"…Our empire will prosper! We will finally find out what a peaceful life is! And no sinful dragon will dare to defile the Celestial Empire anymore, because I, your loyal general, will lead us to victory!"

 With these words, Liu Bingmo finished his speech, standing in front of an endless crowd cheering him. The prince of the captured South Sea was slowly climbing towards him, bowing his head and not daring to look anywhere but at his feet. He was not wearing shackles, chains, or anything else that could restrain him if he wanted to destroy all those who came at once. With his body and soul exhausted, he wouldn't even be able to assume his true dragon form. Shaibei, as Liu Bingmo called him, knelt down of his own free will and, clasping his trembling hands with a lock behind his back, bent his head forward, exposing his neck for the blade.

 The crowd froze in anticipation, as if they were all holding their breath at once. The general took two steps forward and slowly raised the sharp blade. A bit of pity slipped into his heart, but was immediately suppressed. The long shining sword in his hand, Tengman, did not waver for a second. With a low whistle, it cut through the air… and the prince's head rolled down.

 Cries of joy filled the capital, as if rivers of gold were flowing from the dragon, not blood. Liu Bingmo stared at the lifeless body sprawled beneath his feet. A chilling composure enveloped his soul. He tried to convince himself that he had done everything right…

 The Era of Discord began only half a century ago, replacing the Era of Prosperity, which lasted exactly two hundred years. It came on an ordinary summer day, when Emperor Cheng Xue announced the beginning of the Great War of the Sun and Long. However, this event was expected long before his speech, and the beginning of the end was only a matter of time. The beginning of the end of the dragons' power over their Celestial Empire. It always seemed ironic to Liu Bingmo that the day of the beginning of this very war, the first of March, became his birthday.

 The four parts of the Long Empire — the four Seas — that surrounded the Ren Empire with four islands became the goal of the human race. Eastern Sea was captured first. The one in which negotiations between the two races have always been held. The one that willingly accepted curious and needy people and advocated an equal union at every opportunity. It took only a couple of years to capture it. As befits humans, they took not by force, but by quantity, with which the dragons were not even close, no matter how large their reserves of magical qi were. The Western Sea was the next target.

It took a considerable twenty-five years to capture it. The dragons, who had not taken people seriously before, finally saw the threat, and spent all their strength on protecting territories. The human soldiers died — new ones were born, the army began to empty — new recruits were coming, hope was withering — rulers made brilliant speeches and sweet promises. And even the Western Sea eventually weakened and lost. The third target was South Sea.

 Liu Bingmo had grown up by that time, matured and experienced his first loss: in the last battle for Western Sea, bravely fighting with the third Crown Prince Wang Dushe, his father died, having managed to take him with him to the next world. This became known immediately after the announcement of the victory.

 "I'm sorry for your loss," the First Great General consoled him a little later when they were alone in his estate. Liu Bingmo didn't shed a tear.

 "There's no need to be sorry, he did everything right. He handed over his case to me. I will become the Third Great General and end this war. The last two heirs, the youngest and the eldest, will fall by my hand."

 He kept his promise: As soon as he achieved the appointment of himself as the Third Great General, he and his army captured the South Sea in less than a couple of months. Was there a reason for this in the weakened dragons, or did he really become, as promised, great… Or maybe it was just a combination of circumstances that played in favor of humans… The result was the same — South Sea was besieged in just forty-six days, and the young crown prince was right in General Liu's hands. Literally in his hands.

 When the army returned back, he proudly walked down the street and tightly held a bound youngster under his arm, whose horns had not even fully grown yet.

 "It's not that I'm not going to kill him, just because he looks young — don't let him fool you — but I have an idea. It may be cruel, but I'm sure it's effective."

 So he explained himself to the emperor, promising that he would deprive the fourth Crown Prince of his life right before the start of the capture of the North Sea. After that, it was time for a short truce, when both sides were restoring their own strength.

