Chapter 7: The Path of Choice
The ruins of the Fallen Capital lay quiet behind them.
No trumpets.
No titles.
No System chiming in to declare completion.
Just footsteps.
Yan Long and Suyin walked beneath a sky no longer stained crimson, through fields that had once borne the weight of armies and divine intervention. They spoke little. They didn't need to. Between them hung a silence forged not from trauma, but from survival.
Not everyone who kills a god walks away.
Not everyone who walks away gets to begin again.
But they did.
---
Qingmei greeted them with suspicion at first. Word of the red sky's disappearance had traveled ahead of them like a fading storm.
The elders watched from under low-brimmed hats. Children peeked out from doorways. Even Master Ru, leaning heavily on his cane, squinted at Yan with more disbelief than joy.
"You still carrying that sword?"
Yan nodded.
"Still letting it whisper to you?"
Yan gave a faint smile. "Not anymore. These days, it listens."
---
Suyin didn't stay. She left two mornings later, before the sun had even brushed the mountains. Left no note. No quest.
Just a flower pressed onto the step outside the herbal shop — crimson, wild, and thriving.
Yan understood.
She was free now. And freedom was meant to go.
---
The System never came back.
Not really.
Sometimes Yan would feel a flicker of it in the corner of his mind, like a ghost trying to remember the shape of its chains. But it would fade. He was no longer a variable in someone else's equation.
He harvested herbs.
He listened to Bai complain about village food.
He watched the stars.
And one night, lying in the tall grass outside the forest, he whispered to the wind, "So this is what freedom feels like."
No glowing arrows.
No timer counting down.
No narrator to close the page.
Just a whisper.
Just choice.
---
Final System Message (Archived):
[Main Quest Updated]
→ Path: Undefined
→ Difficulty: Irrelevant
→ Title Earned: None Required
→ Companion: Yourself
→ Reward: Choice
---
Yan Long smiled up at the sky.
"Damn," he said. "I really was the protagonist."
And then, softly:
"I guess now... I'm just me."