Great swathes of sunset clouds clung to the sky in patches, like the shabby patches on the Celestial Vault.
The blazing sun hung high at dead center, and the sea glittered with rippling light.
Had dusk ever appeared?
Or had it been noon all along?
Time seemed never to have changed.
But Bolu was dead, and Gu Shiyi was gone.
Gu Shiyi's road to Transcendence had been severed by force!
Ji Xuanzhen, Ji Jinglu, Ouyang Jie, Ying Jianghong—such a terrifying martial lineup was not even all that Jing Kingdom could deploy upon the battlefield at sea.
Jing Kingdom had the power to bar anyone alive from the road to Transcendence—unless they possessed corresponding strength to safeguard their path.
Ji Jinglu slowly withdrew his fist. "At the moment Gu Shiyi died, I heard many cries of grief. Gu Shiyi's strength may not have been sufficient, but I have now seen Gu Shiyi's influence."
"We permit mourning! We permit people to weep for him!" Ji Xuanzhen stood there, understanding everything perfectly well. "But we will never permit him to stand against Jing Kingdom and challenge Jing Kingdom's will merely because he possesses such influence."
Or rather, it was precisely because Gu Shiyi possessed such influence—because he could make wandering heroes across all under heaven ring their sword hilts for him—that he could even less be allowed to live when he sought to obstruct Jing Kingdom's will.
"Forgive my bluntness—but has Gu Shiyi done anything particularly great?" Ouyang Jie put away his Criminal Investigation Token. The endless chains of deep azure withdrew their shoots like a thorn tree, and his voice was equally piercing. "I do not recall any earth-shaking legend connected to him. If there is one, then consider me ignorant and poorly informed."
"What he did today was the greatest thing