After the Ancestral Ceremony ended, Mu Hengtian and the three elders hurried to join Yun Shouxi.

While the adults talked, the younger generation retreated to the side.

In the corridor outside, Ling Luo stood beside Yu Xiu and quietly yawned, feeling tired and wanting to go back to sleep.

Mu Ya, carrying a plate of pastries, gave her a cold glance, silently reproaching her for being lax and not knowing the gravity of the situation.

Ling Luo ignored her.

Mu Ya walked to Chu Yi’s side and said, “Senior Brother, you must be tired from your investigation. I noticed you haven’t eaten much today, so I brought you some date cakes.”

Chu Yi looked straight ahead without turning his gaze and said indifferently, “How kind of Junior Sister Mu, but I’m not hungry. Yu Xiu, take them to our little junior sister. Look at her, she’s so hungry she can barely stand.”

Both Yu Xiu and Ling Luo pretended they hadn’t heard anything.

Mu Ya was embarrassed by his words, her fingers gripping the edge of the plate tightly, her fingertips turning white.

Ling Luo’s lips curved slightly as she shifted to hide behind Yu Xiu, secretly enjoying Mu Ya’s discomfort.

Mu Ya was proud and spoiled, but Chu Yi was even more so. He was also the first man to defeat Tianji’s young mistress. With his handsome appearance, wayward personality, and nonconformity to conventions, he had caught the young mistress’s eye.

For the past two years, she had been chasing after Chu Yi, but he showed no interest in her whatsoever.

Ling Luo knew well that this senior brother had extremely high standards.

He loved the moon in the sky.

A forbidden love, not viewed favorably by the world, and certainly not recognized by the immortal sects.

Yet Chu Yi loved that woman desperately.

Chu Yi was willing to abandon his pride for his moon in the sky, kneeling and kowtowing, being trampled into the mud and tortured without caring.

That night on Mount Qi, a light rain was falling.

At that time, she was still the pride of the immortal sects.

Ling Luo had charged into the formation with her dual blades. With each barrier she passed, Mount Qi lit a beacon tower. All one hundred and thirty-six beacon towers of Mount Qi blazed, announcing the invader had reached the pavilion at the mountaintop.

That senior brother who had never gotten along with her, whom she had mutually disdained, yet who had also gone through trials and killed enemies and demons with her, was now being trampled underfoot by the Master of Mount Qi, who laughed uproariously.

His face was covered in blood and grime, no longer resembling heaven’s favored son, the renowned senior brother of Eastern Island’s Tianji, but more like a filthy beggar slave.

The Master of Mount Qi laughed arrogantly and shouted at Chu Yi: “Kneel again!”

Chu Yi uncontrollably coughed blood. He collapsed to the ground, with no strength left, yet driven by the conviction in his heart, his trembling fingers clenched into fists as he slowly got up from the ground and knelt again.

Kneel again.

The Master of Mount Qi landed another punch, easily knocking him to the ground, then raised his foot and kicked him viciously.

He laughed wildly, his excitement overflowing.

When Ling Luo arrived, the Master of Mount Qi had his foot on the man’s face, laughing: “The senior brother of Eastern Island’s Tianji, the chief disciple of True Lord Canxi, only amounts to this! A worthless piece of trash who has no strength to fight back when I step on him!”

“He may be trash, but don’t say that in front of me,” Ling Luo strolled toward the platform, her body surrounded by surging, restless spiritual energy, causing even the light rain to avoid her.

She glanced at the blood-covered man lying motionless on the ground, twirled the curved blade in her hand, and pointed it at the Master of Mount Qi, raising her chin and saying: “Saying I have a worthless senior brother is an insult to me.”

In that battle on Mount Qi, she rescued him.

While descending the mountain, Ling Luo asked Chu Yi: “Was it worth it?”

He merely wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and answered with a single word, weak yet resolute.

“Yes.”

Ling Luo still couldn’t understand it to this day.

At that time, her mind was occupied with the Dao and hatred.

Therefore, she had no interest in matters of love.

Looking now at Mu Ya trying to persuade Chu Yi to eat a date cake or two, Ling Luo found it all boring.

In front of Chu Yi, Mu Ya’s usually proud young mistress demeanor had taken on a girlish coquettishness: “Senior Brother, you’ve been away on worldly training for several months. It’s so hard for me to even see you once.”

