The Sea God Returned to Shore
When Bo Saixi entered the hall, Tang San was still kneeling in front of the door. She walked past him, placed a hand on his shoulder, and told him to look up and see the sea light shining in front of the statue.
"You promised Xiao Wu you'd come back, and you promised these people you'd finish your own journey."
Tang San raised his head. "Senior, I remember."
"Then let's go in."
She had him grasp the Trident and walk to the light in the hall, while she herself stopped at the entrance to the passageway. Her Level 99 Soul Power radiated outward from her chest, the Scepter no longer in her hand, but she still used both hands to support the separating Sea God's Light.
The door opened a narrow crack, then just enough for a person to pass through. Bo Saixi's hair had lost its color at the ends, but the life force emanating from her did not dissipate outside the Divine Temple; instead, it flowed entirely into the passage she had created.
Tang San took a step forward and then looked back at her.
The old man was still standing at the door, his body already illuminated by the blue light. She looked at him, pushing her last bit of power into the light, without asking the Sacred Pillar Soul Master guarding behind her for any compensation.
"Walk."
Tang San gripped his halberd and stepped across the beam of light.
Sea Dragon knelt outside the entrance, his Scepter no longer waiting for its master to reach out and take it. Xiao Wu watched Bo Saixi's figure gradually fade away, the medicine bag in her hand remaining unopened. Medicine could heal an injured body, but it couldn't save a life that had willingly entered the inheritance process, and those outside couldn't pull her back from the light with a single shout.
The last stretch of sea light stabilized, and the passageway truly closed. Inside the temple, only a stone surface where Bo Saixi had stood remained. The old man did not retreat to the doorway, nor did he leave behind a body waiting for the physician to move it away.
Xiao Wu walked behind Sea Dragon and straightened his tilted Scepter. Ning Rongrong and the others did not urge him to stand up. Instead, they each took up a spot along the steps outside the hall, leaving those who were going up the mountain outside the door.
Tang San, trapped in the light, could no longer hear them.
The inheritance first stripped away the power of his Soul Bone piece by piece. When the Origin the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's body left his chest and back, the Meridians that had just been reattached lost their support again, and the power of the Eight Spider Lances also retreated from his back. He was left in this light, still having to use his own spirit to withstand every impact of those powers being dismantled and then put back into place.
The old scar on his Right Arm reappeared before his eyes.
He saw the red light when Xiao Wu offered her sacrifice, saw himself returning his Soul Bone by the bedside, and saw her holding his hand after opening her eyes. The voice in the inheritance told him to choose again, to suffer less pain, to retain more power, and to keep his Right Arm intact from the beginning.
Tang San did not reach for the ring he had already returned.
He reconnected the Blue Silver Emperor to his body along the real, black sixth ring. The life force that Xiao Wu had left him had returned to her body; the only thing that could be reforged here was the power he had personally hunted and cultivated. The old wound no longer hindered the flow of Divine Power, but he left the mark in its original place, enough for him to recognize it at a glance.
Next, the Clear Sky Hammer returned to its place.
Nine black rings pressed down one after another, bringing back the pain from the sea hunt. He didn't change the rings to a more attractive red; when he gripped the hammer handle, the weight of the Ironclad Turtle pressing against his chest was still there, and he could still remember the vines severed by the Rock Jiao's tail. The power gradually returned to its place, and his body was finally able to stand firmly in the Divine Power.
The last thing to fall was the sea light on the Trident.
Tang San raised the long handle, the blade no longer requiring the slightest effort from his forehead to light up, the Sea God's Power flowing between himself and the weapon. He could feel the currents in the sea, and he could also sense the people waiting outside the Divine Temple, but he could not see any of the military camps on the distant continent.
The passage reopened, and Tang San emerged from the light.
Sea Dragon remained kneeling before the door, his Scepter placed where Bo Saixi had stood. Tang San stopped, first looking at the stone surface, then lowering the halberd's end and kneeling in that spot.
