Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

Li Xing crossed the city wall silently without alerting anyone.

Upon entering the city, one is immediately greeted by a strong smell of blood and herbs.

He walked down the street, passing by those people, but no one saw him.

He concealed his True Form level aura to the extreme, so much so that those around him couldn't even see his shadow.

He used his starlight perception to survey the entire city and continued forward, trying to capture the true form's aura.

"Huh? It's not there. Is it not in the city... or is there some clever hiding method?"

Li Xing walked through the eastern part of the city, through the streets crowded with wounded soldiers, and through the silent crowds.

His mental energy remained constantly engaged, searching meticulously.

He wouldn't leave in peace until he got to the bottom of this matter.

At the celebration a month ago, the envoy sent by the Rising Sun King sat in the VIP section, smiling broadly and speaking earnestly.

The messenger who was celebrating said that the Supreme Being had been in seclusion for many years, but upon hearing that the True Form Supreme Being had emerged from the Starry Holy Land, he was extremely pleased and prepared a generous gift to congratulate him.

He also said that the Supreme One hoped to meet with Li Xing to discuss important matters concerning the human race.

But a month passed without any response.

The message sent by Li Xing disappeared without a trace.

Now, he has arrived.

His spiritual power swept across the city lord's mansion, but it was empty.

A glance at the several luxurious mansions revealed only servants and the wounded.

Even the civilian district was not spared from Li Xing's investigation; nothing was found there.

Li Xing frowned slightly. "Not in the city?"

Then, he flew to the outer city, satellite cities, suburbs... the range kept expanding.

Finally, in a secluded corner fifty miles outside the city, he caught a glimpse of a true form.

"Found it, but... what happened?"

The true form's aura was very weak, like a candle flickering in the wind.

If it weren't for his enhanced Starshine Perception, it would be difficult to detect.

Li Xing flashed and arrived in the sky above this area.

This is a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, where even ordinary people are very few.

The houses were low and dilapidated, and the alleyways were narrow and muddy.

The signs of battle were even more pronounced here, with several alleys blocked by collapsed houses.

There were huge claw marks on the wall, and black blood that hadn't been cleaned up on the ground.

He landed silently, turned into an alley, and stopped deep inside.

There was a simple stone house in front of me.

The door panels were old, the windows were boarded up, and the stones in the corners of the walls had weathered and crumbled.

There were some odds and ends piled up in the yard: a broken water vat, a pile of rotten firewood, and several bundles of dry grass.

That aura emanated from inside this stone house.

"The True Form Supreme Being lives in a place like this?"

Li Xing's eyes darkened slightly, as if he had guessed something, and he gently pushed open the courtyard gate.

The door hinges creaked.

He went inside, crossed the yard filled with clutter, and stood in front of the stone house.

The door was ajar, and a putrid smell, mixed with the stench of pus, wafted out from the crack.

"The aura of the abyss's corruption."

Li Xing sighed inwardly and pushed open the stone door.

The room was dark, the windows were boarded up, and only a few rays of light shone through the cracks in the door and walls.

Dust motes floated in the beam of light, illuminating the furnishings inside the room.

A wooden plank bed, a broken table, and a chair with a missing leg.

There were some odds and ends piled up in the corner, and several earthenware jars on the ground, their mouths covered with cobwebs.

A person was lying on the bed, and a thin human figure could be vaguely seen protruding from under the blanket.

The blanket covering him should have been gray, but it was now stained dark purple by the seeping pus and had hardened into lumps.

His exposed face, neck, and hands were all wrapped in bandages.

Dark purple liquid seeped from under the bandages, running down the texture of the skin and soaking the mattress beneath her.

His face was so thin that it was just skin and bones.

His cheekbones were high and prominent, his eye sockets were deep, and his lips were dry and cracked, with dark brown scabs forming at the cracks.

His hair was completely white, sparse and plastered to his scalp, like withered grass in late autumn.

But his eyes were open, his cloudy eyeballs staring straight at the ceiling.

Hearing the door open, he slowly turned his eyes.

Very slowly, very slowly, as if it had exhausted all its strength.

When his gaze fell on Li Xing, something lit up in his cloudy eyes.

His lips moved forcefully, and a hoarse voice squeezed out from his throat, like a leaky bellows.

"You...won?"

Li Xing walked to the bedside, but did not answer. She looked down at his face.

He recognized that face.

Twenty years ago, at the Human Alliance Conference, this face sat in the main seat, presiding over the meeting, looking down on everyone.

Ten years ago, at our last meeting, he looked a little tired, but his eyes were still sharp.

Now, this face is just skin and bones.

