The flesh on his shoulder scorched by demonic qi had already formed a hard black scab. The slightest touch sent pain stabbing into his heart.
The Apocalypse was still parked on a platform halfway up the mountain.
It took Zhou Xuan nearly an incense stick's worth of time to reach the Flying Boat, his legs unbearably heavy.
Zhou Xuan climbed the Gangway and collapsed into the chair before the Control Panel. After two deep breaths, he activated the Power Formation Pattern.
The Flying Boat hummed and slowly rose into the air.
He could fly the route from the Boundary-Breaking Mountains to Jade Dragon City with his eyes closed. Zhou Xuan locked in the heading, sank back into the chair, and shut his eyes.
It wasn't because he wanted to rest.
The moment he closed his eyes, those scenes surfaced on their own.
One thousand and forty-seven remnant souls knelt on one knee on the rubble slope, their right fists pressed to their chests.
They had no faces or voices. They couldn't even utter a complete sentence.
But that military salute had been perfectly proper.
Zhou Xuan opened his eyes and rubbed his face hard. Only when his fingers touched his cheeks did he realize that his tear tracks had dried at some point, leaving his skin tight in the wind.
He stopped thinking about it.
The Flying Boat raced through the night toward Jade Dragon City at full speed.
Along the way, he took two more pills to sustain the pitiful little spiritual energy left in his meridians, at least ensuring he wouldn't fall out of the sky halfway there.
The wounds all over his body throbbed with dull pain. The burn on his shoulder, in particular, kept oozing blood, staining his collar dark red.
Two hours later, the lights