It seemed like another dream.

Yet, unlike all the dreams I’d had in this life, this dream had temperature.

Ice-cold, but not uncomfortable—like the temperature of Xie Zhuo’s palm, cool in just the right way.

As far as my eyes could see was chaos, but different from the chaos when controlled by the evil miasma.

In this chaos, the shape-shifting person didn’t appear again. There was only a voice, faintly lingering by my ear.

He said, “Someone once told me to cherish my own life, to love this mortal world. I never understood how to feel warmth, or why to love…”

“Not long ago, I finally understood…”

The ice-cold energy flowed through my body, as if caressing all my blood vessels and skin.

“This is joy and love.”

His words fell on the tip of my heart, burning me against this coldness.

My heart contracted, and almost instinctively, I reached out, wanting to grasp the person speaking.

But when I used all my strength to break free from the force binding my entire body like bandages, at that moment my fingertips finally extended…

The chaos receded, and a blinding light shone into my eyes.

My hand was stretched out in midair.

“Xie Zhuo…”

Before me was emptiness, with only a gentle breeze passing by, brushing my fingertips and bringing a golden leaf that softly passed through the gaps between my fingers.

A… leaf?

I sat up, looking around, feeling disoriented.

Where was this?

I was still in a forest, but it was different from the scene I saw before losing consciousness. The white snow forest seemed to have been colored by flames. As far as I could see were orange-red withered leaves, carrying the essence of autumn, rustling down and dancing throughout the forest.

The “rustle, rustle” sound made the surroundings feel even more desolate.

“Xie… Xie Zhuo?”

I called Xie Zhuo’s name, trying to stand up from the ground.

I thought it would be difficult, but… strangely, that corrupted, broken feeling from before had miraculously disappeared from my body.

I felt my body was lighter than at any previous time when I’d been healthy.

Looking down, I saw a formation beneath my feet that no longer glowed. Below, the formation was not the ice lake anymore, but solid ground.

This was too strange…

How did I recover? How did I get here? Where was this, and what time was it now? Were we still five hundred years in the past, or five hundred years later? Or had we gone to some other strange time?

“Xie Zhuo?!”

I shouted Xie Zhuo’s name loudly in the forest, but apart from the rustling leaves, there was no response.

Where had he gone?

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my mind, and a blurry, chaotic image flashed before my eyes.

In the image, Xie Zhuo knelt beside me, his body surrounded by surging black energy, his pupils completely black. He waved his hand, drawing a pure white blade from the formation beneath me, and then, without any hesitation!

He thrust the blade into his own heart!

I abruptly came back to myself.

The image in my mind vanished, but I stood frozen in place.

What I just saw…

What was it?

A hallucination? Or something that had truly happened…

I looked down at the ground again. In the image I just saw, this ground was still the ice lake, but the formation on the ice lake was identical to the formation on this ground…

I reached out to touch the formation on the ground.

Easily, I wiped away a section of the formation. So easily, as if it wasn’t a formation at all, but just a child’s mischief, drawing strange patterns on the ground with a tree branch.

But the unease in my heart grew heavier.

“Xie Zhuo!” I turned to look around, calling his name, then started walking, searching for him everywhere in the deep autumn forest.

But he was nowhere to be found.

I searched throughout the forest, running at first, then using my spiritual power. I rode the wind, weaving through the red leaves that burned like fire. My throat became hoarse from calling, but I found nothing.

Finally, I reached the edge of the forest.

At the edge, I finally confirmed that this forest was indeed the ice and snow forest where Xie Zhuo had brought me.

Because in the distance, the towering inner wall of the Immortal City proclaimed that this was a confined land.

But this land was very different from when I arrived.

Its pristine purity was gone; it seemed like just an ordinary forest in the mortal world.

The distant Immortal City was also different.

The evil miasma that had continuously lingered above the city was gone.

After pondering for a moment, I thought Xie Zhuo might have gone toward the Immortal City. Perhaps he went there to retrieve something, or had something else to do, just like during those five hundred years, leaving me without a word, then returning with silence and mystery.

But now I knew he left because he needed to slay evil spirits.

He must be fighting inside the Immortal City.

I traveled on the wind, moving extremely fast. With the ability to use my arts, the journey from here to the Immortal City took only an instant. I didn’t even need to pass through its gates; I flew directly to the top of the city wall, passing over the inner wall.

This inner wall…

It was much more dilapidated than when I had seen it before, as if… it had endured the test of time longer.

I flew into the Immortal City, hovering high above. I wanted to search for places where evil spirits gathered, guessing that if Xie Zhuo were here, he would certainly be in such places. But as my gaze swept across, I saw no fighting anywhere in the city.

The ruins remained, but the city…

The city was even stranger.

I saw many people running out from the ruins of the city. They were all running toward the direction of the outer city wall.

Seemingly without fear or suspicion, they ran, staggered, but never stopped. They frantically rushed toward the outer city wall. Even when brushing shoulders with others, even when crashing into each other, they didn’t look at one another, but raced desperately toward the outer wall.

I descended a bit more, finally hearing their voices in the wind.

“The evil spirits have disappeared!”

“The snow and wind barrier outside the Immortal City is broken!”

“We can leave now!”

“The Immortal City lives again!”

Amid the shouts, some wept bitterly, some screamed until their voices broke, some trembled as they pressed forward.

Just as they shouted, this city that I had seen as lifeless suddenly came alive, with everyone rushing toward the outside world.

But… the evil spirits…

How could they vanish into thin air?

Another sharp pain shot through my temples, and blurry images floated in my mind again. I saw Xie Zhuo, his body emanating black mist, his hands tightly gripping the ice blade that had pierced his chest.

His expression was resolute, without the slightest hesitation.

“With my body I contain you, and with my body I bury you.”

As his words fell, the black energy reversed its flow, all the black evil miasma in the air was drawn into Xie Zhuo’s body, and after a thunderous sound…

The image before my eyes vanished again.

This time, I felt a chill throughout my body; my hands, feet, and spine were uncontrollably cold.

I realized what those blurry images in my mind might be, but I didn’t want to believe it.

My mind is unstable, I could no longer maintain my spiritual power, and had to land in panic. I saw cultivators continuously running past me, each face bearing the longing to leave.

For many, it seemed a catastrophe had finally ended.

I stood up shakily, watching them, then walked against their direction, into the Immortal City.

Perhaps it was just a dream, perhaps I was just having a nightmare. Xie Zhuo might still be around. With his great abilities—able to wield the Pangu Fu in his demon form, able to split time and space back and forth, able to use barriers to block all the immortals of Kunlun—how powerful he was… how could he…

How could he choose to perish together with the enemy?

My steps faltered, and I fell to my knees.

A cultivator ran past me, stepping on the back of my hand that was supporting me on the ground.

My hand, numb for a long time, finally sent pain signals, reminding me that the surrounding world was real.

Suddenly, a shadow stopped before me. The silhouette was familiar, and my eyes slowly widened, then I raised my head abruptly.

“Xie… Zhuo?”

The person wore black clothes and a wooden mask.

The eyes behind the mask seemed to be examining me.