The old man stared at him, and a glimmer of tears gradually appeared in his cloudy eyes.

"I...I felt it..."

His voice was broken and intermittent; he would gasp for breath after saying just a few words.

"The gray clouds... have dispersed..."

He stretched out his hand from under the blanket, his skin wrinkled into a thin film covering his joints.

Li Xing grasped that hand; its fingers were icy cold, devoid of any warmth.

When you hold it, it feels like you're holding a handful of dry firewood; it's so light that it would crumble at the slightest pressure.

The moment Li Xing grasped his hand, the old man completely relaxed.

He closed his eyes, then opened them again.

A hint of bitterness bloomed from the chapped corners of his mouth.

Ten years ago... I went to... the North.

He began to speak intermittently.

The sound is very soft, and sometimes it stops abruptly, requiring a long pause before it can continue.

Ten years ago, he left Sunrise City alone to find the corrupt king.

"I want to... give it my all..."

"Even if we can't kill it... we must severely damage it... to buy more time for humanity..."

He did it, but... he still lost.

"It's not strong...thirteen rules...I don't even consider them a threat..."

"But...that purple light..."

Finally, he used a secret technique to severely injure the corrupt king, and then desperately fled back to Sunrise City.

"After I came back... I couldn't take it anymore... that purple pollution was spreading in my body... every time I woke up... I could feel it climbing up..."

He dared not reveal his injuries, for there were corrupt humans who would communicate with the incubating king.

He is the spiritual pillar of humanity; he cannot fall.

"We dare not let anyone know... the humans will panic... those corrupt lords will find out... they will attack the city..."

He instructed his confidants to claim that he was in seclusion, and in recent years he has not even dared to live in Sunrise City.

He couldn't imagine the horrific pollution he would cause if he died in the city.

He quietly hid here, in a secluded corner.

"This house... is where I lived when I was a child... nobody knows..."

He was panting for a long time.

"I thought... I was going to die here... but today..."

He looked toward the window, which was boarded up, blocking the view outside.

"The corrupted beasts have suddenly gone mad... they're attacking the city with all their might... as if they sensed something..."

"I have no choice but to come out."

He gasped for breath for a long time, each breath accompanied by the sound of phlegm.

"We killed a few beasts... the beast tide has receded..."

"But the pollution... can't be contained."

Li Xing listened in silence.

He looked at the bandage on the old man's chest, where dark purple liquid was still seeping out.

Where the liquid fell, the bed board was corroded into small pits.

He gripped Li Xing's hand even tighter.

"I thought... after I died... Sunrise City would be massacred... and humanity would lose all hope..."

A single tear welled up in her cloudy eyes.

Tears slid down her cheekbones, dripping onto the pillow and spreading into small, dark stains.

"I didn't expect... you won..."

"Thank you……"

"The entire human race... owes you a life..."

Li Xing remained silent for a long time, feeling a tightness in her chest.

He took a deep breath and took out a crystal bottle from his pocket.

The liquid in the bottle was pale silver, and in the center of the liquid, a tiny vortex was slowly rotating.

This is a concentrated and improved version of the "purification potion" that he personally crafted.

"Humans should thank you; drink this, and you'll live a few more years."

The old man looked down at the bottle.

His lips trembled, as if he wanted to say something, but only a hoarse sound came from his throat.

Li Xing had already turned around and was walking towards the door.

The old man's voice came from behind.

"You're leaving... right?"

Li Xing paused, stopping at the door without turning around.

"The world is back on track. I'm going to go for a walk, and you can go out and see the world too."

Look at this world you've worked so hard to protect; it's getting better and better.

The door closed gently behind me.

The sunlight was bright and dazzling.

Li Xing raised her head and looked up at the sky, the sunlight falling on her face warm and comfortable.

Unlike the warmth of the golden light just now, this was a normal, ordinary warmth belonging to mortals.

He closed his eyes, and in his mind's eye, the ray of light was still moving.

He recalled the whispers of rules, the images that flowed through the depths of his consciousness, and the insights he hadn't yet had time to process.

"The gifts of the world's will... I am not the one who has paid the highest price."

The sun is setting.

Li Xing returned to Xinghui City and saw Li Yao standing on the city wall.

His armor was stained with blood, and a dull silver sword hung at his waist.

The seriously wounded Starshine Guards have been carried away, while the rest stand on the city wall, covered in blood, but their backs are ramrod straight.

The moment he landed, everyone simultaneously knelt on one knee and pounded their chests with their right fists.

The dull thud carried far on the evening breeze.

After Li Xing raised his hand in a gesture, he looked at Li Yao.

