Chapter 1187
[The Grand Finale]
Life flowed by at its own pace. True to his word, Xu Wen gathered the group together. During the day, he led them in studying magic and deducing formations, and at night, he would light a lamp and recount their past perilous encounters to them in detail.
At first, everyone was a little uneasy, fearing that Xu Wen was just being polite on the surface and had other plans behind his back. But over the next seven or eight days, Xu Wen not only did not show the slightest impatience, but he also patiently answered all the silly questions they asked, one by one.
On the morning of the twenty-first day, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Xu Wen called everyone to the old locust tree in the courtyard.
He didn't utter any grand words, but simply unfolded a pre-prepared map with seven or eight nodes marked on it, circled in red and outlined with black lines, clearly indicating that it was an extremely important task.
“The earth veins three miles to the east have shown signs of stirring a few days ago.”
Xu Wen's fingertip landed on the red circle at the very edge of the map.
“I originally wanted to wait a little longer, until you laid a more solid foundation. But this morning I received a message that the crack there has started to seep evil energy.”
He glanced around at the faces he had known day and night, and seeing that although there was surprise in their eyes, there was no sign of backing down, he nodded slightly. "So today, let's set off."
Upon arriving at the location, the situation was even more troublesome than Xu Wen had anticipated. A fissure stretched across the middle of the mountain valley, from which wisps of dark reddish-black malevolent energy emanated, causing the grass and leaves to wither and curl in their wake.
Xu Wen squatted down, rubbed some soil between his fingers, and then turned to the group, gesturing with his chin: "Stand in the positions we practiced the other day. The third group is responsible for sealing off the spillage, and the first group will follow me to suppress the main fissure."
The process was not smooth.
On one occasion, the talisman paper supporting the north side suddenly burst into flames, tearing open a gap in the corner of the formation that had just been stabilized.
Before Xu Wen could speak, the boy surnamed Chen had already grabbed a spare talisman and rushed over. Despite his trembling hands, he placed the talisman in the correct position.
Xu Wen caught a glimpse of this scene, his lips twitched briefly, then he withdrew his gaze and continued to pour spiritual energy into the array's core. The sun moved from the east to its zenith, then slid back to the west. As dusk settled, the rift finally closed, the last trace of malevolent energy crushed into nothingness by the array's power.
The group collapsed to the ground, covered in dust, yet grinning foolishly. They looked at each other's disheveled state, and suddenly someone whispered, "We...we actually did it?"
Xu Wen carefully put away the last magical artifact, then slowly strolled over and found a clean rock among the crowd to sit down. The evening breeze ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead, but his eyes remained as bright as if they held two stars.
"It's done."
He said his voice wasn't loud, but everyone could hear it clearly.
“There will be even more difficult things to come, but if we can do it today, we can do it tomorrow, and we can do it the day after tomorrow.” He paused, his gaze sweeping over the sweat-drenched faces. “What I say always stands—as long as you are willing to follow me, I will not let anyone down.”
At that moment, no one cheered, and no one shed tears.
Many years later, everyone in the team grew into capable individuals. But whenever they gathered, they would still mention that mountain valley where dusk fell, and the young man who sat on the rock and said, "It's done."
As for Xu Wen, he simply sat to the side with a teacup in his hand, a slight smile on his lips, and the same calm and confident look in his eyes as he had back then.
It was as if nothing in this world had ever truly shaken him. (End of Chapter)