Chapter 138: Aftermath
"Somebody come give me a hand. I think there are people buried under this rubble."
"Hey, take this kid to the physicians. Let them check if she is all right or now."
"Ma'am, please stop. I am sorry to say it, but your children are gone. They won't come back from you harming yourself."
"Help! Help! My-My son, has anyone seen my son. Please, my son!"
"WAAAAAAAH, Mommy, I'm scared."
"M-m-my father, h-h-he k-killed my m-mother. H-he he he— why did he do that?"
Ning couldn't help but feel sad as he walked amongst the destruction. The battle had ended, they had won the fight, but the tragedy had remained.
Now that there was no terror to distract them, the sadness had overtaken the city. Everywhere he went, all he could hear was the cries of people who had lost their friends and families.
Daybreak had already come by the time he had woken up from his unconsciousness. People had been helping and rescuing for hours and hours, but there were just too many people.
Ning had also walked out to help. He was currently carrying two small children on either side of his arm. He walked up to a large open field with thousands of dead bodies and laid down the two children there. They were dead as well.
When he had to take the corpses away from their dying mother, he could hear her screams and curses at him, but he couldn't let her keep the corpses as the dead bodies fostered resentful souls that created more Corpse Qi.
They were all to be burned as soon as possible.
This was all too much for him. Seeing parents and children alike, dying for no reason at all but because of the whims of someone strong, he didn't like that.
The cultivation world had the rule of the jungle where the strongest lived and weakest survived. But what about the mortals? What about those that were not cultivators? Why did they have to live by this rule as well?
Why was it even possible to cultivate using the lives of those that couldn't protect themselves?
There wasn't anyone that could answer this to Ning. No cultivator, no elder, not even system, there wasn't anyone to answer that to him.
For the first time in a while, he was starting to feel like he was alone all over again.
He quickly let go of such thoughts and went back to the city to help. He rescued a few people from under rubbles, helped heal quite a few of them, and carried dozens of dead bodies to the burning grounds.
He worked for nearly the whole day without stop as his body was one that could. At the end of the day, the people gathered at the mountain of corpses that was nearly 50 meters high.
The dead easily outnumbered the living. If only mortals were in question, there were barely any living. Even after everything Ning had done, more than 80% of them perished in the attack last night.
He could see a bunch of girls crying wildly at the place where the corpses of the attackers laid. These were the girls who had left the Eagle sect after they sensed that it had changed, and had managed to escape the brainwashing those other girls unfortunately suffered.
Kaezir, Kacim, and Ikusa walked to the front of everyone gathering.
"Today, we are gathered here, not because we want to, but because we need to. The tragedy that befell us last night is not something we can ever forget. Just as we will never forget those that we have lost today."
"Mourn with me as we help light the passage to the departed souls so that they may not be lost on their way to the other side of the mortal journey, and may successfully enter the cycle of reincarnation."
Kaezir stopped speaking and started mourning for the dead. The rest of the people gathered there did the same. Silence reigned the city for a few minutes.
After a while, Kaezir nodded to Ikusa who gave the order to his phoenix. The Rainbow Phoenix flew up to the sky and started tearing up.
The tears fell onto the bodies and started sizzling. Soon, they were all burning. This was a special fire. It could be easily extinguished by other people, but if left untouched, it lasted forever.
The people stayed there as they said goodbye to the ones they lost this day. The cries had never gotten quieter but there was a hint of acceptance to them.
Kaezir walked up to Ning and said, "Good job on killing the Nascent soul. If not for you, we don't know how many more tragedies we would have to have faced last night."
"I am disappointed that I couldn't be of more help," Ning said.
"Don't be. The fault lies in us. We saw that the Eagle sect was getting neglected, but failed to do anything about it. Had we intervened sooner if only to check on them, we could've averted this tragedy," Kaezir said with a face full of regret.
"Anyway, what will you do now?" Kaezir asked.
"What do you mean?" Ning asked unsure what Kaezir meant.
"The mayor of the city was the first to die last night. Following them, 70% of the rogue cultivators, 80% of the mortals, and more than 30% of the cultivators from both Mist Origin Sect and Pure Cleansing sect died in the last night's fight."
"So, most of the people have decided to migrate to a different city, away from the reminder that is this destroyed city. There will be a few ferries that will come here around noon tomorrow, to take the people to a new location in the scattered isles."
"While most of the sect members have decided to stay and rebuild the city, what will you do? Will you stay and help, or will you leave with the rest and live your life someplace else?" Kaezir asked.
"I..." Ning needed to think about it.