The haunting shadow of the golden era (2)

She let out a soft sigh, pulling herself back from the spiraling thoughts. She could wonder, wish, and even replay the scenarios how many times she wanted, but none of them could alter her present—not even in the slightest. All that those imagined outcomes managed to do was only further deepen her pain, taunting her with false endings and impossible hopes of how things could have been if only the past had played out differently.

There was no unringing that bell, no matter how much she desperately wished for it. The only choice she had now was to endure the sound—accept its tragic tune—in the fragile hope that, maybe someday, it would finally stop.

She sighed again, the weight of despondency settling deeper within her.

"Upon agreeing to let that rogue cultivator keep his life, our clan elder and the rest left him behind in the mysterious realm as they hurried back to the clan with the hawthorn," Xia Fang continued.