 "So why did you decide to delay the moment?" asked Second Great General Dang Dai, who was not only a comrade for Liu Bingmo, but also the closest friend, "Don't even think about saying that you felt sorry for him. I can't believe in my life that a dragon hater like you would feel sorry for one of them. No, not just someone, but a prince! Even a kid."

 Liu Bingmo only chuckled at his question and drank from a small cup of red wine. Both of them were sitting in his estate near the coast and on the eve of the Flowering Day they were drinking alcohol in honor of this wonderful holiday.

 "Of course not, what's the joke?" he picked up a paper roll of tobacco and instantly set it on fire, "Besides… you know he's older than even First Great General Bo. The point here is different…" he waited for a pause, allowing Dang Dai to get curious and think a little, "What do you think unites all dragons?"

 "Besides the fact that they are sinful arrogant carriers of the plague?"

 "The key word is arrogant," Liu Bingmo remarked. "They are proud to the last drop of their blood, all of them. And what do you think they will do when they see their beloved crown Prince, who obediently serves an simple human? No, not just a human invader-general!"

 Dang Dai frowned, processing every word he said. He himself was a man who acts first, and liked to think last. That's how, straight ahead and almost without thinking, the young man, together with the soldiers, broke into the Eastern Sea and was personally able to execute His Highness Wang Baishen. It was thanks to this merit that he became the Great General. Of course, that didn't mean he was dumb as an ass: he fully understood his friend's plan, but he just couldn't believe that he really had the strength and patience to pull something like this off.

 But as soon as I opened my mouth to express my doubts, I heard the creak of the door opening. A boy stood in the aisle, tightly clutching a new bottle of wine in his wounded hands. Nothing, from the abundant scarlet stripes on his skin to the careless sheet instead of clothes, gave him away as the prince of South Sea, and only a pair of small bluish smooth horns on his forehead, almost lost their beautiful luster, helped to recognize his true origin.

 He looked… well, to put it mildly, it's impossible to look without tears. The worst thing that could happen to him was not death at the hands of Liu Bingmo, but life in his hands.

Nevertheless, in the sky-blue eyes of the boy, hatred and quiet malice still burned, which any rabid animal would envy. The only thing that kept him from attacking was, apparently, the disadvantage, and the fear of the Third Great General, slowly increasing every day.

Liu Bingmo smiled faintly as he watched the boy slowly and clumsily pour more wine into his cup. His hand reached out to the curls as light as the summer sun.

 "Shaibei… will you die for me?"

 "No!" the boy slapped Liu Bingmo on the palm, which caused him to accidentally let go of the bottle, which shattered on the floor, "No way! I will never die for such a monster! I—"

 "Fear flashed in the dragon's eyes when a slight smile fell from the face of his newly-made master, and the wine he was clumsily pouring was thrown out of the bowl into his face. The flow of words, more like a growl, stopped, and without pausing a second longer in the guest room, Shaibei ran outside, clenching his teeth to the pain. Dang Dai was afraid to imagine what was being done to him "behind the screen".

 When only spilled alcohol and broken glass remained from the runaway, Liu Bingmo sighed with displeasure and picked up a fragment of a cracked bottle and put it in his sleeve, intending to teach this boy a "lesson in good manners" later.

 "He's still not listening well. But I assure you, when the time comes, he will obediently put his neck under my blade."

 "…Did you seriously call him Shaibei?"

Alas, the truce dragged on, and turned from a short one into more than twenty years. There were many reasons for this, from the exhaustion of the army after the last long-term siege, to the simple inability to find out where the last necessary capital was located. But the main reason is that proud lizards have learned to attack. The human army had to kill a lot of time on defense. And yet, it was no longer possible to delay. As soon as the scouts reported where the northern capital, Da Fengbao, was located, it was time for the final battle, the time for the absolute capture of the Long Empire. And Liu Bingmo could confidently say — this will be called the bloodiest battle of the millennium! A terrifying end to the Era of Discord!

