When the Deed Was Done, He Brushed Off His Robes and Left, His Glory Soaring

Outside Luna Village, on the battlefield where the great clash had taken place, Allen and Sura stared in shock.

The bodies of the Fres Army soldiers had been laid out neatly and were being cremated one after another. Including those the villagers had gathered near the camp Pan Long had raided that night, there were 114 in all.

Most of those hundred-odd men were petty thugs and bandits, but among them were elite soldiers of the One God Religion and powerful Warlocks.

Most important of all was Seles, one of the four great generals of the Frees Empire, the One God Religion's high priest, and the "Most Holy."

Now the corpse with half its head missing had been stripped bare, doused in oil, and set ablaze atop a pile of firewood. The stench of burning flesh spread in every direction, just like the evil he had committed in life.

The villagers of Luna Village bustled about. Though the stench had driven them to cover their noses and mouths with towels, nothing could hide their smiles.

They had thought they had no choice but to flee into the mountains and eke out a hard living deep in the Remote Mountains, where resources were scarce. Perhaps they would last only a few days before the Holy Legion caught up and slaughtered every last one of them. Instead, before they had even reached their destination, unexpected good news arrived: led by the adventurer Mr. Pan, the Village Chief and the others had defeated the Holy Legion. Mr. Pan had even killed its leader, Seles the "Most Holy"!

When she first heard the news, Lilina, who led the fleeing villagers, could hardly believe it. The last priestess of the Moon Goddess confirmed it again and again before cheering through her tears.

"We won! Mr. Pan is incredible!"

Then she led the villagers, their unease transformed into high spirits, back through the night at a pace even faster than their flight.

When they returned to Luna Village, the first thing everyone saw was the great furnace blazing away.

Though the plan to burn the dangerous materials had failed, the villagers had not dismantled the furnace. A furnace that tall was no easy thing to build, and it still had its uses. Tearing it down would have been a shame.

They used it to melt down broken weapons and fragments of armor, turning the metal into farm tools or using it for repairs.

The battle had brought Luna Village a rich haul. The Fres Army had left fifteen warhorses behind. The two wagons were somewhat damaged, but only their sideboards were broken; their chassis and axles were sound, and a few repairs would make them usable. Add the army's rations, tents, and other supplies, and one could fairly say, "Seles fell, and Luna Village ate its fill."

But those were only the scraps. The captured weapons and equipment mattered far more.

The Holy Legion's gear was exceptionally sturdy, especially that of the guard knights. Their weapons and armor had all been reinforced with magic, making them far tougher than ordinary metal and giving them a resistance to magic that ordinary metal lacked. At a black-market auction, perhaps the price of just one or two suits of armor would be enough to build a village.

There were twenty such suits of armor.

The Frees Empire's army was organized into squads of ten, companies of a hundred, and battalions of a thousand. This time, Seles had brought two squads of elite knights, two companies of rank-and-file soldiers, and three squads of camp laborers. After the fierce battle, the elite knights had been all but wiped out. The ordinary soldiers were either dead or had fled, but some of the camp laborers had stayed behind as prisoners.

It was the information those prisoners gave them that finally let everyone piece together why Seles had attacked.

He had merely been conducting a routine sweep of the countryside, wiping out any heretics he came across. That was all.

He had done the same thing countless times before. This time, his sins had finally caught up with him.

"To think the Most Holy would die here..." sighed Sura, the refined scholar. "Even the emperor feared him!"

"The wicked fear one another like two vicious dogs fighting over a bone," said the tall, broad-shouldered, handsome Allen with a sneer. "If they could work together in earnest, they'd have crushed every resistance force long ago."

Sura laughed. "How could they? Whose banner they fight under is a small matter. Who reaps the rewards is what counts. Whether it's the Frees Empire or the One God Religion, their ultimate goal is to become the sole master of this vast land. The throne may be large, but it can't seat two people."

Allen's face was full of disdain. "Even if they scheme their way onto it, they'll be kicked off before long!"

"The great and powerful never believe that their virtue might fall short of their station," Sura said mockingly. "Or perhaps they just have to lull themselves into believing they can hold on to it."

"And this is how it ends." As he spoke, Sura jerked his chin toward Seles, whom the villagers were lifting onto a stack of firewood and dousing with oil.

Allen burst out laughing. When he finished, he sighed. "I thought that after years studying under the sage, we counted as rising stars in this world. Now I see how far we still have to go! That adventurer, Mr. Pan, looks about our age, but his strength is simply staggering!"

"Yes. Defeating the Holy Legion single-handedly, even killing Seles... I doubt our teacher could have done that himself."

