Ji An promised, "Okay, I won't forget."
"Then pinky promise?"
Jiang Li stared at him and extended her small, fair finger. Ji An hesitated for a moment, then extended his as well.
As it touched hers, there was a warm, smooth sensation.
"Let's both remember each other's names."
Jiang Li's eyes curved with a smile. "The contract is sealed. Morax is the witness. Those who break their word shall suffer the punishment of eating rocks."
Ji An held back a laugh. You're a Geo elemental dragon king eating rocks is like eating a meal to you. Since when is that a punishment?
But judging by her expression, having Ji An agree to remember her name had made her genuinely, unreservedly happy.
Well. Let her be happy.
"Alright," Ji An said. "So can you make those Geovishaps leave now? Or do I need to keep you company for two more days first?"
Jiang Li: "Not yet. Didn't I say you have to do one thing for me first?"
Ji An was puzzled. "Uh wasn't the thing you wanted me to do just... not calling you Azhdaha?"
Jiang Li smiled, her little canine tooth peeking out. "Of course not. That was only a request. You could have refused."
"..."
Ji An immediately felt he had been played.
He thought to himself: You're a dignified dragon king. Is it really fitting to trick someone like this?
He sighed. "Then what do you actually want me to do?"
Jiang Li didn't answer right away. Instead, she looked up and murmured,
"This time, I may have gone too far. Before they leave... they probably want to fulfill their own millennia-old wish as well."
She held out her hand. In the center of her small, fair palm, a brilliant white sphere of light slowly coalesced and within it, countless streaks swam and drifted like shooting stars.
Ji An looked at it curiously.
A look of reluctance crossed Jiang Li's face, but she gritted her teeth and broke off a portion of the sphere.
The separated fragment hovered beside her for a moment, then shot upward into the sky and vanished into the night.
---
Outside The Chasm.
Kun Jun and Zhongli stood side by side, as if waiting for something.
A sphere of light came streaking from the direction of Keqing's camp and slowed as it neared Kun Jun.
"I half thought that little girl wouldn't be willing to part with the 'wishes' she'd already claimed..."
Kun Jun said, his voice somewhere between surprise and relief.
He reached out and caught the sphere.
It dissolved at his touch, scattering into countless specks of light — each one, if looked at in the right way, flickering with glimpses of scenes and moments.
Kun Jun closed his eyes and let the specks of light pass into him.
After the last of them had been absorbed, he stood in silence for a very long time.
When he finally opened his eyes, he found that tears had traced their way down his face without his knowing.
"...Old friend, why go to such lengths for us, this stubborn rock?" he whispered, his gaze drifting toward the camp where Ji An was.
He wiped his face with his sleeve and turned to Zhongli with a smile.
"Haha. Forgive me, Morax. I've embarrassed myself."
Zhongli looked at him with gentle eyes and shook his head. "The world says it was I who created Azhdaha the Dragon King. But in truth, it was he who truly made Azhdaha what it was. I understand why you feel the way you do."
Kun Jun smiled faintly. "Shall we go, Morax? To witness the final moments of what remains of us."
Zhongli was quiet for a moment, then gave a slight nod.
The two walked side by side, unhurried, in the direction of Nantianmen.
Before long, they arrived beneath the Dragon-Queller Tree.
Zhongli raised his hand, and the stone passage leading to the underground cavern was reopened.
They descended into the seal.
At the center of the cavern, ringed by eight stone pillars, the blue-haired girl pulsing with dark energy looked up and let out an angry shriek.
"Morax...!"
"You still haven't given me an answer. So why have you come back?"
Her gaze shifted to Kun Jun, and something flickered in her eyes. "And you — who exactly are you?"
Kun Jun stepped forward, tucking his hands into his sleeves. "As you can see, Azhdaha the Dragon King."
He said simply, "I am you."
The blue-haired girl's whole body tensed. "No — impossible — could it be that you—!"
A white aura had begun to radiate from Kun Jun's body, forming a stark contrast against the dark energy swirling around the girl.
Seeing it, she seemed to understand something — and it only made her angrier.
"If you are truly a part of me, then why do you stand beside a traitor?"
"If you have chosen to stand with him, why have you come back here at all?"
The phantom of an enormous rock dragon loomed behind her and let out a furious roar.
