The Blood Demon Beast would need roughly half an hour to absorb the demonic qi of the entire city. During this period, a barrier of demonic qi surrounded it, and no one could approach it.
Yue Chenqing led half of the defending army toward Soul of War Mountain first, while Gu Mang led the remaining half of the cultivators and stationed them along the banks of the surging Fu River.
By this time, dawn was approaching. Above the smoke-filled battlefield, the sky had begun to pale like the belly of a fish.
Gu Mang turned his head and looked toward Mo Xi and Murong Lian, who were still fighting the National Preceptor in the distance. It seemed as though he wanted to go over and say something to them, yet perhaps he merely wanted to look at them with lingering affection one last time.
Everything that needed to be said had already been said. Their grudges had been resolved, and their misunderstandings had disappeared.
Only the rest of their lives together was something they could no longer have.
But how could life ever be so complete?
In the end, Gu Mang did not linger over anything any longer.
Perhaps it was because, within his own plans, he had already rehearsed this kind of farewell countless times.
Everyone else thought he was going to restrain the Blood Demon Beast.
Only he himself knew what he was truly going to do.
He summoned the Golden-Winged Snow-Drifting Horse, straightened the Heroic Pendant, secured his bright-red helmet, and adjusted the blue-and-gold silk sash.
Then he rode into the air, leading his brothers-in-arms toward the rear of the Blood Demon Beast.
From the direction of Soul of War Mountain came faint sounds of movement.
Looking carefully, one could see rows of Chonghua soldiers moving continuously through the vegetation toward the burial ground at the mountain summit.
Yue Chenqing was carrying out the task Gu Mang had given him.
And that was also the countdown to Gu Mang’s own life…
The clouds and rosy light had only just begun to part. As dawn broke and the first ray of golden light tore through the darkness from deep within the night, the Blood Demon Beast absorbed the final wisp of demonic qi from Chonghua City.
At the same time, a thunderous crash erupted from the summit of Soul of War Mountain.
Seven towering statues of Chonghua’s former sovereigns collapsed with a deafening roar.
Between the mountains, forests, trees, and rocks, brilliant streams of golden-red light erupted.
The Divine-Demon Bow broke through the earth!
Gu Mang knew that this was the sign that Yue Chenqing had completed his instructions and successfully summoned the Divine-Demon Bow.
It was time for the final confrontation.
Gu Mang sensed the bloody sweetness of the decisive battle.
Naturally, the Blood Demon Beast also sensed danger.
It roared, swallowed the demonic breath already entering its throat, and exhaled thick streams of demonic qi. After stamping its feet in place for a moment, it finally soared into the air and flew majestically toward Soul of War Mountain, baring its fangs.
At the summit of Soul of War Mountain, the arrows of ten thousand soldiers gathered spiritual light, ready to be fired, and under Yue Chenqing’s command, they pointed directly at the Blood Demon Beast’s vital point.
But the Blood Demon Beast was simply flying too fast.
There was no way to aim at the point seven chi beneath its chest.
Yue Chenqing’s expression changed slightly. Watching it draw closer and closer, he could not help swallowing, unable to decide whether he should release the arrow immediately.
At that moment, Gu Mang drew his blade.
The rising sun shone brilliantly upon it.
He issued a stern command:
“Form the spell!”
At this moment, he rode the Golden-Winged Snow-Drifting Horse above the mighty Fu River flowing eastward.
Facing the million-strong army behind him, he shouted an order.
Amplified by a sound-amplification technique, his voice passed through the smoke and flames of war and spread across the desolate wilderness.
“Bind it!”
“Yes!!”
Following his command, the cultivators answered with earth-shaking cries.
Immediately afterward, golden spiritual chains burst from each of their palms.
Those slender chains gathered into a vast net that blazed with overwhelming radiance, flying from behind the Blood Demon Beast and tightly binding its powerful limbs and neck.
The Blood Demon Beast was enraged.
It let out an even deeper roar, baring its fangs and struggling furiously.
With every movement, millions of golden chains snapped apart.
“Bind it again!!”
Countless rays of golden light spread through the air once more, rushing toward the Blood Demon Beast again.
Gu Mang held his warhorse steady in the clouds.
The rising sun had begun to ascend in the east, breaking through from the darkness of the Great Abyss.
The rosy light in the sky was beginning to become even more expansive and crimson than the blood staining the earth below.
Gu Mang’s handsome profile was enveloped by the first rays of sunlight, casting a brilliant glow across his face.
As the cultivators bound the Blood Demon Beast with their spells for the second time, Gu Mang raised his hand and formed a seal.
