That same dusk, in a remote corner of Northwestern Huaxia.
A yellowish-brown earthen hill rose high like a cliff—not a rocky precipice, yet still sparsely vegetated.
Hundreds of meters below the cliff flowed the headwaters of a great river, surging with immense power and clamor. Meanwhile, a mountain brook just about ten feet wide murmured softly as it merged into it.
Two peasant boys with small pigtails at the backs of their heads squatted in the ankle-deep stream water. By their looks, they seemed to be brothers—the older around seven or eight, the younger about five.
In no hurry to go home yet, the elder brother had a wide-bellied glass jar resting beside him, already filled with small fish and crabs. Right now, he cupped one hand around the edge while carefully shifting a stone with the other.
*Splash!* A thumb-thick dark shadow darted away through the current.
"Hurry, hurry! Trap it... your side! Gah, catch it!" Seeing their quarry escape, the older brother grew annoyed. Looking up, he complained while glaring at his distracted younger brother.
The younger brother was staring upward too, his gaze passing right over his brother's shoulder toward the high earthen cliff. "Brother," he said blankly, "someone just flew past."
The older brother blinked in confusion. "What?!"
"Someone just flew, flew, flew, flew past."
"Bullshit! The ones that fly are birds. If a person can fly, that's an immortal. If you meet an immortal, you've gotta bow and pray. If you bow and pray, the immortal will take you as a disciple and teach us the seventy-two transformations..."
The older brother had gotten lost in storybook fantasies, rambling on with great relish.
Across from him, the little brother suddenly pressed his dripping wet hands together and bowed earnestly toward the heights.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm bowing and praying, begging the immortal to take me as a disciple." As he spoke, the younger brother pointed up behind his brother. "Another one just flew past. It's a monk immortal."
"Are you for real?"
The older brother hurriedly turned and looked several times, but saw nothing.
Strictly speaking, what the younger brother had seen wasn't flying; it was running.
Yet with Ye Jian and Jiang Longchi sprinting at full speed across the uneven earthen cliffs, it hardly looked any different from flying.
"Seriously, after all these days, how haven't you lost my trail yet, Master Longchi?!"
*Could this old man's forgetfulness and muddled mind have been an act all along? The Huaxia Front is getting less and less reliable,* Ye Jian thought as he ran, turning his head to ask.
In truth, his strength was supposed to be slightly above Jiang Longchi's. Unfortunately, burdened by his injuries and facing an opponent who cared even less for his own life, Ye Jian had no choice but to keep fleeing.
"You're leading the way; it's not like I'm finding the route myself," Jiang Longchi responded.
After pursuing him for so many days, Jiang Longchi had actually forgotten a great deal. Broadly speaking, he remembered only one thing: no matter what, he had to stop Ye Jian right here. Even if he couldn't kill him, he couldn't let him come and go as he pleased.
"So that's how it is."
Ye Jian gave a helpless, wry smile. At the same time, his right leg braced outward, plowing through the dirt and gravel to bring himself to a halt less than a foot from the cliff's edge, before turning around.
Jiang Longchi charged forward at blistering speed to strike.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait..." Ye Jian waved both hands frantically, gesturing toward the sheer drop of several hundred meters behind him. "Cliff edge. I'm not running anymore. I'll fight you."
"..." *Fight?* Jiang Longchi muttered inwardly. *Should I feign an opening and clear a path so he keeps running? Then I can keep chasing him.*
Master Longchi didn't actually want to fight right now. As long as the mission was accomplished, that was enough. As Chen Buer had put it, he couldn't die yet... And given their respective strength, if they truly fought to the death, one would end up dead, and the survivor would certainly be in no good shape either.
Still, there was no helping it; he had to maintain his usual image. Jiang Longchi slowed his pace, stepping forward to close the distance while twirling his small axe with a flourish.
"Master, you don't look the least bit like a grandmaster," Ye Jian chuckled. "How about this? Let's chat for a bit first. Since you're forgetful anyway, I can speak freely about things I usually can't share. We can fight after we finish talking."
Jiang Longchi stopped, studied him... nodded, and sat cross-legged right on the ground.
Then he pulled a waterskin from inside his robes, tilted his head back, and began drinking. *Gulp, gulp, gulp...* He stared smugly at Ye Jian.
Ye Jian sat down as well at the cliff's edge, watching with a parched throat. He hadn't brought anything like that along.
"Amitabha. Speak."
"Give me a few mouthfuls of water, then I'll speak."
"Amitabha. Keep dreaming."
Master Longchi preciously stowed his waterskin away.
Ye Jian: "..."
