"Hah, hah, hah..."
Breathing in great gulps, Xu Taiping slowly swept his gaze over Li Daoyan and the others before looking at the unfamiliar faces of the Human Race cultivators.
A middle-aged cultivator who happened to meet Xu Taiping's gaze gave him a faint smile, then asked:
"Your name is Xu Taiping, isn't it?"
Xu Taiping nodded and said:
"Yes."
The middle-aged cultivator pointed at the Jade Bone Grass tassel on the hilt of the Water-Cutting Blade beside Xu Taiping and said:
"Thank you, young hero, for giving these soldiers, who fought the Primordial Lord for a hundred years with their mortal bones, the best ending they could have had."
Xu Taiping opened his mouth at those words, then asked with some curiosity:
"Could you be...?"
The middle-aged cultivator nodded and said:
"I planted my Jade Bone Grass on that hillside. Unfortunately, I was no martial artist and had not a shred of battle intent, so I could not pull out the Treading the Sea Army's battle flag."
Xu Taiping shook his head and said:
"You already did more than enough."
The middle-aged cultivator continued with a gentle smile:
"I was merely gambling-gambling on the Human Race's fortune, gambling that a young man would surely come and pull out that battle flag."
At this point, the middle-aged cultivator looked at Xu Taiping with eyes full of admiration and said:
"Fortunately, my gamble paid off."
Xu Taiping said nothing. Instead, he bowed deeply to the middle-aged cultivator with his hands clasped, then asked:
"Senior, might you tell me your name?"
The middle-aged cultivator smiled and said:
"My surname is Yan, and my given name is Kai. I was once a Human Race cultivator of Mysterious Wasteland Heaven."
Xu Taiping nodded, then looked toward the vast multitude of remnant souls and said: