Chapter 969: In The End, We Were Too Late

In the blink of an eye, the once-crowded land was now completely empty.

After the flames died down, everything returned to its original state.

The cracked earth, the scorching wind, the lifeless forbidden zone.

Not a single person remained.

Not even ashes.

It was as if the countless people who had been there moments ago had never existed.

The dog standing above had already hidden behind Lou Benwei.

If possible, he would have crawled into his boss's black robe...

The Spirit King and Nightwind hid behind the dog, while Naigai curled up, trembling, unable to move.

It was too terrifying...

That fire was just too damn terrifying...

While the dog and the others were still immersed in the fear of being dominated by the hellfire, Lou Benwei waved his hand, and the scene before them quickly shifted.

The raging inferno in the Double Forbidden Realm and the blood in the Frost Realm soon disappeared.

Everything was receding.

In no time, the surroundings of the group transformed, and they found themselves back at the graveyard.

Ahead, the same tombstone stood.

Beside it, the same rusted sword.

Now, when the dog and the others looked at the tombstone, there was no trace of their previous disdain.

However... the dog glanced at the inscription on the tombstone—"Ancestor Piao Yun Chu of the Piao Family."

"Boss, how did Piao Yun Chu end up here?" the dog asked, puzzled.

Wasn't he supposed to be in that other space?

Lou Benwei reached out and brushed off a speck of dust from the tombstone, replying, "After the Double Forbidden Realm was torn apart, he was caught in a spatial turbulence and, by a twist of fate, ended up here."

"Ten thousand years, and he still couldn't return home!"

"Then... what about those remnant souls?" the dog asked curiously.

There wasn't even a tombstone here. He remembered that many remnant souls had flown into Piao Yun Chu's body earlier.

Lou Benwei turned and glanced at the Sword Mound.

At a glance, it was filled with countless swords, too many to count.

"They're there," Lou Benwei said, tilting his chin toward the Sword Mound. "Each sword houses a remnant soul."

After Piao Yun Chu arrived here, his cultivation wasn't strong enough to bear the weight of thousands of remnant souls, but he could never abandon his comrades.

So, he used his family's bloodline as a vessel and the swords as a medium. Every time a direct descendant of the family was born, a sword-offering ceremony would be held.

This ceremony involved using the body as a cauldron and the sword as a vessel, embedding a remnant soul of a comrade into the sword.

The cauldron nurtured the soul within the sword, ensuring that the remnant soul wouldn't dissipate due to lack of energy.

However, Piao Yun Chu's direct descendants couldn't withstand the bloodthirsty ancient military souls and thus couldn't live long lives.

For the Piao family, this sword-offering ceremony was the highest honor, but they didn't realize it was a death sentence left by their most revered ancestor.

Piao Yun Chu's obsession saved the remnant souls from the Double Forbidden Realm, but at the cost of his own direct descendants.

Thinking of this, Lou Benwei sighed softly.

"In the end, we were too late."

"Now, let's take you home," Lou Benwei said, raising his hand toward the sword.

In an instant, the sword let out a mournful cry.

A remnant soul flew out from the sword, circling around Lou Benwei.

The next moment, another sword behind them let out a similar cry, and another remnant soul emerged.

Then, the cries of thousands of swords echoed one after another, filling the air.

Remnant souls flew out one after another, all converging toward Lou Benwei.

In no time, the entire Sword Mound was filled with mournful cries.

In the blink of an eye, Lou Benwei was surrounded by countless remnant souls, forming a massive vortex.

Lou Benwei raised his hand, and at the center of the vortex, a beam of white light shot into the sky, tearing a hole in the heavens.

"Go home," he whispered.

The remnant souls merged into the white light, surging into the tear in the sky.

...

At the same time, in the Sword Mound, Piao Miao Hong.

She had been sitting there, waiting for death.

Meditating with her eyes closed.

Suddenly, she heard the swords around her begin to wail. Her eyes snapped open.

What greeted her was the sight of countless swords trembling in the ground. The wailing grew louder and louder, causing her to widen her eyes in shock.

What's going on?

Piao Miao Hong was completely baffled.

The next moment, she saw a wisp of something like energy emerge from each sword, all flowing in the same direction.

One after another, they surged toward the direction of the ancestral Sword Mound.

Soon, the energy in the air formed a river-like spectacle, stunning her.

She stood up and looked toward the ancestral Sword Mound.

There, she saw the energy forming a vortex, spinning rapidly around a single point.

What was inside the vortex, Piao Miao Hong couldn't see.

She wanted to move closer to investigate.

But the next moment, a beam of white light pierced through the sky, tearing a hole in the heavens!!!

Piao Miao Hong's eyes widened in shock.

She watched as the energy surged into the tear in the sky.

"Hiss!" Piao Miao Hong gasped in horror.

Her mind went blank for a moment.

Before she could even process what had happened, the energy had completely disappeared.

And the entire Sword Mound returned to its usual calm.

Even the ancestral tomb was as peaceful as ever.

All the changes had happened in an instant.

So fast that Piao Miao Hong thought she had hallucinated.

She looked around, and everything was exactly as it had been before.

Of course.

How could the sky be torn open?

Piao Miao Hong patted her cheeks, "Wake up, wake up!"

"It must be a hallucination from being on the brink of death."

She took a deep breath and sat back down.

"Better just wait for death quietly," she thought, then closed her eyes peacefully.