Wizard: My Skills Can Infinitely Break Through

In the end, he used a Secret Technique to grievously wound the Corrupt Monarch, then fought desperately to escape back to Xuri City.

"After I returned... I was done for... That purple contamination was spreading through my body... Every day when I woke up... I could feel it creeping upward..."

He didn’t dare reveal his injuries. There were fallen members of the Human Race who would report to the Hatching Monarch.

He was the spiritual pillar of the Human Race. He could not fall.

"I couldn’t let anyone know... The Human Race would panic... Those Corrupt Lords would find out... They would attack the city..."

He had his confidants announce that he was in seclusion. For the past few years, he hadn’t even dared to live in Xuri City.

If he were to die within the city, he couldn’t imagine the terrifying contamination it would cause.

He had secretly hidden himself here, in a deserted corner.

"This house... is where I lived as a child... No one knows about it..."

He gasped for breath for a long time.

"I thought... I was going to die here... But today..."

He looked toward the window, which was boarded up, obscuring the view outside.

"The Corrupted Beasts suddenly went crazy... desperately attacking the city... as if they sensed something..."

"I had no choice but to come out."

He wheezed for a long while again, a rattling sound in his throat with every breath.

"Killed a few of the brutes... The beast tide retreated..."

"But the contamination... I can’t suppress it anymore."

Li Xing listened in silence.

He looked at the bandages on the old man’s chest. A dark purple fluid was still seeping out.

Where the fluid dripped, the bed planks were corroded, forming small pits.

He squeezed Li Xing’s hand a little tighter.

"I thought... after I died... Xuri City would be massacred... and the Human Race would completely lose hope..."

A tear welled up in his clouded eyes.

It slid down his cheekbone and dripped onto the pillow, spreading into a small, dark stain.

"I never thought... you would win..."

"Thank you..."

"The entire Human Race... owes you its life..."

Li Xing was silent for a long time, a tightness in his chest.

He let out a long breath and took out a Crystal Bottle from his robes.

The liquid inside the bottle was a pale silver, and at its center, a tiny vortex spun slowly.

This was a concentrated and improved version of the Purification Potion that he had personally refined.

"You are the one the Human Race should thank. Drink this, and you can live a few more years."

The old man looked down at the bottle.

His lips trembled. He wanted to say something, but only a rasping sound came from his throat.

Li Xing had already turned and was walking toward the door.

From behind him, the old man’s voice called out.

"You’re leaving... aren’t you?"

Li Xing paused, stopping at the doorway without turning back.

"This world is back on the right track. I’m going to travel a bit. You can go outside and see it for yourself, too.

See how this world you fought so hard to protect is getting better and better."

The door closed softly behind him.

The sunlight was bright and dazzling.

Li Xing raised his head to the sky. The sunlight on his face was warm and comfortable.

Unlike the warmth of that golden light from before, this was an ordinary, normal warmth—the warmth of mortals.

He closed his eyes. In his Sea of Spirit, that thread of light was still swimming about.

He recalled the whispers of the Rules from just now, the images that had flowed through the depths of his consciousness, and the insights he had yet to fully digest.

’The gift of the World Will... I’m not the one who sacrificed the most.’

The sun sank in the west.

Li Xing returned to Starlight City and saw Li Yao standing on the city wall.

His armor was stained with blood, and the silver light of the sword at his waist had dimmed.

The heavily wounded Starlight Guards had already been carried away. The rest stood on the wall, drenched in blood, but their backs were ramrod straight.

The moment he landed, everyone knelt on one knee in unison, striking their chests with their right fists.

The muffled thud carried far in the evening breeze.

After signaling them to rise with a wave of his hand, Li Xing looked at Li Yao.

The two brothers met each other’s gaze, neither speaking.

In the distance, the people of the Holy City had already begun to celebrate.

The Corruption had been completely purified. The news spread like wildfire throughout the city, and sounds of celebration were everywhere.

Some knelt in the streets, weeping with joy. Some hugged their neighbors, jumping and shouting. Others brought out wine they had treasured for years and opened it right there in the street.

Li Xing walked over and placed his palm on Li Yao’s shoulder.

Purification Starlight surged from his palm, flowing silently into Li Yao’s body.

