Example? So you present a chaste and unconsummated marriage as an example? [ It must be terrible to be in their sect, so hampered by rules and chasteness that no one can consummate their marriages.

At least his aunt and uncle had a lively marriage, respectful and loving. Mo Ran cannot claim he presented a good example— he didn't— but at least he did have something he could look at, once before. ]

Free my soul? I murdered my uncle, my aunt, and my sect. Do you think that allows for freeing my soul? [ It is not his eternal soul that matters, for Mo Ran has nothing. Nothing to offer, nothing to beg for. He'll walk this world, attempting to make up for what he did, cherishing and respecting his shizun and his sect.

Not that anything can make up for those atrocities. The best he can do is make sure he never turns into Taxian-jun, and that if he does, there is someone poised to kill him, a honed blade against his throat.

They descend, a growing sense of dread burdening his shoulders, bleakness on his tongue. Can he ever escape the chill, the sense of foreboding that has lingered in him since Chu Wanning's first death?

The Lan beside is no help. ] Does it matter, Senior?