Zayden just stayed under the tree and kept looking at the sky.
His tears kept falling until he could no longer cry.
The pain he felt in his heart made him really want to just forget everything and follow Aria.
His mind was in chaos.
He felt lost.
Aria’s smiling face might really haunt him forever.
But then his mind cleared once again when he remembered her last message and then the sunshine that she had left behind.
Zayden gritted his teeth.
He could not give up.
There were things that he needed to do.
He needed to keep living.
He then looked at the recording crystal in his hand and then at the box.
He stood up and put the crystal in the box before storing the box inside his storage ring.
Zayden took a deep breath.
He then walked towards one side of the hill until he reached the flat patch of land outside the line of plum blossom trees.
The view here was truly refreshing, as he could see the vast grassland stretching across the lowland, with some hills visible in the distance.
The sight would be even more spectacular at sunrise.
And that was why this had been his favourite place in the past to watch the sunrise.
Aria sometimes also joined him in watching the sunrise.
Zayden looked at the ground and then started digging using his hands...
And digging.
And digging.
His hands were truly like shovels. They were strong and could scoop up a large amount of dirt at once.
After a few moments, he finally finished creating one rectangular hole with a depth of one and a half meters.
After he finished creating one, he then created another four holes of the same size.
Once he was done, he returned to Aria and the house staff members’ corpses.
Zayden then brought them using his energy towards the place he had already prepared to be their final resting place.
He put them into the holes, except for Aria.
He put Aria beside her hole first. He then opened the cloth covering her face.
Her eyes were still half-closed.
Zayden really wanted to close them. But with Aria’s body condition and how rigid her body had already become, he did not dare to force them closed.
He did not want to damage her further.
Zayden watched Aria’s face for a moment before bringing his face closer to her forehead.
"I will live on. I will live on like you said. I will find our daughter. I will take care of her. You don’t have to worry."
Zayden murmured as he then kissed her forehead for one last time before covering her face again.
He slowly lowered Aria into her resting place, which he had placed in the middle.
After he settled her body, he buried her first and then the other four.
After he finished, he then sat beside Aria’s grave. He looked towards the horizon, just like when he used to look at the sunrise with Aria.
The difference was...
Aria was no longer there.
And it wasn’t the time of sunrise yet.
"Kid." Suddenly, the dragon’s voice resounded in Zayden’s mind.
"Master." Zayden replied.
"I know that no words could ease your pain, but I’m truly sorry for what happened to your wife and all of your loved ones."
Zayden slightly smiled.
"To think that you could show some empathy, Master. I thought that you would keep silent without saying any words to soothe this disciple of yours."
"Hey, I know how to show concern, alright? I just know that you need your time alone to process all of this..." his master answered in an irritated tone.
Zayden couldn’t help but chuckle.
What he knew about his master was that he had a stern and sadistic personality.
He had experienced it in a painful way through his master’s painful and even torturous training regime.
His time inside the subspace could be said to be the most torturous experience that he had ever felt in his entire life.
His master did not show him any mercy during his training.
His master really made him work past his limits countless times until he felt satisfied.
In Zayden’s opinion, his master was someone who did not care about the feelings of others.
He treated him like a slave!
He was really cruel!
But he did not expect that his master would actually say words of condolence.
Although it did not ease his pain, he was glad that his master was showing his concern.
His master’s words truly gave him a soothing feeling.
They were the words that he might have needed at this moment.
"Thank you, Master. Thank you for your condolence."
Zayden replied with heartfelt gratitude.
His master did not say anything.
After a few moments of silence, a human figure with horns suddenly manifested beside Zayden. The dragon’s voice came out from the figure.
"Do you regret it?"
"What?" Zayden was startled as he was surprised by the sudden voice beside him.
He thought that there was someone who had just sneaked beside him undetected.
But the moment Zayden realized who the figure was, his eyes widened in astonishment.
"You can do that, Master? I thought you would always stay inside your real body," he asked in surprise.
"Of course I can. And I can do even more amazing things." His master said with pride in his tone.
