"It is hard to believe that someone you trust would betray." He closes his eyes, feeling that guilt well in his own heart. That ache of distrust he had felt when he thought Wei Wuxian was going against them all. He had hoped that the man wasn't having his heart corrupted by the demonic cultivation. He wanted to believe that he wasn't capable of doing the things that people were blaming on him. And for the brief moment he let himself hear the voices of those that were rising against him. And he allowed himself a moment of weakness and it cost everyone so much. He should have been more aware of the strings being pulled in the background and perhaps he also could have saved all of them the heartache.

"The signs might have been there but the trust he had built up was also a way to make his manipulations stronger." He had to make people believe he was blameless and trustworthy. Only then could he weave his web of deception and death.