Chapter 1226: Help Me Dig a Grave

Chapter 1226: Dig My Grave

Chen Ling, Lu Xun, Su Zhiwei, and Yang Xiao exchanged glances, a slight smile on each of their faces, tinged with reluctance and a touch of helplessness.

"See you next time."

"Yes, see you next time."

"Alright, bye."

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

Perhaps due to the severe mental energy depletion earlier, Yang Xiao's face was still pale, but he didn't pay it any mind. He simply walked through the desolate ruins, and after walking some distance, slowly looked up at the sky.

His eyes, shimmering like an aurora, gazed at the void above the ruins. His expression was complex.

Just now, there was something he hadn't told Lu Xun and the others.

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

In Yang Xiao's eyes, countless blurry, indistinct figures were floating above the ruins. There were too many of them, at least hundreds of thousands, surging like waves.

Yang Xiao couldn't discern their expressions, but he seemed to sense the reluctance and unwillingness these figures had to leave this world.

Yang Xiao slowly raised his hand among the ruins, as if trying to touch the surging wave of phantoms.

He murmured to himself:

"Is this..."

"Human souls?"

Shush—shush...

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

A gentle breeze swept across the hillside of Wushan, where Zheng Zhiqin, Wang Yuanrong, Li Huang, and numerous other figures stood together, their clothes gently fluttering in the wind.

In front of them, an emperor in a black overcoat was meticulously engraving an inscription on a stone tablet, stroke by stroke.

At this moment, Ying Fu had lost his ability to use the Path of the Scribe. His strokes lacked spiritual charm or brilliance, but he simply used his fingertip, dipped in his own blood, and meticulously completed the last stroke...

—Tomb of Prime Minister Han Shuzhi.

Ying Fu slowly stood up before the tombstone.

Ying Fu had seen into Prime Minister Han's heart as early as their imperial examination. He knew that Prime Minister Han followed him not purely due to his personal charisma.

Prime Minister Han was old at the time, and he knew he couldn't achieve anything significant on his own. But if he became Ying Fu's crutch, then the culmination of his life's efforts could change the fate of many. Han Shuzhi acted not for Ying Fu, but for humanity itself.

Therefore, it was never Ying Fu who chose him, but he who chose Ying Fu, willingly devoting himself wholeheartedly.

Ying Fu chose this location for his tombstone. This spot was precisely on the hillside of Wushan, and from this vantage point, the entire town of Wushan could be clearly seen.

It was the town he had saved at the cost of his own life.

Although it was now in ruins, as long as people survived, tall buildings would one day rise again here, becoming home to future generations. Ying Fu hoped Prime Minister Han could witness all of it.

"I have fulfilled my promise to you," Ying Fu said slowly, his gaze fixed on Prime Minister Han's tombstone.

"Rest here... Before long, you will see humanity build soaring towers here again, restoring its former glory..."

Ying Fu withdrew his gaze and slowly walked into the distance, with the rest of his officials following grandly behind him.

When Ying Fu first met Prime Minister Han, he had almost no one by his side. It was Prime Minister Han who changed everything for him, bringing his students to pledge allegiance and helping Ying Fu rise to power overnight. Now Ying Fu was fully established, but Prime Minister Han had left his side forever.

"Your Majesty."

Just as Ying Fu was lost in thought, Fu Kun suddenly spoke.

"We have found the girl. She is currently on the fourth level of the underground complex... We've made the arrangements. Would you like to bring her out to meet her?"

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

He remained silent for a long time, before finally shaking his head.

"...No need."

"'No need?'" Fu Kun was taken aback. "But, Your Majesty... You personally led the expedition and barely snatched her from the jaws of death. At this point, you won't even see her once?"

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

"Living safely and happily with her father in the underground complex is her destiny... If that's the case, why meet again?"

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

Ying Fu did not look back.

He cast one last glance in the direction of the Half-Mountain Hotel, then, step by step, his figure vanished into the hazy drizzle.

Shush—shush...

Elsewhere, as a similar stone shovel plunged into the earth, handfuls of soil were turned over, and a grave slowly took shape in an unnoticed corner.

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

Weak coughs echoed through the ruins.

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

Chen Ling frowned, looking at Sun Bumian who was holding a stone shovel and silently digging. His tone was filled with utter confusion.

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

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

Chen Ling was stunned.

In his mind, he immediately recalled Sun Bumian's haggard appearance after he had kicked over the Calamity of Corruption moments ago.

"Was it the backlash from the power just now?"

"Not exactly," Sun Bumian shook his head. "In this life, I've overdrawn a lot of the power accumulated from previous reincarnations, so I have to go into a premature slumber..."

Chen Ling had considered that the cost of Sun Bumian overdrawing his power earlier would be great, but he hadn't expected that he would fall into slumber after just such a short duration.

"Then, when will you wake up?"

"I'm too gravely injured in this life, so I might have to slumber for longer, anywhere from decades to over a century... who knows?" Sun Bumian shrugged.

"That long?"

The average human lifespan is about that long. This meant that by the time Sun Bumian next woke up, everything would have changed. And by this reckoning, when he awoke, the world would already be in the Era of the Nine Lords.

"Isn't it because of you? If it weren't for helping you, I wouldn't be in this state..." Sun Bumian glared angrily at Chen Ling.

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

Sun Bumian stopped mid-sentence, hunched over in pain, and coughed violently. Bright red blood was coughed into the grave pit, a shocking sight.

Sun Bumian seemed exhausted and simply tossed the stone shovel to Chen Ling, slumping weakly to sit beside the pit.

"You... help me dig my grave."