The world around Zhuo Riyan dimmed like a dying flame.
Xiao Xiao dragged his broken body beside him, feathers torn, wings hanging uselessly, blood pooling beneath him. His breaths came in ragged, painful bursts.
But his eyes—those once bright golden eyes—were fixed on his master with unwavering love.
He nudged Zhuo Riyan's trembling hand again, crying softly, helplessly, as if begging him:
Don't die… please… don't leave me…
Zhuo Riyan's lips barely moved.
"Xiao… Xiao…"
His voice was fading.
His heartbeat… slowing.
Zhuo Riyan slipped into deep unconsciousness.
Xiao Xiao's body shook violently.
He knew.
He knew his master wouldn't survive like this.
Not with his dantian stabbed.
Not with his spiritual veins cut apart.
Not with this much blood lost.
If nothing was done—Zhuo Riyan would die.
Xiao Xiao's broken wings slowly spread open. His eyes closed for a moment, as if accepting something painful… final… inevitable.
Then—
His eyes opened again, glowing faintly.
A soft brown light emerged from deep inside his chest… pulsing like a heart made of pure energy.
His Life Source.
The core of his existence.
The thing that every Life Bounded Beast had—
—something that once given… could never be taken back.
A sacrifice that meant death.
Absolute death.
Xiao Xiao pressed his beak gently against Zhuo Riyan's chest, right above the destroyed dantian.
The brown light grew brighter, spreading through Xiao Xiao's body, burning him from the inside out. Pieces of his feathers drifted away like ash.
He cried once—long, trembling, full of pain and love—
and forced the Life Source out of his body.
It floated out like a small brown orb, flickering in the air, trembling as if resisting its fate.
The small brown orb drifted from Xiao Xiao's chest and sank into Zhuo Riyan's body, spreading warmth across his skin… but only on the outside.
His shattered dantian remained broken.
His severed beast veins remained torn.
But the bleeding stopped.
His breathing steadied.
His heart regained strength.
Xiao Xiao's Life Source was not strong enough to rebuild an entire cultivation foundation…
but it was strong enough to drag his master back from death's door.
Xiao Xiao collapsed beside him, chest rising shallowly, feathers turning transparent. Bloody tears trickled from his fading eyes as he nudged Zhuo Riyan's hand weakly… one last time.
Then his body crumbled into motes of brown light and dissolved into the air.
The mountain peak returned to silence.
Only the rising sun remained, shining over Zhuo Riyan's unconscious form.
One hour later
Zhuo Riyan's eyes fluttered open.
His entire body ached, but he was alive.
He felt numb… strangely warm… but when he tried to circulate spiritual energy—
Nothing.
His dantian… was empty.
Dead.
Destroyed.
His beast veins… unresponsive.
Cut.
Useless.
No matter how hard he tried to summon even a speck of qi, his body remained hollow.
Cold sweat formed on his forehead.
"I… can't… cultivate…?"
His voice was hoarse, trembling.
He tried to stand but his legs buckled. He fell to his knees, clutching his stomach where Ao Shen's dagger had pierced him.
He looked around.
The house was gone.
The ground was scorched.
Blood stains dried across the broken wood and stone.
And then realization struck him like a hammer.
"Xiao… Xiao…?"
Silence.
No answering cry.
No flutter of wings.
No warm presence.
His heart dropped.
He looked around desperately, crawling across the ground despite the pain.
"Xiao Xiao! Where are you?!"
But there was nothing left.
Just a spot where faint brown motes still lingered… fading into the wind.
Zhuo Riyan's breath hitched. His fingers dug into the dirt.
"D-don't… don't tell me…"
He collapsed forward, forehead pressing against the ground.
Xiao Xiao had sacrificed everything—
just to keep him alive.
Not to restore him.
Not to save his cultivation.
Just to make sure he didn't die alone on that mountain.
A broken laugh escaped him, cracked and suffocated.
"Shen'er… Kin Dou…"
his voice trembled, eyes turning red.
"Was ruining my life not enough…? You had to take Xiao Xiao too…?"
Tears fell freely.
He was alive.
But everything that made him a cultivator… everything that made him strong… everything that walked beside him…
was gone.
The wind on the mountain peak howled like a mourning beast.
Zhuo Riyan stood alone on the cliff, his robes torn, still stained with the dried blood of battle. His eyes were hollow… yet burning. In his arms lay the cold, rapidly fading body of Xiao Xiao—his friend, his brother in everything but blood.
Using trembling hands, Zhuo Riyan gently placed Xiao Xiao's motes in jar on the ground.
He didn't use beast qi.
He didn't use any technique.
He carved the tomb with his bare hands, knuckles cracking, skin tearing, blood dripping with every strike against the stone.
But he didn't stop.
Not once.
Because pain was nothing compared to the hole carved in his heart.
After an hour, a simple yet dignified stone mound stood tall on the mountain peak. Zhuo Riyan placed Xiao Xiao's motes jar—the last remnants of his life source essence—on top of the tomb, letting them glow like warm fireflies in the twilight.
They flickered softly, as though Xiao Xiao was smiling one last time.
Zhuo Riyan didn't cry.
He had no tears left.
He knelt before the tomb, fists clenched so tight they bled.
His voice was low… but every word shook the heavens.
"Xiao Xiao… I couldn't protect you."
The motes jar shivered, responding to his sorrow.
Zhuo Riyan lowered his head until it touched the cold earth.
"I swear on my blood, my soul, and the path I walk… I will find Kin Dou."
His killing intent surged, making the mountain tremble.
"I will hunt Ao Shen to the end of the world."
Clouds above churned like a vortex.
"I will make the Lion Beast kneel before your tomb."
Lightning cracked across the sky.
Zhuo Riyan rose slowly, eyes crimson—not with tears, but with fury.
"From this moment on…"
His aura exploded—wild, unrestrained.
"…I live for revenge."
He turned away from the grave, walking down the mountain path without looking back.
Behind him, Xiao Xiao's motes jar glowed brighter…
as though lighting the path of vengeance.