Farewell, Wutan City

Inside the secret chamber, the candle burned quietly.

Su Chen withdrew the finger he had pressed against the map.

Beneath that finger lay the Tagor Desert, a place of endless yellow sands and death.

Ya Fei's chest, which had been rising and falling violently, finally settled. She did not try to persuade him again. All the panic and confusion had faded from her beautiful, peach-blossom eyes, leaving only a gravity she had never felt before, and a trace of madness... that even she herself had yet to notice.

She knew she could not dissuade him.

From the moment this man decided to spend one million three hundred and fifty thousand gold coins to acquire an intelligence network, she had known that the word "retreat" did not exist in his dictionary.

"I understand."

Ya Fei's voice returned to its usual soft, alluring tone, but now it carried a hint of steely resolve.

"I'll immediately activate the family's highest-level authority and gather everything we have on the Tagor Desert, the Snake-Person Tribe, and Queen Medusa. Every map that the Mittel Family's explorers have brought back at the cost of their lives over the past hundred years will be made available to you as well."

She paused, then looked Su Chen deeply in the eyes.

"But I'll need a little time."

Su Chen nodded. He knew this was the limit of what Ya Fei could do.

"While I'm making preparations, I need you to do something for me as well."

His voice remained steady.

"I'm leaving Wutan City for a faraway place. I don't know when I'll return."

At those words, the air in the secret chamber seemed to freeze for an instant.

Ya Fei's heart sank.

She had imagined countless possibilities, but never that he would leave so suddenly, so decisively.

"Then... what will happen to the business here?"

She asked instinctively.

The businesses dealing in the "Rock Fire Seed" and "Green Phosphorus Fire Seed" had become the Miteer Auction House's most important source of profit. They were also what had allowed Ya Fei to establish herself in the family and even advance further.

If Su Chen left, wouldn't this newly established empire of flame collapse in an instant?

"I'm giving it to you."

Su Chen's answer was casual, as if he were talking about something trivial.

Ya Fei froze where she stood. For the first time, her peerlessly beautiful face showed nothing but bewilderment and shock.

"W-what?"

She wondered if she had heard him wrong.

Su Chen did not explain.

He merely reached into his robes, took out two jade slips he had prepared earlier, and gently placed them on the table.

One was a deep red all over, radiating a faint warmth.

The other glimmered with a dim, emerald light and carried a trace of chill.

"These two jade slips contain the core methods for refining the 'Rock Fire Seed' and the 'Green Phosphorus Fire Seed.'"

Su Chen's voice rang clearly in Ya Fei's ears. Each word struck her heart like a heavy hammer.

"I've simplified them and removed every step that requires powerful soul force to control. They're now a process that... any Dou Shi-level alchemist can carry out independently once they're familiar with it."

"From today on, you'll have full control over all the fire-seed businesses in Wutan City, including this technique and the regular clientele from the Aoba Clan."

"I want nothing."

Su Chen leaned forward slightly. Beneath the shadow of his bamboo hat, his eyes seemed to pierce the darkness and settle on Ya Fei's stunned face.

"Once I leave, I only want you to keep this place safe for me."

"Make it my most reliable stronghold. Wherever I go in the future, it should be able to provide me with everything I need, continuously."

"As for the profits..."

He straightened, his tone turning indifferent.

"Just give me whatever you think is right."

Silence.

Not a sound stirred in the secret chamber.

Ya Fei stared blankly at the two jade slips on the table, her mind completely empty.

She had seen wealthy young masters spend fortunes without a second thought, and powerful experts toss gold around by the thousands.

But she had never seen anyone like Su Chen.

What he had casually given away was no pile of gold coins, no Dou Technique, no cultivation method.

It was a mine... that endlessly produced gold!

He could not even be bothered to negotiate a share of the profits.

This trust could no longer be described as "generous."

It was an absolute boldness, enough to leave anyone breathless.

He had placed everything of his on her shoulders.

He was betting on her ability, and even more on her character.

After a long while,

Ya Fei slowly drew in a deep breath.

She extended her slender, jade-white hand and, without the slightest hesitation, firmly gripped the two jade slips that could change the entire power balance of Wutan City.

Their warmth seeped through her skin and reached her heart.

Warm, yet heavy.

"Good."

Her answer was just one word.

Yet within that word lay a solemn promise, unlike anything Ya Fei had ever made in her life.

She raised her head. In that moment, her alluring peach-blossom eyes blazed with a brilliant light she had never shown before.

"Before you return, the Mittel Family's businesses in Wutan City will be ten times larger than they are now."

"I promise."

The night before his departure.

Moonlight poured like water over Wutan City's quiet streets.

Su Chen walked alone along the empty flagstone road.

He had not gone to disturb anyone.

