I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

"It's good that you're back."

Chiyomiya Yuzuru stepped forward and reached out to wipe the blood from his face.

Her movements were very gentle, as if she were polishing a very precious piece of porcelain.

"Mr. Gu, thank you for your hard work."

Shen Youyao stood behind her and timidly called out, "Brother Gu Yan."

Then a soft voice came out from the same mouth.

"Well done."

Fu Wanqing was helped over by Fu Shiwei.

Her leg was broken, but she smiled brighter than anyone else.

"Gu Yan! I knew you could do it!"

Fu Shiwei nodded, her amber eyes filled with tenderness.

"You have never let us down."

Cecilia was the last to come over.

She didn't say anything, but walked up to him, tilted her head back, and gave him a very light kiss on the lips.

Her tears fell on his face, warm.

she says.

"My father said he likes you as his son-in-law."

"I like it too."

Gu Yan looked at them.

He suddenly laughed.

That smile contained tears, blood, and exhaustion, but even more so, it showed relief.

He opened his arms and pulled them into his embrace one by one.

His embrace was so large that it could hold everyone.

The sunlight shone on them, casting long, long shadows that stretched all the way to the end of the riverbank.

In the distance, towards Jinghai City, people were setting off fireworks.

These are not celebratory fireworks; they are homemade fireworks.

But those individual lights blooming in the sky are more moving than any grand ceremony.

Children ran through the ruins, their laughter carried on the wind.

The soldiers carried the wounded, supporting each other as they walked towards the rear.

The smoke from the mess hall started rising again, carrying the scents of sunshine and wind.

Gu Yan turned around, facing the great river and the land that had once been swallowed by the Black Tide.

The black color on the river surface has been removed.

The sunlight made the river water sparkle, like a strip of broken gold laid out.

He spoke softly, his voice carried away by the wind.

"Grandpa, we won."

Did you see that?

The crowd was still cheering.

Soldiers threw their helmets into the air, mothers lifted their children above their heads, and the elderly knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the sky.

The blood on the riverbank hadn't dried yet, but laughter had already drowned out the crying.

The girls helped each other and rushed towards Gu Yan. Lin Jinyu had already opened her arms, and Fu Wanqing, despite her broken leg, was still hopping forward.

The sunlight fell on the river, making the blood-stained mudflats shine.

Everyone thought the war was truly over.

Gu Yan did not move.

He stood there, the smile on his face gradually fading away.

His gaze passed over the people rushing towards him, over the cheering crowd, and landed on the slowly distorting sky above the river.

He could no longer sense Elena's presence.

She was just here.

She emerged from the void, stood behind Cecilia, and spoke to him in that perpetually calm tone.

She's gone now.

Like a drop of water evaporating into the air, leaving not a trace.

"Where is Elena?"

He suddenly spoke.

The sound wasn't loud, but Cecilia, who was next to her, heard it.

Cecilia stopped too.

She turned her head and looked around, her expression slowly changing.

"She was just here."

"She said she needed to go back into the void to recuperate for a while, and would be back shortly."

"I thought she was just tired."

"She said that her condition is still unstable and she needs time to recover."

Gu Yan's pupils suddenly contracted.

He looked up at the sky.

Then everyone heard that sound.

The sound was like ten thousand panes of glass being crushed simultaneously, sharp and piercing, coming from the very center of the sky.

The cheering stopped.

They looked up and saw a huge black hole slowly opening in the sky.

The edge of the cave churned with silvery-white light, as if someone had torn a hole in the sky.

A group of figures emerged from the black hole.

They wore silver-white armor, each piece of which radiated a visible holy light.

The light flowed down their shoulder armor, along their breastplates, arm guards, and leg armor, all the way to their feet, like streams of liquid moonlight.

They have wings spread out behind them; some have two wings, some have four wings, and some have six wings.

The feathers on those wings were dazzlingly white, each one seemingly formed from the purest light.

Holding spears, swords, and shields, they emerged slowly from the black hole in neat rows.

Their faces were all so beautiful they seemed otherworldly, their golden pupils gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

They were like a group of divine messengers who had stepped out of mythology, orderly, solemn, and beyond question.

Angel race.

Gu Yan's breath hitched for a moment.

His gaze passed over the neat rows of people and landed at the very front.

Standing at the very front of all the angels was Elena.

She was still wearing that minimalist white robe, her long silver hair swaying gently in the wind.

The golden bell was still tied to her ankle, and it jingled softly in the wind.

But her eyes changed.

The usual clean and composed look was gone from those golden eyes; instead, there was a heaviness that Gu Yan had never seen on her face before.

It felt like a thousand pounds were pressing down on her eyelashes, making it difficult for her to blink.

Why?

Gu Yan spoke.

His voice was very soft, but everyone heard it.

Elena remained silent for a long time.

A river breeze blew from behind her, making her long robe flutter loudly.

Her long silver hair spread out in the wind like a tattered flag.

She looked up at Gu Yan, then at the blood-soaked humans behind him.

Then she spoke, her voice still so soft, but every word seemed to be dug out from the deepest, deepest place.

"Those calamities are actually a kind of transformation."

"They can transform at will, so they became the creatures in your ancient human legends."

"Dragon, Phoenix, Qilin, Qiongqi, Taotie."

"They become your totems, your beliefs, and then you use those beliefs to kill you."

Her gaze swept across the entire battlefield, over the still-smoking ruins, and over the corpses that would never wake up again.

"Our planet is adjacent to theirs."

"We have been competing for resources since the day we were born."

"The war lasted for a very, very long time, so long that I can't remember how many tens of thousands of years."

"Later, their resources were depleted."

"Their planet is dead."

"They have no choice but to leave and search for new galaxies."

"I had no choice."

"I cannot watch my people die one by one."

So I followed them.

"We traversed endless darkness and finally arrived here."

"I thought I could control them and make them coexist peacefully with you."

"But I was wrong."

"I overestimated myself and underestimated them."

"They are stronger than me."

"They sensed my intentions."

"They sealed me away."

She paused, something flickering gently in her golden pupils.

It was as if the weariness accumulated over countless years had finally found an outlet to flow out at this moment.