Seven days later, at the Iron Dragon Sect's ancestral shrine grounds in the back mountain of Mysterious Heaven Peak, three new graves stood upon a hillside of green mountains and clear waters.
Yesterday, the weather had still been bright and fine. Yet early this morning, a steady drizzle had begun to fall over the Iron Dragon Sect's mountain gate.
The fine rain fell thick and fast, enough to break the soul.
Most of those who had come to pay their respects had already left. Only the faint, intermittent weeping of the dead's relatives still echoed through the mountains. Zhang Tie had not left. He stood blankly before the three new graves, looking at the three black-and-white crystal photographs on the gravestones.
Zhang Tie wore a black hemp robe. He stared blankly at the three new graves, silent and expressionless. The drifting threads of rain fell with the wind, and before long, dampened Zhang Tie's hair and brows.
Ma Aiyun's grave stood in the middle. The two new graves on either side of hers belonged to Gu Caidie and Yuan Ziyi. Gu Caidie and Yuan Ziyi's graves contained only several articles of clothing they had worn in life and a few pieces of jewelry. They were memorial graves. Zhang Tie had sent people to retrieve the items from Huaiyuan City in Yingzhou, then personally placed them inside the coffins. He had also carved all three gravestones himself, writing every stroke with his finger upon the hard stone.
In just a few short days, from Old Master Zhang Haitian's passing, to being framed and poisoned himself, to the incident in Golden Crow City, to Ma Aiyun's jade fading and fragrance vanishing, the setbacks and blows Zhang Tie had endured during this time were things he had never experienced in all his decades