He closed his eyes.
The instant his eyes shut, he suddenly saw through the eyes of the Blood Demon Beast Jingchen.
He saw Yue Chenqing standing ready atop Soul of War Mountain.
He saw the ruined royal capital.
He saw crying children.
Helpless elderly people.
Cultivators who had refused to retreat.
During those five years in Liao, these were the people he had been forced to hurt.
Now, through the Blood Demon Beast’s eyes, he looked upon them once again.
He saw the despair that had once kept him awake night after night.
He saw the hatred that had left him unable to escape his guilt.
But this time, he no longer needed to harm them.
At last, he could protect them.
Protect the life, goodness, youth, and new beginnings of this world.
Even if he had to become covered in scars and stained from head to toe in blood, he was willing to become mud itself, so long as beautiful flowers could bloom from his blood.
“Come,” Gu Mang silently said in his heart.
He seemed to see another soul standing before his own.
The soul of the Blood Demon Beast Jingchen.
It looked so monstrous and enormous, towering until it seemed to reach the heavens.
Yet Gu Mang did not feel the slightest fear, nor did he feel that it was unbeatable.
He walked toward it.
“Come. You are me, and I am you.”
Within this spiritual-knowledge illusion he saw with his eyes closed, Gu Mang opened his arms toward the Blood Demon Beast, just as Shen Tang had once done in his memories.
“It’s all over.”
The Blood Demon Beast felt pain from the interference of Gu Mang’s thoughts.
It was firmly bound, roaring as it struggled but unable to break free for the moment.
Atop Soul of War Mountain, Yue Chenqing saw this one and only opportunity.
Naturally, he did not know what kind of harm the Blood Demon Beast’s death would inflict upon Gu Mang.
He immediately raised his hand and, following the order Gu Mang had given him earlier, said,
“Fire!”
With a whoosh, the arrow shot forth like a startled bird.
At the exact moment the Ten-Thousand-Spirits Arrow struck the Blood Demon Beast’s vital point, the rising sun finally broke completely through the clouds.
Dazzling golden light spread across the earth from behind the pitch-black mountains, illuminating the human world in splendor.
Morning should always be tranquil and pure.
Even the agonized roar of the demonic beast seemed diluted beneath the solemnly rising dawn, no longer as terrifying as it had been beneath the endless night.
The people atop Soul of War Mountain watched.
The people along the Fu River watched.
The people inside Chonghua City watched.
As though wrapped in thick, sticky lacquer, the enormous beast moved sluggishly.
It raised its head beneath the magnificent light of heaven.
At the point seven chi beneath its chest, the arrowhead had sunk deep into its flesh, and blood spread through its fur.
It raised its head and suddenly let out a heart-wrenching roar.
All four of its claws instantly broke free of the golden chains binding it.
“Not good!”
“It didn’t work! It’s going berserk!”
But Gu Mang said nothing.
He sat upon the horse’s back, suspended above the Fu River.
He opened his eyes and looked at the demonic beast capable of shaking heaven and earth, beneath the increasingly brilliant radiance.
It howled furiously as it rose to its feet—
Gu Mang quietly watched it.
He could feel the agony.
It was like the near-death pain he had experienced all those years ago, when he had been ordered to infiltrate Liao and had his spiritual power dug out and replaced with black-magic power.
But this time, perhaps because he knew that his pain came from this demonic beast, he did not feel sad at all.
Instead, he felt relief, peace, and tranquility…
Only his reluctance and guilt remained.
From very early on, he had chosen a thorny path and had never thought about turning back.
This was also one of the reasons he had never dared to easily promise Mo Xi any future.
He had always felt that it was too unfair to Mo Xi.
No one should have to be with someone who had always been prepared to sacrifice himself at any moment.
In Gu Mang’s heart, the flowers of the world and his little junior brother were equally important.
But in the end, after all those twists and turns, he still…
Could not have both.
Gu Mang turned his face and looked toward Mo Xi and Murong Lian fighting the National Preceptor in the distance.
He carefully tried to remember what he had said the last time he spoke with Mo Xi.
But he could no longer quite remember.
It seemed that he had deliberately wanted to end things with the gentlest possible sentence.
Yet whenever he saw Mo Xi’s face, he could not help saying one more thing, and then another.
And what he said was always some insignificant little matter.
Who would truly want to be a hero?
Who would truly want to be a spy?
Everyone wished for somewhere peaceful to live, three or five close friends, and a lover.
To laugh together over the romance of wind and flowers in the pages of books.
To worry that tomorrow would bring rain and they would not be able to dry the laundry.
