Haitang and Fengxin didn't survive for long under Ruoyu and Huajian's pursuit. Although they used various tactics to retreat while fighting during the roundabout, and also released a second batch of mechanical killer bees to delay them, Ruoyu's personal strength advantage was still very obvious.

Even if Ruoyu didn't activate Soul Intent at this moment, her physical skills were enough to suppress these two C-Class combat players; what's more... she also had Huajian assisting her. With both sides having medical support players and equal numbers, it all came down to how strong the other main combatant was.

Obviously, in this terrain and at this distance, a shooting-specialized player was at a disadvantage. Meeting an opponent like Ruoyu could only be considered bad luck...

Thus, after nearly ten minutes of escape, attack, defense, and entanglement, the news of Iron Haitang and Fengxinzi's deaths reached their teammates' ears.

At this time, Blood Rose had also been driven to the brink by the Blood Corpse God...

Even though the current Blood Corpse God wasn't in its prime, it was still easy for it to launch Fear Projection within a small area.

Under the pressure of rising terror points, Blood Rose's performance was clearly affected. Facing a Boss-level summoned creature like the Blood Corpse God, which had incredibly powerful physical skills and high-speed regeneration ability, once she lost her composure, it was almost impossible to turn the situation around.

To make matters worse... Wang Tanzhi quickly arrived to assist the Blood Corpse God, so Blood Rose's last hope of survival – "lasting until the Blood Corpse God's duration ended" – was also shattered.

At this point in the semi-finals, the outcome... was basically clear.

***

In the early morning, soft light pierced through the mist, igniting a pink morning glow in the cherry blossom garden.

At this moment, on the ground covered in fallen cherry blossoms, a horizontal, cold corpse... was gradually regaining its body temperature.

Her chest began to rise and fall again.

A rosy color gradually appeared on her face.

Her appearance, skin, and figure... all returned to their youthful state.

Before long, Lin Yan opened her eyes.

And the first person she saw... was actually Feng Bujue.

"You..." Lin Yan didn't seem very excited. She was still a little dazed. "Is this... a dream..."

"No." Feng Bujue was sitting cross-legged beside her, staring with dead fish eyes. "If you have some words you can only say to me in a dream, or some things you can only do to me in a dream, I advise you to dismiss that idea immediately."

His words instantly sobered Lin Yan up a lot.

"I..." Lin Yan supported herself as she sat up. "I... didn't die?"

"Died," Feng Bujue replied, "for about the time it takes to brew three cups of tea."

"Then I..." Lin Yan originally wanted to ask something, but as the words reached her lips, her gaze happened to sweep to Cao Qin not far away.

At this time, Eunuch Cao was leaning against a cherry tree. For some reason... his head of black hair had turned completely white, and his skin had become dry and full of wrinkles.

But... Lin Yan recognized him at a glance. Even if he had aged dozens of years in an instant, she still recognized that the old man was her adoptive father.

"Foster Father!" Lin Yan cried out in a delicate voice, quickly got up and walked over. She grabbed the old man's arm and asked with concern, "Foster Father, what's wrong with you?"

"Hehe... Foster Father is fine..." A gratified smile appeared on Cao Qin's face. He took a deep look at Lin Yan. "I... I'm just tired... It's time to rest."

"This..." Lin Yan's eyes instantly became moist. Filled with sorrow and anger, she turned her head and glared at Feng Bujue. "Did that Feng do something to you?"

"Hey hey... Blame me again?" Feng Bujue said, standing up and patting the dust off his body.

"No... Yan'er, you misunderstood..." Cao Qin's voice sounded weak, but he still tried his best to raise his voice and said, "If it weren't for Head Manager Feng's help, you wouldn't have been able to come back to life."

"What exactly..." Lin Yan looked at Cao Qin in confusion. "...What exactly is going on?"

"Simply put..." Feng Bujue saw that Cao Qin was having difficulty speaking, so he took the lead and said, "Your adoptive father sacrificed his cultivation, and cooperated with my special mental cultivation method to revive you."

In fact, the matter was not complicated in detail...

First, Cao Qin transferred all the power of his supreme art comprehended when he entered the Dao - the Dao Fruit Technique (one of Eunuch Cao's two secret arts, the other being the Sunflower Manual) - to Feng Bujue.

Then, Brother Jue used the instantaneous output generated by this NPC burning out its own data intensity... to improve the efficiency of Rewrite in one breath.

