illicitly | (Reply)

From:

[His brother is proud of him.

Anger, disappointment, and shame over the methods he'd used... Mistrust in the person Huaisang had become over the years... Those were reactions that he'd been prepared for, not this. It take some time for Huaisang to reply because the words are enough to make him burst into tears of bittersweet relief. He's been carrying guilt over not being able to lead the Qinghe Nie Sect the way he imagined his brother would have wanted him to for so long. Every questionable decision had been painful until the one way Huaisang had been able to continue making them had been to simply numb himself in order to keep doing what had to be done.

Once he's finally stopped crying for the time being, Huaisang wipes his eyes, washes his face, and simply goes back to texting.]

I evaded open war with the Lanling Jin and saw to it that you were avenged. None of our disciples were killed. It was the best that I could do.

[He could talk about his fears and his reasoning but what would it matter now? The most important things is that he'd kept their people safe. They had not shared the Tingshan He Clan's fate because of the decisions he'd made as their leader. Even if Jin Guangyao's word that he simply would've locked Huaisang away could be trusted, there was no assurance that the cultivators under his leadership would've been granted the same mercy.]

I'll leave him to you. If you are informed, there is little else I can do to help you but stay out of your way.

[Huaisang has his own life to lead here, after all. The more distance he has from their relationship and the less he knows about matters between them unless his assistance is specifically required, the better.]