"Great Liang... an entire kingdom slaughtered..."
After a moment of stunned silence, Xu Taiping finally understood. His expression grew somewhat agitated as he immediately asked Huang Que for confirmation:
"Brother Huang Que, is the Great Liang Kingdom you mentioned the one where my hometown, Green Ox Village, is?"
Although there was no longer anyone in Green Ox Village whom he missed, it was, after all, the hometown where he had been born and raised. His parents' and grandfather's graves were all there.
Rather than answer directly, Huang Que took out his Spirit Mirror and gently pushed it toward Xu Taiping.
"See for yourself."
At those words, Xu Taiping immediately lowered his head to look into the Spirit Mirror.
Within it, masses of raging flame fell from the sky onto a small village surrounded by wooded hills.
In the blink of an eye, the little village, once quiet, peaceful, and removed from worldly strife, became a sea of fire.
For a time, screams filled the sea of fire.
A village woman fled the flames with a child in her arms and plunged into the pond at the center of the village. Yet even after she jumped into the water, the flames on her body did not go out.
As more and more villagers engulfed in flames jumped into the pond, they instead burned its water dry.
And once the pond had dried up, a stone statue of a green ox submerged at its bottom gradually came into view.
At the sight of that green ox statue, Xu Taiping's heart sank. Until then, he had still clung to a thread of hope. His voice was somewhat heavy as he murmured:
"It really is our Green Ox Village..."
That green ox statue was precisely where Green Ox Village had gotten its name.
Every