At the mountaintop, Sword Slave stood with one shoulder tilted, a wine flask in his left hand, staring blankly at the martial estate, which had already descended into chaos amid a sea of flames.
"Didn't you say you don't drink?"
Without turning his head, Sword Slave raised the flask. "It's for you."
Lü Bufan took the flask and drank a mouthful.
"Doesn't taste good..."
Sword Slave chuckled softly. "Does it taste bitter, or does it taste of blood?"
Lü Bufan sat beside Sword Slave and looked at the flames. "Was this the only task the Sect Hall gave you? Why are you leaving? Will you go back?"
The corner of Sword Slave's mouth twitched. "Leave? Where could I go? I've long since run out of roads to take... I simply can't be bothered looking at those faces in the Sect Hall! Come out for a walk with me... I want to see, to see the place where I cultivated back then."
"Won't the Sect Hall blame you?"
Sword Slave shook his head. "Who cares about them..."
After a night of slaughter, the robes the Sect Hall had bestowed on them, imbued with a trace of spiritual power, remained intact, but that faint spiritual energy was gone, leaving them looking somewhat dusty and bedraggled.
Neither changed his clothes. They simply left the Golden Flower Sect's mountain on foot, heading southeast.
"Do you want to go home for a look?"
Sword Slave shook his head. "I have no home. Just like you."
Lü Bufan very much wanted to say that he did have a home, that his home was in Two Realms Village... His master, Big Black, and Master Peach were there! But when the words reached his lips, he silently swallowed them back down.
Sword Slave was a pitiful man with