Three days later, Qingce Village.
A tombstone appeared in the cemetery. Cheng Xiao Sword—still sheathed—was placed before it.
This was Jun Mo Li's grave.
After suffering two consecutive fatal blows from a god—even with Jun Bai's power aiding him—Jun Mo Li could not hold on.
After using his last strength to strike Chi from front and back alongside Jun Bai, Jun Mo Li fell once more and never rose again.
He fell with a smile, peacefully closing his eyes.
Jun Bai sat cross-legged before his second brother's grave, holding the wooden sword his brother had once used.
Just how immense must the power have been for this wooden sword—hardly better than a child's toy—to pierce a god's body?
Jun Bai didn't know.
He didn't even know why his brother had smiled in the moment he fell.
"Second brother wouldn't want to see you like this."
Li Tonghui—wrapped entirely in bandages—walked over and placed a hand on Jun Bai's shoulder.
In the moment Fully Armed erupted, Jun Bai's authority had blessed the world, granting new life to Li Tonghui who had already taken half a step through death's gate.
Unfortunately, Jun Mo Li had not lasted until the end.
"Eldest brother, do you think if I had never come to Qingce Village, none of this would have happened?" Jun Bai asked, his face hidden in shadow.
"Things that never happened—who can say for certain?"
Li Tonghui sighed, then smiled: "If you had never come to Qingce Village, perhaps second brother would have remained an ordinary swordmaster. With our family's glorious past, he still would have faded into obscurity in the end."
"So such things can't be clearly judged. Because the premise itself doesn't hold."
"Is that so?" Jun Bai murmured.
Li Tonghui smiled as usual: "Alright, cheer up. This really doesn't suit the third brother I know."
"Me, Aunt Bai, and second brother—we don't want to see Jun Bai like this at all."
"I understand." Jun Bai gave a helpless smile. "Eldest brother, do you have any other plans next?"
"Other plans? Probably traveling all of Teyvat with Little Flame."
"You're not going to keep escorting anymore?" Jun Bai asked, puzzled.
"Escorting was originally to refine my martial arts further. Traveling Teyvat can achieve that too."
"From childhood, second brother and I both focused single-mindedly on honing our strength, thinking that once we were strong enough, we'd see the world—bringing you along."
"But this battle made me realize—there's no end to improving strength. Waiting until everything is ready means it'll be too late."
"So I won't wait anymore."
"I want to take second brother's share and go see all of Teyvat properly."
Jun Bai asked: "But the Archon War is still ongoing. Aren't you waiting until it ends?"
"By the time the war ends, I might already have gone to see second brother. Like I said—waiting until everything is ready means it's already too late."
Li Tonghui looked at Jun Bai: "If you want to do something, do it. That way you won't have regrets."
"Third brother—want to come along?"
Jun Bai shook his head: "I'm going to the Guili Assembly to find Rex Lapis. A hundred years ago he promised me a peaceful golden age that hasn't come yet. I have to go help."
"I see. Looks like us brothers will be going our separate ways from here." Li Tonghui stood up. "Before you leave, say a proper goodbye to Aunt Bai."
"When you go, you don't need to see me. We'll meet again if fate allows."
"But considering your race, we might not get another chance to meet."
Li Tonghui walked toward the cemetery exit. Little Flame had been waiting outside for a long time.
"Wait, eldest brother."
Jun Bai called out to Li Tonghui and handed him a book.
"This is?"
"Adeptus techniques Guizhong taught me. Learn them when you have time—consider them for self-defense."
"Can I become an immortal by learning them?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen any mortal become an immortal yet."
Li Tonghui took his brother's parting gift and smiled: "Then let me be the first."
With that, Li Tonghui and Little Flame walked away together.
Watching his eldest brother leave, Jun Bai felt this wouldn't be their last meeting. Perhaps eldest brother really could ascend as a mortal?
"Before parting, there's one last thing."
Jun Bai said as he planted the wooden sword before Jun Mo Li's grave. Then he took Crimson Shadow and walked toward the forging room.
—Consciousness returns
Jun Bai lay on the bed in the third-floor room of Fengdeng Lou, slowly opening his eyes.
He moved his somewhat stiff body: "I slept for nearly ten days?"
[Guessed perfectly. In this background completion, seven days passed in the Teyvat world. How does it feel?]
"My body feels a bit stiff. Need to move around."
[I meant psychologically.]
"..." Jun Bai fell silent, then said: "Life in Qingce Village was actually very peaceful—not full of legendary exploits like the last background completion."
"But that was our brothers' entire past."
"No special feeling—just a bit empty in my heart."
[Host, did you get too immersed?]
"I've always treated this as reality. There's no such thing as 'getting immersed'." Jun Bai shook his head.
Memories shape perception. Jun Bai had truly lived through this journey, so in his eyes this world had long ceased to be just a game—it was a real world.
During the completion, he had sincerely regarded those two as brothers. Even now, back in the present, Jun Bai still felt the same.
"According to the setting, Scarlet Sky was born in my hands at that time."
Jun Bai recalled the final scene of this background completion.
He had taken Crimson Shadow and walked to the forging room.
Using Crimson Shadow as the main body, supplemented by Jun Mo Li's light sword and Mountain Severer, the final result was Scarlet Sky.
Cheng Xiao Sword and the wooden sword were left by Jun Bai at Jun Mo Li's grave—representing the starting point and endpoint of the Qingce Sword Immortal's path, thus remaining there as a memorial.
Cheng Xiao perhaps could no longer be called Cheng Xiao.
After Jun Mo Li's death, this greatest sword in the world had lost its rightful sharpness—as if it had departed together with its swordmaster.
Anyone could draw it now, yet in anyone's hands it was no different from scrap.
Cheng Xiao had left with Jun Mo Li. What remained was only a lifeless husk.
Thus, after reforging, Crimson Shadow was renamed Scarlet Sky.
Scarlet—for Crimson Shadow. Sky—for the once greatest sword in the world.
Jun Bai took a wine cup, filled it to the brim, and raised it toward the direction of Qingce Village.
To the peak of mortals—the sword immortal who emerged from Qingce Village, whose wish was never in the sword.