Chapter 166 – One Sword to Sever a Lifetime

The sounds of bells, rain, thunder, mountains collapsing, and seas roaring—they all shook heaven and earth. The disciples of the Beast Taming Sect had no time to flee, no time to hide, not even enough time to realize what was happening before they were smashed into the sea and darkness along with the exploding mountains. The last image in their vision was a flash of silver light between the rain of giant rocks.

One after another, the peaks of the Dragon Head range split in two. Brown rock peeled away from pale white bone in massive chunks. The bell towers perched atop the peaks all collapsed, and the great bronze bells hung from the spinous processes of the dragon’s spine like cyan-gold chimes. The giant dragon, draped in a cloak of mountain bells and dragging thousands of heavy iron chains, raised its head to the sky.

In the distant Plum City, the Heavenly Mountain spewed forth a great fire. Fire and snow rose together into the sky, like a long, slow fall of plum blossoms. A long, long time ago, a three-legged silver dragon, carrying a plum blossom in its mouth, had passed by. She saw the Heavenly Lake like a mirror and the curled-up refugees, and so she opened her mouth and let the blossom fall. The fluttering plum blossoms, generation after generation, branch after branch, supported a city’s Ten Joys Song.

First and second bow, may he not depart. Light snow falls, I sweep the courtyard.

Third and fourth bow, grant me this winter. Heavy snow falls, a thick blanket of feathers.

…

Thousands of silver lights scattered like thousands of silver feathers, illuminating the night in all directions.

…Once there was a divine dragon, ten thousand kilometers long, its scales shimmering. It appeared and disappeared in the clouds, its light piercing the gloom. Wherever it went, all was clear.

Suddenly, the long night became as day. In the daylight, a figure in a blood-red robe fell toward the giant dragon cloaked in silver light.

Zhuang Xuan, startled from his brief shock, unhesitatingly moved forward. His right hand, fingers spread, reached toward the soaring dragon shadow, then clenched. One by one, the chains of heavy iron bit deep into the spinal processes. As they abruptly tightened, the Silver Dragon’s skeleton was frozen in mid-air.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the dragon that had been dead for thousands of years. Its long, slender ribs curved like a cage, its long spine spiraling upward with an elegance and lightness that belied its massive form. It raised its head to the sky, as if a giant serpent were trying to gently catch a flower with the tip of its nose. Where its head was pointed, in the fierce wind, the Divine Lord’s blood-red robe billowed, like the spider lilies described in Buddhist scripture, blooming on the banks of the river of fire in hell.

The Divine Lord lowered his head, gazing at the little silver dragon that had once coiled playfully around his wrist. It had grown very, very large, so large that when it flew, it was like an entire mountain range winding through the clouds.

The red robe fluttered. Of all the people in the Beast Taming Sect, not a single one saw how the second sword strike was delivered. They only heard an endless series of clanging sounds.

“Watch out!”

An elder of the Beast Taming Sect, riding a crane, shouted sharply. When the mountains cracked, the disciples who couldn’t react in time were crushed by the rocks, and more than half of them died. The rest, either riding flying birds or flood dragons, had barely managed to fly up and escape. Now, the sound of a strong wind arrived faster than the crane-riding elder’s shout—it was the sound of chains being severed at the same time!

The chains were incredibly heavy, forged from solid iron. These were the very weapons the Beast Taming Sect had once used to trap dragons; now they were flying back at them. One by one, the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect didn’t even have time to cry out before they were smashed into a pulp, flesh and bone, by the severed, recoiling chains. Bursts of bloody mist exploded on the chains, like a brown vine suddenly blooming with dazzling flowers.

Flesh and bone fragments rained down with a pattering sound. Zhuang Xuan staggered back a step, spat out a mouthful of blood, the veins on the back of the hand clutching the Silver Dragon’s inner pill bulging.

He barely managed to steady himself, his eyes falling on a scene of utter devastation. The majestic mountain range was gone. The collapsed and disintegrated mountains covered the sea’s surface, a low, undulating expanse that had become a long, winding brown scar. Dark blood splashed upon it, washed by the torrential rain. The yellow of the earth and the red of the blood mixed, spreading out into the waters on either side.

