Capítulo 121: Aftermath
With Spirit Hall's retreat, most of its members subjugated, this battle finished. Even with our victory, we were left with a sour taste, 60% of the clan members were killed and a lot were gravely injured, without talking about Maya's sacrifice.
Even if the clan overall power didn't lower much, as my parents and uncles who are the main force were without important injuries, with uncle Bone breakthrough, we are even stronger than before. This lost had affected at the clan's foundation, it would greatly affect the future, we would need to strive to maintain the clan, little by little recuperating.
In my case, I was so exhausted, absorbing and using all that spirit energy had really overexerted my body, causing all my muscles to tremble and being unable to move by myself, needing some clan members bringing me to the infirmary facility.
There were a lot of casualties so the healers were at full work with their chambers full. As the son of the clan master, I was brought to an emptier room, instead of the crowdy ones like the others, inside finding dad laying on a bed, sleeping. He seemed to have exhausted all his spirit energy and he had some internal injuries, so I decided to not bother him and wait until he woke up.
Looking at the ceiling I clenched my teeth, tears falling my eyes. If I were stronger, I could have helped more. I blamed myself for Maya's sacrifice, even knowing that she had done on her own will, she wouldn't have any problem to escape.
"Bai" I listened a voice, I turned to dad with some tears in my eyes "You have always lived in a peaceful era, so you are a stranger to war, sacrifices are necessary and more common than you expect"
"She died for me!" I shouted crying "If I was stronger she wouldn't have needed to sacrifice for me"
"True" said dad sadly "However, she decided for herself, deciding it was worth so safe you, she would not have wanted you to be sad about her, she wanted you to be happy, not to drown in pain"
"B-but, it was my fault!" I cried.
"Yes. And you should accept that fault" said dad with a sad and cold voice, shocking me who thought that he would try to comfort me. Seeing my face, dad sighed "If it were for me, I would have liked for you to never confront war. However, this battle will not be the last, Spirit Hall started openly moving, it will not stop in only that. Chaotic times are waiting, in your way to strength some sacrifices are necessary, for every strong person a path of death lay at his back"
"So I need to accept! Be happy that I wasn't me and continue like nothing!" I shouted angrily.
"No" dad shook his head "You should be thankful for every person that let you stay alive, you should strive for your best not only for your sake, if not for theirs. Each death would be weight over your shoulders, you need to make that your strength and continue forward, Maya would have wanted that"
Dad stood up with difficulty, his legs still trembling, he was tired and this light movement was very difficult for him. He slowly approached me and hugged me "It is normal to cry. Cry whatever you want and then stand up and continue. Do not be immersed in the past, do not forget what is important and protect it with all your strength"
I reciprocated the hug, crying loudly while dad patted my head. After 10 minutes, breaking the hug I cleaned my tears, turned to dad and asked "Maya was always there, I always accepted and ignored. Could you explain more about her?"
Dad warmly smiled and started telling me stories about Maya. She was from a clan that was destroyed by evil spirit masters. Her clan spirit was Blood Shadow, an extremely rare spirit with powerful healing and stealth power, this made her clan the target of an evil cult that refined all her family boosting their cultivation. She could escape the day of her clan's destruction only thanks to the sacrifice of her family who died to help her escape.
After that day, she vowed to herself to do everything in her hand to destroy the evil sect, living only for revenge. She did unnamed atrocities, boosting her cultivation, discarding her humanity, becoming a broken doll only living for revenge. Finally, she fought against the evil sect, even using a forbidden technique of her clan, boosting her power, only to attain her revenge sooner.
She destroyed that sect alone, killing all the members, not letting any of them escape. Her price was to never advance in her cultivation and even not being able to birth children. Having accomplished her only objective, she was prepared to suicide, however, she was stopped by mum. Mum was traveling and sensed the fight, only to see how it finished. Mum convinced her to continue living, if she didn't want to live for herself, she would live for mum.
After a lot of time, she finally opened a little by little, becoming mum's best friend, wanting to work as a maid to help in whatever she could. According to mum, Maya had always thought of mum as family, making also me and Rongrong, and that she vowed to protect all of us, so she would have been happy to save me, finally repaying the debt to mum.
I attentively listened to Maya story while I was sad, about how much she cared for us while I mostly ignored her all my life.
After finishing the story, some clan members came and dad left with them, leaving me alone in the room.
"I will be stronger, for myself and all the people that trust me. Even if I couldn't protect Maya now, I won't waste her sacrifice and continue forward, protecting my loved one" I vowed "Paul, I won't lose even to you" I said, my resolution stronger than ever.
<3rd POV>
In a room at the Seven Treasure Clan's mansion, there were two people. One was Sword Douluo who was standing at a corner and the other was the clan master, Ning Fengzhi, who was lying on a bed.
"You could have congratulated Bai" said Sword Douluo "If it weren't for him, the clan would have perished today. You could have encouraged him, that this won't happen again"
"Bai needs to grow, this was a perfect moment for his growth. This era is changing and we will not be able to stop it, war is coming" Fengzhi said coldly "More casualties will come and he must be prepared for them, even if we are the one to fall, I want for him to continue"
"He is only a boy, this war we would finish it" Sword Douluo said.
Fengzhi shooked his head "He already is a man, we cannot protect him forever. At his age how many people had you killed?"
"It's different, we need to always fight before. Now, there's n-" "There wasn't need to fight, but all changed now. War is approaching, even more chaotic than before" Fengzhi interrupted and signaled at some files on the table.
Sword Douluo lifted his hand and the files flew to his hand, reading them he made a shocked face "This?!"
"Spirit Hall had become the Spirit Empire. Breaking its neutrality, making known their desire to invade all the continent. Their first attack targetted the most powerful clan. Our clan is almost devasted, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clan had been completely destroyed, that old dragon killed. For all the minor clan, they are being forced to join Spirit Empire or being forcibly disbanded, most schools were closed by the Spirit Empire"
"They want to become the continent's enemies," said Sword Douluo.
"Overlord would be a better word. They will not stop there, due to their injuries, I suppose they would lay low for a time. However, their next objectives would be both empires, Heaven Dou and Star Luo. We will need to be prepared for it" Fengzhi paused a moment "What are Xiangxie and elder Bone doing?"
"Rong is cultivating, trying to stabilize his new realm. It's not easy to control a strength gained by external factors that without counting his injuries, even if healed his mental expense was great. For Xiangxie..." Sword frowned a little "I don't really know about her. She explained that had something important to do and she quickly left without leaving more explanation"
Fengzhi smiled "We all know how Xie is, she does not like to make explanation" then Fengzhi turned serious "However, at this time it must be extremely important for her to absent. Let her be. We will need her to be stronger"
Sword Douluo nodded disappearing from the room. Once Fengzhi was alone a single tear fell from his eye.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
picaco
picaco With this, this volume had finished *clap, clap*. In the next one will be the waited fight Paul against Bai, with three big fights (One of them I will make it short) consecutive. It would be difficult to write that fights without repeating myself.
Thanks for reading
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