Thus, to a certain extent, there was a sense of numbness.

He also felt that having Li An by his side, with Patriarch Jiang Rilan suppressing things, there shouldn't be much of an issue...

Yet unexpectedly, Jiang Rilan had died directly!!

The loss... was too great.

...

The distant border of Qing Province.

"Finally escaped—"

In a deserted mountain range, Sun Jinxue and Lihua both breathed a long sigh of relief.

Ever since Li An went on an expedition, the two of them immediately followed Li An's instructions left before his departure, opening the brocade pouch he gave them. (This detail was added in the previous chapter, those who read earlier can go back and see it.)

It was then they realized that the brocade pouch didn't contain any clever plans for annexing other elders' properties; instead, it was arrangements for their escape!

Very meticulous.

Both of them were puzzled for a long time, after all, the war had just begun, the two armies were clashing, why was there a need to flee?

But in the end, following Li An's strategy, they escaped from the Jiang Clan...

The Jiang Clan's main forces had already gone to the frontlines, and now the frontline was still in a stalemate, no one expected they would just escape without precaution, so they left easily.

"It seems he predicted the Jiang Clan's defeat..."

Sun Jinxue spoke, a slight emptiness in her beautiful eyes, and her face showed some sadness.

"We escaped, but he is on the frontline..."

She sighed, on the battlefield, Nascent Souls had perished, and the fall of True Cores was also common; this time for Li An, life and death were truly unpredictable!

"Master will definitely be safe!"

Lihua spoke with certainty, lightly biting her lip, her beautiful eyes shimmering with tears.

Sun Jinxue was unaware that besides the escape plan, Li An's brocade pouch for her also contained something else...

A small bottle of green pills, of unknown grade, of unknown origin, but capable of repairing her dantian!

Before the master left, he had arranged everything for her...

"Master."

She whispered softly, touched to the extreme, with an inexplicable urge to cry, but she held it back fiercely, silently praying in her heart: "You must return safely..."

...

Time flew by.

Li An silently counted the days.

On the sixth month, a small skirmish indeed occurred on the former site of the Profound Yang Sect, but the participants were of relatively low level, the strongest was only Foundation Establishment.

Clearly, just as he guessed, this area held no value to either Great Li or the Yan Country.

At most, it was affected by the edge of the battlefield.

In the tenth month, a powerful Divine Thought swept over the land inexplicably, but it did not discover Li An and the Divine Bird.

...

In the blink of an eye, two years passed.

Li An rarely sensed the breath and sounds of war anymore.

The surroundings became extremely quiet, the sound of animals running through the forest was clearly audible, the leaves fell layer upon layer.

The moonlight shone down, a sliver of moonlight seeped through the cave's foliage, causing Li An's thoughts to drift, and he inexplicably recalled a night more than two hundred years ago.

At that time, he was also hiding in this underground cave, pulling along another handyman from Spirit Plant Mountain, evading calamity.

And so another two years passed.

One morning, after a month of repeatedly probing and scouting with Divine Thought, Li An finally emerged from the cave with the Divine Bird.

He slowly walked through the once familiar woods.

At the end of this forest was once the Spirit Field of the Spirit Plant Mountain of the Profound Yang Sect, only now there was no sign of Spirit Plants, just wild grass growing wildly, as tall as a person.

Li An eagerly identified the old landmarks, matching the weeds to the former Spirit Fields, recalling which field he had once cultivated, where there used to be a ditch, where he had once stolen Spirit Rice...

Crossing the dense weeds, many brushed against his sleeves, grass debris clung to him, yet he didn't mind, walking straight to the midpoint of Spirit Plant Mountain.

On the hillside, amidst the wild grass, two earthen mounds stood side by side.

He carefully searched, finding two broken tombstones in the soil.

"Zhang Susu's..."

The word 'tomb' was missing.

"...Zilin's..."

The other was even more damaged.

"Zhang Susu, Wang Zilin..."

Li An murmured, uttering two long-forgotten names.

In an instant, scenes from the past at Spirit Plant Mountain flashed through his mind:

Back then, the three of them were all handymen, fighting and scheming against each other for the prosperity of the Spirit Fields, all for just a few more Spirit Stones each month, sparing no effort...

At that time, Fan Jie dominated the three of them, seizing Zhang Susu, and Wang Zilin had his leg broken by Fan Jie...

Later, when the Hundred Beasts Sect attacked, Li An killed Fan Jie, bringing Wang Zilin out alive, yet Zhang Susu died amidst the chaos.

...

Now, centuries later.

Old acquaintances had become part of the yellow earth.

Their graves stood side by side, buried by wild grass.

In this world, perhaps only Li An knew, remembered, that here were buried two pitiful lost souls on the path to immortality.

Along this path, how many old friends have passed?

On this road, are they merely just two lonely souls?

Mu Wanqing, Zhao Xian's Story, Wang Dazhu, Xu Qiuhui... now only Tan Qingxue remains alive, yet neither fully human nor ghost, who knows what she has become.

The vicissitudes of life.

I envy the endless Yangtze River, and lament the brevity of my life!

He suddenly took out a jug of exquisite Spirit Wine from his storage ring, pouring it before their graves.

"Thank you both for once accompanying me, when I achieve eternal life, I shall return here to offer sacrifices, so you two will not be forever forgotten."

He downed the remaining wine in the jug, then brushed off the grass debris from his sleeves as he walked along, clean and unburdened, striding away.

...

Leaving the old site of the Profound Yang Sect.

Li An sensed that his puppet Zhao Yi had already died.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.