[Original ending-rewritten]
After the final line settled into place, the gray that had lingered before Lu Yuan's eyes all night finally began to fade.
The Eye of Destiny offered no further prompts. The taut thread of fate above the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect fell utterly still, like a bowstring drawn to its limit finally going slack.
Lu Yuan stood beside the shattered stone steps. Only now did he truly have time to take in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect before him.
Day had fully broken. Stone slabs overturned by Soul Power the night before lay scattered in crooked heaps. Sword energy had torn several buildings apart, and lingering scorch marks stained the collapsed walls. Disciples kept carrying out the wounded, those who could walk supporting those who could not. The people tending injuries and counting casualties hurried back and forth. The battle cries of last night had vanished from the sect, leaving only hushed conversations and occasional groans of pain.
They had won the night, after all, but it had been anything but costless.
Lu Yuan glanced down at his right hand. The wound in the web between his thumb and forefinger, which had split open repeatedly, had finally clotted, but the aching numbness in his arm had yet to fade completely. During those last few times he had forced his way into a Titled Douluo's Soul Power, the backlash he endured had been far worse than it appeared. Any harder, and there was no telling whether he would still have that hand today.
Not far away, Ning Rongrong crouched beside an injured disciple.
The young sect master who had stood behind the younger generation last night, constantly adjusting her enhancements and trapping the invading enemies within their formation, was nowhere to be seen. Now her