouldn't have died.

Yu Ziqing extended a finger, placing it on Ji Meng's forehead.

A wisp of rage flew out, entering Ji Meng's body unhindered, and landed on his Divine Soul.

In an instant, the flames began to burn.

The terrible pain made Ji Meng unable to maintain his human form, revealing his original appearance.

He clenched his teeth, his face contorted, and with eyes reddened by agony, he immediately stretched out his hand to stop something.

"Don't come over!"

He forcibly kept the rainwater at bay, not allowing it to drench him, nor letting the flames touch the rainwater.

His Divine Soul was being scorched, and though he could bear the screams, he couldn't help but struggle.

Yu Ziqing seemed to see countless people, the remnants of countless people's intentions.

He saw Ji Meng apologizing in pain to them; those apologies were practically useless and would not reclaim anything.

But Yu Ziqing seemed to see those people's last traces of intention merging into the flames, becoming part of the flames.

The flames burned more fiercely, but Yu Ziqing knew that once this burning was over, there would be no more.

Ji Meng's Divine Soul was burned out of shape, yet the flames gradually weakened.

Slowly, they returned to Yu Ziqing.

The rage became almost imperceptible, appearing weaker and nearly dissipated.

On the Red Ape, the burning rage was the same, slowly dissipating.

Yu Ziqing knew it wasn't disappearing but rather returning to its normal state.

No one should be burning with rage all the time.

This is the state that the rage of all beings should be in, not appearing normally; only when there is no retreat, the rage will burst forth in one breath, scorching the world, purifying the world.

This method is not something that should be used or needed in everyday life.

Burning constantly, every moment, removes the terrible unstoppable power.

As the flames disappeared, the scars spread across Ji Meng's Divine Soul slowly faded, returning to normal.

However, he saw that there was still a scar at the heart of Ji Meng which had not faded.

But there was no more flame there, nor any lingering imprint of pain.