Was My Son Brave? Brave! Bravest of the Three Armies!!!

Wu'an City.

The people in the city clearly had yet to emerge from the pain of that war. The pedestrians on the streets were not even half as lively as when Dai Chengfeng had first entered the city.

Dai Chengfeng looked at the scene and shook his head. "Uncle, the Old Woman who wants to see me lives in the North Suburbs, right?"

"Mm."

Zhu Fan nodded. "But Chengfeng, if it won't do, I'll go myself. You don't have to."

"I heard that the Old Woman is already in her seventies, and Xu Feng was her only child. Her husband was once a soldier too, but he died in battle ten years ago."

"Now she's all alone. She doesn't want monetary compensation, yet insists on seeing you..."

"Could she be trying to pin this on you?"

Dai Chengfeng shook his head. "Xu Feng was able to say, 'My family is poor, so I will not yield an inch of land,' and then die for righteousness. His mother can't possibly be the kind of person you're thinking of, Uncle."

"That's hard to say." Zhu Fan shook his head. "Chengfeng, you're still too inexperienced!"

"There aren't many good people in this world, but there's no shortage of every kind of bad one!"

"Uncle!"

Seeing Dai Chengfeng's stern voice and faintly furrowed brows, Zhu Fan felt helpless. "All right, all right, your uncle won't say any more. I just hope she doesn't fail to appreciate our kindness!"

The two said no more and headed all the way toward the North Suburbs of Wu'an City.

It was not until they reached an utterly dilapidated thatched cottage that Zhu Fan stopped.

"Chengfeng, this is the place."

Dai Chengfeng looked at the drafty house before him and frowned slightly. "Wasn't Xu Feng a centurion of our empire? How did he end up living in a house like this?"

"If he had saved his military pay over all these years, it should have been more than enough for him to buy a very large house."

Zhu Fan shook his head. "I'm not sure either, but the address Zhu Yan gave was definitely this one. No mistake."

"All right." Dai Chengfeng nodded. "Maybe once we meet her... we'll understand."

As he spoke, he stepped forward and gently knocked on the door.

Before long, Dai Chengfeng saw a white-haired Old Woman, her body hunched, slowly walk out.

Her figure was thin and frail, as if a gust of wind could blow her over, and every step she took was extremely difficult.

Seeing this, Dai Chengfeng hurriedly went forward to meet her. "Auntie, are you Centurion Xu Feng's mother?"

Hearing this, the Old Woman raised her wrinkled face. Her cloudy eyes looked toward Dai Chengfeng as she said in a trembling voice, "You... You are the Fourth Prince?"

Dai Chengfeng nodded gently. "I heard from my uncle that you didn't want money, and only wanted to see me to ask me a question?"

The Old Woman's lips trembled slightly. She slowly nodded, stretched out her callus-covered hands, and tightly gripped Dai Chengfeng's arm. Her voice carried a trace of choking emotion.

"Yes, Your Highness. I don't want money. I only want to ask Your Highness one question in person. Otherwise, I'm afraid I won't be able to die in peace..."

Dai Chengfeng gently supported the Old Woman. "Then, Auntie, I'm here. Please ask."

"On the battlefield, was my son brave?"

The Old Woman's voice carried a trace of unease. "I heard that to protect all the common folk in our city, Your Highness also suffered very serious injuries. Did Feng'er hold Your Highness back?"

"Was he worthy of the people of Wu'an City?"

In an instant, Dai Chengfeng froze.

This was a question he had never imagined before...

Looking at the Old Woman, whose eyes were filled with unease and expectation, Dai Chengfeng's heart felt incomparably complicated, but his voice was incomparably firm. "Brave!"

"Bravest of the Three Armies!!!"

Dai Chengfeng clenched his teeth hard and roared in a deep, furious voice.

"Centurion Xu Feng never held anyone back. He was worthy of everyone!"

"He... is the pride of every soldier in my Star Luo Empire!!!"

"That's good, that's good..."

As if she had finally received the answer she wanted, the Old Woman seemed to lose all her strength. She staggered over beneath a peach tree and slowly sat down.

