Hearing Liang Shuguang’s words, even Xu Mo was stunned.
Xu Mo had been waiting for a long time to hear the sound of the man’s composure shattering, but this was the response he got instead.
Seriously? Is his Dao Heart really that unshakable?
Without needing a reminder from Xu Mo this time, Bai Feifei couldn’t help but speak up directly, “Merely?”
“What he meant was that in every single future he has experienced, you failed!”
Liang Shuguang looked up and smiled at Bai Feifei.
“I know,” he said in a flat tone. “Total failure is quite reasonable.”
“When facing an annihilation of this scale, the path to success is already extremely narrow. A hundred failures are well within my expectations.”
“Success need not be mine, nor does it necessarily need to happen in Dawn City. But the attempt must be made.”
After a moment of thought, a sudden look of deep emotion flickered in his eyes as he looked at the expectant Bai Feifei. “Did Senior Sinking Black say anything else?”
“For instance, in those futures he knows of where I failed a hundred times... how did I fail?”
“Can you tell me?”
His tone was so earnest that for a fleeting second, Bai Feifei wondered if he was actually sane.
It seemed as if he truly wanted to improve, to learn from the lessons of those hundred failures, viewing this revelation as an opportunity!
This was beyond ruthless...
Everyone around them was stunned by his words.
Wan Qianhong clenched her fists. Looking at Liang Shuguang’s face, she suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.
She had always believed this man was the guardian deity of Dawn City, the person she respected most after Liu Yun.
Just then, a thought suddenly struck Wan Qianhong, and her voice trembled as she spoke, “Does... does Teacher Liu Yun know about all of this?”
Liang Shuguang turned his gaze toward her and offered an encouraging smile.
“Little Wan, an Edgerunner already? Remarkable. You truly are the genius of our Dawn City’s new generation.”
Then, he said calmly, “Liu Yun probably suspects some of it, but she doesn’t fully understand the specifics.”
“She is highly talented, but she is far too hesitant. In her youth, she was much like you. But experience always carves people into unimaginable shapes.”
“This has little to do with her anyway. In many ways, she’s just been acting as my scapegoat.”
Hearing the City Lord’s assessment, the weight pressing on Wan Qianhong’s heart loosened slightly for some reason.
At least it wasn't her teacher leading this...
She let out a long breath, but immediately after, an even stronger surge of fury welled up.
She thought of the efforts she had made over the years, her ideals of making Dawn City more just.
All those years of investigation, the resistance she had faced—now, it made her feel like a clown.
“Because of that idea of yours... you let the Huang and Li families turn the entire East District into a slaughterhouse. You let them treat the people of the Outer City like disposable fodder.”
“Those experiments, which were no different from torture... even when some people used them as an excuse to satisfy their own perverted desires, you turned a blind eye to it all?”
Liang Shuguang did not deny it. “Yes,” he said.
Wan Qianhong’s voice became sharper. “And you also let United Pharmaceuticals treat every student and every person in the city as test subjects for their drugs? You let so many people go mad, even allowing them to turn into aberrations?”
Liang Shuguang continued to nod. “Yes.”
Faint threads of blood began to condense around Wan Qianhong’s clenched fists.
“You also let the families working for you do whatever it took to achieve their goals, even when it involved corruption and evil atrocities.”
Liang Shuguang did not shy away, meeting Wan Qianhong’s gaze squarely. “Yes.”
It was all because there was no time left. It was for the sake of ultimate efficiency.
But Liang Shuguang offered no explanation for it.
Wan Qianhong felt as if something were crushing her heart.
For thirty years, Liang Shuguang had appeared this way before everyone—gentle and candid.
Even now, he remained the same, showing neither guilt nor the shame of being exposed.
This instead caused Wan Qianhong’s own composure to shatter. The feeling of being betrayed and deceived made her roar in fury.
“For thirty years, corruption ran rampant, bones piled up like mountains, the Inner City was a foul mess, and the Outer City was no different from hell!”
“And the people you killed... they died believing you were the best City Lord they could have!”
“Until the moment they died, they were still hoping you would deliver justice for them! Do you have nothing to say about that?!”
Liang Shuguang fell silent for a moment, then he slowly raised his head.
“If the destruction of the world is viewed as the inevitable end we must face, then these were all necessary sacrifices in the struggle for survival.”
“I am sorry, but no sacrifice is too great to accept!”
Wan Qianhong felt a wave of immense exhaustion. It felt utterly absurd. “Then what gives you the right to make the choice for everyone?”
Liang Shuguang looked at her intently and spoke loudly for the first time, “Do you think I wanted to make the choice for them?!”
Liang Shuguang didn’t wait for her answer and continued on his own.
“I became the City Lord back then because Dawn City truly had no one left. Too many excellent people had sacrificed themselves, Liu Yun was heavily injured, and Dawn City was on the brink of collapse.”
“The first thing I did upon taking office was establish the Voting Assembly. In that moment of life or death, I hoped everyone would cast a vote for their own path forward.”
“I hoped every single person would open their minds and provide their own solutions for the future of humanity.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, his voice carrying a hint of disappointment for the first time.
“But you saw what the Voting Assembly became.”
“Everyone felt it had nothing to do with them. Everyone longed for a wise leadership, hoping to be saved, hoping to follow.”
“They hoped for a god to save the world! Yet the only gods we know of are here to destroy it!”
Wan Qianhong was left speechless, momentarily cowed by Liang Shuguang’s momentum.
Liang Shuguang’s voice rang out again, and this time, he turned his gaze toward Bai Feifei.
“I told you, you don’t know what you are truly fighting against.”
“Saving is fundamentally much harder than destroying. Order is far more difficult to achieve than chaos.”
“We are all about to face the catastrophe of the Old Ones' Awakening. But before that true despair descends, the thing you have to fight isn't me, nor Zhulong, nor some family...”
“The thing you truly have to face is the inertia in everyone's hearts. It is the instinct to crave ease and stability, the sloth of people praying for a savior to exist so they can cast aside the responsibility they should have carried.”
“And these... are insurmountable.”
“So, you...”
“Must make the choice for them!”
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