Under the sunlight, the cracks in the scorched earth glimmered with a dry, white light.
A little boy sat cross-legged on the rubble, plucking a blade of dry grass and gently prodding the ant formation, sending the swarm into a panic.
On the ground, two groups of ants were tangled together.
A little girl knelt beside him, her skirt brushing the dead grass as she tapped the ground with her fingertip and giggled.
"Look, that one's running the wrong way!"
Fine dust clung to the tips of their noses, and flecks of sunlight filled their eyes.
The little boy took out a lighter.
"What are you doing?" the little girl asked warily, looking at him.
"Burning ants. I love burning ants."
"Don't."
The little girl mumbled,
"Look, those ants are fighting."
The little boy grinned.
"They could fight all day and still not kill as many as I would with one stomp."
A smile appeared on the little girl's face.
"They're so pitiful."
"That's what ants are like." The little boy didn't care.
"Never mind. I'll wait until they finish fighting, then burn them all in one go."
"Yay!"
The little girl jumped up, laughing.
"Chen Yuan, get back to your cultivation!"
An adult called from outside.
The little boy stood up and looked at the little girl hesitantly.
"I have to go cultivate."
"Okay." The little girl mumbled, disappointed.
The little boy still felt reluctant to leave. Perhaps thinking of the miserable cultivation lesson awaiting him, he sighed.
"Look how pitiful those ants are. To us, their mutual slaughter is nothing but a farce."
Time flowed like water.
Before anyone noticed, two thousand years had passed.
When a huge rift appeared in the sky above Yuzhou,
in the void,
a man in a green robe watched the battle outside.