Chapter 1349: I Will Remember, No More Friends

Chapter 1349: I Shall Remember—No Friends Remain

Crimson light stained my vision.

Amidst countless corpses.

Corpses of the myriad races!

After regaining my cultivation, I plunged into madness—and slaughter.

Yet… my enemies stretched endlessly before me.

Now I stood amid the ruins of Zi Qing Upper Kingdom, thick blood caking my face, its iron-tinged stench nearly choking my nostrils.

Each ragged breath tore through my lungs like blades flaying flesh—but deep within my chest, a flame long extinguished flickered weakly, stubbornly rekindling.

“Your Highness… grieve, but do not linger!”

“We cannot stay—the Fenghai Commandery awaits you, where Bai Xiao Zhuo stands ready.” A hoarse cry split the heavy reek of blood.

It was Old Luo, captain of my personal guard.

His weathered face, etched with years of hardship, was smeared with gore—whether his own or an enemy’s, none could tell. His left arm hung limp, bones surely shattered.

With his only remaining right arm, he leaned heavily upon a chipped warblade, dark red droplets still falling from its edge.

Behind him trailed a ragged band of some thirty souls—each wounded, limping, as though dragged from a lake of blood.

Their armor lay in shards; their robes, soaked through with blood, clung to gaunt frames. Yet their eyes burned like tempered steel, fixed past my shoulder upon the horizon where ominous dust clouds churned ever closer.

Another wave of the myriad races surged toward us, their foul wind drawing near.

Watching that storm approach, my gaze swept over these ruins—the grave of all my kin—then settled upon my loyal guards.

“You follow me—to Nanhuang Continent! Jing Yun will activate the Grand Domain Transference Array there and link it with Fenghai Commandery. He will be waiting!”

“Emperor Jing Yun!”

The name struck like silent thunder, cleaving through the shroud of death.

Dozens of eyes blazed—not with joy, but with the desperate hunger of drowning men clutching their final plank.

Nanhuang Continent was the fallback path Jing Yun and I had sworn to one another!

Jing Yun—my sole true friend in this life—had once pledged alongside me to sacrifice everything for humanity’s revival!

Though now the myriad races held overwhelming might, and his armies dared not openly intervene lest they ignite catastrophe upon themselves, he had laid secret groundwork: hidden deep within Nanhuang, he’d prepared a transference array leading straight back to human lands!

I trusted him.

As I trusted my own heartbeat.

That trust, forged through years and wars, had hardened beyond even refined gold.

I understood his constraints—I understood the weight upon him as Human Emperor, bearing the fate of millions.

We stood apart—one in the south, one in the north—like twin pillars holding up the sky of humankind, each burning alone yet echoing across the void.

That hidden array was our covenant across mountains and seas, the lone beacon pointing toward survival in this darkness—and known to none but us.

“Go!”

I drew a sharp breath and commanded, voice ringing with unshakable resolve, then shot forth as a dim streak of light toward the south.

Old Luo and the few survivors summoned their last strength and followed.

Their passage shrieked through air thick with blood and ash, like arrows fired toward salvation.

Behind us, the howls of pursuit and terrifying energy surges clung like leeches, shaking the earth beneath their furious chase.

Blood marked every league of our flight. We crossed the Forbidden Sea and entered Nanhuang.

Each brief halt meant more familiar faces fell in rearguard battles, swallowed whole by the tide of death rolling behind us.

Then—at dusk—as the destination finally emerged on the horizon: Wushuang Plain in Nanhuang Continent—the faintest spark of hope flickered in my chest.

But without warning, an icy premonition, sharper than any venomous dagger, pierced my mind!

“Stop!”

I wrenched myself to a halt midair—and almost instantly, the seemingly tranquil space ahead twisted violently, tearing open!

Roars shattered the evening calm.

Invisible claws ripped the sky apart, and hundreds of massive figures descended, radiating waves of savage malice!

At their fore stood a being nearly three zhang tall, armored in glossy black chitin, bony spurs jutting from its joints, its elongated head crowned with cruel crimson compound eyes.

The Emperor of the Rift-Splitting Insect Clan—renowned among the myriad races for brutality and cunning!