The claw marks on his shoulder, the piercing wound in his side, and the gash on his arm that was deep enough to reveal bone all began to heal rapidly.

Li Yao looked down at his arm as the wound closed, scabbed over, and fell away.

His lips moved, but in the end, he only managed to ask one question.

"We won?"

"Yes. There will be no more Corrupted Beasts from now on."

On the city wall, the wind passed between the two of them, carrying a cleanness it had never possessed before.

Li Yao’s eyes suddenly grew warm as he looked up at Li Xing.

"So what are... your plans for the future?"

"Now that the Corrupted Beasts are gone, I want to travel around and see those places... places that were besieged by the Corruption for over three hundred years, which I never had the chance to see."

"Will you come back?"

Li Xing turned to look into the distance.

The setting sun was sinking, burning half the sky a golden-red.

The rooftops of the Holy City were plated in a layer of warm light. Smoke from cooking fires rose, mingling with the colors of dusk.

"I don’t know."

Li Yao didn’t ask again. He simply took a crest from his robes and handed it to Li Xing.

It was the highest authority Token for the Starlight Holy Land.

"Take this back. When you return in the future..."

Li Xing looked at the crest but didn’t reach out to take it.

"There’s no need. You need it more than I do."

He gently patted Li Yao’s shoulder, just as he had when he found him thirty years ago.

Li Yao’s body stiffened. He lowered his gaze, hiding all emotion.

Li Xing turned and walked toward the edge of the city wall.

Behind him, Li Yao stood motionless.

"Yao."

"Yeah."

"Protect the Starlight Holy Land. Protect this world."

Li Yao didn’t answer, only silently watching Li Xing’s departing figure.

He watched as Li Xing stepped forward and launched into the sky, the setting sun bathing his entire body in gold.

He watched the figure grow smaller and more distant, until it finally became a black dot and vanished into the twilight.

Li Yao blinked, his eyes stinging with unshed tears.

A tear slid silently down his cheek.

’Thirty years...’

「The night of the rebellion in Maple City.」

He was fifteen, hiding in the ruins, surrounded by corpses.

Fires were burning, houses were collapsing, and the roars of Corrupted Beasts came from all directions.

In the chaos, the two brothers were separated by the panicked crowd, and he heard his older brother screaming his name.

Then, he fled Maple City with the crowd and joined Chen Scarface’s squad of fugitives.

The next day, that person found him. He came before him and wiped the grime from his face.

The look in his eyes, the tone of his voice, and the relief of a brotherly reunion.

It was all almost exactly the same as before.

But Li Yao knew—that wasn’t his brother!

Not the brother who would secretly tuck him in at night.

Not the brother who would ruffle his hair and say, "Don’t be afraid, Yao."

Not the brother who would rather take a blade himself than let him get hurt.

He was already dead!

He didn’t know who this person was, where he came from, or why he was impersonating his brother.

But he knew that this person cared for him, protected him, taught him skills, and made him stronger...

This person led them, transforming Blue Cave Mountain into Starlight City, the Holy Land, and led the entire Human Race... step by step, to where they were today.

This person was more of a "brother" to him than his own brother had been.

For thirty years, he had never spoken of this to anyone.

He watched this person slay Corrupt Lords. He watched this person purify the scorched earth.

He watched this person never rest, never celebrate, never look back at the path he had walked.

He watched this person stand among a million people, gazing down upon the world.

He watched this person go north alone and kill the Corrupt Monarch that had terrified the entire world for three hundred years.

He carefully played along, acting the part of the "younger brother."

Because he knew the Human Race needed him.

Tears streamed silently into his mouth.

Salty and bitter.

Li Yao wiped them away forcefully and took a deep breath.

Then he turned to face the Holy City, where countless people were celebrating wildly.

His face had already settled into a different expression.

Calm, resolute, and steady...

The expression befitting the "Master of the Starlight Sanctuary."

’Thank you... for taking my brother’s place and protecting the people of this world for thirty years.’

...

High in the empty sky, Li Xing’s figure paused.

He turned to look back in the direction of the Starlight Holy Land, his expression complex and unreadable.

’Yao, playing that part for so many years... it must have been hard!’