“You’re going the wrong way,” he spoke, his voice unfamiliar. “Leave the Immortal City, go that way.”

Not Xie Zhuo…

My heart sank, but a glimmer of hope ignited. I steadied myself, stood up, and blocked his path—he was the only person who had noticed me and was willing to speak to me.

With some urgency, I gestured as I asked him: “Have you seen a man wearing dark clothes, about your height? He has blood on his shoulder and waist, he’s injured, and the wounds on his clothes are horizontal…”

Those were wounds inflicted by evil spirits’ weapons as Xie Zhuo carried me forward…

“His face is somewhat pale, and his features look like this…”

As I was about to trace Xie Zhuo’s features in the air, the person before me looked me up and down, examining my clothes, and directly asked: “Fu Jiuxia?”

I froze…

He knew me?

The man in black remained silent for a moment, then raised his hand to remove his wooden mask. His features were refined, and I was certain I had never seen him before. Yet after removing his mask, he nodded slightly to me.

“Five hundred years ago, we met briefly. Perhaps you don’t remember.”

I looked at him, bewildered. “Five hundred… years ago?”

In my mind, the image I saw before losing consciousness surfaced. Xie Zhuo had indeed taken out the Pangu Fu; he had split time and space, bringing me back five hundred years later…

Almost simultaneously with this realization, a sudden intense pain shot through my mind, and countless memories—not mine, but belonging to “Xiaxia”—surged in. These memories poured into my brain like a rushing stream.

I saw how my past self as Xiaxia, had communicated with “myself from five hundred years in the future,” and how Xiaxia and Xie Xuanqing lived in Lao Qin’s secret chamber at Cuihu Terrace, how they interacted.

Xiaxia and Xie Xuanqing experienced completely different events from Xie Zhuo and me. They confronted Jing Nanshou together, resolving the Kunlun man-eating immortal incident ahead of time.

Yet during the final battle with Jing Nanshou, Xiaxia still faced a “tribulation-like” crisis, and Xie Xuanqing, as if during a “tribulation,” fed Xiaxia his blood.

They—or rather, we—still got married.

Unlike me, Xiaxia’s love for Xie Xuanqing lasted longer than mine.

A hundred years longer.

She knew Xie Xuanqing left to fight evil spirits, so she forgave all his departures without notice. But like Xie Zhuo, Xie Xuanqing never explained why he kept it secret.

Xiaxia couldn’t understand. She knew Xie Xuanqing was a snow wolf demon, knew he left to fight evil spirits.

But why were his sudden disappearances and returns without explanation? Why did he have to conceal his whereabouts from her?

Like Xie Zhuo, Xie Xuanqing did not explain when faced with Xiaxia’s confusion.

Xiaxia asked, she pressed him, but Xie Xuanqing remained silent.

As time passed—the third hundred years, the fourth hundred years, the fifth hundred years…

Xiaxia became me, and Xie Xuanqing became Xie Zhuo.

Once again, we walked the path of separation…

Then Xie Zhuo took the Pangu Fu, split time and space, and we disappeared from the current timeline. Afterward, I appeared here with all my memories.

I held my head, accepting all these memories, then looked up toward the massive inner city wall ahead, and back at the thousand-foot outer city wall behind me.

I felt these two walls were like shackles placed on Xie Zhuo and me. As long as evil spirits existed, as long as the Immortal City remained, Xie Zhuo had to keep these secrets.

These were the rules established by the main deities, and the truth about this world that Xie Zhuo didn’t want me to know.

As long as this secret existed, he and I, Xiaxia and Xie Xuanqing, would all be driven by human nature to walk the same path.

Until…

He brought me to the Immortal City, and I finally understood all the causes and effects, realizing that his silence and concealment were forms of protection that he could not speak of.

My heart tightened painfully.

After a while, I recovered and looked up at the person before me.

“You are that black-armored soldier who rode the horse and wielded the spear.”

“You remember…”

To me, it was just a moment ago, of course I remembered…

“I am the main deity of the Immortal City, Ji.”

Indeed, Xie Zhuo hadn’t guessed wrong then.

The main deity of the Immortal City had sacrificed himself, transformed into a soul, and constantly sought people whose minds aligned with his own to fight against evil spirits in the Immortal City. Over five hundred years, who knew how many bodies he had inhabited…

I didn’t let myself think too deeply about it.

“I’m looking for Xie Zhuo,” I told him. “You saw him five hundred years ago, too.”

Deity Ji nodded, his expression somewhat nostalgic. “I’ve seen him more than five hundred years ago.”

His words seemed to hint at more stories, but I had no interest in pursuing them now. I only asked: “Have you seen him now?”

Deity Ji fell silent. He looked at me without speaking, compassion seemingly in his brow.

Remembering the images in my mind earlier, I couldn’t help but tremble again: “Have you… Seen him?”

“With all the evil miasma in the world gone, and the snow and wind barrier outside the Immortal City broken, Xie Zhuo must have perished.”

I stood frozen in place.

I was as if frozen by these words, from my facial features to my limbs, my internal organs to my marrow.

“Per… ished?”

For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend the meaning of this word.

But in my mind, like a revolving lantern, those hazy images kept flashing.

In the snow and ice forest, Xie Zhuo’s body engulfed in black energy, saying, “With my body I contain you, and with my body I bury you,” then using a blade to pierce his own heart.

As this image flashed by, I felt as if my own heart had been pierced as well.

Xie Zhuo had said a thousand times that when he returned, he would kill me. But why, in my confused mind now, did I see him plunging the blade into his own heart?

I clutched my chest, breathing deeply.

Deity Ji looked at me and said, “The sudden disappearance of the evil miasma—even though I suspect it was Xie Zhuo’s doing, I still have many questions. If you wish to return to Kunlun, I can accompany you to see Xi Wang Mu.”

I heard his words but couldn’t respond for a long time.

In the distance, the fires on the inner city wall of the Immortal City lit up. Watching the firelight that hadn’t extinguished even after the evil spirits vanished, I suddenly said:

“I’m not returning to Kunlun.”

I looked at my hands, feeling as if Xie Zhuo’s warmth still lingered between my fingers.

“Xie Zhuo might still be here. If not in the Immortal City, perhaps inside the inner city wall, in the forest, or he may have left the Immortal City, somewhere in the Northern Wilderness. I must find him…”

Deity Ji said nothing. But he seemed certain of Xie Zhuo’s death; I saw the compassion in his eyes, yet in his mercy, he didn’t shatter my delusion.

I couldn’t bear to stay under his gaze for even a moment longer.

I walked past Deity Ji, continuing to search inside the Immortal City.

To me, it was just as if I had taken a nap. How could Xie Zhuo, who could split time and space, simply be dead?

Before our separation, I had prepared myself for a life apart from him. I could have separated from him and never seen him again in this lifetime, but I never imagined we would be parted by death.

How could Xie Zhuo possibly be “dead”?

The evil miasma in the Immortal City had dispersed, yet as I walked, I felt a thicker mist before me than before, obscuring all paths ahead, leaving me unable to see clearly.

“Xie Zhuo,” I murmured as I walked forward. “You brought me here; you must take me back.”

In the empty Immortal City, not even the wind responded to me.