It was more terrifying than the previous bloody battles. Ironically, the West Sea Sea Demons, who had been gathered together from the start, had managed to withstand this earth-shattering change with their layers of defense. This was the moment to counterattack. The Dragon Head Thousand Peaks that had trapped them were gone, and the Beast Taming Sect that had fought them had suffered a heavy blow. They should have taken this opportunity to charge out, to rush toward the Beast Taming Sect, which had been caught off guard, to tear those treacherous betrayers to shreds. But none of them moved. They all stood in the turbulent, stormy sea.

All of them quietly looked up at the sky.

…How long is a demon’s memory? Very, very long. So long that even after ten thousand years, the earliest memories remained clear.

When humans are born, they have nothing, know nothing. It takes a great deal of time to master even the most basic knowledge and strength. The babbling of infancy, the stumbling steps of childhood, the hard studies of youth… Those who are born with knowledge are sages alone.

But for a great demon, being “born with knowledge” was not an ability exclusive to sages. Demons were different from humans. Demons passed on information and abilities through their bloodline. The previous generation of great demons passed their power and knowledge to their descendants through their blood. That was why many demons, from the moment they were born, stood at a starting point that some humans could never reach in their entire lives.

Bloodline inheritance, bloodline inheritance. As parents, one can’t help but give everything they consider the best to their children, without reservation. They leave powerful strength, useful knowledge, and beautiful things to the next generation. In this aspect of parental love, demons and humans were no different.

The first demons, like children counting stones, passed on their most beloved things to the next generation. Power, knowledge, and… memory.

The first West Sea Sea Demons, in the cold, dark depths of the sea, didn’t know why they were born, nor why they died. Between them, there was only causeless anger, only the self-slaughter of venting that anger. It was a long, muddled memory, a chaotic mix of bloody light and shadow. Just a vague recollection of it could bring a sharp, hostile aura to the face.

There was no warmth, no gentleness. Until a speck of snow-dust fell into the darkness.

…So they are demons.

The Divine Lord in white, holding a lantern in one hand and his sleeve in the other, lowered his head and his eyes. The sea back then was not like the sea now. The water was pitch black, viscous, like blood and mud. The sea demons, like maggots, like a nest of snakes, huddled in their cold lairs, both fearful and astonished, their cold, vertical pupils fixed on the newcomer. At that time, the Divine Lord hadn’t yet thought of building the four poles; he was just passing by by chance.

He was powerful, terrifying. But there was no hostility.

The Divine Lord who was just passing by had not a trace of killing intent. He just let out a soft, slightly surprised sigh and continued on his way. The sound of scraping scales followed him in the darkness. The West Sea Sea Demons followed him, not too close, not too far.

…What is that?

The first demons stared at the light swaying in the depths of the sea, thinking muddle-headedly. They wanted to snatch it, but didn’t dare to make a move.

…The newcomer who was just passing by was powerful and terrifying, but had no hostility. They should have just hidden themselves obediently in a corner. Following him was just courting death. But perhaps it was precisely because the other party had no hostility, no killing intent, that their curiosity became almost reckless.

Something they had never seen before…

What was it? For the first time, the demons, who only knew how to kill and eat, struggled to think. They couldn’t come up with an answer and grew increasingly agitated. The smell of blood behind them grew stronger. The Divine Lord in white, walking alone in the darkness, stopped, sighed, and turned back.

The startled sea demons crowded backward. This is a lantern. The candle inside is a Migu candle. The Divine Lord held up the lantern and explained gently and warmly. Seeing the sea creatures shrinking back in the distance, both wary and unwilling to leave, he thought for a moment, then waved his sleeve, clearing a small space in the filth, and placed the lantern down.

What was migu? What was a lantern? After the Divine Lord left, in the chaotic depths of the sea, the powerful demons immediately pounced on each other… At that time, the demons didn’t yet know what “kin” was, nor did they know what love was. They only had the simplest desire: to kill the other great demons and claim the glowing treasure for themselves.

But the moment they moved, the candlelight was swayed by the wind and air currents. It was about to be extinguished. The great demons who had made a move were startled and froze on the spot, all of them unconsciously holding their breath, staring at the flame that seemed as if it could go out at any moment. It wasn’t until it stabilized that their tense muscles suddenly relaxed. Once the flame was steady, the great demons wanted to pounce on each other again, but the moment they did, the flame flickered again.

