Chapter 1349: Purple and Green Path

Prince Zi Qing perished.

He did not fall into the hands of the myriad races, but rather sacrificed himself, melting into the gaze of the Upper Desolation Remnant Face. Only a skull, seemingly embodying the unwilling despair of his entire life, did not turn to ash, but remained on the battlefield.

Departing with him was the soul of the entire Purple Green Upper Country, including Bai Xiaozhuo.

On the day they departed, Wanggu was drenched in a month-long torrential rain, and Huangtian was shrouded in a month of swirling gloom.

Within the Human Race Imperial Capital, the Jingyun Human Emperor did not attend court. He sat alone for several days, staring silently southward, lost in thought. It was not until someone traveled to the South Phoenix Continent to retrieve Prince Zi Qing’s skull that he looked at it and let out a sigh filled with complexity and guilt.

Subsequently, he arranged a tomb of the highest规格 for Prince Zi Qing and issued an imperial decree stating that he himself would be interred there in the future.

Thus, Prince Zi Qing’s glory ended. The Purple Green Upper Country, too, became history, gradually turning into a legend under the veil of the myriad races, eventually vanishing into the annals of time. This included the Purple Green Upper Country’s palaces scattered in various places, all becoming ruins, buried in dust.

Only a few Purple Green Upper Country citizens who had left in earlier years scattered the bloodline of the Purple Green Upper Country far and wide. One such branch settled in the South Phoenix Continent.

As the years flowed by, the Jingyun Human Emperor perished, and a new Human Emperor ascended the throne. The human race’s situation grew increasingly difficult with the continuous rise of the myriad races. That branch of Purple Green Upper Country citizens in the South Phoenix Continent thrived and multiplied, striving for strength. Through generations of effort and struggle, they eventually established a new Purple Green Kingdom.

But alas, as if an invisible curse existed, many years later, the Purple Green Kingdom in the South Phoenix Continent was also overthrown by three major clans within it, ceasing to exist entirely. From that moment, the name "Purple Earth" originated in the South Phoenix Continent.

As for Unrivaled Plain, where Prince Zi Qing perished, as time flowed, its fate also seemed intertwined with that of the Purple Green Upper Country. Cities appeared there, only to be reduced to ruins in war. Scavenger camps also emerged, but they, too, did not last long.

It was not until the 2871st year of the Human Race Profound War Era that a group of rogue cultivators arrived at Unrivaled Plain. They built a simple settlement there, a place for their own cultivation and recuperation. They also harbored compassion, taking in people afflicted by anomalies. That makeshift settlement gradually took on a certain scale, becoming a city. It was named Unrivaled.

In the 2918th year of the Human Race Profound War Era, the 135th year of the Heavenly Wonder era in the South Phoenix Continent. After decades of development, Unrivaled City had gained a certain reputation in these end times, becoming the largest among the many cities on Unrivaled Plain.

Today was a momentous day for Unrivaled City.

Within the city, people bustled about, a vibrant clamor. Zi Qing, dressed in a coarse linen robe with his hair tied back, walked through the lively streets. The sugar-coated haws he held still carried the lingering warmth of the stove; their amber coating wrapped around scarlet hawthorn berries, reflecting a deceptive sweet sheen under the midday sun. The air seemed to float with the sweet stickiness of caramel, the smoky scent of burning sacrificial paper, the slight acidity of human sweat, and the grainy fragrance of steamed buns. All of it mingled viscously, enveloping him and the city named Unrivaled.

Today was the Festival of Prayer.

Everything about the festival was like a pot of boiling broth, seething with the turbulence of the marketplace. Amidst this clamor, Zi Qing’s expression remained serene as he watched the crowd, perceiving the familiar atmosphere around him.

“Finest sugar-coated haws! Crispy and sweet!” A peddler’s cry sharply pierced through the din.

“I hope next year is a good one…” The whispers of an old woman with a basket were drowned in the human tide.

“Everyone, maintain order! Do not gather too closely!” The shouts of the city guards vainly tried to stop the surging crowd.

“Come one, come all, my fellow villagers, step into my shop! Three-color smoke sacrificial paper, the most effective for communicating with gods!” The paper crafts shopkeeper brandished samples in his hand.

Countless sounds converged into a muddy warm current, washing over Zi Qing’s eardrums. His fingertips felt the stiff, cold bamboo skewer of the candied hawthorn. His gaze pierced through the jostling heads, settling on a few familiar figures in the distance.

His father, mother, and his younger brother, Ah-di, whom his mother gently held in her arms in this life. The small body nestled in his mother’s embrace, like an ignorant little beast. Looking at them, a glimmer of reminiscence appeared in Zi Qing’s eyes. But this reminiscence, like mortal smoke, had barely risen before it was scattered by the wind.

“Time’s almost up! Hurry up and run!” A few children, clutching crude wooden deity statues, swept past Zi Qing like the wind, rushing towards the towering, coffin-like altar in the city center.

