The Immortal Banyan Tree, standing on the former lands of the Southern Celestial Capital, was like an entire living mountain range.

Its mere existence was enough for its crown to blot out the sun. Its very breath brought constant rain to the land for hundreds of miles around. Its undulating roots and dangling aerial roots resembled rolling hills and wooden pillars that held up the heavens, supporting the great tree’s branches while also sustaining the region’s ecosystem.

By day, the Divine Wood absorbed all light. But at night, its leaves would begin to shine, and their verdant Spiritual Light would take the sun’s place, providing radiance for the many shrubs and plants below. Although no other tall trees grew beneath the Divine Wood, the land still supported a rich ecosystem, all of which it sustained.

But now.

At the very peak of this living mountain range.

From the Divine Wood’s crown, which soared even higher than the clouds, the verdant Spiritual Light began to fade.

It dimmed from top to bottom, like a slowly extinguishing flame.

At the Nanjiang Celestial Gate, the leaders of the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army had retreated far from the Divine Wood. Along with Su Zhou, who was surrounded by the crowd, they all stood atop the hundred-meter-high pass.

They watched in silence as the Divine Wood shed its verdant veil under the silver light of the moon and stars. Its countless lush, green leaves had withered, yellowed, and fallen in just a few short hours.

It was the dead of night. After their complete victory over the Demon Army, the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army hadn’t wasted time chasing the scattered, terrified remnants fleeing into the forests. Instead, on Su Zhou’s advice, they had regrouped and withdrawn from the burning New Southern Celestial Capital.

And his advice had proven sound—the enormous leaves of the Divine Wood, falling from hundreds or even thousands of meters up, had struck the ground like meteorites, pockmarking the entire city and the surrounding hills.

"The Divine Wood will enter a dormant period."

Taking a step forward, Su Zhou walked to the very front, drawing the complex gazes of the members of the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army away from the Divine Wood. He stood on the battlements of the Nanjiang Celestial Gate, looking out at the Divine Tree as it continuously shed its leaves, burying all traces of war and the corpses below. He spoke bluntly, "The Divine Wood no longer possesses the power to grant immortality."

"I know this may be hard to hear, and the hidden ambitious among you may be very disappointed—but this is the truth. I have sealed the Immortal Banyan Tree’s power with a Kunlun Secret Technique. While it certainly won’t die, it will withdraw most of its power and lie dormant."

"In other words, there will be no more Undying Roots, and no more Dragon Transformation Pills."

Su Zhou’s words were spoken casually, as if chatting with a neighbor, but no one questioned or denied them.

When everyone saw Su Zhou standing completely unharmed before the Demon Emperor’s shattered corpse, and when they saw that the top of the Celestial Palace looked as if it had been struck by meteorites seven or eight times, every Grandmaster Martial Artist present was left utterly speechless, their eyes wide with disbelief. This was a level of destructive power far beyond their imagination. Even if a hundred Martial Artists had fought here with all their might, they could never have caused such devastation.

Moreover, they had assumed that even if Su Zhou managed to slay the Demon Emperor, he would surely be gravely injured and in dire need of rescue.

For this reason, Zhou Buyi had even brought along the Holy Water left over from when Su Zhou had rescued the wounded on Taibai Mountain. He’d figured it would at least be enough to keep Su Zhou going until the subsequent Healing Elixirs arrived.

But to his utter astonishment, Su Zhou wasn’t injured in the slightest; only his clothes were a little torn.

"It was the Kunlun Secret Technique. I used the Kunlun Secret Technique!"

Su Zhou said this with a grave and earnest expression. If he said he had used a Kunlun Secret Technique to heal himself, then the crowd had no choice but to believe him. Some of the Martial Artists even nodded seriously.

This was especially true for Grandmaster Liu, who had stayed behind to cover the retreat and contend with the Wood Centipede and the Yang Flame Light Cicada Brigade. He couldn’t help but wonder, ’According to Li Daoran and William, this Grandmaster Su, as a Kunlun Divine Wood Inheritor, possesses a Secret Technique to devour the power of those favored by the Immortal Banyan Tree. He used it to become a Grandmaster in such a short time before.’

