The scene that appeared above the throne was a memory Ling Feng had sealed away for a long time!
"So... that was how it was!"
After watching Ling Feng's memories, Xu Kun could not calm his heart for a long time!
From his memories, Ling Feng had been born in the sixty-second year of Xuanyuan Lord's era, five hundred and thirty-eight years ago!
The era created by Xuanyuan Lord differed from the current era created by Sky Eye. After the eras of Cang and Pangu, when Xuanyuan Lord emerged, humanity flourished!
It was hailed as Xuanyuan's revival!
Humanity had already survived the two hundred dark years following Haotian Pagoda's descent. Above them was Cang's unmatched brilliance, in the middle was Pangu's deterrence over all races, and after Xuanyuan Lord emerged, he reestablished the Nine Provinces. Centered on the Nine Provinces of Huaxia, he continuously absorbed scattered human forces!
At that time, all races were focused on exploring Haotian Pagoda. Intimidated by the abilities of humanity's three generations of Lords of the Era, they did not dare covet human territory, giving humanity a chance for peaceful development!
Humanity was finally able to recover and thrive!
Yet in Ling Feng's memories, one saying struck like thunder!
"If a state lacks law-abiding officials and wise advisers within, and powerful enemies and foreign threats without, it will inevitably perish!"
Amid prolonged peace and stability, humanity began to grow restless. As the saying went, one survived through hardship and perished through comfort. With no external enemies watching them, the restless humans began fighting among themselves!
The period established by Xuanyuan Lord resembled the feudal era of Huaxia recorded in ancient texts, spanning thousands of years. Dynasties rose and fell, feudal lords emerged, and powerful states stood side by side. Relying on the formidable abilities gained from Haotian Pagoda, ambitious men began launching massive campaigns and wars!
The era Ling Feng had lived in was known as the middle Xuanyuan period, a crucial time when nations centered around the Nine Provinces stood side by side, training their armies and preparing for war!
As Ling Feng gradually grew up, the shadow of war loomed over every human citizen!
By the late Xuanyuan period, humanity had forgotten the myriad races that had descended upon Blue Star as they fought among themselves for power and territory. The various countries had killed until their eyes turned red!
Yue Country, where Ling Feng lived, was one of those feudal states. He had witnessed his parents die in a senseless war with his own eyes, while he himself had been reduced to a servant, forced to serve the nobility!
After Yue Country was defeated and nearly annexed by the stronger Wu Country, fifteen-year-old Ling Feng drifted from place to place before joining a faction of Yue Country nobles determined to restore their nation.
There, he met the moonlight who would redeem his entire life, a noblewoman named A Qing!
A Qing did not care about his background as a servant. Since they were the same age, she no longer made Ling Feng busy himself every day with those lowly, filthy jobs. All he had to do was practice swordsmanship with her and chat with her.
A Qing also told him that no matter how miserable someone's past had been, as long as they waited until adulthood, entered Haotian Pagoda, and became strong, they could change their entire life!
Ling Feng had engraved those words deep in his heart and swore that he would become a powerhouse in Haotian Pagoda, changing humanity's war-torn state of affairs!
Then, when A Qing looked at Ling Feng with a beaming smile and asked what he most wanted to do if he truly gained great power in Haotian Pagoda—
Ling Feng stared at her smiling face and became lost in a trance. Foolishly, he answered, "I only want to protect you for the rest of my life!"
A Qing appeared quite shy at that answer, but she did not reject Ling Feng's open affection. Instead, she told him they could talk about it once he became strong!
With A Qing's encouragement and healing, Ling Feng forgot the gloom and grief war had brought him!
At that time, the two came of age, and the various nations ceased fighting. The final words A Qing said to Ling Feng in his memories remained especially vivid!
"Do your best. I believe you can do it!"
And so, Ling Feng entered Haotian Pagoda full of passion and began the novice trial!
Mist Island was where Ling Feng's path to becoming strong began, and where he lost everything!
There, he awakened an incomparably powerful SS-tier dual-bonus talent. When Ling Feng saw the talent he had awakened, he was completely dumbfounded!
He felt that all his good fortune had been given to him by A Qing!
With his powerful talent, Ling Feng easily wiped out the race monsters across ten level zones, climbed to the top step by step, effortlessly defeated the Shrine Guardian, and toyed with Mist Island's powerful final boss—the Flame Dragon—as if it were in the palm of his hand!
In the end, he severed the Flame Dragon's head with one slash, completing the novice trial with an SSS-tier rating and reaching the Heavenly Ranking!
Returning home in glory was only natural. After receiving all the rewards for his SSS-tier rating, the first thing Ling Feng thought of was whether A Qing had seen it. He had succeeded—he truly qualified to become strong!
And Haotian Pagoda gave him an enormous surprise as well!
Preliminary control over Mist Island!
This authority allowed Ling Feng to learn everything happening on Mist Island, and it was precisely this authority that marked the beginning of Ling Feng's complete descent into the abyss!
After gaining preliminary authority over Mist Island, Ling Feng examined all the trial takers on the island and joyfully discovered that A Qing was there too!
At that instant, he believed in fate. Even Haotian Pagoda was giving him an opportunity. As long as he waited in the great hall, he would be able to give A Qing a surprise!
Moreover, A Qing had already relied on her solid strength to clear the shrine's final barrier—a defensive line formed of Corrosive Poison Termites. At that moment, her clearing speed trailed only behind Ling Feng's!
