Below,
a wasteland.
A large crowd of mortals in ragged clothes, their hair disheveled and faces filthy, trudged weakly across the wasteland toward the southern Chu Kingdom.
Clearly, these were refugees who could no longer farm normally because of the beast tide and had been forced to abandon their homes.
As Liu Yu flew along, he had kept his speed relatively slow to observe the situation in Qing Province.
He had seen countless bands of refugees like this one.
He had stopped this time only because a youth among them appeared to have quite promising aptitude.
The boy was thirteen or fourteen. After a long, grueling journey, both his face and clothes were coated in grime.
His once-white robe had turned black with dirt, as had his face.
Yet beneath the grime around his brows, traces of delicate features remained.
In Liu Yu's eyes, however, a faint red glow shone from the crown of the boy's head.
He seemed to possess a spiritual root, and a rather good one at that.
That was precisely why Liu Yu had stopped.
With this outward manifestation, he must possess a fire spiritual root, and his affinity for spiritual energy is certainly not low.
At the very least, he has a dual spiritual root or better.
The thought flashed through Liu Yu's mind.
Naturally, he had not felt the urge to take a disciple simply because the boy's aptitude had caught his eye.
Rather, he had thought of the karma tied to the Ruined Sword.
Back then, knowing that death was certain, Tang Tianbao had entrusted the Ruined Sword to him. Liu Yu had personally promised to ensure that the Sacred Fire Cult's legacy continued.
*During that journey into the secret realm, the Sacred Fire Cult's core members were nearly wiped out, leaving only