Gong Ying died, died at the hands of Shi Jue, who he had deemed as critical for salvation. This irony, dramatic as it may seem, cannot go unmentioned.
At the very least, Kong Hai, the orchestrator of this drama, was shocked by Shi Jue's sudden action.
"You... You actually killed him?" Kong Hai's fingers trembled as he pointed at Shi Jue, who still bowed his head humbly.
The death of Gong Ying was not enough to shock Kong Hai. What shocked him was the decision Shi Jue made.
By killing Gong Ying, Shi Jue proved he had really made a decision, a decision that disregarded the lives of the thousands at Qiangong Castle.
"Are you... still a man of the Buddhist faith?"
One thousand lives, these were not a thousand chickens or ducks. The karmic debt of these thousand souls—if there was even a sliver of guilt in one's heart, it could ferment over time and potentially lead Shi Jue, the man of Buddhism, astray into deviation, never to recover.