Beside it stomped a hulking figure wrought of jagged stone, molten lava coursing down its limbs. With each step, the ground cracked and magma spilled forth—the Emperor of the Magma Giant Clan!

Farther off, more silhouettes shimmered into view within warped halos of light, emanating soul-chilling pressure that encircled us completely.

Their auras locked the space behind me like chains of ice.

Their killing intent cut deeper than autumn winds blowing from Nanhuang’s heart.

“Crown Prince of Zi Qing,” the insect emperor’s shrill mental voice hammered into my skull, dripping with mockery and greed, “your road ends here.”

No retreat. Pursuers closing in.

This was utter despair.

“Form ranks!” Old Luo roared, blood flecking his lips as he stepped forward, raising his blade with his one good arm.

A dozen surviving soldiers moved without hesitation, instinctively forming a broken yet resolute battle formation around me.

Fear did not dwell in their eyes—only blazing, final fury, like torches burning their last embers into brilliant flame.

I looked past the grotesque visages of the myriad race overlords, fixing my gaze upon this plain.

This was precisely where Jing Yun and I had agreed to meet!

The hidden transference array lay beneath this very ground.

Then why… why were these overlords lying in wait so perfectly?

“Jing Yun…” Bitterness coiled in my chest, mingled with disbelief I refused to accept. Under the scornful stares of our foes, I drew forth a smooth jade pendant.

Jing Yun had given it to me himself long ago—it held a thread of his primal essence, and served as the key to activate the array.

Once stepping onto Wushuang Plain, I need only channel power into it to open the gateway.

Without hesitation, I poured my spiritual energy into the jade!

Hum!

The pendant flared to life!

A slender strand of azure light, delicate as a spider’s lifeline, shot upward, seeking to connect with the hidden array below.

But in that instant—the light flickered once, then trembled wildly like a guttering candle… and swiftly faded.

Inside the jade, that familiar trace of Jing Yun’s essence unraveled, dissolving into nothingness—

just as my heart did.

“You may keep trying—see if Mirrorcloud of the Human Clan will activate the teleportation.”

A voice rang out from among the alien warriors.

“Prince Ziqing… you’ve been abandoned. Or perhaps your dearest friend desires your death even more than we do!”

The jade pendant’s glow vanished entirely, turning cold and ashen, like an ordinary stone.

The slender thread of light connecting me to the north snapped clean through—not severed by outside force, but deliberately, irrevocably shut off from the other end. The array’s control had already been seized by the Ten Thousand Races.

Time seemed to freeze at that instant.

Behind me, the ragged breathing of my subordinates; the low, cruel laughter of the alien warlords; the desolate silhouette of Peerless Plain—all blurred, receding into distance.

Only the searing agony of an invisible giant hand crushing my heart into dust remained sharp, real, flooding through every fiber of my being.

“…Ha… hahahaha…”

A bitter laugh spilled uncontrollably from my throat—dry, hoarse, thick with the taste of blood.

It grew louder, echoing across the silent twilight wasteland.

I lifted my head, my gaze piercing through mountains and rivers, fixed upon Mirrorcloud—the heartland of the Human Clan.

Mirrorcloud…

My one and only true friend in this life…

If there is a next life, I shall remember: never again shall I trust a friend!

My laughter swelled further.

At that moment, the alien warlords raised their hands, activating the teleportation array upon Peerless Plain. Brilliant light flared—and countless foreign beings surged forth!

A torrent of savage energy ripped through the air, crashing down like a tidal wave of annihilation!

Old Luo roared, his voice filled with suicidal resolve, hurling himself first into that tide of destruction!

The few surviving followers followed like moths to flame, igniting their final brilliance as they charged, howling, toward an enemy beyond defeat.

And I—my face, twisted in mad laughter, hardened instantly into glacial killing intent.

Forward lay death. Behind lay death.

Then… let us fight!

My cultivation, reignited within, erupted without restraint!

Dim purple flames shot skyward like a dying star unleashing its last radiance—

Transforming into a bolt of blazing violet lightning, I plunged headlong into the heart of that annihilating deluge!

Peerless Plain became, in an instant, a grinding mill of flesh and blood!