Passing through a bustling marketplace, Murong Lian spotted an old man selling shaobing. The flatbreads were golden-brown and crisp, looking much like the famous roasted foods of the Northern Frontier. Murong Lian glanced at them twice and stopped.
“Hey, old man. Give me one shaobing.”
“Coming right up!”
Murong Lian paused, then seemed to think of something. After hesitating for a moment, he said, “…Actually, give me two.”
Naturally, the old man was even happier. He scooped out two golden, crispy shaobing and handed them to him.
But Murong Lian did not leave. He stood there and thought for a while longer before finally saying, with great reluctance, “Forget it. Three.”
The old man: “…”
Carrying three piping-hot, freshly baked shaobing, Murong Lian continued on his way home, pretending to be completely nonchalant.
In his heart, he told himself that he had only bought these on a whim. It wasn’t as though he had been thinking about anyone in particular.
He certainly didn’t consider anyone family.
And yet, for all his disgust, it was true that two people were secretly living in his residence now. The two of them had come knocking on his door on the third day after he arrived in Linyi, and they had given him quite a fright.
If those old acquaintances in the imperial capital found out that these two were still alive, then…
Hmph.
Murong Lian sneered inwardly.
Who knew what kind of uproar that would cause?
He wandered along until he finally reached home. Pushing open the gate, he saw someone in the courtyard carrying a little stool and hanging colored lanterns beneath the covered walkway.
The man wore simple blue-and-white clothes, his long hair tied back. He was smiling brightly, his skin a healthy wheat-brown, his features handsome yet sweet.
Hearing the commotion, he lowered his long lashes and looked at Murong Lian through the shifting light and shadows of the flower lanterns.
Those black eyes were bright and dazzling, like the most magnificent night sky.
Murong Lian stared at him for a moment before finally grinding his teeth and saying, “…Gu Mang, could you at least have some awareness that you’re a guest living under someone else’s roof?! You’re hiding out in my residence! Who gave you permission to rearrange my things whenever you please?!”
The person busy hanging lanterns in the courtyard was none other than Gu Mang—the Marshal Gu whom everyone believed had already died.
Before Gu Mang could answer, another person came from the main hall.
He had handsome, refined features, a tall and straight build, skin as pale and translucent as ice, and he too was dressed like an ordinary commoner.
Who else could it be but Mo Xi, whose fate had remained unknown?
Mo Xi was holding a newly made flower lantern and handed it to Gu Mang.
Gu Mang leaned over with a grin and took it while standing on the stool.
“Thanks, Senior Brother Mo.”
“No need.”
“…”
Murong Lian became even angrier.
“Do you two really think this is your own home?!”
“Yeah, it is, Lian-di.”
“Gu Mang, you’re asking to die—!”
“You’re going to be the headmaster of an academy soon. The two of us came here to work for you, after all—to serve as instructors for your students. Sure, we’ll have to hide our identities then, but we’ve still got the skills. And we haven’t even asked you to raise our pay. We’re family, after all.”
Gu Mang finished hanging the lantern and quickly jumped down from the stool, dodging Murong Lian’s attacks.
“Family, family! Let’s talk this out! Let’s talk!”
“Who is family with you?! Who wants to talk things out with you?!”
Gu Mang burst out laughing and sprinted around the covered walkway.
Mo Xi stood where he was, watching the two of them with an utterly helpless, amused smile.
Perhaps this was what it meant to survive a catastrophe.
When he had chosen to perish together with the Blood Demon Beast at the bottom of the blood pool, he had already prepared himself for eternal oblivion.
The god within the Reversal Stone had told him that once he chose sacrifice, his soul was destined to scatter completely, never again to enter reincarnation.
So he had never imagined that after walking the road to the Yellow Springs, he would somehow be able to return from death.
The god of the Reversal Stone was not as powerless to change things as people had assumed.
A god was still a god. Even if it was merely a fragment of a celestial god’s shadow, saving the lives of a few mortals was hardly difficult—especially when such powerful spiritual energy from an immortal beast and a demon beast still flowed through their bodies.
There was only one condition for the Reversal Stone to save them:
The person being saved had to save himself first.
Only those who redeemed their own hearts and endured the Reversal Stone’s trial could be protected by it and carried safely back to shore.
It reversed their wounds.
Reversed their pain.
Reversed the heart that had once been shattered beyond repair.
Reversed the eyes that had changed to a deep blue.
Reversed death itself.
This was the celestial god’s remorse and repayment to the chosen ones whom the Reversal Stone had destined.
At the end of the Soul River, on the road to the Yellow Springs, Mo Xi accepted the Reversal Stone that the fragment of the celestial god handed to him—the true Reversal Stone whose light had finally been awakened.
He made his wish.
And with that, the Reversal Stone fulfilled the final purpose for which it had existed.
It restored Gu Mang to the healthy state he had possessed before being tempered by the Black Demon.
It restored the lives of both Mo Xi and Gu Mang.
And it sent them to the place they wished to go.
“Where should we go?”
Faced with the drifting mist and rumbling echoes within the world of the Reversal Stone, Mo Xi and Gu Mang, reunited after surviving death, looked at each other.
In the end, Gu Mang grinned.
“Wherever you go, I’ll go. This time, Gu Mang-gege won’t trick you anymore.”
It was all over.
I was no longer a spy, no longer a traitor, and no longer a commander.
At last, I was simply Gu Mang.
Your Senior Brother Gu Mang.
Your Gu Mang-gege.
At last, all I needed to do was protect you.
At last, all I needed was to stay by your side.
