These people had thought that they'd definitely die a terrible death at the hands of the YiLing Patriarch before they became walking corpses under his control. All of them seemed to be scared out of their wits. However, Wei WuXian wasn't interested in bothering with them any longer. After he finished reading the announcement, he left the group on the ground and walked away, hands behind his back.
He didn't retrieve all those dark spirits. On the ground, those who groaned continued to groan, those who writhed continued to writhe. None of them were able to get up.
Sometime later, they suddenly saw a blue sword glare sweep by. They immediately felt their backs lighten up. Someone exclaimed, "I can move!"
A few of them got up and saw the sword glare return into a person's sheath.
It was a handsome man of very young age. Wearing white robes and a forehead ribbon, he bore a solemn expression on his face, in which there seemed to be a suppressed strand of worry. He came at a high speed, but he didn't seem to be hurrying at all. Not even the corners of his robes wavered.
Holding back pain, the cultivator who had broken his legs spoke, "Han-... HanGuang-Jun!"
Lan WangJi walked beside him and got down, pressing on his legs to check his wounds. His injuries weren't too severe. He got up, but before he could speak, the cultivator continued, "HanGuang-Jun, you've come too late. Wei WuXian just went!"
Quite a few people knew that in the past few days, HanGuang-Jun of the GusuLan Sect had been searching everywhere for the whereabouts of Wei WuXian, probably wanting to settle things with him and have him pay for the dozens of lives that the GusuLan Sect lost. Someone hurriedly shouted, "Yeah, he's been gone for less than an hour!"
Lan WangJi, "What did he do? Where is he going?"
The people immediately started complaining, "He fought with us without a care for anything and almost killed all of us right there on the spot!"
Lan WangJi's fingers, hidden beneath the snow-white sleeves, twitched slightly, as if he wanted to clench them into fists. However, he quickly loosened them.
The cultivator quickly added, "But he said already that he was going to the Nightless City to account for things with the Four Great Sects!"
After the QishanWen Sect was destroyed, the main palaces of Nightless City had become a magnificent, yet empty pile of ruins.
Before the tallest place in the entire Nightless City, the Palace of Sun and Flames, was a wide plaza. Three tall flags stood skyward at the front of the plaza, but now, two of them had been broken. The last one left was a flag of the sun and flames motif, although tattered and painted with blood.
That night, square arrays of sects both large and small filled the entire plaza. The crest-embroidered flag of every sect fluttered in the night wind. In front of the broken flag poles was a temporary altar. Standing before their array, each sect leader was presented with a cup of wine by Jin GuangYao. After they received the wine, the sect leaders raised their cups high up and poured them onto the ground.
After the the wine had seeped into the dirt, Jin GuangShan stated, "No matter the sect, no matter the surname-this cup of wine is to the soldiers who have died."
Nie MingJue, "May their souls live on."
Lan XiChen, "Rest in peace."
Jiang Cheng, however, still had on a darkened expression. He didn't say anything even after he poured the wine.
Afterward, Jin GuangYao walked out from the LanlingJin Sect's array and presented with both hands a square box made of black iron. Jin GuangShan took the box with one hand and raised it high in the air, shouting, "Here lies the ashes of the Wen Sect's remnants!"