 As soon as the soldiers managed to set foot on the northern lands, the first blood was immediately shed. His plan worked exactly the opposite — the submissive death of the young heir enraged the remaining dragons to madness. There is not a single one left in North Sea that has not assumed its true form — having eradicated everything "human" in themselves, they have become real scaly creatures. And just like last time, Liu Bingmo planned to win quickly.

 Four Great Generals sent their troops to the remaining lands. The slaughter was terrible. Two died before they even reached the city, among them was Dang Dai, who died in Liu Bingmo's arms. First Great General Bo Jili, who served the emperor for more than a hundred years of his life, gave it away by occupying the palace. By a miracle, only General Liu managed to get inside with the remaining army, when it seemed like an eternity had already passed. He didn't even want to think about how many soldiers had fallen behind him. North Sea will be called bloody after returning with a victory. Even nature poured downpours on Sea and roared with a deafening thunderstorm, as if mourning her own creatures.

 Wang Bohai, the eldest of the four heirs and the most violent of them, nicknamed the Green Death for that, was ready to meet. There was hatred and bloodlust in his eyes, and he looked more like a huge wolf-like snake the size of a small house. To fight with such a one-on-one would be like suicide… However, Liu Bingmo had no choice. He immediately took out Tengman, who had fought more than one battle with him and "caressed" the neck of the youngest heir.

 Wang Bohai approached him slowly, exposing his claws, strong as iron.

 "Don't worry, bastard, I won't kill you right away," he growled, slowly advancing. "First I'll rip open the stomach, rip out the guts… Then I'll stuff them down your throat.… I'll rip out your eyes, tear your jaws… I'll get back at you, son of a bitch!…!?"

 The prince's claws swept right in front of Liu Bingmo's throat… and the clang of steel was heard. He barely managed to get up and pierce his opponent's chest with a quick movement.

 "Unfair and vile. But effective," he thought, watching a couple of tiny tears roll down from the predatory eyes of the last prince, overflowing with horror. The huge body falls to the floor dead for a few more moments, twitching in postmortem convulsions. Liu Bingmo is trying to catch his breath. He keeps his eyes on the dead dragon, allowing his mind to slowly but surely clear up. And when he realizes that the last heir has been killed, and that the war is finally over with victory… he sighs in disappointment.

 'That's the end…'

 He kicked the lifeless body of the prince a couple of times, but the prince, as befits a corpse, did not move and endured.

 'We won. We finally won… Now, when I return, I will be declared a hero. We will pay homage to the dead. I have to make sure that monuments are erected to all three Great Generals. No, there is no place for sorrow and anxiety. I did everything right…'

 Liu Bingmo, who should have been rejoicing at the long-awaited victory, just sighed, about to put Tengman back into the sheath and head back towards the soldiers' screams, took a step… and slipped.

 He gasped as he landed on the floor and quickly climbed back up. Shaking himself off, he suddenly realized that all the pain in his body was gone in an instant.

 'Did I really just have to hit myself harder to get better? ' he thought and looked with relief at his own body on the floor… his face turned to stone. Thunder, downpour, screams of soldiers… All this receded into the background, quieted down when he realized that his body was lying on the floor with his throat cut.

 'Is this… some kind of joke?' he feels himself convulsively, but the sensations are exactly the same as before. Then he incredulously kicks his second body on the floor… It was like the real thing, too. There are more and more questions every second, while the blood from "his" throat spreads after the prince's blood. He frowns, trying to correctly and objectively assess the situation.

 'No, it's not a joke… Is this some kind of dragon magic? Why would someone make a dead copy of my body? To whom? At such and such a moment? Maybe it's someone's joke after all? Is this how long hunger affects me? I wouldn't mind a plate of noodles right now. We need to get back to the capital as soon as possible and…'

 "I must admit, I'm impressed with you, mischief," a familiar voice interrupted Liu Bingmo's thoughts, and he was ready to defend himself when he recognized this timbre and tone. His heart instantly pricked when he looked at the man who silently approached, with the same pitch-black hair as his and with the same, almost identical, chilling gaze.

