With You, Fleeting Light (Part 1)

The mighty F Whoosh Emperor Star fell; kingly and hegemonic Daos alike crumbled to dust.

Two stars fell from the void, appearing at the very center of the Wind Abyss Ruin Realm, beneath the first rift to open in the shattered sky.

One figure wore a tattered black dragon robe, his imperial crown askew and his white hair hanging loose. The hegemonic Sword Intent around him remained wild and defiant. He was the Yin Emperor.

The other wore a bright yellow dragon robe. His crown was gone, and only a jade hairpin held his hair in place. His face was old and weary, and the warmth and steadfastness of a king had faded from his eyes. He was the Qi Emperor, Li Heng.

The two emperors, who had fought for a hundred years over their convictions of the Dao, looked at each other across the void. No trace of hostility remained in their eyes, only the sorrow of those who shared the same plight, and the understanding that came from setting troubles aside in the face of life and death.

"Li Heng, your life is mine. Don't you dare die before me! Ha... haha."

The Yin Emperor's voice was hoarse and his words barbed, yet carried a rare note of peace.

"Yin Xuan, cough, cough... why did it have to come to this? In my next life, I would not want to be an emperor either. Would a peaceful, happy life not be wonderful?" The Qi Emperor smiled bitterly, though a hint of longing shone in his eyes.

The two exchanged a smile. With their gratitude and grudges brought to this point, all words and actions seemed especially pale.

A hundred years of fame and achievement, hegemony to last a thousand autumns, a name to be remembered for ages-in this moment, none of it seemed worth mentioning.

They wished only that, one day, they would no longer be pieces on a board.

Yin Xuan and Li Heng raised their hands gently and formed a stone table, a jar of wine, and two cups in the void.

The wine was mortal wine, from a village tavern on the war-torn border between Great Yin and Great Qi, a village that might already have been reduced to scorched earth.

Li Heng broke the clay seal on the jar, and the scent of wine mingled with scorched earth and blood drifted out.

He filled Yin Xuan's cup.

"The old homeland is too painful to look back upon. With this cloudy wine, I toast these mountains and rivers." The Qi Emperor raised his cup. His voice was not loud, yet it seemed to pierce the shattered sky and reach the ears of every being in the Wind Abyss who could still perceive it.

The Yin Emperor silently raised his bowl and drained it. The wine was fiery, burning his shattered meridians, but he seemed not to notice.

"The second bowl: the paths joined hearts and strength to fight, and though we die, we have no regrets. Let you and I entrust all our affection and enmity to these cups. With our laughter and conversation, we must make the heroes of the world lower their brows and the people of the five regions bow their heads."

Yin Xuan poured the wine, his gaze sweeping over the five regions of the Wind Abyss: the Myriad Dragon Marsh, the Azure Luan and Azure Nether Mountain, Sword Peak in the Central Region standing alone apart from the world, the ceaseless strife between Great Yin and Great Qi, and the armored soldiers and living beings lying fallen upon the scorched earth.

The presences of fellow Purple Mansion cultivators had already vanished from the void.

Li Heng closed his eyes, tipped back his head, and drank it all.

The wine entered his sorrow-laden heart and turned into two trails of turbid tears.

"The third cup..." The Qi Emperor, Li Heng, poured again. His hand trembled slightly, spilling the wine, and he simply let it all scatter into the void.

"Let us leave it for those who come after..."

Yin Xuan gazed at the wine rippling in the void. Reflected in it was a face already aged, disheveled, and near death.

"In my youth, I loved my blue robes. With a sword in hand, I could roam wherever I wished beneath the heavens."

"Then I became a ruler, and there was nothing but hegemony for a thousand autumns and endless scheming."

Now, at last, he was free of it.

"Fleeting light, fleeting light, I offer you a cup of wine."

"I know not how high the azure heavens are, nor how deep the yellow earth..."

Time was merciless; life and death were ever uncertain.

In the past, reciting those lines had brought only a sense of desolation. Now that he stood amid it himself, every word was a knife, carving out his heart and scraping his bones.

The sword in his hand seemed heavier than a thousand jun, impossible to shake off.

"The tide has turned to ruin. For all that lay before me, I have done my utmost."

"Fellow Daoist, it is time to attend to what comes after us."

Li Heng murmured, his fingertips brushing the icy blade.

A deathly stillness filled heaven and earth. The only sound was the rustle of falling ash, like weeping and lamentation.

The crown prince's palace in the royal capital of Great Qi.

Outside the hall, figures crowded together, ranks of armored soldiers standing all around.

Ever since what had happened that day, Crown Prince Li Tian had been dazed, hiding in the palace and desperately suppressing the emotions about to burst forth.

A sword lay on the table.

From the moment the emperor fell, it had descended from the heavens and chosen him from among the countless people.

Even Sima Ruiming had been shaken when he saw it.