In the following period of time, the effect of Rewrite would not only be "allowing a certain target to rewind to a few seconds ago". This ability could actually do a lot of things...

Within a few seconds, Feng Bujue completed an in-brain simulation of a series of operations with zero time difference, and then he transferred the Power of Immortality (i.e., the ability to resurrect once) granted to him by the Rod of Asclepius to Lin Yan by rewriting and guiding the data, and made subtle adjustments to the effect.

Thus... the scene of resurrection just now was staged.

Of course, Feng Bujue used the word "simple" to Lin Yan for a reason: first, because Lin Yan wouldn't understand words like Rewrite even if she heard them; second... naturally, because saying the name of this move in the competition would reveal intelligence.

"Foster Father... Is this true?" Lin Yan looked at Cao Qin.

"Yan'er..." Cao Qin didn't answer the question, because he didn't have the strength to say another word.

At this moment, the face of this peerless master was full of exhaustion. He was saving his last bit of strength, just to finish what he wanted to say...

"Foster Father... No... I, Cao Qin... am sorry to you." Cao Qin's breathing became heavy.

"Foster Father... You... What do you mean..." Lin Yan was very smart, and she had vaguely guessed something, but she didn't want to expose it.

"You shouldn't hate Feng Bujue, the person you should hate... is me..." Cao Qin said, "I killed you..."

"No! Foster Father!" Lin Yan interrupted him decisively. "Don't say it... You sit still, and I'll circulate my energy to heal you..."

"Heh... Silly child..." Cao Qin said with a wry smile, "My pulse... does it look like it can withstand energy transfer?"

Lin Yan's expression suddenly changed upon hearing this.

It became desperate, helpless...

If her emotions and thoughts hadn't fluctuated so much, Lin Yan should have discovered when she grabbed Cao Qin's arm... that Eunuch Cao's body was now like a dilapidated building that could collapse at any time. All the beams and pillars, walls had been removed or were incomplete. Even a breeze from the outside world could make him collapse completely...

"Haa... Haa..." Lin Yan's eyes were scattered, and she breathed heavily. She tried her best to calm down and think of a way...

"Head Manager Feng!" She was indeed very smart, so she quickly thought of the only feasible method.

Lin Yan suddenly rushed to Feng Bujue, knelt heavily, and said in a hoarse voice: "Please save my adoptive father!"

"This..." Feng Bujue only had time to reply with one word.

Lin Yan was already kowtowing on the ground: "Please! Please... As long as you save my adoptive father, I am willing to do anything! I will be your ox and horse... I will give you..."

"Get up..." Brother Jue held her up with one hand, stopping her from further self-harm, and shook his head and sighed, "Your adoptive father saved you, not to see you be someone's ox and horse."

"If you don't save him... I won't get up!" Lin Yan was still kneeling, but Feng Bujue was holding her shoulders, so she couldn't kowtow anymore.

"It's not that I don't want to save him, but that I am powerless." Feng Bujue said again.

"No... you can even revive the dead..." Lin Yan seemed unwilling to accept the reality. She pleaded softly, "Please... Head Manager Feng... Please..."

"Enough!" Feng Bujue shouted, startling Lin Yan's crying to a halt.

"Your adoptive father gave up his cultivation, gave up immortality, and even gave up his ideals... just to let you live again in this world..." Brother Jue said sternly to Lin Yan, "...This is the way of redemption he chose himself, you should fulfill him."

Lin Yan was speechless by what he said, and in a daze, she turned around and crawled back to Cao Qin on her knees.

"Foster Father... I..." Lin Yan choked, wanting to say something, but thousands of words were difficult to express.

"I understand..." Cao Qin said, "I understand everything..." He shook his head, "It's a pity... I understood too late." He paused for a few seconds, and continued with difficulty, "Yan'er, listen to me..." He secretly took a breath, preparing to give his last words, "Foster Father has done many evil deeds in his life. In the first half of his life, he was ambitious and killed countless people for his own selfish desires; in the second half of his life, he thought he had seen through the mortal world and pursued the great righteousness... but he still killed countless people. In the end, I just found different excuses for what I did.

Head Manager Feng is right, no matter whether this world will become the way I imagined it... people like me are not tolerated.

People like me... are not worthy of your forgiveness, let alone your gratitude.