After this happened over and over, the great demons, their intelligence not yet fully developed, finally realized: they couldn’t fight near the lantern. For the first time in history, the great demons of the deep sea gathered in a small area without slaughtering each other out of baseless rage. For the first time, they learned to gather around and quietly stare at a flame that was, to them, very, very small. The flame was reflected in pairs of eyes, some crimson, some cold gold.

The flame of the Migu-wicked candle was pure white, and when it flickered, it was like the hem of a dancer’s skirt. …Beautiful. Pretty. They thought vaguely, gaining a direct impression of “beauty.”

The top-tier deep-sea demons no longer indulged in slaughter as they used to… It was like a floodgate opening for the first time, like the first splash of dawn. A single spark ignited the fireworks of self-awareness. They gathered around the fire, and the firelight revealed their similar forms to each other. They suddenly realized what they looked like, what the others looked like. What is “me”? What is “him”? They discovered the question, but couldn’t find the answer.

In their day-after-day contemplation, a small spark from the lantern popped. The Migu had burned out. Darkness returned.

At first, the sea demons didn’t realize what had happened. The shadow of the flame seemed to linger in their vision, still flickering, still dancing like a dancer. They still gathered around the lantern, waiting for it to light up again. They even reached out with their front claws to touch the lantern, their simple minds thinking this would make it burn again. It wasn’t until the residual phantom of the flame in their vision had completely disappeared, and the lantern was accidentally crushed with a “crack” by someone, that the enormous Shi Yi, the armor-clad Turtle-dragon, the hundred-kilometer-long Vicious Flood Dragon… the group of great demons grew restless again. They wanted to do something, but didn’t know what to do, like a group of puppies running in circles, unable to find their way.

The darkness was gently parted. It was a clear, faint light. White robes fluttered, like clouds, like snow, like a rainbow, like mist.

The Divine Lord bent down and picked up the bamboo lantern. The handle and the thin bamboo strips had been broken by the demons who hadn’t yet learned to control their strength. The pure white gauze was stained with blood from someone’s scales, making it dirty. The sea demons let out low, long whimpers, looking at him with pleading eyes.

“The candle has burned out.”

The Divine Lord sat down in the circle formed by the great demons, dismantled the broken lantern frame. The clean, thin bamboo strips, as soft as silk, danced between his clean, long fingers, bit by bit, weaving a beautiful new frame. His clothes and hair were covered in a faint, snow-like glow.

He lowered his eyelashes. His face, as fair as white jade, cast a faint shadow. Shi Yi squatted beside the Divine Lord, head bowed. As the Divine Lord replaced a bamboo strip, one slipped from his fingers. Shi Yi reached out to pick it up. Its large, blood-stained hand touched the Divine Lord’s pure white sleeve, leaving a large, dirty mark. The surroundings suddenly fell silent.

Since birth, the demon race had struggled and fought in the mud. They rarely realized they were dirty. On the snow-white robe, the stain was particularly vivid. Shi Yi’s hand, holding the bamboo strip, opened and closed, hovering in mid-air, not knowing whether to hand it over or pull it back.

The Divine Lord naturally took the bamboo strip and smiled his thanks. Shi Yi grunted something in reply. But the surroundings gradually became lively again. The sea demons were no longer as quiet as before. They pushed and shoved each other, letting out whimpers from time to time. The demons who couldn’t get a spot boldly climbed onto the shoulders of larger demons like Shi Yi. A Kui Dragon who couldn’t grab a spot stretched its huge, ferocious head over the crowd and sneakily pressed down a corner of the Divine Lord’s pure white robe.

…Like.

They thought vaguely. Divine Lord, lantern, beautiful. Like. White robes, bonfire, fingers plucking zither strings, a smile when he turned his head… It was from this single lantern flame illuminating the darkness that the West Sea Sea Demons began to have a sense of self, began to learn what love for one’s own kind was, began to understand that in the lonely darkness, embracing was warmer than slaughter. This was the most beautiful and wonderful thing the West Sea Sea Demons had ever seen.

They carefully collected all these memories, carving them into their bloodline. Their thoughts were simple… That beam of light is so beautiful. They wanted their children to see it too.

At certain times, while crossing mountains and ridges, slaughtering the thirty-six cities, the West Sea Sea Demons couldn’t help but think… it would have been better if the great demons of the past hadn’t passed down those memories. It would have been better if demons could be as forgetful as humans.

