“Memorial service?”

Zoemi raised his brow and glanced over at Alan hoping for an answer.

“Memorial… Oh. That’s right. Today is the anniversary of the failed exploration expedition led by the Heavenly Star Warrior almost thirty years ago. A bunch of sects worked together to put up their best marital artist and set sail towards the line of death. It was believed that with the power of the Heavenly Star Warrior they will manage to cross the boundary and reach the new lands – the land of mana. Basically, mister William was the only actual survivor – there were some people who survived the original incident but died soon after being recovered from the ocean because of severe mana poisoning, and the bodies of many others were never recovered at all.”

And indeed, Alan did not disappoint, giving Zoemi’s the information from the top of his head.

“The Great Ram sect was hit particularly hard – the extremely talented disciple who was appointed by my grandfather to become the sect’s next leader was one of the people lost to the line of death.”

He added, nervously rubbing his left arm with his right hand.

“Now that I think about it, the symbolic cemetery for the lost martial artist is a bit of a treck from this place… I guess that it’s not a coincidence – after all mister William stepped down from the spotlight after the return. I had never seen it in person because, you know, I wasn’t even born at the time, but even though our sect was devastated by the loss, it was nothing compared to the anguish that mister William went through. Apparently, the Twelve Heavenly Guardians barely stopped him from killing himself in an act of remorse.”

Alan gulped down his saliva and added, looking up at Zoemi’s face.

“Sounds like an idiot.”

“HUH?!”

The black-haired man scoffed, shrugging his shoulders, leaving the young marital artist speechless.

“Mister, my friend and I are on the way to pay respect to the fallen too, but it’s actually our first time here, could you point us in the right direction?”

Zoemi turned away from the shocked Alan and asked the helpful elderly man.

“It’s nice to see youths keeping the memory alive… Follow that road, once you move past all the buildings, you will be able to see the necropolis in the distance, can’t miss it.”

“Thank you for the help.”

The elderly man breathed out and wiped the tear that appeared in the corner of his eye before waving his hand towards the opposite direction that Zoemi and Alan came from, to which the black-haired man nodded and smiled at him gratefully before departing.

The cemetery was indeed an easy spot to locate – it was also shockingly large that its scope has definitely put into perspective Zoemi’s expectations about the size of the expedition forces put forth by the Heavenly Star Nation.

“Over there, it must be him.”

When they passed the cemetery gate, Alan nudged Zoemi’s side and pointed at the silhouette in the distance walking from grave to grave, leaving something that seemed to be a small bouquet on every single one of them.𝒪𝗏𝔩xt.𝗰𝐎𝐦

“Let him finish the service… and speaking of which – although I have little to no intentions of praying for the souls of the people who would most likely try to ransack my homeland if only the expedition was a success – you said that the original heir to your sect was amongst the dead. You want to visit his grave?”

Zoemi frowned, glaring at the white-haired man who did not show any reaction to the new arrivals and continued putting flowers on the graves, and said to his companion.

“I should, shouldn’t I? Normally we have a small ceremony in his name back in the sect, so I visited this place only once together with my grandfather and parents back when I was seven, and only because we were visiting a friendly sect from the area.”

Alan glanced up at the scowling black-haired man before nodding and fidgeting awkwardly, sharing a tiny bit of information about his life.

“I remember that the separate gave for mister Nathan was somewhere over there… Since you don’t want to pay your respects but don’t want to interrupt the memorial service, why don’t you take a look at the painting over there while you wait?”

The young martial artist put one hand to his chin and wondered, before gesturing toward the center of the necropolis where a ridiculously long painting was presented under a roof protecting it from the elements.

“You sound as if you expect that without something to do, I will lose my temper and actually try to mess with the place.”

“…”

Zoemi snickered and turned to Alan, obviously joking, but to his surprise, the young man was looking at him all tense – he didn’t even have to say anything, his body language told Zoemi that Alan was indeed worried about the exact scenario happening.

“Shouldn’t you be more worried that I will burn that thing down? With more luck on their side, all those people would turn into invaders in my homeland, and you know it, don’t you?”

“Zoemi…”

The black-haired man smirked mockingly and spread his arms as if he wanted to encompass the entire necropolis, which visibly upset Alan.

“…don’t make that face, it was only a stupid joke…”

Zoemi couldn’t stand the sight of Alan’s eyes getting foggy as they teared up and ended up reaching his hand and patting the young man’s head with a reassuring smile.

“I will give that painting a look while I wait for you. I give you my word that I will not mess with the memorial for your countrymen.”

“Thank you.”

Zoemi sighed and pledged, and only after he did so, Alan nodded and left in search of the grave of the dear student of her grandfather.

“This is quite the impressive work of art.”

A few minutes later Zoemi was by the long painting, gazing upon it genuinely impressed. The painting was photorealistic and despite the years spent outside it still looked as if it was finished only a few days prior.