Ming Daozi lay on the ground.
The mist that had blurred his vision thinned and slipped away. Snowflakes drifted down and settled on his skin and clothes. Yet the light told a different story; it was already dusk, the sun sinking.
The earth trembled as the Li family's Blood Tree drew near; its enormous crimson canopy rolled over the sky, making the evening glow an even deeper, almost violent red.
The last bit of spiritual power on his body flickered. The wounds on Ming Daozi's body faded away, and a healthy flush returned to his face.
Gazing at the red clouds and the snowflakes dyed crimson by their light, he could feel the members of the Li family approaching, step by step.
He had sensed it, then.
As he fell, the disciples and elders of the Three Great Powers had fled without the slightest hesitation. No one had come to save him.
Perhaps it was just as his fellow Daoist, Yunlin, had said.
He was high and mighty, and what he saw was always only what others wanted him to see.
He couldn't see anything clearly. He couldn't see the disciples retreating one by one when the great formation was bombarded, nor could he see them fleeing in droves after the Li family's reinforcements arrived. He couldn't even see himself clearly.
The sun was setting.
The color of this sky, he thought, was just like the Three Great Powers of today.
"Sigh."
Ming Daozi let out a long sigh. The members of the Li family rose into the air one by one, dragging their wounded and battered bodies. But where were the disciples of the Three Great Powers?
He saw Li Yunlin, and his weak voice carried into the sky.
"Fellow Daoist Yunlin, might I have a word with you?"
In the sky, Li Yunlin furrowed his brow. Senior Ming Daozi, the man who had once sat and discussed the Dao with him in the Myriad Dao Immortal Palace, was now on the verge of death.
"Yunlin."
Li Dalong shook his head at his grandson, warning him. Even on his deathbed, Ming Daozi was still a Void Refining realm expert.
But Li Yunlin just smiled calmly.
"Grandfather, I have already reached the Divinity Transformation realm. With the Skyveil Hall, I have the power to protect myself, even when facing a dying Void Refining expert.
We once sat and discussed the Dao; in a way, we can be considered friends. It is only right that I see him off on his final journey."
Afterward, Li Yunlin flew down toward the ground.
In the sky, Daoist Puci took a deep breath and furrowed his brow.
It was unknown what kind of deal he had made with the White Qilin, but he did not flee.
Instead, he looked down at Ming Daozi from afar, his expression complex.
Soon, Li Yunlin, now on the ground, had helped Ming Daozi sit upright.
Beneath the setting sun, everyone watched as the two sat facing each other. No one knew what they were talking about, and the others began to clean up the battlefield.
....
On this day, throughout the lands of the Duravia Trade Prefecture, countless people were cleaning up the many battlefields.
The Old Tree said that in its omens, it had seen a path of blood—a path carved out by the people of Azure Cloud.
And so it was.
In the end, Ming Daozi had fallen.
This cultivator of twenty thousand years, even at the final moment of his life, had never taken the life of another with his own hands. Yet in the Duravia Trade Prefecture, countless people had perished because of him and Prince Qian.
Night fell.
From the Li family's battlefield, a spirit ark rose into the air. Aboard it, the wounded members of the Li family and the people of Azure Cloud supported one another.
Li Yaozu had also returned.
At the prow of the spirit ark was Prince Qian, tied up and spread-eagled (resembling a person with their arms and legs spread wide), and also Ming Daozi, who, though no longer breathing, sat cross-legged at the very tip.
Wherever the spirit ark passed, not even the great clans and families of the Duravia Trade Prefecture dared to stand in its way; they all hid away within their Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands.
It was not just the Li family who had faced such a difficult battlefield; the old seniors from Azure Cloud who had charged into the Duravia Trade Prefecture had faced an even more difficult predicament.
As the Li family's spirit ark arrived, others followed in its wake from the various Regions, but the number of people on them was pitifully small.
When they had set out from Eternal Sun Prefecture, their momentum had been magnificent. Now, their numbers were tragically few.
They had reveled at the Li family's home and charged into the Duravia Trade Prefecture with wild roars; now, so many of them lay silently on the spirit arks.
When the fleet of spirit arks returned to the border of Eternal Sun Prefecture, the survivors all stood together at the prow.
They saw the people of Azure Cloud waiting at the border, lined up row after row.
These juniors of the Azure Cloud commanderies all held their heads high, and every single one of them had bloodshot eyes.
Prince Qian, tied to the spirit ark, and the body of the deceased Ming Daozi—this was the victory the seniors had brought back for them.
Li Dalong took a deep breath, looking back at the children, and then at the many old comrades standing on the spirit arks behind him.
At that moment, beneath the night sky, smiles broke out on the faces of those old comrades who had charged into the Duravia Trade Prefecture.
Taking another deep breath, Li Dalong looked down upon the juniors of Azure Cloud.
"We won."
"Let's go. We're going home!"
The spirit arks moved forward, carrying the people of Azure Cloud back toward their home.
Their steps were heavy.
A blood-soaked red cloth drifted down from some unknown place and landed forever upon the Duravia Trade Prefecture, just like the blood shed by the people of Azure Cloud in that land.
One day, their descendants would set foot upon that same blood-soaked soil.
....
Half a month passed.
On the sparkling sea, Li Xingchen stood at the prow of the ship, his arms around Fan Feixuan, who was now in her final month of pregnancy.
Ahead lay the coast.
Fan Feixuan's expression was filled with apprehension. Over the past half-month, she had heard many, many stories of the Li family, and just as many about the people of Azure Cloud.
It seemed she was about to have a real family of her own, and her child would have a group of very strange, but very kind, elders.
In Li Xingchen's stories, she would have a new home, and in that home, all the seniors were great heroes.
But could such a wonderful place really exist in this world? Fan Feixuan wasn't sure. At least, back on the island, she had never even dared to imagine such a thing.
"Xuanxuan."
Li Xingchen held Fan Feixuan a little tighter, his eyes bloodshot with emotion as he pointed to the shore. "Do you see them? Those are my clansmen!"
She looked and saw.
On the shore, all the members of the Li family were dressed in clean clothes, smiling warmly at her, as if they hadn't just been fighting for their lives in the Duravia Trade Prefecture half a month ago.
Every single one of them had a relaxed expression, their faces holding kind and amiable smiles. They looked just like an ordinary, large family.
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