The dust settled.
Bai Yujun stood with her blade in hand, several tears cut into her fitted clothes. Her eyes were cold and indifferent as yellow dust drifted down. The leader of the four had lost an arm and knelt on the ground, coughing blood, his body covered in blade wounds. He had neither Snake Scales nor a powerful body; he could not withstand the damage from the blade.
"Cough, cough..."
He coughed up a mouthful of blood and turned to look at Second Brother, who lay motionless beside him. He was already dead.
The brother who had been perfectly fine moments ago was now a corpse missing both legs, his chest pierced through by a blade, with no chance of survival. His full beard was caked with dust and blood, his eyes staring wide open.
The leader knelt there, trembling as he reached out with his remaining hand and closed his brother's eyes.
He raised his head and looked with difficulty at the young girl before him, her long hair fluttering. This legendary true dragon, this Dragon Snake whose trail was impossible to follow—he held no hatred, only a plea. Hatred meant nothing to them, and he was not pleading for his own life.
"Please... cough, cough... this world cannot descend into chaos any further..."
Bai Yujun said nothing, nor did she lower the Hengdao in her hand.
Blood trickled from the corner of the leader's mouth, his official robe torn to shreds.
"The four of us brothers were poor from childhood, cough, cough... We thought that once we grew up, we would fight for peace, but... cough, cough... it was too hard. The poor have it hard enough just surviving. The rich do not fear disaster and chaos, cough, cough... but the poor do."
"War every year, death