Holding back the hot moisture in his eyes, Mu Bai turned and shouted at Xi Hong and Zhi Cun, "Do you still want to fight? Then I'll give you all the fighting you want today! Come on, both of you together!"
Mu Bai wiped his face with both hands, brushing away the rain, and let out a long breath. Resolve showed in his eyes as he stood in the air, radiant with golden light, the Twin Fish Sword in his hand, intending to face the two tribes' Xiu Zun alone!
Xi Hong and Zhi Cun gradually ceased their attacks and stopped. They looked at their respective tribespeople, at children in their mothers' arms, at husbands and wives clasping hands, at brothers embracing. Moisture welled in their eyes too, blurring their vision.
The rain poured down, showing no sign of stopping.
In the rain, the people of both tribes worked together at the foot of the Shuhuan Mountain Range, digging dozens of graves to bury the bodies of the Zhimu Great Tribe's twenty-three cultivators and the dozens of cultivators who had died in the melee.
Xi Hong led nearly ten thousand cultivators and tribespeople of the Xishui Great Tribe in silent mourning for the dead in the rain. The Xishui Great Tribe contributed two hundred thousand Soul Crystals, and Mu Bai contributed another two hundred thousand, giving each bereaved family ten thousand Soul Crystals. Only then did that night of strife pass.
Later, to Mu Bai's surprise, the cultivators of both tribes used stone excavated from the Shuhuan Mountain Range to erect a huge monument where the cultivators of the two tribes lay buried. Inscribed upon it were the words "Ximu," commemorating these bonds of gratitude, grudges, love, and hatred, and this undertaking that would endure through the ages.
Several days