Qi Yuan listened to Yuan Qi's impassioned speech, then said after a long while, "I guard No Return City. It has nothing to do with Great Xia.
"Simply because I am No Return City's Garrison Envoy."
He did not want to accept favors from others for no reason.
Hearing this, Yuan Qi did not understand for a moment.
But he quickly understood.
This Garrison Envoy was likely the sort of person who carried all living beings in his heart.
Though not a man of Great Xia, he could not bear to see the Southern Land fall into the Northern Land's hands. Alone, he had journeyed to the Central Plains and taken command of No Return City.
He did not confine himself to a small household or a small nation, but cared for all living beings beneath heaven.
This was a true great cultivator!
The reverence in Yuan Qi's heart deepened.
Yet when he thought of his elder brother, he ultimately asked in a deep voice, "May I ask whether, when Senior arrived at No Return City, you saw soldiers sent by Great Xia—the Song Character Battalion?"
"Not long after I arrived, two ordinary soldiers from the Song Character Battalion came here.
"They said they had encountered an attack on the road. The entire army had been wiped out, and only the two of them escaped with grievous injuries. In the end... they did not last more than a few days and died in No Return City." Qi Yuan recalled those two men.
One was named Zhang Sheng, and the other Chen Jiao.
If the two had changed their names, perhaps they would not have met such a fate. That was what Qi Yuan thought.
"They are buried deep within No Return City."
Yuan Qi's heart grew heavy at those words.