The sage was determined to die.

Seeing the confusion on Ji Bai's face, Chu Ze's eyes flashed with a barely perceptible strangeness. As soon as Ji Bai met his gaze, he knew what was wrong with him.

The other party was clearly waiting for him to respond, but he not only made no comment but also acted as if he knew nothing about it.

Ji Bai frowned slightly and said calmly, "I come from the countryside, so it's normal that I don't know about these things."

Chu Ze remained noncommittal. He didn't elaborate, only vaguely saying, "I don't know the specifics either. I only know that the one from Chen State, the uncle from the Wang family..."

He carefully chose his words, and after a long pause, a slight smile appeared on his lips as he scoffed, "He was half-crippled."

His expression rarely revealed such genuine joy; the subtle pleasure was so real that Ji Bai couldn't help but feel a little dazed.

"Looks like you have a grudge against him too," Ji Bai said.

Chu Ze nodded, not lying: "He has quite a few enemies."

"They were all crippled, and they didn't even come out to get revenge. Did they just obediently hide away?"

Ji Bai casually picked up a pebble, tossed it in his hand, and smacked his lips, saying, "This really doesn't seem like the style of a noble family."

Chu Ze looked at the pebble in his hand and said calmly, "Aren't all people like this? When they are in power, they are high and mighty, but when they lose power, they can only keep their tails between their legs. Otherwise, the higher they stand, the more they will fall and be smashed to pieces."

Ji Bai casually tossed the pebble to the ground. He used a bit of Wenxin's power, and the pebble was crushed into a cloud of dust as soon as it touched the ground.

"Then we'd better be careful," Ji Bai clapped his hands, grinning and showing a set of white teeth, "otherwise it would be too terrible to fall down before even getting to the top."

Chu Ze didn't seem to agree with the statement, but simply gave a faint "hmm".

……

Chen Ji didn't kill too many people this time.

He looked at his only intelligent subordinate, Tang Er, who was also looking at him, pondering, "Just now, people from the Chu Kingdom came and told us not to burn the corpses."

"Where are they?" Chen Ji asked.

Tang Er honestly replied, "He left after saying that."

Chen Ji snorted unhappily, his gaze sharp as a knife, and said disdainfully, "They delivered themselves to our doorstep as a show of force, and you actually let them go back alive?"

"When two countries are at war, envoys shall not be killed."

Tang Er's voice trailed off as he spoke. He touched his nose, his tone tinged with embarrassment: "That person is Ji Bai. He has Wen Xin, and we can't keep him."

Chen Ji took a few seconds to consider the logic behind his words, then coldly said, "Why would Ji Bai want to cooperate with the State of Chu? Are all his men dead?"

When he talked about death, a hint of pleasure crept onto his lips.

However, reality was clearly not as wonderful as he had imagined.

"It shouldn't be," Tang Er said calmly. "It's probably just a simple provocation."

"If he says no, then he definitely means yes."

With a very serious face, Tang Er asked Chen Ji, "Should we burn it?"

"That's exactly what he was trying to provoke."

Chen Ji glanced at him and uttered a few words: "Wouldn't that make me look bad?"

Looking at his arrogant expression, Tang Er suddenly realized something and stiffly put on a pained expression.

Tang Er raised his hand and coughed, his eyes flickering, and said, "Before that person came, I took it upon myself to burn a few corpses in a fit of anger, but I unexpectedly discovered something else."

Chen Ji nodded, with a look that suggested he was a promising student: "What accident?"

Tang Er, who did not burn the body, said: "...Unexpectedly, we'll have to wait a while."