Chu Yi: “What’s so difficult? If you want to see me, just go down the mountain.”

“But I can’t just go down the mountain whenever I want… Senior Brother, next time you enter the world for training, could you take me with you?” Mu Ya looked at him as she asked.

Chu Yi said with an unchanged expression: “No.”

Mu Ya bit her lip, unwilling to give up: “Why not? I’ll be ready to enter the world next year!”

Chu Yi raised an eyebrow and said: “I heard when I returned that you couldn’t even defeat our little junior sister. How could you possibly be ready to enter the world next year?”

Ling Luo mentioned again, blinked, and took a deep breath, certain that her senior brother was doing this deliberately.

He just wanted to dump the troublesome Mu Ya onto her!

Before Mu Ya could rebut, Chu Yi had already added mercilessly: “If you can’t even beat our little junior sister, at your level, you should study for another three to five years.”

Mu Ya’s aura turned gloomy as she looked at Ling Luo.

Ling Luo tugged at the corner of Yu Xiu’s clothes.

Yu Xiu said: “Senior Brother, we’ll go first. You all continue your chat.”

As he was about to lead Ling Luo away, Chu Yi glanced at them and said indifferently: “Stop right there. Master asked us to wait outside for the results of the discussion. How can you leave on your own?”

Yu Xiu, who always listened to Yun Shouxi, quietly stood his ground again.

Ling Luo mentally rolled her eyes as she heard Mu Ya say: “How could I not defeat her? Who has been spreading such nonsense to you, Senior Brother?”

Chu Yi said lazily: “I heard she broke one of your swords.”

Mu Ya: “That was just an ordinary sword! In the Saha Realm incident, I also broke one of her swords!”

“Using Wangshu? What sword wouldn’t break against that?” Chu Yi sneered.

Ling Luo lowered her head, laughing inwardly.

Mu Ya was furious and turned to Ling Luo: “Come out! Let’s have a match in front of Senior Brother!”

Ling Luo shook her head, her expression respectful: “No need for a match. Senior Sister Mu is naturally more skilled than I am.”

She had no desire to help Chu Yi divert Mu Ya’s attention.

You just keep clinging to Senior Brother.

But Mu Ya had decided that Ling Luo was being sarcastic and insisted on a match, stepping forward. Yu Xiu stood between them, saying helplessly: “Mu Ya, why must you do this?”

Chu Yi wanted to see Ling Luo’s abilities, so he didn’t intervene.

“Senior Brother Yu, step aside,” Mu Ya gritted her teeth.

Ling Luo pointed behind her, “Private duels between disciples are forbidden. What if Hall Master Fan sees us?”

Mu Ya turned around and indeed saw Hall Master Fan walking toward them with Song Yuanyuan.

At the same time, the door behind them opened, and Mu Hengtian and the others came out from inside. Only then did Mu Ya fall silent and retreat, but not without giving Ling Luo a fierce glare.

“Master,” Yu Xiu said.

Yun Shouxi looked at his three disciples and said to Ling Luo: “The night is deep and the dew heavy. Your injuries haven’t fully healed. Go back to Qingshi Manor and rest.”

Ling Luo bowed her head and accepted the order.

Seeing Ling Luo leave, Chu Yi snorted lightly: “Little Junior Sister is quite favored.”

Yun Shouxi smiled: “When you were her age, did I ever treat you harshly?”

Chu Yi raised his hand to touch his nose but said nothing.

“If you’re tired, you can also return with your junior sister,” Yun Shouxi said. “Tonight will likely require some time.”

Yu Xiu said: “This disciple is not tired.”

Chu Yi, standing by Yun Shouxi’s side, said indifferently: “I just returned recently and also want to see more of the sect’s night scenery.”

Although Ling Luo was allowed to return, she didn’t leave.

She waited patiently outside the hall until Song Yuanyuan finally came out.

Song Yuanyuan had received a message through the jade listener, knowing she was waiting outside, and came over to say: “Chang Fei, Little Dad, and Xu Shen are setting blessing lanterns at Dingshan River. My master called me for questioning, and now that it’s done, I was just heading over to join them.”