But, in the dim northwest corner, in the cold depths of the sea, it was the first ray of sunlight you had ever seen. How could you bear to forget it? …Those images were too beautiful, too clear, so much so that even when standing on the battlefield against the Divine Lord, even after betraying their promise to him, the West Sea Sea Demons still subconsciously felt, felt that the Divine Lord should always be like that.

He should be as bright as light, as pure as snow.

Drip.

The Taiyi Sword hung low, its tip dripping blood. The Divine Lord stood on the Silver Dragon’s head, and lightning illuminated him. He no longer had any connection to brightness or purity. The deep red sleeves of his robe hung down, their hems submerged in the foul water. His long white hair was soaked by the cold rain, clinging to his bloodless cheeks.

…This… is this the Divine Lord?

The remaining elders of the Beast Taming Sect, riding their beasts, hovered in mid-air. Seeing the figure standing on the dragon’s head, for a moment, no one dared to confirm it. They were not like the demon race; they had never seen the Divine Lord in his snow-white robes. But the Divine Lord as the Little Martial Ancestor of Taiyi, as described by storytellers, was the epitome of romantic elegance.

Plucking strings to stir the wind, a red robe holding a lantern. He was the number one beauty in the mortal realm, the number one in elegance. How could he be this thin, bloody figure before them?

The great bell boomed, the heavy cauldron boomed. Huai Ningjun and Shi Wuluo each retreated a distance, their robes billowing in the wind. The first full-force clash between the Desolate Lord and the Heavenly Dao had ended. The curtain of rain in the high sky was torn open, and the wind and rain over the entire Dragon Head Thousand Peaks briefly ceased. The storm was shattered by the shockwave from the collision of the saber and sword. The light from the saber and sword even tore a huge hole in the clear sky, and a bone-chilling cold and a twisted, searing fire poured down from the opening.

The West Sea Sea Demons and the people of the Beast Taming Sect, as if waking from a dream, subconsciously charged toward each other, then abruptly stopped. The Silver Dragon’s skeleton lay between the two sides. On the dragon’s bones, the Divine Lord, empty and indifferent, looked down on the battlefield.

For a moment, no one knew his purpose, his stance. Huai Ningjun’s figure flickered, his white robes suffused with a faint black qi. Behind him, black clouds surged, and a host of demons was about to emerge. Shi Wuluo landed beside Chou Bodeng, facing him from a distance, his scarlet saber held low, the Fish Breath Cauldron floating. The cauldron’s lid had been opened at some point, and one by one, corpses walked out from within, their bodies burning with a great fire, and stood behind him.

Powerful auras emanated from them. They were the bodies of the heavenly gods, earthly demons, and even human heroes who had died in the miasma while establishing the four poles. This was originally part of the deal between the Great Wilderness and the West Sea Sea Demons, and it was the source of the West Sea Sea Demons’ confidence in daring to attack Dragon Head Thousand Peaks even when they knew the Beast Taming Sect wanted to use them for a blood sacrifice. They just hadn’t expected that Shi Wuluo, as the Heavenly Dao who had fallen to a demon, could forcibly seize the Fish Breath Cauldron.

The cold air froze the shattered rain curtain into a flurry of heavy snow. Snow and flowing fire fell together. Nu Mie and the West Sea Sea Demons stood on the turbulent waves, looking up at the Divine Lord, neither advancing nor retreating. The elders of the Beast Taming Sect stood in the blizzard and flowing fire, looking down at the unrecognizable peaks… Gone, all gone. The mountain gate, the heavenly steps, the peaks, the disciples… everything familiar was gone.

In the cold, dead, inescapable silence, someone suddenly let out a sharp, almost crazed laugh.

“Dead! They’re all dead! Good! Good that they’re all dead and gone!”

From the ruins of the eight trigram-mountains, a disheveled elder in a green shirt rushed out, looking like a madwoman. It was Bai Jianzhi, who had lost her composure earlier. Because she had rashly attacked the sect master, she had been taken away from the Silver Dragon’s inner pill, which had ironically allowed her to avoid the blast from Elder Yan and the Dark Bird’s self-detonation.

“Zhuang Xuan!” Bai Jianzhi shrieked. “Are you proud of yourself now?! Your great eternal enterprise has killed the entire sect! Are you proud of yourself now?!” She laughed hysterically, spreading her arms and rushing toward Zhuang Xuan. “You sinner! You deserve to die ten thousand deaths!”