Today, being able to exchange your life for mine... Foster Father has no regrets in death."

"Foster Father..." Lin Yan sobbed softly. She didn't dare to interrupt Cao Qin, because she was afraid that if he was interrupted, he would never be able to speak again.

"Yan'er..." Cao Qin continued, "Foster Father knows that you are naturally kind... In fact, you don't want to hate anyone, but in order to be my 'chess piece', in order to become the kind of person I want you to become, you forced yourself to hate Feng Bujue, forced yourself to become 'King Yama'." As he said this, his face was bloodless, "From now on, you must never do this again... You must live well, live for yourself..."

After all, he was a grandmaster of a generation. Even in this dying state, he could still say a complete paragraph of words: "Head Manager Feng and I... have already arranged everything. From today onwards, 'King Yama' is dead, and the only one alive... is Lin Yan; no matter the Jianghu or the imperial court, no one will come to ask about your whereabouts again. You can leave this valley and go outside... to live the life you want..."

Cao Qin... after all, failed to say all he wanted to say.

Life is always like this, nothing is ever "ready for everything", no one is ever "foolproof". We all come into this world in varying degrees of panic, and we will all leave at an unexpected moment.

If regret is a kind of beauty, then only those with a strong heart truly know how to appreciate it.

***

Late autumn, the setting sun slanting.

For the first time in decades, the fog in Burial Heart Valley... dissipated.

Yesterday, many people came here, most of whom stayed on this land forever.

But some people still left alive.

Feng Bujue and his teammates left... They turned into white light and disappeared, without saying hello to anyone.

Yuan Qi and the surviving heroes of the martial world also left... When Alliance Master Yuan left, he also took Cao Qin's instructions, as well as the secret manuals of "Breathless Skill," "Four Symbols Divine Skill," and "Mountain Moving Iron Hand," which could be described as a rewarding journey.

Later, the title of "Martial Arts Alliance Master" accompanied Yuan Qi for many years.

Who would have thought that this mediocre person who had accomplished nothing before the age of thirty would become an immortal legend in the Jianghu; after that day, he was not only the alliance master in name, but also the "invincible" and "well-deserved" martial arts supreme.

Under Yuan Qi's leadership, the entire Jianghu can be described as stable, prosperous, and peaceful.

Ironically... after Yuan Qi's death, in order to compete for the throne of the alliance master and the "martial arts legacy" left by Yuan Qi, an unprecedented dispute broke out in the martial world. In the end... the imperial court took the opportunity to intervene and reap the benefits.

Since then, this world has no more Jianghu.

***

How long is human life? It passes like morning frost. Time will not return, and youth will not be renewed.

Decades later, the same late autumn.

A woman, leading a camel, came to Burial Heart Manor.

The sea has changed, and the once prosperous manor now only has broken walls and ruins.

But the strange cherry blossoms that bloom in autumn still bloom on time every year.

In the early morning, the woman came to a cherry tree.

She looked at the cherry tree in front of her, stood for a few seconds, then untied a pot of wine from the belt around her waist, took a sip, and with a bit of alcohol, recited -

"The heroes of the world emerge from our generation,
Once you enter the Jianghu, time urges you on.
Imperial ambitions are discussed in laughter,
It is better to be drunk in life..."

Reciting to this point, she gently stretched out her jade fingers, lowered the wine pot, and let the wine flow to the ground under the tree.

"... Drawing swords and riding across, brandishing a ghost rain,
Corpses are like mountains, birds fly in fright.
Worldly affairs are like tides, people are like water,
I only sigh, how many people return to the Jianghu..."

The wine has run out, but the poem is not yet finished.

Her voice is still very beautiful, but her tone reveals exhaustion, her appearance is still very young, but her eyes are full of vicissitudes.

"... Those who return are lonely, their hearts are tired,
Beautiful women grow old in the boudoir.
Do not ask about the three thousand things of the world,
Picking flowers and holding wine, let's enjoy the last cup."

She raised her pink neck and poured the last few drops of wine from the pot into her mouth, before turning around...

At this time, a breeze happened to blow, blowing her long hair.

It was a head of white hair.

As white as snow.

And under the white hair that drifted in the wind, was a youthful face.

Every year on this day, she would return here.

Perhaps, she just came to see an old friend, to pick up a memory.

Or perhaps, she was looking forward to... a reunion, an encounter.