>>535204808
He grew new virtues, the one who gave up and buried them was our Hong Lu, who was too scared to try anything due to fear of being hurt.
He grew utter disdain for the malevolent and self serving ways of the place and decided he would wipe it clean. He's not really evil nor a hypocrite, as he's cleaning only targets that could maintain the status quo or reinstate it in the future, even young lords like in Greg/Rodya's uptie. Merciless yes, but it's goal driven.
He tried to get Xichunmael to step down, but she survived the attack, and got wormed, so he killed her after she lost herself.
He technically made the wing safer? The people liked his changes, but he also decides to wage war against other wings before his seemingly short lived reign ended, we don't know what came of that I think.
And he didn't manipulate the narrative, the story has a literal writer doing his job cataloguing the happenings, and he gets curious about what he's writing, but has no wish to censor or hide any facts.