Thud.

A muffled sound.

“Sect Master!”

The few remaining elders of the Beast Taming Sect were horrified, a chill running through their bones. They suddenly realized that they didn’t recognize the man standing in the snow and fire at all.

Bai Jianzhi’s figure froze in mid-air. A hand had pierced through her chest and clutched her heart. Zhuang Xuan expressionlessly pulled his hand out. Hot blood splashed onto his cold, hard face. Bai Jianzhi’s cyan dress fell toward the sea, which was now filled with rocks and corpses. There was no bloodier way to move mountains and fill the sea, no crueler way to turn peaks into plains. The Divine Lord had struck twice with his sword, one to move the mountains, one to sever the mountain gate.

Dragon Head Thousand Peaks was no more. Not one in a hundred of the Beast Taming Sect’s members remained.

“Sinner?”

Zhuang Xuan’s fingers slowly tightened. The bloody heart was crushed by him, and bits of flesh and blood seeped out from between his fingers. He seemed completely unaware of the horror of his actions, and just suddenly burst into a strange laugh.

“Sinner! I am a sinner, a criminal, a despicable villain!”

“But so what!”

“So what!”

As his voice fell, the ruins of Dragon Head Thousand Peaks suddenly began to shake again. In the murky water, lines of a formation, crisscrossing like the lines on a chessboard, lit up. The thousand-kilometer ruins of the Dragon Head range became a giant, circular drum. On the drum’s surface, rocks jumped, and the seawater vibrated with a thudding sound. A column of cold blue light, the color of water, shot straight into the sky.

The Divine Lord, the Silver Dragon, the demon race, the elders of the Beast Taming Sect… everyone was inside the pillar of light. The West Sea Sea Demons, in the middle of the three-layered ruins of the peaks, felt an extremely terrifying yet extremely unstable power slowly rising from the seawater beneath their feet. The Cold Wilderness great demon, Nu Mie, her expression suddenly changed.

“Madman!” she blurted out.

The Heavenly Wedge! Zhuang Xuan had activated the Heavenly Wedge! He had forcibly activated it without the blood sacrifice being complete! Everyone present would die, except for the Divine Lord, the Heavenly Dao, Huai Ningjun, and a few others! Even the birds and beasts, the cities and all living beings in the entire northern part of the West Continent would die!

Why did activating the Heavenly Wedge require a blood sacrifice? Why was the blood sacrifice required so terrifyingly vast? Because the primordial chaos had not yet been separated. Because under the model of Zhoubi Heaven Stabilization, the heaven and earth of the Twelve Continents were all interconnected. Chaos had not yet been separated, and the earth’s crust at the edges of the mortal realm was rotten and brittle, unable to bear the weight of the Heavenly Pillars, which was why the Heavenly Wedges were needed to help. If any one Heavenly Wedge were rashly raised or disappeared, the pole it balanced would immediately collapse! The sky of the mortal realm would immediately collapse with it, and then the other three Heavenly Pillars would be pulled askew.

The so-called “blood sacrifice” was to create a temporary Heavenly Wedge when moving the real one. It was equivalent to using the bones of countless living beings to bear the terrifying force of the heaven and earth’s vibrations. To use countless new spines to replace the old Heavenly Wedge, to bear the terrifying force of the Twelve Continents’ sky rotating, the thick earth stretching, the force that moved the whole when one part was pulled.

If the blood sacrifice was not complete when the Heavenly Wedge was raised, the temporary replacement would not have enough power to support the mortal realm. It would be a catastrophe, a bloodbath.

…Don’t you understand yet?

Huai Ningjun looked from afar at the white-haired Divine Lord standing on the Silver Dragon’s head. The only way to end everything was to reset the Heavenly Wedge. But after long years of hatred, conflict, and resentment, humans, demons, and gods could no longer love each other, could no longer be without dust and grime. Bloodshed had forged hatred, and hatred had fueled bloodshed. There was no turning back, only moving forward.

There was only a slaughter, a calamity. To use the blood and bones of humans, demons, and gods to recast this heaven and earth.

His sleeves fluttered, and Huai Ningjun’s expression was so calm it was almost sorrowful. …Even if you are the Divine Lord, even if you can shatter your bones to support the heavens as you did before, even if you can stop this current tragedy of immortals and demons killing each other, of the common people suffering, what’s the use? It will only cause the mortal realm to slowly sink into the mire of a death sentence, never to be stopped, never to be changed.

