Liao Tingyan thought she would die on the spot, but she didn’t. After fainting with shock and a mind full of confusion, she saw several scattered memories.

The protagonist of these scenes is an innocent, carefree young woman named Sima E. She and her twin brother were the last two people of the Sima clan. Their family had already reached the brink of extinction. However, the Sima clan could not be allowed to perish; they had to continue their bloodline. Thus, from the moment of her birth, Sima E lived in a twisted environment where she was destined to unite with her brother to bear offspring.

To maintain the pure bloodline of the Feng Mountain clan, the Sima family never united with outsiders. Defiling the Feng Mountain bloodline was considered sinful and unforgivable to them. Conversely, within the Sima clan, incestuous relationships were not uncommon; everything they did was for the sake of the purest bloodline. Only the purest Feng Mountain blood could nurture the Sacred Mountain Fire.

Liao Tingyan saw the Sacred Mountain Fire, burning like a small torch on a red face the size of a bowl. It was much more vigorous than the small childish-voiced flame she had seen. In any case, this seemed to be a precious treasure, and Sima E was the one who nurtured the Sacred Mountain Fire in this generation. She had grown up on the Three Sacred Mountains. Though she had countless disciples serving her, and her food, clothing, and daily necessities were all the most precious—in Liao Tingyan’s view, she was the world’s number one princess—honestly, her life was truly miserable.

Sima E liked that flame. Oh, in this memory, that flame wasn’t a childish-voiced entity but a hot-tempered man. No matter who came to serve him, they would be cursed until their heads bled, but Sima E was the only person he wouldn’t scold. Unfortunately, despite her affection, Sima E could never be with this precious flame, as there was a reproductive barrier between them. Their relationship could only be described as “loving devotion.” When the young woman reached childbearing age, she was required to produce a child with her brother.

Liao Tingyan saw the Three Sacred Mountains in these memories—magnificent palaces, exquisite furnishings, servants as numerous as clouds, each one like a divine consort. What impressed her most was the enormous Fuxi and Nüwa mural hanging at the level of the Emerald Pond flame. Sima E had to worship it daily, presumably some kind of belief of the Sima clan. Though unwilling at her young age, the young woman bore the pressure of her clan’s rise and fall, and ultimately compromised painfully.

She and her brother gave birth to a boy, named Sima Jiao.

Hearing this name, Liao Tingyan realized, “Oh, so this is the story of the ancestral mother.”

Having a boy wasn’t enough; they needed her to bear a second child, a girl, to ensure the purity of the next generation’s bloodline. However, Sima E failed to conceive a second child, and worse yet, her brother suddenly went mad, burning down half of the Three Sacred Mountains before committing suicide. These memories weren’t clear, and very fragmented—Liao Tingyan pieced them together based on context.

The scene changed to show a haggard Sima E, seemingly driven mad by it all. She was still young and, despite her exceptional talent, hadn’t had time to mature. The Gengchen Immortal Mansion was no longer the domain of the Sima clan. With a weak master and strong ministers, many people demanded that she continue to nurture the Sacred Mountain Fire and wait for her child to grow up, only to bear more children with him.

When she saw this part, Liao Tingyan was completely bewildered. At this point, Sima Jiao was just a child of a few years old. “You people making these decisions, are you this perverted?” she thought.

The somewhat deranged Sima E couldn’t accept this. Liao Tingyan watched her prepare to strangle her child on a dark, windy night.

Liao Tingyan: “…Sima clan, I’m utterly astounded.”

The memory ended there. The final segment showed Sima E committing suicide in the Emerald Pond. The green pond water turned blood-red from her blood, sprouting an enormous red lotus. Flames rose silently, enveloping her and burning her to ashes.

Forced to know such terrible things, Liao Tingyan felt unwell when she awoke. Knowing too much wasn’t a good thing; the more you knew, the bigger the troubles you’d get involved in. She had seen many ugly faces and roughly understood the origins of these monstrous beings, making her feel increasingly troubled.

This mission was too extreme; she couldn’t handle it.

