Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Life Monument was like a heavy stone gate being pushed open.
The monument's base clumsily plowed through the loosened earth, as though awaiting the life of next spring.
Jiang Wang led the way, with Zhao Rucheng, Wang Changji, Zhu Weiwu, Bai Yuxia, and Lin Xian following behind him in single file.
Maple Forest Territory was still trapped in the seam between the Netherworld and the Present World. After five years and two months of natural growth, it had become one of the realm fragments that existed by clinging to the Present World.
Perhaps, after some years, wild grass would grow here, moss would spread here, and travelers would pause here.
But at least for now, it remained silent. It remained deathly still.
Everything seemed unchanged.
Except the emperor of Zhuang Kingdom... had met his end within.
It truly resembled an enormous graveyard, with its tombstone standing right here.
At the boundary between Wangjiang City and Three Mountains City, it existed in solitude.
Jiang Wang silently looked at the Life Monument. He reached out and wiped away the inscription on its surface, erasing this humiliation on behalf of the old friends of Maple Forest City.
Then, using his finger as a blade, he carved four words into the monument—
"Netherworld Yonghuai."
There was no way to remember them.
Night hung low, and the evening breeze was gentle. No one spoke.
Jiang Wang stood before the Life Monument, gazing toward the distant sky. At the far end of starlight and moonlight, he could still see the rain of blood, only now it was thin as mist.
Had the sorrow of heaven and earth truly fallen all the way from the eternally sunken Maple Forest Territory into the world beyond?
A Daoist in a black robe, holding a black