Time flew by!
Since Marquis Shen had fallen, the situation in the Southern Border had changed drastically, and its former peace was no more.
After the Three Thousand Lustful Sacrifices, the once-declining demons and monsters had risen from the ashes, ravaging the human world. Marquis Shen's followers fought them day after day.
Although the Heavenly Maiden had been suppressed and the Corrupt Demon was dead, the martial artists' side had also lost Marquis Shen, that sky-supporting pillar.
His remaining forces fought alone, and the situation was far from optimistic.
In the southeast, after Great Prince left the battlefield, an imperial decree from the capital summoned him back. Every region was left to be governed independently by its prefecture governors and prefectural lords.
Times changed, and people and things were no longer what they once had been.
That heaven-reaching pillar, weathered by wind and sand and buried beneath accumulated dust, had become a towering mountain piercing the clouds.
Without seeing the scene with one's own eyes, it was difficult to imagine that the Heavenly Maiden was suppressed beneath that mountain.
Lihuo Prefecture, under Zhou Nanwang's management, rapidly recovered from the devastation left behind by the great war.
Over the years, many things had happened.
The wives and concubines Zhou You had taken one after another bore him sons, popping them out like dumplings dropped into a pot.
To give them good names, he had no choice but to devote vast amounts of time to searching through seal script for fine characters. By the time he caught his breath, he discovered that his sons had already numbered in the double digits.
That was the advantage of a great clan: tremendous reproductive strength, and barring unforeseen circumstances, all those descendants could grow up strong and healthy.
His eldest son, Chu Jianxiu, had already