The two brothers looked at each other, but neither of them spoke.

In the distance, the people of the holy city had already begun to celebrate.

The corruption was completely eradicated, and the news spread like wildfire throughout the city, where celebrations resounded everywhere.

Some people knelt on the street and wept bitterly, some hugged their neighbors and jumped and shouted, and some brought out their treasured wines and opened them in the street.

Li Xing walked over and placed her hand on Li Yao's shoulder.

Purifying starlight surged from his palm and flowed silently into Li Yao's body.

The claw marks on his shoulder, the penetrating wound under his ribs, and the deep cuts on his arm that exposed bone were healing rapidly.

Li Yao looked down at his arm; the wound was closing up, scabbing over, and falling off.

His lips moved, but he only managed to ask one question.

"Did we win?"

"Yes, there won't be any more corrupted beasts in the future."

On the city wall, the wind passed between the two, carrying a clean scent they had never experienced before.

Li Yao's eyes suddenly welled up with tears, and he looked up at Li Xing.

"So what are your plans for the future?"

"Now that the Corrupted Beasts are gone, I want to travel around and see those places... places that have been besieged by corruption for over three hundred years and that I haven't had a chance to visit yet."

"Will you give it back?"

Li Xing turned and looked into the distance.

The setting sun was turning half the sky a golden-red hue.

The rooftops of the holy city were bathed in a warm glow, and wisps of smoke rose, mingling with the evening sky.

"have no idea."

Li Yao didn't ask any more questions, but simply took out a badge from his pocket and handed it to Li Xing.

It is the highest authority token of the Starshine Holy Land.

"Here, take this back. When you come back..."

Li Xing looked at the badge but did not reach out to take it.

"No need, you need it more than I do."

He gently patted Li Yao on the shoulder, just as he had when he found Li Yao thirty years ago.

Li Yao's body stiffened, his eyelids drooped slightly, concealing all his emotions.

Li Xing turned and walked towards the edge of the city wall.

Behind him, Li Yao stood there, motionless.

"Xiao Yao."

"Um."

"Protect the Holy Land of Starshine, protect this world."

Li Yao did not answer, but silently watched Li Xing's departing figure.

As Li Xing strode towards the sky, the setting sun bathed his entire body in gold.

He watched the figure grow smaller and smaller, farther and farther away, until it became a black dot and disappeared into the sunset.

Li Yao blinked, something swirling in his eyes.

Tears fell silently.

"Thirty years have passed..."

The night of the Maple Leaf City rebellion.

The fifteen-year-old boy hid in the ruins, surrounded by corpses.

Fire was burning, houses were collapsing, and the roars of the corrupting beasts came from all directions.

In the chaos, the two brothers were separated by the turbulent crowd, and he heard his older brother calling his name hoarsely.

Then, he fled Maple Leaf City with the crowd and joined Scarface Chen's escape team.

The next day, the man found him, came to him, and helped him wipe the dirt off his face.

That look in his eyes, that tone of voice, and that joy at the reunion of brothers.

It's almost exactly the same as before.

But Li Yao knew that it wasn't his brother!

The older brother who would secretly tuck him in at night.

The older brother who would stroke his hair and say, "Xiao Yao, don't be afraid."

The brother who would rather be stabbed himself than let him get hurt.

He's dead!

He didn't know who this person was, where he came from, or why he was impersonating his brother.

But he knew that this person cared about him, protected him, taught him skills, and made him stronger...

This person led them, transforming Blue Hole Mountain into Starshine City, a holy land, and even the entire human race... step by step, to where we are today.

This person is more like an "older brother" than his own brother.

For thirty years, he had never told anyone.

He watched this man slay the corrupt lord, watched this man purify the scorched earth.

This person never rests, never celebrates, and never looks back at the path they've walked.

He watched this man stand in the center of a million people, looking down on everyone.

He watched as this man traveled north alone and killed the corrupt king who had terrified the world for three hundred years.

He carefully cooperated, playing the role of the "younger brother".

Because he knew that humanity needed him.

Tears silently streamed into her mouth.

It was both salty and bitter.

Li Yao raised his hand and wiped it off forcefully, then took a deep breath.

Then he turned to face the holy city, where countless people were celebrating.

His face had changed to a different expression.

Calm, resilient, composed...

This is the expression the "Lord of the Starry Holy Land" should have.

"Thank you... for protecting my brother and the human race of this world for thirty years."

……

High in the deserted sky, Li Xing paused.

He turned to look in the direction of Starshine Holy Land, his eyes filled with a complex and unreadable expression.

"Xiao Yao, you've been acting for so many years... it must have been tough!"