And the place they wanted to go, naturally, was not the imperial capital.
The imperial capital was a place of ambitions that could last a thousand years, with scheming filling every street.
Now that the Liao army had withdrawn, Chonghua had entered a long period of peace and prosperity.
Mo Xi had cast the Ransui jade slip into the river in the imperial capital, telling Mengze that he had no intention of seeking revenge or fighting for power.
But he would always be watching—
Watching to see what Chonghua would ultimately become in the hands of its new ruler.
At least for now, Murong Mengze had not failed to live up to this opportunity.
Murong Mengze was not a person of pure sincerity, nor was she a genuinely kind-hearted person.
But her goal had never been the same as Murong Chen’s.
Murong Chen wanted to become the supreme overlord who unified the Nine Provinces.
What Murong Mengze had always desired was for others to call her a “wise ruler” and an “enlightened monarch.”
She would use every means necessary to achieve that goal.
She would also devote every ounce of her effort to it, spending her entire life pursuing it.
And that was enough.
In the end, they chose Linyi.
It was not a particularly prosperous place, but they had heard that Murong Lian intended to build an academy there, establish a new institution, and welcome talented scholars from across the realm.
Gu Mang was delighted when he heard about it.
After all, aside from Mo Xi, Murong Lian was the person in this world with whom Gu Mang shared the deepest remaining bond.
He was his blood relative.
Gu Mang was very happy that Murong Lian had ultimately chosen this path.
Now Mo Xi stood in the courtyard, watching Gu Mang and Murong Lian chase each other around.
The paulownia blossoms poured down like a pale-purple waterfall, filling the entire courtyard with fragrance.
At this moment, hatred had faded and worldly achievements had become distant.
As for the titles Murong Mengze had bestowed upon them, neither Mo Xi nor Gu Mang cared about them.
Their original wishes had already been fulfilled.
A peaceful age was beginning.
And they had fulfilled the promise they had made at the very beginning.
They had a home.
Tomorrow, he and Gu Mang would enter the Linyi Academy established by Murong Lian together.
With new identities and new appearances, they would stand before those young and inexperienced juniors and teach them what the righteous path was, what it meant to have a compassionate heart, what magic was meant to be used for, and why weapons were meant to be wielded.
After such great upheaval, everything was slowly getting better.
Perhaps many years from now, the dynasty would fall apart, and the land of China would once again descend into turmoil and crisis.
But just as Hua Po’an had sacrificed himself to the demon a century ago, and just as he and Gu Mang had cast themselves into the pool to suppress the Dao, Mo Xi knew that wherever there was darkness, there would be light.
Human kindness and resilience were seeds that could never truly die.
Even within the narrowest and harshest of worlds, they would always awaken and put forth new shoots.
Through countless eras of chaos and prosperity, countless heroes and great figures had all begun from the smallest ripple on the surface of the water, and eventually vanished back into the wilderness.
When the mighty currents of time rolled onward, when the winds and clouds changed, the loves and hatreds, passions and sacrifices of the past would all eventually become nothing more than a few words, a few lines in an old book.
Human beings were too insignificant.
Not many efforts or sacrifices could be remembered forever.
But at the very least, the sunlight would once again shine upon the mortal world, driving away the long night.
A peaceful mortal world.
Perhaps that was the greatest reward later generations could give to all those nameless heroes who had sacrificed themselves.
In the little courtyard, Gu Mang was being chased so fiercely by Murong Lian that he finally shouted with laughter,
“Mo Xi! Come help me, come help! Lian-di is being completely unreasonable!”
Murong Lian shouted angrily, “Who’s your little brother?! I was born before you!!”
“But I had mine before you did!”
“Gu Mang, stop right there! Today, you’re getting kicked out of my residence!!”
“Mo Xi, come, come—! Help me beat him up!”
Mo Xi lowered his head and smiled.
His thick black lashes were like two soft little fans.
He walked over.
“Sure. I’m here.”
Look.
This year, the flowers of the mortal world had once again bloomed in their own brilliant beauty.
The Liao army had been defeated, its remaining forces had surrendered, and the territories that had once been torn away from Chonghua had been reclaimed and designated as vassal states.
Afterward, the Black Demon was sealed.
Those demon weapons stained with sin and blood could no longer be forged casually, and the arts of the Black Demon could no longer be taught or learned freely.
Mo Xi knew this would not last forever.
But at least it would usher in a period of peace worthy of the sacrifices made by the heroes of this age.
In the little courtyard, the black dog Fandou, whom Murong Lian had brought from the imperial capital, heard the commotion and excitedly barked as he rushed outside, jumping around the three of them and wagging his tail.
In Linyi, a city that had yet to reach great prosperity, cooking smoke rose from every household.
Beneath the slanting evening sun, peace stretched across the land in every direction.
Murong Lian snapped angrily, “Fireball, get out of here! This is a fight between the two of us! If you interfere, you’re no hero!”
Gu Mang jumped up and hooked an arm around Murong Lian’s neck, laughing.
“That’s easy enough. I’ll have Mo Xi help me, and you can have Fandou help you?”
Fandou became even more excited at the suggestion, placing his paws on Murong Lian’s knee and staring up at him with his tongue hanging out.
Their laughter and playful shouting drifted beyond the courtyard.
At last, they had a home.
They had family.
They had a place to belong.
They could watch over this hard-won peaceful world, seeing the flowers bloom in spring and the snow fall in winter.
For many years to come, the future would be just like today.
No wars from Jiangnan to the far northern frontier.
Fishing boats and camel bells would carry the moonlight home.