’Now that he’s slain the Demon Emperor, he must have absorbed the Demon Emperor’s power, too... Does that mean this member of the Kunlun Dragon Race is about to break through to the Innate realm?’

Quite a few people shared this suspicion, which was why the leaders of the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army, despite being gathered together, implicitly treated Su Zhou as their head. As the hero who had slain the two enemy leaders—the National Preceptor and the Demon Emperor—it would have been perfectly justifiable for Su Zhou to declare himself the Alliance Leader of the Hundred Schools. Unhappy about it? Unwilling to cede power? Well, then it would come down to who had the bigger fist!

Naturally, the fist of Su Zhou—the man who could slay an Innate master in open battle—was bigger. But he clearly had no intention of seizing power.

"That’s the general situation."

At this moment, Su Zhou was simply explaining the Immortal Banyan Tree’s current condition to the members of the Hundred Schools. He told them the Divine Wood would remain dormant for nearly a thousand years and that he himself would soon depart to return to the Kunlun Secret Realm.

"I am not a being of this world. I came here only to eradicate fiends like the Demon Dynasty, who use the Divine Wood’s power to bring chaos and disaster to the common people."

Of course, Su Zhou, speaking with such confidence, wasn’t lying. He truly wasn’t a being of this world, so his statement was entirely truthful. ’If anyone was misled, that’s Yara’s fault, not mine.’ "I must be going—in a few days’ time," he continued. "There’s no need to ask me to stay. I have no desire for worldly power. I trust that as long as you don’t try to use the Divine Wood Power for nefarious ends again, we of the Kunlun Inheritance will have no reason to appear."

Su Zhou was leveraging the momentum from his slaying of the Demon Emperor and the withering of the Divine Wood to establish his authority and intimidate everyone present, warning them against any treacherous ideas. If any other villains wanted to draw on the power of the Immortal Banyan Tree, they would now have to consider the possibility of an ’Inheritor from Kunlun’ appearing once more to cut them down.

He didn’t know how long such a deterrent would last, or if it would even be meaningful, but some things simply had to be done.

At that moment, Zhou Buyi, Li Daoran, and Weilie were also in the crowd.

Listening to Su Zhou’s solemn words, which were half admonishment and half warning, Zhou Buyi couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of unreality.

’Is it really over, just like that? The catastrophe brought by the Immortal Banyan Tree... it’s just... over?’

’I felt like it was supposed to be a long war, a resistance that would last over a hundred years, a victory that would only come after my own hair had turned gray... But in the end, it’s over, just like this?’

As Zhou Buyi, a man the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army had always viewed as their next leader and a future Innate Martial Saint, he truly felt as if his destiny had been snatched away, and he had merely been a bystander in the end.

Hero, champion... all the glory and honor now enveloped Su Zhou, making his figure seem impossibly tall. His every word seemed to boom like thunder.

’But is that really what I wanted?’

A hint of envy and jealousy stirred in his heart—that was only human. But after examining his own thoughts, Zhou Buyi let out a long breath. He smiled as he gazed at Su Zhou, who was still stating his views. ’No, that’s not it. I don’t want to be a hero at all.’

’Heroes and champions only appear when the nation is in peril and peace has been shattered. "When a hero draws their sword, the people suffer a decade of strife." While the saying doesn’t fit the situation perfectly, the general idea does.’

’In a golden age of peace, when all families are happy and everyone lives without a care in the world, there is no need for heroes.’

’If possible, I hope the world of the future will be one where heroes are not needed. I hope everyone can live happily.’

The Martial Artist with graying temples pressed a hand to the hilt of his sword, a smile on his face as he thought, ’But... if a time comes when someone needs to step forward...’

’...I will definitely be the one to do it. I won’t let Grandmaster Su take all the glory.’