One of the major events after the Ancestral Ceremony was setting blessing lanterns on Dingshan River, which cut across the entire Eastern Island Tianji’s inner and outer gates.

Not many people knew about the Second Hall Master’s incident, so most disciples were unaffected and enjoyed themselves.

When Ling Luo arrived, she saw that there were quite a few people by the Dingshan River, gathered in groups of three or five, creating a lively atmosphere.

There were already many lit lanterns on the river surface, carrying blessing paper wishes.

The glittering lights illuminated the river like a long dragon, winding through the mountains.

Xu Shen handed Ling Luo a blessing lantern. She held it and looked at it, showing little interest.

The spot where they stayed was relatively quiet with fewer people.

By the Dingshan River, Song Yuanyuan tilted his head to see what Chang Fei had written on his blessing paper, only to be angrily pushed away: “What are you looking at? Write your own!”

“What’s wrong with looking!” Song Yuanyuan said righteously. “After seeing it, I can add my blessing to yours!”

“With your lousy luck!” Chang Fei muttered, continuing to write secretly.

Ling Luo walked to the riverbank and stopped beside Yue Liangze, bending down to look: “What are you writing?”

“A blessing,” Yue Liangze said, covering it with one hand and adding, “Don’t look.”

Ling Luo: “…”

She said almost the same thing as Song Yuanyuan: “What’s wrong with looking? It won’t come true anyway once it’s in the river.”

Yue Liangze: “Sincerity makes it effective.”

Ling Luo mocked: “So if I write ‘May the Founding Master bless me to destroy the Heavenly Way and kill my enemies tonight,’ will it come true?”

Yue Liangze looked up at her with a strange expression: “Your wish… is a bit difficult.”

“Sincerity makes it effective—are you trying to fool a child?” Ling Luo said as she bent down to place the blessing lantern without a written wish into the river.

“Ling Luo,” Yue Liangze said, “you didn’t write a wish.”

His reminder was well-intentioned, but it stunned Ling Luo’s mind.

This was the first time since her rebirth that she had heard Yue Liangze call her by name.

Yet at that moment, what Ling Luo recalled was the night at the South River City pavilion in her previous life, when Yue Liangze had submitted to her, pulled down from his heights by her into the mire of desire.

That night, the man had called her name over and over again.

Intimate, ambiguous, suppressed, passionate, one call after another.

It seemed he hadn’t lost all reason as she had thought; he was very clear about who was beneath him and what she looked like.

When Ling Luo first heard it, she had mocked him, but later she blushed at his words and angrily bit his shoulder: “Don’t call my name anymore!”

Yue Liangze had responded with a kiss, saying hoarsely: “But you said earlier I could do whatever I wanted.”

A red fish swimming in the water touched her fingertip, the cold sensation startling Ling Luo back to her senses. She immediately stood up and retreated several steps, pointing at Yue Liangze: “You!”

Yue Liangze’s gaze was clean and bright as he silently looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

Ling Luo felt her cheeks grow warm. The cleaner and clearer his gaze, the more it reminded her of the contrast with that night.

“You… you help me get the lantern back,” Ling Luo said fiercely.

Yue Liangze said “Oh,” stood up, retrieved the blessing lantern that hadn’t floated far, and handed it back to her.

Ling Luo took the lantern, removed the blessing paper, frowned for a moment, then used her spiritual energy to write a few lines.

With an unchanged expression, she stuffed the blessing paper back in and said to Yue Liangze: “It was you who insisted I write something.”

Yue Liangze tilted his head.

When it was time to release the lanterns together, everyone along the Dingshan River simultaneously placed their blessing lanterns onto the water’s surface, letting them drift with the current.

On the red blessing papers, black characters were densely written.

“May I earn lots and lots of money to buy food for Song Yuanyuan,符纸 for Xu Shen, gold ornaments for Ling Luo, and nice clothes for Senior Brother Yue.”

“May I succeed in cultivating the Dao and be able to protect good people of the world and my friends.”

“May I learn all the spell rules in the world? Also wishing my friends and master peace, smoothness, and health for a hundred years.”

“In the art of swordsmanship, Danshui Residence ranks second, I rank first.”

“May she be free from illness and pain, free from disaster and difficulty.”

The lantern flames consumed the blessing papers, turning them into starry embers in the night, sending them to another world.