Looking back at Pan Long, whom Lilina was anxiously asking whether he felt unwell or had been hurt, Allen's face filled with admiration and longing. "That's how a man should live—bright and blazing, so his life isn't wasted!"

If Pan Long had heard him, the two might have found some common ground.

But he could not hear him just then, because Lilina was talking his ear off.

The inheritor of the Moon Goddess's Sacred Mark was first-rate in both looks and figure, and she had a good personality too. She was just a little long-winded.

Earlier, when Pan Long had been searching for treasure at the Moon Goddess's statue, curiosity alone had set her chattering until his head ached. Now she had even more to say.

"You're incredible!"

"How did you get so strong?"

"Will killing Seles cause you trouble?"

"You don't need to give the Moon Tear Pendant back to me. It can help you, and Mom's spirit in heaven would be happy too."

"Would you be interested in a long-term partnership with the Moon Goddess Sect? I think we could help you with some things."

"Even if we don't work together, we could keep in regular contact. We could share information, at least."

"I'll always live here. If you ever need anything, whether you're looking for help or just want to rest for a few days, you're welcome to come."

"Luna Village will always welcome you. We'll be sure to repay your great kindness."

"If you can, I think you should stay a few more days. It's almost time to harvest Moon Dew Grass, and I'm very good at making Moon Dew pizza. You have to try it!"

She spoke with heartfelt sincerity, and now and then she blushed, like ripe fruit that made him want to take a bite.

Pan Long was not the stone monkey who had frozen the Seven Fairies in place and then run off to watch the excitement at the Peach Banquet. Of course he understood what Lilina meant.

The girl might talk a lot, but she was still rather shy. In one of those street ballads, there would be no need for so many words at a time like this. One line would do: "I cannot repay such kindness any other way, so let me give myself to you."

That would be much more direct than all this hemming and hawing.

A woman from the Northlands would probably have said it outright by now.

"We'd love for you to stay," "Everyone likes you," "We'd be happy to spend every day with you"... Come on, girl. Couldn't you be a little more direct?

Age-wise, Lilina was still a little young, though neither her face nor her figure showed it.

No, age was not really the issue. This world apparently had no law like a marriage act setting a minimum age for marriage. If he truly wanted to stay, even to have children with Lilina, he was sure everyone would give them their blessing.

But he could not stay.

His father had once warned him that in the Illusory World opened by the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment, he could do good or evil, strive or seek pleasure. Even death was nothing to fear. There was only one thing that was deeply taboo, something he must never do.

He must never settle in an illusory world and live there for a long time.

"Everything in that world is only an illusion, but that's precisely why it's beautiful," his father had said solemnly. "The world we live in isn't beautiful. Effort usually goes unrewarded, justice usually goes undone, jackals rule the roads, and tigers and leopards lurk everywhere. Living in this world isn't easy."

"So if a beautiful illusory world exists, most people will yearn for it. Just as monks yearn for the Pure Land of Bliss and Daoists for the Jade Capital Heavenly Palace... the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment can open such a world for you. What they yearn for is easy for us of the Pan Lineage to obtain."

"But once you have it, what will you do?"

Pan Long understood what his father meant.

With a beautiful world waiting for you, who would want to live in this wretched one?

But that beautiful world was, in the end, only an illusion.

"...Has anyone among our ancestors ever broken that taboo?" he asked.

"Of course," his father replied. "More than one. Everyone who lived too long in an Illusory World eventually chose to remain there and refused to stay in the human world."

"What happened to them?"

"They all went mad." Pain glimmered in his father's eyes. "However hard reality is, you can't run from it. Remember that! Remember it!"

Pan Long suspected his father might once have wanted to live in an Illusory World and escape reality himself.

Every member of the Pan Lineage who inherited the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment had to keep fighting that desire, fighting the urge to flee reality.

Otherwise, they would go mad, driven to it by a beautiful illusion they could never truly reach and a painful reality they could never escape.

Pan Long did not want that fate. So he could not stay in Luna Village.

So he sighed and set the Crown of Law and other things with no harmful aftereffects before Lilina, beside the Moon Tear Pendant.

At a thought, the scene around him wavered. Ripples spread through it, like a stone dropped into still water, wave upon wave overlapping.

A moment later, he felt his body meet some invisible resistance. Then came a slight jolt, the resistance vanished, and the scene around him changed. He was back amid the vast sea of stars.

Gazing across that sea, he could faintly make out the star where he had been moments before.

Will I ever go back? he asked himself.

Then he smiled and turned away.

If fate allows it, we'll meet again.