Do not lift your head; the cold sun dripped last night's snow.
Do not look back; the faint wind chilled rainbow robes.
Parting sorrow brought piercing grief to tear-chilled eyes,
Say not that cold wine could turn upon a soul...
Beneath the spring sun hanging high overhead, the spectral figures in the sky gradually began to fade.
"It's time to go..."
The Remnant Souls looked back at Su Mo below, his slender figure clad in white, graceful as jade.
"Cold cicadas cried their sorrow,
By the wayside pavilion at dusk,
The sudden rain had just ceased.
We drank beneath a tent outside the capital gates, without heart for wine,
While we lingered in longing,
The magnolia boat urged us to depart.
Holding hands, we gazed into each other's tearful eyes,
Choked with sobs, unable to speak.
Thinking of the journey ahead,
A thousand miles of mist-veiled waves,
Heavy evening haze beneath the boundless southern sky..."
Watching the living and the dead bid each other farewell above and below, Su Mo remembered the poem "Bells in the Rain: Cold Cicadas Cried Their Sorrow" and could not help murmuring it aloud!
"Since ancient times, tender hearts have grieved at parting,
How much harder to bear in the desolation of clear autumn!
Where would I wake from wine tonight?
On a willow-lined shore, beneath the dawn breeze and waning moon.
Through the years after this departure,
Fine days and lovely sights would surely be wasted.
Even with a thousand tender feelings, to whom could I speak of them..."
Ning Baixue's gaze froze. This poem...
The examinees present trembled all over as they heard Su Mo recite it.
Just how great was the talent of that frail yet upright figure, that graceful man in white?
Scene after scene today would remain unforgettable for the rest of their lives!
The emperor gazed deeply at Su Mo, boundless expectation in his eyes...
"Jing Yan..."
"I respectfully bid you all farewell..." Su Mo spread his arms, brought his hands together before him, and bowed deeply to the spectral figures in the sky.
These... were merely pitiful souls in this cruel world of cultivation.
These were the ones he could see, but what of those he could not?
If this world had Yellow Springs, they must surely be overcrowded with souls, anguished wails rising everywhere...
The injustice of the world made people's lives a tapestry of misery and despair.
Hah... cultivation...
Beneath the clear sky, a thousand souls stirred.
They had heard the farewell poem Su Mo offered them. They knew what he had done for them...
That frail figure, that man in white, must have suffered so much.
In this vast world, someone had actually spoken against the injustice suffered by ordinary mortals like them...
This bright, clear sky seemed far more radiant than ever before...
One spectral figure after another bowed deeply to Su Mo from the sky...
One in heaven, one on earth, facing each other from afar...
Through the years after this departure,
There would surely be fine days and lovely sights...
The spectral woman's gaze seemed intent on engraving Su Mo deep within her soul.
"I will watch you turn this world into a bright and righteous realm..."
The little spectral figure gazed reluctantly at the three people below, her small, childish face filled with longing.
"Daddy... Mommy... goodbye..."
"Older Brother..."
"Goodbye..."
A gentle breeze came, and all the spectral figures dispersed...
Leaving only the sorrow of parting strewn across the ground...
As the spectral figures vanished from the sky, white light shone from Su Mo's body...
That white light became threads, weaving a garment around Su Mo through the air.
The threads formed from white light were incomparably delicate, like all the feelings and emotions people left behind in this world, transforming them into a garment to shield Su Mo from the cold.
They had seen... that Su Mo had no robe to wear...
The white light vanished, and a snow-white Confucian Robe appeared on Su Mo...
This Confucian Robe was tailored precisely for Su Mo. That pure white Confucian Robe was a gift from those thousands of departed souls to shelter him from the cold, their repayment for his kindness.
Entangling oneself with ghosts did not necessarily lead to an ill end!
"That's..." Someone stared, dumbstruck.
"...A soul's parting gift!" someone said with a complicated expression.
"With this Confucian Robe on him, no evil will ever be able to touch him..."
Someone recalled Su Mo's methods. "But I feel like he himself is an evil spirit..."
Su Mo gently stroked the white robe, filled to the brim with feeling.
The white robe fluttered, gleaming in the sunlight...
"A Confucian Cultivator?" Ning Baixue murmured from atop the white crane, looking at the white Confucian Robe on Su Mo.
