"Mother, Brother, if you want me to avenge you—if you at least want me to walk a path unlike that of every ratfolk in thousands of years—then give me some sign!"
Ye Zi prayed with all his heart. "A beam of light, a star, a flame—any unusual omen will do.
"Then I'll know that you haven't truly died, that ratfolk souls can become noble ancestral spirits who will always follow at my side and grant me boundless strength.
"Help me, Mother, Brother. I'm begging you, help me!"
He repeated those words in his heart hundreds of times.
Yet he still found no "sign" or "omen."
Nor did anything unusual happen, such as a warm current gushing from within him like a hot spring.
Instead, the horns and war drums from beyond Black Horn City grew ever louder and more majestic.
Ye Zi opened his eyes and discovered that the light pouring through the window had turned a mysterious, unfathomable dark blue.
He clung to the windowsill, stood on tiptoe, and looked outside.
The pillar of light erupting from Bloodhoof Temple outside Black Horn City had already swollen to three or five times its original thickness.
Like a colossal pillar holding up heaven and earth, it supported the entire world.
That awe-inspiring power robbed many ratfolk of their will to resist, making them unable to stop themselves from bending their spines and knees to worship the ancestral spirits of the Bloodhoof Clan, who had enslaved them all along.
The Bloodhoof Army's Oath Ceremony is about to end, Ye Zi thought. *The Totem Armor created during the Era of Prosperity has all been imbued with ancestral spirits and upgraded with countless powerful moves, making their wearers even stronger. Tiny ratfolk are becoming less and less capable of dealing with them.
*Will a