"Look! The Divine Dynasty's people are here! Have they come back?"
At that startled cry, the village sprang to life.
Figures rushed out from all across the village, running toward its entrance.
At the village entrance, a figure who looked like a young boy sat on a blue stone, hugging her knees. Her loose clothes were filthy, and she seemed utterly helpless and lifeless.
Hearing the commotion, she raised her head slightly.
Long hair hid most of her face, and the exposed parts were caked with dust and dirt.
Not a trace of expression showed. She looked utterly indifferent.
Only her eyes were clear as the bright moon, as though a piece of black, icy jade had been set within them.
They gave her a distant, chilly air as she, too, looked toward the village entrance with the crowd.
"My child!"
"My son!"
Agonized sobs suddenly rose from the crowd.
Those cries tore at the heart and lungs, making the heart ache for reasons beyond words.
As more and more cries reached her, the figure hugging her knees at the village entrance suddenly trembled.
The pale, tender hands beneath her filthy sleeves clenched tight, her arms quivering slightly.
Her moon-bright eyes searched the crowd, filled with both anticipation and refusal, a painfully contradictory mix.
Suddenly, a crudely made Ghost Face Mask stained with blood entered her sight.
At the sight of the Ghost Face Mask, her clear eyes abruptly dimmed, and tears streamed silently down.
Her clenched hand emerged from her sleeve, revealing an equally crude Bronze Ring.
Though crudely made, the Bronze Ring gleamed, polished smooth by years of stroking.
Scene after scene flashed through her mind.
"Little girl, what's your name?"
The boy's sorrowful face appeared before her.
She turned away without answering, gazing indifferently at the chaos and bloodshed throughout the mountain village.
It was the village where she had arrived upon transmigrating. In this rampage of Fierce Beasts, nearly everyone had been killed or wounded, leaving only her and that boy.
She felt neither sadness nor fear. She even hoped those Fierce Beasts would eat her.
Before transmigrating, she had been a man.
After transmigrating, she had become a little girl, without a single relative in the world. Already introverted by nature, she naturally had no hopes for this utterly unfamiliar world.
She wanted only to die.
Unfortunately, perhaps because the desire for death surrounded her, those Fierce Beasts paid her no attention at all.
"You won't talk? Then how about I call you Nannan?"
"Don't be sad. I'll take care of you from now on. I'm your Older Brother. Don't be afraid!"
The boy looked grief-stricken, yet forced a smile as he tried to amuse the little girl, who looked only six or seven.
His parents had also died in the Fierce Beasts' rampage. Of the entire village, only he and the little girl remained.
From then on, their roots were intertwined.
He bent down, picked up the little girl despite her constant struggling, and walked out of the mountain village.
"I just washed your clothes and face. Why are they dirty again?"
The boy looked at her in feigned anger.
She still said nothing, not even showing a flicker of emotion, and merely lowered her head slightly.
She had done it on purpose. She simply did not want anyone to think she was a girl.
"All right, all right. I won't blame you."
The boy was helpless, but his eyes were full of affection.
Only the two of them remained from their mountain village, and he felt an inexplicable attachment to this girl who seemed mute.
It was as though, as long as she remained, that mountain village remained as well.
Their roots remained!
No matter where they moved.
"Look! What's this?"
The boy made a great fuss as he took out a bronze-colored object and waved it in front of her.
She glanced at it.
It was a Bronze Ring. Though polished incredibly smooth, its rough workmanship was still apparent.
"Pretty, isn't it? I made it just for you. It's yours!"
The boy firmly took her hand and slipped the Bronze Ring onto her thumb.
She immediately pulled it off in disgust and threw it away, turning her head away from him.
The boy did not get angry. Grinning, he picked it up and put it on her again.
She kept throwing it away, farther each time.
Yet the boy never grew angry. Every time, he retrieved it with a radiant smile on his face.
After several rounds, she finally failed to outlast him and could only wear the Bronze Ring.
Over the following years, the boy always found new ways to amuse her, trying to make her smile.