To concern themselves only with trivial matters, like the rising price of vegetables in the eastern market, or how the newly purchased rice and flour did not taste as good as the previous batch.
But when fate came knocking, someone always had to go.
No one wanted to leave.
But someone always had to do something—
Because he had tasted the pain of wanting something he could not have.
Because he understood the pain of parting from those he loved.
And because of that, he gently refused to let anyone else experience it again.
It was simply that he had once allowed himself mortal attachments and gained things he could not bear to lose.
He had been one move behind in the game.
And in the end, he had failed the love of his entire life.
“Mo Xi.”
Gu Mang silently murmured the name toward the distant figure.
His soft lips seemed to want to say something more.
But he did not know what else to say.
He and Mo Xi had known each other for so many years, endured so many things, and spoken so many words.
There were many things they already understood without saying.
So in the end, Gu Mang merely murmured Mo Xi’s name silently several more times.
Until he heard the cultivators beside him suddenly shouting in wild joy,
“Look!”
“Look!! The Blood Demon Beast—it, it can’t hold on anymore!”
Gu Mang turned his head.
He smiled.
I said I would take you home, that I would ferry you across to the shore.
Not because this land was particularly good, but because I had always believed that what was good would eventually replace what was bad, and what was new would eventually replace what was old.
Just as the night would always pass, and dawn would arrive sooner or later.
There would always be so many seeds and so much hope in this world.
I hope they can all bloom.
Even if it is only a single tiny…
Insignificant flower.
The Blood Demon Beast struggled.
Then it finally crashed to the ground.
Its life was fading, transforming into specks of light that drifted toward the freshly washed morning sky.
The crowd fell deathly silent.
Then cheers erupted first from Soul of War Mountain—the place where there were more young people.
Gu Mang listened and wanted to laugh aloud.
He knew that young lives always contained more vigor and hope.
They could discover victory, and discover happiness, sooner than an old and weathered heart like his.
He had been young once too.
Back then, he had ridden horses across the vast grasslands with Lu Zhanxing, with Mo Xi, with his brothers.
The breeze of those days had seemed capable of washing away the dust of an entire lifetime as it brushed across his face.
Later, he had left all his brothers behind on Fengming Mountain.
He had watched Lu Zhanxing’s head fall with his own eyes.
He had personally driven the dagger into Mo Xi’s chest.
From the moment he killed the first innocent person, he had already begun to grow old.
Marshal Gu of Chonghua had grown old.
He had already died.
The truth was, he had struggled for so long that he was utterly exhausted.
He had long since shattered into ashes.
It was his faith that had barely held the pieces of him together.
This time, this man who had already died had finally fulfilled the promise he had left unfinished during the thirty-ninth battle—
“I’ll take you home.”
Amid the thunderous cheers that erupted like mountains roaring and seas surging, Gu Mang softly murmured those few words.
He smiled as he had when he was young.
He watched the Blood Demon Beast fall and transform into dust and specks of light.
He watched people covering the mountains, outskirts, and entire city shouting and celebrating wildly.
Among those crowds, he saw Lu Zhanxing.
He saw the young Mo Xi.
He saw his younger self.
He saw everyone who had died on Fengming Mountain—
Those insignificant names that no one remembered, but that he had never dared to forget.
A hundred thousand miles of mountains and rivers, a hundred thousand lives of blood.
Today, I have finally… brought you home.
And at last…
I can return to your midst too.
Gu Mang closed his eyes.
He fell from the back of the Golden-Winged Snow-Drifting Horse.
The blue-and-gold silk sash fluttered among his hair.
He slowly relaxed.
Amid the ceaseless cheers, he helplessly fell into the surging Fu River.
So good.
It was as though he had never lost in his entire life, as though he had removed his armor and returned victorious.
All the suffering had faded away…
With a splash, the surging river instantly swallowed him.
He sank beneath the water.
The thunderous sound of the current filled his ears.
Underwater, he opened his clear blue eyes and took one final look at the gradually receding light of dawn.
It was just like the stars they had seen beyond the frontier in their youth.
Beneath the star-filled night sky, Lu Zhanxing laughed loudly.
His brothers drank wine.
The rich fragrance of Pear Blossom White drifted through the northern wind.
And Mo Xi quietly sat beside the campfire, listening as he spoke of beautiful mountains and rivers, watching his younger self in all his youthful arrogance.
Those had been the best days of his entire life.
“Gu Mang…!!!!”
While everyone was rejoicing wildly over the destruction of the Blood Demon Beast, while no one had noticed Gu Mang’s condition, a voice suddenly exploded into a shout calling his name.