When she came back to her senses from those tragic memories, she realized her current predicament and felt even worse. Because at that moment, she was lying in a dark rectangular box.

Liao Tingyan: “Aaaah, have I been buried?! Couldn’t they try to save me even though I wasn’t dead? Which bastard buried me?!”

She felt completely weak, with an aching back, cramping legs, and a heavy, stifling feeling in her chest. She didn’t even have the strength to push open the coffin lid and crawl out.

“Someone help… save me… I’m not dead yet… I was dead… now I’m alive again…”

“Ancestor? Snake snake? Little flame? Answer me…”

“I worked hard for the company, I bled for the boss…”

After shouting a stream of nonsense inside the coffin, Liao Tingyan finally felt she had gathered a bit of strength. She lifted her foot and kicked upward with force, instantly creating a small gap in the coffin lid. Fortunately, the nails hadn’t been hammered in yet, otherwise, she might have had to take up permanent residence there.

She reached up to feel the gap and used all her might to gradually push it aside. After quite some effort, she finally saw daylight… and the Ancestor.

That ink-black, pale-faced ancestor was standing beside the coffin, leaning there watching her. He said, “You’re awake,” then casually used one finger to flip away the coffin lid that she had pushed halfway open.

“Damn it, where were you just now? Is it fun watching someone push a coffin lid?” For some reason, Liao Tingyan wanted to curse at him at that moment, but then she remembered the memories she had seen—that infant being strangled by his mother like a small vegetable. Her rage was extinguished like a small water gun. Forget it, she didn’t want to curse at him anymore.

Sima Jiao noticed her expression and asked, “Were you thinking of cursing at me?”

Truth buff, activated!

Liao Tingyan answered involuntarily: “Yes.”

Sima Jiao’s expression was unreadable, his eyes looking somewhat deranged. He said, “Let me hear you curse.”

“You stupid bastard, I’ll fuck you! Did you hear me? I’ll fuck you!” Liao Tingyan was still alive, but her eyes were dead. She felt that the coffin lid she had struggled to push open might be closed again, and this time she would truly rest in peace.

However, she could never understand the workings of a disturbed mind. The ancestor she had just cursed suddenly burst into laughter. Not the kind of laugh that says “I’ll kill you after I finish laughing,” but a genuine “this is so damn funny” laugh. He leaned against the coffin, laughing so hard that the entire coffin shook.

Liao Tingyan: “Are you okay? Did you go crazy, brother?”

As she lay there motionless, Sima Jiao, having finished laughing, raised his hand and lifted her out. The place where she had been lying was indeed a coffin—an exceptionally ornate one. They seemed to still be in the central tower, though she didn’t know which floor. Dragon-shaped candles with strange designs burned brightly around them, with the heavy coffin at the center. She also saw a carving of Fuxi and Nüwa on the wall ahead.

Sima Jiao carried her out with large strides, his flowing sleeves creating a wind that made the candles along the path flicker.

Liao Tingyan thought she had only slept for a day, but in fact, she had been lying there for half a month. When she left the central tower’s door, she discovered that all the ruins outside had disappeared, leaving only an endless flat ground. The once empty, maze-like building had completely vanished, with only a half-collapsed central tower remaining.

Liao Tingyan: “Wake up from a nap and find the world turned upside down.”

The big black snake was waiting outside. Seeing them emerge, it slithered over with its massive body. Sima Jiao stepped on its tail and climbed onto it. “Let’s go.”

Liao Tingyan: “Wait, where are we going? I can’t follow the train of thought anymore.”

She didn’t even mind being carried by Sima Jiao, turning her head to look at the central tower and the circle of flickering moonlight phantom flowers below. “Ancestral Master, where are we going?”

Sima Jiao was in a good mood. “Out of here, of course. We’ve stayed here long enough.”

Carrying the limp Liao Tingyan, he said, “What are you afraid of? If I wanted to kill you, you would die anywhere. If I didn’t want to kill you, even if you died, I would bring you back to life. Oh, the poison from that flower has been neutralized for you.”

Liao Tingyan: “That was a poisonous flower?!”