Zi Qing closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his mother in the distance seemed to detect his gaze. Holding her young Ah-di, she turned around, her gaze piercing through the gaps in the crowd to land on her eldest son, who stood there with the candied haws, his face unnervingly serene. A gentle smile bloomed on her face as she subtly tilted her chin towards Zi Qing. The little son in her arms also twisted his head. His seven-year-old face was innocent and clean, his eyes clear, reflecting the glow of the candied hawthorn and a hint of unnoticeable grievance. He saw his elder brother, saw the string of candied haws, and his eyes lit up.

But the next second, clear water quickly welled up in those eyes, his rims turned red, and his little mouth pouted.

“This child, why are his eyes red again?” His father’s helpless voice, tinged with laughter, reached him from nearby.

And his mother’s voice also echoed: “Qing’er, you’re a man of steel, you mustn’t cry just because you see your brother leave.” She added, “Look over there, the sacrifice is about to begin.”

The moment these words reached Zi Qing’s ears from afar, his gaze passed over his mother’s tender profile, over his father’s broad shoulders, over his younger brother’s tearful, expectant gaze, and finally fixed on the altar, fixed on the incomplete, cold, anciently frozen Remnant Face in the Nine Heavens above.

“The time has come,” Zi Qing murmured softly.

He held the candied haws, walking forward like the most silent observer. He walked towards his family in this life, towards the altar he had personally chosen.

On the altar, the priest, clad in scarlet ritual robes, abruptly thrust his arms open. With a bone-chilling, piercing, strange tone, like a horn declaring the apocalypse, he suddenly tore through all the marketplace clamor.

“Heavenly Wonder 135th Year, the year in South Phoenix, the moon traverses Ghost Mansion at night! We ants, prostrate ourselves on the land of Twin Capitals, dare with a filthy rite to report to the God of the Remnant Face—”

Through the priest’s words, Zi Qing calmly proceeded, calmly raising his head. His gaze pierced through the priest’s waving red robe, pierced through the fear of the hundred prisoners awaiting execution on the altar, and stabbed directly into the indifferent giant face in the sky.

That face… was still cold, still incomplete. But he knew the chains of the contract were already taut. When he had sacrificed himself back then, exchanging for the future from that Remnant Face, he had promised to sacrifice everything he saw upon his return. Every word carried the echo of karma.

“In the past, the Blue Disc fell to earth, the Black Tortoise broke its leg; when your pupils first opened, the crimson sun melted into molten iron, boiling the five lakes, and the stars shattered into arrows, piercing the nine wilds!” The priest’s chant grew higher and more frantic amidst this echoing karma.

Zi Qing’s gaze returned to his father, mother, and younger brother. He saw his father, who seemed to sense something, frown slightly and instinctively turn to shield his wife and child. His broad back had just made a leaning forward posture, and the astonishment and resolve on his face had not even fully solidified. He saw his mother holding her younger brother, her face still carrying the gentleness towards her child and unease at the priest’s voice. Little Ah-di, too, seemed frightened by the solemn atmosphere, burying his face in his mother’s neck.

Looking at them, Zi Qing’s heart was a dead, frozen expanse, without ripples, without emotion, only the cold clarity of fulfilling a contract. The warmth of the candied haws in his hand was fading little by little, becoming as cold as his palm.

“Now the ruined walls still emit ghost fire, and the living eat grave earth, while the congealed blood between your eyelids still reflects the gasps of all sentient beings!” The priest’s voice was almost a scream. “Oh God! We pray that the residual breath leaking from your teeth will be the fuel for our meager survival; we pray that the shadow falling from your brow bone will be the shelter for the common people to avoid calamity!”

The priest’s arms, like the blade of a guillotine, swung down abruptly, pointing at the prisoners on the altar!

“May God close His eyes!”

“May God slumber forever!”

“We pray, God… do not open Your eyes!!”

“Do not open Your eyes!!!”

A wave of sound abruptly rose at this moment, and as the whole city cried out in unison, Zi Qing murmured softly from within the crowd:

“I have returned.”

“With all that I see, I fulfill the covenant of my previous life.”

The instant these two sentences left his lips, the eyelid of the anciently closed, abyss-like eye in the sky suddenly stirred! Upward… a slit opened!

There was no light, no emotion, only a pure, cold, indifferent void that leaked out from that slit.

The contract… was completed.

Boom!!

The sound of silent annihilation suddenly vibrated deep within Zi Qing’s soul. It was the cold echo of the contract’s fulfillment. The world before his eyes began its destined end.

Weathering!

Under that gaze, the bricks, wooden beams, streets—all solid entities that constituted Unrivaled City—instantly lost their basis of existence. They silently disintegrated, turning into countless gray-white dust particles, like being swept up by an invisible storm, madly flowing backwards towards the sky! The entire city was being erased from the earth bit by bit by an unseen hand!

