Hermit Purple caught Sasuke and gently set him down.
Sasuke ruffled his windblown hair and jogged over to join Lin Qing.
He poked the enormous snake head. "Is the White Snake Sage dead?"
Lin Qing nodded.
The system notification had been crystal clear: it said "slain," not "defeated." That meant the reptile who had lived for a thousand years and cultivated immortality was indeed dead.
Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation stopped. Dust returned to dust, earth to earth, and the land regained its former peace.
Lin Qing looked around. Aoda was still standing there in a daze, staring fixedly at the White Snake Sage's head.
Not far away lay Tagitsuhime's corpse.
The woman had been quicker on the uptake than Aoda. When she saw the White Snake Sage weakening, she feared that Lin Qing would kill her after taking care of their leader, so she transformed into a snake and ran before he could get to her.
At the time, the White Snake Sage had been trying to shake Lin Qing off and was frantically using Inorganic Reincarnation. The ground had heaved and buckled.
If Tagitsuhime had stayed put, that would have been one thing. But she had fled beyond Ryūchi Cave. Did the White Snake Sage really have to risk her own life just to spare Tagitsuhime?
And so the Snake Princess, who had served the White Snake Sage all her life, died beneath her mistress's own sage art. She went ahead to scout the road to the underworld, where she could keep serving the White Snake Sage.
"What a pity," Lin Qing said sincerely.
She was worth 400 Soul Shards. If she was going to die anyway, she might as well have died at Lin Qing's hands.
After that fight, Lin Qing had a rough idea of Ryūchi Cave's