Departure

Huo Yuhao looked at the bodies strewn across the ground and walked to Grandma's side. She used her spiritual power to take out the Gold of Life, but nothing happened.

"Why?" Huo Yuhao couldn't understand. She then tried to use her Martial Soul, but still nothing happened. She could only resort to the most primitive method: cutting herself with a knife and letting the blood flow into Grandma's mouth, hoping the blood infused with the Gold of Life could save her.

Huo Yuhao cut open her wrist with a knife, and her blood dripped into Grandma's mouth. One minute, two minutes passed. What answered Huo Yuhao was not a body slowly recovering its vitality, but one growing colder by the moment.

Huo Yuhao refused to give up. She fed them her blood one after another, but their cold bodies said everything.

Looking at the bodies covering the ground, Huo Yuhao felt deeply guilty. If only she had checked earlier, perhaps the villagers would have had time to escape.

She looked at the corpses on the ground. The joy she had felt earlier at Evil Lord's return had now been replaced by the scene before her. She felt she couldn't do anything right and couldn't save anyone.

The afternoon sunlight was not as glaring as it had been at noon. Cicadas chirped in the trees, and fish swam now and then through the clear stream. In an open space in Fu'an Village, a small figure dug a hole in the ground. The braid behind her head swayed as she moved. Huo Yuhao couldn't bring them back to life-not a single one. All she could do was give these elderly people a resting place and keep them from being left to rot in the wilderness.

Huo Yuhao held a small iron shovel. Grandpa Li from the village had given it to her so she wouldn't have to work so hard when scraping ash out of the stove. Now she used it to bury everyone in the village. The sun set in the west, the bright moon hung high, the moon sank and dawn broke. When the morning sunlight spilled over the earth, Huo Yuhao finished the last grave. Her hands were rubbed raw and bloody, and the shovel was no longer usable. Dirt covered her hair, and her clothes were filthy. Huo Yuhao had not rested all night. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face was haggard. She slumped to the ground and looked at the twelve graves before her, then fell over.

After an unknown amount of time, a familiar voice said, "Wake up, Yuhao." Huo Yuhao opened her eyes again. The midday sun was still just as glaring.

"What is it, Evil Lord?" Huo Yuhao answered calmly.

"I came to see you. You look a real mess right now-not at all like the Asura's Eyes you were back then."

As Evil Lord spoke to Huo Yuhao, he looked at the twelve graves. He had never understood what meaning humans found in doing this, but seeing Huo Yuhao in such a state and looking at the twelve graves, he knew this was exactly the kind of thing Huo Yuhao would do.

"Don't bring that up," Huo Yuhao said. That title had been forged by countless families torn apart and separated. No matter what reason was given afterward, nothing could change that.

Huo Yuhao looked at her hands. Thanks to the Gold of Life, the wounds had already healed, leaving only bloodstains.

"I'm going to get something to eat. What are you going to do, Evil Lord?" Huo Yuhao got up and headed toward the courtyard.

"I suggest you pay proper attention to your own body. Don't think that having the Gold of Life means you can push yourself around without consequence."

"I didn't expect you to care about me so much. This isn't like the old you," Huo Yuhao replied with a smile.

"I just don't want you to wear yourself out. Then I'd have no one left who remembers attaining Godhood," Evil Lord said helplessly.

"I'll keep my promise. By the way, what's going on with my Martial Soul?"

"Let me see." As he spoke, Evil Lord used his spiritual power to sense Huo Yuhao's physical condition.

"Your Martial Soul hasn't awakened. You may have activated your External Soul Bone when you were in danger, but your Martial Soul hasn't awakened."

"I see. Looks like I'll have to go to Spirit Hall to awaken my Martial Soul."

"Do you have any plans?"

"Not for now. I'm just planning to wait until I'm six and then awaken my Martial Soul. I'll decide what to do about the rest after that. And thanks for comforting me all this time," Huo Yuhao said teasingly.

"I wouldn't call it comforting. I'm still waiting for you to help me attain Godhood. Who could have guessed the Divine Realm would have a rule against Soul Beasts attaining Godhood? I feel like all my years of effort were wasted. With 700,000 Years of Cultivation, the best I could hope for in the end would be to die in a Heaven Tribulation and leave behind a Soul Ring and Soul Bone. I really, really... sigh." Evil Lord spoke with a look of grief and indignation.

"Enough, Evil Lord. If we hadn't been to the Divine Realm, we wouldn't have known any of this. The famous Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler can't be sighing away here. How about I comfort you for a change?"

"Forget it. I'd better go back and keep cultivating, so you don't stand here laughing at me." With that, Evil Lord's spiritual connection disappeared. Seeing this, Huo Yuhao also withdrew the Eye of Destiny and headed toward the courtyard.

Huo Yuhao entered the courtyard. Big Yellow lay there listlessly. The sunlight was bright, and the small courtyard was quiet, but Huo Yuhao's heart held only sorrow. No matter how casually she had spoken with Evil Lord, the reality remained that all the villagers were gone. Huo Yuhao could only accept it.

Huo Yuhao went into the kitchen, lit a fire, and made food. Before long, she took a few steamed buns and set them beside Big Yellow, then unclipped his chain. "Eat these, then go wherever you like."

Huo Yuhao released all the livestock in the village. She knew that now the people of the village were gone, she would have to leave too. The livestock would have to find their own way to survive.

Huo Yuhao also went to the Evil Soul Master's corpse. After rummaging around for a while, she found a hundred Gold Soul Coins on the body, then left the headless corpse alone.

The night sky was as it always had been. Huo Yuhao sat in the bathtub, the steam warming her face until it flushed, just as it had on her first day here. But now she was alone. She couldn't forget "his" memories from before. "He" had made promises to many people, but had failed to keep so many of them: he had promised his teacher he would bring him back to life, promised his mother he would always stay by her side, promised his senior brothers he would attend "his" wedding, promised Qiu'er he would bring about peace between humans and Soul Beasts, and promised to be with Dong'er forever...

Now Huo Yuhao had been reborn, but she still couldn't forget any of it. The memories of "him" were still in her mind, but was she still the same person named Huo Yuhao?

The village was very quiet at night, but Huo Yuhao could not fall asleep for a long time. Huo Yuhao had thought she had long since gotten used to partings, but she realized she hadn't. The long night stretched on, and all she could do was force her eyes shut and wait for dawn.

In the morning, Huo Yuhao packed her clothes and provisions, dressed neatly, and walked out of the courtyard. At last, she came to the graves. Sunlight shone on the wooden boards in front of them. Each of the twelve boards was carved with a name. Huo Yuhao bowed deeply to them. "Thank you all for taking care of me." She slung her pack over her shoulder and walked west.

The girl's figure overlapped with the boy's from the past. She walked with the same determined steps as the boy, but her destination was different from "his" had been.