The next day.
Early morning.
The sky was dim, and a thin mist hung in the air. Ever since True Person Bai Mu had "undergone Dao Transformation and fallen, returning to the embrace of heaven and earth," a hazy drizzle had continued to fall over Eastwater. The fine rain carried a chill, yet could not dispel the wisps of cooking smoke.
"Mealtime."
Inside the prisoner camp, at Le Mingxue's call, several sturdy women came in carrying buckets of food.
Dao Foundation cultivators could dine on the wind and drink dew, abstaining from food for long periods, but Qi Ingestion cultivators clearly hadn't reached that level of cultivation.
At the call, the many Bai Clan disciples, who had been soaked all night and looked like drowned rats, obediently lined up to collect their meals.
Bai Ziye held a chipped, battered porcelain bowl like everyone else. Seeing the rice in it, he couldn't help feeling indignant. "At home, I always ate Jade Spring Rice... Now I'm stuck with inferior Spirit Rice like Green Corn Rice..." A few Bai Clan members nearby looked disgruntled, but they were starving and had been on tenterhooks for so long that they ate with surprising relish.
"The masters are even giving us Spirit Rice. They're truly the kindest people around..."
"If they're still feeding us, they clearly don't plan to kill us. There's got to be a way out..."
"I just hope they don't use us to fill a pit..."
As Bai Ziye listened, unease began to stir in his heart.
The Secret Treasury was now locked in a struggle with the Harmonious Bliss Sect. What if they sent these surrendered troops to the front lines?
Seen in that light, what he held wasn't a bowl of Spirit Rice at all. It was a "last meal"!
At