No one could answer.
No one could tell Jiang Wang why.
Who could answer a warrior who had clawed his way back from the Lost Realm, surviving by the skin of his teeth? Who could bear to give him such a cruel answer?
Old Man Su had seen more than his share of partings and deaths, yet he still couldn't help sighing. "I can give her one needle. Whatever you want to say to her, whatever regrets she has left... settle them now."
He took a needle as fine as a cow's hair from his sleeve. It was slender and silver. "Returning the soul and restoring life is beyond my abilities. But this needle, Dream Startle, can bring a brief flash of consciousness."
A final flash of consciousness was the last moment of life.
The Twelve Needles of East King, famed throughout the land, were an absolute secret art. They were called Pattern Break, Formation Break, Life Suspend, Blood Burn, Heart Shatter, Eye Split, Soul Fix, Soul Suppression, Dream Startle, Life Shift, Origin Return, and Calamity Deliverance.
The Golden Needle Sect's Golden Needle of Deliverance in Qi had been inspired in large part by the Calamity Deliverance needle, though its approach had since diverged.
To briefly rouse Zhu Biqiong, whose "lamp oil" had already run dry, was already a heaven-shaking feat.
But Jiang Wang... how could he be satisfied with that?
He had raced from Star Moon Plain to Linzi, then from Linzi to Huai Island. He had even plunged deep into the Lost Realm, fighting battle after bloody battle.
Was all of it just so he could meet this unchangeable outcome?
He crouched beside Zhu Biqiong, on the other side of her body. Gently, he unfolded her curled-up limbs and watched as Old Man Su slowly pressed the Dream