Xiao Wu didn't rush forward to demand he demonstrate his Divine Power. She stood to the side, waiting for him to finish his bow before reaching out to take his Right Arm. The Meridians were intact, but the old scar remained. She touched the familiar mark beneath the Wrist Guard, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Tang San took her hand and left the Divine Temple with his companions. The Sea God's Divine Position was now complete, but Bo Saixi's life, which she had sacrificed, could not be brought back by this new identity.
They stayed on the island for seven days, completing the final arrangements for the Sacred Pillar Guardian. Bo Saixi's Scepter was put away in the side courtyard of the Divine Temple, and the Sea Dragon stood below the steps where she used to receive the examiners, receiving for the first time the reports sent by the various cities on the island on her own.
As the return ship prepared to set sail, Sea Dragon came to the Dock again and asked Tang San if he needed the Sacred Pillar Guardian to accompany him. Tang San glanced at the ordinary ships lined up on the shore and ultimately told him to stay where he was.
"The roads on the island must continue as usual. You also need to make sure those ships carrying medicine to the mainland leave safely."
Sea Dragon accepted the order and walked back to the cargo ship that was still waiting for the containers to be inspected. Xiao Wu saw the two Medicine Case that had been put back into use from the bow of the ship. She first put away the spare rope tied to the side of the ship, without taking the medicine that had been delivered in the past and calculating with the Divine Position who had returned to his place to keep track of who had more and who had less.
The seven people boarded the prepared return ship. Xiao Bai saw them off for a while in the Outer Sea. The Demon Soul Great White Shark Gang did not follow them to the mainland, and the people on Sea God Island also stayed in their respective residences.
On the thirty-sixth day, the ship finally reached the mainland coast.
Tang San personally steered the boat through the last storm, not leaving his companions halfway to wait for his divine light to return and fetch them. When they reached the shore, several rows of sheds for transferring the wounded had been erected on the Dock. The boatmen carried empty stretchers down the long steps, urging them to clear the narrowest passage first.
Ning Rongrong stepped aside and went to find the messenger who was going to deliver the message to the Seven Treasure Sect. Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing asked about the ship that Star Luo Empire had brought. Oscar helped Ma Hongjun with the bag of supplies on his shoulder and didn't rush to tell everyone at the Dock that the assessment was over.
Xiao Wu followed Tang San off the boat and saw a young physician from the Spirit Hall Empire changing the bandages of two prisoners. The insignia on the physician's body was the same as the one she remembered chasing into the forest, but he was only holding a blood-soaked Medicinal Bandage in his hand. His first question was whether the wounded could sit up.
She paused outside the shed for a moment and handed him the remaining clean Medicinal Bandage from the boat.
Tang San didn't decide for her who this represented as forgiveness. After the two left the Dock, they received military reports from the mainland from messengers along the coast: the two old agreements had expired, the Allied Army and the empire were gathering at Jialing Pass, the Angel God had appeared, and the Rakshasa's purplish-black aura had been witnessed by frontline Soul Master.
After he finished reading the military report, the last page contained Bai Jin's reply regarding guarding the grain route.
"He's still with them," Xiao Wu said.
"It's always been there."
"The medicine is in our hands, but the old stories remain."
Tang San nodded, and the General's Report was saved to the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges. Bibi Dong's arrest warrant wouldn't disappear just because he held the Trident, nor would it change to a crime committed by an ordinary physician simply because Bai Jin brought the medicine. The answer he needed to get at the pass had to come from the person who actually issued the order back then.
Three days later, he and his companions arrived outside Jialing Pass.
Bai Jin stood on the wall, the golden Holy Light receding into a line in the distance, and the pressure of purplish-black divine Divine Power already looming over the city. Bai Jin's nine rings were intact, and his Soul Power was still at Level 98. He did not hide the Empire Elder's insignia on his shoulder.
Tang San stopped in front of the army formation and told the Soul Master to deliver his signed request to the pass: the primary responsibility for capturing and pursuing Xiao Wu must be answered by Bibi Dong herself, and ordinary soldiers should not be allowed to stand in front for her.
Bai Jin glanced at the page, handed it to the Deacon behind him, and then walked to the front of the battlements.
Tang San gripped the Trident and looked up to meet his gaze.