Ah Dai carefully laid the girl flat on the ground and said to Xiao Huan, "Don’t call sir anymore. Call Ah Dai. If you prefer, you can also call Brother Ah Dai." Without waiting for Xiao Huan to respond, he turned to the girl, took a deep breath of the fresh air in the forest, and seed much clearer-headed. He had already cried himself dry last night; those tears did nothing to lessen the sorrow in his heart. He murmured, "Little girl, rest in peace. Ah Dai has avenged you, killed those who wronged you. I will never let you leave my side. I will carry you with , like I carried Bing, always having you by my side, always keeping you warm with my presence. Perhaps, when I’ve taken care of everything I’m tied to, I will follow you... and we’ll be together forever. Fire elents of the heavens and earth, I beseech your burning power. By my na and your might, co forth, scorching flas."
A blazing fla appeared in Ah Dai’s hands. The flickering fire shifted from green to blue, then to purple. With a wave of both hands, the pure white True Qi emanated from his body, enveloping the girl’s delicate form. Under his intent control, her body slowly lifted, floating midair, wrapped in the white light. Ah Dai stared at the floating girl’s form with an entranced gaze and softly said, "Go now, little girl, go to Heaven. May your soul find eternal peace. In the next life, we shall et again."
The purple fla in his palm drifted outward and landed on the girl’s body. The temperature of the violet fire was astonishingly high, encompassing the girl’s form almost instantaneously. Xiao Huan was startled and rushed to Ah Dai’s side, clutching his clothes as she exclaid, "What—what are you doing? No, don’t! Miss—!" Xiao Huan scread and tugged at Ah Dai’s body with all her might, trying to extinguish the purple flas. But with such feeble strength, how could she possibly stop him?
Ah Dai said calmly, "I want her to stay with forever, always." A chilling glint flashed in his eyes as the fire within the True Qi flared, growing suddenly more intense. The girl’s figure, wrapped in white light, was consud in an instant, reduced to a mound of ashes. Ignoring Xiao Huan’s cries beside him, Ah Dai gradually retracted the True Qi. Within the barrier ford by the white light, the ashes condensed little by little, just as they had with Bing before—forming into a small clump, about the size of a fist.
Ah Dai clasped the clump of ashes in his hand, casting a cold glare at Xiao Huan. "Don’t disturb ," he said. With that, he leapt lightly, landing on a thick tree branch. He stared intently at the ashes in his hand, and once again, his eyes grew wet. The girl... the timid girl from their childhood. The girl who shared a piece of dry stead bun with him. The girl who was to beco his fiancée. The first girl in his heart more important than a stead bun—she was now reduced to this small clump of ashes. Ah Dai raised his right hand, and a small silver knife materialized in his palm. As he reminisced about the past, as he recalled the anguish and regret in her eyes before her death, the silver blade began to move gently. The sharp edge danced nimbly across his fingers, and as it sculpted with subli precision, his entire being was subrged in mories of her.
Beneath the tree, Xiao Huan stood in a daze, staring up at Ah Dai. Her heart felt hollow. Tifya had been her only source of solace, her sole pillar of strength. Now that pillar had crumbled entirely. She felt as though she had lost everything, and nothing in this world mattered to her anymore.
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