“This… this…”

“God opened His eyes!”

“No…”

Countless shrill wails instantly replaced the deathly silence, rising across the entire Unrivaled City. One by one, lives around Zi Qing, accompanied by the echoing wails, began to mutate!

A woman’s skin tore, her bones burst! A child inflated into a mountain of flesh covered in pus-filled blisters and sharp claws! An elder’s head split open, revealing compound eyes! A man’s muscles proliferated, covered in scales, and grew fangs!

The peaceful Unrivaled City, at this moment of Zi Qing’s fulfillment of the contract, turned into a grinder of flesh and blood! Those not mutated were even more miserable, their bodies directly shattering into blood mist, rising into the sky to become blood rain! Lives, in the form stipulated by the contract, perished in swathes.

And the blood rain grew heavier.

Zi Qing’s gaze pierced through the sky full of swirling gray-white dust and crimson blood mist, coldly fixed on the location of his parents and younger brother in the distance. He saw his father suddenly turn, attempting to shield his mother and younger brother. But that broad back had just made a leaning forward gesture, and the astonishment and resolve on his face had not even fully solidified, when his body, like a sand sculpture blown away by the wind, began to turn to dust from his fingertips, inch by inch! There were no screams, no process; he was instantly swallowed by the dust flow swept towards the sky, vanishing without a trace.

He saw his mother, holding her younger brother, her face’s gentleness instantly replaced by immense confusion and terror. She didn’t even have time to look in the direction her husband vanished before her entire body suddenly stiffened… Like a candle thrown into a furnace, from the top of her head, she rapidly, silently… melted! Her dark hair, pale skin, gentle brows and eyes—everything that constituted “Mother”—melted into viscous, dark red liquid under Zi Qing’s gaze of contract fulfillment, flowing down her younger brother’s small body in her arms!

“Wuwu…” He saw his younger brother utter a short, extremely frightened whimper, falling from the still warm, dark red blood-water that was his mother, heavily onto the ground, which was also covered in viscous blood plasma. His small body curled up in the blood plasma, trembling, stained with his mother’s blood.

At this moment, the sky full of gray-white dust seemed to become mourning money, mixing with the viscous blood rain, rustling down. Death had completely descended; even mutations often collapsed at the moment of distortion.

And the blood rain grew heavier.

In the rain, Zi Qing stepped through the warm, viscous blood plasma, step by step, walking towards the small figure curled in the pool of blood. Finally, he stopped in front of him. He looked down at his younger brother. His young shoulders trembled violently, blood rain soaked his thin clothes, like a young beast abandoned in a sea of blood, leaving only silent, immense fear and confusion.

Under Zi Qing’s gaze, he very slowly raised his head. A small face thoroughly smeared with blood plasma, tear tracks, and dust reflected in his sight. Those once clear eyes now held only endless emptiness and immense fear, like two dry wells filled with despair. Broken syllables, with whimpers like blood foam, were painstakingly squeezed from his throat.

“Brother… Father and Mother…”

Listening to his younger brother’s voice, Zi Qing’s lips moved. The candied hawthorn stick in his palm had, at some point, deeply pierced his flesh. Warm blood drops rolled down the stick, dripping onto the equally viscous ground, merging with his mother’s blood, and with the blood of the entire city. But he felt no pain, only the cold echo of the completed contract vibrating in his chest cavity.

So, he offered no explanation. Any words were hypocritical blasphemy in the face of the destruction he personally created. He had fulfilled his promise, nothing more.

Finally, he merely brought his blood-stained hand more steadily down towards his younger brother’s equally cold, blood-smeared little head. The movement carried a ritualistic weight. At the same time, he extended the string of candied haws from his other hand, stained with his own fresh blood and utterly defiled, to his younger brother. His cracked lips parted, and the voice that emerged was calm and waveless, like reading the final concluding remarks of a eulogy, clearly piercing through the blood rain and weathering whimpers filling the sky.

“Ah-di,” he said softly, looking at those eyes filled with immense terror.

“…Don’t cry.”

His palm descended!

But just as his palm was about to touch his younger brother’s head, a sound like the creation of heaven and earth rose majestically from the sky at that very moment! Under that unparalleled, violent sound, light tore through space-time, appearing instantly! It illuminated the sky, illuminated the earth, illuminated the blood rain!

It was the light of the morning glow! It obscured everything, boundless, like the sea, replacing everything in this world. And it enveloped Zi Qing within it.

In this vast, astonishing, incomparably brilliant morning glow, a hand stretched out… and fiercely gripped Zi Qing’s arm, the one about to descend upon his younger brother’s head!

Then, with a sudden fling, Zi Qing’s body violently trembled. Under this terrifying force, he was directly thrown out, landing far away. Intense, strange light appeared in his eyes as he stared at the figure now appearing in the light.

“You finally came here.”