The great hall was silent. Qin Shi resonated with the Deputy Marshal's thoughts, sensing the feelings in Marshal Qin's heart as well.
The former's meaning was clear. Whether as a younger brother, a follower, or a successor, Deputy Marshal Qin Yue hoped his elder brother would take that step.
For Eastern Xia, and for himself.
Only Marshal Qin was qualified to earn Eastern Xia's recognition and the support of its civilization, then ascend toward becoming the thirteenth Pillar of the greater universe!
But Marshal Qin himself was unwilling, because when a civilization raised one person to ascend into the ranks of the Pillars,
it used the countless lives of its own people as fuel, burning away the "possibilities" of generations yet to come.
After that conversation, Marshal Qin and the Deputy Marshal never saw each other again.
Not until that sudden upheaval descended!
Unfortunately, Qin Shi couldn't see what had led up to it, or what followed, in the memories He Lanchán had poured into him. It seemed that those parts had been deliberately erased.
The mist closed in, then scattered.
After Qin Shi had experienced most of the Deputy Marshal's life, the final point he reached
was—
"You shouldn't have done that, A Yue."
Marshal Qin's voice was laden with sorrow, yet his eyes remained infinitely kind and forgiving. The light within them seemed even more radiant than before.
"From the time we were children, you were always the one shielding me from the storm. What's wrong with me doing it once?"
Deputy Marshal Qin Yue had already passed the Martial God threshold. His body was like a galaxy being born and dying, making the greater universe rumble.
Beneath his feet, celestial bodies wailed as if torn apart by an unimaginable force of gravity. The pull of gravity shifted,