Over ninety years passed as time flowed on.
Outside, the slaughter was cruel beyond measure, devouring lives like a millstone grinding flesh and blood.
Here, it remained quiet. A youth in azure and a girl in a white dress cultivated in seclusion. The youth trained, while the girl watched him.
Her life was a candle flame in the wind, nearing its end.
"Young master,"
the girl in white said softly.
At last, the youth stopped cultivating. He opened his eyes and watched her quietly, there to see her off one final time.
This woman's soul and body had aged beyond measure and were about to collapse entirely. Whether it would happen in the next few days or a few days after that, no one could tell.
"Young master, what do you think of my talent?"
Gong Caiyu asked.
"Ordinary."
"Ordinary?"
"You certainly don't mince words. I'm about to die, you know."
Gong Caiyu did not know whether to laugh or cry.
No one answered.
All was quiet.
"Young master,"
"the truth is, I'm an unrivaled prodigy too."
Gong Caiyu looked at the youth in azure before her and spoke in earnest.
As though it were true.
An unrivaled prodigy who could not even break through to Void Refining.
"Yes."
At last, the Great Sun Sword Lord spoke again, brief and to the point.
"Pfft!"
Gong Caiyu could not help smiling.
They had known each other for tens of thousands of years, yet this was the first time she had seen the Great Sun Sword Lord lie—his face utterly expressionless, as though his lie were fact.
"Young master,"
"before you set out to face the Dao Child of the Immortal Order from the upper realm, you made arrangements for the Great Sun sword cultivators and bestowed techniques and battle formations upon