Boom-
Chen Xun had not yet finished speaking.
Yet between heaven and earth, every sound had already ceased.
It was as though some weighty will spanning hundreds of millions of years had loosened at that very moment.
In the distance, an elder of the Wild Clan trembled faintly at first, as though he had forgotten how to bend his back. His joints, bowed by the years, gave a series of soft cracks, and then-he slowly knelt.
Thud.
The sound was not loud, yet it seemed to land upon the heart of all heaven and earth.
Then-
A second.
A third.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
There were no shouts from the crowd, no sobs, not even a single unnecessary movement.
They simply knelt.
As though they had rehearsed it countless times.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The sounds began to merge, deep and weighty, like ancient war drums struck anew in the depths of the earth, or tides silently rising and falling, spreading layer upon layer toward the ends of heaven and earth.
The elders knelt.
The women knelt.
Children, too, were gently pressed down by their shoulders and knelt alongside them.
Hundreds of thousands.
Millions.
Tens of millions.
Across the scarred earth, dust slowly rose from the tremors, then settled silently amid light and shadow, as though even heaven and earth dared not disturb this scene.
There was no wild joy on their faces.
No gratitude.
Not even excitement.
Only a kind of-almost frozen numbness.
Those were eyes that had long forgotten how to express emotion after hundreds of millions of years of suppression.
Yet deep within that numbness shone a light, exceedingly faint, yet so steadfast that nothing could shake it.
Like an ember buried in ashes.
They were merely making certain.
Making certain that man had truly returned.
Making