The clouds of Soldier Sha were a dense, heavy sky hanging low.
Blades, spears, swords, and halberds were a vast forest of steel, bloodied and still reeking.
Zhong Xi, Emperor Lord of Great Prison, sat alone at the heart of the sha-clouds, holding Heaven and Earth prisoner in his palm.
The enormous army formation had become almost a millstone of flesh and blood, slowly grinding across the boundless land.
Time and space were its mules and horses; the Five Elements, its fodder.
What it wore away were the laws of the Dao; what scattered were vital energy and blood.
The Sea Race's powerful army was being ground to death here, all to crush two supreme beings!
And at the very center of this colossal millstone stood a peach blossom grove.
It kept the overwhelming Soldier Sha beyond its woods, forming a world of its own—a small Pure Land.
But now, the peach blossoms had fallen until the grove was sparse, and the crimson remnants filling the eye had all become dust.
Deep within the grove stood a little house transformed from a White Paper Lantern, its traces thus exposed.
Two people were inside the White Paper Lantern house.
One was blind and hunched, in an old hat and tattered clothes. He sat cross-legged atop a candlestick, a flame suspended above his crown.
The other sat with elegant bearing upon a peachwood stool. His splendid robes were torn in many places, revealing scorched flesh beneath. His complexion was none too good, yet it could not conceal his handsome air.
White candle flames continuously flew from the White Paper Lantern house and out of the peach blossom grove, burning deep craters into the surging assault of Soldier Sha... yet they were visibly growing thinner.
Yu Liyang gazed somewhat wistfully beyond the White