Lin Shisan stared at Hu Niu. Fury churned in his dark-gold pupils for three full breaths before that roiling light slowly receded. He lowered his right hand. The Creation Cauldron's dark-gold pillar of light silently contracted, its mouth turned over, and its radiance withdrew into its depths.
In the end, Lin Shisan stood down.
"Boss Han, you weren't wrong. We simply stood on different sides. I'll settle the debt for what happened to my father in my own way."
Lin Shisan's voice no longer carried that irrepressible killing intent.
Han Yansong stood without moving, watching Lin Shisan calmly for a long time before slowly lowering his raised right palm.
Lin Shisan turned and walked toward Zi Yuner, one step at a time.
She knelt on one knee on the greenstone floor. Deep-purple and dark-red light surged alternately within her. One eye watched him, and the other eye watched him too.
Lin Shisan crouched and reached out to support Zi Yuner's shoulders. When his fingertips touched the broken edge of her Dragon Scale Armor, he could feel the two forces within her biting and colliding, churning her meridians into boiling tides.
"Yun'er, let's go home."
Zi Yuner raised her head. A thin sheen of tears shimmered in her deep-purple eye, while unwilling fury churned in her dark-red one. But neither of them spoke. She merely leaned on Lin Shisan's hand and slowly stood. Her long, deep-purple hair spilled over her shoulders, and the cursed pattern on her forehead continued to spread slowly, like a blooming flower of death.
Supporting her, Lin Shisan walked up to Hu Niu, one step at a time. Sunlight streamed through the Bronze Gate and fell between them.
Hu Niu was thinner than she had been a few years ago, her shoulders and back as slender as