Chapter 384: Dispute

"Sir!"

Seeing Yang Lixin fall into a pool of blood, the several Constables nearby immediately rushed over and knelt beside him, all of them appearing deeply sorrowful.

They had not expected that their own superior would suddenly draw a blade across his own throat, nor had they expected that he would truly commit suicide.

In this moment, everyone felt an inexplicable grief. Their sorrow was not feigned; clearly, Yang Lixin must have been highly respected.

"Sir Shen!" one of them gathered the courage to look up and meet Shen Yu's gaze. "Sir, I do not know what exactly Magistrate Yang did, but he was a good official."

"If not for him, Lujiang City would still be in a state of panic. He even gave away most of his own salary to the poor, while he himself lived on nothing but coarse tea and plain rice every day."

"I know he was a good official. It is not that I cannot forgive him; it is that he could not forgive himself!"

Relying solely on the memories he had seen, he could not truly empathize, but just now, Shen Yu had been able to clearly feel Yang Lixin's emotional fluctuations—it was a feeling of being on the verge of struggle and collapse.

His memories had not been deliberately sealed by himself, but rather, his subconscious had been unwilling to recall those events, which was why he had subconsciously forgotten everything like this.

He was escaping the fact that he had slaughtered the innocent, escaping the fact that he had become a person whose hands were stained with blood.

When all those memories resurfaced now, and when reality could no longer be escaped, he could only choose to end his own life to bring a total end to it all.

And just as Yang Lixin himself had said, once night fell, he could not control himself. This was not a matter of whether he wanted to or not; it was that he was no longer in control of himself.

Before this, he had been nothing but a weak scholar, his thin frame unable to protect more people. To gain the power to protect the common folk, he had already sold himself.

Yang Lixin was right; he himself only knew how to stand by and talk without feeling the pain. Having power and strength, he naturally felt nothing was wrong, and everything seemed only natural.

But for those without power, without the ability to protect others, how helpless and self-reproachful must they be when facing everything?

If it were him, perhaps he would have made the same choice. Of course, it is possible he would have been far more cowardly than Yang Lixin.

At the very least, that man had the courage to stand up for the common folk and could disregard danger to plead with those murderous villains. As for himself, he would likely have tried every possible way to hide, thinking only of how to preserve himself.

Heh, if things do not happen to oneself, one can never truly understand the hardships of others.

Actually, looking at it from another angle, by letting Yang Lixin recover his memories, was he not, in a roundabout way, the one who killed him?

He had considered himself a righteous person, but in the end, he was nothing at all.

Just then, the power within Yang Lixin's body suddenly surged violently, and Shen Yu immediately shielded the several Constables.

The next moment, his corpse exploded right where it lay. If not for Shen Yu having shielded the surroundings in advance, this power alone would have been enough to destroy the area for several miles.

Only then did Shen Yu realize that the reason the Mother Insect inside the woman had been detonated was likely not because Yang Lixin had done it actively, but because they possessed the same power within them.

The Gu Insect inside that woman and Yang Lixin's power were of the same origin, controlled by the same person.

Shen Yu had initially only controlled the Mother Insect inside the woman and had not sealed the power on Yang Lixin; he had not known at the time that there was a problem with Yang Lixin.

And once the Mother Insect there was controlled by Shen Yu and an abnormality occurred, the power within Yang Lixin did not need his own control; it would immediately react automatically to silently destroy all traces of its existence.

Wherever an anomaly appeared, the power within them would be triggered there. Just now, when the woman was controlled by him, the Mother Insect inside her self-destructed due to this very reaction.

Now that Yang Lixin had committed suicide, the power within him that did not belong to him also showed an anomaly, naturally triggering the same reaction.

One has to say, the person who bestowed this power upon them must be terrifying—terrifying to the point that even without appearing, they were capable of controlling everything.

"Brother Yang, I will definitely handle your affairs. I want to see exactly who it is!"

This old friend of his had been full of passion, yet ended up with such an outcome. No matter what, he had to know who had done all of this.

Gazing toward the outside of the city, Shen Yu's figure left the spot, and by the next moment, he appeared by the side of Luoyue Lake outside the city.

Although he did not know who exactly was controlling Yang Lixin, through Yang Lixin's memories, he could see that he only knew that every time after killing someone, he would go to Luoyue Lake!

Including that woman just now; when she was tied up by her hands and feet and thrown into the river, she must have been thrown in here as well.

Standing quietly on the surface of the lake, for some reason, Shen Yu suddenly felt a sense of palpitation in his heart. It was as if, beneath this calm water, a great terror was hidden.

Looking down at the clear lake water, Shen Yu suddenly had the feeling of gazing into an abyss.

Just then, the lake surface suddenly boiled, and the water surged upward as if ten thousand waves had been raised.

It was as if it had instantly transformed into a giant net, shrouding him within it. Before Shen Yu could react, this giant net turned into blades that pierced the heart. Countless water droplets were countless sharp, peerless Sword Qi.

The next moment, Shen Yu escaped in an instant, tearing through space to avoid it. Yet even so, these blades still descended upon him, as if they had followed him and torn through space as well.

Endless water droplets completely submerged him, leaving him not even a moment to react.

"Hoo!" Taking a deep breath, Shen Yu stood on the spot, covered in sweat. The ground around him had long since been soaked; that was the scene after the lake water had fallen, and the site looked as if it had just experienced a rainstorm.

"What terrifying attack power, what horrifying strength!" Even though he had now escaped danger, Shen Yu still felt a lingering fear.

If not for his Absolute Defense just now, he might have been annihilated by this sudden strike. Fortunately, under Absolute Defense, he ignored any attack, which allowed him to survive successfully.

Luoyue Lake was not just problematic; it was absolutely a major problem, and it was terrifyingly strong.

Calming his mind, Shen Yu seemed to have thought of the key to the problem. It seemed that only when one was at their most decadent and painful could one encounter the person that the woman and Yang Lixin had met.

Immediately, Shen Yu returned to the vicinity of Luoyue Lake, the Time Golden Chapter having long since concealed his aura; anyone looking at him would only think he was a failed, down-and-out scholar.

From head to toe, he exuded an air of decadence and despair. He seemed like a broken loser, a person in total despair.

Stumbling toward the direction of Luoyue Lake, a wine pot appeared in Shen Yu's hand, and he gulped down the wine in large mouthfuls.

In no time at all, he had become drunk. When it came to disguise, he was the king; it was a transformation from the inside out. Even a titanium-alloy eye would absolutely not be able to see through it.

Arriving at the edge of Luoyue Lake, Shen Yu threw away the wine pot in his hand, as if he had completely given up and chosen to find release. Then, with a splash, he jumped into the lake water.

Inside the lake water, he began to struggle desperately, as if it were an instinctive reaction to falling into the water.

As time passed, the intensity of Shen Yu's struggles grew weaker and weaker, as if he might drown and die at any moment.

But just then, a force of unknown origin lifted him up, and a figure appeared on the surface of the lake, though no one knew when.

As he was being carried toward the shore, that figure was already standing before him.

The cold eyes seemed to contain not a shred of emotion, just watching him quietly. Those eyes seemed capable of piercing through the human heart, as if everything before him had nowhere to hide.