Han Yu felt a heavy weight settle in his chest.
So some of the captured cultivators had already betrayed their factions. Already turned. Already broken.
"Are they still cultivators?" he asked.
"Mostly. But weakened. The training drains them. They will need time to grow again. But they are loyal now. And that is what matters."
Han Yu breathed in deeply.
Then he asked, "None of the righteous sect cultivators have submitted yet?"
The clerk scoffed. "Righteous? Please. They are stubborn. They resist. They scream. They curse. They take the longest to break. But in time, even they kneel. They always kneel. Everyone does."
Han Yu clenched his fist behind his back.
He kept Ju Fan's cold, uncaring expression firmly in place. But inside, a storm churned violently.
His friends were alive.
The righteous sect disciples were alive.
But they were suffering. And they would suffer for a long time.
Years.
He turned away slowly from the screen and the smirking clerk.
