Yin's smile turned razor-sharp. "You've been scheming behind the scenes for eons, pulling the strings of gods and mortals alike. No one ever truly challenged you. It made you complacent. It made you believe you could always have everything your way—neutralize me, take the boy, achieve your ambition, all without risking a true, messy confrontation or revealing your full hand."
He let out a soft, derisive laugh. "You thought you could have the best of all worlds. But reality doesn't work that way. There's no path where you get everything you want without paying a price. Even that naive boy inside understands that."
Yin pointed a finger at the meditating Yun Lintian. "He knows it's impossible to keep all his people safe and defeat the two of us. He had to make a choice—to retreat into himself, to gamble on a breakthrough, and leave them to their fate. He accepted loss."