 "Father," the Third Great General briefly protested, looking the man up and down in disbelief. He, in turn, looked at the body lying in blood.

 Liu Bingmo took another look at his body on the floor. Collecting the last thoughts in his head, he decided to take his time and lay out the picture slowly, in small pieces. The first, the most important piece, was standing in front of him now, and his name was Liu Xiaohan.

 "Father, I cannot express in words how glad I am to see you again… But I can convey my puzzlement with them: why aren't you in a coffin?"

 "So many years have passed, and you're still the same… you aim without hesitation right in the eye," the man snorted, and if he wasn't happy to meet his own son, whom he missed — ironically — to death, he would immediately give this ragamuffin a slap on the back of the head, as in the good old days. "My mortal shell is in the coffin now. Her time has come, but my soul is still alive, and will be alive for a very long time… You can have time to drink a whole cup of tea."

 Liu Bingmo frowned. He really tried to understand, but everything was happening too fast. The flow of information, for which he was not ready, was off the scale. What was happening seemed like a hallucination, but everything around looked too realistic.

 "But Father, didn't you tell me as a child that life after death is complete nonsense and the babble of madmen?"

 The man slowly looked away.

 "Well… I was wrong."

 Liu Bingmo sighed. He looked at his body lying on the stone floor. Below, judging by the screams, the battle was still in full swing. However, he will no longer be able to help his soldiers. The Third Great General casually kicked his lifeless body a couple more times… How he does it, if, according to his father, he is dead, he does not understand himself.

 "So I'm dead. And even such a stupid death…" he sighed heavily and pushed the sword away from the body. "At least everyone will think that I died in a fair fight… Besides, it's crucial for our victory."

 "Speaking of which… I heard your words," Liu Xiaohan returned to the topic that had suddenly appeared at all. "Disturbing, right? I was also worried at the time, I still couldn't figure out why… and when I realized, it was too late. But I wish you the same fate, so I came to help. Open your eyes, so to speak. And the thing is… it wasn't a victory.

 The man began to step forward, gesturing for his son to follow him. Liu Bingmo became curious at the same moment. He didn't need to be told twice, he went toe-to-toe the first time.

 "I don't agree. How can it not be a victory? Yes, a lot of things still need to be done, but that's the little things. We have achieved what we wanted since the beginning of the Era of Discord. People will build a great empire, and everyone who was born with me and after will finally know a peaceful life full of harmony and prosperity…"

 "You're wrong. Just like me once."

 Liu Xiaohan waved his palm to the side, and the space changed dramatically. The Da Fengbao Palace disappeared, the downpour and the screams of the soldiers disappeared, the roar of the dragons and the smell of blood disappeared… There was a void. White endless blinding emptiness. The man waved his hand once more, and they were on the mountainside. It wasn't just a random mountainside, no. The very place where he once took his little son to show down for the sake of what beauties they are ready to fight. Right now, Liu Bingmo felt that something was wrong.

 "Come to the edge, A-Gui. See what awaits our world in the near future."

 Liu Bingmo cautiously walked to the edge… For the first time in many years, his eyes were filled with genuine horror.

 From what he once called the most wonderful place in the celestial Empire — Baihe, the capital of their beautiful empire — there was only a small gray pile of buildings filled with dirt, dust and other countless sewage. The rest was destroyed. There was not a single green bush, not a single tree, not a single living animal in sight, apart from people swarming below like ants walking on the withered black earth. To be honest, at that moment Liu Bingmo thought that even the destroyed Long Empire looked prettier and… livelier after the capture.

