Chapter 1226: Help Me Dig a Grave

Chen Ling, Lu Xun, Su Zhiwei, and Yang Xiao looked at each other and smiled slightly—a smile filled with reluctance and helplessness.

"Until next time."

"Yeah, until next time."

"I'm off, bye."

After a brief farewell, they turned and walked in different directions.

Perhaps due to the severe mental exhaustion from earlier, Yang Xiao's face was still pale, but he didn't mind... He strolled across the desolate ruins, and after walking a distance, he slowly looked up at the sky.

His eyes, shimmering with aurora, gazed into the void above the ruins, his expression complex.

There was something he hadn't told Lu Xun and the others just now...

For some reason, ever since he had collapsed from exhaustion, he felt like he was different from before. The most obvious evidence was that he could see things he couldn't see before.

In Yang Xiao's pupils, blurry phantoms were floating above the ruins. There were too many of them—at least hundreds of thousands—surging like a tide.

Yang Xiao couldn't see their expressions, but he seemed to feel their reluctance and unwillingness to leave this world.

Yang Xiao slowly raised his hand amidst the ruins, as if wanting to touch the surging tide of phantoms...

He muttered to himself:

"Are these..."

"Human souls?"

……

*Shh—shh...*

As the last handful of yellow earth covered the slightly sunken ground, Fu Kun wiped the sweat from his forehead and set the stone shovel he had made aside.

A gentle breeze swept across the hillside of Wushan, where Zheng Zhiqing, Wang Yuanrong, Li Huang... and many others stood together, their clothes fluttering in the wind.

In front of them,

an emperor in a black coat was carving an epitaph onto a stone tablet, stroke by stroke.

At this moment, Ying Fu had lost the ability of the Book God's Path; his strokes lacked spirit and were not magnificent, but he dipped his fingertips in his own blood and, with great care, wrote the final stroke...

—Tomb of Chancellor Han Shuzhi.

Ying Fu slowly stood up before the tombstone.

Back when he had tested Chancellor Han, Ying Fu had already seen into his heart. He knew that the Chancellor's loyalty wasn't purely due to his personal charisma...

At the time, the Chancellor was already old. He knew that on his own, he couldn't accomplish any great deeds, but if he could become Ying Fu's crutch, the wisdom of his life could change the fate of many more people. Han Shuzhi wasn't doing it for Ying Fu, but for humanity itself.

Therefore, it was never Ying Fu who chose him, but he who chose Ying Fu—willingly, giving his all until the very end.

Ying Fu had chosen this spot for his tomb. It was located on the hillside of Wushan, and from this angle, one could clearly see the entire Wushan Town...

The town he had risked his life to save.

Although it was in ruins now, as long as people were alive, high-rises would one day be built here again, becoming a home for the next generation. Ying Fu hoped the Chancellor could witness it all.

"I have fulfilled the promise I made to you," Ying Fu said slowly, his gaze fixed on the Chancellor's tombstone.

"Rest here... It won't be long before you see humanity rebuild its towers here, restoring its glory..."

Ying Fu withdrew his gaze and walked slowly into the distance, his remaining ministers following in a grand procession.

When Ying Fu first met the Chancellor, he had almost no one to rely on. It was the Chancellor who changed everything for him, bringing his students to defect to him and helping him rise to the top in one leap. Now that Ying Fu's wings were full, the Chancellor had left his side forever.

"Your Majesty."

Just as Ying Fu was reminiscing, Fu Kun suddenly spoke.

"We have found that girl. She is currently on the fourth level of the underground project... We have made arrangements. Do you want to bring her out to see her?"

Ying Fu looked toward the Half-Mountain Hotel not far away.

He was silent for a long time before shaking his head:

"...No need."

"No need?" Fu Kun was stunned. "But Your Majesty... you led the campaign yourself and barely managed to snatch her from the jaws of death. At this point, you won't even see her once?"

"Staying by my side will only put her in danger." Ying Fu paused for a moment.

"Staying in the underground project, living a safe and happy life with her father—that is the life that belongs to her... Since that is the case, why see her again?"

Fu Kun opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Ying Fu did not look back.

He took one last look at the direction of the Half-Mountain Hotel, then stepped away, his figure disappearing into the hazy drizzle.

……

*Shh—shh...*

On the other side, as another stone shovel pierced the earth and handfuls of soil were overturned, a grave pit gradually took shape in a forgotten corner.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Weak coughing echoed through the ruins.

"What are you doing?" Just then, a figure draped in a bright red opera robe suddenly appeared opposite the grave pit.

Chen Ling frowned as he looked at Sun Bumian, who was hunched over digging, his tone filled with confusion.

Sun Bumian coughed a few more times, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked up at Chen Ling with a pale face. He smiled helplessly.

"It's obvious... I'm dying, so I'm digging my own grave."

Chen Ling was stunned.

In his mind, the image of Sun Bumian looking haggard after kicking over the Turbid Disaster just moments ago surfaced...

"Was it the backlash from the power earlier?"

"Not exactly." Sun Bumian shook his head. "In this lifetime, I've overdrawn quite a bit of the power I accumulated through past reincarnations, so it's time for me to fall into a slumber early..."

Chen Ling had thought the price for Sun Bumian's power would be high, but he hadn't expected that after just a brief moment, he would have to fall into a slumber...

"Then, when will you wake up?"

"I've been hurt too badly in this life; I might have to sleep for a long time—decades, maybe even a century... who knows." Sun Bumian shrugged.

"That long?"

The average human lifespan was only that long, which meant that by the time Sun Bumian woke up, things would have changed beyond recognition... And by that calculation, by the time he woke up, the world would have already entered the era of the Nine Lords.

"Isn't it because of you? If it weren't to help you, I wouldn't have..." Sun Bumian glared at Chen Ling in annoyance.

"Damn it, aren't you a transmigrator? When we meet again in the future, you'd better treat me well. I'm your savior!! Otherwise, I'll... cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Halfway through his sentence, Sun Bumian hunched over in pain and began to cough violently... Scarlet blood was coughed into the grave pit, a shocking sight.

Sun Bumian seemed tired; he threw the stone shovel to Chen Ling and sat weakly to the side...

"You, help me dig the grave."