Red Armor Camp, at the entrance to the Underground Palace.
When Xu Taiping emerged from the Underground Palace, the sun was already sinking in the west, and the military camp stood empty, without a soul in sight.
"Brother Xu, you came out too?"
Just as Xu Taiping was about to leave the camp, Monk Xuanzhi appeared from somewhere and hurried backward to stand before him.
"Master Xuanzhi, didn't you enter the Underground Palace earlier too? Why did you come out?"
Xu Taiping asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Didn't you come out too, Brother Xu?"
Monk Xuanzhi countered with a smile.
"Master Xuanzhi, you would be better off returning to the Underground Palace. Tianhai Pass cannot win this battle."
Xu Taiping tried to persuade him as he walked.
"Since it cannot win, why did you come out, Brother Xu?"
Walking backward with his palms pressed together, Monk Xuanzhi looked at Xu Taiping with a broad smile.
"Even if I have to flee, I'll wait until the very last moment. Before then, every moment longer I hold on will give these people a little more hope."
Xu Taiping did not conceal his intentions.
As he said this, Shi Miaomiao's eyes appeared in his mind for no apparent reason.
"Amitabha. Such great kindness, Brother Xu."
Monk Xuanzhi pressed his palms together and praised him with an utterly solemn expression.
Did my motives stem from kindness?
Xu Taiping was not actually certain.
But there was one thing he knew clearly.
As he had told the Old General yesterday, even if he could not change Tianhai Pass's fate, he at least had to properly bid farewell to its people and everything there.
He would certainly not hide in the Underground Palace and evade it all like that.
*I cannot change Tianhai Pass's fate, but at least I