There were no impassioned vows, no tearful embraces.
In this Netherworld, where nine out of ten paths led to death, a promise between men often needed only the simplest words, a single glance, to weigh more than a thousand tons.
Qin Zhong looked at Li Xiang. On his pale, imposing face, steeped in the Netherworld Laws, the taut muscles slowly relaxed.
He reached back and gripped Li Xiang's arm hard, with such strength that even Li Xiang's skin, tempered by [Ice Skin, Jade Bones], felt a faint sting.
"All right."
Qin Zhong drew a deep breath, suppressing the last traces of human warmth and vulnerability in his eyes.
He knew this was no time to reminisce.
For a Yin Tianzi forcibly thrust onto the throne, time was the most extravagant thing he could spend.
"Junior brother, since you've accepted, you and everyone here must carve every word I'm about to say into your bones."
Qin Zhong released his grip and turned to face the others. A sliver of the imperial might he had forcibly suppressed spilled out uncontrollably, making all four walls of the abandoned Bone House groan beneath the strain.
"In the six months since you were swept into Ghost Gate Pass and fell into the Netherworld, the sky over the Living World has collapsed completely."
Qin Zhong's voice rumbled like muffled thunder, laden with an ineradicable scent of blood.
"The Commander-in-Chief ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, forcibly reconstituting the Great Xin Dynasty's dynastic fortune golden dragon. Unifying the realm was indeed an unparalleled achievement, but that very act crossed the bottom line of the Foreign Races and old monsters lurking in the shadows."
"On the very day the Commander-in-Chief offered sacrifices to Heaven in Ziwei City, the northern defenses collapsed."
"It wasn't merely a military defeat.