"Come visit me at Spirit Hall when you can."
At Lu Mingfei's words, Shen Yuji's lips began to tremble.
Something churned fiercely in her eyes.
She shook her head, shaking it desperately, her long silver-white hair tracing wild arcs through the moonlight.
"No!"
Her voice seemed forced from deep in her throat, hoarse and broken. "Lu Mingfei, you can't go back to Spirit Hall!"
"Aunt Shen."
Lu Mingfei cut her off.
His voice remained steady. "You taught me that people have to take responsibility for their choices.
You chose to hold them off so I could leave. I chose to come back so you could live. This is my choice."
Shen Yuji looked at him. Her lips moved, but she could not get another word out.
Something shattered in those dark brown eyes.
Tuo Bajun strode out of the Pink Cage.
His White-Armored Earth Dragon Martial Soul slowly receded as he stepped beyond the Cloth Cover.
A triumphant smile hung on his face.
Tuo Bajun stopped before Lu Mingfei and looked down at the child the Pope had gone to such lengths to bring back.
Then he nodded, a hint of approval in his voice:
"No wonder His Holiness the Pope personally ordered us to find you. You've got guts."
He turned and waved toward the inside of the Cloth Cover.
The female Soul Master who had created the Pink Cage brought her hands together.
The Cloth Cover slowly shrank from its vast, sky-blotting form to a piece of cloth the size of two palms.
She drew it back into her body, along with the pink strip connecting its ends.
The Pink Cage vanished, revealing everyone inside.
All sixteen of Spirit Hall's Soul Emperors were wounded, but not one had fallen.
Shen Yuji stood alone among them, her Dragon Armor