Clearly, Master Longchi had no intention of sharing a drink over conversation.
"Your idea, Master, is simply to keep me away from Xilang Peak, isn't it?" After a pause, Ye Jian said, "Originally, I was thinking I couldn't let you and Old Man Chen head over either. But Old Chen is already there. Even if the two of us could make it now, we'd probably be too late to join the struggle over that mothership."
"What do you people want the mothership for?" Jiang Longchi asked pointedly. His implication was clear: weren't they eagerly yearning for the Great Spikes to come? Nor had anyone heard about them wanting to leave. Even if the thing were useful to them, it hardly seemed worth paying such a steep price.
"We don't necessarily want it. As far as I'm concerned, destroying it entirely or even just partially would do. Just so long as Azure isn't allowed to fully master interstellar flight technology," Ye Jian said.
Jiang Longchi looked at him, bewildered.
"Because humans in possession of an ark will exhibit endless ugliness, and victory will become utterly impossible." Ye Jian paused, then continued, "The slim hope of survival would inevitably be handed to those at the top, those wielding power. At the same time, they would tear each other apart fighting over it. That would be the most terrible thing of all."
"Don't look at me like that. I told you, I'm only saying this because you're forgetful; I never intended to shake your convictions," he added.
These words truly could not be voiced to the world. Jiang Longchi knew he would soon forget them anyway, so he made no effort to commit them to memory.
He pondered it. To some extent, Ye Jian seemed to have a point. Once they possessed an ark, the human leadership's will to resist might very well weaken—especially when those people realized the hope of victory was growing increasingly slim.
If the lure of longevity was truly what had seduced Ne, then in the face of crisis, what would the chance of survival for only tens of thousands of people out of the entire world trigger?
Azure had existed for nearly a century. After accommodating so many voices and so many people, it was riddled with problems. If given the means, would they really pour vast resources into building an ark?!
"They will. Under the banner of preserving the spark of humanity, you won't be able to stop them at all." As if seeing through the doubts in Jiang Longchi's heart, Ye Jian took the initiative to answer... then continued on his own: "Still, don't talk to me about the meaning of preserving the spark of humanity. What does that so-called spark and the people who escape alive have to do with those abandoned in this world?!"
"Then... what is your belief?" Jiang Longchi asked a question that so many of them had spent years wondering about.
"Do not let all that hot blood and sacrifice be in vain. While Azure is still Azure, while no one can find a way of retreat, and while people like us are still around... let the Great Spikes descend. We will fight to the death."
Ye Jian spoke very placidly.
Long ago, he had suddenly defected from Azure to join Snow Lotus. In reality, however, he was not a follower of Ne. It was merely that along the path toward his goal, he shared a common step with Snow Lotus: letting the Great Spikes descend. Ne knew this as well.
Truth be told, Ye Jian was a follower only of himself.
His philosophy, when put into practice, was cruel and dark, destined never to convince the world. He walked the loneliest of paths, caught in the crack between Azure and Snow Lotus.
"If I told you that the young officer who threw me a blade on the legion parade ground that day wasn't one of Snow Lotus's men, that I didn't even know him... would you believe me, Master?"
A trace of bitterness showed in Ye Jian's eyes. He didn't know what fate awaited that young officer, but he believed the man's actions stemmed from understanding him, refusing to let him die. No matter where he had learned of these things... it made Ye Jian feel slightly less alone.
Jiang Longchi did not respond to the question. Instead, he said, "That will kill a lot of people. Many, many innocent civilians."
Ye Jian nodded. "Yes. But so what?!"
Jiang Longchi fell silent.
Ye Jian hesitated for a moment, then said:
"Ne once conducted an experiment. In a certain place, he imprisoned ten people and deliberately told them they would be killed one by one, at a rate of one per week. Those people quickly banded together to fight for their lives, attacking the guards.
"Later, Ne expanded the subjects to a thousand people, divided between two locations with five hundred in each, and gave them the same rule of death. In both places, people stepped forward calling for resistance. One location succeeded, but their resistance wasn't very resolute, and many hid behind the others. The other location failed completely; some informed on their peers to survive, while the majority shrank back in silence.
"Finally, when Ne expanded the experiment to five thousand people, he penned them in and handed each person a numbered plaque, drawing one person each week to be taken away. Master, what do you think happened this time?
"There were still people calling for resistance, but to no avail. Throughout it all, countless individuals snitched to survive. In the end, all five thousand clutched their numbered plaques and prayed, silently awaiting the judgment of fate. Those whose numbers were drawn wailed and wept, while those who weren't chosen quietly rejoiced, only to carry on praying."
