I Found You
As soon as Bai Ye's words came out, everyone immediately fell silent.
"Then what should we do now?" Nine of Hearts spread his hands helplessly. "Originally, we intended to send off the Lord of the Red Dust, but in the end, the Lord of the Red Dust is alive and well right now... We can't forcefully make her die, can we? Moreover, the Lord of Wuji was also put away by the Lord of the Red Dust, so haven't we made a trip in vain?"
"..."
At this time, even Bai Ye didn't know what to do... Their previous two Domain send-offs went very smoothly. Once they collected the corpses of the Lord of Ruoshui and the Lord of the Aurora, they could leave. But they never expected that a war in the Red Dust Domain had been fought for so long, yet in the end, not a single one of the Nine Monarchs had died.
Just as everyone was feeling confused, a ray of moonlight projected down from between the clouds, sprinkling in front of everyone, gradually intertwining into a line of text...
"This is..." Seeing this sudden moonlight, everyone was stunned.
Bai Ye slowly pulled down the brim of his cap and spoke helplessly:
"It seems we won't return empty-handed this time."
Tick-tock—
A raindrop fell from the edge of a broken beam in the ruins, rippling in a puddle.
Several refugees walked blankly through the ruined streets, their gazes looking around in astonishment, seeming to try and find familiar silhouettes from these endless ruins... But apart from the shop sign fragments that could occasionally be seen on the ground, there wasn't the slightest trace of its former self here.
Their homes were already destroyed;
"Mom, where is our home?" A boy holding a woman's hand asked blankly.
"... It should be right ahead. No, that's not right. Maybe we have to walk another block forward... That's not right either..."
"Hey, isn't this Zhao Laosi's residence? The walls are still there, preserved quite completely." A Middle-Aged Man saw a small building in the distance and spoke in surprise.
"Indeed, Zhao Laosi is really lucky... As long as this house is slightly repaired, they can move back in."
"Right... where is Zhao Laosi?"
"Dead. It seems his head was cleaved open by a Silver Phantom with one strike."
"..."
"Is there an old man lying over there?"
As everyone was rummaging through the ruins, someone sharp-eyed saw a figure lying on the distant road like a corpse.
The woman let out an exclamation and subconsciously covered her child's eyes with her hand. After the other people exchanged glances, they still gathered around...
"Is he still alive?"
"Seems to be alive, still has breath."
"Why are there so many holes on his body... and his body is covered in blood everywhere. With it like this, can he actually still be alive?"
"He's not an original resident of this street, right? Never seen him before."
"..."
Tick-tock—
Raindrops drifted down from the sky, landing on the Old Man's wrinkled cheeks, and then slowly flowing down... Amidst everyone's astonished discussions, the Old Man's eyes struggled to open.
Confusion, emptiness, pain, dead silence...
There was no longer the slightest vitality in the Old Man's eyes. Like a puppet about to die, he blankly stared at everything before him.
"Hey, are you okay? Where do you live? Are there any children still alive at home?" A kind-hearted passerby leaned down and asked, "Forget it, I'll take you directly to the hospital."
The Old Man didn't answer. He just slowly swept his gaze over the few people standing in front of him. After a long silence, his wrinkled palms pressed against the ground, trying to climb up... A panting sound like a broken bellows came from his mouth. Seeing this, everyone immediately reached out to help him.
But the Old Man gently brushed their hands aside, stood up stubbornly, and then stumbled alone towards the distance of the street...
His figure gradually grew smaller before everyone's eyes, ultimately disappearing at the end of their field of vision.
"What's going on... with this Old Man?"
"Don't know. Injured so heavily, yet unwilling to go to the hospital?"
"Where is he going?"
"Over there, seems to be the direction out of the city... But, there should only be ruins left outside the city long ago, right?"
The discussions of the people gradually faded away by the Old Man's ears. He just silently and stubbornly took his steps, distancing himself from the crowd... The hospital couldn't possibly cure his aging, it would only ultimately expose his corpse to the world. He didn't want to die here, didn't want to die under the watchful eyes of the public.
The whimpering cold wind brushed past the Old Man's ears. Step by step, he trod across the ruins, advancing alone;
He didn't know where he should go, but the instinct deep within his heart continuously drove him forward. Ultimately, he left that shattered city wall, passed through the ruins of town after town, and finally stopped before a small river.
He was tired.
The Old Man's organs had completely failed, and even maintaining his breathing was incredibly difficult. He could only support himself on the trunk of a withered willow tree with one hand, slowly sitting himself down by the river.
He did his best to move his body, letting his feet dangle on the bank so that his toes could touch the cold river water, just like the carefree times when he sat by the Gusu River when he was young.
After finding a comfortable posture, he finally let out a long sigh, as if unloading all burdens, leaning against the willow tree.
The withered willow tree stood in the cold wind, waiting for death in the tranquility.
"Ending it here... isn't too bad either." Yao Qing muttered to himself.
In fact, Yao Qing originally wanted to return to Willow Town, back to the Su residence where he and Su Zhiwei had stayed for three hundred years, and die quietly... But he knew how smart Su Zhiwei was. After resolving the Lord of Wuji, she would very likely return to the Su residence to find him, so he randomly chose such a place that no one knew about.
Although this place was already a ruin, this river and this willow tree still had some resemblance to Willow Town...
Dying here, at least he wouldn't be so lonely.
The Old Man's eyes slowly closed. The world was so quiet that only the ding-dong sound of raindrops falling into the river remained. He sat quietly under the withered willow tree, like a sculpture that had eternally existed here.
Rustle—
In the next moment, the sound of footsteps appeared in the tranquil world.
Someone stepped on the moist soil, arriving by the Old Man's side. Similarly resting their hands on the ground, they sat down by the river... A voice rang out softly by his ear:
"From childhood to adulthood, whenever we played Hide and Seek, you've never won against me, have you?"
The Old Man's body trembled violently.
He opened his eyes in astonishment. His cloudy eyes looked at that incredibly familiar beautiful figure beside him, and for a moment, he was stunned in place.
"You... how did you..."
"First, I went back to the Su residence to look around. When I didn't see you, I figured if you deliberately wanted to hide from me, you definitely wouldn't hide there... So, I simply jumped out of the red flower and searched every inch of the entire Domain... Finally..."
The white training uniform brushed lightly on the bank. The beautiful figure's black hair blew past the Old Man's shoulder in the wind. She slightly turned her head, her pair of glistening eyes looking deeply at this unfamiliar, aged face before her...
"I Found You, Yao Qing."