Within a side courtyard of the Imperial Palace in the capital, black and white chess pieces lay scattered across the ground. At that moment, apart from Li Huowang's heavy breathing, there was no sound.
As Li Huowang's expression gradually grew ever more ferocious, everything around him seemed to slip out of control and began changing without cease. Figures and scenes shifted constantly.
Li Huowang suddenly jerked his head up toward the gloomy sky. Pressing his tongue against his palate, he roared at the heavens, "Great Nuo!! What exactly do you want me to do?!"
"I don't ask for anything else! I only want them to live!! I only want them to live!! Why did it still end like this in the end?! What exactly do you want me to do?!"
Along with Li Huowang's roar, faint peals of thunder rumbled from the distant dark clouds.
Li Huowang continued roaring at the sky, but his unanswered cries gradually became low and full of grief.
Even during Li Sui's funeral procession, his mind had been numb. Only now, after all this, did Li Huowang finally understand. Li Sui was dead. Li Sui was truly dead. His daughter would never come back.
"Wasn't what I did enough? Wasn't it enough?! Then what exactly do you want me to do?! Why can't I stop them from dying one after another, no matter what I do? What did I do wrong? At which step did I go wrong?!"
Li Huowang reached into his robes and pulled out a handful of powder. Under his gaze, it rapidly gathered together, eventually turning into a little clay figurine—the clay figurine Li Sui had given him before she died.
Tears streamed down Li Huowang's face, dropping endlessly onto the ground. Then a tentacle reached over and gently wiped the