 "It's n-impossible…" he muttered to himself, trying to remain calm. It was necessary to evaluate everything soberly. Perhaps what was happening wasn't true at all. But on the other hand…

 When he defeated the prince, he wasn't worried about losing at all, no. He confidently thought that all those who shed blood in the name of victory died heroes, fell nobly, and it is not worth shedding tears for them. But now, looking at what they… what they fucked up their lives for!

 "Father, I can't believe it. For the life of me, I can't!"

 Liu Bingmo gave his father a frown of disbelief.

 "How can this be true? Did the Scripture lie to us? Or, do you want to say, our emperors lied to us? We have been fighting for the greatness of the people for so long…" imperceptibly, he began to raise his tone a little. "We fought for the promised prosperity! What you're showing me now just can't be true. The fall of the dragons will only benefit us. There's no way we're going to turn the Celestial Empire into this! And…"

 The sound of a slap filled his ears. The blow doused the Third General like a bucket of icy water, and helped to keep a sober mind. Liu Xiaohan stared at him without a trace of anger, calmly continuing his story.

 "I understand, it's hard to believe. I couldn't take it myself for a long time. But you, boy, are smarter than me, you will accept the truth much faster. And the reason is that the dragons, like us, watched over the preservation of the world… They tried. The plague is growing, the world is rotting, but it's not their doing at all. At first, the trees will begin to disappear much faster, then the water will become bitter and disgusting, like mud. After her, animals will begin to die out one by one, the earth will become infertile… As you can see, there are almost no dragons left in this future. Less than three years have passed since your "victory"… And before you object to me — although you won't object, because you are my son — answer just one of my questions."

 Liu Bingmo nodded, listening intently while his cheek tingled slightly and burned like a skin burned by frost.

 "Did the dragons unleash a war and level the four Seas to the ground?"

 He knew the answer. And he would have confidently answered "no" and would have been ready to give at least a thousand arguments, a thousand excuses to the slurred language… But the picture before his eyes would cover any of his words with a black canvas. For the first time in his entire life, he wondered if he was doing the right thing by entrusting himself to his own state and giving himself to it without a trace.

 "I learned the truth too late," Liu Xiaohan sighed. "You still don't understand her. But you still have time… at the cost of myself, I managed to snatch another attempt for you. I ask you only one thing, my dear — do everything right this time…"

 A smile, the first for the whole walk, appeared on the man's face. The most tender and warm that his son had ever seen. And the last one he really sees. A flash brighter than the sun enveloped the mind, deafening and blinding, forcing you to get lost in space as in a dream. For a moment, Liu Bingmo even thought that he had finally died…

 Until he was pushed in the shoulder.

 Dang Dai was trying to wake up his friend.

 "Is something wrong? Why are you frozen?" he whispered, examining his comrade with an anxious look. "Xiaogui, pull yourself together! Your speech is about to begin!"

 The Third General frowned.

 "My speech?.."

 His head was buzzing. And not even from the fact that his dead friend was standing next to him now, healthy and brisk, as usual, but also from the fact that a crowd had gathered around, as once before. The people and soldiers who filled the city center were waiting for their beloved Third Great General, His Young Imperial Majesty Cheng Shanglu sat above them all, and behind Liu Bingmo himself stood a living young heir, whom he had beheaded three years ago. What was happening was more like a hazy memory or a dream.

 General Bo finished his message to the people and announced General Liu's turn. Dang Dai impatiently pushed his friend to the stage, Shaibei obediently waited for his shameful demise.

 Liu Bingmo walked closer to the endless crowd on wobbly legs and, just like on the day of the Great Speech, three years ago, everyone greeted him with glee, and then immediately fell silent when he prepared to speak. He looked around at everyone in front of him once more. Everyone whose death he has already experienced. The events of the future, about to await him, flashed through his head like a whirlwind, and his head finally exploded from all these thoughts. He realized that now he has only one desire… Have a quiet rest.

 "I'm resigning."

 …

 That's all Liu Bingmo said. The crowd, ready to cheer him, now resembled a silent cemetery…