This Path Has No Road, I Am The Road

He had given everything he had, yet he still died.

At the brink of death, the young man was filled with indignation.

Could living so desperately still not earn him the freedom that was his?

Was he born into the Human World just to suffer?

And so the young man's second life came to an end.

Chen Yan walked across the Ice River, simply putting one foot in front of the other, yet it was as if he had experienced their entire lives in vivid detail.

The cold pressing in from every direction seemed to have seeped into his very brain, freezing everything within him.

It was as if, even if Chen Yan kept walking, he would end up just like those two young men.

He would struggle his whole life, fight with everything he had, and in the end encounter nothing but endless bitterness.

But Chen Yan just kept walking.

His body trembled, as though countless hands that could never reach the light were clawing at his legs.

Urging him to stop.

What was the point?

Why put yourself through this?

You could have lived in comfort and pleasure.

In the distance, another apparition appeared.

It was Xia Hanzhou. He stood quietly not far from Chen Yan, smiling.

"Chen Yan, your appearance has left me... conflicted."

Xia Hanzhou smiled, then said with deep regret:

"You can take a break. I don't want to push you so hard. Great Xia has more than just you."

Chen Yan paid him no heed and kept going.

Xia Qi appeared.

Seated in his wheelchair, he watched Chen Yan with his one good eye.

"General Yan, my own incompetence has made me, like my father, hope for another Lu Xunyang to appear.

But that's my problem, not yours. You can rest for a while."