Chapter 367: New Day

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The sun slowly rises over the horizon, heralding the beginning of a new day.

All over the country, people hesitantly peek outside their homes. They remember the trembling and shaking from mere hours ago. It makes the shining sun and chirping birds feel almost like a lie. However, as they work up the courage to step outside and breathe in the cold morning air, they realize that this day is not going to be any different from any other.

At least, that is the case for the civilians. The army has been hard at work since last night. The fighting might have ended hours ago, but there is a lot of clean-up that needs to be done. Thousands of puppets need to be collected and analyzed, and the damage caused by General Nie Dan’s battle is still being estimated. Once it is, the border will probably need to be reorganized.

Bei Hong has been sitting still for hours.

Neither the glare of the sun nor the various attempts to call his attention have managed to move him from his spot. The disciple of the Eternal Flame Clan glares at the horizon as though its existence were a personal affront. He thinks. He contemplates. He ponders.

“I read somewhere that it’s bad for your eyes if you do that.”

Bei Hong breathes out slowly and turns his head to the side.

“You read?”

“Of course, I do!” Huang Shing says, patting himself on the chest. “This Huang Shing is a very cultured man who wields sword and brush with equal grace.”

“I have never seen you with a sword, but I have seen your handwriting,” Bei Hong notes. “It has no grace.”

“Brutality is a kind of grace,” Huang Shing replies.

A smile breaks through Bei Hong’s face. A chuckle follows, and Huang Shing is all too glad to join in.

“That’s better,” Huang Shing says, sitting down next to Bei Hong. “Brooding is for people like Brother Jin. Guys like us are meant to enjoy life. I’d have thought you’d be happier after the battle.”

Bei Hong takes a moment to reply.

“It was a good fight,” Bei Hong says. “Though cowardly, the strength of the other side cannot be denied. It’s such a waste. It shouldn’t take so much effort to get people so strong to go all out. It’s like they are ashamed of their power.”

“Right?” Huang Shing asks, having noticed the same thing. “They are so weird. But we won, so that’s something to be happy about.”

“Is it?” Bei Hong asks.

“Yes?” Huang Shing replies, confused. “Even Sister Fan was smiling that she could keep those old, dusty ruins of her safe.”

“We didn’t keep anything safe. General Nie Dan did,” Bei Hong replies. “You felt it too, didn’t you? You must have. As soon as that battle began, everything stopped mattering.”

Bei Hong has never been the type to respect those who deem themselves his betters. People stronger than him are simply those who have been in this world a little longer or have had a little more luck. That is all. Nothing about that merits any respect whatsoever.

And yet, when that battle began, Bei Hong had been in awe. All his annoyance towards Serene End for interfering with his battle had faded away. His need for combat had been forgotten. For that one minute, Bei Hong completely forgot about himself. All that was left in him was a deep sense of gratitude for being able to witness such a momentous occasion. Every exchange has been imprinted into his consciousness. Every clash of Qi has been committed to memory.

“We stopped mattering. I stopped mattering,” Bei Hong says, looking at his fist. “That’s not going to stop. If we aren’t Emperors, there is no place for us here.”

Huang Shing scratches his cheek. “That’s a little too harsh.”

“It’s harsh enough, and you know it,” Bei Hong says. “Emperors have become the only commodity that matters on the battlefield. That bastard is forcing them to use theirs, but in doing so, he’s also made the rest of us irrelevant. We’ll keep being fielded out, but the moment their Emperors appear, it will just be a repeat of tonight. This is the greatest battle this continent has had in millennia, and we have been judged unworthy of it.”

Huang Shing looks at him in silence for a moment.

“Brother Bei, that’s way too grim to be coming for you,” he says.

“You disagree?”

“I do,” Huang Shing says, nodding. “My life has been different, so I think differently. I was some brat from a no-name city that just happened to find some scrolls under his house one day. I thought that made me better than the Eternal Flame Clan’s Young Master, and I was right. I just didn’t really believe it back then. When I joined the Eternal Flame Clan, I let myself be intimidated. By you. By Brother Jin. By Feng Zhi. I was so in awe of everyone that I forgot the most important thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Brother Hong, I am an exceedingly amazing person,” Huang Shing tells him with complete seriousness. “It’s just a few years, yet I am already superior to the Eternal Flame Clan’s Young Master.”

“Feng Zhi won that fight.”

“Eh, he got lucky,” Huang Shing says, dismissing the matter with a wave of his hand. “My point is, I’m amazing, and you’re amazing too, Brother Hong. You’re just letting yourself be intimidated by the people around you. That’s beneath you. You shouldn’t be saying we don’t matter. You should be saying we don’t matter yet.”

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Bei Hong stares at him.

“To become an Emperor is the result of centuries of work.”

“That’s what untalented people tell themselves to feel better about their failures,” Huang Shing counters. “There’s a war going on right now where Emperors are fighting. Are you going to miss it? Really?”

No.

The answer comes fast and raw. It is the roar of his very soul. Fear and desperation trigger something in him and bring it to the surface. His Qi swells. His meridians expand. He is on his feet before he knows it.

Earth Realm, Level Seven.

“Not bad,” Huang Shing says. “You’re almost in the Heaven Realm. Only two more realms to go after that.”

“You…When did you get so wise?”

Huang Shing grins.

“I’ve always been wise like that, Brother Hong.”

~~~