From that moment on, there had been no usurpation in the Qi capital, for the time being.

Its blade was smooth and lustrous, its patterns flowing like veins. Suddenly, it seemed to have a heartbeat.

Sensing something, he faintly heard someone calling his name.

Li Tian immediately rose and hurried straight to the ancestral temple.

The figures outside the hall dropped to their knees at once. Not one dared stop him.

He hurried onward. The moment Li Tian reached the ancestral temple, its doors opened without wind, then slammed shut behind him.

Through the gap in the doors, he saw a figure from behind, both familiar and strange.

Li Heng sat on the imperial throne, his fingers brushing the splendid dragon patterns on its armrest.

It had been a long time since the emperor had sat so quietly.

Excessive wisdom was bound to bring hurt; excessive strength was bound to bring humiliation. He had exhausted his mind and strength.

For an emperor, the greatest luxury was a moment of peace with nothing to do, and it put him remarkably at ease.

"Li Tian, my son, you have come..."

"Your son is here."

Li Tian fought back the tears in his eyes.

The Qi Emperor's voice was calm, concealing his exhaustion and suppressing any sign of what was to come, as though he merely wanted to speak of ordinary things.

"I and the others... have all been defeated."

"We will fall in a few days..."

Li Heng's voice was very low.

"But we were granted a promise of three days. I also know that it was no act of mercy... but you..."

"Father, have you truly thought it through?"

Li Tian interrupted.

The Qi Emperor lowered his eyes to his palms, callused from wielding a sword. What he had taken pride in amounted to no more than...

"With just one glance, my Kingly Dao Sword Intent... scattered."

Li Tian opened his mouth to speak, but could not make a sound.

As one who cultivated the kingly Dao, he knew better than anyone what Kingly Dao Sword Intent meant.

It bore the resonance between an emperor and his people, the dynasty's fortune made manifest in a single person, a hundred years of cultivation, the accumulation of generations, and the sword force forged together by vast territories and countless subjects.

One glance, and it scattered.

"The Yin Emperor was the same."

The Qi Emperor's voice grew softer still, as though he felt guilty.

"His hegemonic force also crumbled at the first touch."

Li Tian's throat worked, his voice dry.

"...Did they say... did they..."

Li Tian wanted to ask whether the Cangxuan Ancient Realm had set any conditions.

Had they demanded any price?

Had they... left his imperial father even a sliver of hope for survival?

But he could not bring himself to ask.

Because he had already guessed the answer.

The Qi Emperor said no more either.

They were silent for a long time, so long that incense was lit in the ancestral temple and the last wisp of smoke dispersed.

"Tian'er, on the day you came of age, I once asked you a question."

Li Tian lowered his head.

He remembered.

The capping ceremony marked a man's coming of age.

That day, the assembled officials had cried out in acclaim, and all eyes had been upon him.

The emperor had taken his hand and stood with him atop the palace city of the Qi capital. Before the civil and military officials of the court and countless subjects, he had asked him:

"As crown prince, are you willing to shoulder the responsibility for all under heaven?"

Li Tian had answered:

"I am willing to bear the weight of the realm, guard its borders, protect its people, and follow Your Majesty's example for half a lifetime, until death brings my service to an end."

Back then, he had been full of spirit.

Now, every word pierced his heart.

"If..." Li Tian's voice was so low that he could scarcely hear it himself. "If your son had said no back then?"

Li Heng was not angry.

He simply looked at his son, a rare gentleness in his eyes.

"That was what I said to my own imperial father back then, too."

Li Tian raised his head and looked at the Qi Emperor. The golden sword mark between his brows, formed from the dynasty's fortune, had dimmed like the last flame of a candle about to go out.

"But I was still happy."

"My son, the moment you said you were willing, I thought that, as your father, I had finally done right by our ancestors."

"Imperial Father..." Li Tian's eyes reddened at once.

The formalities between sovereign and subject, the dignity of the throne-

At this moment, the person before him was only his father.

The Qi Emperor did not answer. A faint glimmer seemed to go out.

He turned his back to Li Tian and looked up at the map of the realm that had hung from the ancestral temple's ceiling for no one knew how many years.

The territory stretched far and wide, bordering the Azure Waves to the east, the Central Region to the west, the Yin dynasty to the north, and the Flood Dragon Marsh and Azure Luan to the south.

The realm had been the object of his tireless devotion all his life.

Now, it was the concern he could not set aside even as death approached.

"That person from Cangxuan gave the Yin Emperor and me... three days," he said.

Li Tian knelt with his back rigid.

"After three days, my body will die and my Dao will vanish. My soul will be utterly destroyed, entering neither reincarnation nor the netherworld."

"The Yin Emperor and I discussed it. That person may not intend merely to destroy our two dynasties."

"He gave us three days and allowed the Yin Emperor and me to return to our respective homelands. He must have another move in store."

Li Tian's voice trembled. "Is it that sword?!"