A Fluttering Butterfly Subdued Kun Cang

A smile slowly spread across the Heaven-Rending Ancestor's face. "I merely wish to become the master of Kun Cang, not to take needless lives. Since you have made this request, I shall grant it!"

As his voice faded, the enormous hand covering the sky slowly withdrew.

Dawa slowly turned her head...

The solid ice in her eyes slowly melted, as though touched by the warm breeze of spring...

"Dawa!" Lin Xiaosu came to her side.

"Brother!" Her voice was soft as water, just as it had been beside the Tali River that day.

"Why did you do this?" Lin Xiaosu's voice was as soft as a sigh.

"I... I still want you to remember that pure, unblemished moon above the beautiful grasslands."

"The moon roams the heavens. Clouds inevitably veil it from time to time, but its light remains pure and flawless."

"Really?" Boundless tenderness filled Dawa's eyes.

"Really!"

"Go to my homeland for me, and tell my father and mother something..." Dawa said softly.

"No!" Lin Xiaosu gently raised a finger and pressed it against her lips.

It was an intimacy they had never shared before.

It was also an intimacy unsuited to public view.

Yet today, even Feng Ji, whose relationship with Lin Xiaosu was the most tangled and indefinable, found nothing improper about the gesture. She felt only three parts beauty and seven parts sorrow.

Because today, Dawa had sacrificed herself to protect them.

Because tomorrow, the two of them would have no tomorrow.

"Brother..."

"I don't want to tell your parents anything on your behalf. I would much rather you told them yourself!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Dawa, you don't have to go back to the mountain with him!"

Everyone jolted in shock.

She did not have to go back to the mountain with him!

He...

Could