Having said this, Ye Jian stood up. "So, let humanity stand together and face our common destiny. Only with no illusions of luck and no way of retreat can there be victory."
Jiang Longchi stood up as well, facing him across a distance of several dozen meters... After a few seconds, he said, "Too complicated. I think I've already forgotten what you said."
Ye Jian smiled and nodded.
"Amitabha. This old monk is suddenly curious about something." Master Longchi looked into his eyes and asked, "Over all these years, have you ever felt qualms?"
"Qualms?"
"You killed many people in Azure."
"You mean those opinion leaders in Azure? That great anthropologist? The social activists, the political scientists?" Ye Jian's gaze suddenly turned ferocious and cruel as he chuckled provocatively. "I have never killed a single frontline fighter of Azure."
"Never?"
"Never. So, no qualms. I've lived just fine." Standing at the edge of the cliff, Ye Jian spread his arms and smiled. "I am defending your justice—whether you need me to or not."
With that, he fell naturally backward.
Plummeting hundreds of meters, he plunged into the surging river waters.
*He won't die.* Jiang Longchi stood silently at the cliff's edge for a moment. He didn't jump down after him... but turned back instead.
Before he had walked far, the two children carrying the jar of fish and crabs approached.
Jiang Longchi hastily tucked the small axe into his sleeve, stepped forward, and asked in a warm, genial tone, "Amitabha... Excuse me, do you know where Xilang Peak is? How do I get out of here?"
The two children looked at each other.
The younger brother gave a solemn nod.
Abruptly dropping to their knees, the two brothers began kowtowing.
"Grandpa Immortal!"
"Grandpa Immortal, take us as your disciples!"
"Teach us the seventy-two transformations!"
Jiang Longchi: "..." *I'm not Sun Wukong! And even if it were Sun Wukong's master, that was a Daoist, not a Buddhist monk.*
When the two brothers looked up again, the old monk had vanished.
"See?" The younger brother glanced at the older one. "He's gone. He really was an immortal."
* * *
The plateau was vast and open. The setting sun on the horizon was on the verge of sinking out of sight.
Over twenty horses galloped across the grassland. This was a gap along the line that Han Qingyu had scouted over a long distance on his own. After a brief period of silent marching, the breakout charge had begun.
Leaning slightly forward, Han Qingyu rode at the very head of the charge, bearing on his back the long black wooden case and the twin blades slung over his right shoulder.
The light of the sunset struck the side of his face.
A squad of three black-armored Great Spikes appeared in view along the flank of their route of advance. Liu Shiheng and the herders grew tense, and the horses beneath them whinnied nervously.
"Keep riding! Don't stop!" Wen Jifei shouted.
Amid his shout, Han Qingyu, riding at the front, suddenly stood up in the stirrups, kicked off the galloping horse's back, and soared through the air.
Startled, the horse let out a whinny and lowered its head, bolting forward.
Midair, three metal blocks dissolved against Han Qingyu's body. *Whoosh!* With a majestic surge of source energy bursting forth, the blue starlight column sword swept out from behind him in a lethal arc.
*Slash! Slash!*
The necks of the two Great Spikes standing in a file were sliced open and pierced through almost simultaneously by the tip of the starlight column sword. They collapsed to the ground with shrill howls, thrashing in agony.
Han Qingyu swept straight toward the third. The third black-armored Great Spike was swinging its column sword across the air, but Han Qingyu didn't dodge. Still airborne, he brought his column sword down in a direct two-handed vertical cleave.
*Boom! Crack!*
The black-armored Great Spike's column sword snapped in half, and its chest caved inward.
Using the momentum, Han Qingyu kicked off its shoulder. His body launched into the air once more, dissipating the impact while regaining speed, and glided diagonally back onto his horse's back, settling firmly into the saddle.
Throughout the entire process, the horse hadn't slowed in the slightest, nor had Han Qingyu uttered a sound.
The breakout horse troop followed in his wake, continuing their thunderous charge...
Beneath the setting sun over the grassland at this moment, save for the thundering hooves, the world was silent.
This sight left the herders, especially the children, completely awestruck. Some among them had seen Han Qingyu slay monsters on the way here, but they had never seen him go all out—never seen the streaming light of his movements and slashes in his four-turbine state.
"That is a god. A God of War," someone on horseback spoke in their native tongue.
The silence was broken.
"Uncle Duoji."
"Grandpa Suochi."
"Amala."
"Abba."
The voices of the children rose all around, chiming in unison.
"What is it?" the adults asked nervously.
The children's eyes remained fixed on that figure ahead. "I want to join their army."
Chapter 328