Sima Jiao: “Otherwise, why would you have been lying there for half a month?”

Liao Tingyan didn’t quite believe it—not that she had lain there for so long, but that the flower was poisonous. According to what Sima Jiao had said, evil people grow poisonous flowers, and good people grow spiritual flowers. The one she had picked seemed to have grown from the bone pearl of Sima Jiao’s mother, who couldn’t be considered an evil person. She hadn’t killed anyone and had been kind to others.

“Was it a poisonous flower? Didn’t you say only evil people grow poisonous flowers?” Liao Tingyan couldn’t understand.

Sima Jiao snorted with laughter, “I lied to you. How can a person be purely black or white? How can a mere flower determine good and evil?”

Liao Tingyan felt he seemed quite approachable and couldn’t help asking, “Then how does it work?”

Sima Jiao gave her an explanation, “If one dies with a calm and joyful heart, the bone pearl forms a spiritual flower. If one dies with hatred and suffering, it forms a poisonous flower.”

Liao Tingyan thought of Sima E in that blood-filled pool, completely covered in blood and at death’s door, being consumed by flames. She fell silent. Honestly, the pain of her death had affected Liao Tingyan a little, so she still felt a headache.

“What’s wrong? From your tone, it sounds like you saw who the flower’s original owner was,” Sima Jiao asked casually.

He didn’t seem to know that the flower had grown from his mother’s bone pearl. Liao Tingyan pondered. The patch of flowers where he had been standing was where a girl had once tried to pick flowers and had her head cut off by him. He stood there, and she had thought he knew his mother’s bone pearl had bloomed there.

Since he didn’t ask, Liao Tingyan didn’t tell him, only avoiding the subject by saying, “Wasn’t it said that poisonous flowers have no cure?”

“Aren’t there flowers that can cure any poison?” Sima Jiao replied matter-of-factly.

Liao Tingyan thought to herself, so it’s not a conflict of contradictions, but a match-three game.

When Sima Jiao initially saw Liao Tingyan collapse, he crouched beside her, pondering for a while before deciding to save her. So he picked a flower there and tested it himself. He wasn’t afraid of those flowers because they did not affect the Sima clan. Others couldn’t tell medicine from poison, but he had the Sacred Mountain Fire; tasting the flower would reveal its nature—bitter ones were spiritual medicines, sweet ones were poisons. He just needed to find a bitter one and feed it to her. He just hadn’t expected her to sleep for half a month.

During this half month, more people had come to the Three Sacred Mountains. Sima Jiao had fought with them, reducing all the buildings to dust and ashes. Not wanting to leave her lying in the open, he had placed her in the coffin at the bottom of the central tower. He had slept there for several hundred years before; it was where he kept his things.

Although Liao Tingyan didn’t know what Sima Jiao had done, she knew that he had saved her this time and felt somewhat grateful… No, wait, why be grateful? Wasn’t he the one who had poisoned her in the first place? Trash! This trash!

She stroked her chest and realized something was different. Why did her chest seem two sizes larger than before? This heavy feeling was very fulfilling now. No wonder she had felt oppressed while lying down.

She hadn’t spoken for a long time, her expression somber. Sima Jiao’s expression also darkened, showing some irritation. “What are you thinking about?”

Liao Tingyan: “My chest seems to have suddenly grown larger?” Her legs also seemed longer, and the skin on her hands appeared more translucent and radiant as if a beauty filter had been applied.

Sima Jiao: “Chest?” This was the first time he looked at Liao Tingyan’s chest.

Liao Tingyan lowered her head, staring at her chest, itching to touch it, but considering she was being carried by a man, she was too embarrassed to reach out. As she was restraining herself, she saw Sima Jiao, with a completely indifferent face, reach over and very naturally squeeze it.

Liao Tingyan: “??? What is your hand doing? Where are you touching??”

Sima Jiao: “It’s just two lumps of flesh. What’s the use of them growing so large?”

Seeing his disdainful and indifferent expression, Liao Tingyan gave him a fake smile: “Please put your hand down before you say that.”