The next step should have been simple. Once she entered the shrine and dealt with the two Shrine Guardians, the two of them would meet inside the great hall!
But after eliminating the Corrosive Poison Termite swarm, A Qing looked at the Heavenly Ranking hanging high in the sky and revealed a smile that intoxicated Ling Feng. Danger... descended at that very moment!
"A Qing, run!"
Although there was no sound in the scene, Xu Kun could clearly make out Ling Feng's frantic shout from back then!
But unfortunately, one was inside the shrine and one was outside. Though separated by only a short distance, they might as well have been worlds apart!
Overjoyed that Ling Feng had reached the Heavenly Ranking, A Qing failed to notice the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor approaching. Ling Feng watched helplessly as A Qing fell into the venom spewed by the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor!
Her delicate body was devoured inch by inch by the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor!
At that moment... Ling Feng's heart turned to ashes!
"A Qing... without you, what meaning is there in living!"
"What do the conflicts of this world have to do with me!"
"If you were here, I would help you restore Yue Country!"
"If you were gone, then even if all living beings suffered, even if humanity was destroyed, so what!"
Ling Feng's convictions collapsed in an instant. He had not shared Xu Kun's experiences. Until adulthood, all that had loomed over him was the cruelty of his parents dying in war and the ambition of nations constantly launching wars to compete for supremacy...
Only A Qing had been the sole light in his life!
After losing A Qing, he had lost everything!
So what if he possessed an SS-tier talent!
So what if he had earned an SSS-tier rating!
So what if humanity was strong or weak!
If he could, he would have traded everything he had for A Qing's resurrection!
But unfortunately, Haotian Pagoda's rules were cruel. A Qing... was dead in the end!
Having lost his conviction, Ling Feng no longer had any will to fight. He made a deal with Haotian Pagoda's will, replacing Mist Island's final boss and willingly remaining forever in the Desolate Shrine to guard A Qing!
Haotian Pagoda's will agreed and preserved A Qing's remains after her death. However, if Ling Feng wished to reunite with A Qing, he needed to wait for someone to kill the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor and bring A Qing into the great hall!
The memories afterward were fragmented. They showed Ling Feng watching the novice trial takers of every generation, hoping they would kill the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor and bring A Qing back to his side!
Yet there was no distance more distant than this. Fate was decreed by heaven, yet destiny still toyed with him!
Ling Feng placed great hopes on every generation of novice trial takers, but the capable ones never encountered the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor, while the incapable ones became its food!
Hope eventually became disappointment!
And he waited for five hundred and twenty years!
Perhaps even heaven no longer wished to torment Ling Feng. After suffering through five hundred and twenty years of waiting, Ling Feng had finally waited. He had waited for Xu Kun to personally kill the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor and collect A Qing's bones!
Though everything had changed, Ling Feng had never forgotten his original resolve!
In truth, the moment Xu Kun brought A Qing back to his side, Ling Feng had already been completely freed!
"So Senior Ling Feng had already resolved to die when he took Senior A Qing back!"
Unable to share her bed in life, he wished to share her coffin in death. That was Ling Feng's final hope!
His final gentleman's duel with Xu Kun had ostensibly been a battle where both gave their all, but in truth, it had been Ling Feng's final test for Xu Kun!
That test was not about the difference in their strength, but an assessment of Xu Kun's character!
Otherwise, if Ling Feng had not wanted Xu Kun to pass, then even if Xu Kun had summoned another ten Heart-Devouring Blood Ant Emperors, Ling Feng could still have dealt with them easily!
Of course, after seeing Xu Kun's attribute panel, Ling Feng smiled. It was a smile of relief!
Over the past five hundred and twenty years, although he had been imprisoned within Haotian Pagoda's Mist Island map, he had seen batch after batch of trial takers. From their conversations, he had also learned some things about humanity!
Ling Feng's stubborn love had not faded after five hundred and twenty years!
But his hatred toward humanity and his disgust for the events of that era had long vanished. His pure heart had instead developed a sense of guilt over the long years!
"Perhaps, if A Qing were still alive, she would not want to see me like this either..."
This was Ling Feng's self-reflection, repeated after every novice trial ended.
Humanity had not given him warmth, but as he watched generation after generation of human trial takers work for humanity's prosperity, his sense of duty as a human made him despise what he had become—neither human nor ghost!
Obsession, guilt, longing... these had been the emotions that accompanied Ling Feng most over more than five hundred years!
The final moment of the memory was the warmest scene Ling Feng remembered.
A Qing danced with her sword, and Ling Feng danced alongside her. Yue Maiden and Ling Feng should have had a sincere love that made the world envy them!
In the end, it became nothing but a bubble...
The scene vanished. Xu Kun stood rooted to the spot, feeling empty and lost.
He murmured, "Was it worth it?"
He was asking the departed Ling Feng, because from beginning to end, A Qing had never expressed any love for him!
Xu Kun did not know what kind of feelings A Qing had truly held for Ling Feng!
In the eyes of the world, a noble young lady falling in love with a young man born a slave might have been far too absurd!
Perhaps Ling Feng's persistence had merely been unrequited love...
But so what? Everything had already vanished like smoke. Ling Feng, who should have become humanity's backbone, had completely disappeared amid such cruel twists of fate.
You killed Mist Island's final boss—Heart of Despair Feng. Mist Island completion +1%. Current completion: 100%. You have reached an SSS-tier evaluation!
Heavenly Blessing: Child of Fortune activated. SSS-tier rating + rating level +1. Congratulations, you have reached an SSSS-tier rating!
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