In the small city, early autumn brought frequent rain. Smoke rose from cooking fires as every household began preparing dinner.
Before a humble house, a young man in plain robes with white hair stood quietly, his gaze fixed on the human realm, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
He had returned.
After the battle with Darkness, Ning Chen's cultivation had been temporarily suppressed, but it had gradually recovered over these past days.
The great calamity of the human realm seemed not yet to have spread to this sanctuary. Within the city, the common people lived and worked in peace, their lives stable enough.
"Young Master Ning, dinner is ready."
After finishing the meal, the woman looked at the man standing quietly before the house and called out.
Ning Chen gathered his thoughts and walked toward the house behind him.
Inside, the bowls and chopsticks had already been laid out. The meal was not lavish, but neither was it shabby.
The woman's husband had died early. She had raised her child alone, and though life had been arduous, she had never once complained of hardship.
What others saw as suffering might not truly be suffering. Ning Chen was the same—he had wandered for a thousand years, yet had never spoken a single word of bitterness to anyone.
The woman was hardworking. In her spare time, she did embroidery for the wealthy families in the city, barely managing to support the household.
Since the woman had saved him, Ning Chen had helped her with quite a few things over the past few days.
Fetching water, chopping firewood—anything an ordinary man could do, Ning Chen could do as well, and he did it rather well.
The woman did not know that the man she ordered about had once been the Co-lord of the