Chu Qing looked at the Liuli River, then at the old man beside him.
The Liuli River had returned to calm. Chu Qing's thoughts flowed along with its waters.
The old man beside him had somehow acquired a straw rain cape, found a bamboo rod, and begun fishing.
Behind them lay the shattered battlefield.
As for the corpses, they were all gone.
No one knew how the old man's moon had swallowed them.
One minute...
Ten minutes...
One hour...
Chu Qing asked the old man,
"Yue Manlou, is it really all right for you to betray the Unique Association?"
Yue Manlou was smug. "Of course it is!"
"If it weren't all right, why would I defect to you?"
Chu Qing sighed. "My whole life, I've been treading on thin ice."
"I don't even know where my own future lies."
"If you defect to me, you won't have a future either."
Yue Manlou said seriously, "Young Master Chu, you are actually remarkable!"
"To have reached this point and attained your current strength, you are a once-in-a-century rarity in the Great Gan Empire, and even among the dozens of surrounding empires."
Chu Qing said, "Hm?"
Yue Manlou sighed. "Every year, the empire produces many talented mud-legged commoners."
"They have decent aptitude and decent comprehension."
"If they practice martial arts, they advance by leaps and bounds."
"One year of cultivation is worth ten years for others."
"They can even cultivate faster than the proud heirs of aristocratic families whose bloodlines have been optimized generation after generation."
"I once observed a thousand such bottom-tier talents!"
"Fewer than ten could set foot in the First Limit within a year."
"After that year, those ten either sank back into obscurity or died, their Dao vanishing with them!"
"Not one set foot in the Second Limit."
Chu