Liyang Heaven.
The mysterious wood had withered and charred, and the Yin Root had burned away.
Amid the crimson-black woods, only a hazy wooden embryo remained at the very center, standing as tall as a person within a mass of Li Fire interwoven with vermilion and apricot yellow. A thin divine halo of merit surrounded the wooden embryo, barely protecting its body, but it looked unlikely to hold out much longer. It seemed that the Li Fire needed to grow only a fraction stronger to burn through.
Vast Wood was dying.
Beneath these burned-out roots, a faint expanse of vermilion divine light had condensed into a sparrow form, forever spreading its wings to take flight, yet bound by the blue-green resin melted in the flames.
"Almost."
A man stood before the woods, his magnificent apricot-yellow robes fluttering in the firelight. A trace of a smile finally appeared on his face, cold as iron and stone, as he lightly turned a vermilion divine command token at his waist, inscribed with [Vermilion-Governing Southern Li].
Song Yuanxian.
The True Lord's trusted confidant, and patriarch of the Song Clan.
He was not a blood descendant of the True Lord of Li Fire-or rather, that lord had no children at all. The present Song Clan all descended from one of his brothers! Even so, they had been steeped in an extraordinarily weighty destiny of Li Fire, and had even received the Vermilion Bird's blood to nourish their descendants.
Suddenly, Li Fire flashed behind him, and a towering general in vermilion armor emerged. His face had neither flesh nor blood, only bare bones, through which surging apricot-yellow flames streamed.
A blood-colored Great Battle-Axe rested in his hand, its blade like a crescent moon and its markings like jackals and wolves. A terrifying aura of conquest gathered