When Cheng Yu left Haiqi City, Shopkeeper Hu was still asking what he could do for him.
Cheng Yu simply looked at Niu Ba outside the door and smiled.
"Then please live a good life, both you and the young lay Buddhist."
Shopkeeper Hu looked at Niu Ba outside the inn, then at the aged Cheng Yu. His lips moved, but in the end, he said only one word.
"All right."
With Shopkeeper Hu and the young girl Lingling watching him go, Cheng Yu rode Niu Ba slowly out of Haiqi City.
Just as when he had arrived more than fifty years ago, the arrival of one man and one bull had caused no stir. More than fifty years later, their departure changed nothing either.
Haiqi City was still the same city, and its residents were still the same people. Their lives had not changed with the arrivals and departures of others, just as they had been before any of this began.
The closer they came to Humankind Territory, the less Cheng Yu and Niu Ba seemed to speak.
For Cheng Yu, it was simply physical weakness. As for Niu Ba, Cheng Yu knew the reason too.
Niu Ba belonged to the Demon Race and was a direct descendant of one of its great clans. Even as Yunyangzi's body neared its end, Niu Ba had yet to reach adulthood.
But there was no denying the immense influence Cheng Yu had exerted on Niu Ba over those fifty-odd years. His place in Niu Ba's heart was greater than even he imagined.
Although Niu Ba was somewhat slow and clumsy, he had keenly sensed one thing: Cheng Yu was going to leave him.
And this was a parting that nothing could prevent.
It was like a youth discovering that fate could