This was a game that could not be broken, a puzzle that could not be solved. The mortal realm had long been soaked in the blood of hatred. Malice was the true nature of all things.

“So what if I’m a villain? So what if I’m a sinner? The weak are meat for the strong! Life and death are one’s own to take!”

Zhuang Xuan was laughing, his arms spread, his face tilted up, laughing loudly. Amidst his laughter, screams rang out one after another. One by one, the elders of the Beast Taming Sect were pierced through the chest by the cold blue light of the formation, dying tragically on the spot.

The main sect of the Beast Taming Sect was thus annihilated. The prayers and sacrificial songs of tens of millions of people converged, coming from within the light formation. One by one, the City Blessing Seals of the West Continent’s cities quietly appeared, their light reflecting the formation’s patterns… If someone had enough patience to trace all the seal patterns of the Twelve Continents’ cities and piece them together, they would get a complete map of the qi veins of the Twelve Continents.

The City Blessing Seal was not just a spiritual tool for the city’s diviner to communicate with the City God; it was also a piece on the chessboard of the mortal realm. The qi of the cities rose to become stars. The Heavenly Pillars, the Heavenly Wedges, and Kongsang were the main framework of the Zhoubi Heaven Stabilization model. The cities were the meridians that grew from them, the stars that revolved around the sun and moon. But at certain times, if one forcibly grabbed the intersecting points, it was not impossible to, in turn, pull and move the most crucial pillars of the entire model.

“My sins are monstrous, your sins are monstrous, his sins are monstrous… Who can be without sin, who can be called sorrowful?”

Zhuang Xuan’s face was already covered in climbing blood vessels. This man, who had hated the demon race and strange beasts his whole life, was now being devoured by the Dragon Pill, becoming, in the end, the vessel for the divine dragon’s revival. The Divine Lord could summon the Silver Dragon’s body, but he could not summon its inner pill, because it had long been fused by Zhuang Xuan with the Heavenly Wedge’s grand array.

The sea’s surface trembled, and strange waves surged. The West Sea Sea Demons gathered together, their bone-white spears aimed at the Divine Lord… The blood sacrifice was not complete, the Beast Taming Sect was annihilated, who else could serve as the final, missing sacrifice? Although the bone spears had not yet been loosed, the trust of the past had long vanished.

A meeting after ten thousand years, old friends with white hair. Old friends, new enemies.

Thump, thump, thump.

Blood vessels, flesh, spread like vines, gradually devouring and enveloping Zhuang Xuan. But he was still laughing.

“I wish to replace the heavens, and you wish to replace the heavens!” He spread his arms, letting the blood vessels spread and cover him. He wanted to force the Divine Lord to act, to kill humans or to kill demons… No matter which method was used, today’s sacrifice had to have a result. “Come! Come!” Zhuang Xuan laughed wildly. “I invite you, my lord, to replace the heavens!”

A pillar of light shot into the sky. On a floating island in the sea, Mu Di’s figure suddenly moved, then just as suddenly stopped.

The moment the pillar of light shot up, Shi Wuluo gripped his saber and moved forward. No one would doubt that he would, without hesitation, let the Twelve Continents flow with rivers of blood… He was the Heavenly Dao that had long ago fallen to a demon, the mortal realm that had long hated the common people. Killing humans or killing demons, to him, made no difference, was not worth a moment’s hesitation.

But he was stopped. His hand was gently held by the Divine Lord. Cold rain washed over the Divine Lord’s white hair, and the clotted blood at the tips was diluted, dripping, drop by drop, onto his shoulder.

The Divine Lord lowered his eyelashes and, holding his sword, moved forward. His blood-red robe fluttered.

The third sword strike fell with a roar. The sword light flooded the grand array.

Across the Twelve Continents of the mortal realm, thunder suddenly exploded. The flowing fire in countless cities was extinguished in an instant. In a flash, a million dry bones, a million vengeful souls… All across the lands of the Twelve Continents, all the stone steles and carvings commemorating the Divine Lord’s past deeds shattered in an instant. All the books and histories that recorded the white-robed figure in the clouds turned to ash.

All that had come before, the kindness and protection, the bitter support of ten thousand years. It all vanished like smoke and clouds.

One sword to sever a lifetime.