Like a ghost, like a passing traveler, he took one last look at the city where he had stayed the longest since arriving in this world.

He passed the Aoba Clan's pill market.

Even in the dead of night, the shop was still brightly lit. A rich medicinal fragrance drifted through the cracks in the doors, and he could faintly hear the alchemists talking excitedly inside.

Then he passed down the street that had once belonged to the Jialie Clan.

Most of the once-prosperous shops had changed hands by now, their signs replaced. Only a few that had proved impossible to sell still bore the long-dusty characters for "Jia Lie," looking especially desolate in the night wind.

He passed the Xiao Clan's estate.

The compound was quieter than before.

Su Chen stopped and stood still in a dark corner.

He closed his eyes, and his soul perception spread out like quicksilver.

That faint presence, once like a candle flickering in the wind yet stubbornly unyielding, had disappeared.

The bone-white chill hidden in the deepest depths, like an iceberg that had stood for ten thousand years, had vanished without a trace as well.

This world's "Child of Destiny" had already set out on his own journey, with his old master by his side.

Su Chen felt not the slightest ripple in his heart.

When we meet again, what will we each have become?

He withdrew his perception and turned to leave.

At last, he returned to the rundown little courtyard in the south of the city.

This was where he had first arrived in this world.

The courtyard gate was unlocked. A gentle push made it creak open.

Weeds grew wild in the courtyard. Everything remained just as he had left it.

Su Chen walked to the familiar window and sat down.

He looked out at the familiar night sky and thought back over everything that had happened in the past few months.

From having nothing to his current position, with an invisible empire of flame at his command.

From an ordinary man who had to tread carefully and avoid the Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake, to one who was about to set his sights on a Heavenly Flame guarded by a Dou Huang expert.

Scenes from the past flowed before his eyes, one after another.

Yet he felt not the slightest attachment.

Only a bold spirit, eager to break free of every restraint and race toward a wider world, surged in his chest.

Wutan City was too small.

This pond could not hold a hidden dragon.

Much less the dragon slayer who was about to venture into the sea himself, to hunt a true dragon...

The next morning.

A pale fish-belly white had just appeared on the eastern horizon.

Outside Wutan City's western gate, a massive caravan had already made ready to depart.

Dozens of magnificent Iron-Hoof Horses pawed at the ground restlessly, steaming white breath from their nostrils.

More than a hundred guards in matching black outfits stood with fierce auras and eyes sharp as knives. Long sabers at their waists gleamed with cold light in the morning sun.

Every one of them was at least as strong as the retainers of the three great clans.

The middle-aged captain at their head was a genuine seven-star Dou Shi.

This was one of the Mittel Family's most elite caravans.

Under ordinary circumstances, they only sent out a force of this size when transporting goods worth over a million gold coins.

But today, they were escorting only one person.

Su Chen had changed out of his gray shirt and put on a black outfit Ya Fei had prepared for him, woven from Ice Silkworm Silk. A wide black cloak covered him from head to toe.

He still wore that battered bamboo hat.

Ya Fei stood quietly beside the caravan in a fiery-red qipao.

The morning breeze stirred the hair at her temples and the hem of her red dress.

She handed Su Chen a heavy storage pouch.

"Inside are all the intelligence and maps you need, as well as a completely new identity."

"From today on, you're 'Mr. Yan,' a mysterious traveling merchant who roams the empire. This identity is airtight and should be enough to stand up to inspections by any force in the empire."

Su Chen took the pouch and nodded.

"Thank you."

"Be careful on the road."

Ya Fei's red lips uttered only those four words.

No unnecessary reminders, no reluctant pleas for him to stay.

They had long since moved beyond needing such things.

Su Chen turned and climbed into the luxurious carriage built from Black Iron Wood, strong enough to withstand a full-force strike from a Dou Shi, under the reverent gazes of the guards.

The curtain slowly fell, blocking the view from outside.

"Set out!"

The Dou Shi captain gave a low, thunderous shout.

"Hyah!"

The driver whipped his horse, and the sharp crack of the lash broke the morning's silence.

Rumble...

The heavy wheels began to turn slowly, leaving deep tracks in the hard ground.

The entire caravan rolled forward like a black torrent of steel, heading toward the heart of the empire.

Ya Fei stood quietly where she was, without moving.

She watched the caravan shrink into an ever-smaller black dot at the end of the road.

Only when the last trace of shadow had vanished completely into the dawn on the horizon

did she slowly turn her gaze away.

The rising sun came up behind her, stretching her shadow far, far ahead.

She turned toward the Wutan City just waking up.

All the softness and reluctance had vanished from her peerlessly beautiful face.

In their place was the chill and resolve of a business queen, unlike anything she had shown before.

Her man had gone to conquer a wider world for her.

And she would guard, for him, the land they had first built together.