The Southern Heaven Cultivation World had never witnessed such a grand triumphal return.
The hundred and eighty thousand troops of the Righteous Path Allied Army marched east from the Nether Abyss. Everywhere they passed, mortal towns and market towns for low-level cultivators were already packed with seas of people lining the roads to welcome them. Heavenly South, once shrouded in dark clouds, seemed to have been illuminated overnight by the dawn of victory from that epic battle in the Nether Abyss.
The roads and mountains were crowded with cultivators and mortals who had come of their own accord to witness the procession. They held handmade Star Palace banners high, burned incense, and offered prayers, their cheers and sobs ringing into the heavens. Countless families who had suffered the ravages of the demonic path set up crude altars beside the roads, placing their loved ones' memorial tablets upon them. They kowtowed again and again toward the advancing army, thanking the Righteous Path Alliance for saving their lives.
"Heavenly South is saved!"
"Long live Alliance Leader Han!"
"Victory upon victory to the Righteous Path Alliance!"
The cries surged like a tide, each wave higher than the last, almost overturning the drifting clouds above. The great sects and cultivation clans that had once stood so far above everyone else now seemed less sacred to ordinary cultivators and mortals than that great Righteous Path Alliance banner embroidered with stars and a sharp sword.
At the very front of the army, Han Li wore a black battle robe patterned with stars and an ink-dark cloak bearing Demon Suppression and Repel Evil runes, crafted overnight by the Yellow Division's Pill Hall. Standing atop the Magnetic Essence Griffin, he advanced slowly like a god returning in triumph. His expression was calm, weariness from the great battle lingering