CHAPTER 40 — The Choice Beneath Alignment
Part One
Lian did not answer his question that day.
Instead, she resumed walking.
"That hypothetical is dangerous," she said at last. "Heaven does not issue unjust commands."
Zheng Wen Te matched her pace.
"History suggests otherwise."
"We are not discussing history," she replied calmly. "We are discussing survival."
They reached the herb garden at the center of the Inner Grounds. Spiritual plants grew in identical rows. Every leaf trimmed. Every branch symmetrical.
Even nature here obeyed alignment.
"You still think like a mortal," she said.
"I am a mortal."
"You are more than that now."
He looked at her.
"Am I?"
A brief hesitation.
"When the giants revealed you," she said quietly, "many cultivators panicked."
He said nothing.
"They saw unpredictability. A mind not filtered through doctrine. That frightens people."
"And you?"
Her gaze did not waver.
"I fear instability. Not you."
That was honest.
More honest than she had ever been.
He studied the herbs bending slightly in the wind—but never beyond formation limits.
"Why did you come?" he asked.
"To see whether you would choose recklessness."
"And?"
"You chose restraint."
He allowed himself a faint smile.
"That disappoints you?"
"No," she admitted.
"It complicates things."
Complication meant ambiguity.
Ambiguity threatened hierarchy.
"You want clarity," he said softly.
"Yes."
"But clarity without doubt is blindness."
Her expression cooled.
"You believe doubt is strength."
"I believe doubt prevents tyranny."
The word hung between them.
Tyranny.
Not shouted.
Placed carefully.
For the first time—
Lian did not immediately defend Heaven.