If there is no light, then unsheathe the sword.
Empty and desolate, silent and cold.
Lu Qingshan knew that not long ago, sothing else must have existed here, but everything had been erased.
"Did it really leave nothing behind?" Lu Qingshan slowly paced through the deep underground, walking from one end to the other, and back again, three or four tis, and still found nothing.
Deep down in his heart, Lu Qingshan knew that person was surely no longer there, but could they really have left nothing behind?
A na that could intimidate a race for twenty thousand years, even when severely wounded, even when dying, even when facing the number one of the Demon Race, should not just leave like that.
"Ancestral Patriarch Xia?" Thus, Lu Qingshan softly probed the air.
A gentle breeze brushed his face.
Very gentle, yet it made Lu Qingshan's hair stand on end.
In a closed underground cave, where did the wind co from?
"Your heart is in turmoil," a familiar voice sounded beside his ear.
Points of phosphorescence erged from the stone walls around, forming a hazy silhouette before Lu Qingshan.
A person appeared in front of him.
Just like that experience in the Dao Source Realm.
But this ti, the hazy silhouette finally beca clear.
It was a Confucian scholar with slightly gray temples, smiling.
"Ancestral Patriarch Xia?" Lu Qingshan asked again.
"It's , you should know my na, Xia Ming."
Lu Qingshan fell into silence.
After a mont, he spoke in a hoarse voice, "So, what are you now?"
"rely a remnant fragnt of my Primordial Spirit."
Lu Qingshan paused, still finding it hard to accept, "But you are Ancestral Patriarch Xia."
"In South Village, the children bully for being old and feeble, I have to endure, face the robbers in person, and openly embrace the thatch to enter the bamboo." After reciting these few lines, Lu Qingshan had not yet reacted, and the Confucian scholar couldn't help but laugh first.
"I was facing more than one enemy at that ti, and besides, you can't demand too much from an old man half-buried in earth." He explained seriously.
"You don't look old at all."
"Over twenty thousand years old, isn't that old?" The scholar exhibited an exaggerated expression of surprise.
Lu Qingshan was montarily speechless.
"The Human Race is in a very dangerous situation now, just like twenty thousand years ago," he continued.
"I know."
"Do you really know?"
"Long ago, I told you," the scholar blinked, mischievously, "each generation has its own responsibilities to bear."
"Now, this is your responsibility."
"However, the current situation, you also bear so responsibility, so you shouldn't place all the burden on ," Lu Qingshan stated seriously.
"You're right," the scholar nodded, then clapped his hands, saying, "So, besides this fragnt of Primordial Spirit, I have left sothing else in this world."
"Consider it taking responsibility for one's actions," he stated confidently and satisfactorily, then spread his hands, "but whether you can use it depends on you all."
"What is it?" Lu Qingshan asked.
"When the ti cos, you will naturally know," Xia Ming replied.
"At such a ti, elder, don't be cryptic anymore," Lu Qingshan said sowhat angrily.
"Speaking with folks from my hotown is indeed interesting," the scholar laughed heartily, extrely pleased, then turned serious, "not being cryptic; if you can use what I left, you will surely know what it is; if you can't, knowing it would be useless."
"How can I use what you left?" Lu Qingshan asked again, changing his approach.
"You are truly very clever," the scholar admired as he looked at Lu Qingshan.
"Do you know..." he continued.
"I don't know," Lu Qingshan resolutely replied, pre-empting his words, "you have to tell for to know."
The man before him, clearly held the highest regard among the Human Race, yet possessed a "playfulness" entirely inconsistent with his status.
"I've been here for a very long ti," the scholar said, "for a long while, I was attempting to heal, truly made many attempts, but all failed."
"Then one day, I finally gave up."
"I began to think."
"Think about what?"
"Think about the true way out."
"Did you co up with anything?"
"Gained so insights," the scholar smiled, "but those are my insights, you can't directly use them."
"To change the story's outco, ultimately, it still depends on you."
"Fortunately, your talent surpasses mine." The phosphorescence grew fainter, and the silhouette was dispersing.
"I leave you with one last phrase."
"The tiniest dust can enrich mountains and seas, a candle's light augnts the brilliance of sun and moon." Xia Ming smiled slightly, and then finally dissipated completely.
...
Lu Qingshan left the underground.
But he hadn't truly left.
He frowned, sitting atop the ruins, gazing blankly at the deep pit.
Clearly, Ancestral Patriarch Xia's words, he could not understand at this mont.
He sat for a long, long ti, pondering many things.
Yet, he found no insight.
.......
The chilly night slowly faded away.
The dawn's light was gentle.
Day broke.
In the mildly damp and cool morning mist, faint sounds of insects chirping could be heard.
On the ground before Lu Qingshan, a few ants crawled by.
In the ruins, a tender green sprout had erged, pushing through the cracked bricks, exuding a subtle yet inspiring sense of strength.
It turns out, this land once ravaged by Luohu's devilish hands was not truly desolate.
Lu Qingshan vaguely sensed sothing.
He stood up, brushed off the dew on his body, and walked along the desolate road into the distance.
As Ancestral Patriarch Xia said, his mind was indeed in turmoil and needed to be quieted.
The human world is the most bustling.
Amidst the noise, peace is best found.
He decided to go see the world of humans.
The real human world.
Unrelated to cultivation or his past, the human world.
After a long journey, Lu Qingshan arrived at a small town.
The town was bustling, the streets crowded with people.
The steam from the bun shop hovered like fog in the air.
Splashed soybean milk moistened the bluestone slabs.
People bought breakfast, ate breakfast, chatted idly as usual, ntioning the suddenly vanished Primordial Magnet City, the biggest topic in recent years in the Spirit-Nullifying Realm, so even after a long ti, this topic was still discussed by so.
So worried whether this town might suffer the sa fate soday.
"Regardless of what the future holds, at least now, buns still need to be sold." Finally, the bun shop owner concluded the topic.
No matter what the future holds, life has to go on.
Lu Qingshan stood by the bun stall, listening to these simple concerns, these fragnted yet honest words, and was suddenly touched.
This was nothing but a simple life, a life he once experienced, a life he hadn't lived since he arrived in this world—not long ago, yet it felt as if those events were from a very, very long ti ago.
Is this the power of ti?
Lu Qingshan strolled through the small town.
He passed by a private school, hearing the clear and lodious sounds of reading from behind the wall.
Thus, Lu Qingshan stopped, quietly listening to the reading from inside the wall, listening for a long ti.
His heart, amid the sound of reading, finally settled down slowly.
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