Chapter 43

"Master, we are in front of the Grand Patriarch."

Wei Zhiqing said quietly. Jin Diege tried to control his labored, damp breath and slowly took his seat.

"…The Grand Patriarch concealed it, did not speak of it, and then sent Xiancheng to the duel I requested."

"Hah! I remember clearly what people whispered when they saw the decline of the Danmu Clan. I have never forgotten a single word."

The events at the Dongzheng Bloodshed spread among the people, and everyone knew how severely injured Danmu Tianji, the head of the Danmu Clan and the best in the world, and his eldest son, Danmu Xiancheng, were.

After the bloodshed, people began to speculate that Danmu Tianji's injuries had not healed, and even when Danmu Xianwu appeared, they secretly guessed that he was still in pain.

"Everyone saw our clan's decline and spread rumors that I and Xiancheng could not overcome our injuries. Are you saying you didn't know about this?"

"I believed it!"

Jin Diege clenched his lips.

"Of course, I believed it was the malicious gossip of the world. Xiancheng… He wouldn't become so weak… He wouldn't…"

He believed that all the rumors circulating were baseless.

Danmu Tianji sighed as he looked at Jin Diege.

"So? You put the duel request in without knowing anything, and Xiancheng should have told you that he was still not recovered from the battle with Xuelagou? That he was spitting blood and dying day by day, trying to protect against the attack on the day Lianya was born, and that he had to avoid the duel with you? No matter what he said, people would have predicted the decline of the Danmu Clan and accused us of cowardice!"

"Are you so afraid of their accusations that you now even drive Xiancheng's daughter away like this!"

"Master!"

Wei Zhiqing's voice rose again, and only then did Jin Diege close his mouth.

Jin Diege, filled with anger, looked up at the sky to compose his expression.

Danmu Tianji watched him silently and slowly changed his expression.

The feigned anger dissipated in the sunlight, and his face took on a hazy, worn-out look.

"So, you've been sending those medicinal herbs all this time?"

"…!"

Jin Diege, who had just calmed his anger and regulated his breathing, was startled. Danmu Tianji turned his head with a bitter expression.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out that you sent a few herbalists to gather them? Even if our clan is said to be declining, we still have that much power."

"I don't understand what you mean."

His feigned ignorance was quite awkward. Danmu Tianji smiled bitterly.

During the time when the Danmu Clan was declining, the favors and debts accumulated over the years also diminished.

Those who had received favors quickly settled their debts and left, and those who held grudges attacked them at this opportunity.

Just when everyone thought there were no favors left, some people suddenly started sending rare medicinal herbs to the clan.

With no one to repay, it was naturally suspicious, and upon investigation, it led to Jin Diege.

Danmu Tianji quietly pressed his brows, his eyes shadowed.

"…Why didn't you say anything?"

"Say what exactly?"

"Why didn't you tell people that you didn't know about Xiancheng's condition during that duel?"

Jin Diege's expression crumbled for the first time.

He felt wronged, angry, and resentful, and at the same time, guilty and at a loss.

A heavy silence fell over the table.

"…How… How could I say anything…"

If he were really the kind of person who would take advantage of a clan's successor being ill and challenge him to a duel, and then decide to kill him, he could have done it.

He could have claimed ignorance and attended the funeral, pretending to be heartbroken.

But Jin Diege did not do that. He could not.

Whether he knew or not, how could he brazenly attend the funeral and confess to Xiancheng's father, wife, and daughter that he had only requested the duel without knowing anything?

Would that bring the dead back to life? Or would it help Danmu Tianji find a new purpose?

Or would it give his children a way to explain how their father died…

Danmu Tianji looked at Jin Diege's eyes and closed his own, lost in regret.

"…If you didn't say anything, how could we?"

Confusion spread across Jin Diege's eyes.

* * *

Jin Diege stood in front of the shrine with a very unfamiliar face. Danmu Tianji and Wei Zhiqing stood a step behind him.

"He… felt sorry for many things until the end."

"What… What do you mean?"

Jin Diege turned around.

"For being greedy…"

Wei Zhiqing looked at the shrine with a wistful gaze. Inside, her husband's memorial tablet rested.

When Wei Zhiqing first met Danmu Xiancheng, he was a person left with only twisted cynicism and gloomy affection for the world.

But in his final moments, he looked at her with soft, spring-like eyes and smiled gently.

When she thought about it, she missed him so much that she tried not to think about him, but when she did, the memories only became more vivid.

"The duel request from Master Jin… As Master said, he could have avoided it, but he really wanted to have that duel."

Danmu Xiancheng remembered the first son of Master Jin, who had never beaten him but persistently challenged him, as a young man leading a clan.

In the time when his once bright and clear future became as dim as a flickering flame, Danmu Xiancheng decided to seize the opportunity to prove something.

"He didn't have… much time."

A crack appeared in Jin Diege's expression.

When Danmu Xiancheng was fifteen, he followed his father, Danmu Tianji, to protect people from Xuelagou.

As a result, his time, which should have been the most brilliant, was frozen.

But Danmu Xiancheng never spoke of it.

He detested being pitied by others.

Then, as the winter finally began to wane,

When he accepted that he could do nothing, Jin Diege, who knew nothing, sent the duel request.

"So, after the duel, he felt… very, very sorry."

The person Danmu Xiancheng felt most sorry for was Wei Zhiqing, Danmu Lian, and Danmu Bi.

He burned the time he could have spent with his family to prove himself.

And the next person he felt sorry for was…

"Master Jin might feel unnecessary guilt in the future…"

If Danmu Xiancheng had defended Jin Diege, people would only admire his magnanimity, and Jin Diege would be seen as a third-rate martial artist who challenged an injured person and accidentally killed him.

A weak alliance harms itself.

Assigning justice to a weak opponent would only sink both, so the Danmu Clan could not speak first about the silent Jin Diege.

* * *

Jin Diege saw Danmu Xiancheng's memorial tablet for the first time. He debated whether to burn incense or join his hands in prayer but eventually just stared at the name engraved on the tablet.

In his youth, Jin Diege, who was younger and more naive, had many feelings for Danmu Xiancheng.

A near-inferiority complex, a sense of kinship as the eldest son bearing the expectations of his parents, a feeling of defeat that he could never surpass the Danmu Clan in this Zhejiang Province, a desire to beat him someday, and a hidden wish to become a simple friend.

So, as soon as he saw progress in his martial arts, the young Jin Diege requested a duel without knowing anything, hoping to take a step closer to Danmu Xiancheng, even though he was not sure if he could beat him.

But when Danmu Xiancheng died at the end of the duel, his hope shattered, and he was tormented by unwanted guilt and aimless resentment.

There was no place to vent his feelings.

The Danmu Clan would not believe his claim of ignorance, those who watched his every move would turn away, and those who despised his cowardice would think he was lying.

This is how he ended up here.

Until his young son committed such an act, Jin Diege never imagined he would set foot in this manor.

He never imagined he would see the shadow of that day in the duel between his daughter and his son.