Chapter Text
The square in front of Huan Hua Palace was bathed in light—so bright that the man instinctively squinted as he looked at the fallen cultivators. The sun shone overhead, but offered no warmth. Thin streams of blood were trickling from the oddly bent bodies, pooling in puddles on the white stone. White splotches, red splotches. Black shadows. A dazzling blue sky. Unpleasant metallic smell permeating the air.
"Four Great Sects." The man shook his head. "Can't say I'm impressed."
His black robes, adorned with modest scarlet embroidery, were billowing under the cool breeze.
The man walked between the bodies, his indifferent gaze sliding over the faces of strangers. Eventually, he crouched beside a figure dressed in a simple white hanfu, reaching out to brush a few strands of hair from the unconscious man's forehead. The fabric was stained with blood, but the white-clad man's breathing was calm and steady.
"Brat, you sure you got it right?"
A mocking voice made the man flinch. When he turned around, he saw another man in plain white hanfu rising to his feet a few meters away, propping himself up with a sword. The man's face was identical to the first man in white. The man's knees were trembling, his fingers tightly clenched on the hilt, his forehead drenched in sweat, but his eyes were burning with determination.
"Treat you well or treat you poorly, the ending is always the same. But did you get the right one of us?"
"Just kidding!" The lips of the man in black slid into a triumphant smile. He pulled his hand away from the first man's face and promptly stood up. With a laugh, he held his arm out to the second man. "There is no place on heaven or earth where this disciple would not recognize his shizun."
The man in white placed his palm into the palm of the man in black.