Her gaze rested tenderly on the peach tree as she murmured, "This was planted by Feng'er with his own hands the year he became a soldier."

"He said that when this peach tree grew up, the peaches it bore would be so sweet."

The Old Woman raised her hand and gently stroked the peach tree's leaves, smiling tenderly. "In the blink of an eye, it has already grown so big. Next year, it should bloom and bear fruit..."

A child sets his heart on leaving home; if he fails to make his name, he swears he will not return. Why must buried bones lie in one's native soil? Wherever there are green mountains in this life can be home!

Looking at the Old Woman, who had already been left all alone, Dai Chengfeng pressed his lips together and said nothing more.

A nation?

With war raging under heaven, what makes a nation?

A home?

With the people displaced and wandering, what makes a home?

Dai Chengfeng's heart was indescribably conflicted, and only four words remained in his mind—unification of all under heaven!

China's five thousand years of history proved that only a unified dynasty could end endless warfare, even if it lasted only a few centuries...

But!

This world was different!

In this world, there were undying Gods!

"Chengfeng, you'll get used to it. It's been like this for the past few centuries. Everyone just fights back and forth."

Seeing Dai Chengfeng standing there in a daze, Zhu Fan forced a relaxed air and patted him on the shoulder.

"Uncle..."

At that moment, Dai Chengfeng looked at Zhu Fan, his gaze serious.

"Mm?"

"I am willing, with this insignificant body, to forge a Human Emperor's Sword... With all under heaven as its edge, mountains and seas as its blade, tempered by the five elements, opened by yin and yang, held through spring and summer, wielded through autumn and winter—peerless in all the world, bringing all under heaven to submission!"

Dai Chengfeng looked ahead at the Old Woman, who was stroking that peach tree again and again with a gentle smile. "I also want to bring them, and bring this world, a mighty nation stretching east to the Spirit Battle Plains, west to the Vast Sea, north into the Land of the Far North, and south beyond the Bone Burial Mountain Range..."

"And!"

"Eternal Peace!"

Listening to Dai Chengfeng's words, which were not impassioned but instead deep and low, as though he were calmly recounting them, Zhu Fan felt as if struck by lightning, frozen on the spot.

In his eyes was profound shock.

In this chaotic world of Soul Masters, people seemed to have long since grown used to the idea that the bigger fist was the truth. Ordinary people, too, had grown used to wandering from place to place, used to the uncertainty of life and death...

What most people sought was nothing more than to drag out a miserable existence in these chaotic times.

And yet!

This young man before him—his nephew, Star Luo Empire's Fourth Prince, the future Star Luo Emperor—possessed such magnificent ambition!

He wanted, with his own body, to carry all under heaven, mountains and seas, the five elements, yin and yang, spring and summer, autumn and winter...

and forge the Human Emperor's Sword!

To reshape this shattered universe, and create a mighty nation stretching east to the Spirit Battle Plains, west to the Vast Sea, north into the Land of the Far North, and south beyond the Bone Burial Mountain Range...

And that thing no one even dared imagine... Eternal Peace!

Zhu Fan's lips trembled slightly. He wanted to speak, but for a moment, no sound came out.

After a long while, he finally slowly came back to himself, and his eyes had actually reddened slightly.

He clapped Dai Chengfeng hard on the shoulder, his voice hoarse with excitement as he said loudly, "That's ambition!"

"Good lad. Uncle really didn't misjudge you!"

"Since you have such lofty aspirations, then Uncle is willing to be your vanguard. Even if I must go to my death, I will never turn back!"

"Thank you, Uncle."

Looking at Zhu Fan, who supported him unconditionally, Dai Chengfeng spoke.

Although Dai Chengfeng knew very well that the path he wanted to take was bound to be full of thorns and countless difficulties, after all, the various powers under heaven were deeply entrenched, and there were also those High and Mighty Gods hidden in the shadows, watching the mortal world.

But Dai Chengfeng believed that as long as he wanted to walk it...

the road was beneath his feet!

This world—I, Dai Chengfeng, had come!