He wore battered heavy armor. His face was resolute, his temples faintly gray.
It was Yue Canghai, Northern Guardian Divine General of the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty!
He was only an afterimage, yet his presence seemed to swallow ten thousand miles, pressing down on Lu Zhen until he could scarcely breathe.
Stranger still, the afterimage's eyes seemed aware.
"My lord!"
"General!"
Four streaks of light swept in from afar and landed before the stele.
Xuanyang, Li Bashan, Xue Qinghou, and Hongfu.
These four commanders, once wild and untamable, now trembled from head to toe, too overcome to speak through their tears.
Thirty-six thousand years had passed.
At last, they saw again the man they had sworn to follow unto death.
"Rise, all of you." Yue Canghai's voice was gentle. "You've suffered, enduring so long in this sunless place."
The four wept harder.
Yue Canghai shook his head slightly and turned his gaze to Lu Zhen.
"Not bad, lad." Approval flashed in Yue Canghai's eyes. "Only at the Converging Stream Realm, yet you achieved a supreme breakthrough with a single ray of tribulation light and grasped the nascent form of a Great Dao. You're far stronger than I was at your age."
After a pause, Yue Canghai asked gravely, "You've passed the Northern Guardian Heaven Stele's trial, so you're qualified to inherit my mantle.
"Lu Zhen, will you enter my tutelage and become my Direct Disciple?"
Lu Zhen looked at the towering figure before him, his heart surging.
From Senior Xuanyang, he had already learned of the Northern Guardian Divine General's past.
To preserve the dynasty's strength, Yue Canghai had led his army in a rearguard action and fought a bloody war against the Demon Kingdom. To bring back his former lords, he had battled through the Twelve Star Continents.
Even