Chapter 87: The Withering of the Cherry Blossom

‘In the end… I still lost.’

‘Even after obtaining such immense power, I still couldn’t escape the fate of defeat.’

‘No one can escape the world’s iron law of the strong devouring the weak.’

‘What’s more, this power never belonged to me in the first place.’

‘Was my power still not strong enough… or did I walk the wrong path from the very beginning?’

‘Su Mu Zhe—or perhaps I should call you Phantom.’

‘Though we existed in the same world, our experiences were worlds apart.’

‘The scenery we saw was vastly different, so naturally, our ways of dealing with the world were polar opposites.’

‘You have beauty in your heart, family and friends by your side, so you want to protect them.’

‘But I had already lost everything.’
‘That girl who grew up with me was my entire world.’

‘It was only when that calamity struck that I understood just how fragile ordinary people are.’
‘Even the last glimmer of light in one’s life can be so easily extinguished.’
‘Do you want to protect your family?’

‘Do you want to guard your family?’

‘Is it enough to just fight for humanity’s peace, to simply repel the Bloodkin?’

‘No. That’s because you have never tasted the heart-piercing pain of losing your dearest kin.’

‘The hatred in your heart is too shallow, too weak.’
‘It’s far from enough.’

‘If you want to protect the one you love, you must slaughter your enemies to the last!’

‘Slaughter, and continue to slaughter…’

‘Leave no room for quarter, give the enemy no chance to harm those you cherish.’

‘If your power was not born to utterly annihilate the enemy race—’

‘—then that power is meaningless.’

‘The Phantom Squad, or rather, the human Exterminator army, was just a gathering of people with different pasts, brought together by chance to fight a common enemy.’

‘But the conviction in each person’s heart was slightly different.’

‘This is perhaps the fundamental reason why I chose a path opposite to yours.’

‘I knew long ago that the moment I chose to betray my own honor, I had already transformed into a demon, fallen into hell, and would never be forgiven.’
‘But even so, I had something I had to do.’

‘This was my point of no return.’

‘There is nothing to be sad about.’
‘If there’s anyone to blame, blame me for being too weak… unable to fight for a place in this world.’

‘My life and my mission end here.’

‘I’m sorry… Xiao Qian…’

‘If heaven and hell truly exist, I’m afraid I too will fall into an endless abyss, unable to be with you again.’

“…”
Sheffield lay amidst the dust-filled ruins, his gaze vacant as he stared up at the starry sky.
His face was ashen, his body riddled with wounds.
He could clearly sense that his life was about to reach its end.

At this moment, there was no unwillingness in his heart.

No hatred, no joy, no sorrow.
It was as if everything was meant to happen this way.
His heart was as calm as still water, and his body no longer moved.

His gold and white clothes were in tatters, his cape covered in dust.
The once magnificent uniform was now ragged and torn.

“I’m sorry… Phantom Squad, everyone…”

“The destruction of the Phantom Squad was not your fault.”
“No matter what choice you had made, at the end of the Far Shore War, the final outcome for the Phantom Squad might have been the same.”

Suddenly, at this final moment.

Su Mu Zhe’s voice echoed by Sheffield’s ear, the sound of his footsteps gradually drawing closer.

“Captain…”

“But besides that, there are a few other things I want to say to you at the end.”

Sheffield’s pupils trembled, his gaze following Su Mu Zhe’s movements.
He no longer had the strength to respond to Su Mu Zhe’s words, but his lips continued to quiver slightly.

Su Mu Zhe walked to Sheffield’s side and gazed at the ravaged city.
Just like the old days when they sat side-by-side by the classroom window, he sat down amidst the ruins.
After a moment of silence, he spoke in a heavy tone:

“Whether it was diligently honing your skills with your talent for swordplay, or becoming an Exterminator and joining the Phantom Squad, it was all to continuously gain greater power—to avenge your lover, wasn’t it?”

“If I remember correctly, it was a girl you called Xiao Qian.”
“I never met her.”
“Everything I know about her, I only learned from the descriptions you shared with me.”

Su Mu Zhe knew what kind of meaning Xiao Qian held in Sheffield’s life.

They were both children taken in by a welfare orphanage.
They had no parents and spent an innocent, though not entirely happy, childhood in a small building in Tantan City.

Sheffield and Xiao Qian’s acquaintance began at the orphanage, and from there, their bond was formed.

They cherished each other and depended on one another for survival.

Later, the two received help from a kind-hearted person and grew up healthily.

A world that should have been calm and peaceful underwent a drastic change.

A rift in the world was torn open.
The foreign races, recorded only in classical texts, after a thousand years of silence, began to pour out from some unknown place and invade the human world.

Xiao Qian unfortunately met with disaster—while traveling, the high-speed train she was on was intercepted by a single noble Bloodkin from the Seraphim Legion, and the ensuing explosion consumed everything in flames.

For Sheffield, his only family was Xiao Qian.

And he had lost the person he loved most forever.

Su Mu Zhe let out a long sigh.

“We were once as close as best friends.”
“In the Phantom Squad, you were the person I trusted the most.”

“To become stronger, you gradually went down a darker path, even going so far as to help the Bloodkin attack humans, causing countless tragedies.”
“If I hadn’t been here, Tantan City would have been turned into a sea of fire tonight.”

“Without realizing it, you created far too many tragedies identical to your own.”
“They also had family, and loved ones, yet you easily took all that away.”
“Your evil deeds are no different from those of your enemies, the Seraphim Legion, and the Bloodkin…”

“Therefore, your sins cannot be forgiven.”
“This is also why I am standing here.”

“You can no longer continue to fight—but I can promise you this: from now on, I will take over and carry out the revenge for Xiao Qian.”
“I will make those responsible pay the price.”

“So, rest in peace—Sheffield.”

Su Mu Zhe stood up, drew his black cape around him, and began to walk away into the distance.

Sheffield’s eyes widened, his pupils trembling violently.

Watching that receding back, a single crystal tear slid down his cheek.
With a weak voice, he forced out the words: “Thank you, Captain Phantom…”

Then, the light faded from his eyes.
He stopped breathing and lay quietly amidst the ruins.

In the sky, a single golden cherry blossom petal drifted gently on the wind.
After fluttering and turning several times, it finally came to rest, silent and still, upon his chest.

This was the grave of a cherry blossom.

When a person loses everything, what do they become?

Su Mu Zhe constantly asked himself this question.

If it were him, if he had lost his dearest kin, like his sister, would he have ended up becoming someone like Sheffield?

But it was precisely because of this.

That “protection” which Sheffield had always scornfully denied, seemed all the more precious.

“The struggle is endless.”

“But those who are important to you, once lost, can never come back.”