Kun Jun placed his hand over his heart. "I am your final covenant. I witnessed the pact between Azhdaha the Dragon King and Morax, and I carry the bond with him. You may be angry — but you cannot deny me."
Azhdaha the Dragon King trembled within the pillars. "No... no..."
"I am the remnant of Azhdaha the Dragon King's goodness — the vessel of its covenant, its dignity, and its will to coexist peacefully with humanity."
Kun Jun said, "Azhdaha the Dragon King — having lost your 'wishes' and your reason, you are now left with nothing but anger. Everything from the past has grown unrecognizable to you by now, hasn't it?"
"What you have forgotten is too vast. Yet it was 'we' who acknowledged Morax most deeply of all. And deep down, you always knew — his death was not Morax's fault."
Azhdaha the Dragon King snarled, "You — you're lying!"
Kun Jun shook his head. "Everything you have forgotten is held within my heart. That is why I have come — to return those memories to you."
He looked steadily at Azhdaha and spoke softly.
"The heavens shake. The mountains and seas take form..."
As the words left him, white specks of light began to drift from his body toward the blue-haired girl within the pillars.
Azhdaha the Dragon King's eyes grew distant, and she whispered, "Barren land gives birth to a star — brilliant as the blazing sun..."
Kun Jun sighed softly. "A hundred lifetimes of solid rock."
Azhdaha the Dragon King murmured, "Creation... the Dragon's Enlightenment."
Then a long, deep silence fell.
The blue-haired girl had transformed back into the vast rock dragon.
But this time, there was no violence in it. It lowered its great body slowly.
It looked at Zhongli. "Morax..."
Zhongli sighed softly.
After a long silence, the dragon turned its enormous head toward Kun Jun. "Am I... going to disappear soon?"
Kun Jun gave a slight nod. "You will disappear before I do."
"Then... before I go — can he come to see me one last time?"
The deep voice carried a thread of quiet longing.
Kun Jun shook his head slowly. "'He' is with our little sister right now. I'm afraid... he won't be coming."
The red light in Azhdaha the Dragon King's eyes dimmed. "Is that so."
Kun Jun sighed. "Then I will share with you the memories I hold of him as well. Consider it as though you have seen him yourself."
Azhdaha the Dragon King was still for a long while, then slowly nodded. "Yes... let it be so."
"Once we dissipate, Azhdaha the Dragon King's consciousness will slumber again. The next time it stirs, it may remember nothing of all this — its heart will have become that of a pure beast once more."
"She must have considered this too. That is why she chose, at this moment, to return what she owed him."
Kun Jun turned, his gaze seeming to pass straight through the rock walls and fix on something far away.
He asked quietly, "Azhdaha the Dragon King, what is your choice?"
"Hahaha — do you even need to ask?"
The dragon let out a deep, rumbling laugh that sent tremors through the stone of the cavern. Its voice carried something close to contentment.
"I've kept our old friend's things for long enough. It's past time I gave them back!"
As the words faded, pale yellow light began to drift from their bodies, flowing away toward somewhere unseen.
---
Jiang Li closed her eyes, as if sensing something.
After a moment, she smiled — small and quiet — and turned her head to look at Ji An, studying his face.
"Shall I tell you now about the thing I want you to help me with?"
"Yes, tell me. What is it exactly? Stop being so mysterious."
Ji An shook his head in exasperation.
Jiang Li held out her hand. Pale yellow elemental energy gathered in her palm, slowly solidifying into a golden crystalline horn.
She held it out toward Ji An and looked at him.
The meaning was unmistakable.
Ji An took it.
With his grounding in ancient alchemy, he could sense immediately the restrained yet terrifyingly immense force contained within — like something vast holding itself very still.
He turned it over, examining it curiously.
"What is this? What do you want me to do with it?"
Jiang Li's gaze, as it rested on him, was full of something vast and quiet. She said softly,
"Put it on. And kill me."
Ji An's hand went still. He looked up at her in shock. "What did you say?"
Jiang Li dropped her eyes. "This is the favor I want you to do for me. You promised."
Ji An opened his mouth, then closed it, then shook his head firmly.
"No. Absolutely not. What are you thinking? Why would you want to die for no reason?"
Jiang Li met his gaze and repeated, steadily, "You promised."
Ji An kept shaking his head. "I didn't promise anything like this. Those words are void."