Zayden raised his eyebrows. He couldn’t help but smile before looking forward towards the horizon.
"What do you mean by asking if I regret it?" Zayden asked.
"Do you regret choosing to stay with me rather than coming back to your family?"
There was only silence.
Zayden’s expression turned calm. He seemed to be contemplating how he should answer the question.
The dragon could feel Zayden’s chaotic feelings from earlier. There was a small trace of regret among them.
But his feelings were too chaotic for the dragon to even know what Zayden truly thought in the end.
At this moment, he wanted to know Zayden’s true feelings.
He didn’t know why he felt this way, but he just really wanted to hear the answer from Zayden’s own mouth.
"To be honest, initially, there is regret in me for not coming back here. My mind keeps repeating the same scenario again and again, where I came back to Aria. Maybe we could have escaped? Maybe we could have done this or that?"
Zayden finally answered.
The answer was one that the dragon had already anticipated, so he was not surprised.
But he couldn’t help but feel...bad and also...sad.
Something that he found ridiculous, and he quickly pushed that feeling aside.
"I blame many things for this reality, and, well, please don’t be angry, but I even blame you. Sorry, Master," Zayden continued.
He then looked at the sky that was still full of stars.
"But after calming my mind, I know that there is nothing I could have done even if I had chosen to leave the Abyss at that time. Just like you had said, with my puny strength, how could I have stopped the imperial family from killing my family?"
"The most likely result in all of that is that I would be dead with the feeling of vengeance, but I would not be able to do anything about it. The imperial family would get away with their lies. My family’s and my reputation would be smeared as traitors forever."
"I’m asking myself, is my family’s fate really this cruel? Is this the only fate of my family? Will they be dead whatever I do? Is this how the heavens treat my family?"
He paused as he closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath and then opened his eyes again.
"In the end, I just accepted all of this. I just considered it my shitty fate that put me and my family in this situation."
"I’m not regretting choosing to stay in the Abyss, Master. Because with that, I have the chance to bring my family justice in the future. I will make sure of it."
Zayden then turned silent.
Hearing Zayden’s true feelings, the dragon remained silent.
But he felt another new feeling as an artifact spirit.
He felt a sudden sense of relief and gladness.
He felt glad that Zayden had been honest about his feelings toward him.
Something that the dragon couldn’t help but feel strange about it.
Why should he feel relief and gladness?
"Am I glad that he could speak his heart to me? Why must I feel glad?" the dragon thought to himself.
He quickly brushed the feeling aside and nodded.
"So what will you do now? What is your plan?" he asked.
"Destroying this empire."
Zayden answered without hesitation or missing a beat.
The dragon turned to look at Zayden.
"Well, that is the only thing that I could think of to bring justice to Aria and all of my family. To bring down the imperial family and all those who support them, it will be no different from letting this empire collapse," Zayden continued.
"I don’t think this empire has the right to exist after what they did to my family."
The dragon kept silent.
’This kid’s character is getting darker. Well, it’s not surprising after he saw what happened to his family.’ he thought to himself.
Even he felt that it was already amazing that Zayden did not fall into his inner demon after seeing what happened to his wife.
Zayden’s will was truly strong, and he was glad that Zayden had unconsciously managed to control his inner demon.
’No matter how strong he is, an inner demon must have already taken shape inside his heart. No matter how strong someone’s will is, seeing the person they love die in such a humiliating and horrible way will still embed an inner demon in their heart.’
An inner demon was something that was shaped by extreme negative feelings.
This was something that affected a cultivator’s heart, mind, and soul.
If an inner demon could take control of their mind, it could turn them into a mindless beast whose only instinct was to kill.
What cultivators did when they had an inner demon was to control it, or, if they could, they had to defeat it.
"But before I do that, I will have to search for Mira first," Zayden continued, making the dragon snap out of his thoughts.
"This empire’s destruction can wait. My daughter’s safety comes first. I need to find her as soon as possible."
Zayden’s eyes were filled with determination.
The dragon nodded. He also turned to look at the horizon.
"Alright."