~~~
General Nie Dan descends from the heavens.
Of the two divinities he sensed, the Wandering Wind is gone, and the Storm Dragon has returned to being merely a shadow. Nie Dan is not entirely sure what happened while he fought He Bin, but this is the best outcome he could have hoped for. The remaining dangerous factors on the battlefield are all easily dealt with.
Nie Dan takes a step.
The Renegade looks at him with wide eyes. The Heaven Realm cultivators around him are all similarly surprised. Looking at them, it is clear they have been in battle but not with each other.
Interesting.
“You are in the Renegade Realm,” he says to the dirty young man. “Is your mind still your own?”
The reply comes quick and sure.
“Yes.”
“You could be lying.”
“I’d like to think lying would indicate I have a good enough sense of self-preservation.” The young Renegade smiles nervously but charmingly. “Surely, that’s trustworthy in its own way?”
Nie Dan considers it and nods.
“Good enough.”
His head tilts towards the two puppeteers cloaked in shadows.
“We will talk later.”
He takes a step.
The young cultivators nearly fall over. In the case of Prince Qing Guo, there is no nearly about it.
“You have done a good job securing the prince,” Nie Dan tells them. His eyes land on the young Qing Guo. “Prince, I understand this must be confusing, but I ask that you do not do anything reckless. Rest assured that you and your father will not be harmed.”
The last thing Nie Dan needs is for the prince to call upon the aid of the Storm Dragon. Thankfully, the prince just nods, too intimidated to do anything else.
He takes a step.
He Bin’s remaining commanders die one by one. Murong Bang’s men are also an issue, but that will have to come later. Should he kill them now, Murong Bang’s soldiers would be stupid enough to fight to the bitter end instead of surrendering. Nie Dan has no time to deal with that foolishness.
“Hear me!”
Enhanced by his Qi, General Nie Dan’s voice reaches every corner of the battlefield. The few soldiers still fighting after being hit by the presence of two Emperors and the brief but intense burst of divinity immediately stop.
“The treacherous He Bin is dead!” Nie Dan announces with no small amount of satisfaction. “All enemy combatants are to surrender immediately! There is not a single force left that can oppose the righteous liberation of our beloved country! The civil war is over!”
Shock and disbelief follow those words. Soldiers on both sides are left stunned by Nie Dan’s proclamation. However, that reaction is soon overwhelmed by something else.
Cheers.
The joyous cries of the victorious soldiers are so loud the whole battlefield vibrates. Fists are raised into the sky, and weapons clang against shields in joy.
He takes a step.
“Greetings, Ancient One,” Nie Dan says, bowing his head to the Storm Dragon.
“Your oratory skills need work,” the Storm Dragon tells him.
“Talking was never my duty, Ancient One. It was the Black Dragon who could move hearts, not I.” Nie Dan’s eyes find the unconscious Qing Jin. He reaches into his robes and pulls out a bottle. “May I?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The Storm Dragon says nothing, which is probably the closest thing to permission he will receive. Nie Dan kneels down and pours the elixir down Qing Jin’s throat as gently as he can, which is not particularly. Within seconds, Qing Jin’s eyes flutter open.
“Elixir of the 400-Day Journey,” he says, running a finger over his lips.
As expected, he knows of it.
“Wait…” The confusion in Qing Jin’s eyes fades away. “General… How long have I been unconscious?!”
Nie Dan has no great medical knowledge, but the way the child speeds up the production of adrenaline in his body and stimulates his nervous system is all too familiar. It will keep him conscious for a few more hours, but his body will not appreciate it. Highly inadvisable but regrettably required. That was how he always justified it.
Remarkable.
“It has not been long,” Nie Dan says. “The battle is over. We are victorious.”
“I see…”
The young Qing Jin does not look happy. Nie Dan did not expect him to be.
He also rarely looked happy after victory.
“What happened to the Wandering Wind?” Nie Dan asks.
“She left.”
Qing Jin delivers the sentence tonelessly, but his clenched fist tells Nie Dan there is more to the story than that.
“I see,” he says. “There will be time to trade stories later. Right now, I believe it is time you met your uncle.”
~~~
“Shall I go with you?” General Nie Dan asks. The two are standing in front of a large set of double doors. The emperor’s room lies beyond.
Liu Jin shakes his head.
“There is no need. Even standing outside, I trust General Nie Dan will be able to react in time should my uncle try anything.”
Those are the words he says, but what he really wants is to leave the palace and rescue Su An. It would be foolish, extremely foolish. He knows that, but…
He sighs.
He is needed here. His uncle is a Qing. He can call upon the aid of the Storm Dragon at any moment. Only his presence here negates that advantage. Until they have dealt with him, they cannot rest. If anything, Liu Jin is embarrassed to admit that his uncle’s existence completely slipped his mind amid all the chaos.
Liu Jin takes a moment to mentally prepare himself and opens the doors.
It is dark.
No candles are lit, and thick, heavy curtains cover the windows. Despite that, Liu Jin can tell the room is quite large, fitting for the ruler of a nation. It is a pity that it is in such a sorry state. There are fragments of shattered vases on the floor, and a lone pillow has been viciously stripped of its feathers, scattering them everywhere.
“Emperor Qing Jianjun?”
A shape huddling near the bed flinches. Liu Jin knew he was there even before he opened the door. No matter how dark the room is, the Qi of someone in the Heaven Realm is hard to miss.
“No!”
The moment Qing Jianjun’s red eyes settle on him, a high-pitched squeak leaves his mouth. A torn pillow is thrown in Liu Jin’s direction, followed by a plate.
None gets close to hitting him.
Even the most uncoordinated Heaven Realm cultivator should have no trouble doing so at this distance, but Emperor Qing Jianjun is not even trying to aim.
“Go away! Begone!”
The man scrambles on all fours, trying to find some corner to hide in. He averts his eyes from him at every moment, whimpering and trembling like a frightened mouse.
“You’re dead! Please! Go away! Go away!”
Ah.
Liu Jin suddenly understands. Perhaps it should have been obvious from the start, but he was too tired to make the most logical deduction.
While everyone fought…
While everyone died…
This man has been hiding from a ghost.
That is why he never once took to the battlefield or tried to command the Storm Dragon to attack. Emperor Qing Jianjun has been left so deeply scarred by the memory of the Black Dragon that the notion of fighting never entered his mind. The mere idea of encountering the Black Dragon locked up the ruler of a nation in his room like a frightened child. He is not noticing Liu Jin’s Qi at all. He is only looking at his face and seeing his father.
Suddenly, Liu Jin understands the Storm Dragon a little more. This is much worse than he’d assumed.
“Uncle…” Liu Jin begins hesitantly.
“Haven’t you done enough?! You turn my every dream into a nightmare! Must you haunt my waking hours as well? If you’re going to kill me, just do it! Be done with it!”
“Uncle! That’s enough!”
The voice of someone in the Earth should not touch someone in the Heavens, yet Qing Jianjun flinches in fright.
“Uncle…He never wanted this…” Liu Jin says sadly. “He never hated you… He never wanted to hurt you… If he could see you right now… I think he would apologize from the bottom of his heart.”
Qing Jianjun stares at him incomprehensibly for several seconds. He blinks, and tears start forming in his eyes. His whole face convulses and trembles.
“I am sorry,” Qing Jianjun says as tears fall freely from his eyes. “I am sorry, so sorry!”
Liu Jin stands awkwardly in place as a man several decades his senior holds on to his robes and cries.
It is the end of the civil war.
~~~