This curse was bestowed by the divine arts of the Central Province, making it extremely difficult to break through ordinary means.
Chen Zhou lowered his eyes, looked at the divine remains, and sighed.
He was indebted to her; after all, the inner godhead Chen Zhou had merged with was essentially stripped from her body.
He had to repay this favor.
Chen Zhou raised his hand, and a ball of light appeared in his palm.
It was the Source of Divine Power he had painstakingly wrung out of the system, originally intended to be kept as his trump card.
But at this moment, it did not matter.
Treating the Source of Divine Power as a consumable, Chen Zhou gripped his whisk and began to cast the divine technique 【Sinful Karma Punishment】.
The ball of light instantly merged into Chen Zhou's body, and in the next second, the world fell silent.
Chen Zhou's figure suddenly towered upward.
Like a deity who had existed since ancient times, he finally opened his eyes at this moment.
The phantom of the Golden Dragon of Merit emerged automatically, coiling around Chen Zhou's right arm and finally condensing into a spiraling golden armlet.
The dragon's head rested on his shoulder, its eyes slightly closed as if they could snap open at any second.
Chen Zhou lowered his eyes, and deep within his pupils, the entirety of the Western Region was reflected.
The curled-up body of the divine remains, Tuoba Feng's stiff figure, and the agonized faces of the heroic spirits.
Every trace of death qi, every wisp of sinful karma, and every shred of struggle was clearly visible to him.
"Today, in the name of the sovereign of Gloomlight Province and the only true god of the four regions, I decree—"
Chen Zhou's majestic, low voice rang out.
"You are innocent."
The whisk transformed into a brush.
Facing the register of sinful karma that recorded the lives of the Grave-keeper heroic spirits, Chen Zhou slowly drew a single stroke.
"Pardon!"
Boom!
Golden light instantly exploded, and the golden dragon opened its eyes within the radiance, its dragon might surging majestically.
All the sinful karma that had entangled the heroic spirits for thousands of years—the invisible hands that had dragged them into mountains of blades and cast them into boiling woks—were snapped asunder in this moment.
They stood frozen in place.
Then, someone lowered their head.
They looked at their palms, which had been restored to normal.
Someone touched their face.
The scars from the boiling oil were no longer there.
Someone knelt down.
With their forehead against the yellow sand, their shoulders shook violently.
Tuoba Feng held Xiaoyun, his entire body trembling.
He looked down at the daughter in his arms.
The blade marks on Xiaoyun's body were also slowly healing.
A faint light suddenly appeared in her confused eyes.
Chen Zhou looked down at them.
"You have two paths to choose from."
"First, those who are attached to their homeland may enter the registry of the City of the Wrongfully Dead."
"I shall grant you paper bodies to live a second life."
"Second, for those whose worldly ties are severed, the way of reincarnation has opened."
"You may depart on your own and seek rebirth in the next life."
Outside the tomb door, there was a long silence.
The heroic spirits who had been muddled for thousands of years were all stunned.
Reincarnation?
They were Grave-keepers, born to guard the tomb and transformed into heroic spirits after death to continue guarding it, never to be released.
They had never imagined that there would come a day when they could be reincarnated.
Tuoba Feng looked at the frail Xiaoyun in his arms, a look of resolve flashing in his eyes.
"Exalted One..." Tuoba Feng knelt. "The homeland is good, but... it is too bitter."
"The brothers... are too tired."
"They have no memories of their lives; all they remember most is this endless yellow sand and the torture after death."
"For them, this place is a cage, not a home."
All the heroic spirits also kowtowed in unison, their voices choked with emotion.
"We wish to enter reincarnation! We beg the Exalted One to grant us this!"
"We beg the Exalted One to grant us this!"
They were imprisoned here in life and could not find release in death.
Now that their sinful karma was cleared, they only wanted to leave this yellow sand that had trapped them for a millennium.
Chen Zhou nodded. "Granted."
With a grand sweep of his brush, ink splattered through the air, and divine power surged.
Soft white lights enveloped the group of heroic spirits.
Their figures began to blur, turning into dots of starlight.
Tuoba Feng stood in place.
One by one, he said goodbye to those blurring faces.
"Uncle Mu."
"Have a safe journey."
The phantom of the old soldier smiled at him.
"When your father was a boy, I was the one who raised him."
"He was even more stubborn than you."
The starlight dispersed.
Tuoba Feng turned in another direction.
"Aunt Sang."
The woman who once excelled at singing folk songs was smiling at him.
"That song about the stars Xiaoyun sings... you were the one who taught her."
Tuoba Feng's voice was a bit hoarse.
"She liked it very much."
"She was still humming it before she passed away."
Tuoba Sang did not speak; she reached out and gently patted Tuoba Feng's head.
Then she turned into starlight and dissipated in the wind and sand.
Tuoba Feng saw them off one by one.
The faces he thought he had long forgotten were now so clear.
He saw off his grandfather, his mother, his childhood playmates, and Uncle Dan, who had taught him how to forge blades.
Finally, he had seen everyone off.
Outside the tomb door, the armor remained, and the weapons remained.
But the people who held them had entered reincarnation.
Tuoba Feng turned around again.
He looked at the small figure on the stone slab.
Xiaoyun was still sitting there.
She hadn't left.
She tilted her small face up, staring blankly in Tuoba Feng's direction.
"Xiaoyun..." Tuoba Feng's voice trembled as he wanted to hold her one last time.
But Xiaoyun gently slipped out of his embrace.
She still didn't remember anything from her life, nor did she know who this big guy crying like a fool was.
But she instinctively felt that this uncle was important, very, very important.
Xiaoyun floated in mid-air, reaching out her small hand to clumsily wipe the tears from Tuoba Feng's face.
"Don't cry, okay?"
Tuoba Feng's throat felt as if it were blocked by something.
"Xiaoyun... why haven't you left yet?"
Xiaoyun tilted her head, her voice youthful and crisp, filled with innocence.
"Everyone else is gone, so I'll wait for you. I feel like I'm supposed to wait for someone here anyway, so I'll stay with you for a while."
Tuoba Feng's tears burst from his eyes.
He wiped his face hard, clearing away the things blurring his vision.
"Daddy... Daddy has to leave too."
His voice shook violently.
"Once Daddy finishes handling things here, I'll go be with Xiaoyun."
"Okay?"
Xiaoyun shook her head.
She reached out her hand and very, very gently touched Tuoba Feng's face.
Her fingers passed through his tears and touched his rough skin.
"So you are my daddy?"
"You're a liar."
"I seem to remember Daddy saying he was going to find medicine last time. He was gone for a long, long time. Was that you?"
"Xiaoyun waited for a long time."
Tuoba Feng opened his mouth.
He wanted to say he wasn't lying this time.
He wanted to say it would be very fast this time.
He wanted to say Daddy would come to find her right away.
But he couldn't say a single word. He could only grit his teeth tightly, swallowing back the sobs that surged up.
Xiaoyun looked at him quietly, then suddenly smiled.
"Daddy."
"Are you very sad?"
Tuoba Feng shook his head vigorously.
Xiaoyun looked at him.
"Daddy, don't cry."
She reached out her hand and gently, gently patted his face.
"Xiaoyun doesn't blame Daddy."
"Xiaoyun knows Daddy worked very hard."
"Daddy looked for medicine for a long, long time."
"Every time Daddy came back, he had so many injuries on his body."
"Xiaoyun saw it all."
Rate on N.U.
