Zhang Yuanqing stayed close behind Everlasting Rivers and Mountains, continuing to guide the dream and stir up memories that had lain buried in his mind for decades.
It was this disaster that had devoured every member of the Same Boat Society North China Branch.
The culprit had yet to be brought to justice.
Before long, Everlasting Rivers and Mountains charged into the sea of flames. He took out a black pearl and held it in his mouth. In an instant, a layer of watery vapor enveloped his body, shielding him from the blaze's scorching heat.
Everlasting Rivers and Mountains raced through the village. Crude houses lay collapsed all along the way, and there was no sign of any villagers on the road—not even a single corpse.
But the pungent stench of burning reminded him that the villagers had not escaped. They had burned to death silently inside their homes.
At last, Everlasting Rivers and Mountains stopped before a rammed-earth house with an open courtyard. This was the village ancestral hall.
It was also the North China Branch's stronghold.
The villagers had greatly supported the North China Branch's resistance efforts. They had scrimped and saved to provide them with food, and had even given up their grandest ancestral hall to serve as the branch's base.
Everlasting Rivers and Mountains rushed past the half-collapsed doorway and entered the ancestral hall. Its main building had long since caved in. Shattered roof tiles were scattered across the ground, while burning beams lay strewn about.
Charred corpses lay sprawled amid the inferno. Some slumped against the walls, some were piled atop one another, and some lay stretched out beneath the corridors.
All of his former companions had been buried in the flames.
Everlasting Rivers and Mountains stood blankly in the sea of fire, as though