Chen Ping'an arrived in the lands north of the Sword Qi Great Wall. Apart from a road newly opened by the Temple of Literature, everything had been leveled. As far as he could see, nothing remained.
Lu Chen appeared and strolled beside Chen Ping'an through ruins with not a scrap of scenery left to speak of.
A city once crowded with Sword Cultivators and wine shops, along with the scattered residences of Sword Immortals outside its walls, had all ceased to exist.
At the Elm Planting Immortal Pavilion, a female Sword Immortal who loved growing flowers had once entrusted Lingzhi Zhai on Inverted Mountain to buy an ancient elm from Fuyao Continent at great expense and transplant it into her little courtyard. Perhaps the soil and water did not suit it, or it could not withstand the Sword Qi that filled the air. It languished for years, only to burst into bloom one year without warning, its blossoms rising above the roof ridge, beautiful beyond words.
But when Sword Immortal Ku Xia of the Central Divine Continent returned to the Sword Qi Great Wall, neither the woman nor the flowers could be seen again.
There had been the armory the Taihui Sword Sect had earned through its war merits; the Myriad Ravine Residence Li Cai had rented, where the sound of pines rose whenever moonlight fell; and Tingyun Pavilion, which she had bought, the entire building carved from a single enormous piece of green jade.
Chen Ping'an crouched and pinched up a little dirt.
Lu Chen had already handed the lotus Dao crown back to the young Yin Guan.
Carving those characters on the city wall had consumed too much of Chen Ping'an's vitality and spirit. It was not yet wise to return the Daoist magic; they would have to