Chapter 106: The Grave Beneath the Stars

The aftermath was quieter than anyone expected.

Kai Feng, Yin Shuang and Meng Yao returned to the Ascendant Realm by passing through the portal just before it sealed shut. Carried by currents of scattered spatial energy, they emerged in the Silverwind Grove just before dawn—bruised, battered, but alive. Mist hung over the stones. The wind stirred the trees in soft lament. And above them, the sky began to lighten—streaks of gold chasing the shadows.

The portal to the void realm had sealed itself once again since the Han, the one who unlocked it is no more.

Kai emerged through first, staring up at the real sky above him. He could still feel the hum of the Forgotten Seal within his body—a faint echo of power that now lay dormant, the star-shaped mark still etched into his palm. It no longer glowed. Its duty was done.

Yin appeared beside him, clutching her shoulder with a wince. Her wounds were not serious, but they ached like sorrow. Meng Yao followed at a distance and silent.

None of them spoke at first. There were no words that could encapsulate what had happened.

Eventually, it was Kai who broke the silence.

"He did it."

Yin Shuang lowered her head. "He saved us all."

Meng Yao's grip on the ashes tightened. Her tears fell silently onto the scorched remains of the man she had once dared to love.

A week passed.

In the valley just below Obsidian Peak, under a cluster of trees whose leaves never browned even in winter, a grave was dug.

There was no body. No monument. Just a smooth slab of obsidian stone carved with a simple line:

Han Long — He Fought the Darkness, and Chose the Light.

Kai, dressed in his formal Sect Lord robes, stood quietly beside the stone, Yin on one side and Meng Yao on the other. They were not alone. Dozens of cultivators from the Obsidian Peak Sect had gathered—elders, disciples, even the once-estranged Shadow and Crimson Halls.

No one said much.

No grand speeches.

Just a moment of reverent silence.

Yin placed a single lotus blossom on the grave. Meng Yao stood the longest, her lips moving silently in prayer, her hand never leaving the gravestone.

Yin finally spoke. "I hated him, once. I thought he was lost. But in the end… he came back. He chose right."

Kai nodded. "He paid a terrible price to undo what he set in motion. That counts more than anything else."

Meng Yao said nothing. Her face was calm, but her eyes held the depth of a thousand unshed tears.

"Do you think the world's finally safe now?" Yin asked softly.

Kai turned his gaze to the horizon, where sunlight spilled like gold across the mountains.

"For now," he said. "But peace is always fragile. What matters is that we protect it—for his sake."

Weeks passed.

Kai returned to the seat of power at Obsidian Peak, but things had changed. The sect, once fractured and chaotic, had been unified through war, sacrifice and the silent strength of its new leader.

He stood before the gathered elders one evening in the Grand Hall, a faint glow in his palm from the mark of the Forgotten Seal. He spoke not of conquest, but of stewardship. Of rebuilding.

"We are no longer a sect feared only by name," he said. "We are a sect that has sacrificed for peace. We must live up to that legacy."

Disputes quieted. Elders who once vied for power now bowed their heads. The shadow of Han's sacrifice had made even the most arrogant reconsider what it meant to hold power.

Yin Shuang returned to the Heavenly Radiance Sect, where even the Elders who doubted her previously could not help but acknowledge her deeds. She did not boast. She did not seek praise. She simply resumed her training and in time, quietly became one of the sect's most respected figures.

Meng Yao stayed near the grave for days before she, too, resumed her journey. She quietly offered healing and aid to the wounded at the Obsidian Peak Sect. She spoke little. But her eyes, once filled with softness and dreams, now bore the strength of someone who had seen the end and come back.

Months later, Kai stood alone at Han's grave beneath a crescent moon.

He spoke aloud, though no one was there to hear.

"Do you see it, Han? The peace you made possible? The world moves forward now—because of you."

He closed his eyes.

"I thought I'd have to bear that final burden. But you took it instead. And I… I won't waste what you gave us."

He knelt, placing a new lotus blossom.

"Rest well, brother."

And for a long moment, the night was quiet.

Above, the stars shimmered faintly and one, just for an instant, flared a little brighter.

As if the heavens themselves had bowed in silent thanks.