In accordance with Li Jinhuang’s final wishes, the funeral went ahead without delay. Yet within the coffin lay no body, only the robes he had so often worn in life, carefully arranged into a symbolic burial mound. It was an empty tomb for a fallen soul.2

Luo Chen stood solemnly through the ceremony, still wearing his crimson robe embroidered with drifting clouds. When the time came to pay their respects, every member of the Li family bowed before him with deep reverence.4

The truth was plain for all to see. In the family’s crisis, not a single ally had come to their aid. Not one of Li Jinhuang’s old friends had lifted a hand. Only Luo Chen had. Even when surrounded by powerful enemies like the Hu brothers, Wei Tuo, and Dan Yuanzi, the latter formidable mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, he had not backed down. Not once had he even flinched.0

Such an act of grace would be etched into the Li family’s...0