In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

"Thirty men." Mo Shan finally spoke, his voice low and deep, like the growl of an enraged lion. "Thirty well-trained elite soldiers in black armor were suppressed by him in one move, without even the power to fight back. That piece of trash, Tie Hu, couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes before he was kneeling on the ground, unable to get up."

"It's not that Tie Hu is a good-for-nothing," Shangguan Lin said, his voice unusually calm. "It's that Lin Qiye's strength has exceeded our expectations."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone present: "Mo Yuan's original report stated that his strength increased tenfold after fusing with Zhu's bloodline. Now it seems that this 'tenfold' increase was probably a conservative estimate."

"So what do we do now?" Tie Lan asked, her voice still calm, but her brows furrowed. "Lin Qiye left the arena with his family, taking the road along the western slopes of the Canggu Mountains. Although that road is rugged, as long as we can cross that wasteland, we can enter the sphere of influence of the southern kingdoms. Once he enters the southern kingdoms, we will no longer be able to track his movements."

"We can't let him go!" Mo Shan slammed his hand on the table, making the teacups jump and spill tea all over the table. "He took more than a dozen children with him, all of them his own flesh and blood! If we let him gain a foothold outside, he'll come back with those children and become a major threat to the arena!"

"Then do you have a way to keep him here?" Su Yi asked slowly, his voice not loud, but every word was like a fine needle, precisely piercing Mo Shan's most painful spot. "The thirty men you sent to intercept Tie Hu didn't even touch the hem of his clothes. Who else can you send? You? Yourself? Or the entire combat unit?"

Mo Shan's expression turned even uglier, but he did not refute it because he knew that Su Yi was telling the truth.

"Chief of Staff, what do you think?" Tie Lan turned to Shangguan Lin, awaiting his decision.

Shangguan Lin remained silent for a long time, the rhythm of his fingers tapping lightly on the table slowing down until it finally stopped. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, as if pondering some extremely important question.

Silence fell over the meeting room once again.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Shangguan Lin slowly opened his eyes, his voice calm and without any ripples: "Let him go."

"What?!" Mo Shan abruptly stood up, his hands slamming on the table, leaning forward, almost shouting, "Shangguan Lin, are you insane? Do you know what he took away? He took away the bloodline inheritance of Zhu! He took away the crystal core fragment that sealed the boundary coordinates! He took away more than a dozen children who possess his bloodline! Letting him go is like releasing a tiger back into the mountains!"

"I know." Shangguan Lin's voice remained calm. "But I also know that if I force him to stay now, the price the arena will have to pay might be greater than if I let him go."

He stood up, placed his hands on the table, and scanned everyone present with his gaze. His voice carried an unprecedented seriousness: "You didn't see Lin Qiye's move at the North Gate Square just now, but I did."

"Iron Tiger and thirty black-armored soldiers couldn't even stand firm in front of him. That kind of power is beyond what we can suppress with numbers and equipment. If we forcibly detain him, he might go on a killing spree in the arena—and then, not only the soldiers will die, but also the civilians in the city. His family and children will also be affected in this conflict."

He paused, a barely perceptible hint of weariness in his voice: "And have you ever considered—why did he leave?"

Mo Shan paused for a moment, then did not answer.

"If he really wanted to be an enemy of the arena, he could have stayed in the city and used his strength to gradually erode our power, eventually taking control of the entire arena. But he didn't. He chose to leave, taking his family on a difficult journey to an unknown place."

"This shows that he had no ambition for the gladiatorial arena. All he wanted was a place where he and his family could live safely."

Shangguan Lin sat back down in his chair, picked up his teacup, took a sip of the now-cold tea, and said with a calm that came after a decision: "So, let him go. Send someone to follow him secretly to confirm that he has indeed left the arena's sphere of influence, and then withdraw all surveillance. From now on, the arena and Lin Qiye will keep to themselves."

Tirana nodded slightly in agreement.

Su Yi nodded without saying anything.

Mo Shan stood there, hands on the table, head bowed, silent for a long time. Finally, he slowly loosened his clenched fists, sat back in his chair, and said in a voice filled with a resentful yet helpless compromise, "Then... let him go."

……

Three days later, on the western foothills of the Canggu Mountains, in a desolate hilly area.

Lin Qiye stood on a low hill, gazing back at the distant outline of the arena. The gray-white city loomed in and out of view in the morning mist, like a giant beast lurking on the plains, slowly awakening in the dawn.

Behind him, Luo Sheng, Shuang'er, Man Ji, and Qing Yin were spreading out animal skin blankets on a relatively flat open space, feeding the children and changing their diapers. Nine other maids were scattered around the hill, some gathering firewood, some clearing water sources, and some setting up makeshift tents. A dozen or so babies lay on the blankets, some sleeping, some waving their tiny hands and feet, making various soft sounds.

Qingyin placed her daughter, whom she had just fed, on the blanket, stood up, walked to Lin Qiye's side, and followed his gaze to the distant arena. Her voice held a complex tone: "Do you think... we'll come back?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Lin Qiye said calmly, "but at least we won't be bound by that city anymore."

Qingyin was silent for a moment, then lowered her head to look at her slightly protruding belly—she was pregnant with her second child, Lin Qiye's. She gently stroked her belly, a faint smile appearing on her lips: "That's good too."

She raised her head and looked at Lin Qiye, her clear eyes filled with an unprecedented determination: "No matter where you go, I will follow you. I never want to go back in this life."

Lin Qiye didn't answer, but simply reached out and gently patted her shoulder.

She lowered her head, a thin layer of tears welling up in her eyes, but she quickly suppressed them, turned around and walked back to the blanket to continue taking care of the children.

Lin Qiye stood on the hill, took one last look at the distant arena, then turned around and never looked back.

He walked down the mound, went to Luo Sheng's side, bent down and picked up Lin Xi, who was lying on the blanket babbling and waving her little hands, and held the tiny baby in his arms. Lin Xi opened her big, dark eyes, looked at her father's face, and suddenly grinned, her toothless little mouth agape.

Lin Qiye looked at the tiny life in his arms, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

He held Lin Xi in his arms, standing in the morning sunlight, gazing at the boundless wilderness in the distance.

At the edge of the wasteland, the outline of a rolling mountain range gleamed with a pale golden light in the morning glow. Beyond the mountains lay an even wider world, a realm that even a candle had never set foot in, the direction pointed to by the boundary coordinates sealed within that fragment.

He started walking down the hill and headed deeper into the wilderness.