The Fu River roared with enormous waves.
The cultivators first turned toward Mo Xi in alarm.
Only then did they suddenly realize—
At the happiest moment of their lives, Gu Mang was no longer on the back of the Golden-Winged Snow-Drifting Horse.
Only then did everyone cry out in shock,
“Marshal Gu!!”
“What happened?!”
“What happened to Marshal Gu?!”
“Go save him! Hurry, get down there and save him!!”
Amid the chaos, the National Preceptor seized the opportunity to strike the qin and injure Mo Xi, whose mind was in turmoil.
He was about to attack again when Murong Lian blocked him.
Murong Lian knew that continuing to fight the National Preceptor at this moment was absolutely not the best course of action.
He was about to go with Mo Xi into the Fu River to rescue Gu Mang when he suddenly heard the National Preceptor give a sinister laugh.
“You? You think you can save him?”
Murong Lian’s face went pale.
“What do you mean?!”
Mo Xi, however, said nothing.
His entire body was trembling.
He no longer cared about anything and could no longer hear any other sound.
His eyes bloodshot, he rushed toward the torrent where Gu Mang had disappeared.
Murong Lian could not stop him.
And strangely, the National Preceptor did not stop him either, simply allowing him to rush straight toward the banks of the Fu River.
Murong Lian turned his head toward the National Preceptor.
“What exactly do you mean?!”
“Heh. Gu Mang used a technique similar to the one Shen Tang once used, destroying the Blood Demon Beast and sealing it at the same time.”
The National Preceptor’s voice was low.
Behind his mask, his eyes gleamed with a dark, shifting light.
“Shen Tang killed the Blood Demon Beast, and he died as well.
“Gu Mang will be the same today.”
Murong Lian flew into a rage.
“You’re talking bullshit!”
The National Preceptor sneered.
“If you don’t believe me, then go search for him with Lord Xihe.”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
He suddenly retreated while holding the qin and stood upon a steep rock.
His voice was cold.
“Shen Tang’s actions back then caused my attack on the city to fail.
“A hundred years have passed. Naturally, I would not allow the same thing to happen again.
“So when I reforged the Blood Demon Beast Jingchen, I fused a new spell into it…”
Murong Lian froze.
Then he suddenly understood.
“What did you say?”
The only trace of color remaining in his face drained away.
“You attacked the city back then?!”
The National Preceptor smiled faintly.
“Mm.”
Murong Lian’s face became as pale as paper.
“So you… you are…”
The National Preceptor casually removed his mask.
Beneath it was a handsome, deep-featured face carrying an unmistakable air of wickedness.
Murong Lian looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
He suddenly stumbled backward several steps.
“You—you’re actually—!”
The National Preceptor raised his head and grinned, revealing rows of white teeth.
“Since we’ve already come this far, I can’t be bothered hiding anymore.
“Former ruler of Liao, Hua Po’an.
“That’s right.”
He smiled.
“That would be me.”
“!!!”
Murong Lian’s throat went dry.
For a moment, he could not utter a single word.
Then, from the distant banks of the Fu River, the cultivators suddenly cried out in alarm.
“What’s happening?!”
“What is this?!”
He abruptly turned his head.
At the place where the Blood Demon Beast Jingchen had disappeared, a blood pool suddenly appeared, bubbles churning across its surface.
The blood pool seemed almost alive.
It was actually continuing to spread outward at a slow but relentless pace…
Hua Po’an also glanced at the blood pool nonchalantly.
Tilting his head, he smiled.
“How is it?
“I took what happened when Shen Tang sacrificed himself for his country back then and learned from it.
“I added a new spell.
“Once the Blood Demon Beast is killed, its blood will transform into a blood pool that continuously expands.
“Unless I give the command, it will keep spreading without end, swallowing mountains and rivers, cities and fortresses, the dead and the living alike.
“If you refuse to surrender, I don’t mind turning Chonghua into a sea of blood.”
He licked his lips.
His voice lowered, becoming eerie.
“After all, a hundred years have passed, and everything has changed.
“There is nothing left in Chonghua worth my attachment.”
As he spoke, he casually threw his mask to the ground.
“I’ll spare your life. Go back and tell the people of Chonghua.”
Hua Po’an said,
“The blood pool will swallow Chonghua City in only ten days.
“I’ll give you ten days.
“Surrender, or die.
“You decide.”
With that, he flicked his sleeve.
Using his lightness technique, he skimmed across the ground, drifting lightly like a paper kite before disappearing into the beacon fires and smoke deep within the Liao army’s camp.