"Brother Meng, did someone save me after I lost consciousness?"
Meng Xinghe nodded, drawing his gaze back from the distance. "Yes. Elder Wang Shu of Heavenly Foothill Academy. After he arrived, he destroyed the source of the Sea Demons, then saved you."
Li Bufan nodded at that. "That explains it."
The power within that golden light had indeed been anything but ordinary.
Someone who could stop the fragments of a golden core from crumbling, even drag a dying man back from death's gates, likely possessed strength far beyond his imagination.
Meng Xinghe watched him in silence for a moment. "Brother Li, how are your injuries?"
Li Bufan lowered his head to glance at his chest, then sensed the condition within his dantian before answering honestly. "My golden core shattered. But a force has wrapped around it, keeping it from disappearing completely."
A complicated expression flickered across Meng Xinghe's face. "Brother Li, I wronged you in all that happened here."
Li Bufan shook his head. "Say no more, Brother Meng. Whether I lived or died, it was entirely my own decision. It had nothing to do with you."
Meng Xinghe wanted to say more, his lips stirring, but Li Bufan cut him off.
"Brother Meng, shouldn't we martial artists have been prepared for this from the moment we first stepped onto the martial path?"
He looked Meng Xinghe straight in the eye. Though his eyes had dimmed somewhat from his injuries, their light had never gone out. "We wrest our lives from heaven, contend with others, and struggle with our own hearts. Since we chose this path, there's nothing to regret."
"I understand."
He paused, his gaze settling on Li Bufan's empty dantian, a trace of worry in his voice. "But... Brother Li, we're heading to Heavenly Foothill Academy. It's the