Though it annoyed and angered her, little by little, it made her less fixated on seeking death.
Perhaps the clever boy had known all along that she wanted to die, and had done it deliberately.
The boy had made that Ghost Face Mask himself, too. She had likewise disliked it and secretly thrown it away several times, but he always found it again.
He even often wore it to scare and tease her.
For eight years, the boy treated her with the same unwavering kindness, taking care of everything for her.
He left no detail unattended.
He was closer to her than even an Older Brother of her own blood.
Without realizing it, she had come to think of him as her real Older Brother.
A year ago, the boy had been recruited by the Feathered Divine Dynasty. When he left, she had, for the first time, forcefully thrust the Ghost Face Mask into his arms.
"Older Brother!"
Now, looking at that bloodstained Ghost Face Mask, she spoke her first words since transmigrating.
Though only two words, they sounded exceptionally sweet. Even laden with grief, her voice remained beautiful.
She rose and staggered into the crowd on trembling legs, falling to her knees before that Ghost Face Mask.
The corpse was wrapped in familiar coarse clothing, and the Ghost Face Mask lay beneath the front of his clothes, against his chest.
His arms, reduced to bones stripped of flesh and blood, were held tightly over his chest.
It was as though he were protecting the most precious thing in his life.
At that sight, tears slid silently down her cheeks like rain.
Two starkly pale tracks appeared on her dust-covered face.
Her trembling fingers touched the corpse's face.
The boy's radiant smile seemed to linger before her eyes.
At last, she grasped the Ghost Face Mask.
Dimly, she saw the boy's figure emerge from the Ghost Face Mask.
He looked at her with a radiant smile. "Don't cry. Don't be afraid. Live well. Live for me. See the world beyond for me."
"Look at those great mountains, those mighty rivers, those stars. See whether there's a home beyond that blue sky and those white clouds."
"Perhaps I'll be there, watching over you! Forever!"
"Waaah..."
Her fingers clutched the Ghost Face Mask tightly, and she collapsed against the boy's chest, sobbing aloud for the first time.
But no one paid attention.
Only those from the Feathered Divine Dynasty glanced at her.
They looked somewhat surprised.
They apparently had not expected someone who had only reached the Sea of Bitterness realm, and had been dead for almost half a year, to leave behind a trace of lingering will.
How tenacious must that thought have been to endure for so long?
She cried for a long time before finally falling silent, without looking at the villagers who were likewise suffering.
Bending down, she struggled to hoist the boy's corpse onto her back, then staggered step by step toward the mountains.
She walked very slowly, limping, and even fell several times.
But each time, she stood again.
She had a Waste Body, inferior even to a Mortal Body, and was destined to be unable to cultivate.
She was also a girl and simply lacked the strength to carry a grown man's corpse.
Even though not a trace of blood remained in this corpse, and much of its flesh and bone was missing as well.
Yet she stubbornly carried him.
Just as, eight years ago, that boy had stubbornly carried her out of the mountain village with his frail body.
The only difference was that she had struggled.
The boy did not.
Three days later, atop a green mountain.
Before a grave piled with broken stones.
She stood quietly.
Her clothes had been washed clean, as had her face, and even her long hair was neatly tied behind her head.
Her fingers tightly clasped the Bronze Ring and the Ghost Face Mask. She said nothing.
A long time passed.
A clear, sweet voice, tinged with sorrow, slowly rang out. "You loved looking at mountains and rivers. You loved the blue sky and white clouds. You loved looking at those stars."
"Up here on this mountaintop, you shouldn't be lonely anymore."
"I promise you I'll live well. I'll see everything in this world for you."
At that, the girl raised her head, striving to keep her tears from falling.
Then her resolute, chilly voice sounded again.
"Since I've been handed a script like the Ruthless Great Emperor's, I'll keep playing my part!"
"If someone else could become the Ruthless Great Emperor... why can't I?"
"In this life, I'll live as freely as I please!"
"Those who show me kindness, I'll repay. Those who make themselves my enemies, I'll kill!"
"Feathered Divine Dynasty... just wait!"