The white-haired Spirit Transformation elder looked at Su Mo's Confucian Robe, his eyes flashing, and addressed Su Mo below.
"We need a Confucian Cultivator for our undertaking here... Liu Feng originally qualified as one."
"Since Liu Feng is dead, you will come with us instead!"
The white-haired Spirit Transformation elder's words caused everyone's expressions to change, turning extremely grim.
"What does the Holy Sect mean by this?" Prince Ying's grief-stricken face instantly filled with fury again. He leveled the Holy King Spear, barring the way between Su Mo and the white crane.
Looking at Prince Ying standing in front of him, Su Mo felt a surge of warmth. He raised his head toward the two people on the white crane, and something within him told him.
He absolutely could not go with them!
Ning Baixue sighed and said calmly, "We mean no harm. It is simply that we need the cultivation power of a Confucian Cultivator for this undertaking! There are too few Confucian Cultivators in this world... I can promise to admit you into our Holy Sect afterward. That was also my arrangement with the Liu Household."
"What if I refuse to go?" Su Mo asked, looking up.
Ning Baixue shook her head. "You... cannot refuse!"
Prince Ying said coldly, "Your Holy Sect intends to take him by force?"
"If we intend to take someone... will you still stop me?" Ning Baixue looked seriously at Prince Ying, her face exquisitely beautiful.
Beneath that flawless, beautiful countenance lay unmistakable coercion.
"Surely this Su Mo has no particularly close connection to you. Will you stand in my way for him?"
Prince Ying turned back to look at the princess consort beside him, his only wife.
Then he looked at Su Mo's youthful face before turning back and speaking in a low voice:
"Tongtong... called him Older Brother..."
He remembered the scenes in Su Mo's memories. In that night... the frail, black-clad Su Mo and Tongtong had huddled together... the two who wanted only to go home...
"Then... he is Tongtong's Older Brother..."
"My... Prince Ying's son!"
Prince Ying turned to look at his beloved wife. The princess consort nodded, her gaze toward Su Mo full of tenderness.
The princess consort stepped beside Prince Ying. In an instant, her long hair rose, and an azure Divine Rune appeared on her forehead.
"Mount Sumeru Path,
Azure Heaven Without Order..."
As her words fell, a vast aura awakened, and a surging, mighty cultivation unfurled from the princess consort.
That was...
Spirit Transformation!
Everyone stared, dumbstruck...
"The princess consort is actually at Spirit Transformation!"
The princess consort regarded her Spirit Transformation cultivation, her expression dimming...
Had she not gone into seclusion to reach Spirit Transformation, nothing would have happened to Tongtong...
What use was this cultivation...
But the moment her Spirit Transformation cultivation emerged, the yellow talisman paper overhead flashed. A pulse descended, instantly suppressing her cultivation below Spirit Transformation as well.
Under the Deity-Sealing Edict, there could be no Spirit Transformation!
The princess consort turned back, her gaze toward Su Mo incomparably tender, as though she had found someone upon whom to anchor her heart...
She had understood much from the gaze of Tongtong's spectral figure and her husband's declaration.
"Good child..."
The princess consort raised her head toward the two people on the white crane and said quietly:
"Today, you will not take him away."
Looking at Prince Ying and his wife standing before Su Mo, the white-haired Spirit Transformation elder waved his right hand, and a sheet of white paper appeared in midair. Anger crossed his face as he spoke menacingly. "Do you intend to make an enemy of the Holy Sect?"
"We would not dare. We merely do not wish to lose another child!" Prince Ying said.
"Do you know the consequences of opposing the Holy Sect? Can your tiny Hua Kingdom bear them?" the white-haired Spirit Transformation elder asked coldly.
"We would swallow them as gladly as honey!"
Beside them, Su Mo looked at the two people barring the way before him, a thousand conflicting feelings churning within.
The Holy Sect stood high above them. If he did not go with them, these people would not be able to withstand its wrath.
At the very least, this was not something they should have to bear...
Yet the actions of Prince Ying and his wife had added two more strokes of color to Su Mo's lonely heart.
There were few people he cared about. Before, there had only been the little girl... now there were two more!
"I'll go with you..."
Su Mo stepped forward... he could not drag others down with him.
Just then, Spiritual Power rippled through the air.
Amid those ripples of Spiritual Power, two figures stepped out of thin air...
One in blue robes...
One in red robes...
Before you continue