Jiang Li: "The contract is sealed. If you break it, you'll suffer the punishment of eating rocks."
Ji An let out a short laugh. "Then let that Morax fellow come and punish me. I've been short on funds lately — some free food sounds fine."
Jiang Li stared at him for a moment, then said quietly, "The horn in your hand is the authority of the elemental dragon king. It was originally yours. This is simply returning it."
"All you have to do is place the dragon king's crown upon your head and end the old king's reign. The transition will be complete. From then on, you will be the new elemental dragon king."
Ji An said flatly, "I don't want it. I'm perfectly fine as a human. Why would I want to be a dragon king?"
Jiang Li shook her head. "An elemental dragon king does not have to take the form of a dragon. There have been dragon kings crowned in human form. If you inherit this authority, you will in time come to hold the power of a god."
Even a very upright person might have wavered at an offer like that, if only for a moment.
Ji An's answer was still immediate.
"Not if the price is killing you."
Jiang Li stared at him. And then, inexplicably, she laughed.
"...Pfft."
"You're still just like you were back then. No wonder you would..."
She trailed off, sighed, drew her knees up, and murmured quietly,
"Fine. If you won't do it, you won't. Killing me first would only have made the transition of authority smoother — that was all."
"Either way, once we have faded, the authority will transfer to you on its own — to the one who accepts the crown..."
Ji An's chest tightened. He frowned. "What do you mean, 'faded'? When I asked you before, didn't you say that as long as there is rock in this world, Azhdaha the Dragon King cannot die?"
"Azhdaha the Dragon King will not die. Its body long since merged with the rock. But its consciousness has been worn away by the erosion imposed by the laws of heaven. It is reaching its end."
A faint, sly look crossed Jiang Li's face — the look of someone who had been a little proud of misleading him and had now been found out. "Once we, its conscious manifestations, fade away, Azhdaha the Dragon King will either fall into slumber or descend into mindless frenzy — eternally suppressed beneath the Dragon-Queller Tree, endlessly venting its rage."
"Perhaps, after another thousand years, a new consciousness will be born. But by then... it will carry no memory of you, or of Morax, or of humanity."
"Jiang Li — you—"
Ji An looked at her in shock. Her body had already begun to dissolve, the edges of her becoming pale yellow specks of light, growing more and more indistinct.
"Oh... has the time already come?"
Jiang Li looked at her half-vanished hand. Her gaze drifted to Ji An's face, lingering there.
She whispered, "Thank you..."
---
At the same moment.
Beneath the Dragon-Queller Tree.
Azhdaha the Dragon King lay quietly within the ring of stone pillars. The blue-haired girl stood beside it, the dark energy around her fading as well, as if awaiting something.
Then she felt it — her own body beginning to dissolve.
The blue-haired girl laughed softly. "My time has come..."
She looked at Kun Jun and Zhongli, paused, then slowly raised her head and gazed in the direction Kun Jun had looked earlier.
Regret passed through her eyes.
Then she, too, dissolved into the air.
Kun Jun let out a quiet breath and looked at Zhongli. "Morax, let's go up."
Zhongli nodded and followed him back to the surface, to the Dragon-Queller Tree above.
Kun Jun stood before the stone tablet and looked at it for a long moment. "When she broke through the seal, I was able to slip out as well. But my strength was too depleted to hold human form, so I had no choice but to take a host."
He turned to Zhongli. "After I am gone, please see that Kun Jun gets home safely. He is the descendant of a renowned craftsman family. Given time, he will make a name for himself. Someone like that must not come to harm."
Zhongli said quietly, "You haven't changed. You always did have a soft spot for blacksmiths."
Kun Jun smiled. "Blades and swords have no eyes, but craftsmen have hearts. And 'human feeling' isn't that what humanity has always prided itself on most?"
He paused, then stilled.
"Morax. It is my time as well."
He looked at his own palm. Pale yellow light had begun to seep from Kun Jun's body, slow and steady.
He looked at Zhongli. "After I am gone, if it is possible I entrust my old friend to your care."
Zhongli, his back still turned, sighed and said slowly, "He is my old friend as well."
A moment passed.
Zhongli turned around.
Kun Jun was already lying quietly on the ground, his face at peace, as though he had simply fallen asleep.
-------
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